These are my class notes for the course "Actors in World Politics". It is a single document in which you can find notes for lectures 1 to 10. These notes were taken with Notion. The links at the very beginning of each class are not accessible, these were just the lectures' outlines I put in order f...
International, global or transnational?
The world has become global:
1. Dimensions of globalizations;
2. Globalizations as a series of processes.
Dimension of globalization.
People: they are on the move, migrants coming to us as the Netherland sometimes taking
risk facing inhumane situations at borders.
There is a little bit of south to north migration but the most interesting migration is the one
from South to South, it is a sort of migration that doesn't impact on the North. there is also a
North to North migration. There are also people going to the North from the South that
represent the minority.
Capital: also money is moving. Trade is part of globalization. The 80% of trade takes
place between rich and non-rich countries.
Politics: a piece of news makes the tour of the world. The news doesn't travel always the
same way. But politics is more homogenous.
Culture: Netflix is standardizing and distributing mostly anglophone American and
British cultural products. But is also bringing to the screen drama from Turkey and so on
and so forth. Bring specificities to a broader audience. Example of "Pacific Rim" (del
AWP CLASS 1 1
, Toro, 2013). The movie opened and bombed, it was not doing well but in China it
became the sixth best US film in China in history. Cultural products are global and the
strategies are global too.
Globalization as a series of process:
De-territorialisation: process to which geographical territory becomes less of a constraint
on social interactions.
High speed internet, we have high debit signal and devices that can transfer that signal. We
can social interact in an immediate way. it is a specificity of globalization;
Interdependence: process through which "security and force matter less and countries are
connected by multiple social and political relations" (KEOHANE and NYE in Power
and Interdependence), increasing economic interdependence;
Time-space compression: set of processes that cause the relative distances between
places (i.e., as measured in terms of travel time or cost) to contract, effectively making
such places grow "closer" (David HARVEY in The condition of Postmodernity;
Making sense of globalization: How to we think of international politics?
Three approaches:
1. The international relations approach:
Realism → the world is divided in domestic/international, states are the main actors of IR and
other actors exist but they are negligible. We are very much still in an imaginary that says
that the world is divided in clear territories.
2. The globalist approach:
World divides are flattened (there are no borders), undifferentiated investment surface,
decreased relevance of states.
3. The transnational critiques:
Neither realism nor the idea that the world is a flat place are actually the most useful
interpretations of the world. Sovereignty plays an interesting role just like non-state actors.
People, religion, culture, political violence have a huge impact on world politics. States are
not entirely overwhelmed by them but they develop a form of adaptation. States adapt to
globalization: transgovernmentalism.
→ Either/or conception
How does the notion of sovereignty itself not be necessarily true anymore? If the basis of
world politics theory is not stable anymore, how would we study IR and politics.
AWP CLASS 1 2
, Directions for a transnational approach:
1. The "territory trap" (JOHN AGNEW):
the notion of the states that do not have exclusive power over territory;
Domestic and foreign realms are not separate;
Boundaries of the state are not the boundaries of society.
2. Sovereignty is not absolute, but relational:
Rule existed in other forms (city-state, monarchies, empires) the concept of sovereignty was
only a mistake in history. Territorial state is a recent invention (19th century). No strict
division domestic/international and when we look at the history of how states have been
formed we see that many of them where formed by transnational elites network/trans-
governalism.
Sovereignty is relational and composed of different moments in the chain of power and is not
the narrative that we have been told.
3. The space of power is not homogenous, but made of networks.
Domestic and foreign realms are not separate but networked;
Unified territorial control has a history, effective territorial sovereignty is a myth and power
operates much more through networks which don't follow an international/domestic
distinction. All of the history of this borders are history of transnational relations and
economic flows.
4. Identities are not homogenous but multiple and hybrid:
Nationalism is historically determined, identities have never entirely fit territorial borders.
Globalization has reinforced discrepancy and hybridity rather than homogeneity.
Key points:
Globalization interconnection through people, capital, politics, culture;
Globalization is not a simple , but a complex set of processes of deterritorialization,
interdependence and compression of time and space;
Academic theories have debated the disappearance or persistence of the nation-state in
the face of globalization;
This debate is grounded in problematic premises summarized by the notion of the
"territorial trap";
Three main concepts of international politics need to be examined;
AWP CLASS 1 3
, Sovereignty as relational;
Spatiality as networked;
Identity as multiple and hybrid.
Readings
Transnational Relations and World Politics: An
Introduction
International politics: usually centred on relationships between states.
The state is composed of two main agents that are:
diplomat;
soldier.
Distinguishing mark of politics among nations: struggle for power.
Interactions of diplomats and soldiers are affected by geography, the nature of domestic
politics in the various states, and advances in science and technology. These elements
create the "environment" in which all states interact.
Most of the intersocietal intercourse with significant political importance takes place without
governmental control through trade, personal contact, and communication.
States are not the only actors in world politics. We see also "transnational actors".
→ "Transnational relations" = contacts, coalitions, and interactions across state boundaries
that are not controlled by the central foreign policy organs of governments.
There is a wide variety of transnational phenomena: multinational business enterprises and
revolutionary movements; trade unions and scientific networks; international air transport
cartels and communications activities in outer space.
We should put a focus on transnational interactions and organizations:
"global interactions": movements of information, money, physical objects, people, or
other tangible or intangible items across state boundaries.
There are 4 major types of global interactions:
1. communication: movement of information;
2. transportation: the movement of physical objects;
AWP CLASS 1 4
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