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The Modern and Post-Modern State (CONCLUSIONS (We date the emergence of…
- The Modern and Post-Modern State
The Quest for Statehood
The weakening of regional state systems can create opportunities for the creation of new states, such as the attempt to establish an Islamic State in Syria and Iraq 2014-19
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Modernity
The period of human history known as 'modernity' can be charactised as that which attempted to apply Enlightenment notions of rationality to the conduct of government and public affairs. We associate this period with the two centuries from the French Revolution (1789) to the collapse of communism in Europe (1989)
Postmodernity
Postmodernity (if such a period actually exists) is characterised by relativism and is signified by the shift from production to consumption (of images, symbols and non-durable items) in the developed world. In international affairs, we speak less about government and more about governance
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Origins of the Modern State
The treaty of Westphalia (1648) is taken as the starting point for the operation of the modern state and the international state system.
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 1651
Hobbes sought a solution to the civil strife that made people's lives (in his view) 'solitary, poore, nasty, brutish and short'. His solution was the sovereign state.
Sovereignty and the State
Sovereignty denotes a single, supreme decision-making authority. It depends on a notion of authority rather than power, because although the sovereign cannot determine everything that happens within his/her borders, it claims the right to decide on matters of interest to the state
Nations and the State
From the 18th century onwards, and particularly in the wake of the French Revolution (1789) governments sought legitimacy from by aligning state borders (often imperfectly) with human collectives increasingly known as 'nations'
War and the Modern State
In 1990 theorist Charles Tilly suggested that 'states make war and war makes states'
The State and 'New Wars'
In 1999 Mary Kaldor argued that the nature of war had changed and that the modern state was no longer the sole - or even the main - protagonist in conflicts around the world. This role had been taken by 'non-state actors'.
The State and European Integration
It was in post-War Western Europe that the deliberate surrendering (or pooling) of state sovereignty went the furthest, but even here the place of the state in the international order was far from superseded.
Sovereignty, Interdependence and Brexit
Brexit is many things, but at one level it is about the reassertion of sovereignty by and within the United Kingdom against the European Union and secessionist movements.
The State and Globalisation
A group of scholars and practitioners referred to as 'hyperglobalists' have suggested that the state is being superseded by the institutions, processes and policies, known collectively as globalisation. 'Skeptics' and 'transformationalists' disagree.
Sovereignty, Authority and Control
Although sovereignty may be circumscribed by the functions and operations of global governance and policies designed to foster globalisation, states are far from surrendering authority even if they have lost a certain amount of control.
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CONCLUSIONS
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Although the state is undergoing certain challenges to its authority it is by no means over as an important actor in international relations
Neo-realist scholars see the international state system as essentially anarchic and this anarchy permits conflict between states