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Contents vii

■■ Theory in Practice 4.3 Terrorism or Warfare? 136


Implications for Realism 139
■■ Theory in Practice 4.4 The drone revolution 140
Conclusion 141
Review Questions 142
Key Terms 142
Endnotes 142

5 International Law and Organization: The Promise of


Liberal Institutionalism 146
International Law-Making 148
Treaties 149
International Custom 150
Other Sources of International Law 150
International Law Adjudication 151
Structure and Functions of the ICJ 151
The Impact of the ICJ 153
International Law Enforcement 155
Enforcement via Self-Help 155
The Role of International Organizations 157
■■ Theory in Practice 5.1
nGos in Afghanistan 159
The United Nations 160
UN Structure 160
UN Enforcement of Law and Order 163
■■ Theory in Practice 5.2
Peacekeeping
Versus Peacemaking in rwanda 169
Reforming the United Nations 170
Conclusion 175
Review Questions 176
Key Terms 176
Endnotes 176

6 The Human Rights Revolution: The Construction of


International Norms 179
Reasons for Hesitation 180
The International Order Argument 181
The National Interest Argument 181
The Cultural Relativism Argument 182
First Steps: Establishing Human Rights Norms 183
Monitoring Human Rights 188
UN Monitoring 189
NGO Monitoring 190
National and Regional Monitoring 192
viii Contents

Enforcing Human Rights 193


Economic Sanctions 193
Military Intervention 195
■■ Theory in Practice 6.1 The “G-Word” 199
Prosecuting Human Rights Violators 200
Universal Jurisdiction 201
Ad Hoc Tribunals 202
The International Criminal Court 203
■■ Theory in Practice 6.2 Palestine and the international
Criminal Court 205
Conclusion 206
Review Questions 207
Key Terms 208
Endnotes 208

7 Economic Globalization: The Consequences


of Liberal Commercialism 211
Perspectives on the Global Economy 213
Realism 213
Liberalism 214
Neo-Marxism 216
The Bretton Woods System 217
The International Trade Regime 218
■■ Theory in Practice 7.1 The Banana War: WTo dispute Settlement
in Practice 220
The International Monetary Regime 220
The Challenge of Development 223
Regional Integration 227
The Globalization Debate 232
What Is Globalization? 232
Why Globalization? 233
Cause for Celebration? 234
■■ Theory in Practice 7.2 The Walmart Phenomenon: A Globalization
Success Story? 235
A Backlash to Globalization? 237
Geopolitics and the Future of Globalization 240
Conclusion 245
Review Questions 246
Key Terms 246
Endnotes 247
Contents ix

8 Transnational Challenges: The State System


Under Stress 250
From National Security to Human Security 251
The Global Environment 253
The Energy Challenge 255
The Climate Change Challenge 257
Responses to the Challenge: Three Scenarios 259
■■ Theory in Practice 8.1 Climate Change and the darfur Conflict 261
Global Health and Disease 267
The Reemergence of Infectious Disease 267
■■ Theory in Practice 8.2 Ebola vs. the Flu: The risks of a Pandemic 270
Globalization and Disease 271
Responses to Global Disease 272
The Internet and Global Communications 274
The Challenge to State Authority 275
The State Strikes Back 280
Conclusion 283
Review Questions 284
Key Terms 284
Endnotes 284

9 Global Futures: Competing Visions of the


Twenty-First Century 288
Future I: The End of History 290
■■ Theory in Practice 9.1 The End of history?: The russian Case 292
Future II: One World 293
Future III: A World State 296
Future IV: A Cascading Norm
Against War 299
Future V: An Engendered Peace 301
Future VI: A Clash of Civilizations 303
■■ Theory in Practice 9.2
The Cartoon Crisis and the Charlie
Hebdo Massacre: A Clash of Civilizations? 306
Future VII: Great Power War 308
Making a Better World 311
Review Questions 312
Key Terms 313
Endnotes 313

Credits 315
Index 316
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Preface

A
s I wrote in the prefaces to the first two editions of this text, teachers
of international relations are fortunate to have the media do such
a good job of marketing their courses. The constant swirl of news
about global events provides a steady stream of students eager to make sense
of world politics and the implications for their own lives. Since the publica-
tion of the second edition, that swirl of events has continued unabated. The
Arab Spring, the Russian invasion of Crimea, the rise of ISIS, and the West
African Ebola epidemic are just a few of the noteworthy developments to
take place subsequent to the completion of the second edition. Part of the
goal in writing this third edition was to incorporate those events into the
analysis of the book.
Even more important, this third edition provides an opportunity to make
more general improvements to the book. In revising the text, however, the cen-
tral goal of the first two editions has remained unchanged. That goal is to tap
into and maintain the interest in global events that leads students to enroll in
international relations classes and to translate that interest into a conceptual
and theoretical sophistication that will remain useful long after today’s current
events become the stuff of history and long after the course in which this book is
assigned is completed.
To that end, How the World Works provides the detailed micro-level knowl-
edge and information that is necessary to understand world politics. Students
will read about such things as the structure of the United Nations, trends in
international conflict, the sources of international law, and the role of the World
Trade Organization. They will simultaneously pick up a new vocabulary, which
will include such terms as “deterrence,” “hegemony,” “collective security,” and
“comparative advantage.” But facts and concepts are not enough. In acquiring
a new vocabulary and in learning about the details of institutions and events,
it is important that students not become lost in the thicket of world politics to
the extent that they lose sight of the forest for the trees. Thus, they also need a
larger framework that provides context and meaning for the data, trends, and
terminology to which they are exposed.
In teaching over the years, I have found that most beginning students
of international relations and world politics come to the first class already in
possession of predispositions regarding how the world works. Some are in-
clined to accept conflict and violence in international life as inescapable, and
this leads such students to endorse approaches to foreign policy that entail a

xi
xii Preface

reliance on military power and a suspicion of global institutions. These stu-


dents are “instinctive realists,” even though they may never have encountered
the “realist” perspective on international relations as a formal theory. Others
come to the first class more optimistic about the prospects for global cooper-
ation and are thereby more inclined to eschew power-oriented approaches to
foreign policy and to favor working through institutions such as international
law and the United Nations. These students are “instinctive critics of realism”
even though they too have never formally encountered “realism” as a concept in
international relations theory and could not tell a “liberal” from a “constructivist”
from a “feminist” approach to world politics.
How the World Works helps students examine their natural inclinations,
question their assumptions, and subject their conclusions to the fire of classroom
debate and discussion. The most general goal of the book is to get students to
think about how the world works. To this end, the book is organized around
the story of realism and its critics, conveying the message that scholars disagree
among themselves about the world’s political and economic interactions and
trends. While some scholars, in recent years, have questioned the utility of ex-
amining international relations through the lenses of the various paradigms, the
TRIP surveys of international relations scholars continue to show that the major-
ity of scholars continue to work within one or more of those paradigms and that
many of the most influential scholars in the field (e.g., Alexander Wendt, Robert
Keohane, Kenneth Waltz, John Mearsheimer) are strongly associated with para-
digmatic analysis.
That said, it is important to note that this is not a “realist” book, and it does
not attempt to profess the merits of any single paradigm. On the contrary, the
goal is to expose students to contending perspectives and to provide the em-
pirical and conceptual foundation upon which they can begin to develop their
own assessment of how the world works. This book does not take sides.

New to This Edition


Revel™
Educational technology designed for the way
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When students are engaged deeply, they learn more effectively and perform bet-
ter in their courses. This simple fact inspired the creation of REVEL: an immer-
sive learning experi-ence designed for the way today’s students read, think, and
learn. Built in collaboration with educators and students nationwide, REVEL is
the newest, fully digital way to deliver respected Pearson content.
REVEL enlivens course content with media interactives and assessments—
integrated directly within the authors’ narrative—that provide opportunities for
students to read about and practice course material in tandem. This immersive
Preface xiii

educational technology boosts student engagement, which leads to better


understanding of concepts and improved performance throughout the course.

Learn more about REVEL at http://www.pearsonhighered.com/revel/.

The third edition of How the World Works features a number of substantive revi-
sions, including the following:

ChAPtER 1

• New section on non-paradigmatic research


• New Theory in Practice box on Obama and constructivism in his labeling of
terrorists

ChAPtER 2

• Takes account of recent scholarship on “the myth of 1648”


• Updated with discussion of Ukraine crisis and Arab Spring

ChAPtER 3

• Chapter reorganized around two themes: the levels of analysis and the as-
sumption of rationality in foreign policy decision-making
• More extended discussion of the cognitive model of decision-making
• New Theory in Practice box which applies rational actor, cognitive, and
poliheuristic decision-making approaches to student selection of colleges

ChAPtER 4

• New breakout section on the causes of war


• New Theory in Practice box on “The Drone Revolution”

ChAPtER 5
• General updating of all sections

ChAPtER 6

• Clarified the role of the Human Rights Council


• Added discussion of Libya to section on humanitarian intervention
• Expanded discussion and assessment of the record of R2P
• New Theory in Practice box on Palestine and the International Criminal Court

ChAPtER 7

• Updated EU discussion to take account of post-2008 trends and Greek crisis


• Updated discussion of the global financial crisis and its aftermath
xiv Preface

ChAPtER 8

• Clearer discussion of concepts of (global) public goods and common pool


resources
• Discussion of the fracking revolution and its impact on both the environment
and global energy politics
• Updated discussion of global climate governance post-Kyoto
• Discussion of the 2014 Ebola scare
• New Theory in Practice box on Ebola vs. the Flu: The Risks of a Pandemic
• Discussion of role of social media in the Arab Spring

ChAPtER 9
• Retained the seven competing visions of the global future approach, but
changed the hypothetical future histories style to a more straightforward
presentation and critique of the seven global futures

In addition to the key revisions noted above, many smaller substantive revi-
sions are found in every chapter. They include updating of data including that
found in many of the tables and figures, expanded or improved discussion of
some key concepts to reflect the latest literature, and use of new examples from
recent events to illustrate larger points.

Features
How the World Works begins by laying out the central assumptions of the realist
paradigm in Chapter 1 and then discussing the challenges posed to the realist
worldview by the paradigms that have emerged as alternatives to realism. Each
subsequent chapter then examines a specific issue in the real world of interna-
tional politics—such as war, human rights, and economic globalization—to shed
light on the differences between the realist approach and the alternative para-
digms. In different chapters of the book, the essential subject matter may seem to
privilege one theoretical perspective or another, but there will be enough com-
peting evidence and perspectives provided so that students will be encouraged
to think about and question the various worldviews.
Chapter 2 of the text examines the history of international relations and the
related rise and fall of the theoretical paradigms over time. Chapter 3 looks at
foreign policy-making and the several levels of analysis that are involved in
shaping state behavior, including the domestic sources of state behavior that re-
alists traditionally have tended to downplay. Given the centrality of war to the
realist perspective, the discussion of war and violence in Chapter 4 takes place
on realism’s turf, though there is plenty in the chapter to provide ammunition
for critics of realism. Chapter 5 then moves to the turf of liberal institutionalism
as the focus shifts to international law and organization. Constructivism gets the
Preface xv

home-field advantage in Chapter 6, with its focus on international human rights.


Chapters 7 and 8 examine economic globalization and transnational issues, spot-
lighting the liberal commercialist and neo-Marxist perspectives and discussing
in some detail the tension between globalization and many of the core realist
assumptions.
Chapter 9 concludes the book with a discussion of seven alternative global
futures. Each of these seven different visions of the future extends the logic of a
different theoretical perspective on world politics. And each vision is then sub-
jected to a short critique. The goal of this chapter is to bring the reader full circle
to the theoretical perspectives presented in Chapter 1. On the basis of this dis-
cussion of possible global futures, and in light of the data and analysis absorbed
from Chapters 2 through 8, the reader should be in a good position to articulate
and defend, in a reasonably sophisticated manner, his or her own theoretical
preferences for understanding world politics.
Each chapter in How the World Works is structured not only to address the
central question of that chapter but also to contribute to an understanding of the
book’s larger themes and goals. The result is a book that hangs together and that
is more than just a collection of useful concepts and pieces of information exam-
ined in isolation. The approach to each chapter reflects an assumption that, for
beginning students, theoretical sophistication must be based on an understand-
ing of the real world of international relations and world politics. For example,
if students are going to be in a position to decide whether liberal institutionalists
best explain how the world works, they have to examine the record of liberal
institutions such as international law and organizations in practice. Similarly,
if students are to be in a position to judge the constructivist notion that norms
and ideas can shape world politics, then it is useful and necessary to examine in
detail the emergence and impact of the idea of human rights in the conduct of
world politics since World War II. To help students keep larger goals in mind,
each chapter begins and ends with a reminder of the larger theoretical debate,
but the bulk of each chapter focuses on the empirical record of the topic at hand.
You will find pedagogical features that support the goals in each chapter
and throughout the book:

• theory in Practice. Each chapter includes two or three “Theory in Prac-


tice” boxes, in which students will find a key chapter concept applied to a
recent world event. The goal is to reinforce the idea, stressed throughout
the book, that international relations concepts and theories have direct
relevance to the world in which students are living. Critical thinking ques-
tions at the end of each box encourage students to start doing their own
analysis using international relations concepts.
• Photos and Figures. Each chapter includes an opening photo and two interior
photos related to the substance of the chapter. Where appropriate, figures are
included to help visualize key ideas or put them into quantitative context.
xvi Preface

• Key terms and Glossary. In each chapter, key terms are highlighted and then
listed again at the end of the chapter. A marginal glossary provides brief defini-
tions of those terms for quick reference in the context of the chapter. Through
the key terms and glossary, students have a comprehensive list of the key ideas
and concepts necessary to understand world politics.
• Review Questions. At the end of each chapter, students are given three review
questions that focus on the big issues raised in the chapter. While the list of key
terms helps students ascertain whether they understand the details and specifics
of a chapter (whether they see the “trees”), the review questions help students
test their knowledge of the larger significance of those details (to determine if
they see the “forest”).
• Map Insert. A four-color insert with maps of the world, North America, South
America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, East and South Asia, and Australia
and Oceania is included following page xix of this book. Basic geographical
knowledge is essential in the study of international relations, and the insert
is intended to put this knowledge within students’ immediate reach.

How the World Works strives for a conversational style that keeps its student
readers in mind. This approach does not require dumbing down the content. On
the contrary, the clearer the writing, the better the organization, and the more ac-
cessible the style, the more one can succeed in conveying sophisticated content
to the reader. Especially in a field as intrinsically interesting and compelling as
world politics, and at a time in world history when so much is in flux, there is no
reason that a text on the topic cannot be intellectually sophisticated and, at the
same time, readable, engaging, and even fun. This text introduces students to
the concepts and developments at the core of the discipline of world politics but
in a way that makes sense to them.
While How the World Works is perhaps half the length of many introductory
textbooks, it has the advantage of focusing attention on the most salient issues
and concepts that often get buried in longer texts. Brevity also provides greater
opportunity for instructors to assign supplementary readings that reinforce and
develop concepts and issues discussed in this text. There is such an array of good
writing, accessible at the undergraduate level, on issues of world politics and in-
ternational relations that it would be an omission not to be able to incorporate as
much of it as possible into the introductory course. Students will be armed with
the basic concepts and issues from reading this text. Thus, instructors can assign
additional readings by proponents or critics of a particular theory to extend the
discussion beyond the text.

Supplements
Pearson is pleased to offer several resources to qualified adopters of How
the World Works and their students that will make teaching and learn-
ing from this book even more effective and enjoyable. Several of the
Preface xvii

supplements for this book are available at the Instructor Resource Center (IRC),
an online hub that allows instructors to quickly download book-specific supple-
ments. Please visit the IRC welcome page at http://www.pearsonhighered
.com/irc to register for access.

Instructor’s Manual/test Bank This resource includes learning objectives, lec-


ture outlines, multiple-choice questions, true/false questions, and essay ques-
tions for each chapter. Available for download from the IRC.

Pearson Mytest This powerful assessment generation program includes all of


the items in the instructor’s manual/test bank. Questions and tests can be easily
created, customized, saved online, and then printed, allowing flexibility
to manage assessments anytime and anywhere. To learn more, please visit http://
www.mypearsontest.com or contact your Pearson representative.

PowerPoint Presentation Organized around a lecture outline, these multimedia


presentations also include photos, figures, and tables from each chapter. Avail-
able for download from the IRC.

Longman Atlas of World Issues (0-205-78020-2) From population and political


systems to energy use and women’s rights, the Longman Atlas of World Issues fea-
tures full-color thematic maps that examine the forces shaping the world. Fea-
turing maps from the latest edition of The Penguin State of the World Atlas, this
excerpt includes critical thinking exercises to promote a deeper understanding
of how geography affects many global issues. Available at no additional charge
when packaged with this book.
Goode’s World Atlas (0-321-65200-2) First published by Rand McNally in 1923,
Goode’s World Atlas has set the standard for college reference atlases. It features
hundreds of physical, political, and thematic maps as well as graphs, tables, and
a pronouncing index. Available at a discount when packaged with this book.

Research and Writing in International Relations (0-205-06065-X) With current


and detailed coverage on how to start research in the discipline’s major subfields,
this brief and affordable guide offers the step-by-step guidance and essential re-
sources needed to compose political science papers that go beyond description
and into systematic and sophisticated inquiry. This text focuses on areas where
students often need help—finding a topic, developing a question, reviewing the
literature, designing research, and finally, writing the paper. Available at a dis-
count when packaged with this book.

Acknowledgments
In writing this book, I received valuable assistance from a number of people
who reviewed various editions of the text and offered their advice:
Nozar Alaolmolki, Hiram College; Kristian Alexander, University of Utah;
Stephanie Anderson, University of Wyoming; Vincent Auger, Western Illinois
xviii Preface

University; William Batkay, Montclair State University; Eric Cox, Texas Christian
University; Richard Chadwick, University of Hawaii, Manoa; John Dietrich,
Bryant University; Gregory C. Dixon, University of West Georgia; Vittorio Nich-
olas Galasso, University of Delaware; Stephanie Hallock, Harford Community
College; Maia Hallward, Kennesaw State University; James Hentz, Virginia
Military Institute; Nathan Jensen, Washington University in St. Louis; Michael
Koch, Texas A&M University; William Lahneman, Towson University; How-
ard Lehman, University of Utah; Keith Lepak, Youngstown State University;
Kristina Mani, Oberlin College; Scott Nelson, Virginia Tech; Laura Neack, Miami
University; Mark Schroeder, University of Kentucky; Johanes Sulaiman, Ohio
State University; Eugene Tadie, George Mason University; James Toole, Indiana
University-Purdue; Ivani Vassoler, SUNY-Fredonia; Julie Webber, Illinois State
University; and Andrew Yeo, Catholic University.
I would also like to thank Charlyce Jones Owen, Rob DeGeorge, Carol
O’Rourke, and the rest of the team at Pearson for shepherding this third edition
through to completion. I also appreciate the efficient work done by George Jacob
at Integra Software Services in overseeing the production of the print book from
manuscript to final printer files. Lastly, Susan Messer did a superb job as de-
velopment editor in helping to polish the writing of the very first edition of the
book. Though I have not worked with her on subsequent editions, her impact on
the book and on my approach to writing it are still very much in evidence in the
third edition.
In many ways, this book reflects a career spent teaching and writing at
Dickinson College, where I have been surrounded by first-class colleagues,
excellent students, and an administration committed to fostering an environ-
ment where both good scholarship and good teaching can thrive. In particu-
lar, I would like to thank my colleagues Douglas Stuart, for his thoughtful
comments on Chapters 1 and 3, and David Strand, for his useful sugges-
tions on Chapter 6. Students in numerous sections of my Political Science 170
International Relations class who have used the earlier editions of this book
also helped improve this new edition in various ways.
I have been sustained in the long process of writing and revising this book
by the memory and thoughts of those people (Rosemary, Serf, Sam, Tina, Shelly,
Angie, Elmer) whom I have cared most about in this world. Most important of
all, this edition, like the first two, is dedicated to my three daughters—Laura,
Samantha, and Alex—who give meaning and purpose to everything I do, and to
Candace L. Bova—my wife, my best friend, and my partner-in-life.

—Russell Bova
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nt

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0 500 miles San Salvador
EL SALVADOR
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L. Nicaragua PANAMA
San Jose
0 500 km Panama

COSTA
120˚W
RICA
0˚ 105˚W 90˚W
S O U T H A M E R I C A
80˚W 70˚W 60˚W 50˚W 40˚W 30˚W
C a r i b b e a n S e a

Barranquilla
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0 500 miles

0 500 km Red
Sea
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50˚E
DJIBOUTI
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Djibouti
45˚E 0 500 km
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E A S T A N D S O U T H A S I A
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Taiyuan Dalian
Seoul Sendai
Xining Handan Incheon SOUTH
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CHINA Lanzhou Luoyang Kaifeng Qingdao _ Tokyo
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120˚E 15˚S
0 1000 km
60˚E 75˚E 90˚E 105˚E 150˚E 165˚E
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This page intentionally left blank
Chapter 1
How to Think About
World Politics
Realism and Its Critics

World Trade Center, September


11, 2001. After 9/11 a common
response was that “everything
has changed.” Is that the case?
How would realists respond to
that observation?

Learning Objectives
1-1 Explain the three grand debates over how scholars should study
international relations.
1-2 Identify and explain the key assumptions and arguments of
the realist paradigm.
1-3 Compare and contrast the liberal, constructivist, feminist,
and neo-Marxist paradigms.

1
2 Chapter 1

All politics is global. Whether you live in New York or Shanghai, in a small
town in Kansas or a village in rural India, in the heart of a prosperous European
city or on an impoverished subsistence farm in sub-Saharan Africa, your life is
affected in countless ways by developments in world politics. Of course, during
times of war, global politics becomes a matter of life and death for individ-
uals and, sometimes, for entire societies. However, even during more “normal”
times, global events continually reverberate through our lives. For example,
how much it costs you to travel to school could be affected by political insta-
bility in an oil-producing country located far from where you live and study.
Whether you will be able to afford to study abroad during your college career
can be affected by the value of your country’s currency in global currency mar-
kets. Getting the job of your choice when you graduate might depend on the
evolving patterns of global trade.
The impact of global trends on your life is not merely economic. The quality
of the air you breathe can be a direct consequence of pollutants poured into the
atmosphere by factories located halfway across the world and on the success or
failure of global efforts to regulate the environment. The level of respect given
to your human rights increasingly depends on emerging global human rights
norms and institutions that go beyond your own government’s policies. Your
physical security as you go about your daily life can be affected by trends in
global terrorism or the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Indeed, as
many discovered after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, you don’t have
to be a direct victim of global terrorism to feel its impact. Increased security at
airports, tightened immigration rules, and a recalibrated balance between secu-
rity and civil liberties affected Americans as well as those who wanted to visit or
study in the United States.
Global events have always affected individuals’ lives, particularly
through war, conflict, and trade across national borders. However, in recent
decades, developments in the technologies of transportation and, espe-
cially, telecommunications have shrunk the world and allowed individuals
to become increasingly interconnected. Thus, more than ever before, in the
twenty-first century being an informed individual requires understanding
the larger world in which we live. But having such an understanding requires
more than accumulating information, facts, and details about the world. It
also requires a more generalized understanding of how the world works—
an understanding that will allow us to make sense of the day-to-day events
reported in the news. That is what formal study of international relations (IR)
and world politics seeks to attain.
How to Think About World Politics 3

Studying International Relations


and World Politics
1-1 Explain the three grand debates over how scholars should study
international relations.
The phrases “international relations” and “world politics” are often used inter-
changeably, including in this book, to refer to the full range of political, military,
and economic relations and interactions occurring among nation-states, such as
the United States, Russia, and China, and nonstate actors, such as the United
Nations (UN), al-Qaeda, and Amnesty International. At the same time, the
two phrases do not have precisely the same meaning. “International relations”
suggests a focus on relations among nation-states as the key actors. “World
politics,” in contrast, implies the casting of a broader net to include nonstate
actors. Thus, the trend in recent years has been toward using “world politics” to
label the field of study covered in this book.
Whatever label one prefers, the important point is that the scholarly
study of international relations and world politics is not the same as jour-
nalism or political punditry. Journalists and many other commentators on
contemporary history are usually content to describe and analyze specific,
discrete events, but political scientists look for patterns and generalizations
that can illuminate how the world works. For example, while a journalist
might describe and explain al-Qaeda’s terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001,
a political scientist will try to understand more generally the causes and con-
sequences of terrorism. While a journalist might report and describe Iranian
efforts to acquire a nuclear weapons capability, the goal of international rela-
tions scholarship is to better understand both the causes and consequences of
nuclear proliferation in general.
Though international relations scholars generally agree that their work is
different from that of journalists, those scholars disagree among themselves on a
number of fundamental questions over how best to study and understand how
the world works. Indeed, the scholarly study of international relations has been
marked by a series of grand debates. The three most important of those debates
are: (1) the debate over whether international relations is a positivist science,
(2) the debate over the appropriate methods to be employed in scholarship, and
(3) the debate over the choice of paradigms from which to view the world. Each
of these debates will be explained below.

The Debate over Positivist Science


For much of the twentieth century, the study of international relations was
dominated by discussion and analysis of diplomatic history, international law,
and international institutions. The emphasis was on description of historical
events and trends combined with interpretation of those events by scholars,
4 Chapter 1

with an eye toward providing advice about how states and their leaders should
act to achieve their goals in international relations. In this era, the most influen-
tial scholars were those whose historical narratives and institutional analyses
seemed most persuasive.
By the 1960s, however, a new generation of scholars had become dissatisfied
with this approach. In their view, the traditional scholarship was too descriptive
and not much more than a sophisticated type of journalistic analysis. What they
wanted was to transform the study of international relations into a more rigor-
ous enterprise modeled on the natural sciences. In particular, they embraced an
positivism approach to science known as positivism.
An approach to The positivist approach seeks to apply the scientific method, common in
knowledge based on
the scientific method the natural sciences, to the study of international relations. One starts with a
and the observa- hypothesis that specifies a relationship between two variables. Consider for
tion and analysis of
empirical data. example the following hypothesis: a democratic regime reduces the propensity
of a country to go to war. In that example, democracy is the independent vari-
able and war is the dependent variable. The independent variable is the one that
the scholar manipulates to see what impact it has on the dependent variable.
In a chemistry lab, one can manipulate the independent variable by adding or
subtracting the presence of a chemical agent to see what result is produced. In
international relations, one cannot do that, but what one can do is to compare
the war propensity of democratic and authoritarian regimes. Thus to test the
hypothesis, one looks at empirical data on the war propensity of democratic
versus nondemocratic regimes, and that data will serve to either support or to
falsify the hypothesis.
The goal of a positivist science of international relations is the develop-
ment of scientific laws of international behavior. Those laws are not absolute
but, instead, probabilistic. It is unlikely that one will ever be able to say with
certainty, for example, that democracies are always peaceful or that democratic
regime X necessarily will be more peaceful in its approach to international rela-
tions than authoritarian regime Y. Instead the goal would be to be able to say
that the probability of a democratic regime going to war is lower.
A manifestation of this new, more scientific approach was the ascendance
rational choice of rational choice theory. The theory of rational choice stood in sharp contrast
theory to the historically grounded descriptions characteristic of the study of inter-
An approach to social
science, borrowed
national relations in the first half of the twentieth century. Borrowing heavily
from economics, that from the discipline of economics, rational choice assumed that individuals were
assumes individuals
rational actors whose primary commitment was to the advancement of their
are rational actors
who make decisions own interests. On that basis, economists had long developed laws of economic
intended to maximize behavior that were deemed to hold true regardless of historical and cultural
their interests on the
basis of cost–benefit context. Likewise, in international relations rational choice theorists sought to
calculations. develop laws of international behavior with universal applicability across time
and place.
Traditional scholars resisted, suggesting that the study of human behavior
is fundamentally different from the study of the natural world. They argued that
How to Think About World Politics 5

is difficult, if not impossible, to study the human world with the cool, intellec-
tual detachment with which natural scientists study the laws of physics. But the
positivists gained the upper hand, and for the next couple of decades they came
to dominate international relations scholarship.
In the 1990s a backlash emerged against the dominance of the positivist
approach in international relations theory. A new generation of “post-positivist”
scholars argued that because the study of international relations is about the
actions of human beings, it is a mistake to try to mimic positivist natural science.
Their argument rests on a distinction between “explaining” and “understand-
ing.” Positivists seek to explain international behavior by reference to objec-
tive cause-and-effect relationships present in the external world. For example,
a positivist might argue that when one country acquires nuclear weapons, its
neighbors will seek to acquire them in self-defense.
For a post-positivist, that conclusion cannot be formulated into a general
law. Instead, one’s reaction to the arms acquisition of a neighboring state will
be determined by one’s own subjective understanding of one’s neighbor as
a friend or a foe, the history of relations between the two states, and the pre-
conceived perceptions and ideas held by leaders about the nature of the threat
posed by one’s neighbor. Thus, one can come to “understand” the nature of a
state’s behavior but one cannot “explain” it by general laws applicable across
time and place.

The Debate over Methods


A second area of debate among international relations scholars is related to
method. Some, though not all, scholars committed to a positivist science of
international relations argued that the search for objective laws of international
relations requires one to analyze large numbers of cases using sophisticated sta-
tistical techniques. Purely qualitative methodologies—for example, case studies
of a particular war or even a side-by-side comparison of two wars—might
provide interesting insights into those cases but cannot allow one to formulate
general laws about when wars will occur. To be able to generalize in that fash-
ion, many scholars argue that one needs to analyze large numbers of cases via
quantitative methods.
Take, once again, the question of the impact of democracy on the propensity
of countries to go to war. Looking at a handful of cases may point in the direc-
tion of an answer but is unlikely to be conclusive. A more convincing answer to
the question would require analysis that looks at dozens, perhaps hundreds of
cases. One might start by defining terms such as democracy and authoritarian-
ism, placing countries into one category or the other, and then looking at the
relationship between regime type and frequency of involvement in wars.
Of course, any such study would quickly become more complex than that
as one would have to consider how much fighting is necessary to consider an
event to be a war as well as differing degrees of democracy and authoritarianism
6 Chapter 1

in individual countries. Then, one would have to account for other causal factors
that might influence the propensity to fight wars, including such things as level
of economic development, preexisting arms races, etc. Teasing out the impact of
all of these factors is not easy, and the most effective way to do that might well
be via sophisticated statistical analysis.
The turn to greater use of quantitative methods was accompanied by much
dissent from scholars who argued that quantitative analysis sacrificed the rich-
ness of case studies and other forms of qualitative research. Those critics com-
plained that there were many aspects of political life that could not be reduced
to quantitative data analysis and that the emphasis on statistical techniques was
producing scholars who knew more about the methods of data analysis than
about the real substance of political history. In fact, both approaches currently
coexist in the study of international relations. A recent survey of international
relations scholars suggests that while the field remains dominated by those who
use qualitative methods in their research, a significant percentage (about a quar-
ter in the case of US-based scholars) specialize in quantitative methods.1

The Interparadigm Debate


A third debate that has raged among international relations scholars is the
paradigm “interparadigm debate.” A paradigm is a way of thinking about and approach-
A conceptual ing an area of scientific or scholarly inquiry that is widely accepted within a
or theoretical
perspective or frame- particular discipline and that guides the direction of scientific research. In the
work commonly natural sciences, scientists typically operate within a single paradigm. If at some
accepted within a
scholarly discipline
point the paradigm no longer explains new information or discoveries, a sci-
that helps to inform entific revolution occurs in which scholars develop a new paradigm to replace
and guide thinking
the old.2 For example, Einstein’s theory of relativity overturned the existing
and research.
Newtonian paradigm of physics, providing a new framework within which sub-
sequent research would be conducted. However, in the social sciences in gen-
eral, and in the study of international relations in particular, several competing
paradigms typically coexist and compete with one another. To relate this to the
larger theme of this book, the main competing paradigms adopted by scholars
of international relations and world politics provide different ways of under-
standing how the world works.
The so-called paradigm wars that have characterized the field of interna-
tional relations were particularly heated in the 1980s and 1990s. Since that time,
many scholars have sought to move beyond those wars and to focus on what is
often called “non-paradigmatic research.” Still, a 2014 survey of international
relations scholars found that roughly three-quarters of international relations
scholars continue to see their research as rooted in one of the major paradigms.3
Thus, the remainder of this chapter will focus on comparison of the main
competing international relations paradigms. One virtue of examining compet-
ing paradigms is that a paradigm provides a simplified map of reality; it takes
the complexity of the real world and reduces it to a core set of assumptions that
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DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least


the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,


some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR


MAHUTA

I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.

MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO


This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]

MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY

With no small pride first one householder and then a second


showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
“We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
BRAZIER

Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I


came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT

SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB

CUTTING THE EDGE


FINISHING THE BOTTOM

LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE


BURNING

FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE


LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE

TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL

NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI


Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK

DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG

REMOVING THE OUTER BARK


BEATING THE BARK

WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT


SOFT

MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA


To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN

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