LECTURES

SESSION 8
GLOBAL POLITICS
 THE EMERGENCE OF WORLD POLITICS
 INTERNATIONAL POLITICS PERENIAL IN NATURE
 DATES BACK TO ANCIENT GREECE
 MODERN INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM CAME INTO EXISTENCE IN THE
16TH CENTURY AND WAS COMPLETED BY THE TREATY OF
WESTPHALIA IN 1648
 THE EUROPEAN STATE SYSTEM WAS EXTENDED TO INCLUDE USA
AND JAPAN
 IMPERIALISM GAVE THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM A GLOBAL
DIMENSION
 THE EMERGENCE OF WORLD POLITICS
 WORLD POLITICS BECAME EXTENDED ACROSS THE GLOBE
THROUGH PATTERNS OF CONFLICT AND COOPERATION AMONG
STATES IN THE 20TH CENTURY
 THE PHENOMENON OF GLOBALISATION AT THE CLOSE OF THE
20TH CENTURY RAISED QUESTIONS CONCERNING THE
DISTINCTION BETWEEN DOMESTIC/INTERNATIONAL REALM
 VARIOUS THEORIES HELP US TRULY UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF
WORLD POLITICS
 THEY ARE KNOWN AS THE ‘THEORETICAL SCHOOLS’ OF
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
 IDEALISM
 VIEWS IP FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF MORAL VALUES AND LEGAL
NORMS
 CONCERNED MORE WITH NORMATIVE JUDGEMENTS, RATHER THAN
EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS
 INFLUENCED AND DEVELOPED BY A BROAD RANGE OF IDEALIST
THEORIES
 AQUINA’S ‘JUST WAR’(RIGHT AUTHORITY, JUST CAUSE AND JUST
BELLIGERENCE)
 KANT’S IDEA OF ‘WORLD GOVERNMENT’ AND ‘PERPETUAL PEACE’
(MORALITY AND REASON DICTATE THE END OF WAR)
 MOST FORMS OF IDEALISM ARE UNDERPINNED BY INTERNATIONALISM
OR UNIVERSALISM
 NEO-IDEALISM AND BURTON’S (1972) IDEAS OF A WORLD SOCIETY
 REALISM
 OLDEST THEORY OF IP AND CAN BE TRACED BACK TO
THUCYDIDES, TZU, MACHIAVELLI AND HOBBES
 BECAME DOMINANT IN THE 20TH CENTURY
 GROUNDED IN AN EMPHASIS ON POWER POLITICS AND THE
PURSUIT OF NATIONAL INTEREST
 CENTRAL ASSUMPTION IS THAT STATES ARE THE PRINCIPAL
ACTORS IN IP
 IP CHARACTERISED BY ‘STATE OF NATURE’ AND ANARCHY
 EMPHASIS ON THE ROLE OF POWER
 NEO-REALISM OR STRUCTURAL REALISM
 PLURALISM
 EMERGED IN THE USA AROUND THE 60S
 INFLUENCED BY LIBERAL IDEAS AND VALUES
 EMPHASISES THE DIFFUSION OF POWER AMONG COMPETING
BODIES
 HIGHLIGHTS THE PERMEABILITY OF THE STATE AND CRITICISES
THE STATE-CENTRIC MODEL
 EMPHASIS ON INTERDEPENDENCE AND THE INCREASING
IMPORTANCE OF NON-STATE ACTORS
 REPRESENT A SHIFT AWAY FROM POWER POLITICS
 MARXISM
 PERSPECTIVE SHARPLY DIFFERS WITH CONVENTIONAL
PARADIGMS
 STRESS ON ECONOMIC POWER AND THE ROLE OF
INTERNATIONAL CAPITAL
 FOCUS ON THE HORIZONTAL NATURE OF THE ORGANIZATION OF
STATES
 FOCUS ON THE INTERNATIONAL NATURE OF CAPITALISM
 NEO-MARXISM/GLOBAL CAPITALISM
 THE CORE-PERIPHERY DEBATE
 THE 21ST CENTURY WORLD ORDER
 FROM BIPOLARITY TO UNIPOLARITY
 END OF THE COLD WAR AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON THE
INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM
 BUT…. HOW DID THE COLD WAR START? (ORTHODOX VS REVISONIST
AND POST-REVISIONIST VERSIONS)
 WHO WON THE COLD WAR? (REAGAN’ POLICY, FUKUYAMA’S THESIS
AND WEAKNESS OF THE SOVIET ECONOMY)
 WHAT WERE ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR WORLD ORDER? (USHERED IN A
UNIPOLAR WORLD ORDER OR A NEW WORLD ORDER/DISORDER)
 DISADVANTAGES OF THE UNIPOLAR SYSTEM AND US FOREIGN POLICY
 THE ‘WAR ON TERROR’ AND THE RISE OF
MULTIPOLARITY
 9/11 AND HOW IT CHANGED THE WORLD
 WHAT BROUGHT ABOUT THE ADVENT OF GLOBAL TERRORISM?
 SEE HUNTINGTON (1996)
 COOPER’S (2004) PREMODERN, MODERN AND POSTMODERN
CHALLENGES AND SECURITY THREATS
 DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE ‘ZONE OF SAFETY’ AND THE ‘ZONE OF
DANGER AND CHAOS’
 NEO-CON IDEAS (MILITARY EXPANSION, WILSONIAN
INTERNATIONALISM AND ASSERTIVE INTERVENTION
 THE RISE OF MULTIPOLARITY?
 GLOBALIZATION
 SLIPPERY CONCEPT
 OHMAE (1989) ‘A BORDERLESS WORLD’
 SCHOLTE (2005) LINKS IT TO ‘SUPRATERRITORIALITY’
 DEFINED AS THE ‘ EMERGENCE OF A COMPLEX WEB OF
INTERCONNECTEDNESS THAT MEANS THAT OUR LIVES ARE
INCREASINGLY SHAPED BY EVENTS THAT OCCUR, AND DECISIONS
THAT ARE MADE, AT A GREAT DISTANCE FROM US’ (HEYWOOD,
2007:143)
 GLOBALIZATION COMES IN DISTINCTIVE FORMS: ECONOMIC,
CULTURAL AND POLITICAL.
GLOBALIZATION:THEORIES AND DEBATES
 GLOBALIZATION A CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE
 ITS BENEFITS AND DRAWBACK HAS BEEN THE SUBJECT OF INTENSE
DEBATE
 THE PRO VS ANTI-GLOBALIZATION DEBATE
 DEBATE REVOLVES AROUND CAPITALISM AND THE CHARACTER OF
THE FREE MARKET IDEOLOGY (GLOBALISTS AND THE
OPPONENTS)
 ALSO DEBATE BETWEEN BELIEVERS (HYPERGLOBALISTS) AND
SCEPTICS
 DEBATE ON THE IMPLICATIONS OF GLOBALIZATION
 REGIONALIZATION
 While some view globalisation as biased in favour of cooperation and
harmony, others view it as trends that generate new forms of tension and
conflict…
 With the declining effectiveness of national governments, the tensions are
evident in the growth of regionalisation..
 However, the relationship between these two concepts are unclear…
 Regionalisation may be a step on the road to globalisation…
 On the other hand, it may be a counter the global trend…
REGIONALIZATION
 Regionalization has been fueled by significant strategic and economic
factors…
 Regional defence organisations emerged in the early post 1945 period and
gave expression to the new strategic tensions generated by the cold war…
 End of the cold war led to profound changes in the role and purpose of
nato, for example
 The most significant impetues towards regionalsiation is economic
 Most regonal trading blocs have ben a response to globalisation
 GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
 The classic liberal justification of the state shares the same logic as the
idea of a world government
 But this type of government has at least three major draw backs…
 It can create the prospects of unchecked power…
 Is there any notion of a global citizen…
 Can effective democratic accountability be possible in light of
institutional and geographical limitations..
 However, the two wars and the age of industrial warfare created the need
to establish institutions that could facsilitate international cooperation…
 The earliest experiment is the league of nations and later the UN