1

INTRODUCTION: DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF IR

The academic discipline of International Relations is about relationships among the world’s
governments, and the things that influence them such as international organizations,
multinational corporations, or individuals and political, social, cultural and economic
structures.

Sometimes, the term world politics or international politics is used to refer to politics and
political patterns in the world, between nation-states as well as institutions and organizations.

IR is interdisciplinary – it started as a branch of political science but now includes elements

of history, law, economics, and sociology.

IR covers a wide range of activities: cultural exchanges, international trade, war, diplomacy,
etc. These activities may revolve around issue areas, such as the Arab-Palestine conflict or
the environment.

There are several sub-fields in this area:

 International security, which concentrates on questions of war and peace.
 International political economy, which is about financial relations and trade among
countries.

The key actors in IR are:

 State actors. A state is a territory, with a government, and with people living in it.
 Non-state actors: including intergovernmental organizations (IGOs: UN, WTO,
OPEC, NATO, etc.), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), multinational
corporations (MNCs), and even terrorist and other illegal organizations.

Scholars try to understand the actions of actors in IR by sorting them into several levels of
analysis.
 The individual level of analysis concerns the influence of individuals.
 The domestic/state/societal level of analysis focuses on groups of individuals or
organizations.
 The interstate level of analysis is concerned with the interaction of the states.
 The global level tries to explain global trends and forces that transcend the states.
.

In studying IR, scholars commonly use these terms to refer to different regions in the world:
East Asia, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Middle East, Africa, North
America, Latin America, and the Pacific Rim.

Understanding international relations is useful as international events affect our daily lives:
even the clothes we wear and the food we eat are determined, partly, by international trade its
rules.
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NATIONAL POWER

National power is an important concept in one of the most influential IR theories, realism.
Realist thinkers who have used this concept include Machiavelli, Hobbes, and in the modern
period Hans Morgenthau.

The main assumptions of realism are: (1) that states are the main actors in international
relations, and (2) states aim to increase their national power.

The six principles of Political Realism

1. Rationality: International relations can be understood through rational examination.
2. National interests and national power: International relations can be understood as the
pursuit of national interests. National interests can be defined in terms of national power.
3. National interests may change, and the manifestations of national power may also vary.
4. Prudence is the supreme virtue in politics, rather than ethical action.
5. It is wrong to believe that one’s own nation is somehow ‘chosen by God’. In conflict
among nations, it is never be possible to distinguish with certainty the good and evil.
6. In politics, all action is to be judged in terms of how it affects the power of the
nation/government/party etc.

International politics as a struggle for power

 Hans Morgenthau said international politics can be seen as a struggle for political power.
 Political power, according to him, is the means to a nation’s ends (which may be an
economic, religious, or socio-politic ideal).
 There are several variations in the degree and kind of power. Power may be shown
sometimes in physical force, but sometimes it is dependent on prestige or the love of
peoples.
 The struggle for power in international politics may show itself as a policy of maintaining
the status quo, or through imperialism, or by demonstration of prestige.
 The true nature of power struggle is concealed by ideological justification: ‘national
ideologies’.
o Ideologies include ethical and legal principles and also ideas about biological
necessities.
o A nation that can justify its foreign policy on the basis of intellectual or moral
ideology has a great advantage over a nation that has no such ideology.
o The policy of status quo in foreign relations does not need ideological support.
o Imperialism is always in need of an ideology. It tries to justify through this
ideology the overthrow of the status quo.

Elements of national power

Morgenthau identified the elements of national power. These are, in decreasing order of
stability:
 Geography. Geographical isolation and size offer a natural defence.
 Natural resources such as food self-sufficiency or oil resources.
 Industrial capacity to transform natural resources into products used by a modern military
force.
 Military. This depends on technology, leadership, and quality and quantity of armed
forces.
 Population. Often, but not always, a large population is a source of strength.
 National character, morale, and leadership also affect national power.

An evaluation of realism and the concept of national power

Power politics and realism failed to predict the collapse of the communist bloc in the late
1980s/early 1990s. There is much more cooperation and peace in international relations than
one would expect from realism. However, the concept of national power has been historically
influential.

3
THE COLD WAR
 Norman Lowe

The consequences of the Second World War

 Enormous destruction. About 40 million people are estimated to have been killed in the
conflict.
 There were separate peace settlements: Italy gave up her African possession, and Japan
had to give up all the territories it had taken over after the 1890s.
 The production of nuclear weapons led to the arms race after the end of the War.
 European leadership in the world ended, and the USA and Russia took over.
 The United Nations Organization (UN) succeeded the League of Nations as the
peacekeeper.

Causes of the Cold War

 Ideological differences based on different ideas about the economy operated:
o the Russians (the USSR: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) and their allies
espoused Communism, the philosophy of Karl Marx.
o The United States and its allies (Britain and the countries of Western Europe)
believed in democracy and free private enterprise driven by the profit motive.
 However, from the very beginning, there was mutual distrust.
o Joseph Stalin, who took over Russia in 1929, believed the West would try to
invade Russia again.
o The Americans and the British also distrusted Stalin. They thought he was trying
to take over East Europe.

Phase I: the beginning of the Cold War (1945-53, Europe)

 At the Yalta Conference (USSR, March 1945) before Germany lost the war, Stalin,
Roosevelt, and Churchill agreed to set up the United Nations after the War.
 At the Potsdam Conference (in Germany, July 1945), after Germany was defeated,
Stalin, Truman, and Churchill were not able to decide on the future of Germany.
 Russia had defeated Germany in eastern Europe, and set up communist governments in
the countries she ‘liberated’ from the Nazis. Communism spread across eastern
Europe.
 President Truman (USA) set out the Truman Doctrine to support free peoples who are
resisting subjugation by communists everywhere in the world.
 The Marshal Aid supported the Truman Doctrine. The United States gave huge amounts
of aid to 16 nations of western Europe to resist communism. (European Recovery
Programme)
 The Cominform (Communist Information Bureau) was set up in 1948 with all the
communist satellite states of eastern Europe, under the leadership of Russia.
 The Berlin Blockade and airlift (1948 to 1949). In 1948, the Russians blocked access to
Berlin. Britain, France, and the USA then airlifted supplies to Berlin. The blockade ended
in 1949.
 NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was formed in 1949. The US, Britain, and
other west European countries joined the North Atlantic Treaty, a defence agreement.
 The arms race began soon as the war ended. The USSR had developed its own atomic
bomb in 1949.

Phase 2: The Cold War 1953-60s (Europe): Thaw in the Cold War/Detente
Relations improved in the 1950s, though the Cold War did not end. The reasons for the thaw
were:
 Stalin died in 1953.
 Anti-communist hysteria in the USA, represented by Senator Joseph McCarthy
(McCarthyism), came to an end.
Some of the areas in which relations improved were:
 The Korean War ended in 1953, and the First Indochina War in 1954.
 Austria was allowed to unite and become independent in 1955. This was a great
success – Germany and Korea had not been allowed to.
However, problems continued. Both sides continued to distrust and fear each other.
 There was a revolution in Hungary which was suppressed in 1956, with Russian
help.
 The Warsaw Pact was signed in 1955. This was a defence alliance similar to NATO.
 The Berlin Wall came up. The wall divided western Berlin (Federal Republic of
Germany) from eastern Berlin (German Democratic Republic and communist).
 The Cuban missiles crisis happened in 1962. There seemed to be a real risk of actual
war.
o Cuba had become communist in 1959 under Fidel Castro.
o Americans did not like Castro’s government. In the Bay of Pigs invasion in
1961, they tried to help opponents of Castro take over the government, but
were not able to.
o Castro allowed the USSR to keep its troops and also build military bases in
Cuba. This was discovered by Americans, and led to the crisis.
 Many Americans wanted to attack Cuba.
 Eventually the Russians agreed to remove their military bases.
 The experience made Russians and Americans ready to compromise.

The spread of communism in Asia and the Americas

 The communists were victorious in China in 1949 under Chairman Mao Zedong
(Tsetung).
 There was a communist government in North Korea as well.
o The Korean war(1950-53) started with North Korea invading South Korea in
1950.
  The Americans became involved because they did not want the
communists to take over south Korea.
 The Americans were able to gain UN backing.
 The Americans and fourteen other countries cleared South Korea.
 Negotiations ended in 1954. The results of the negotiations and the war
were:
 They agreed the frontier should be the 38th parallel.
 Korea was devastated.
 Cuba became communist after Fidel Castro took over in 1959.
 Vietnam.
o Vietnam fought the first Vietnam War/Indochina war (1946-54) against the
French for freedom from imperialism.
o After this, North Vietnam had a communist government, and South Vietnam had a
government supported by Americans and non-communist.
o North and South Vietnam engaged in a civil war which came to be called the
second Vietnam War/Indochina War (1961-75).
o The Americans supported south Vietnam but were defeated. Then the whole of
Vietnam became communist under Ho Chi Minh.

PHASE 3 The end of the Cold War (from the 1970s till the 1990s)
In the 1970s, international relations improved (détente) and this led to the end of the Cold
War.
 The reasons for the détente were:
o The USSR found it very expensive to keep up with the Americans.
o Relations between China and the USA were improving. In 1971, the Chinese
invited the American table-tennis team to visit China (Pingpong diplomacy).
o The defeat Vietnam was difficult for Americans.
o The nations of western Europe wanted peace.
 In Russia:
o Détente sped up under Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1985 to 1991.
 Gorbachev started reforms – glasnost and perestroika (openness and
restructuring).
 There were changes in economic policy and more freedom was
allowed.
 Perestroika also meant changes within the communist party, such
as free elections.
 However, domestically these policies were not so successful and
led to the collapse of the communist system in the USSR.
 There was an economic crises in 1989 caused by the changes in economic
policy.
 This, together with nationalist pressures, led to the break-up of the Soviet
Union. The 15 republics of the USSR became separate nation states in
1991.
 These were united in a loose federation of republics without central control
and called the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in the end of
1991.
 Between 1988 and 1991, most communist governments in eastern Europe collapsed. With
the USSR ceasing to exist in 1991, and Germany reunified in 1992, the Cold War was
over.