– Definition nations, nationalism, State

– Definition IR
– Evolution of International System
– Actors and Levels of analysis
– Theories of IR

1
 Chapter One: Understanding International
Relations
1.1. Conceptualizing Nationalism, Nations and States

What is a nation?
 ‘nations are historical entities that evolve organically out of more similar ethnic
communities and they reveal themselves in myths, legends, and songs (Heywood,
2014).
 A nation, in contrast to a state, constitutes a community of people joined by a shared
identity and by common social practices.

2
 A nation, perceives itself to be a distinctive
political community.
 A nation, unlike ethnic groups, has collective
political aspirations.
 These aspirations have traditionally taken the
form of the quest for, or the desire to
maintain, political independence or
statehood.

3
 What is nationalism?
 nationalism is the doctrine that asserts the nation
as the basic political unit in organizing society.
 It has caused the outbreak of revolutions and wars
across the globe.
 It is noted as a factor for the collapse of age old
empires, marker for new borders, a powerful
component for the emergence of new states and it
is used to reshape and reinforce regimes in history.

4
 The revolutions that took place in Britain’s North
American colonies in 1776, and in France in 1789,
provided models for other nationalists to follow.
 Nationalism in the first part of the 19 thC was a liberal
sentiment concerning self-determination
 The idea of self-determination undermined the
political legitimacy of Europe’s empires.
 Everywhere the people demanded the right to rule
themselves/inclusion in the political system .

5
• In 1861 Italy too – long divided into separate
city-states and dominated by the Church-
became a unified country and an independent
nation.
• Yet it was only with the conclusion of the First
World War in 1918 that self-determination was
acknowledged as a right.
• After the First World War most people in
Europe formed their own nation-states.
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 1.2. Understanding International Relations

What is international relations?

 Two ways of defining international relations
A. As a field of study:
• The conventional definition of the field IR is:
– the study of the relations of states, and that those
relations are understood primarily in diplomatic,
military and strategic terms
• International relations as a discipline thus chiefly
concerned with what states do on the world stage
and, in turn, how their actions affect other states.
7
• IR is that branch of Political Science that deals
with interactions between state and non-state
actors in the international system (Goldstein,
2010).

8
• It is thus the field or body of knowledge that
examines the totality of human relations
across national boundaries.
• IR is therefore an expansive field of
knowledge.

9
• IR as a discipline started after the end of WWI at
the University of Wales in 1919.
• Then, it came a distinct department or course
of study.
Why the study of international relations
appeared after the First World War?
• The desire to avoid war in the future after the
First World War determined the initial direction
of the International Relations field of study.
10
B. As an activity/situation
• IR describes the state of interaction between
two or more actors in separate national
boundaries.
• Put differently, it describes the relationships
that take place by members of the
international community.

11
• Describe a range of interactions between people, groups, firms,
associations, parties, nations or states or between these and
(non) governmental international organizations.
• These include all or any aspects of their relationship such as:
 War
 Separation
 Belligerency
 Settlement
 Treaties
 Cooperation
 Organization
 Going on holiday abroad
 Sending international mail
 Buying or selling goods abroad
 International conflict
 Inter-national conferences on global warming
 International crime 12
Participation in international relations or politics
is also inescapable.
No individual, people, nation or state can exist in
splendid isolation or be master of its own fate.
No matter how powerful in military, diplomatic or
economic circles
None can maintain or enhance their rate of social
or economic progress without the contributions of
foreigners or foreign states.
Each state is a minority among humankind.
13
 Legal, political and social differences between
domestic and international politics.
 Domestic-obeyed, sanction, monopoly of force
 International- self-help, no common enforcement.
 Distinction between domestic and international politics
is real but declining
 Domestic incidents can feature very prominently on the
international political agenda.
 And thus lead to foreign policy changes and commitments.
 Example: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and
Avian Flu, Covid19
14
Studying international relations provides the
necessary tools to:
 Analyze events
 Examine the why, where, what and when
 Understand the factors that led to a particular
outcome and the nature of the consequences.
 Gain a deeper comprehension of some of the
problems that policy-makers confront
 Understand the reasoning behind their actions.
15
International politics is also about maintaining
international order.
 Anarchical world
 Political power is not centralized and unequal.
 Multiplication of independent states.
 There is one IO for almost every activity
 Continuing growth of governmental and
international services.
16
 1.3.Evolution of International Relations

• Historians, international lawyers and political philosophers

have written about international politics for many centuries
• Thucydides (c. 460–406 BC), Machiavelli (1469–1527) and
Grotius (1583–1645), for example, may not have taught in
universities, but they wrote about the actors and events that
shaped the ‘international relations’, as we now call it, of their
day.

17
• However, the formal recognition of a separate
discipline of International Relations is
occurred at the end of the First World War
with the establishment of a Chair of
International Relations at the University of
Wales, Aberystwyth 1919.
• It was the inter-war year period and the end of the WWI
give rise to the birth of IR as a field of study.
• Despite its deep intellectual roots, IR is a young
discipline.
• There is general agreement that its institutional growth
in Western universities – notably British and American –
is a twentieth century phenomenon directly connected
to the simple and terrible fact that between 1914 and
1989 the world experienced three terrible and protracted
conflicts:
– the First World War, the Second World War and the Cold War.
• The hugely destructive wars of this ‘bloodiest
era in history’ have been at the heart of IR
since it first emerged as a taught subject after
1918.
• In the aftermath of the firs world war, a new
academic discipline was thought essential,
one devoted to understanding and preventing
international conflict.
• The first scholars in the field, working within universities in the
victorious countries, and particularly in Britain and the United
States, were generally agreed that the following three questions
should guide their new field of inquiry:
1. What were the main causes of the First World War, and what was
it about the old order that led national governments into a war
which resulted in misery for millions?
2. What were the main lessons that could be learned from the First
World War? How could the recurrence of a war of this kind be
prevented?
3. On what basis could a new international order be created, and
how could international institutions, and particularly the League of
Nations, ensure that states complied with its defining principles?
Historical Evolution of International System

• Broadly, the history of international politics

can be divided in two periods
– The Pre- Westphalia period
– The Post-Westphalia period
 Pre-Westphalia international system
• Modern-Nation-state system is emerged after
1648 peace of Westphalia
• However the tradition of IR rooted since the
ancient time, both in theory and practice
• Early Development of International system
– Ancient, GreekGreece700BC -300BC
– Rome Empire (500BC-453AD)
– Ancient China since 221 BC.
– Japan and India
– Ancient Egypt
– Axum(Ethiopia) From 1st
– Arab Empire( 600AD-1200AD)
• the earliest form of state system and today’s most important political
characteristics had been first seen and practiced.
• key modern political characteristics such as territorial state,
sovereignty, nationalism and democracy are typically traced back to
ancient Greece city state system and in other ancient world civilization
 Medieval Period
• During the medieval time there were three
civilizations which influence the international system
– the Arabic civilization which had the largest geographic
expanse, stretching from the Middle East and Persia
through North Africa to the Iberian Peninsula, united under
the religious political domination of the Islamic Caliphate
– the Byzantine Empire located near the core of the old
Roman Empire in Constantinople and united by Christianity
– the rest of Europe, under the authority of the Roman
Catholic Church.
 Emergence of the Westphalia system.

• Western Europe, had been in devastative war for a long year

almost for thirteen years, between the imperial Holy Roman
Catholic Church and nationalistic protestant ethnic group.
• Peace of Westphalia marked the new beginning in
international politics
• Westphalia treaty of 1648, which ended the thirty years
devastative war in Europe, brought a new trend in
international relations.
• It enables various territorial states to be ultimately sovereign
and the primary actors in international relations.
• core developments immediately following the
treaty were:
– treaty of Westphalia embraced the notion of
sovereignty;
– permanent national military
– treaty of Westphalia established a core group of
states that dominate the world until the end of
the 19th c
 The Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries

• sovereign states become much and much stronger as

a remarkable actors in the nature of international
system
• there were at least three major features that come
under in the advent of the 18th & 19th c international
system (Rourk, 2007):
– popular sovereignty
– westernization of the international system
– the multi-polar system
• (Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Prussia, Russia, Ottoman
Turkey and Italy)
 The twentieth century

• Century of Extremes
• that major rapid and dramatic changes occurred in
international system
– change in technology,
– destructive two world wars, and Cold- War
– establishment of international organization (League of
Nations and UN),
– development of major theories in IR,
– emergence of Bipolar world,
– nuclear proliferation
– Globalization and decolonization e.t.c,
• number of population which had been about
1.5 billion, in 1900 reached 7 million by the
end of 20th century.
• creation of air and space travel, innovation of
television, computer, internet, nuclear energy,
missile, effective birth control, antibiotic
Major changes international structure
• The decline of multi-polar system and the
collapse of Europe as a global center
• The rise of Non-European powers
• The Cold War and the Bi-polar system
 The 21st century and the Genesis of New International Order

• US Hegemony
• The weakening of Western orientation of the
international system
– New non-western powers arise: China, India, Brazil,
• Challenges to the Authority of State(state sovereignty):
– Disintegration(internally) integration (externally)
• Challenge to state Security capacity:
• Economic Interdependence
• Economic Disparity between North and South:
• newly emerged issues global issues
 1.4. Actors in International Relations

1.4.1. State Actors

 State actor includes the individual leader as
well as bureaucratic institutions i.e. Foreign
minister.
 The birth of modern stated could be traced
back the 17th C Europe.
 There are five statehood criteria.
 Accordingly, there are no fewer than 195 states

33
States are different in terms of their internal
diversity, wealth, population and geographical
area. These differences have their own impact and
implication on the international relations of states.
• Military power of states- ranges from the
superpower status of the USA with its long-range
missiles and air craft carriers to small entities such
as Bhutan and Nepal.
– Size and quality of the armed force
– Quantity of the weapon
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• Ideological Differences-
– This is especially true during the Cold War era.
• Wealth difference
– Its self-sufficiency
– Its capacity to provide food, clothing, shelter to its people
– Main source of wealth (agrarian/industrial)
• Population Size and growth difference
– China vs. Vanuatu
• Territorial Size difference
– Location, climate, size, landlocked, desert
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International Relations (IR) traditionally focused on
interactions between states.
 But now, all sorts of entities
 Notwithstanding this, all states call themselves
‘sovereign’:
– exclusive right to govern their respective territories
– declaring war, concluding a peace, negotiating a treaty
 Thus still, they remain leading actors in
international politics

36
1.4.2. Non-State Actors
 They are non-sovereign entities participating
in the international relations.
 They participate with sufficient power to
influence/cause change though not belong to
any established institution of a state.
 Global firms, IGOs, NGOs,MNCs,

37
 The majority of global interactions – be they related to
global finance, production, education, personal and
professional travel, labor migration or terrorism – no
longer occur via state channels
 A shift away from the inter-national (‘between-states’)
to the ‘trans-national’ (‘across/beyond-states’ and their
borders).
 ‘International Relations’ is no longer a suitable label
and that we should instead refer to the discipline as
‘Global Studies’ or ‘World Politics’ (Keohane 2016)
38
 Individuals and groups interact across borders
 International commercial aviation and the rapid
spread of information technologies has further
increased people’s mobility and the rate of
interactions occur across and beyond state borders.
 High-speed internet have not only changed lives
at personal and community levels but also
dramatically altered the general dynamics in
politics and global affairs.

39
 Social media provide accessible platforms of
communication that allow for the projection
and promotion of ideas across borders
 Various political agendas: progressive,
revolutionary or outright dangerous
 Political activity and even confrontation
become weightless and immaterial

40
• So, non-state sctors are:
• Individual:
– Desmond tutu- Against apartheid
– Mother Teresa- Charity
– Mahatma Ghandi-
– Nelson Mandela-
• International organizations:
– IGOs
– INGOs
• Multinational corporations
– Toyota
– Sony
– McDonalds
– Coca Cola
• Terrorist organizations
– Al Qaida
– Boko haram
– ISIS
– Al shabab 41
 1.5. Levels of Analysis in International
Relations
• LA are perspectives that deal with the cause of what
makes something happen in international relations.
• Again deal with the origin of that cause.
• Perspectives on IR that suggest possible explanations
to ‘‘why’’ questions.
• Ways of analyzing how foreign policy decisions are
made
• Have you ever thought that a single international
political phenomenon can be analyzed at different
levels?
42
 1.5.1. The individual level
Begins with the view that it is people who make policy.
Every international event is the result of decisions
made by individuals.
Great leaders influence the course f history
Concerns with the perceptions, choices, behaviors,
motivations, beliefs and orientation of the individual
Concerns with the implications of human nature
Psychology and emotions behind people’s actions and
decisions
43
• Idiosyncratic characteristics of leaders:
– Personality
– Physical and mental health
– Ego and ambition
• Accordingly: one may analysis
– WWII- based on the role of Hitler
– End of cold-war- based on the role of Gorbachev
– Ethio-Eritrea war-based on the role of Issayas and
Meles
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1.5.2. The group level
 The role of lobbying groups and the way they
influence national decision-making on an
issue.
 The actions of groups of individuals:
o All voters of a country
o Political parties
o Social movements
o Activist/Pressure groups

45
 1.5.3. The state level
 State remains as the dominant unit of analysis
 This is the ‘state-centrism’ of the discipline
 Point of reference for other types of actors
Why?
 State being the main location of power within the international sphere.
 States form the primary kind of actor in major international
organizations
 They feature prominently in the global discourse on most of the major
challenges of our time
 States still hold the monopoly on violence
 The state as a unit of analysis and frame of reference will certainly not
go away any time soon
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• Internal organization of states is the key to
understand war and peace
• Locates the cause in the in the character of
domestic system of specific states.
• Uses internal defects of a state to explain its
external act.
• Deals with how a country’s political structure and
the political forces and sub-national actors with in
a country influences the foreign policy of its
government.
47
Regime type indicates the way states interact
with other states in the international system.
– Democratic regimes:
• Do not go to war
• Go to war only for just causes
• Encourages mutual trust and respect.
– Authoritarian
• Foreign policy will be centered in a narrow segment of
the government.

48
Each country’s foreign policy tends to reflect its
political culture
 A society’s widely held traditional values and its
fundamental practices that are slow to change.
 Leaders tend to formulate policies that are compatible
with their society’s political culture
 How people feel about themselves and their country,
how they view others, what roles they think their country
should play in the world, and what they see as moral
behaviour.
 Example: American exceptionalism & Sinocentrism.
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Thus, a state level analysis might be interested
to look at any one of the following:
how states interact with each other to deal with the
crisis / their foreign policy
how they build off each other’s suggestions and
react to international developments and trends
how they cooperate, say, in the framework of
international organizations
how we look at them as competitors and antagonists

50
Careful consideration of:
what kinds of states we are looking at (how they
are ordered politically),
 their geographical position,
 their historical ties and experiences, and
their economic standing.

51
 1.5.4. The system level
 Conceive the global system as the structure or context within
which states cooperate, compete and confront each other over
issues of national interest.
 The level above the state
 This level of analysis involves a top down approach to the study
of world politics.
 It examines state behavior by looking at the international system.
 In this level of analysis, the international system is the cause and
state behavior is the effect.
 Changes in international system also causes change in state
behavior

52
 Focus on the external constraints on foreign policy.
 Global circumstances are seen to condition the ability
and opportunity of individual states and groups of
states to pursue their interests in cooperative or
competitive ways
 Balance of power between states and how that
determines what happens in global politics.
 Developments that are even outside the immediate
control of any particular state or group of states: global
economy, transnational terrorism or the internet.
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• The anarchic nature of the international system
– Self-help
– No international 911 to call for help
– This compels states to have military
• Distribution of power amongst states:
– Unipolarity: relative peace
– Bipolarity: conflict/unavoidably worry of one another
– Multipolarity: limited conflict
• Economic pattern:
– Economic interdependence
– Natural location and use
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 1.6. The Structure of International
System
 Political power is usually distributed into three main types of systems namely: (i)
unipolar system, (ii) bipolar system and,(iii) multipolar system.
A. Unipolar system:
 In a unipolar international system, there is one state with the greatest political,
economic, cultural and military power and hence the ability to totally control other
states.
• It is a system dominated by one super power/empire.
• The hegemonic actor prevents or resolves conflicts by serving as “the Police Agent of
the World.”
• The distribution of power is determined by the single super power.
• Power structure is hierarchical in that power is concentrated in the hands of one
powerful nation/empire.
• The hegemon assures international order and stability through punishing violators and
giving rewards to obedient actors.
• No alliances exist because the hierarchy is ruled by one centre of power.
• Example: US after the end of Cold War.

55
B. Bipolar System
 This is a system dominated by two contending super powers which
in turn dominate other states and the international system at large.
 There are two coalitions/alliances formed and headed by the two
super powers.
 Alliances are hierarchically organized with the two powers as the
leaders of their respective alliance.
 There is conflict between the two coalitions/blocs and especially
between the bloc leaders.
 In both bipolar and multipolar systems there is no one single state
with a preponderant power and hence ability to control other states.
 Example: US and USSR during Cold War.

56
C . Multipolar System
• This comprises of four or more powerful actors in the
international system with relative equal political, economic
and military powers.
• There is no significant hierarchy among actors.
• Multipolar configuration reached its climax in 1700s and
1800s
• It lasted from the treaty of Westphalia (1648) to mid-
twentieth century,
• Example: Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary,
Russia and other European countries dominated the globe.
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 Power
 Power is the currency of international politics.
 Power determines the relative influence of actors and it
shapes the structure of the international system
 Power is the blood line of international relations.
 Power can be defined in terms of both relations and
material (capability) aspects.
 The relational power: ‘A’s’ ability to get ‘B’ to do
something it would not otherwise do.
 Example: US vs. Russia
58
 Anarchy
 Absence of authority (government) be it in
national or international/global level systems.
 Power is decentralized and there are no shared
institutions with the right to enforce common rules.
 Everyone looks after themselves.
 States had to rely on their own resources or to
form alliances
 Constant tensions and threats of war
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 Sovereignty: two dimensions
 Internal sovereignty: a state’s ultimate
authority within its territorial entity.
 Independence/freedom in its domestic affairs
 External sovereignty: the state’s involvement
in the international community.
 Autonomy in foreign policy

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 1.7. Theories of International Relations
 1.7.1. Idealism/Liberalism
o Referred to as a ‘utopian’ theory
o From 1919 to the 1930s, the discipline was dominated by what is
conventionally referred to as liberal internationalism
 Human nature:
o View human beings as innately good
o Capable of mutual aid and cooperation
o Bad human behaviour is the product not of evil people but of
institutions
o If properly organized, they could see what they have in common,
put in place laws and rules to reduce conflict and facilitate
cooperation.
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Cooperation/Peace:
o War is unnatural
o War can be eliminated.
o Peace/cooperation is the normal state of affair
o Believe peace and harmony between nations is not only
achievable, but desirable
o Optimistic that world order can be improved, with peace
and progress gradually replacing war.
o There is a greater potential of cooperation among states,
even if the international system is anarchic.
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 International law(IL):
o Liberals also argue that international law offers a
mechanism by which cooperation among states is made
possible.
• IL performs two different functions.
1) To provide mechanism for cross-border interaction,
2) To shape the values and goals these interactions are
pursuing.
o Generally, the purpose of international law is to regulate
the conducts of government and the behaviors of
individuals within states.
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 Democracy and free trade:
o It suggested that ‘the prospects for the elimination of war lay with a preference for
democracy over aristocracy, free trade over autarky, and collective security over
the balance of power system’
 Democracy:
o Wars are created by militaristic and undemocratic governments for their own
vested interests
o Democracy breaks the power of ruling elites and curb their propensity for violence.
o Kant states that shared liberal values should have no reason for going to war
against one another.
o Liberal states are ruled by their citizens and citizens are rarely disposed to desire
war.
o Democratic peace theory, which posits that democracies do not go to war with
each other.
o Mutual trust and respect.

64
Free trade:
- Encourage international friendship and
understanding
- Create mutual interdependence and thereby
reduce conflict
- Economic interdependence makes conflict/war
threatening to each side’s prosperity

65
 International organization:
o War and injustice are international problems that require
collective/multi-lateral efforts.
o Woodrow Wilson, following World War I, in his famous ‘fourteen
points’ speech, argued that ‘a general association of nations must be
formed’ to preserve the coming peace.
o This resulted in the establishment of League of Nations in 1919.
o League of Nations would be the guarantor of international order and
would be the organ through which states could settle their difference
through arbitration.
o League collapsed due to the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.
o Thus, liberalism failed to retain a strong hold and a new theory
emerged to explain the continuing presence of war.

66
 1.7.2. Realism
 Liberal internationalist ideals seemed, at the outset of the
1930s and ultimately the outbreak of the Second World War,
futile and utopian.
 The ‘idealism’ of the interwar period was henceforth to be
replaced by realism.
 Realism locates its roots further back, citing Thucydides,
Machiavelli and Hobbes.
 Realism in the modern sense arose as a critique to liberalism.
 And, realism gained momentum during the Second World War

67
 E.H. Carr’s ‘Twenty Years’ crisis’, published in 1939.
 He presented the fact-value distinction, which separates the ‘what
is’ from the ‘what ought to be’
 Hans Morgenthau: ‘Politics among Nations’ (1948)
 For him, there are objective laws which have universal applicability,
‘international politics, like all politics, is a struggle for power’.
 According to him theories of international relations must be
consistent with the facts.
 Morgenthau, like other realists, hence assumes a clear separation of
fact and value, of theory and practice.
 By the late 1950s and into the 1960s we see a discipline dominated
by realist conceptions of international relations

68
 Human nature:
• Man is flawed and therefore prone to conflict.
• This explains why cooperation is never guaranteed and world
government is unachievable.
• Conflict and are rooted in human nature.
• They believe conflict is unavoidable and perpetual and so war is
common and inherent to humankind.
• They claim individuals act in their own self –interests.
• Stress human nature as the factor that shapes world politics.
• Human nature is immutable.
• Thus, little hope for progress in international relations.
• State, like human beings, has an innate desire to dominate others, which
led them to fight wars.
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 International system
• International system is ‘anarchic’.
• World is made up of states that exist in an environment of
anarchy.
• World is a dangerous jungle full of predators.
• ‘No one to call’ in an international emergency helps
• Therefore, states can ultimately only rely on themselves.
• States should rely on their own means of security, i.e.,
power.
• This is related with the bad nature of human beings.
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Power:
 The primary task of states is to promoting their
national interests:
 IN is whatever that enhances or preserves a
state’s security, its influence, and its military
and economic power.
 Power is the key to national survival in a
country-eat-country world.
 “Might makes right”
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 Realists, therefore, are bold to state that stability can
be achieved, if states accumulate more power or
build their capability.
 The best way to maintain the peace is to be
powerful: “peace through strength.”
 It is necessary for a country to be armed as the world
dangerous.
 States have to be ready for war, in order to maintain
peace.
 Unbalanced power is dangerous
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 Balance of power:
o Countries should practice balance-of-power politics.
o This is to achieve an equilibrium of power in the
world in order to prevent any other country or
coalition of countries from dominating the system.
o This can be done through:
 Building up your own strength
 Allying yourself with others
 Dividing your opponents

73
 Scepticism about IOs, IL, principles, morality,...
 Rules are for weak
 IOs and ILs have no power/force
 Moral concerns should not guide foreign policy
 Morality must be weighed prudently against NI
 Political actions must be inspired by the moral principle
of national survival.
 The highest moral duty of a state is to do good for its
citizens.
 “Do good if the price is low”.
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Kenneth Waltz’s ‘Man, the state and War’ (1959)
o He focuses on the international system itself and
seeks to provide a structuralist account of its
dynamics and the constraints it imposes on state
behaviour
o For Waltz, the international system is anarchical
o And hence perpetually threatening and conflictual.

75
• Waltz and his followers conceived of international
politics as a struggle for power, wealth, or security.
• And thus the anarchic structure of the international
system was the most important determinant of state
behaviour.
• Put differently, states’ fear for survival is not rooted in
human nature, as classical realists believed, but has its
origins in the institutional configuration of the
international system.
• Waltz argues “International anarchy is the
permissive/underlying cause of war.”
76
• Neo-realists have little room in the world for
cooperation than realists.
• When cooperation does occur, power relationships
are at work within the cooperative arrangements.
• The more powerful states take larger share of any
joint share (relative gains) that flows from the
cooperation.
Both liberalism and realism consider the state to be
the dominant actor in IR, although liberalism does
add a role for non-state actors such as Ios.
77
 1.7.3. Structuralism/Marxism
• Marx began with belief that free market system was an
aberration and has to be destroyed by revolution.
• Capitalism is the central cause of international conflict.
• For Marx, capitalism is characterized by two major divisions
within society: the ‘bourgeoisie’ and the ‘proletariat’.
• Actors of International Relations are the classes.
• Classes are more important than society and states.
• There is nothing as such like national interest.
• But states reflect the interests of the dominant/rich class.

78
• The role of the state-States as “Executive Committee of the
Ruling (Corporate) Class,” doing the bidding of
corporations.
• Ensuring overall stability of global capitalist economy as
the roles of the state.
• International cooperation among the working
class/proletariat will eventually bring about a just and fair
international system where everyone equally benefits.
• There could not be peace in the world unless the proletariat
class wages proletarian internationalism and seizes power.

79
• There is no anarchy; rather there is hierarchy in
international system.
• This is to mean that some states (dominant classes
within them) dominant other states and peoples of
the world.
• States are unfinished but categorized into different
classes that also dominate the international system.
• Economic power is the most crucial power to
dominate others.

80
 Emerged as a critique of both realism and pluralism
 Concentrated on the inequalities that exist within the
international system
 In equalities of wealth between the rich ‘North’ or the
‘First World’ and the poor ‘South’ or the ‘Third World’.
 Focused on dependency, exploitation and the
international division of labor which relegated the vast
majority of the global population to the extremes of
poverty, often with the complicities of elite groups
within these societies.

81
 As many in this tradition argued, most states were
not free.
 Were subjugated by the political, ideological and
social consequences of economic forces.
 The basis of such manifest inequality was the
capitalist structure of the international system
 Creates center-periphery relations
 Networks of economic interdependence viewed as
the basis of inequality, the debt burden, violence and
instability.
82
1.7.4. Constructivism
o One of the most popular approaches in 1990s and 2000s
o The three main proponents: Kratochwil, Onuf, and Wendt.
o A “social theory of international politics” that
emphasizes the social construction of world affairs
o The major thesis of constructivism is that the
international system is “socially constructed”.
o It considers international politics as a sphere of
interaction which is shaped by the actors’ identities and
practices and influenced by constantly changing
normative institutional structures.
o Actors are intrinsically “social” beings whose identities
and interests are the products of inter-subjective social
structures. 83
ACTORS AND STRUCTURES ARE
MUTUALLY CONSTITUTED
• This implies that structures influence agents
and that agents influence structures.
• Agents (individuals, groups, states) create
structures (rules, IOs and images), which
reciprocally impact the agents’ action.
• Meaning, agents and structures are co-
constituted through reciprocal interaction.

84
• The social relation of enmity between US and
North Korea represents the intersubjective
structure (that is, the shared ideas and beliefs
among both states).
• U.S and North Korea are actors who have the
capacity to change or reinforce the existing
structure or social relationship of enmity.
• This change or reinforcement ultimately depends
on the belief and ideas held by both states.
• If these beliefs and ideas change, the social
relationship can change to one of friendship.

85
CONSTRUCTIVISM AND ANARCHY
• For neorealists: “anarchy” is a determining
condition of international system that by itself:
– Makes competition and conflict endless strong
possibilities
– Makes the International System (IS) a more
conflictual than a peaceful environment.
• But, for constructivists anarchy alone does not
make much sense as it cannot by itself bring about
a predetermined state of affairs among state actors.
• Rather, we can have different social structures
and arrangements under anarchy: cooperative or
conflictual.
86
• Anarchy is indeterminate.
• Anarchy is neither necessarily conflictual nor
cooperative.
• As Wendt puts it, “anarchy is what states make of it”.
• If states show a conflictual behavior towards each other, the
“nature” of international anarchy appears to be conflictual.
• If they behave cooperatively towards one another, anarchy
appears to be cooperative.
• Therefore, there is no pre-given “nature” to international
anarchy.
• It is the states themselves that determine anarchy’s
nature.
• Thus, to understand conflict and cooperation in
international politics, we must focus upon what states do
• What states do depends on what their identities and 87
interests are, and identities and interests change.
• Identities and interests in international politics are not
stable – they have no pre-given nature
• Anarchy has no a fixed/constant nature.
• It varies as the identities and interests of states are
changed.
• Identities and preferences of international actors are
shaped by the social structures that are not fixed or
unchanging.
• Gives due emphasis to social relationships in the
international system.
 The essence of international relations exists in the
interactions between people.
 IR is, then, a never-ending journey of change
chronicling the accumulation of the accepted norms of
the past and the emerging norms of the future. 88
IDENTITIES AND INTERESTS IN WORLD
POLITICS
• Identities are necessary, in international politics
and domestic society alike, in order to ensure at
least some minimal level of predictability and
order.
• A world without identities is a world of chaos, a
world of pervasive and irremediable
uncertainty, a world much more dangerous
than anarchy.
• Identities perform three necessary functions in a
society:
– they tell you and others who you are and 89
• The identity of a state implies its preferences
and consequent actions.
• Example: the identity of a small state implies a
set of interests that are different from those
implied by the identity of a larger state.
• Small states may more focus on its survival
whereas the larger state is concerned with
dominating global political, economic and
military affairs.
• A state understands others according to the
identity it attributes to them, while
simultaneously reproducing its own identity
through daily social practice. 90
• The crucial observation here is that the producer of
the identity is not in control of what it ultimately
means to others.
• The intersubjective structure is the final arbiter
of meaning.
• Example: Soviet Union
• Soviet control over its own identity was
structurally constrained not only by East
European understanding, but also by daily
Soviet practice.
• Unlike neoreaism, constructivism assumes that the
selves, or identities, of states are a variable; they
likely depend on historical, cultural, political, and
social context. 91
• Our identities – who we are – change, as do
our interests – what is important to us.
• We are not exactly who we were yesterday,
and we are unlikely to be exactly the same
tomorrow.
• Thus, identities and interests in international
politics are not stable – they have no pre-
given nature.

92
THE POWER OF PRACTICE
• Power is a central element for both mainstream and
constructivist approaches
• However, their conceptualizations of power are vastly
different.
• For neorelism and neoliberalsm material power
(military/economic or both) is the single most
important source of influence and authority in global
politics.
• For constructivists, both material and discursive
power are necessary for any understanding of world
affairs.
• They believe in the power of discourse: knowledge,
ideas, culture, ideology, and language.
• Powers is more than brute force. 93
• Actors are capable of constructing and
reproducing the political world not just by their
military actions but also through their discourses.
• The key is the way we communicate (speak and
write) and think about the world.
• Language calls things into existence.
• Examined the role of “language,” “speech,”
and “argument” as a key mechanism of social
construction.
• Nicholas Onuf argues that “talking is
undoubtedly the most important way that we
go about making the world what it is”
• “Language makes us who we are” 94
• The power of social practices lies in their
capacity to reproduce the intersubjective
meanings that constitute social structures and
actors alike.
• The U.S military intervention: great power,
imperialist, enemy, ally, and so on.
• Social practices not only reproduce actors
through identity, but also reproduce an
intersubjective social structure through
social practices.
• Social practice has the capacity to produce
predictability and order.
95
THE ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL
INSTITUTIONS
• Some constructivist scholars have focused on
“the role of international organizations in
disseminating new international norms and
models of political organization”
• International organizations do produce and
promote new norms, and even “teach” states.
• International institution plays a socializing role.
• They are important venue for socialization.

96
• According to constructivists, international
institutions have both regulative and constitutive
functions.
• Institutions embody the constitutive and regulative
norms and rules of international interaction; as such,
they shape, constrain, and give meaning to state
action and in part define what it is to be a state.
• There is a connection between normative changes
and state identity and interests.
• At the same time, however, institutions themselves
are constantly reproduced and, potentially, changed
by the activities of states and other actors.
• Institutions and actors are mutually conditioning
entities. 97
 1.7.5. Critical Theories
 Critical approaches refer to a wide spectrum of theories
that have been established in response to mainstream
approaches in the field, mainly liberalism and realism.
 Has become influential in international theory since early
1980s
 Share one particular trait- – they oppose commonly held
assumptions in the field of IR that have been central since
its establishment.
 Influential figures: Andrew Linklater and Robert Cox
 Critical theories are valuable:
– Because they identify positions that have typically been ignored
or overlooked within IR.
– They also provide a voice to individuals who have frequently
been marginalized, particularly women and those from the
Global South. 98
• CT sought to inquire into the possibilities of
transforming IRs in order to remove
unnecessary constraints on achieving
universal freedom and equality.
• It intends to analyze and overcome the social
structure which result in abuses.
• IRs should be oriented by an emancipatory
politics.
• The desire ‘to lend a voice to suffering’ and
to ‘abolish existing misery’ should stand at
the center of political analysis.
99
• Concerned with all the features of
domination.
• Critical of the main forms of exclusion in
world history (national, racial, gender, etc.)
• An attempt to make their history under
conditions of their choosing.
• Removal of domination, promotion of global
freedom, justice, equality are the driving
forces of CT.
• The aim of CT is to advance human
emancipation.
100
 Critical theorists who take a Marxist angle:
– Are against the internationalization of the state
as the standard operating principle of international
relations
– B/c this led ordinary people around the globe
becoming divided and alienated, instead of
recognizing what they all have in common as a
global proletariat.
– To address this, the legitimacy of the state must
be questioned and ultimately dissolved.
– Emancipation from the state in some form is
often part of the wider critical agenda.

101
 Post-colonialism differs from Marxism by
focusing on the inequality between nations
or regions, as opposed to classes.
– This approach acknowledges that politics is not
limited to one area or region and that it is vital to
include the voices of individuals from other parts
of the world.
– Focuses on including the viewpoints of those from
the Global South to ensure that Western scholars
no longer spoke on their behalf.
– Postcolonial scholars are, therefore, important
contributors to the field as they widen the focus of
enquiry beyond IR’s traditionally ‘Western’
mindset. 102
 Marxists would argue that:
– Any international body, including the UN,
works to promote the interests of the
business class.
– After all, the UN is composed of states who
are the chief protagonists in global capitalism.
– The UN, then, is not an organization that
offers any hope of real emancipation for
citizens.
– UN legitimizes a system of perpetual state-
led exploitation.

103
 Post-colonialists would argue that:
– The discourse perpetuated by the UN is one
based on cultural, national or religious
privilege.
– They would suggest, for instance, that, as it
has no African or Latin American permanent
members, the Security Council fails to
represent the current state of the world.
– The presence of former colonial powers on
the Security Council perpetuates a form of
continued indirect colonial exploitation of the
Global South.
104
Chapter Two: Understanding Foreign Policy and Diplomacy

• The making of foreign policy begins by identifying the

state’s key national interests.
• The total task of foreign policy is to defend national
interests.
 2.1. Defining National Interest
• It refers to set of values, orientation, goals and objectives a
given country would like to achieve in its international
relations.
• It involves core values of a society in the form of security,
welfare, protection of national way of life, maintaining
territorial integrity, and self- preservation.
• It is the totality of goals and objectives of a state.
• The sum of the goals and objectives of a state’s foreign 105
 Determines the contents of foreign policy.
 For Plato, the good of the polis (that is the
public good) could best be arrived at by
philosopher king aided by a few highly learned,
detached and fair-minded advisors.
 Plato’s ideas have been used as the inspiration
for dictatorial forms of government.
 Implemented effectively by loyal, well trained,
and obedient bureaucracies.
106
 Colmbis has provided a multiplicity of criteria used in
defining/determining national interest
1) Operational Philosophy: two major style of operation
 Synoptic orientation:
 Act in a bold and sweeping fashion.
 Introduce major new practices, policies, and institutions
and discontinue others.
 Some confidence that its consequence can be predicted or
controlled.
 Incremental orientation:
 Act in caution, probing, and experimental fashion,
following the trial and error approach.
 Assumes that political and economic problems are too
complex
 Seeks to perfect existing legislations, policies, institutions
and practices. 107
2) Ideological Criteria:
 Identify their friends or enemies countries using
the litmus test of ideology. i.e. Cold war
 National interest may be shaped by underlying
ideological orientations of the regime in power.
3) Moral and Legal Criteria:
 Acting morally : keeping your promise –treaties,
avoiding exploitation and uneven development
between the developing countries and the
developed ones. Acting honestly.
 Acting legally: abiding by the rules of
international law. If there are lacunas, than you
act in a general sprit of equity and justice. 108
3) Pragmatic Criteria:
 Your orientation is matter of fact, not on
emotions and professions
 By observing issues around you and the world
rationally, prudently.
 Scientific analysis of cost and benefit or merit
and demerit
 Decisions are made without considering
normative issues
 Practical utility than morality and personal
sentiments
109
4) Professional Advancement Criteria:
 Your action may be manipulated and adjusted in
consideration of your professional survival and
growth (personal success)
 “Play the game” and “not to rock the boat.”
 “Go along to get along”
 Conformist behavior
5) Partisan Criteria:
 To equate the survival and the success of your political
party, or ethnic or religious origin with the survival
and success of your country.
 To equate the interest of your organization (the army,
the foreign office, and so forth) with the national
interest. 110
6) Foreign Dependency Criteria:
 Less developing countries dependent on foreign
countries for technical aid, expertise, technology,
sometimes even for their security and survival.
 Hence, face difficulties to defend and promote
their national interest.
 National interest appears to be a product of
conflicting wills, ambitions, motivations, needs,
and demands.
111
Realist international scholars reject the ideological, legal
and moral criteria to define and shape the contents of
national interest.
 They prioritize pragmatic criteria when defining national
interest and employing foreign policy.
 NI is ensuring survival and security of a state.
 Power is a means for achieving and promoting the interest of
state.
 Fail to recognize and prescribe solutions for addressing global
problems because of the exclusive emphasis given to state and
national interest.
 State-centric particularism.
112
Idealists have strong belief in the
relevance of legal, ideological and moral
elements
Specific actions and objective of foreign
policy have often been derived from general
moral and legal guidelines and principles.
Idealists believe on the prevalence of
common problems of human beings
Cognizant of such cross-cutting issues,
idealists call for global solutions than local
(national) solutions.
New institutions with global orientation 113
2.2. Understanding Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Behaviors

2. 2.1. Defining Foreign Policy

 FP refers to the sets of objectives and instruments
that a state adopts to guide its relation with the
outside world.
 It involves the general purposes and specific
strategies a state employs to achieve or promote its
national interest.
 FP is “the set of priorities and percepts established
by national leaders to serve as guidelines for
choosing among various courses of action in
specific situations in international affairs” 114
 These objectives, visions and goals state aspire to achieve is commonly
referred as NI.
 Morgenthau suggests that the minimum goal a state would like to
achieve is survival.
 Every state should protect their physical, political, and cultural
identities
 Foreign policy also involves specific instruments and tactics that
must be employed to realize those objectives and goals.
 i.e. diplomatic bargaining, economic instruments, propaganda,
terrorism (sabotage), and use of force (war).
 Each instrument is used to affect the behaviors of other states, and has
an element of power.
 Diplomacy has less element of power.
115
2.2.2. Foreign Policy Objectives
Criteria to classify FPOs
1. The value placed on the objective
2. The time element placed on its achievement
3. The kind of demands the objective imposes
on other states in international system.

116
A. Core Interests and Values (Short-Range Objectives)
 To which states commit their very existence and that must be
preserved or extended at all time
 Kinds of goals for which most people are willing to make
ultimate sacrifices.
 States are ready to go to war when all these objectives are
threatened because these are not negotiable or compromising.
 Usually stated in the form of basic principles of foreign policy
 Become article of faith that society accepts without
questioning it.
 Sacrosanct by entire peoples residing in the state.
 Related to the self preservation of political and economic
systems, the people and its culture, and the territorial
integrity of a state.
 Short-range objectives because other goals cannot be realized
if the existence of the state and its political units are not
117
ensured.
 The exact definition of core value or interest in any given
country depends on the attitudes of those who make
foreign policy.
 Extraterritoriality is there when the national interest and
claims of a country is projected beyond the limit of its
geographic boundary.
 States may think that their national interest is at risk when
the interests and security of citizens, or kin ethnic or
religious groups living in the neighboring states and other
states are threatened.
 Nevertheless, the most essential objective of any foreign
policy, core interests and values, is to ensure the
sovereignty and independence of the home territory and to
perpetuate a particular political, social, and economic
systems based on that territory
118
2. Middle-Range Objectives
 These are less important and less immediate relatively
compared to core objectives.
 Unlike, the short range objective, the middle range objectives
drastically varies across states.
 Due to the difference in the level of economic and technological
progress, as well as the military capability
 To take a course of actions that have the highest impact on the
domestic economic and welfare needs and expectation of its
people.
 To provide the people jobs, income, recreation, medical
services, and general security
 To meet economic-betterment demands and needs
 No self-reliant state
 Trade, foreign aid, access to communication facilities, sources
of supply, and foreign market are for most states necessary for
increasing social welfare 119
• Are policies designed to enhance the state’s
international prestige.
• This is often done through:
– diplomatic activity,
– participation in international cultural or
technological exchange programmes, or
– displays of one’s military capabilities
• Mid-term interests in short include fulfilling
material needs, economic needs, prestige of
the nation, scientific and technological
advancement and so forth.

120
3. Long- Range Objectives
• These are the least immediate ones to policy makers.
• Universal long range goals-which seldom have
definite time limits.
• Those plans, dreams, and visions concerning the
ultimate political or ideological organization of the
international system
• Their purpose is no less than to reconstruct an
entire international system according to a
universally applicable plan or vision
• Leaders rarely place the highest value on long range
goals.
• It’s very much dependent on the capability and
ideology of the state. 121
• They may have international repercussions
as far as they are complemented by the
capabilities and powers
• Otherwise, they will not have any international
significance beyond paper consumption and
rhetoric level.
• This, however, doesn’t necessarily imply that
weak states do not formulate long range
objective.
• Every country has its own visions and
ambition proportional to its relative strength
and capabilities to be realized in the long run.
122
Examples:
• Hitler’s Thousand Years Reich
• Japan’s Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
• The Soviet vision of world-wide communist
revolution
• U.S. efforts to make the world safe for democracy

123
2.2.3. Foreign Policy Behavior: Patterns
and Trends
 Foreign policy behavior refers to the actions
states take towards each other.
 Double standards and inconsistencies in the
records of all countries
 Arnold Wolfers: three possible patterns of FPB
(1) self-preservation (maintaining the status quo)
(2) self-extension (revising the status quo in one’s
own favor)
(3) self-abnegation (revising the status quo in some
else’s favor)
124
 Self-preservation: US
 Following WWII emerged as one of the strongest actors.
 IMF, World Bank, GATT/WTO ……..shaped by US
 United Nations……………Veto Power
 After the collapse of USSR……….sole world power
 Self-extension: China, India, Brazil, Germany, BRICS
 Competing to restructure the international institutions and
different regime so as to create enabling environment to
promote their national interest
 Self-abnegation: weak states/ LDC
 States which fail to defend and promote their national
interests in their external relations.
 States that are weak and very much dependent on foreign
aid are profoundly caught with many problems in order to
pursue an autonomous policy.
 They compromise their long lasting national interest for
temporary and immediate benefits.
125
2.2.4. Foreign Policy Dimensions: Alignment,
Scope and Modus operandi
• The analysis of foreign policy behavior can also
be done along a number of specific dimensions.
Alignment
 A country’s alignment behavior can vary from
time to time.
 Alliances: are formal agreements to provide
mutual military assistance. Most common during
the Cold War era.
 Pool their military resources
 Access to foreign bases
 But, interference by allies 126
 Neutrality: is a stance of formal non partisanship in world
affairs.
 Do not usually form military alliance and do not help states in times of
war.
 They may not also offer their territory for the passage of especially
military goods of another state.
 May avoid potential enemies and counter alliances.
 But, may lack protective military umbrella
 Nonalignment has been the foreign policy pattern of most
developing state during cold war.
 They called for a new foreign policy path/choice/ to be followed
disregarding both the West and East bloc politics and alliances.
 NAM had noble agenda that called for the South-South cooperation.
 They do not form military alliance with other states.
 Do not commit themselves militarily to support other state/states.
 A state with non-alignment policy may give different diplomatic
support for blocs/alliances or for states in a fight
127
 Scope
 Based on the scope of a country’s activities and interests abroad: at least
three patterns of foreign policy behaviors.
 Global actors:
 Major Powers in international relations have historically been those
that have defined their interest in global terms
 Interacting regularly with countries in nearly every region of the world.
 Regional actors:
 Most countries in the world are essentially regional actors
 Interacting primarily with neighboring states in the same
geographical area.
 Isolationists:
 Key weakness or geographic remoteness
 In an age of interdependence, isolationism becomes an increasingly
less viable foreign policy orientation.
 This was the case with Burma in 1960 and 70s.
 Some of the known global actors such as United States of America,
China, and the ex-USSR all have passed period of relative isolationism
and of mainly regional interests, finally branching out in to global
128
concerns
 Mode of Operation/ “Modus Opernadi’
 Multilateralist:
 Rely on multilateral institutions to address different issues.
 Through diplomatic forums in which several states participate i.e.
UN
 Most developing countries…b/c it enhances collective barraging
power of these countries vis-a-vis other developed countries.
 In addition, bilateral relations- country to country approaches-
(establishing Embassies and assigning diplomatic staffs) are often
found to be costly.
 Regardless of the power and capability question, countries may opt
to use multilateral frameworks as the best strategy to address issues
with the spirit of cooperation and peace.
 i.e. Germany, Scandinavian countries
 Unilateralist:
 Still others very much rely on unilateral means
 They play the carrot and stick diplomacy
 Intervention, threat of use of force and some time, use of force 129
 2.2.5. Instruments of Foreign Policy
1) Diplomacy
• A system of structured communication between two or more
parties.
• To pursue their objectives in a peaceful manner
• The essence of diplomacy remains bargaining.
• Bargaining can be defined as a means of settling differences over
priorities between contestants through an exchange of proposals
for mutually acceptable solutions.
• Commonalities of modern diplomacy such as embassies,
international law and professional diplomatic services.
• Promote exchanges that enhance trade, culture, wealth and
knowledge.
• Diplomacy is an essential tool required to operate successfully in
today’s international system.
130
• Types of deplomacy:
– Multilateral diplomacy
– Public diplomacy
– Leader-to-leader (summitry diplomacy)
• Conducted for the most part between states.
• The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic
Relations (1961) – only references states as
diplomatic actors.
• Yet, the modern international system also
involves powerful actors that are not states.
• Like IGOs and INGOs
131
 Rules of Effective Diplomacy
A. Be realistic: goals that much your ability
B. Be careful about what you say
C. Seek common ground: concession/flexibility
D. Understand the other side:
E. Be patient
F. Leave avenues of retreat open
 In general, states use “carrot and stick” approaches
relying on diplomatic tactics such as threats,
punishment, promise, and rewards.
132
2. Economic Instruments of Foreign Policy
 There hardly exists a state that is self sufficient
 There is a considerable degree of dependence up
on trade among states.
 But the degree of dependence and
interdependence varies across states.
 Some states are strong and capable as compared
to other states.
 These states often uses their economic muscle to
influence the behavior (action, perception and
role) of others.
133
A. Tariff: taxing products coming into a country
B. Quota: sell only a certain amount in a given
time period
C. Boycott: eliminating import
D. Embargo: eliminating export
E. Loans, Credits and Currency
Manipulations:
F. Foreign Aid: military, technical, grants and
commodity
134
3. Propaganda
• Propaganda is systematic attempt to affect the minds,
emotions, and actions of a given group for public purposes.
• It is an organized effort by governments to convince foreign
states to accept policies favorable to them.
• The great bulk of the propaganda messages put out by a state
aims at creating a favorable view of a state by other states.
• Is an attempt primarily to influence another state/s through
emotional techniques rather than logical discussion or
presentation of empirical evidence.
• It is therefore a process of appealing to emotions rather than
minds by creating fear, doubt, sympathy, anger, or a variety
of other feelings.
• Using the media, magazines, newspaper, television, the
internet and other means.
135
4. The Use of Force/War
• The vast majority of international affairs are
conducted through diplomacy.
• But still force remains the most important
instrument.
• The use of military force to resolve differences
between two or more states is the last resort
states use as an instrument.
• This implies that the goals of the warring states
are irreconcilable.
• While diplomacy is ongoing, military strength
may be useful to support diplomacy.
136
 2.3. Overview of Foreign Policy of Ethiopia
 2.3.1. Foreign Policy during Tewodros II (1855-1868)
– Before him there was only a sporadic and spasmodic foreign relations.
– Brought bold and original ideas about the foreign relations of his country
– The first leader who tried to develop a dynamic foreign policy that reached
out beyond the Horn Region.
– The forerunner of the policies of his successors.
 His major foreign policy objectives were:
1) To re-unify the old state:
 He defeated all minor kings fighting for the control of the throne.
 He wanted to create a united and strong Ethiopia
 But only partially succeeded.
2) To consolidate his power:
 To defeat internal contenders/regional powers and re-unify the
state.
 He was predominantly concerned with establishing control over
the peripheral parts of his fragile empire. 137
3) To protect the territorial integrity of the state
 To defend the country against the threat of foreign expansionists
 To check the Turko-Egyptian imperialism that threatened his
country’s independence.
 He was a realist and nationalist leader with along-term foreign
policy strategy to protect the country from external threat.
 Accordingly, he tried to procure the much needed firearms and
ammunitions to equip his army.
 Moreover, he required Europeans to send him artisans to produce
military weapon for him at home
4) To make his country to be recognized as equal with European
powers
 His FP and diplomatic dealings were based on the principles of
sovereignty and reciprocity
 He sought the Western Christian world to recognize and respect his
country.
 Took desperate measures by taking hostage of several British
missionaries including the consul. 138
5) Modernization
 Had passionate demand for modern technology and skilled
man power.
 He demanded to improve internal system for modernization
and renewal
 The development of the country
 He sought the Western Christian world to help him to
modernize his country
 To procure the much inspired technical aid to modernize
his country
 Directed his FP towards utilizing systematically the
knowledge of Europeans so as to modernize the country.
 Hence, he introduced the idea of modernity and modern
army at the time.
139
Foreign policy strategies:
A. Friendship and alliance with foreign
Christian powers:
 Attempted to establish his diplomatic relations
to fight his immediate enemies claiming
Christianity as instrument of foreign policy.
 As Keller has put it “he appealed specifically
to Britain, France and Russia as Christian
nations to assist him in whatever ways
possible in his fight against the Turks,
Egyptians and Islam”.
140
2.3.2. Foreign Policy during Yohannes IV (1872-
1889)
FP Objectives:
1) Consolidating his power at home
• He had to firmly establish himself against the strong
regional rivals (like King Menelik of Shoa)
• Friends were sought to help consolidate his power to
overcome domestic challenges.
2) To have free access to the sea:
• Friends were sought to help have free access to the sea.
• Massawa was under the control of Italy with the
support of Britain, which had a control over part of
Eritrea.

141
3) To defend the country’s sovereignty/territorial
integrity
 Egypt tried to put a serious security threat ….to
control the source of Blue Nile: Gundet (1875) and
Gura (1876)
 Sudanese Mahdists were challenging Ethiopia from
the west..battle of Matama in 1889.
 In addition, the emperor saw European expansionism
as greater threat to the survival of the country.
 Britain also continued assisting Egypt to make an all-
out war against Ethiopia.
 Italy got a foot hold at the port of Massawa in 1885.
 The emperor died fighting with the “Mahadists”.
142
 Foreign policy strategy: Cultivating the foreign
relationship with Europe
 Yohannes considered Islam as a threat to the territorial
integrity of the polity.
 He followed patient diplomacy
 Used prudence in his dealings with foreign powers.
 He was willing to negotiate even with his enemies (Egypt,
Britain) that had imperial aspirations over the HoA, Ethiopia.
 He adopted an “open-door policy” for desirable influences
of European Christian powers.
 He turned to France.
 He asked France for recognition of his country’s
independence, himself as a sovereign power, and to be his
patron/ally.
143
 2.3.3. Foreign Policy during Menelik II (1889-93)
 Menelik was the King of Shoa region before his coronation as
the King of Kings of Ethiopia.
FP Objectives:
1) Access to the sea
 Expanded his sphere of influence towards the far South and
East incorporating new areas and communities peacefully or
otherwise.
 The southward expansionism policy of the King was mainly
targeted to have access to Sea Port, Zeila
 B/c the country’s access to the sea in the North had fallen
under Italy’s influence since the mid 1880s
 And the issue of outlet to the sea remained the burning
question determining its policy and role in the region.
 Agreement with France in 1897 recognizing Djibouti as
official outlet to Ethiopia. 144
2)Maintain the territorial integrity of his country:
 Italy continued to be the main challenge in the North.
 The King saw the other colonial powers
surrounding all four corners of the country as the
scramble of Africa was heightened.
 The emperor followed double track diplomacy to
contain or reverse Italy’s expansion and maintain the
territorial integrity of his country.
 He entered many treaties and agreements to solve the
challenge amicably.
 The emperor was preparing himself by accumulating
military ammunitions to defend the aggression from any
side of colonial powers

145
 The emperor’s diplomatic endeavor with Italy
failed to result in peace due to Italy’s
misinterpretation of the controversial article 17
of the ‘Wuchalle’ treaty.
 In 1896, the emperor declared nation-wide
war against Italy in defense of the territorial
integrity and sovereignty of the century.
 Adwa victory
 Ethiopia’s foreign policy of the forth coming
rulers has significantly been informed by the
notion of territorial integrity of the country.
146
 FP strategies: diplomacy
 He had diplomatic relations with external powers.
 This helped him import military equipments from
France, Britain and Russia for Adwa incident
 This diplomatic relation had radically increased
following the victory of Adwa
 This enhanced Ethiopia's international image.
 Britain, France, Russia and the vanquished Italy came
to Menelik’s Palace to arrange formal exchange of
Ambassadors.
 These powers signed formal boundary treaties with
the emperor.
147
 2.3.4. Foreign Policy during Emperor Haile Selassie I
(1916-1974)
FP Objectives:
1) The political independence/ territorial integrity of his
country:
 Italian invasion
2) Political /power consolidations:
 To build his power
 To ensure his survival at home
 There were internal forces challenging the regime
3) The creation of a stronger, centralized and bureaucratic
empire:
 He was dedicated to the creation of a stronger, centralized
and bureaucratic empire
 With unquestioned respect by the international community148
FP Strategies: Diplomacy
 Peaceful-coexistence and strong defense system
 In spite of repeated provocations from neighboring
countries, especially from Somalia, the emperor
succeeded in preventing his military force from
adopting aggressive stance to them
 Preferred to live peacefully with neighbors though
the latter supported internal rebels (i.e. ELF)
 Also believed in maintaining strong military
establishment for defense
 Had a military regarded as the best in black Africa.
 The emperor reiterated that the country’s
preparedness was to preserve peace not for
aggression. 149
Collective security: LN, UN
 Ethiopia’s membership in the League of Nations was
clearly instigated by the ever present danger of
invasion by Italians.
 The Emperor fled to London and established a
government in exile.
 Journeyed to Geneva to make a plea before the
League of Nations for aid in defense to the country.
 The collective security system, the League ultimately
failed to take any substantive measure against Italy
and the plea of the King was ignored.
 The King continued to believe in the ultimate value
of effective diplomacy.
150
 Recognized Ethiopia’s need for a powerful
external patron until he could restore the
independence of his country. ….Britain.
 Ethiopia was extremely dependent on British
military, economic and technical aid.
 The Emperor feared that Britain might either
declare Ethiopia a protectorate or as an
occupied enemy territory.
 This fear moved him to seek alternative
relationships ….USA
 Through diplomacy, Haile Selassie was able to
regain complete administrative control over
the territory he claimed and more by 1954. 151
 In 1952 a U.N. resolution had made possible a
federation between Ethiopia and the former Italian
colony of Eritrea.
 In 1962 the emperor made it a province.
 United States had coveted a base in Eritrea where it
could set up a radio tracking station.
 Haile Selasie viewed the use of such an installation by
the United States as having more benefits than costs
 Military aid, Military Assistance Advisory Group (training),
 Consolidated his military capacity and political power
 Decisive to ensure his survival at home and maintain the
territorial integrity of the country.
 He effectively used military action against those riots and
rebellions
 Contributed to the expansion of Ethiopian military as a hedge
against the Somalia threats. 152
 Ethiopia also played significant role in Africa
in fighting for African independence and to end
colonialism and apartheid.
 In the United Nations, Ethiopia played its part
in raising agendas and pressing for resolutions
against colonialism
 Ethiopia also played a significant role in
maintaining international peace and security
(Sudan, Korea, Congo)
 Generally, the emperor secured the territorial
integrity of the country and also secured port
through Eritrea
153
Non-alignment :
– Ethiopia kept her options open in her relations
with others
– Maintained cordial relations with the two mutually
hostile blocs.
– Successful in diversifying his dependence on
foreign nations and securing assistances:
technology, money, expertise.
– He got as cordial and warm receptions in Moscow
or Peking as he had in Washington or London.

154
 2.3.5. Foreign Policy during the Military
Government (1974—1991)
 The primary objectives of the foreign policy were:
1) The survival of the regime
– The defense and legitimacy of the regime, so that it can
continue in power and be accepted at home and abroad.
– To firmly establish its authority and create internal
political stability
2) Maintaining the territorial integrity of the country.
– A threat from Somalia
– National security
– In order to guarantee territorial integrity and national unity
3) A restructured Ethiopian society
– Creating a framework for socialist development
155
 Foreign policy strategies:
 The major strategy to achieve the stated objectives heavily focused
on building the military capability of the country (force).
 The country was very much dependent on economic and military aid
on the others (socialists)
 Adopted a foreign policy largely oriented to socialist ideology.
 Thus, had a strong relation with Soviet Union, South Yemen, North
Korea, Cuba
 Massive inflow of armaments
 Somalia (Ogaden war 1977-78), WSLF, Eritrea (EPLF), TPLF
and other internal forces
 But, economically the regime was dependent on the West.
 Loans from EC, IMF, WB.....
 Like the Imperial regime, Derg attempted to play off a multiplicity
of donors against one another to maximize its benefit.

156
 Apart from socialism, Ethiopia’s strategic locations
and other questions, such as; Eritrea, Somalia, and
the issue of the Nile, had also shaped the foreign
policy orientation and behavior of military
government.
 With regard to Africa’s broader issues of
decolonization and anti-Apartheid struggle,
Ethiopia played significant role.
 The regime had extended its military and technical
support to Freedom fighters in Angola and Rhodesia.
 The regime had also showed its solidarity to
Palestine’s cause by condemning Israel and sought
political allegiance with the Arab world, however the
negative perception that most Arab countries have
157
towards Ethiopia remained unchanged.
2.3.6. The Foreign Policy of Ethiopia in the Post 1991
FP Objectives:
With EPRDF’s ascent to power the country adopted a new foreign policy
orientation and objectives.
1) To ensure the survival of the multi-national state.
– The territorial integrity and independence of the country
– Eliminating or at least reducing external security threats.
– To create a regional and global atmosphere conducive for the country’s
peace and security.
2) To create favorable external environment to achieve rapid economic
development and build up democratic system.
– Failure to realize development and democracy has resulted in the threat to
the country’s security.
– To get considerable technical and financial support to build and
strengthen institutions of democratic governance, so crucial for the
growth of democracy.
– So democracy and development are the foreign policy visions of the
country. 158
Strategies:
• The primary strategy in realization of these goals is to
put the focus on domestic issues first.
• Addressing domestic political and economic problems.
• This strategy is called an “inside-out” approach.
• The inside out approach would then help to reduce the
countries vulnerability to threat.
• Economic diplomacy is adopted to strengthen the
domestic efforts in fighting poverty and backwardness
and address the issues of development.
• Economic diplomacy involves attracting foreign
investments, seeking markets for Ethiopian exportable
commodities, seeking aid and confessional loans too.
159
• The Security and Foreign Policy of the country also
indicated that Ethiopia would adopt a kind of East-
look policy.
• To learn from Singapore, Malaysian and Indonesia
• The other foreign policy strategy is building up the
military capability of the country.
• Building up military capability would have a
deterrence effect.
• Though strategies may sometimes differ the primary
foreign policy objective of all the three regimes
remained the maintenance of the territorial
integrity and independence of the country.

160
 Chapter Three: International Political Economy (IPE)

3.1. Meaning and Nature of International Political Economy

(IPE)
• The term ‘political economy’ implies that the disciplinary
separation of ‘politics’ from ‘economics’ is ultimately
unsustainable.
• Political factors are crucial in determining economic
outcomes, and economic factors are crucial in determining
political outcomes.
• In short, there is no escaping political economy.
• IPE is the study of how economic interests and political
processes interact to shape government policies.
• International Political economy (IPE) is a field of inquiry that
studies the ever-changing relationships between governments,
businesses, and social forces across history and in different
geographical areas.
161
• The field thus consists of two central dimensions namely: the
political and economic dimension.
• A political dimension accounts for the use of power by a
variety of actors (state and non-state)
• Another aspect of politics is the kind of public and private
institutions that have the authority to pursue different goals.
• The economic dimension, on the other hand, deals with how
scarce resources are distributed among individuals, groups,
and nation-states.
• The market can also be thought of as a driving force that shapes
human behavior.
• However, in what ways are politics and economics
intertwined? How are ‘the political’ and ‘the economic’
linked?
• These questions take us to a variety of perspectives and
approaches. 162
3.2. Theoretical perspectives of International Political Economy

• There are three major theoretical (often ideological)

perspectives regarding the nature and functioning of
the International Political economy
A) Mercantilism/nationalism:
• Also known as economic nationalism
• Mercantilism is the oldest of the three, dating back
as early as the 16th century (perhaps even earlier).
• Was most influential in Europe from the fifteenth
century to the late seventeenth century.
• Friedrich List (1789–1846) …… the intellectual
father of the mercantilist thought. 163
 State-centric approaches to political
economy.
• An economic philosophy that takes the
state to be the most significant economic
actor, highlighting the extent to which
economic relations are determined by
political power.
• Defends a strong and pervasive role of the
state in the economy – both in domestic and
international trade, investment and finance.
• Mercantilist states are highly
interventionist.
164
 National power and wealth were tightly connected
– National/state power in the international state system derived
in large part from wealth
– Wealth in turn is required to accumulate power.
– Economic strength is a critical component of national
power.
– For mercantilists, the world is a tough, unforgiving place,
where only the strong survive.
– Is most closely associated with the political philosophy of
realism, which focuses on state efforts to accumulate wealth
and power to protect society from physical harm or the
influence of other states.
– Thus states must pursue a set of economic policies designed
to maximize their own wealth, for wealth and power go
together like bread and butter.
– Their primary goal is the maximisation of power and they
see economic activity as a vehicle for achieving this end. 165
 Intends to build up a state’s wealth, power and prestige by developing a
favourable trading balance through producing goods for export while keeping
imports low.
– Trade provided one way for countries to acquire wealth from abroad (Thomas
Oatley).
– Wealth could be acquired through trade, however, only if the country ran a
positive balance of trade, that is, if the country sold more goods to foreigners
than it purchased from foreigners.
– The chief device for doing this was protectionism.
– Import restrictions such as quotas and tariffs, designed to protect domestic
producers
– To protect ‘infant’ industries and weaker economies from ‘unfair’ competition
from stronger economies. (defensive mercantilism)
– To strengthen the national economy in order to provide the basis for
expansionism and war. (offensive mercantilism)
– Strongly concerned with developing a country’s domestic manufacturing
capacity
– Grant subsidies to domestic industries.
– Emphasizes the importance of balance-of-payment surpluses in trade with
other countries
– And, to this end it often promotes an extreme policy of autarky to promote 166
national economic self-sufficiency.
 Argued that some types of economic activity are more
valuable than others.
– Manufacturing activities should be promoted while
agriculture and other non-manufacturing activities
should be discouraged.
– Defends a much more sophisticated and interventionist
role of the state in the economy-for example, the role of
identifying and developing strategic and targeted
industries (i.e. industries considered vital to long-term
economic growth) through a variety of means, including:
• Tax policy
• Subsidization,
• Banking regulation,
• Labor control, and
• Interest-rate management.
167
 States should also play a disciplinary role in
the economy to ensure adequate levels of
competition.
• Found in the recent experience of the
Japanese, South Korean, Taiwanese and
Chinese national political economies
• Instead of the term mercantilism, however,
these states the East Asian economies
(especially Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan)
used the term ‘developmental state
approach’.
168
B) Liberalism:
• Emerged in Britain during the 18th C to challenge the
dominance of mercantilism.
• Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776), rightly famous
liberal text, set out explicitly to demonstrate that
mercantilism was flawed.
• Among other criticisms of mercantilism, Smith suggested
that it was inefficient for a state to produce a product that
could be produced more cheaply elsewhere.
• Later this would become the basis for David Ricardo’s
theory of comparative advantage and the doctrine of
free trade.

169
 Defends the idea of free market system.
 A market, in the most general sense, is any place where the
sellers of a particular good or service can meet with the
buyers of that good or service to conduct an exchange or
transaction.
 Free-market is therefore a market conditioned on voluntary
and unrestricted exchanges.
 Hence, liberalism favours, inter alia, free trade/trade
liberalization and free financial and Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) flows).
 Has a policy of laissez-faire, in which the state leaves the
economy alone and the market is left to manage itself.
 Economic exchange via the market is therefore a positive-
sum game, in that greater efficiency produces economic
growth and benefits everyone.
170
Removing impediments (barriers) to the free
flow of goods and services among countries is the
foundational value and principle of liberalism.
• Advocates argue that this reduces prices, raises
the standard of living for more people, makes a
wider variety of products available, and
contributes to improvements in the quality of
goods and services.
• Besides, removal of barriers would encourage
countries to specialize in producing certain goods,
thereby contributing to the optimum utilization of
resources such as land, labor, capital, and
entrepreneurial ability worldwide.
171
• Unlike mercantilism, liberalism argues that countries are not
necessarily made wealthier by producing manufactured goods
rather than primary commodities.
• Instead, countries are made wealthier by making products that
they can produce at relatively lower cost at home and trading
them for good that can be produced at home only at relatively
high cost.
• Thus, government should make little effort to shape the types
of goods the country produces.
• Government efforts to allocate resources will only reduce
national welfare.
• The concept that captures this idea is comparative advantage.
• However, the growth of (MNCs) complicates global trading.
• And, shifting the conventional theory of comparative advantage
to what is known as competitive advantage.
• As a result, governments continue to engage in protectionism.
172
Countries do not enrich themselves by
running trade surpluses.
– Instead countries gain from trade regardless of
whether the balance of trade is positive or
negative.
– Thus, government should make little effort to
influence the country’s trade balance.

173
Limited role of state/government:
– Establishing clear rights of ownership of
properties and resources
– Enforcing (the judicial system) these rights and
the contracts that transfer ownership from one
individual to another.
– Resolving market failures

174
C) Marxism:
• Originated in the work of Karl Marx as a critique of
capitalism.
• According to him capitalism is characterized by two
central conditions: the private ownership of the means of
production, or capital, and wage labor.
• He believed that capitalist society was increasingly divided
into ‘two great classes’, the bourgeoisie and the
proletariat.
• The relationship between these classes is one of
irreconcilable antagonism, the proletariat being
necessarily and systematically exploited by the
bourgeoisie, the ‘ruling class’.
• Portrays capitalism as a system of class exploitation and
treats social classes as the key economic actors. 175
• Capitalism’s quest for profit can only be
satisfied through the extraction of surplus
value from its workers, by paying them less
than the value their labour generates.
• By paying workers subsistence wage, they
retain the rest as profits to finance additional
investments.
• He argued the growing inequality between a
small wealthy capitalist elite and a growing
number of impoverished workers would
eventually cause revolutions to overthrow
capitalism altogether.
176
 In contrast to liberalism, Marxists argue that capitalists
(not market) decide about how society’s resources are
used.
• Capitalists control resource allocation.
• Decisions about what to produce are made by few firms
that control the necessary investment capital.
• State plays no autonomous role in the capitalist system
• The state operates as an agent of the capitalist class.
• The state enacts policies that reinforce capitalism and thus
the capitalists’ control of resource allocation.
 Thus, in contrast to the mercantilists who focus on the
state and the liberals who focus on the market, Marxists
focus on large corporations as the key actor that
determines how resources are to be used.
177
The belief about Marxism’s death (following the
collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990’s ) is
greatly exaggerated.
– Global and national income inequality, for example, remains
extreme:
• the richest 20 percent of the world’s population controlled 83 percent of the
world’s income, while the poorest 20 percent controlled just 1.0 percent;
– Exploitation of labor shows no sign of lessening;
– The problem of child labor and even child slave labor has
become endemic and so on and so forth.
• These reflect the inherent instability and volatility
of a global capitalist system that has become
increasingly reliant on financial speculation for
profit making.

178
 Three contemporary theories of IPE
A) Hegemonic Stability Theory (HST):
• The theory of hegemonic stability got its start in the 1970s
with the work of Charles Kindleberger, (1973), who
focused on the reasons for the Great Depression.
• A hybrid theory containing elements of mercantilism,
liberalism, and even Marxism.
• The basic argument of HST is simple: the root cause of the
economic troubles that bedeviled Europe and much of the
world in the Great Depression of the 1920s and 1930s was
the absence of a benevolent hegemon.
• A dominant state willing and able to take responsibility (in
the sense of acting as an international lender of last resort
as well as a consumer of last resort)for the smooth
operation of the International (economic) system as a whole.
179
 More specifically, as a lender of last resort, the hegemon
provides access to loans (especially long-term loans) when
the normal flow of international lending has dried up.
• This is also referred to as counter-cyclical lending.
• Counter-cyclical lending, in turn, is critical to the
maintenance of currency convertibility, which refers to
the ease with which a country’s domestic currency can be
converted into gold or a hard currency.
• When a currency becomes relatively inconvertible, trade in
goods tends to decrease, since many countries are
unwilling to accept the inconvertible currency as payment
• After all, if currency (from Country A) cannot be converted
into gold or, say, U.S. dollars, then the only way it can be
used is to buy goods from Country A.

180
 International trade is also negatively impacted if there is
no consumer of last resort.
• In this case, as the consumer of last resort, the hegemon
maintains an open market, and encourages other
countries to follow suit.
• If the hegemon or potential hegemon closes or restricts
access to its market, as the United States did in 1930 with
the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, the effects on
international trade are usually disastrous.
• The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act had particularly damaging
effects because of the asymmetrical (economic) power of
the U.S.: as the dominant economy in the world, the U.S.
decision to erect higher protectionist barriers
essentially gave the green light to all other countries to do
the same.
181
 The existence of a hegemon does not prevent
economic shocks and downturns from taking place.
• Instead, it plays a central role in ensuring that such
events do not devolve into full-blown economic
crises or depressions.
• The world economic system was unstable unless
some country stabilized it, as Britain had done in the
nineteenth century and up to 1913.
• In 1929, the British couldn't and the United States
wouldn't.
• When every country turned to protect its national
private interest, the world public interest went down
the drain, and with it the private interests of all.
182
 HST has thus influenced the establishment of the Bretton Woods institutions
(IMF and WB)- both being the products of American power and influence.
• Fortunately, by the end of the 1940s, the United States
had become willing to shoulder much more of the burden for maintaining
global monetary stabilization.
• American hegemony was exercised in three ways:
• First, the United States itself maintained a relatively open market, giving
rebuilding economies a place to sell their goods.
• Second, the United States provided significant long-term loans; initially, this
was through the Marshall Plan and related programs and later funding went
through the reopened New York capital market.
• Third, “a liberal lending policy was eventually established for provision of
shorter term funds in times of crisis”
• U.S. policymakers did not necessarily intend to take on a hegemonic role, but
once that happened, “they soon came to welcome it for reasons that were a
mixture of altruism and self-interest”

183
B) Structuralism
Is a variant of the Marxist perspective.
Starts analysis from a practical diagnosis of
the specific structural problems of the
international liberal capitalist economic system
whose main feature is centre-periphery
(dependency) relationship between the Global
North and the Global South which
permanently resulted in an “unequal (trade
and investment) exchange.”

184
The perspective is also known as the
‘Prebisch-Singer thesis’ (named after its Latin
American proponents Presbisch and Singer)
The Prebisch-Singer hypothesis presents a
challenge to the fundamental finding of the
Ricardian model, to the idea that countries
that
specialise in the production of the good in
which they have a comparative advantage
will experience an improvement in the terms
of trade.

185
 The centre refers to the industrialised countries and
the periphery to the developing countries.
• The centre produces sophisticated manufactured
goods while the periphery specialises in the
production of primary products.
• The products produced face differing elasticities of
demand.
• Primary products are price and income inelastic,
while manufactures have a high income elasticity of
demand.
• The gains from trade will continue to be distributed
unequally (and, some would add, unfairly) between
nations exporting mainly primary products and those
exporting mainly manufactures.
186
It advocates for a new pattern of development
based on industrialization via import
substitution based on protectionist policies.
• Prescribe import substitution
industrialization through suspension of free
play of international market forces.
• During the 1950s, this Latin American model
spread to other countries in Asia and Africa
• Then the domestic promotion of
manufacturing over agricultural and other
types of primary production became a central
objective in many development plans.
187
C) Developmental State Approach
• Realizing the failure of neo-liberal development paradigm
(in the 1980’s) in solving economic problems in developing
countries, various writers suggested the developmental state
development paradigm as an alternative development
paradigm.
• Is a variant of mercantilism and it advocates for the robust
role of the state in the process of structural transformation.
• The term developmental state thus refers to a state that
intervenes and guides the direction and pace of economic
development.
• Advocates a state-directed lead to achieve remarkable
economic growth.

188
Some of the core features of developmental
state include:
 Strong interventionism
 Existence of bureaucratic apparatus
 Existence of active participation and response
of the private sector
 Regime legitimacy built on development
results
East Asian economies
– Japan, Singapore, China, South Korea, and Taiwan

189
190
 3.3. Survey of the Most Influential National Political Economy
systems in the world

3.3.1. The American System of Market-Oriented Capitalism

• The primary purpose of economic activity is to benefit
consumers while maximizing wealth creation; the
distribution of that wealth is of secondary importance.
• Does approach the neoclassical model of a competitive
market economy
• The economy is assumed to be open to the outside world.
• the American economy is appropriately characterized as a
system of managerial capitalism.

191
• New Deal of the 1930s
• The neoclassical laissez-faire ideal was diluted by the
notion that the federal government had a responsibility
to promote economic equity and social welfare.
• The economic ideal of a self-regulating economy was
further undermined by passage of the Full Employment
Act
• A significant retreat from this commitment began with
the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan and the triumph of a
more conservative economic ideology emphasizing free
and unregulated markets.
192
• The role of the American government in the economy is
determined not only by the influence of the neoclassical model
on American economic thinking but also by fundamental
features of the American political system.
• The United States in the 1980s took a major step toward
establishing a national industrial policy.
• Industrial policy refers to deliberate efforts by a government to
determine the structure of the economy through such devices
as financial subsidies, trade protection, or government
procurement.
• Such policies have developed in the areas of agriculture,
national security, and research and development.
193
3.3.2. The Japanese System of Developmental Capitalism
• At the end of World War II, Japanese set their sights on
making vanquished Japan into the economic and
technological equal, and perhaps even the superior, of
the West.
• At the opening of the twenty-first century, this objective
has remained the driving force of Japanese society.
• Since its disastrous defeat in World War II, Japan has
abandoned militarism and has focused on becoming a
powerful industrial and technological nation

194
• A national economic policy best characterized as neo-
mercantilism: it involves state assistance, regulation, and
protection of specific industrial sectors in order to increase
their international competitiveness and attain the
“commanding heights” of the global economy.
• This powerful economic drive emanated from:
• Japan’s experience as a late developer and also from its
strong sense of economic and political vulnerability.
• The Japanese people’s overwhelming belief in their
uniqueness, in the superiority of their culture, and in their
manifest destiny to become a great power.
195
• The term “developmental state capitalism” best captures the
essence of the system
• The state assumed a central role in national economic
development and in the competition with the West.
• Pursued rapid industrialization through a strategy employing
trade protection, export-led growth, and other policies
• Industrial policy has been the most remarkable aspect of the
Japanese system of political economy.
• Support for favored industries, especially for high-tech
industries, through trade protection, generous subsidies, and
other means.
• The “infant industry” protection system
196
3.3.3. The German System of Social Market Capitalism
• Some similar characteristics with the American and the
Japanese, but it is quite different from both in other ways.
• Germany, like Japan, emphasizes exports and national
savings and investment more than consumption.
• However, Germany permits the market to function with
considerable freedom.
• The nongovernmental sector of the German economy is
highly oligopolistic and is dominated by alliances between
major corporations and large private banks.

197
• The German state and the private sector provide a
highly developed system of social welfare.
• The German state and the private sector provide a
highly developed system of social welfare.
• Indeed, the Bundesbank did create the stable
macroeconomic environment and low interest rates
that have provided vital support to the postwar
competitive success of German industry
• The German government has not also intervened
significantly in the economy to shape its structure
198
• Since the early 1990s, state owned sectors
have increasingly been privatized.
• The German political economy system is thus
closer to the American market-oriented
system than to the Japanese system of
collective capitalism.

199
3.3.4. Differences among National Political
Economy Systems

t
din en
rea end
g
ep
Ind

200
 3.4. Core Issues, Governing institutions and
Governance of International Political Economy
3.4.1. International Trade and the WTO
 What is trade?
– Exchange of a good or service for another: Barter trade
– Exchange of money for goods and services: Currently, dominant mode
– Might be domestic or international trade.
 What is International Trade?
– In cross-border trade the exchange of goods and services is mediated by at
least two different national governments,
– Each of which has its own set of interests and concerns,
– Each of which exercises (sovereign) authority and control over its national
borders.
– Despite the long history of trade, it is important to recognize that the scope
and scale of cross-border trade is, today, immensely greater than at any
other time in human history.
201
 Why International Trade?
The five basic reasons why trade may take place
between countries are:
– Differences in Technology
– Differences in Resource Endowments
– Differences in Demand
– Existence of Economies of Scale in Production
– Existence of Government Policies
How is international/global trade governed?
Global/Regional Free Trade Agreements govern it.
i.e. WTO, NAFTA….
How does this work?
202
 WTO:
• It is the successor of GATT, which was established in 1947 as part of the
recommendations of the meeting at Bretton Woods in 1944 to mitigate the
major international problems.
• The GATT was established alongside the other Bretton Woods institutions.
• The GATT was meant as a prelude to the creation of an International Trade
Organization (ITO), which was never established because it ran into severe
political opposition, especially in the United States.
• The GATT was an agreement, not an organization—the countries participating
in the agreement were officially designated as “contracting parties,” not
members.
• The GATT was expressly intended to bring about a “substantial reduction of
tariffs and other trade barriers and the elimination of preferences, on a
reciprocal and mutually advantageous basis”
• The GATT established to avoid the kind of competitive protectionism that
had plagued international trade before WWII.
• The GATT was set up to break down discriminatory trade practices.
• The GATT succeeded in liberalizing international trade, primarily through
tariff concessions.
203
 GATT transformed into WTO in 1995
• Based in Geneva.
• Is an international organization which sets the rules for
global trade.
• The only international organization dealing with global
rules of trade between nations.
• Its main function is to ensure that trade flows as
smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.
• The WTO has not only continued the work of the GATT,
but has also created a much stronger basis for trust
building and cooperation.
• One of the main developments in this regard is the Dispute
Settlement Panel (DSP), which has the power to resolve
trade disputes between and among member countries.
204
 Generally:
– Serves as a rule-making organization,
– Monitors trade agreements,
– Adjudicates trade disputes between member states, and
– Facilitates trade talks.
• Has more than 150 members.
• Voting in WTO is equally counted unlike IMF, WB
• All decisions are taken unanimously
• But, the major economic powers such as the US, EU and Japan
have managed to use the WTO to frame rules of trade to advance
their own interests.

205
NAFTA: U.S., Canada, and Mexico
 “free trade” was initially meant a lesser degree of
governmental constraints in cross-border trade
 but not an elimination of government action.
 The tariffs were eliminated by mutual agreement in 2008
 Both Mexico and the U.S. also agreed that “import-
sensitive sectors” could be protected.
 In other words, the notion of free trade in NAFTA had
and still have significant element of protectionist
/mercantilist policies
 Tariff: tax
 Non-tariff barriers: import ban; import quota; domestic health,
safety, and environmental regulations; technical standards;
inspection requirements.

206
3.4.2. International Investment and the WB
 What is investment?
• FDI is, in the most general terms, investment made in a
company or entity based in one country by a company or firm
based in another country.
• A more specific definition is provided by the World Bank,
which defines FDI as follows: “the net inflows of investment
to acquire a lasting management interest (10 percent or more
of voting stock) in an enterprise operating in an economy other
than that of the investor’’
• The transfer of capital, personnel, know-how, and
technology from one country to another for the purpose of
establishing or acquiring income-generating assets.
• FDI occurs when a firm based in one county builds a new plan
or a factory in a second country or purchases an existing one.
 According to Thomas Oatley (???), firms have engaged in 207
FDI to achieve one of the three basic objectives:
• Firms have invested across national borders to gain secure access
to natural resources.
– For example oil companies have invested heavily in Middle
Eastern countries because they hold such a large proportion of
the world’s petroleum reserves.
• Firms also invest across borders to gain secure access to foreign
markets.
– Because of tariff and nontariff barriers to export to important
foreign markets.
– To produce and sell in the local market.
• MNCs make cross-border investments to improve the efficiency of
their operations.
– Parent firms allocate different elements of the production
process to different parts of the world.
– The capital-intensive part to developed countries and the
labour-intensive part to developing countries
208
There is a debate in the literature whether FDI is, in
fact, a conduit for wealth extraction rather than for
domestic development.
• Some observers argue that FDI:
– Creates jobs
– Increases the revenue and tax bases of the host
government
– Facilitates the transfer of technology and human capital
– Ultimately promotes development, economic growth,
and prosperity
209
• Opponents, on the other hand, argue that FDI serves to extract more
national wealth than it contributes to the host country.
– They claim that FDI maintains the host country in a dependent
situation.
– Second, it creates a skewed or uneven pattern of economic
development. When the investment period comes to an end, for
example, it can leave the local workforce in a precarious economic
position.
– Third, to attract FDI, host countries increasingly compete with one
another and can end up offering such favourable deals and
incentives that they ultimately lose more revenue than they generate.
– Finally, there are environmental and health issues as well. For
example, multinational corporations (MNCs) sometimes export
heavy polluting technologies or ‘dirty industries’ that are highly
regulated in the home country.
• Investment and development process in the developing countries, on the
other hand, are directly or indirectly governed by the WB

210
 World Bank:
• Created immediately after the Second World War in 1944.
• Based in Washington, D.C.
• It provides loans and grants to the member-countries.
• Was primarily designed as a vehicle for the disbursement of
Marshall Plan money set up to aid the (immediate)
reconstruction of Europe.
• The World Bank was initially designed to offer assistance in
the form of loans to those countries devastated by the Second
World War.
• Accordingly, it succeeded in achieving a financially,
economically, and politically more stable and stronger
Europe.

211
• Later on, the bank expanded its influence to all
developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin
America.
• Its activities are focused on the developing countries.
• It works for human development, agriculture and rural
development, infrastructure, and governance.
• However, unlike in the case of Europe, the impact of the
WB on the development of developing countries has
been at best controversial and at worst negative.
• It is often criticized for:
– Setting the economic agenda of the poorer nations,
– Attaching stringent /tough conditions to its aids/loans and
– Forcing free market reforms/excessive and hard to
implement policy prescriptions.
212
3.4.3. International Finance and the IMF
• Based in Washington, D.C.
• Like GATT and WB, it was established in 1944
following the meetings at Bretton Woods.
• The three institutions were established to
stabilise the international financial system
and facilitate the expansion of trade.
• The IMF was set up to oversee the management
of fixed exchange rates between member
states.
• Oversees those financial institutions and
regulations that act at the international level.
213
• The IMF was designed to promote international
monetary cooperation.
• The IMF also engages in lending, but on a short-term basis
only.
• IMF loans (and loan guarantees) are meant to solve
temporary balance-of-payment problems faced by
member countries that cannot otherwise obtain sufficient
financing.
• In this sense, the IMF is an international lender of last
resort.
• The IMF has been subject to intense criticism.
• Critics are mainly concerned with the
CONDITIONALITIES imposed on borrower countries.
• These conditions typically require borrowers to liberalize
their economies and cut government spending. 214
• The IMF has 184 member countries, but they do not enjoy
an equal say.
• The top ten countries have 55 per cent of the votes.
• They are the G-8 members (the US, Japan, Germany,
France, the UK, Italy, Canada and Russia), Saudi Arabia
and China.
• The US alone has 17.4 per cent voting rights.
• There is unequal voting system.
• Voting power is determined by what the IMF calls a quota.
• A quota (or capital subscription) is the amount of money
that a member country pays to the IMF.
• Accordingly, the more a country pays, the more say it has
in IMF decision makings.
• And, it is the US that tops up in this regard.
215
• The global financial system is divided into two separate,
but tightly inter-related systems: a monetary system and
a credit system.
• The international monetary system can be defined as the
relationship between and among national currencies.
• More concretely, it revolves around the question of how
the exchange rate among different national currencies is
determined.
• The credit system, on the other hand, refers to the
framework of rules, agreements, institutions, and
practices that facilitate the transnational flow of financial
capital for the purposes of investment and trade
financing.

216
3.5. Exchange Rates and the Exchange-Rate
System
• An exchange rate is the price of one national
currency in terms of another.
• Example: one U.S. dollar ($1) was worth 98.1
Japanese yen (¥)
• There are two main exchange rate systems in
the world namely: fixed exchange rate and
floating exchange rate.
217
A pure floating-rate system:
 Determined solely by money supply and
money demand.
 Absolutely no intervention by governments.
A pure fixed-rate system
 The value of a particular currency is fixed
against the value of another single currency or
against a basket of currencies.
218
 How is the global financial system governed?
 The IMF was designed to clearly represent U.S. interests
and power first and foremost, and the interests of the other
major capitalist countries (the developed economies)
secondarily
 This can be seen, more concretely, from the way decision-
making power within the IMF was designed
 Voting power is determined by what the IMF calls a quota
 The more a country pays, the more say it has in IMF
decision makings

219
Chapter Four: Globalization and Regionalism

4.1. Defining Globalization

 Globalization can be defined as a multidimensional process
characterized by:
– the stretching of social and political activities across state (political)
frontiers
– the intensification or the growing magnitude of interconnectedness
– the accelerating pace of global interactions and process as the
evolution of worldwide systems of transport and communication
increases
– the growing extensity, intensity, and velocity of global interaction is
associated with a deepening enmeshment of the local and global

220
 Globalization is synonymous with a process of time-space
compression
 globalization embodies a process of deterritorialization
 b/c social, political, and economic activities are no longer
organized solely according to territorial logic.
 For example terrorist and criminals operate both locally and
globally.
 Another example is that under the condition of globalization,
national economic space is no longer coterminous with
national territorial space since
 Territorial borders no longer demarcate the boundaries of
national economic or political space.
221
Generally, globalization is often understood
as:
o a phenomena, or a process characterized by
increasing interconnectedness or
interdependence.
o it is a supra regional process bringing the world
into one global village.
o The economy, politics, and technology have been
the driving forces of globalization.

222
4.2. The Globalization Debates
• what is new about globalization; and what are its political
consequences for sovereign statehood?
4.2.1. The Hyper-globalists
• nation states become obsolete to regulate their economy
and boundary.
• globalization is bringing about a de-nationalization/ de-
territorialization of economies
• this borderless economy national governments are
relegated to little more than transmission belts for global
capital or ultimately powerless institutions
223
• the authority and legitimacy of states thereby is undermined
• become increasingly unable to control the Tran boundary
movements and flows of goods, services, ideas
• The cumulative effects of these forces would make the state
in effective to full fill the demands of its citizens.
• claim that economic globalization is generating a new pattern
of losers as well as winners in the international economy
• further argue that globalization is imparting new liberal ideas
and implant culture of modernization replacing the
traditional culture

224
4.2.2. The Skeptics
• The skeptics rejected the view of super- globalist
as a myth, flawed and politically naïve
• The force of globalization, very much dependent
on the regulatory power of the state to ensure
the continuation of economic liberalism
• States are central actors and agents of
globalization playing central role in shaping and
regulating the economic activities
225
• Undermine the view that the world is
interconnected and moving into a village
• Globalization is not more than regionalization that
is being manifested in the emergence of financial
and trading blocs: EU,NAFTA, ASEAN
• More interconnectedness at regional level than at
the global level.
• There is no free flow of goods, resources,
technology and finance at the global level; instead
we have regional based globalization.
226
• the Western region is more intergraded and
globalized than the other part of the world such as
Africa and Asia.
• The connection is not benefiting the developing
nations.
• The Sceptics thus do not believe that globalization
would help to narrow the economic and technological
gap
• Globalization brings nothing new, rather it is just the
crystallization the already existing North-South gap
227
4.2.3. The Transformationalist
• Globalization is a critical driving force behind the rapid
social, political and economic changes which are reshaping
societies and international politics.
• Globalization is reconstituting or reengineering the power,
function and the authority of the state
• Even though the state has ultimate legal power to control
events inside its boundary, it can’t command sole control
over trans-boundary issues, actors, resource movements
• national economic space no more coincides with state
boundary.
228
• reject both the hyper globalist view of the end of
the sovereign state as well as the Sceptics claim
that nothing much has changed.
• Instead they assert that a new sovereignty regime
is displacing traditional conception of state power
as an absolute, indivisible, territorially exclusive
power.
• Under globalization, there are non-state actors as
Multinational Corporation, transnational social
movements, international regulatory agencies.
229
• World order can no longer be conceived as purely
State-Centric or even primarily state managed as
authority has become increasingly diffused
amongst public and private agencies
• This does not mean that the power of national
government is necessarily diminished but on the
contrary it is being redefined, reconstituted and
restructured in response to the growing complexity
of process of governance in a more interconnected
world.
230
 4.3. Globalization and Its Impacts on Africa

 Its position in the international system has been considerably

weakened
• b/c of weak economic development in general, and human
development in particular
• This in turn is b/c of political and social instability and the rise of
authoritarian regimes
• The cold war has had significant consequences for Africa.
• Both one party and military regimes
• End of cold war has led to “failed states” as they are no more
strategically important.
• The cold war and its demise has worked against democracy and
economic development in Africa.
231
Political impact:
 The erosion of sovereignty, especially on economic and
financial matters.
 Because of the imposition of models, strategies and
policies of development on African countries by IMF, WB
and, WTO.
 Greater respect for human rights and contributed to the
development of an African press.
 But, principles of democratic governance and
transparency tend to be applied selectively and
subjectively.
232
 Economic impact:
• Reinforced the economic marginalization of African
economies and their dependence on a few primary goods
for which demand and prices are externally determined.
• This has, in turn, accentuated poverty and economic
inequality
• Economic and social stagnation has also triggered a
substantial brain- drain from Africa
• Further weakening the ability of African countries to
manage their economies efficiently and effectively

233
Cultural impact:
• Cultural domination from outside
• African countries are rapidly losing their
cultural identity
NB: the negative consequences of globalization
on Africa far out way their positive impact.

234
 4.4. Ethiopia in a Globalized World

• Ethiopia is one of the countries marginally

integrated to the capitalist system during the post-
Cold War era.
Positive impact:
• Ethiopia managed to secure development aid and
loan to finance its national development projects
and design its own economic policy independently
• It has also benefited from the technological and
knowledge transfer, free movement of ideas, people
and finance.
235
 Negative impacts:
• The expansion of information communication opened
Ethiopia to new religious and secular values that affected the
religiosity and social solidarity of its people.
• Socio-cultural impact of western values is amply observed in
urban centres.
• Contributed to the rise radical nationalism and ethnicity.
• The prevalence of human trafficking and migration is partly
attributable to the onset of globalization.
• To sum up, Ethiopia has benefited less from globalization than
its negative influences.

236
 4.5. Pros and Cons of Globalization

 Merits:
o Expansion of democratic culture, human right and the
protection of historically minority and subaltern groups.
o Innovation in science, medicine, and technology and
information communication has enabled the improvement of
quality of life.
o Agricultural technological expansion..poverty
o Technological and social revolution .... human security and
safety.
o The free movement of good, service, people, ideas, expertise,
knowledge and technology ........international interdependence
o New sense of global society and the perspective of global
citizenship 237
 Demerits:
• Western imperialism of ideas and beliefs eroding and
inroads the sovereignty of non-Western countries.
• Global capital and international financial institutions like
WB and IMF made free inroads into countries of the south
• Brings different way of life and cultural values.
• Has made the globalization of risks, threats and
vulnerabilities like global terrorism, religious
fundamentalism, proliferation of Small Arms and Light
Weapons (SALWs), arms and human trafficking.

238
• It has stimulated the emergence a
simultaneous but opposite process of
Glocalization, which involves a process of
integration to the world and differentiation to
the local.
• This process has contributed to the rise of
radical nationalism and ethnicity, which set
the context for the emergence of the era of
identity and identity conflicts.
239
4.6. Defining Regionalism and Regional Integration

• Region can be defined as a limited number of states

linked together by a geographical relationship and by
a degree of mutual interdependence.
• Regionalism consequently refers to intensifying
political and/or economic processes of cooperation
among states and other actors in particular
geographic regions.
• Regionalism normally presents the sustained
cooperation (either formal or informal) among
governments, non-governmental organizations, or
the private sectors in three or more countries for
240
mutual gains
• Regionalization can be conceived as the growth of societal
integration within a given region, including the undirected
processes of social and economic interaction among the units
(such as nation-states
• Regionalization can be best understood as a continuing process of
forming regions as geopolitical units, as organized political
cooperation within a particular group of states, and/or as regional
communities such as pluralistic security communities
• Similarly, the term regionalism refers to the proneness of the
governments and peoples of two or more states to establish
voluntary associations and to pool together resources (material
and nonmaterial) in order to create common functional and
institutional arrangements.
241
4.6.1. The Old Regionalism
• It emerged in Western Europe in the late-1940s, subsequently
spreading to the developing world.
Regional Integration in Europe and Beyond
 Old regionalism has its roots in the devastating experience of
inter-war nationalism and World War II.
 Closely linked to the discussion about ‘regional integration’ in
Europe (the formation of the European Communities)
 In contrast to earlier discussions that centered on mercantilism
and competing alliances
 To achieve and consolidate peace and stability
242
• A series of initiatives were launched, which resulted in
the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951.
• In 1958 the European Economic Community (EEC) and
the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC) were
integrated into the EC through the Treaty of Rome.
• The influence of EU goes beyond being successful
experiment in regionalization and came to dominate the
discourse on regionalization.
• European integration is still being treated as the primary
case or ‘model’ of regional integration

243
Regional Integration in Africa
• The discussion about regionalism in the developing world was
closely linked to colonialism/anti-colonialism and the quest to
facilitate economic development in the newly independent
nation-states.
 Latin America:
• Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA) in Montevideo in
1960.
• Including all countries on the South American continent plus
Mexico.
• Regionalization in Latin America during 1960s and 1970s did not
materialize because of conflict and military dictatorship.
244
 Africa:
 The debate between the Federalist Casablanca and Monrovia groups
had also its own influence.
 The major ideological influence on regional cooperation and
integration, however, is embodied in the founding principles of OAU
and later AU such as Lagos Plan of Action (1980) and the Abuja
treaty (1991).
 The major purpose of regionalization was to resist colonial and post-
colonial influence, protectionism and realizing import substitution.
 CFA (Community of French Africa), East African Community (EAC)
and SACU (Southern African Community Union). The SADCC (The
Southern Africa Development Coordination Conference, a
predecessor of the SADC)
245
4.6.2. New Regionalism:
 The new regionalism referred to a number of new trends and
developments, such as:
– the spectacular increase in the number of regional trade agreements,
– an externally oriented and less protectionist type of regionalism,
– an anti-hegemonic type of regionalism which emerged from within the
regions themselves instead of being controlled by the superpowers,
– the rise of a more multi-dimensional and pluralistic type of
regionalism, which was not primarily centered around trading
schemes or security cooperation and with a more varied institutional
design, and
– the increasing importance of a range of business and civil society
actors in regionalization.

246
B/c of structural changes in the post-Cold War
era:
– the end of bipolarity
– the intensifi­cation of globalization
– the recurrent fears over the stability of the
multilateral trading order
– the restructuring of the nation-state, and
– the critique of neoliberal economic development
and political systems in developing as well as post-
communist countries
247
4.7. Major Theories of Regional Integrations

4.7.1. Functionalism
• Viewed regionalism as a functional response by
states to the problems that derived from regional
interdependence.
• Regionalism is seen as the most effective means of
solving common problems.
• Regional organization was then built up to cope with
one common problem and spill over to other
problems and areas of cooperation, which will
deepen integration among member states.
248
 According to FIURRELL (1995), there were two sorts of
spillover:
1) Functional spillover whereby cooperation in one area
would broaden and deepen further areas
– cooperation in the economic field spreads out to other
sectors
2) Political spillover whereby the existence of supranational
institutions would set in motion a self-reinforcing process
of institution building.
– a shift in loyalties from nationalism towards
regionalism
– institutions possesses or demands jurisdiction over the
pre-existing national states
– the diminishing role of the nation-state
249
Karns and Mingst (2005) argue that
functionalism is applicable at both regional
and global levels.

250
4.7.2. Neo-functionalism
 Neo-functionalism emerged in the 1960s based on the key
works of Ernst Haas and Leon Lindberg
 Ernst Haas: 'Political integration is the process whereby
political actors in several distinct national settings are
persuaded to shift their loyalties, expectations and
political activities towards a new centre, whose
institutions possess or demand jurisdiction over the pre-
existing national states. The end result of the process of
political integration is a new political community,
superimposed over the pre-existing ones.'
251
 According to Lindenberg, the following preconditions for
the success of an integration process:
1) Central institutions and central policies should be
established and developed representing a 'regional
view';
2) Their tasks and capacity to implement those tasks
should go well beyond the mandate of normal
international institutions;
3) Their tasks should be inherently expansive;
4) There should be some link between the interests of
member states and the process of integration.
252
Neo-functionalism focus on political
integration.
The concept spill over, originally coined by
Haas, refereeing to the process of integration
from the political sphere into other aspects
of life.
Lindberg considers integration as “inherently
expansive task” that has to begin from the
political sphere.
253
Inter-governmentalism
 Inter-govemenmetalism or liberal intergovernmentalism is
a theory and approach that focus on the state for
integration to succeed.
 According to Moravcsik integration can be considered as
part of the rational choice of state actors.
 This rationalist framework disaggregates the process of
integration into three stages:
1) National preference formation
2) Interstate bargaining
3) Institutionalchoice.
254
Supra-nationalism
• Derived from Neo-functionalism
• ??????????????????
• ??????????????????

255
4.8. Selected Cases of Regional Integration

 EEC-EU
 OAU-AU
SADC, ECOWAS, COMESA and the EAC.
 ASEAS-1967
Established a preference area in 1977, and
The Asian Free Trade Area in 1992.

256
4.9. Regionalization versus Globalization and State

257
4.10. The Relations between Regionalization and Globalization

There are three possible options regarding the

mutual relations between regionalization and
globalization, especially in the economic dimension:
1) Regionalization as a component of globalization
(convergent trends);
2) Regionalization as a challenge or response to
globalization (divergent trends);
3) Regionalization and globalization as parallel
processes (overlapping trends)

258
Regionalization as a Component of Globalization: Convergence
 Regionalism is emerging today as a potent force in the
processes of globalization.
 Regionalism may be understood as but one component, or
‘chapter’ of globalization
 By helping national economies to become more competitive
in the world market, regional integration will lead to
multilateral cooperation on a global scale
 Since globalization unfolds in uneven rather than uniform
dynamic patterns, it may reveal itself in processes that are
less than geographically global in scope.
 Therefore, globalization may be expressed through
regionalization. 259
Regionalization as a Challenge or Response to Globalization: Divergence
 The impetus toward regionalization might stem in this case from a reaction
and challenge to the amorphous, undemocratic, and inexorable economic
rules of globalization.
 This reaction can be motivated by either nationalistic/mercantilistic or
pluralistic/humanistic concerns
 By creating trade blocs and integration frameworks based on mercantilistic
premises, regionalism opposes the neoliberal ‘harmony of interest’ view
of the world economy in favor of national (and regional) loyalties and
frameworks.
 The drive toward the formation of regions might be also motivated by the
denial of a single universal culture (and ideology) and the promotion of
alternative or pluralistic forms of social and political organizations other
than the nation-states at the regional level.

260
Regionalization and Globalization as Parallel
Processes: Overlap
• Rather than reacting to each other,
regionalization and globalization might act as
parallel or overlapping processes in the two
issue-areas of economics and security.

261
4.11. Regionalization, Globalization and the State

• Bringing the forces of nationalism and the possible role(s)

of the nation-state into the equation creates the following
possible linkages:
Nation-States and Nationalism as Rival Processes of
Globalization
• The blossoming of statehood may be a response to the
homogenizing forces of globalization
• The persistence or resurgence of nationalism can be
regarded as a response to the alienating forces of the
global market, by relocating or legitimacy and loyalties at
the national or even sub-national levels
262
Globalization as a Force of Nationalism and the
Formation of New States
• Through a process of technological
dissemination, globalization might actually
promote nationalism and the formation of
new states.
• Thus, globalization creates new strategies and
roles for the nation-state

263
Nation-States as Rival Forces of Regionalization
• Nation-states might oppose forces of
regionalization by setting limits and constraints to
the development of a regional identity and
supranational institutions.
• States will regard regional and sub-regional
integration frameworks through the prism of
international organizations with a limited mandate
in terms of intervention, domestic jurisdiction, and
the exercise of sovereignty.
264
Regionalism as a Force of Nationalism and the Nation-
States
• Regionalization in a given region might result from
mercantilistic or nationalistic tendencies of the
member-states that see frameworks of regional
integration as a means to pool and increase their
national power resources.
• The goal is to guarantee the bloc (region) members
greater security in their international relations in a
context of increasing vulnerability of either the world
economy or global security
265
Coexistence between Regionalism, Nationalism and
Globalization
• In this case we have neither convergence nor
divergence but rather coexistence—the three
processes are taking place simultaneously
• There might be parallel processes of globalization and
continuing trends of fragmentation and disintegration
• The effects of globalization upon regionalization and
especially on the nation-state are rather indeterminate

266
Nation-States as Mediators between Regionalism
and Globalization
• State policies are probably the single most
important determinant of the scope and
direction of both regionalization and globalization
• The stronger the states, the more capable they
are in coping with the intricacies of the
economic, political, social, technological, and
cultural dimensions of globalization.

267
Nation-States Opposing Globalization through
Regionalism
• One possible option open for states to cope with
globalization is by enhancing processes of
regionalization, such as the creation of free trade
areas that recreate a double (and contradictory)
logic of economic relations: liberal at the
intraregional level but protectionist/mercantilist
toward other rival regions or ‘blocs.’

268
Chapter Five: Major Contemporary Global Issues

269