Summary of the book 'The Globalization of World Politics' by John Baylis, from chapters 1-11, 14, 20-22, 25 and 26. In addition, further explanation of difficult terms and concepts.
Why is the effectiveness of international institutions often limited
Essay : International Relations (Post-colonialism) The Globalization of World Politics, ISBN: 9780199569090
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Introduction to International Relations
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The Globalization of World Politics – John Baylis et. Al
Chapter 1 – Globalization and global politics
Globalization can be defined as a historical process involving a fundamental shift or transformation in
the spatial scale of human social organization that links distant communities and expands the reach
of power relations across regions and continents. Over the last three decades the sheer scale, scope
and acceleration of global interconnectedness have become increasingly evident in every sphere,
from the economic to the cultural. There has been dramatic growth in transnational and global forms
of governance, rule-making and regulation. Sceptics contend that what is termed ‘globalization’ is
simply evidence of growing international interdependence, or exchanges among countries.
Internationalization presumes that states remain discrete national units in which borders matter.
Globalization refers to a process in which the very distinction between domestic and the external
breaks down. Borders are no longer barriers. Distance and time has collapsed, so that events many
thousands of miles away can come to have almost immediate local consequences.
Sceptical view of globalization:
- The world is much less globalized economically, politically and culturally compared to 1870-
1914
- The majority of international economic and political activity is concentrated within the group
of OECD states
- The majority of the world’s population and countries in the South are now much less
integrated into the global system
- Geopolitics, state power, nationalism and territorial boundaries are of growing, not declining,
significance in world politics
- Globalization is a myth that conceals the significance of Western capitalism and US hegemony
in shaping contemporary world politics
Explanations of globalization tend to focus on three interrelated factors: technics, economics and
politics.
The Peace Treaties of Westphalia and Osnabruck (1648) established the legal basis of modern
statehood, and by implication the fundamental rules or constitution of modern world politics. It has
formed the normative structure or constitution of the modern world order. At the heart of the
Westphalian settlement was agreement among Europe’s rulers to recognize each other’s right to rule
their own territories, free from outside interference.
The Westphalian Constitution of world politics:
- Territoriality: humankind is organized principally into exclusive territorial (political)
communities with fixed borders
- Sovereignty: within its borders the state or government has an entitlement to supreme,
unqualified, and exclusive political and legal authority.
- Autonomy: the principle of self-determination or self-governance considers countries as
autonomous containers of political, social, and economic activity – fixed borders separate the
domestic sphere from the world outside.
Post-Westphalian order:
- Territoriality: Borders still remain politically significant, but under conditions of globalization a
new geography of political organization and political power is emerging that transcends
territories and borders.
- Sovereignty: The sovereign power is being transformed but not necessarily eroded.
Sovereignty today is increasingly understood as the shared exercise of public power and
authority by national, regional, and global authorities.
- Autonomy: To achieve domestic objectives in a more interdependent world, national
governments are forced to engage in extensive multilateral collaboration and cooperation.
,Is globalization a source of order or disorder in world politics?
For
- Globalization creates deepening interdependence and spreading prosperity, thereby
reinforcing global stability and the diffusion of democracy
- Interdependence promotes peaceful relations amongst great powers
- Globalization enhances human security, a reduction of people living in poverty and an
expanding global middle class
- Global governance reduces the potential for conflict, conflicts can be managed without
resorting to military force or violence because of a more cooperative world order
- Globalization has contributed to the emergence of new power centres and thereby to a
multipolar world order limiting the likelihood of any single power becoming dominant or a
global hegemon
- Globalization requires shared rules, thereby promoting the international rule of law
Against
- Globalization is a source of great power competition.
- Globalization creates an increasingly divided and fractious world order, with economic rivalry
and competition for resources
- Globalization is a source of conflict and insecurity, it is seen as Western domination
- Globalization undermines the established world order. The rise of new powers, associated
with economic globalization, is a growing source of instability and insecurity as new powers
challenge the rules, norms, and institutions of the established world order.
- Globalization generates the conditions for a more unruly world, for example transnational
criminal activity, drugs trade.
GFC – Global Financial Crisis
, Chapter 2 – The rise of modern international order
The key feature that distinguishes international from domestic politics is that, in the international
sphere, political units are forced to coexist in the absence of an overarching authority.
Was the rise of the West the result of its own strengths?
For:
- The West alone had inclusive political institutions.
- The Enlightenment promoted new forms of scientific findings.
- The West pioneered a range of new economic practices, double entry bookkeeping and
comparable innovations allowed for a clear evaluation of profit, thereby enabling companies
to provide credit in depersonalized form – the hallmark of commercial capitalism
- The West enjoyed unusually beneficial geographical circumstances
Against:
- Very few of the materials that were fundamental to the rise of the West originated from
within Western societies (cotton is not indigenous to England)
- For many centuries, Asian powers were held in respect, even awe, in many parts of Europe,
India and China were dominant in manufacturing and many areas of technology between
1600 and 1800
- European success was based on imperialism
- European power was premised on multiple forms of inequality
Historical international orders
International orders are regularized practices of exchange among discrete political units that
recognize each other to be independent.
Westphalia (1648) is said to matter because it established the principle of ‘sovereign territoriality. A
number of criticisms of the Westphalian narrative have emerged in recent years:
1. Westphalia was not a European-wide agreement, but a local affair – its main concerns were
to safeguard the internal affairs of the Holy Roman Empire and to reward the victors of the
Wars of Religion (France and Sweden)
2. The gains of Westphalia were relatively slight
3. Westphalia actually set limits to the principle of sovereignty established at the 1555 Peace of
Augsburg, for example by retracting the rights of polities to choose their own religion.
How did modern international order emerge?
There are a number of explanations for what is sometimes called the ‘great divergence’ between East
and West.
First, some accounts concentrate on innovations such as the capacity of liberal constitutions in the
West to restrict levels of domestic conflict.
Others, in contrast, focus on the frequency of European inter-state wars, it is argued, led to
technological and tactical advances, the development of standing armies, and the expansion of
permanent bureaucracies. In this way, the nineteenth-century European states combined their need
for taxation with support for financial institutions that could, in turn, deliver the funds required for
investment in armaments.
A third set of explanations highlights the role of ideas in producing the great divergence, most
notably the scientific advances associated with the European Enlightenment.
A fourth set of approaches concentrate on the geographical and demographic advantages enjoyed by
the West: a temperate climate that was inhospitable to parasites, and later marriage habits, which led
to lower fertility rates and, in turn, lower population densities.
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