UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

SEMINAR I. Communication Skills and International current events

Academic Year 2021-2022

STUDENT: Sasha Sitbon

EMAIL: sashas@blanquerna.url.edu
Date: 12/10
Subject of the assignment: Summary
The first reading is about the introduction of a book named International Politics: An
Introductory Guide. Written by Alasdair Blair, an Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor Academic at
the Montford university in the UK who teaches the Politics of the European Union module, and
also by Steven Curtis, Senior Lecturer in International relations, currently working at London
Metropolitan University. This text is essential to understand the subject of international
Relations. The second one, Why we disagree about International Relations, is also the
introduction extracted from a book Perspectives on International Relations: Power, Institutions,
and Ideas by Henry R. Nau, a professor of political science and international affairs at George
Washington University, which has the goal of explaining the main aspects to learn about
international relations.

International relations and the study of it represents a recent phenomenon as well as the
importance of nation-states actors considered in the 20st century and non-state actors, such as
IGO’s in the 21st century. In fact, nowadays we are conscious of our interconnected world, but
we don’t know everything about the difference between developed and developing countries
which will be highlighted furthermore. The first reading shows in consequence two main issues
at an international scale: global warming and the 2001 Afghanistan invasion by the United
States.

Global Warming, the most pressing issue according to the UN development Report, is due to the
increase of carbon emission in the atmosphere as a consequence of burning fossil fuels, mostly
in developed countries. This phenomenon started in 1970’s with the beginning of the world’s
industrialization, predominantly in developed countries. However, another recent threat would
be the industrialization of developing countries such as China, Brazil but also India. Global
Warming is the topic of an important deal in developed countries, including the impact that it
has (environmental for example) but also the economic growth related to industrial production.
The decrease of this production would clearly affect the incomes of countries, but should they
prioritize our earth’s condition or economic interests? The inequality faced by this worldwide
problem is the fact that most of this pollution is the result of developed countries’ productions,
but the major environmental consequences occur in the developing ones. In fact, developed
countries have more chances to be protected against new risks thanks to the money they
possess. For example, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) express that “the
effects of climate change are expected to be greatest in developing countries in terms of loss of
life, and relative effects on investment and economy” (p.6). This issue was and is still currently
faced by the international community. For example, the big deal mentioned before is shown in
the Kyoto Protocol (1997), a reunion set in place to decrease carbon emissions, where the
United States, presided in that time by George Bush who refused that proposition in order to
conserve their competitiveness. However, recent studies as the UK Treasury Department Stern
Review Report in 2006, shows that if we don’t make drastic changes right now, a loss of 5% of
GDP each year would be happening related to the cost of climate change. In 1998, the 15
members of the Kyoto Protocol decided to reduce their emissions by 2012. In addition, the
development of organizations such as the Office of Climate Change (UK), the UN Environment
Program (UNEP) or even NGOs like Greenpeace are considering this major environmental
issue.

The other main topic is the American invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 in response to
the attack on the world trade center towers on the 11 th September of 2001, to destroy Al-Qaeda,
the Taliban regim and additionally, Osama Bin-Laden. In fact, the Al-Qaeda organization was
developed during the 1979 soviet invasion in times of the cold war, as a consequence of the
conflict between the Mujahideen against the soviet troops and afghan Marxists. This
Afghanistan war ended in 1989 with the win of the USA, nonetheless a new threat appeared in
this country afterwards: the rise of Taliban’s and the Afghanistan civil war. We can therefore
mention the concepts of rogue states and stateless organizations that represent major risks at an
international scale. For example, Afghanistan is the second weakest state because of the rise of
terrorist’s power in the government, which cause other issues like refugee’s migrations but also
drug development. Iraq also shows some similarities as the Afghanistan’s ones.

From the study of these two examples, it is clear that the international relations try to understand
the interconnected relationships affecting the world. This multidisciplinary study had its first
professorship emerged after the first world war with the first attempt to regulate conflict by the
League of Nations and after their failure, the UN in 1945, as the main and first idea of collective
security. The end of the Cold War, the major era of proxy wars between communist and
capitalist worlds, accentuated the emergence of the idea of Soft Power which is the culture and
ideology strength of a country, the opposite of the Hard Power, the military and economic ones.
International relations are also focused on the today division between rich and poor countries,
the North and the South and the origin of it, whether it is from corruption or the structure of the
global economy. In fact, a lot of famous organizations are shaped by rich countries, for
example: the IMF, the World Bank and the UN Security Council. International relations are also
related to tragedy like the consequent deaths of the Holocaust, Stalin repression or the Genocide
of Rwanda.

It is important to highlight the approach of international politics by theory. In fact, a historical

or chronological analysis wouldn’t be totally effective. Therefore, we must consider two critical
aspects from the reading of Why we disagree about International Relations. The first one is
called perspective which explains the main causes of the international issues, in fact there’s 4
principles. The “Realist Perspective” based on the “struggle of power”, the “Liberal
Perspective” about “interdependence and institutions”, the “Identity Perspective” about ideals
and finally the “Critical Theory Perspective” which suits its name. These perspectives are
related to the 4 theories expressed in the first reading. The Realism against higher authority with
an anarchical and competitive point of view, favors the role of nation states. The Liberalism,
which advocates cooperation between states with the importance of international economy by
the main role of non-states actors. The Constructivism which sees the international system as a
social construction by ideational factors. The Marxism, related to the “Critical Theory
Perspective”, criticizing the capitalist economy by the domination of the working class as the
recent example of the North-South division. In addition, the second critical aspect is called the
level of analysis which is “the direction, or level” of the primary cause of the event. There are
three principles, the “Systemic level” which is about interactions about the countries, the
“Domestic level” about internal characteristics and finally the “individual level” which is based
on leader’s decisions.

Finally, another tool had been developed, the causal arrow which is “an indicator of which
perspective or level of analysis influences the other perspectives and levels of analysis more
than the reverse”. Therefore, these critical aspects are considered as “ideal types” as they help to
understand the whole concept of international relations, by how they work in terms of analysis.
Sources:

Blair, A. Curtis, S. (2009). International Politics: An Introductory Guide. UK: Edinburgh

University Press, p 1-25.

Nau, H. (2006). Perspective on International Relations. Washington DC: SAGE Publications, p

1-7.