Summary
Global Politics summary IB
Full summary for IB Global Politics Course including case studies
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PowerPower is the ability of actors to achieve their preferred outcomes.
Hard power: ability to make others do what you want them to do, whether they want to do it or not (coercion).
Hard power is a threat.
Soft power: ability to make others genuinely want what you want (eg. culture). Soft power is attraction.
Smart power: the combination of hard and soft power (eg. using military power
● Resources: economy, population, military force, cultural influence -> you need skills to be able to use
these resources
● Sanctions are economic measures in the form of trade restrictions. Recently sanctions have been
imposed on countries like North Korea and Iran to compel them to stop their nuclear weapons
programs.
● Relational power: eg. having a seat at the UN security council or being part of the G7
● Structural power: the ability of a country to shape how global politics works - ideologies eg. America
and how it shaped global governance
● Social and cultural power
Examples of use of power
● Trade (stopping trade)
● International aid (withdrawing aid)
● Sanctions
● Military threat
● Having a seat at the UN / relationships
Structural power examples
● Having a VETO in the UN
● USA coined the Human Rights
● IMF
● Having MNCs
Smart power examples
● America and Afghanistan: America used force to go against the talibans, and they used soft power by
investing $1.5 billion every year to partner with pakistani to build schools, hospitals, and roads.
Classical realism: power is an end
Neorealism: power is a means to an end (survival); the end goal of a state is survival, and the way that they
can obtain this goal is through power
,Offensive realism: to get as much power as possible to be a global hegemony. -> I attack a state because I
want more power
Defensive realism: to get as much power to defend oneself and make sure that nobody becomes a hegemony
(and that states remain equal). -> I attack a state when they threaten to become more powerful than me.
,Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the belief that states hold supreme power an authority within territory
Characteristics of sovereignty
Internal sovereignty: governments have ultimate authority on what is going on inside their country
External sovereignty: Internationally, sovereignty requires other countries to respect borders and to avoid using
military force to go against this. It promotes equality between countries.
Responsible sovereignty: you can do what you want as long as your decisions don’t impact other states.
● When a country violates the rights of its people, it forfeits / loses its sovereignty.
● You can challenge the legitimacy of a state if they violate human rights through R2P
Treaty of Westphalia: the concept of sovereignty arose in the 17th century after the 30 years’ war. The treaty
created states / borders, everyone agreed to respect the other person’s borders, and it states that the church
and religion don’t have any control on a political level.
Westphalian sovereignty, sometimes known as state sovereignty, refers to the premise that each state
possesses exclusive sovereignty over the territory that it controls.
How to become a state:
● There has been a referendum
● You need the agreement of the state you are breaking away from
● You have to prove that breaking away is not going to be detrimental to the state you are breaking away
from.
Is sovereignty outdated?
● Human rights violations
● Responsible sovereignty
● R2P
● Type of government
Types of states
Fragile states
Failed states
Federal states
Democratic states
Unitary states
Authoritarian states
, Fragile states
A fragile state or weak state is a country characterized by weak state capacity or weak state legitimacy
Examples: Haiti, Libya, Iraq
Failed states
A failed state is a state that has lost its effective ability to govern its populace. A failed state maintains legal
sovereignty but experiences a breakdown in political power, law enforcement, and civil society, leading to a
state of near-anarchy.
Examples: Afghanistan, Syria
Federal states
In federal states, there is a government (usually in the capital city) which has central power over some policy.
Beyond this, there are governments at sub.national level which have power to make and enforce the law.
Example: United States
Democratic state
In democracies, state governments are elected by free and fair elections. Every adult member of the
population can vote for the government or representative they choose without intimidation, interference, and
with every vote counting equally.
Unitary states
In unitary states, the central government has greater control over what happens within its territory. Most
decisions and laws are decided by a national legislature (eg. a national elected parliament or an assembly).
Example: United Kingdom, Scotland
Authoritarian states
An authoritarian state is a state where there is no democracy. The government is not elected and it its authority
cannot be challenged.
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