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Global Politics, over 1000 groups had veen granted consultative status by…
Global Politics
Globalisation:
- The world no longer operates as a disaggregated collection of states or "units" but as an integrated whole
"global economy"/"global capitalism"
- fewer countries now remain outside the international trading system and are unaffected by external investment and the integration of financial markets
"For theorists of globalisation, this trend towards global interconnectedness is not only perhaps the defining feature of modern existence, but also requires that traditional approaches to learning need to be rethought, in this case by adopting a 'borderless' or 'transplanetary' approach to politics
2nd meaning of Global Politics:
- Global means comprehensive; refers to all elements within a system
- Global Politics takes place not just at a global level, but at and, crucially, across all levels - worldwide, regional, national, subnational etc
- the advent of global politics does not imply that international politics should be consigned to the dustbin of history but "global" and "internationl" coexist.
"What goes on within states and what goes on between states impact on one another to a greater degree than ever before, and that an increased proportion of politics no longer takes place simply in and through the state."
International politics => global politics
- new actors on world states
- increased interdependence and interconnectedness
State-centrism
An approach to political analysis that takes the state to be the key actor in the domestic realm and on the world stage.
Mixed-actor model:
The theory that, while not ignoring the role of states and national governments, international politics is shaped by a much broader range of interests and groups
Transnational corporations (TNCs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and other non-state bodies have come to exert influence and shape world politics
Although states are only one category of actor amongst many on the world stage, they still remain the most important actors as no TNC or NGOs can rival the state's coercive power, either its capacity to enforce order within its borders or its ability to deal militarily with other states
Non Governmental Organisations:
- private, non-commercial group which seeks to achieve its ends through non-violent means
- The World Bank definition: "private organisations that pursue activities to relieve suffering, promote the interests of the poor, protect the environment, provide basic social services, or undertake community development"
Operational NGOs:
primariy purpose is the design and implementation of development-related projects; they may be relief-orientated or development-orientated, and they may be community-based, national or internationalAdvocacy NGOs:
promote or defend a particular causel they are sometimes termed promotional pressure groups or public interest groups
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The rise of international organisations reflect the fact that states are increasingly confronted by collective dilemmas
- CD: A problem that stems from the interdependence of states, meaning that any solution must involve international cooperation rather than action by a single state
Theories
Realist Theory:
States are impermeanble and self-contained units, which influence each other through external pressure. Sovereign states interacting within the state-system are thus seen to behave like a collection of billiard balls moving over the table and colliding with each other
- these collisions are linked to military and security matters, reflecting the assumption that power and survival are the primary concerns of the state
- clear distinction between domestic politics and international politics => sovereignty and borders extremely important
- patterns of conflict and cooperation within the international system are largely determined by the distribution of power among states => some states may intervene in the affairs of weak ones
View globalisation with scepticism, seeing it more in terms of intensifying economic interdependence rather than the creation of a global economy
- the state remains the dominant unit in world politics and their capacity for regulation and surveillance will have increased
- Globalisation has been made by states for states, particularily dominant states and developments such as the open trading system were put in place to advance the interests of western states
- heightened economic interdependence is as likely to "breed mutual vulnerability", leading to coflict rather than cooperation
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Liberalist Theory:
- Adopt a consistently positive attitude towards globalisation
- Economic liberals: globalisation reflects the victory of the market over "irrational" national allegiances and "arbitrary" state borders. The miracle of the market is that it draws resources towards their most profitable use, thus bringing prosperity to individuals, families, companies, and societies
- The attraction of economic globalisation is that it allows markets to operate on a global scale, replacing the "shallow" integration of free trade and intensified interdepedence with the "deep" integration of a single global economy
Political and social benefits:
- freer flow of information and ideas around the world both widens opportunities for personal development and creates more dynamic and vigorous societies.
Realism grounded in power politics:
- Human nature is characterised by selfishness and greed
- Politics is a domain of human activity structured by power and coercion
- states are key global actors
- States prioritise self-interest and survival, prioritising security above all else => 2019 Japan actions
- States operate in a context of anarchy, and thus rely on self-help
- Global order is structured by the distribution of power among states
- The balance of power is the principal means of ensuring stability and avoiding war
- Ethical considerations are (and should be) irrelevant to the conduct of foreign policy
- Human beings are rational and moral creatures
- History is a progressive process, characterised by a growing prospect of international cooperation and peace
- Mixed-actor models of global politics are more realistic than state-centric ones
- Trade and economic interdependence make war less likely
- International law helps to promote order and fosters rule-goverened behavior among states
- Democracy is herently peaceful, particularly in reducing the liklihood of war between democratic states
Liberal theories about interdependence:
- belief in the virtues of free trade where FTA allows countries to specialise in production of goods that it is best suited to produce, the ones in which they have a comparative advantage
- Free trades draws state into a web of economic interdependence meaning the material costs of international conflict are so great that warfare becomes virtually unthinkable
Neo Liberals:
"complex interdependence: reflects the extent to which people are affected by what happens elsewhere, particularly by the actions of their counterparts in other countries
- This applies also in other issues such as human rights
- The International agenda is becoming broader with more attention on low politics of welfare, environmental protection and political justice
Low Politics:
- Issue areas that are seen not to involve a state's vital national interests, whether in the foreign or the domestic sphere
Three Key aspects of World Politics:
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History
Realist View:
- history has an enduring chracter
- similarities between historical eras are more substantial than the differences
- History repeats itself for 3 reasons:
- Human nature does not change: humans are self-interested and power-seeking creatures that cannot be retrained by reason or moral considerations => cultural, technological and economic progress do not changes these
- History is shaped by self-interested political units that are rival to each other
- Anarchy is an enduring fact of history and the absense of world government ensures that every historical period is characterised by fear and suspicion
Liberal View:
- belief in progress
- human society achieves higher and higher levels of advancement
- In international affairs, progress involves a transition from power-seeking behaviour to a condition characterised by cooperation and peaceful co-existence, brought by economic interdependence and the emergence of an international rule of law and the advance of democracy
The New World Order
- The possibility of 'liberal peace', founded on a common recognistion of international norms and standards or morality (founded after the Cold War)
- Central concepts are the recognition of the need to settle disputes peacefully, to resist aggression and expansionism, to control and reduce military arsenals, to ensure the just treatment of domestic populations through respect for human rights
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- over 1000 groups had veen granted consultative status by the UN, with estimates of the total number of international NGOs usually exceeding 30,000
- Major international NGOs have developed into huge organisations; Amnesty International is better resourced than the human rights arms of the UN
- Major international NGOs and the NGO sector constitute significant actors on the global stage
- Although lacking the economic leverage that TNCs can exert, advocacy NGOs are highly adept at mobilising soft power and popular pressure which have a number of advantage:
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For the comfort women issue, the advice and statements of Amnesty International is important as it provides a perspective solely from human rights without the influence of politics, as if often the case with statements from Japan and SK
- the statements from Amnesty International are able to provide a clear view on whether the 2015 agreement and other apologies were legitimate in terms of dealing with the human rights issues
Liberalist theory:
- international politics and morality should go hand in hand
- amoral power politics is a recipe for egoism, conflict, and violence
- International justice is based on principles that set out how nation-states should behave towards one another
- Just war theory
The growth of interconnectedness and interdependence has extended thinking about morality in world affairs, with an increasing emphasis on the notion of "global" or "cosmopolitian" justice
- Global Justice: belief in universal moral values, values that apply to all people in the world regardless of nationality and citizenship (eg international human rights)
- Cosmopolitanism: a belief in a cosmopolis or a 'world state'
- Moral Cosmopolitanism is the belief that the world constitutes a single moral community, in that people have obligations towards all other pople in the world, regardless of nationality, religion, ethnicity and so forth.
- All forms of moral cosmopolitanism are based on a belief that every individual is of equal moral worth, most commonly linked to the doctrine of human rights
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Cosmopolitanism
- growing interest in ideas such as global justice or world ethics (Dower 1998, Caney 2005)
- as the world has become more interconnected, the world has come to constitue a single moral community
People have obligations towardsa ll other people in the world => basis of uman rights
Individualism:
- human beings are the ultimate unit of moral concern
Universality
- individuals are of equal moral worth
Generality
- people are objects of concern for everybody, not just their compatriots
Keohane and Nye (1977): the web of relations has created a condition of 'complex interdependence,' in which satates are drawn into cooperation and integration by forces such as closer trading and other economic relationships
An alternative to the realist model of international politics. Highlights
- the extent to which states have ceased to be autonomous international actors
- the extent to which economic and other issues have become more prominent in world affairs
- the extent to which military force has become a less reliable and less important policy option
- NGOs have highly cultivated high public profiles, often linked to public protests and demonstrations that attract eager media attention
- their typically altruistic and humanitarian objectives enable them to mobilise public support and exert moral pressure in a way that conventional politicians and political parties struggle to rival
- the views of NGOs are taken to be authoritative and disinterested, based on the use of specialists and academics
- Argument: NGOs are self-appointed groups that have no genuine democratic credentials, often articularting the views of a small group of senior professionals
- to gain high media profile and attract support and funding, NGOs have been accused of making exaggerated claims, thereby distorting public perceptions and the policy agenda
- They counter-balance corporate power, challenging the influence of TNCs
- democratice global politics by articularting the interests of people and groups who have been disempowered by the globalisation process
- Act as a moral force, widening people's sense of civic responsibility and even promoting global citizenship
Interdependence may be asymmetrical rather than symmetrical, in which case it can lead to domination and conflict rather than peace and harmony
"Interdependence refers to a relationship between two parties in which is affected by decisions that are taken by the other.
- it implies mutual influence, usually arising from a sense of mutual vulnerability
International Organisations, whilst significant actors on the world stage, are creatures of their members: they can do no more than their member states, and especially powerful states, allow them to do
Economic globalisation:
- process through which national economies have, to a greater or lesser extent been abosrbed into a global economy
International Society:
- suggests that relations between and among states are conditioned by the existence of norms and rules that establish the regular patterns of interaction that characterise a "society"
- it implies that international relations are rule-goverened and that these rules maintain international order
- the institutions that generate cultural cohesion and social integration are international law and the activities of international organisations and diplomacy
Positivism:
It is possible to develop objective knowledge, through capacity to distinguish 'facts' from 'values'
Contrasting perspectives of realists and liberalists:
- Realists place a greater emphasis on conflict whilst liberals highlight the scope for cooperation
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- Who gets what, when, how?
- Where is the power located (who has it)?
- Dominant nations' pivotal position within institutions such as the UN, WTO, give disproportional influence to nations over the frameworks within which states related to one another decide how things shall be done
- Structural power
Alternative view: shifting confirguration of global power => more fragmented and pluralised
- power may have shifted away from states generally through the growing importance of non-state actors and the increased role played by international organisations
- globalisation may have made power more diffuse and intangible, increasing the influence of global markets and drawing states into a web of economic interdependence that substantially restricts their freedom of manoeuvre
Changing nature of power
- "soft power" is becoming as important as "hard power" in influencing political outcomes
- the behaviour of governments and international organisations is influenced as never before by public opinion around the world
- Deepest, most abiding issue
- How can people live in a decent and worthwhile existence, free from threats, intimidation and violence?
- pressing issue in international politics as the international realm is anarchial and thus threatening and unstable
Realists:
- security is primarily understood in terms of 'national security'
- all states are under at least potential threat from all other states, each state must have the capacity for self-defence
- National security therefore places a premium on military power, reflecting the assumption that the more militarily powerful, the more secure a state
Realist theory:
- viewed as irrelevant issue in global politics
- Relations between states should be determined by hard-headed judgements related to the national interest, not by ethical considerations
Morgenthau (1948) argued that the practical conduct of politics should be informed by the 6 prinnciples of political realism:
- Politics is governed by objective laws which have their root in human nature
- The key to understanding International Politics is the concept of interest defined in terms of power
- The forms and nature of state power will vary in time, place and context but the concept of interest remains consistent
- universal moral principles do not guide state behavior although this does not rule out an awareness of the moral significance of political action
- Moral aspirations are specific to a particular nation, there is no universally agreed set of moral principles
- The political sphere is autonomous, the key question in international politics is "how does this policy affect the power of the nation?"
Sovereign economic control was only possible in a world of discrete national economies; the tendency of national economies to be incorporated to a single globalised economy renders economic sovereignty meaningness
Johan Galtung:
-Subtle Structures in place that causes a group to continue to be marginalised or oppressed
- many women (comfort women) still feel that they have legitimate grieviences that have not been resolved => still structural violence in place
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