Faculty of Law

Bachelor's (Degree) Programme in Law

Contemporary International System

Carlo Carvajal Aguilar

carlo.carvajal01@estudiant.upf.edu

@carlocarvajal

Academic year 2023-2024

BEFORE WE START…
SYLLABUS
PART I. THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Week 1: Module 1. International Relations theory and the international system

Week 2: Module 2. States and non-State actors in the international system: categories,
structures, dynamics and processes
Week 3: Module 3. Peaceful settlement of international disputes: outlawing war through
international law

PART II. A GLOBAL ORDER AFTER WORLD WAR II

Weeks 4 and 5: Module 4. The resulting bipolar world after World War II: The United Nations and
the international system of the Cold War era

Week 5: Module 5. Realignment at the end of the XX Century

Week 6: Seminar 1. The case of the Former Yugoslavia and the ICTY
SYLLABUS
PART III. THE POST-COLD WAR AND THE CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL
SYSTEM

Week 7: Module 6. Change and continuity in the post-Cold War: the case of the
International Criminal Court

Week 8: Module 7. Peace and security challenges: international terrorism and the question of
self-defence

Week 9: Module 8. Governance in the new global order: stronger actors and new
developments

Week 10: Seminar 2. International Relations in Practice - Poster sessions

EVALUATION
Continuous assessment

Participation in the course and the seminar (30%)

• Reaction papers

Poster session (20%)

• To be presented in groups of 5 students during the second

seminar (choose a situation)
Final exam

50% of the final grade

*Mandatory note: 3 points out of 10 to be weighed

SOME LOGICAL FALLACIES
 BANDWAGON SLIPPERY STRAWMAN
SLOPE

APPEAL TO
AUTHORITY EITHER/OR AD HOMINEM CIRCULAR
BANDWAGON FALLACIE

Appealing to
popularity or the fact
that many people do
something as an
attempted form of
validation

Bekele's
popularity
As of May 2023,
his approval
rating stood at 91
percent
 SLIPPERY SLOPE

Asserting that if
we allow A to
happen, then Z will
consequently
happen too,
therefore A should
not happen
STRAWMAN

Misrepresenting
someone’s argument
to make it easier to
attack
 APPEAL TO AUTHORITY

Using the opinion or

position of an
authority figure or
institution of
authority, in place of
an actual argument
EITHER / OR FALLACIE

Also called black and

white: when two
alternatives are
presented as the
only possibilities
 AD HOMINEM FALLACIE

Attacking persons
rather than
arguments
CIRCULAR ARGUMENT

Instead of offering
evidence, the
argument simply
repeats the
conclusion.
 BANDWAGON SLIPPERY STRAWMAN
SLOPE

APPEAL TO
AUTHORITY EITHER/OR AD HOMINEM CIRCULAR
PART I. THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM AND INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS

Module 1: The international system and international relations

A. The international system

B. International relations theory

A. The international system

1. The international system

• Origins of the concept:

• European state system: shaped

in the ferment of the
Renaissance and the
Reformation (XV / XVI)

• Concentration of government
powers in modern States that
pertained before to: feudalism
& the Church

• End of the Thirty Years War in

1648 – Peace of Westphalia
2. International Relations
 2. International Relations

• Commonly located within social sciences

• Attempts to explain:

• Interactions of States in the global system

• Interactions of others (non-State actors), whose behaviour

transcends frontiers

• Interactions between State and non-State actors

• Fragmented and complex

Rather than something like this…
IR look more like this:
 3. The State

Source: Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States 1933

- Territory: land, water and air space

- Population: individual nationals

- Government: political organisation

- Sovereignty (internal and external)

3. The State

- Territory: land, water and air space

- Population: individual nationals

- Government: political organisation

- Sovereignty (internal and external)

B. International relations theory
• Theoretical perspectives –
make sense of the system

• Analytical toolkit

• Variables: states, organisations,

people, economics, history,
ideas, class, gender…

• Development: traditionally only

liberalism and realism

• No single approach captures

complexity of contemporary
world politics
 1.REALISM

• Proponents argue this theory reflects the reality of the system

• Thomas Hobbes (XVII): Humans live in an orderless state of
nature – war of all against all
- Only a social contract could maintain order

No international No social contract Inevitability of

sovereign internationally war
 2. LIBERALISM
• Originally seen as “utopian”
• Human beings seen as innately good
• Peace amongst nations is achievable and desirable
• Immanuel Kant (XVIII): States sharing liberal values have no
reason to go to war against each other
• Economic interdependence / democracy / institutions should
discourage States from going to war
 2. CONSTRUCTIVISM

• Focus: values and shared interests of individuals globally

• Structures (such as the State) constrain agents (individuals) and also
construct their identities and interests
• International relations exist in the interactions between peoples
• After all, States are their agents, politicians, diplomats, etc.
• Ideas or norms have power
 3. CRITICAL THEORIES

• Responses to mainstream approaches

• They oppose commonly held assumptions
• Identification of positions typically ignored or overlooked
• Give voice to groups of people frequently marginalised
3.1 MARXISM
• Until 1980s – main alternative to
realism and liberalism

• Industrialised society: owners

(bourgeoisie) / working class
(proletariat)

• International primacy of the State

divides ordinary people –they forget
common struggle against capital

• States’ legitimacy must be questioned

and dissolved
 3.2 POSTCOLONIALISM

• Focuses on inequality between

nations or regions

• Effects of colonialism are still felt in

many regions

• Acknowledgement that IR studies

have historically been western and
Eurocentric – excluding other voices
 3.3 FEMINISM
• Focuses on explaining why so few women seem to be in positions of
power and examining implications
• Challenges constructed roles traditionally assigned for men and
women – which permeate international affairs
 3.4 POSTSTRUCTURALISM

• Questions dominant narratives widely

accepted by mainstream theories

• Foundational truths of other theories, like

the existence of the State, become
structures

• Challenge of these structures (State, power,

institutions)
Foucault (XX)
• Questions commonly held assumptions
UN SECURITY COUNCIL

• Article 23 UN Charter
The Security Council shall consist of fifteen Members of the United Nations. The
Republic of China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America
shall be permanent members of the Security Council. The General Assembly shall
elect ten other Members of the United Nations to be non-permanent members of
the Security Council…

P5 + 10 = UNSC
UN SECURITY COUNCIL
• Primary responsibility: the maintenance of international peace
and security. Measures:

Ø Pacific settlement of disputes (Chapter VI)

Ø Action with respect to threats to peace and aggression (Chapter VII)
Ø Regional arrangements (Chapter VIII)
Article 25
The Members of the United Nations agree
to accept and carry out the decisions of
the Security Council in accordance with
the present Charter.
Article 27
1.Each member of the Security Council shall have one vote.
2.Decisions of the Security Council on procedural matters shall
be made by an affirmative vote of nine members.
3.Decisions of the Security Council on all other matters shall be
made by an affirmative vote of nine members including the
concurring votes of the permanent members; provided that, in
decisions under Chapter VI, and under paragraph 3 of Article
52, a party to a dispute shall abstain from voting.
UN SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION 2728(2024)

https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n24
/080/81/pdf/n2408081.pdf?token=5nmUFVRnq
B8EKrX4XO&fe=true

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5Svrt3qPfQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6wSDE1mI
nM