CONTEMPORARY WORLD

Topic 2:
THE GLOBAL
INTERSTATE SYSTEM
ATTRIBUTES OF CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL SYSTEM

In this part, the attributes of the contemporary global system,

namely, world politics, the nation-state, internationalism, and
the global interstate system will be discussed.
The goal is to familiarize oneself with concepts that make up
the politics at the international level. Perspectives on the role of
what forms the global politico-interstate system are indicated to
show how scholars take on this globalization aspect differently.
POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION
Political globalization is one dimension of a process that is
multidimensional (not just economic), historical (in millennial
proportions), and transformative (in changing planetary
institutional structures).
THE AMOUNT OF POLITICAL COOPERATION BETWEEN
COUNTRIES.
 FOUR KEY ATTRIBUTES OF WORLD
POLITICS:
a. There are countries or states that are
independent and govern themselves. E.g. the
Philippines is a nation-state, it has a sense of
independence from other nation states, and has
its government (the Republic of the Philippines).
b. These countries interact with each other
through diplomacy. E.g. the Philippines has
international relationships with other countries.
c. There are international organizations, like the United Nations (UN),
that facilitate these interactions. I.e. the UN is the center of global
governance and the Philippines is a member of this international
organization.
d. Beyond simply facilitating meetings between states, international
organizations also take on lives of their own. I.e. the United Nations
has task-specific agencies like the World Health Organization (WHO)
and the International Labor Organization (ILO), aside from being a
meeting ground for presidents and other heads of states.
THE NATION-STATE - The nation-state is a relatively modern
phenomenon in human history, and people did not always organize
themselves as countries. - The nation-state is composed of two non-
interchangeable terms: NOT ALL STATES ARE NATIONS. NOT ALL
NATIONS ARE STATES. E.g. many commentators believe that the
Bangsamoro is a separate nation existing within the Philippines, but
through their elites, recognizes the authority of the Philippine state (this
is a case of states with multiple nations); The nation of Korea is divided
into North and South Korea (this is a case of a single nation with
multiple states).
THE STATE
Refers to a country and its government.
The institution that creates warfare and sets economic
policies for a country. It is also a political unit that has
authority over its affairs.
Independent political communities each of which possesses
a government and asserts sovereignty in relation to a
particular portion of the earth’s surface and a particular
segment of the human population (Bull, 1995 as cited in
Schattle, 2014: 933).
Essential elements of the state:
a. PERMANENT POPULATION – inhabitant of the country, its citizens
b. TERRITORY – total portion of the land governed
c. GOVERNMENT – an entity that regulates relations among its people and with
other states 15
d. SOVEREIGNTY – supreme uncontrollable power of the state over its territory;
refers to internal and external authority
INTERNAL AUTHORITY: no individuals or groups can operate in a given national
territory by ignoring the state. I.e. groups like churches, corporations, and other entities
have to follow the laws of the state where they establish their parishes, offices, or
headquarters.
EXTERNAL AUTHORITY: a state’s policies and procedures are independent of the
intervention of other states. I.e. Russia or Germany cannot pass laws for the
Philippines and vice versa.
States have the following rights:
a. Right to govern its people
b. Right for self-determination
c. Right to impose the country’s policy
d. Right to take over issues in its jurisdiction
THE NATION
“An imagined political community”—imagined as both
inherently limited and sovereign (a conceptual definition
forwarded by Benedict Anderson in his most celebrated work,
Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread
of Nationalism (1983)).
“Imagined” in a sense that the nation allows one to feel a
connection with the community of people even if he/she will
never meet all of them in his/her lifetime. E.g. you know that
you live in a territory with the people in the Visayas or
Mindanao even if you haven’t seen them in person.
The concept emphasized organic ties to hold groups of people
together and inspire the senses of loyalty and belonging
(Schattle, 2014: 933).
Nations are viewed as socially constructed political
communities that hold together citizens across many kinds of
cross-cutting identities: ethnicity, language, religions, and so
forth (Schattle, 2014: 933).
• Nations often limit themselves to people who have
imbibed a particular culture, speak a common language,
and live in a specific territory. o Most nations strive to
become states. Nation-builders can only feel a sense of
fulfillment when the national ideal assumes an
organizational form whose authority and power are
recognized and accepted by “the people”.
• Nationalism
• forms a close relationship between nation and state
because it is the one that facilitates state formation. Most
nation-states are born out of nationalist movements.
• Sovereignty in a state is established because of the
nationalist sentiments for independence (Claudio &
Abinales, 2018: 29).
• INTERNATIONALISM
• Internationalism is born out of the desire for greater
cooperation and unity among states and people, a
system of heightened interaction of various sovereign 16
states(Claudio & Abinales, 2018: 32).
• The principle of internationalism can be divided into two
broad categories: liberal internationalism and socialist
internationalism.
• PERSPECTIVES ON INTERNATIONALISM (Claudio &
Abinales, 2018)

• Immanuel Kant
• German philosopher Immanuel Kant likened the states in a global
system to people living in a given territory.
• Kant argued that without a form of world government, the
international system would be chaotic
• Kant imagined a form of global government where states, like
citizens of countries, must give up some freedoms and establish a
continuously growing state consisting of various nations which will
ultimately include the nations of the world.
Jeremy Bentham
o British philosopher Jeremy Bentham (coined the term
"international" in 1780) advocated the creation of
"international law" that would govern the interstate
relations.
o Bentham believed that objective global legislators
should aim to propose legislation that would create
"the greatest happiness of all nations taken together".
Giuseppe Mazzini
o First to reconcile nationalism with liberal
internationalism.
o He believed that a Republican government (no kings,
queens, and hereditary succession) and proposed a
system of free nations that cooperated to create an
international system.
o Free, independent states would be the basis of an
equally free, cooperative international system, the basis
of global cooperation.
Woodrow Wilson
o Wilson saw nationalism as a prerequisite for
internationalism.
o In his faith in nationalism, he forwarded the principle of
self-determination— the belief that the world’s nations
had a right to free, sovereign government.
o He believed that only by being democratic nations that
they would be able to build a free system of international
relations based on international law and cooperation.
o He advocated for the creation of the League of Nations
Karl Marx
o Marx was an internationalist but he did not believe in
nationalism.
o He believed that any true form of internationalism
should deliberately reject nationalism, which rooted
people in domestic concerns instead of global ones.
o Marx placed a premium on economic equality.
o Marx and Engels opposed nationalism because they
believed it preventing the unification of the world’s
workers.
PERSPECTIVES ON THE RELEVANCE OF THE
NATION-STATE AMID GLOBALIZATION (Benczes,
2014; Steger, 2014):

Different perspectives on the role of nation-states amid

globalization have enriched the study of global politics
and the interstate system. These perspectives are varied
and come from different sociopolitical realities yet offer a
rich understanding of the footing of the nation-state in the
complex process of globalization.
States ceased to exist as primary economic organization
units in the wake of a global market, wherein people have
access to and consume highly standardized global
products and services produced by global corporations
(Ohmae, 1995).
- Globalization transforms the national economy into a
global one where there will be no national products or
technologies, no national corporations, no national
industries (Reich, 1991).
Globalization is redefining the role of the nation-
state as an effective manager of the national
economy. The state as the main shelter from the
perverse effects of a free market economy (Boyer &
Drache, 1996).
- It is misleading to assume that globalization has
relegated the nation-state and its policies to an
obsolete or irrelevant status; governments are
acting as the midwives of globalization (Brodie,
1996).
States are not influenced uniformly by globalization
(Milner & Keohane, 1996).
- Scholars argue for the continued relevance of
conventional political units, operating either in the form
of modern nation-states or global cities (Steger, 2014).
- - Equipped with the power to regulate economic
activities within their sphere of influence, states are far
from being impotent bystanders to the workings of global
forces (Steger, 2014).
To better understand the relationship between
nation-states and globalization processes, you might
want to check this TED Talk:  Do we need Nation
States? | Toni Lane Casserly | TEDxBerlinSalon
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJPE4H_fgBQ)
 EFFECTS OF
GLOBALIZATION
ON THE NATION-STATE
CHALLENGES POSED BY GLOBALIZATION:
1. TRADITIONAL CHALLENGES – external intervention or invasion of another
country
2. CHALLENGES FROM NATIONAL/IDENTITY MOVEMENTS – confront
cultural and/or national identity
3. GLOBAL ECONOMICS – globalization as imposing a forced-choice upon
states: either to conform to free-market principles or run the risk of being left
behind Golden Straitjacket (Thomas Friedman): states are now forced into
policies that suit the preferences of investment houses and corporate
executives who swiftly move money and resources into countries favored as
adaptable to the demands of international business, and withdraw even
more rapidly from countries deemed uncompetitive (Schattle, 2014; 933).
4. GLOBAL SOCIAL MOVEMENTS – human rights advocates, transnational
advocacy networks
Global politics and interstate conditions have their fair
share of positive and negative implications and results,
yet these do not stop nation-states in increasing the
interconnectivity and interrelationship to one another as
the forces of globalization bind them together. The
challenge remains as to how global policies created and
lobbied by interstate agencies with a high participatory
mandate will create a more just globalization process in
all its economic, political, and cultural aspects.
QUIZ ON THE READING MATERIAL

Reading material: Schattle, H. (2014). “Governments and Citizens in a

Globally Interconnected World of States”.
In The SAGE Handbook of Globalization. SAGE Publications Ltd. Pp. 931-
950 [e-copy pagination]
Answer the following questions:
1. What kind of states do we need to handle today’s most pressing
problems?
2. How do nations states remain a relevant factor and actor of
globalization?
3. What are the limitations of transnational networks?
 TOPIC 3:
CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL
GOVERNANCE
Internationalism ideals and interstate relations reconstruct the
world into a borderless one, where ideas, influence, power
relations, institutional affairs, and impacts on human material
conditions meet in complex and intersecting contexts. As nation-
states grew closer to one another in terms of economic, political,
and cultural practices, among others, the global structure of this
interconnectivity and interrelationship is confronted with the
challenge to maintain interstate harmony—therefore, global
harmony—amid individual nation-state interests. This challenge
calls for the formation of a global governance body.
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE DEFINITION
There is no global government yet international transactions
work in order, stability, and predictability. This poses the
question, “how is the world governed even in the absence of a
world government?” For Wiess and Thakur (2014), the answer to
the question lies in global governance. They defined global
governance as “the sum of laws, norms, policies, and institutions
that define, constitute and mediate trans-border relations
between states, cultures, citizens, intergovernmental and non-
governmental organizations and the market—the wielders and
the objects of exercise of the international public power” (Weiss
and Thakur, 2014: 535).
Global governance is further characterized by Weiss & Thakur
(2014):
a. An authority that is constantly shifting and the patchwork of institutional
elements varies by sector.
b. All actors depend upon multilateralism and the underwriting of regularity and
public goods in the international system.
c. If the actors of global governance are to remain viable, international
organizations and the values of multilateralism embedded in them must be
reconstituted in line with 21st -century principles of governance and legitimacy.
d. Global governance actors must be capable of addressing contemporary
challenges effectively.
e. Global governance is a rules-based order without government.
f. Global governance is not a supplement but rather a kind of surrogate for
authority and enforcement for the contemporary world.
The emergence of global governance roots from
(1) the growing recognition of problems that defy
solutions by a single state;
(2) the growth in the numbers and importance of non-
state actors (civil society and market). h. The United
Nations (UN) is both a global governance actor and
site. i. “Good” global governance implies an optimal
partnership between the state, regional, and global
levels of actors and between state,
intergovernmental, and nongovernmental categories
of actors.
SOURCES OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE (Claudio & Abinales,
2018):
1. States sign treaties and form organizations to help in the
process of drafting and legislating public international law
(i.e. international rules that govern interactions between
states). E.g. peace treaties.
2. 2. International Non-government Organizations (NGOs),
though they do not have formal state power, can influence
government or states to behave in a certain way. E.g.
WHO, an international organization under the UN, played a
key role in lobbying guidelines during the COVID-19
pandemic.
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION
International Organizations (IOs) make a big part of global
governance. International Organizations refer to “international
intergovernmental organizations or groups that are primarily
made up of member-states” (Claudio & Abinales, 2018: 40).
United Nations or institutions like the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and World Bank are usually categorized and called
International Organizations (IOs). International organizations are
not a mere amalgamation of various state interests, but IOs can
take on lives of their own—an institution created by man yet can
govern the order and intersecting aspects of human relations
and conditions.
POWERS OF IOs (listed by Michael N. Barnett and
Martha Finnemore in Claudio & Abinales, 2018: 41)

1. Power of classification – IOs can invent and apply

categories, they create powerful global standards.
E.g. they can define what poverty means and through
that, nation-states can determine who the poor in
their demographic are.
Power to fix meanings – a broader function
related to the power of classification; the need
to address here is for concepts such as
“development” to be well- defined. IOs are
viewed as legitimate sources of information by
states, organizations, and individuals.

The meaning they create have effects on

policies. E.g. if an IO defined what it means
when you say development, then states will
pattern its policies to achieve the kind of
development defined by IOs.
Power to diffuse norms – IOs can define
and/or forward accepted codes of
conduct or behavior. IOs also spread
ideas across the world, thereby
establishing global standards. E.g. no
discrimination on employment and
occupation. Norms: accepted codes of
conduct that may not be strict law, but
produce regularities in behavior.
With these powers, IOs can be sources of great good and great
harm (Claudio & Abinales, 2018: 41). As IOs embody global
governance, in addition to the powers they have, the challenge
for the actors that comprise these IOs is to uphold fairness in
their blanket deliberations, policies, and actions that unevenly
affect nation-states engaged in their multilateral bureaucracy
and forum.

Weiss & Thakur (2014) notes that the life and survival of IOs rest
on two factors: (1) the capacity to change and adapt; (2) the
quality of their governance. The capacity to adapt in an ever-
changing international condition and to uphold a premium
quality in their leadership and practice of governance.
THE UNITED NATIONS

When we talk about international organizations and

when we try to identify the realization of the
definition of global governance in our objective
reality, the United Nations(UN) takes the center
stage. Thakur (2011) even dubbed the UN as “both a
global governance actor and site” (as cited in Weiss &
Thakur, 2014: 535). The United Nations is an
international organization that is taking the lead in
facilitating global dialogue to uphold the global
harmony among nation-states and strengthen their
interconnectivity and interrelationship (Schattle,
2014: 938).
CHARACTERIZING THE UN:

1. To date, there are 193 sovereign

member-states. The Philippines
is a member of the UN. Filipino
diplomat Carlos P. Romulo was
elected General Assembly
President from 1949-1950
(Claudio & Abinales, 2014: 42).

2. Six main organs of the UN:

A. GENERAL ASSEMBLY (GA): the main
deliberative, policymaking, and representative
organ of the UN. All 193 member-states of the UN
are represented in the GA—the only UN body with
universal representation. Decisions on important
questions, such as those on peace and security,
admission of new members, and budgetary matters,
require a two-thirds majority of the General
Assembly. The General Assembly, each year,
elects a GA President to serve a one year term of
office.
B. SECURITY COUNCIL (SC): the primary
responsibility is on the maintenance of
international peace and security. It has 15
member-states, 5 permanent with veto
power (China, France, Russia, the United
Kingdom, and the United States) and 10 non-
permanent members. The Security Council
takes the lead in determining the existence of
a threat to the peace or act of aggression.
SC’s presidency is rotational (changes every
month).
C.ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL:
the principal body for coordination,
policy review, policy dialogue and
recommendations on economic, social,
and environmental issues, as well as the
implementation of internationally
agreed development goals. It has 54
Members, elected by the General
Assembly for overlapping three-year
terms. It is the United Nations’ central
platform for reflection, debate, and
innovative thinking on sustainable
development.
D. TRUSTEESHIP COUNCIL: as established in 1945 by
the UN Charter, under Chapter XIII, to provide
international supervision for 11 Trust Territories that
had been placed under the administration of 7
member-states, and ensure that adequate 24 steps
were taken to prepare the Territories for self-
government and independence.

E. INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE: the

principal judicial organ of the UN. The Court’s role is to
settle, following international law, legal disputes
submitted to it by States and to give advisory opinions
on legal questions referred to it by authorized United
Nations organs and specialized agencies.
F. SECRETARIAT: comprises the Secretary-General
and tens of thousands of international UN staff
members who carry out the day-to-day work of the
UN as mandated by the General Assembly and the
Organization's other principal organs.

3. The UN has significant roles in preventing and

managing conflicts, championing human rights and
international humanitarian law, liberating the
colonized, empowering women, educating
children, housing the refugees, liberating the
colonized, and feeding the hungry among other
(Weiss & Thakur, 2014: 535).
The UN provides and manages the
framework for bringing together the
world’s leaders to tackle the pressing
problems of the day for the survival,
development, and welfare of all
peoples, everywhere (Weiss & Thakur,
2014: 538).
THINKPIECE: As we have familiarized ourselves with the
mandate and institutional nature of the United Nations, let’s
take a closer look at its role in the world and in the country.
In your paper,

1. explore the importance of the United Nations for the

global interstate system, why do we need such
international organization; and
2. cite three (3) instances where the United Nations has
helped, influenced, and/or affected the Philippines in any
way (be it in policy making, human rights, calamities and
disasters, and diplomacy). Provide necessary details of
each instance.
ASSESSMENT RUBRICS:
Format: 15%
Citation and ethical integrity: 20%
Sense and clarity of arguments,
data, information, and points: 50%
Writing technicalities (narrative,
grammar): 15%
THANK
YOU!