Week 2 - Lecture

The Evolution of International Society

and International History (1900-present)
Globalisation and
International Institutions
(BLB00012-6)

Ref: Baylis, J., Smith S., & Owens, P. (2010).

The globalisation of World Politics: An Introduction to
International Relations (5th ed.). Oxford University Press.

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The Evolution :
What is International Society?
• Any association of distinct political communities that
accept common rules, values, institutions
• Central concept of the “English school”
• Originally referred to European state relations

* The “English school” of international relations, as stated

by Hedley Bull, is a society of states (or international
society) exists when a group of states, conscious of
certain common interests and common values, forms a
society in the sense that they conceive themselves to be
bound by a common set of rules in their relations with
one another, and share in the working of common
institutions (Bull 1977:13).
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What is International Society?

• Founded on these principles:

– Sovereign equality (vs. hierarchical,
hegemonial, imperial)
– Non-intervention
• Three key institutions:
– Diplomacy
– International law
– Balance of power
Ancient World – 1st Stage
• Lacked emphasis on sovereign equality. Elements
of international society may be found from the
time of the first organised human communities.
• Early forms of diplomacy and treaties existed in
the ancient Middle East.
• Still regulated by treaty, diplomacy, and some
norms of conduct.
• City-states of ancient Greece were characterised
by more developed societal characteristics such
as arbitration.
• Ancient China, India, Rome all had distinctive
forms of political organisation.
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Christian and Islamic Order – 2nd Stage
• Medieval Europe’s international society had a
complex mixture of supranational, transnational,
sub-national and national structures.
• The Catholic Church played a key role in
elaborating the normative basis of medieval
international society.
• Islam: community of believers (umma) and treaty
law with others. Islam developed its own
distinctive understanding of international society.

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Emergence of Modern International Society
- 3rd Stage

• Key elements:
– Domination of Europe by larger states.
– Protestant Reformation diminished
Church authority --> strengthened
sovereign equality.
– Exploration of New World.
– Attempt to develop ordering
mechanisms.
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Modern International Society – 4th Stage
• Codified in Peace of Westphalia (1648)
– ended the Thirty Years War (1618 – 1648) but: “organised
hypocrisy”? (Krasner, 1999)
– “organized hypocrisy” is common practice in world politics
as stated by Stephen Krasner.
• American and French Revolutions +
Napoleonic Wars
– Emergence of new nations and nationalism
– Concert of Europe: joint hegemony
• After Second World War: League of Nations
– Attempt to be more organised
In Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy (1999), Krasner defines four ways in
which people refer to sovereignty in international relations:

1. Legal Sovereignty, which Krasner defines as states recognizing one

another as independent territories.
2. Interdependence Sovereignty, which is an eroding mechanism of
sovereignty. Krasner sees globalisation (capital flows, migration,
and ideas) as a way in which the power of sovereignty in states is
being increasingly lessened.
3. Domestic Sovereignty is seen as the standard, this definition refers
to state authority structures and their effectiveness of control
within the state.
4. Westphalian Sovereignty, which Krasner declares is the concept
that states have the right to separately determine their own
domestic authority structures.

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_D._Krasner#Edited_Works
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Globalisation of International Society – 5th Stage
(Present)

• The United Nations intended as improved UN, but

largely blocked by cold war from its functioning.
• Decolonization led to the worldwide spread of the
European model of international society
• Accelerated by the collapse of USSR

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Conclusion: Problems of Global International
Society

• Globalisation poses challenges for sovereignty-based

international society which include:
– new forms of community, failing states in Africa,
American hyper-power, growing resistance to
Western ideas, global poverty and environmental
issues.

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International History (1990 – Present):

• First World War

– Modern, industrialized total war
– Demise of empire
• Second World War
– Brought US and USSR into Europe
– Atomic bomb development
• Cold War
Modern Total War

• Debates over the origins of WWI focused on whether

responsibility should rest with the German or
whether war came because of the more complex
system factors.
• The Treaty of Versailles failed to address the central
problems of European security while in restructuring
the European state system created new source of
grievance and instability.
• The rise of Hitler posed challenges that European
political leaders lacked the ability and will to meet.
Modern Total War

• The German attack on the Soviet Union extended the

scope and barbarity of the war from short and
limited campaigns to extended, large-scale and
barbaric confrontation, fought for a total victory.
• The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour brought the
USA into the war in Europe and eventually led
Germany into war on two fronts.
• Debate persists about whether the atomic bomb
should have been used in 1945, and about the effect
that this had on the cold war.
End of Empire

• The end of WW1 precipitated the collapse of four

European empires (the Roman, German, Austro-
Hungarian and the Ottoman Empire in Turkey).
• Different European powers had different attitudes to
decolonisation after 1945. For example, the British
decided to leave while others sought to preserve
their empires, in part (the French) or the whole (the
Portuguese).
• European powers adopted different attitudes to
different regions/countries. For example, British
withdrawal from Asia came much more quickly than
from Africa after 1945.
End of Empire

• The process of decolonisation was relatively peaceful in

many cases whereas it led to revolutionary wars in others
such as Algeria, Malaya and Angola), whose scale and
ferocity reflected the attitudes of the colonial power and
the nationalist movements.
• The struggle for independence/national liberation
became embroiled in cold war conflicts when the
superpower and/or their allies became involved.
Vietnam is a typical example. Whether decolonisation
was judged successful depends on whose perspective
you adopt – that of European power, the independence
movement or the people themselves.
Principal acts of European Decolonisation
Cold War

• Debate over origins

• Distinct phases in confrontation regarding
East-West relations
– 1945-53: onset
– 1953-69: conflict, confrontation, compromise
– 1969-79: rise and fall of détente (international
tension)
– 1979-86: the ‘second cold war’
• Various international crises interspersed
Cold War

• Some civil/regional wars intensified by

superpower rivalry, others
prevented/shortened
• Continuing presence of nuclear weapons
despite the end of cold war
– Contribution to stability vs. arms races
– Key issue was management of nuclear arsenals
– Crisis and brinkmanship in a nuclear world
Post-Cold War Era

• Rise of the term “globalisation”

– Rarely used before 1989, used a lot after
– A contested term
– The current master-discourse of governments
around the world
• Rise of American ‘hyper-power’
– Relatively unanticipated by scholars
– Still viewed world as threatening even with
spread of democracy and globalization
– Searching for a mission?
Post-Cold War Europe

• Europe benefited from end of cold war in spite of

the break-up of former Yugoslavia
• Europeans after the cold war were divided over a
series of key issues, most notably:
– Degree of integration
– Economic strategy
– EU foreign policy
– Transatlantic relations
Post-Cold War Europe

• European Security Strategy (2003)

• Emerging challenges:
– Turkish membership in EU?
– Position of Europe’s Muslims
– China’s economic challenge

‘The future of the EU is hard to predict. Over the next decade it could
undergo a bout of further integration; it could fall apart into
opposing camps of those who would go forward or those who would
go back; or perhaps most likely, it could just muddle through.’ (cited
in The Economist, 17-23 March 2007, ‘Special Report on the
European Union’, p. 20)
Russia after the Cold War

• Yeltsin: sought partnership with West but accused

of not defending Russia’s national interest
• Putin and his successor Medvedev
– More authoritarian domestically
– State control of economic assets
– More nationalist foreign policy
• New cold war? Unlikely
East Asia after the Cold War

• Compared to Europe after WW2, the international

relations of East Asia during the cold war were
highly volatile, marked by revolutionary extremism
(Cambodia), wars (China, Korea and Vietnam) and
insurgencies (the Philippines, Malaya – Malaysia
since 1963 and Indonesia).

• Debate: ripe for rivalry, or primed for peace?

– Many cold war issues unresolved
East Asia after the Cold War

• Reasons for optimism

– Economic growth
– Regional integration
– Continued American presence
– Japan’s peaceful foreign policy

• The open question of ‘rising China’ is challenging

the region and the USA. Will it be a peaceful rise?
The Third War after the Cold War

• Third World largely unstable during cold war

• Tension between economic growth and
inequality’s potential challenge of social stability
(India, China)
• Challenges
– Migration and refugees
– Economic consequences of domestic unrest
– Political violence against the West
The War on Terror

• Sept 11th effectively brought the post-cold War era to

an end and in the process transformed US foreign
policy.
• The war to remove Saddam Hussein was sold as part
of the war or terror; very few analysts saw a
connection between Iraq and 9/11.
• The struggle between extreme jihad and the West
shows no sign of abating.
Questions:

True or False?

1. 'International society' is the merging of distinct political

communities into one.
2. The English school deals primarily with ideas of order
and justice.
3. The evolution of international society can only be
witnessed in Western history.
4. The proxenos was the ancient Greek counterpart to a
modern ambassador.

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Questions:

True or False?

5. The cold war actually facilitated and advanced the

transition to independence in the former colonized
world.
6. The transition from empire was comparatively bloody in
the former British Empire.
7. The most important aspect of the NATO alliance was
the American commitment to the defence of Western
Europe.
8. The START 1 Treaty of 1990 eliminated land-based and
intermediate nuclear weapons.

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Questions:

True or False?

9. The use of ‘cold’ in the term ‘Cold War’ refers to the lack
of war in the Third World from 1945 to 1990.
10. Most experts assumed the cold war would continue
indefinitely.
11. The end of the Cold War marked the achievement of
self-determination for the states of Eastern Europe.
12. One of the major debates today centers around the
exercise of US power in an age of unipolarity and US
hegemony.

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Questions:
Multiple choice:
1. From which writer is the following line taken: "A society of
states…exists when a group of states…form a society in the
sense that they conceive themselves to be bound by a
common set of rules in their relations with one another, and
share in the working of common institutions."?
a. Grotius
b. Thucydides
c. Hedley Bull
d. Machiavelli
2. Ancient Greek institutions that approximated international
society include:
a. amphyctionic Council
b. arbitration
c. proxenia
d. all of the above
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Questions:
Multiple choice:
3. The ancient society to promulgate the idea of ius gentium (law
of nations) is:
a. China
b. India
c. Rome
d. Greece
4. Which movement, led by Martin Luther, helped to bring about
a secular concept of the state?
a. The Respublica Christiana
b. The Counter Reformation
c. The Renaissance
d. The Protestant Reformation

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Questions:
Multiple choice:
5. What is the core value of international society?
a. Political independence
b. Self-determination
c. Sovereign equality
d. Freedom
6. What term best describes the dominance of a particular state
in relation to all other states in the international system?
a. Empire
b. Hegemon
c. Sovereign
d. Suzerain State

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Questions:
Multiple choice:
7. In which region did the cold war have its origins?
a. USSR
b. China
c. Europe
d. USA
8. What is the term used to describe the retreat from empire
throughout most of Asia and Africa after 1945?
a. Decolonization
b. 'Wind of change‘
c. Retro-imperialism
d. Détente

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Questions:
Multiple choice:

9. The First World War:

a. was characterized by trench warfare and attrition.
b. began to end in November 1918 with allied advances.
c. mobilised whole European societies.
d. all of the above.
10. The election of Barack Obama in 2008 occurred during:
a. a time of heightened prosperity for the USA
b. a technological revolution.
c. a time of peace in the Middle East.
d. the worst financial crisis faced by the USA since the 1930s.

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Questions:
Multiple choice:

11. What regional organization emerged in East Asia in 1967?

a. ASEAN
b. NATO
c. The UN
d. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)
12. What term best describes the balance of power in the post-
cold war era?
a. Unipolar
b. Bipolar
c. Multipolar
d. Semi-polar

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