Chapter 2 : The rise of modern international order .

Intro :

 International systems are made of political units (empires, city states, nation states) that
coexist in the absence of an overarching authority (IR is concerned with the issue of
political multiplicity a concept developed by Justin Rosenberg = How to generate
order in a fragmented world)
 This fragmentation doesn’t stop political units from interaction and this interaction is
what makes international orders.
 International orders : regularized practices of exchange among discrete political units
that recognize each other to be independent.
 International orders have existed ever since political units started interacting with each
other (trade, diplomacy, exchange of ideas).
 There were many regional international orders over history but in the past two centuries
a modern international order emerged (construction of a global economy, global state
system and global circulation of ideas).
 Important aspect of the contemporary international order : Dominance of western ideas
and institutions

The West : Refers to powerful countries that influence the world order, Europe (particular
emphasis on the northern and western parts of the continent) and the Americas (particular
emphasis on the US).

They have an important place in the world's economy (London and NYC as financial
centers) and are central to global political institutions ( UN headquarters in NYC and the
majority of the permanent members of the UN security council are western powers USA,
UK, CHINA, FRANCE, RUSSIA).

Western ideas and culture (human rights, cinema, music …) are known all over the world
but why ?

Because of innate strengths (liberal ideas, democracy, free markets) so it's natural and
enduring. (Landed 1998)

Because it's a product of their practices of exploitation and subjugation, and it's a temporary
power (Hobson 2004)

The rise of the west only occurred over the past two or three centuries due to international
processes (Imperialism, global expansion of the market) this generated the apparition of new
leading actors (Nation states, transnational corporations Intergovernmental orgas IGOs and
NGOs) and also led to technical and transportation progress (steamship and telegraph).

Historical international order :

 The term international order is a recent innovation.
 Buzan and little 2000 : Some trace the historical original of international orders to when
nomadic groups settled and became sedentary communities (living in one place) around
13,000-14,000 years ago in Sumer (Iraq) they accumulated agriculture surpluses that
guaranteed their Subsistence (this made them trade with groups and put them in a risk
of attack). They then developed specializations (divide ppl in groups of soldiers and
cultivators) and political hierarchies and rituals with other groups (diplomacy).
 Many of the historical international orders developed through encounters with other
parts of the world like the interactions between the Byzantine and Ottoman empires and
the early modern international order centred on the Indian ocean that incorporated Asia
Africa and Europe (Philips and Sharman 2015).
 In IR : International order began in early modern Europe with the peace of Westphalia
(1648) which marked the end of religious wars in Europe (Spruyt 1994, Ikenberry 2001,
Philpott 2001)
 Westphalia instituted cuius regio, eius religio (whose realm, their religion).
 Westphalia put an end to countries going to war since it established the principle of
sovereign territoriality (states have sovereignty over their territories and European states
could no longer intervene in their intern order or in their rights of confession on the
basis of religious belief).

Criticism of the Peace of Westphalia :

 It was a local affair to safeguard the internal affairs of the roman empire and reward
victors of the Wars of Religion (France and Sweden). And its results were not as great
as imagined (Teschke 2003).
 The gains of Westphalia were relatively slight (even though Germany took some control
over its affairs it remained a dual constitutional structure loyal to the Empire and to the
court system that adjudicated over both inter-state and internal affairs like the EU).
 Westphalia set limits to the principle of sovereignty established at the 1555 Peace of
Augsburg since it decreed that each country should retain to the religion it held on 1
January 1624.

 After 1648 religious wars remained at the heart of European conflicts, although
Westphalia is considered to be the beginning of the modern international order but it is
not the only starting point.
 One type of regularized exchanges occurs through economic interactions (silk routes,
cotton, sugar, tea, linen, porcelain and spices) that connected diverse places (Malacca,
Samarkand, Hangzhou, Genoa, Acapulco, Manila and the Malabar coast). (Goldstone
2002)
 Another type is systems of transport and communication : The European voyages of
discovery during the 15 and 16 century which opened sea lanes (routes maritimes)
around Africa and across the pacific and atlantic ocean (Hobson 2004).
 We can also combine economic and infra structural interactions : Trafficking of African
slaves: Triangular trade (Traite négrière menée au moyen d'échanges entre l'Europe,
l'Afrique et les Amériques, pour assurer la distribution d'esclaves noirs aux colonies du
Nouveau Monde, pour approvisionner l'Europe en produits de ces colonies et pour
fournir à l'Afrique des produits européens et américains.) (Blackburn 1997)
 Trade and advances in transports helped to forge the atlantic into a regional international
order.
 Importations from America : maize, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, and tobacco
  Importations from Europe : horses, cattle, pigs, chickens, sheep, mules, oxen, vines,
wheat, rice, and coffee
 Transatlantique transfer of diseases : 2/3 of the population of the Americas died because
of this in the 16th century (Crosby 2004).
 The international order became characterized by a high level of interdependence
between political units.
 International orders were limited in scope : until 19th century commerce was done in
microeconomies in 20 mile circumference : a journey halfway the world, 1 year or more
in the 16th century, five months in 1812 and one month in 1912.
 Regional international order (before the 19th century) and modern international order
(in the last two centuries).
 Modern international orders emerged during a period called 'global transformation" :
shift from many regional international orders to one global international order (Buzan
and Lawson 2015).

How did modern international order emerge ?

 In the early 1800s the east was near parity with the west, in the late 18th century gross
domestic product (GDP) per capita in the Yangtze river delta in China was 10% lower
than the wealthiest parts of the world, major cites of production (Malacca, Hangzhou
Hokkaidou and Samarkand) enjoyed parity with their european counterparts.
 A century later Europe and USA had level of GDP between tenfold and twelvefold
grater than asia :
 1820 : Asia : 60,7% of the world GDP and the West : 34,2
 1913 : The West 68,3 % and Asia 24,5%
 1800-1900: China's share of global production dropped from 33 to 6 and India from 20
to 2.

Quotes about the importance of the 19th century :

 The nineteenth century saw the birth of international relations as we know it today.
(Osterhammel 2014: 393)

 During the nineteenth century, ‘social relations were assem- bled, dismantled and
reassembled’.
(Wolf 1997: 391)

 Nothing, it seemed, could stand in the way of a few western gunboats or regiments
bringing with them trade and bibles.
(Hobsbawm 1962: 365)

 Explanations to this shift in global power (or what is called 'great divergence') :
 The capacity of liberal constitutions in the West (restricted the level of domestic wars).
 European inter state wars : they led to technological and tactical advances, development
of armies and expansion of bureaucraties
 The role of ideas and the scientific advances related to the european enlightment.
 Geographical and demographical advances enjoyed by the west
 Capitalism and private property regimes.
 European success was predicated by imperialism : 1878-1913 the West claimed 8,6 M
square miles of overseas territories (1/6 of the land surface) and in WW1 80% of the
land surface (sauf antarctica) was belonging to western power (Britain : 1/4 of world
territories).
 Through imperialism Europe exchanged raw materials for manufactured goods and used
violence for low production prices
 European powers had control over world trade which led to unequal patterns of growth
 Western advances are due to non western ideas and technologies (coming from Asia)
and brought to the West by migration (from India, china and europeans also went to the
USA and Argentina).

 This great divergence was fuelled by the circulation of people, ideas and goods
(interdependence) and this can be linked to three dynamics :
Imperialism - Rational States - Industrialization

Industrialization :

 The first wave was mainly British and occurred in the beginning of the 19th century and
was focused on cotton coal and iron
 The advances were : arrival of steam power who was the source of energy of this perio,
development of machinery to pump water.
 The second wave is german and american, occurred in the last quarter of the 19th
century and was centred on advances in chemicals pharmaceuticals and electronics, the
sources of energy of this period are oil and electricity who replaced steam piston
engines.
 During the 1880s electricity became to be distributed from hydroelectronic and steam
powered stations which developed cars, planes and ships.
 These two waves of industrialization made an expansion in the world market : trade rose
by 4% after 1820 and 10 % by the early years of 20th century.
 This industrialization in the West was in parallel with a deindustrialization elsewhere
(Britains trippled duties on indian goods but british goods were imported duty free). For
many centuries before the global transformation indians clothed the world but then UK
was the new center of textile.

Rational states :

 States began to assume greater control over their territory.

 In the 18th century dutch east india held a constitutional warrant to make war conclude
treaties and acquire territories, they remained influential throughout the 19th century
 After the french revolution armies and navies became national and under the control of
the state.
 Although national states coexisted with other political units there was a caging of
authority within states
 States became staffed by permanent bureaucracies selected by merit and formalized
through new legal codes.
 Growth in state personnel (britain and germany)
 Growth in military personnel
 States became more organized through abstact bureaucracies (civil service and military)
and less through interpersonal relations and family ties
  There was an international dimension to this process : the west imported cartographic
techniques, imperial armies, indian police officers and bureaucrats. The west made
extensive use of colonial forces and this increased the coercive capacities of European
states.

Imperialism :

 Until the 19th century 3/4 of the world lived in large empires until mono racial western
powers arrived.
 European imperialism took place during the scramble for Africa : European powers
controling large parts of africa.
 Between 1810 and 1870 the US carried out 71 territorial annexations and military
interventions. It first became a continental empire then built an overseas empire. Other
states also became colonial powers (Australia and new zealand)
 Imperialism took many forms : the british imperial web included : direct rule colonies
(india), settler colonies (Australia), protectorates (brunei), bases (Gibraltar), treaty ports
(Shanghai) and spheres of influence (Argentina).
 Imperialism was deeply destructive (ecocide) : Manchuria was deforested by the
japanese,
 Destruction also took form of genocides (belians were responsible for the deaths of 10
million congolese and germans killed people in their south west african territories same
thing for the americans in phillipines, the spanish in cuba, the japanese in china, the
british in kenya, the french in algeria and the australians in the pacific).

The consequences of the global transformation :

The shrinking of the planet : (shrinking = becoming smaller in size)

 During the 18th century it took 3 years to go from moscow to peking, which means that
until 19th century international orders were limited in scale.
 The infrastructural gains of the gobal transformation generated many savings :
 The reducing of communication times and this is due to 3 sources : steamships, railways
and the telegraph.
 Ocean freight rates dropped with an expansion in the volume of trade.
 One million tones of goods were shipped worldwide
 Steam engines reduced ship dependence on wind and tripled their average speed, and
steamships were not dependent on weather or season and they provided predictable and
regular services.
 Railway building began in Britain during the 1820s, spreading to the US, france and
germany by 1830 and by the end of the century there were half a million miles of track
worldwide.
 The expansion of the railway had an impact on trade, the cost of transportations by rail
were cheaper then canals ans transports by road.
 Railways had two further consequences on international order : First, they prompted the
emergence of timetables and pressed states to regularize time (world standard time was
pioneered at the Prime Meridian conference in Washington). Secondly, railways
became pipelines (tuyau) from continental interiors to coastal ports linking with
steamships to provide a global transportation system.
 The final breakthrough technology was the telegraph, its use was widespread, at the end
of the 19th century 2/3 of the world's telegraph lines were british owned.
  The impact of the telegraph on the speed of communications was dramatic and this had
an impact on key features of IR (war, diplomacy, trade and consumption)
 Steamships, railways and telegraphs added a great level of interdependence they helped
to construct a global economy and a single space of political military interactions, the
human population became a single entity for the first time.

IGOs and NGOs

 Technological advances created demand for international coordination and

standardization, this led to the emergence of IGOs
 The link between these dynamics is made clear by the functions of most early IGOs: the
International Telecommunications Union (1865), the Universal Postal Union (UPU)
(1874), the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (1875), and the International
Conference for Promoting Technical Unification on the Railways (1882).
 As they developed, IGOs and INGOs covered a wide range of issue areas (religion,
politics, sports, environment).
 Several prominent INGOs, including the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA)
and the International Red Cross, were formed in the 1850s and 1860s
 The later half of the 19th century saw a further growth of INGOs activities with the
emergence of groups in response to the inequities of industrialization, an organized
labour movement also appeared in addition to INGOs who put pressure on states to
enact faster the process of democratization, a transnational movement for women's
suffrage also appeared.

Inequality :

Racism :

 The emergence of a new racism "scientific racism" based on a radically unequal view
of world politics, its proponents argued that it was possible to establish a political
hiararchy based on biological markers such as skin color, bloodline.
 These ideas allowed europeans to demarcate zones within imperial territories and to
homogenize natives into categories (native americans into indians)
 DuBois had memorably declared that the problem of the twentieth century was the
‘problem of the color line’, this global color line served as the basis for a global standard
of civilization.
 The global colour line and its accompanying ‘standard of civilization’ were
strengthened by mass emigration from Britain to Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
These emigrations created ‘settler states’ ruled by white elites who saw themselves as
inherently supe- rior to the indigenous peoples
 At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the white English-speaking world was made
up of 12 million (mostly poor) people, by 1930 it constituted 200 million (mostly rich)
people.
 The racism fostered by white emigration forged what Du Bois called ‘the new religion
of whiteness’. Colonists became a racial class united by fear of rebellion by the
indigenous population and by a sense of their own cultural and racial superiority. white
Westerners became a ‘global people’, settlers helped to racialize international poli- tics,
making the colour bar a globally recognized tool of discrimination.
Economic exploitation :

 Profits could only be achieved through higher productivity, lower wages, or the
establishment of new markets, capitalist expansion was constant, leading to the
development of both new areas of production and new products.
 Deindustrialization was equally rapid.
 The profits from capitalist expansion helped to forge an unequal global economy. In the
cultivation system operated by the Netherlands in Indonesia, Dutch set- tlers enjoyed 50
times the level of per capita income as indigenous Indonesians
 This division of labour, with its accompanying upheavals, was first established in the
nineteenth century; it came to dominate the global political economy in the twentieth
century.

Key points :

 A major consequence of the global transformation was the ‘shrinking of the planet’ via
steamships, railways, and the telegrap
 These technologies increased the ‘regularized exchanges’ that serve as the foundations
of international order.
 These exchanges were increasingly managed by IGOs and INGOs.
 The modern international order that emerged during the nineteenth century was
profoundly unequal. The sources of this inequality included racism and economic
exploitation.

Japan’s ‘modernizing mission’ : It was the Meiji Restoration that finally abolished the strict
class system and created a more free and democratic system that allowed the Japanese
people to unleash their full potential. Under this new democratic system, Japan modernized
and developed rapidly.