Notes on the lectures from the course (2021) Actors in World Politics. INCLUDES lectures 2-5, 7-12
(Total: 26 pages).
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Actors in World Politics Lectures Notes (Lectures 2-5, 7-12)
Table of Contents
Lecture 2: International, Global, or Transnational? 1
Lecture 3: Sovereignty and the Nation-State 4
Lecture 4: Transnational Communities - Migration and Diasporas 6
Lecture 5: Transnational Religious Actors 8
Lecture 7: Transnational Corporations 11
Lecture 8: Transnational Organised Crime 13
Lecture 9: Pirates and Private Maritime Security Companies 15
Lecture 10: Transnational Hacktivism 17
Lecture 11: Transnational Political Violence 21
Lecture 12: Transnational Activist Networks 24
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Lecture 2: International, Global, or Transnational?
I. The World Has Become Global
1. Dimensions of globalisation:
● People:
○ Are on the move (i.e. there has been substantial increases in migration over
the years).
○ Global South → Global North
○ HOWEVER, the movement from the South to the South has become more
important.
● Capital:
○ The movement of money and capital.
○ The evolution and globalisation of global trade
1. Increases between 1870-1930.
2. Followed by a steep decline with the rise of fascism.
3. Another rise following the end of WWII.
4. Much higher levels after the 1960s.
○ Changes in the patterns of globalisation, with the Global South playing a
greater role.
● Politics
○ Politics is global, with news being accessed everywhere.
● Culture
○ Standardisation and homogenising of Anglo-American culture products.
○ HOWEVER, there have also been increases in bringing regional specificity
to a much larger audience.
○ Cultural products and strategies are becoming more global.
2. Globalisation as a series of processes:
● Deterritorialization: The process through which geographical territory becomes less
of a constraint on social interactions.
➔ Became more possible with the introduction of high-speed internet.
● Interdependence: The process through which security and force matter less and
countries are connected by multiple social and political relationships.
➔ There is a large reliance on a variety of countries for products that make up
our daily lives (e.g. ores for our mobile phones from the Democratic Republic
of Congo).
➔ More and more economic interdependence exists.
➔ Power and Interdependence (1997) by Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye.
● Time-Space Compression: The set of processes that cause the relative distances
between places (i.e., as measured in terms of travel time or cost) to shrink, effectively
making such places grow “closer”
➔ The Condition of Postmodernity (1990) by David Harvey.
II. Interpreting Globalisation
1. The “International Relations” Approach: Formed as a basis of realism and liberalism (e.g.
The Tragedy of Great Power Politics in 2001 by John J. Mearsheimer).
● The world is divided into domestic/international (e.g. clearly defined territories and
the geopolitics of power).
● States are the main actors of IR.
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● Other actors exist but they are negligible.
2. The “Globalist” Approach: Dominant alternative to the IRs approach following the Cold War
(e.g. The World is Flat in 2005 by Thomas Friedman).
● The world divides are flattened (i.e. no more borders in the world).
● The world is an undifferentiated investment surface (i.e. money and people can move
and travel freely).
● States are no longer relevant.
3. The Transnational Critique: There has been a merging of the two approaches, where there
exists a problem of:
● Analytical purchase, where:
○ Relations develop between states and non-state actors.
○ States adapt to globalisation: transgovernmentalism.
● Conceptualization, where we need to move past the either/or conception (i.e. states
and nonstate actors merge/float between these categories).
III. Directions for a Transnational Approach
1. The Territorial Trap: A concept by John Agnew that is based on three ideas, where:
● States do not have exclusive power over the 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.
➔ The territorial state is a recent invention from the 19th century (i.e. “an accident of
history”). Before this, rule existed in many other forms (city-states, monarchies,
empires), where some did not possess territories or even governments.
➔ There is no strict division between the domestic and international. Most of the states
have been formed by transnational elite networks and transgovernmentalism.
➔ The idea of the nation-state does not equal monarchy, rather it is relational.
3. Spatiality as Networked: The domestic and foreign realms are not separate but networked, as
power operates much more through networks that do not follow an international or a domestic
distinction.
➔ Unified territorial control has a history.
➔ Effective territorial sovereignty is a myth.
4. Identities: Are not homogenous but multiple and hybrid, as nationalism has been historically
determined (i.e. identities have never entirely fit territorial borders) and as globalisation has
reinforced discrepancy (i.e. hybridity rather than homogeneity).
Key Points
Globalisation: Where people, capital, politics and culture are increasingly interconnected across
the globe. Globalisation is not simple, but a complex set of processes of deterritorialization,
interdependence and compression of time and space.
The “Territorial Trap”: Summarise the problematic premises of globalisation with academic
theories debating the disappearance or persistence of the nation-state in the face of globalisation.
Three main concepts of international politics need to be examined:
1. Sovereignty as relational (NOT fixed).
2. Spatiality as networked (NOT surfaces).
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