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International Relations summary - all lectures (1-12)
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International Relations summary - all lectures (1-12)
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International Relations – LecturesLecture 1 - Introduction
In this lecture:
1) Information on the course
2) The changing nature of global politics after the Cold War
3) Real-world politics and the study of international relations:
How changes in global politics may encourage us to think differently about how to approach
international relations and world politics theoretically.
Global politics and international relations since the Cold War (post- 1991)
An interdisciplinary course on international politics, from different disciplinary angles and
traditions (History, Political Science, IR) and area specializations...
Linkages between:
1. Global, regional and national developments
2. Theoretical approaches and real-world issues and policies
3. Western and non-western perspectives on global politics
4. International Relations and International Studies
--
The transformation of global politics
The transformation of global politics what would be the essential features of global change
after the Cold War.
Focus these lectures on the absolutely essential features of international relations some of
these features will be revisited. One of these features is power. The notion of power in
international relations which as you might probably remember as key notion, it is a key
concept in international relations.
, - Power shifts in global politics, power shifts away from the West to other parts of the
world but also power shifts or perhaps power transformation away from the state to
other actors including non-governmental organisations but also private enterprise.
Today 4 related issues --- 4 related aspects of change
The changing nature of global politics – An introduction
1. Order (power) -- how the global order the global organisation or the organisation of
global politics if you like that changed after Cold War
2. Actors -- Actors other than the state it's not just States and governments that make
international relations also non-governmental institutions private enterprise even
individuals as manner affect
3. Issues -- Issues that have changed over the last 20-30 years some issues have
disappeared from global politics, but many other issues have entered the global stage
4. Ideas -- Ideas it's not just power an order that is transforming and that is changing
there are also new ideas and new challenges new intellectual challenges
In one sentence:
A challenging mix of power shifts, normative competition (ideas and ideologies), and a
confusing variety of new and old actors (states, IO’s, NGOs, individuals), issues
(environment, health, cyber), and the paradoxes of globalization or the challenges of
connectivity in world politics
(Boyle, ‘The Coming Illiberal Order’; Duncombe et al., ‘After Liberal World Order...’)
✓Power transition and the changing nature of ‘world order
✓ The paradoxes of globalization
✓ New / old actors, ideas, and issues
1. Power transition and global ‘order’
What are the consequences of global order?
Read Duncombe, ‘ After liberal world order’ and Boyle ‘The coming illiberal order’ for the
notion of ‘order’ in IR (‘the coming together of power and legitimate social purpose’), for a
nuanced discussion on the merits and the future of liberal order (how it relates to
imperialism, Westernism, humanitarianism), and how IR theories interpret this...
,Preliminary observations
✓ The nexus between power relations and international ‘order’ is complex: from bipolarity to
unipolarity (US hegemony), to multipolarity – but order is always ‘multi-layered’, perhaps
especially future orders: issue-specific coalitions rather than global, institutions; ‘diminished’,
‘pragmatic’, ‘competitive’, ‘a la carte’, ‘networked multilateralism’ (state, business, society*),
etc.
The relationship between power and legitimate purpose (boyle)
Order does not imply the absence of war or conflict, it's also a type of order.
The relationship between power and legitimate purpose (boyle)
What in international relations is based on ideas + material power
The liberal order which includes such organisations as IMF World Bank and world
trade organisation, but which also includes sovereignty, independence but also human
rights and the responsibility to
Always a combination of ideas purpose and power combination of material power
and legitimate purpose
✓ The scope of the liberal order varied across time, space and domain, was never universally
liberal, ‘ordered’ or global, so what is at stake: the fate of neoliberalism, liberal
internationalism, the ‘Global liberal order’, a rules-based world, multilateralism, etc.?
A way of thinking about order which is widely used in IR, the Cold War gives example was a
typically Cold War was a typical example of a bipolar order defined polar world there were
two poles the United states on one hand and the capitalist part of the world in one hand and
the Soviet Union at a communist part of the world If you like on the other blacks Russia or the
Soviet Union should communist Russia in China or both communist countries but they were
hardly allies as a matter of fact they weren't so during the Cold War and China of course was
much less powerful than the Soviet Union during the Cold War over basically two polls
therefore a bipolar world order that has changed and iris changed completely but perhaps we
are witnessing today a return of bipolarity but a different bipolar so after the Cold War many
IR people international relations specialists agree that we move from a bi polar world to we
uni polar world where in global politics that was basically one pole left which poll do United
States of course
✓ Lessons from history? Pre-World War I strategic landscape: competition, conflict, and
concert...
* Andrew Phillips and J.C. Sharman, International Order in Diversity. War, Trade and Rule
in the Indian Ocean. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
We are moving from uni polarity to bipolar polarity again (US and China)
, Rise of china had an enormous impact on global politics, war and conflict would be inevitable
Every order is multi-layered, subdivisions in order like the EU in the liberal order that
took over the world
States interrelate and interact with other states, mostly in other institutions like the
un, multi-nationalism
From the ‘post-Cold War to the ‘post-post-Cold War’?
‘The post-Cold War order is unravelling, and while not perfect, it will be missed’
(Richard N. Haass, ‘ The Unraveling. How to Respond to a Disordered World, Foreign
Affairs, November / December 2014)
2. The paradoxes of globalization: convergence and divergence
From ‘convergence’ (see Heywood on ‘globalization, pp.8-13) , universalism and the ‘End of
History’*’, to increasing ‘divergence’ and the growth of ideological, political and economic
diversity, and the ‘Return of History’.
Connectivity as a catalyst for division and conflict?
✓ Globalization going wild: neoliberalism; financial crisis of 2007-08; Eurozone Crisis (from
2009), and its discontents (polarization)... not just in global south but also north.
- Globalization has positive and negative effects
✓ Differences between and within countries increase and emphasized, shaped by a large
variety of ideological, cultural, national developments: migration, the rise of nationalism,
‘ethnic’ and ‘identity politics’, varieties of democracy, of authoritarianism, of capitalism...
* Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man. New York: Free Press, 1992 **
Robert Kagan, The Return of History and the End of Dreams. New York: Atlantic, 2008
Divergence we see growing differences we see growing conflict as matter of fact therefore the
paradoxes of globalisation-- globalisation is more than just convergence it's also divergence
- The interdependence and connectivity, led not to a more peaceful world.
Capitalism led to more conflict
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