VITAL INTERESTS
Lecture 1- 07/09/2021
FIRST 4 LECTURES (tools) à midterm material
1. Intro to VI
2. Power and security of state
3. Framing and agenda setting
4. Governing vital interests
Also guest lecturers are gonna be part of the exam
6 questions, u get to choose 3
- Participation 15%
- Mid-term 25% (1 question, 1 hr) -21/09
- Final exam 60% (3, 3 hrs)- 26/10
How do to do well
- Structure well, study readings
- Reference literature
-
WHAT ARE VITAL INTERESTS?
- Term = no actual definition, you can’t define each vital interest,
- We won’t define the term but talk about power, set agenda, how does international
govs work
- Agenda setting, governance issues, power-related
o How do you define and be actual on vital interests?
Definition of SAFETY AND SECUIRTY
- Acquired values to a state or nationà it has a subjective meaning, there are
different opinions, what is high value to state
§ Ex. Gov agree that national security is a vital interest à people
agree/disagree on what is a threat or not
o Are they vital interests? Not really, but close enough
o It has subjective-objective à there is something that can always be
measured ( ex. investments, imports, exports) à measure how is our
interest, can it be better or no
§ Ex. Threat to national interests à at what point is the danger? Diff
answers
o Is there hierarchy of “vitalness”?
§ Ex. Biopolitics à survival of the state, but at what cost? Survival of
state above survival of citizens
o Who gets to say what is vital? How do you define something as most
important? à
- Harm à security threats (= as a result from actors)/safety dangers(= circumstances).
How do you measure this harm?
o Ex. It is harmful for our interests in middle east à more interpretative, why?
- Protection à okay, there is an acquired value, there is an harm coming , you need
to protect. It is a verb, you need to have political decisions made
o Political decisions, means, compromises, attention
o Things that have to be organized in order for something to happen
,WHAT THE STATE PROTECTS? à vital is what the state protects
“THE PROTECTIVE STATE (ANSWEL)”à western oriented
o Construction of protective state
o It starts at the beginning, most basic form of protectionà foreign and
internal protection àbargain of givin away freedom to a ruler and in
exchange ruler make sure there is peace
§ In exchange of some liberties the state protects citizens
o Form 19th centuryà add layers of protection, u need means to protect
§ There is always a trade between protection and freedom
§ How far can we go in terms of protective the collective?
Features of the protective state
- How preventive is the state?
o The more the state protects, the mmor annoyed citizens are when gov. fails.
o Pre-emption à got into parts that used to be more “reactive” ( police
reinforcement).
§ Gov. start doing prevention before the actual act happens
§ Innocent until proven guilty à do something before u actually do the
crime
o
- The many faces of risk
o The state protect against risk, but also uses it as a governance technique
o Risk and collective versus individual responsibility à
§ Ex. Social democrats have different ideas than liberal on how to split
collective/individual responsibility
- Security and securitization
o Security as “raison d’entre” of the state, expansive concept
§ Safety concerns often framed as security
§ Internal versus external security
• Ex. Climate change
Examples
Ex. Social welfare in Germany picture
Ex. 1920s in America
- NRA (national recovery agency)
Ex. 1970s environmental concerns
Ex. globalization
Ex. 2001 à 9/11
PROTECTION AS A MOVING TARGET
- What can protect? Who? When can we do it ? for how long?
- Protection is politics
o Power politics
o Framing and agenda settings ( you have to frame in a way that everyone will
assess it), international governance
- Protection is layered
, o Change in political thinking, globalization, technology
LAYERS OF PROTECTION: NATIONAL, POPULATION AND SYSTEMS SECUIRTY
- Sovereign security
- Biopolitical
o Population
o Vital systems
GLOBALIZATION AND VITAL INTERESTS
- Not all protection can be organized at the national level
- International cooperation, treaties à ways in which states can start make an effort
to protect
o Solve problems, achieve global public goods (benefits society)
FROM NATIONAL TO GLOBAL
- Not one government,
- What is vital is determined by different govs,
o At the global arena à what is the public?, is it always everyone? (= people,
group of countries? Who are free riders? What are the benefits? Socio-
economics groups, between generations (something for future generations)
§ Sustainable interests
§ What is the global public?=
GLOBAL PUBLIC GOODS (GBG) AS VITAL INTERESTS
- Certain goods are bought by the collective (ex. Traffic lights)
o There is no way to make good connection
o Traffic lights international systems (ex. Organizations, treaties)
o They all serve a purpose
§ Idea of UN à contribute to peace ( peace= ex. Of public good)
o Benefit has to have large international public, quasi universal (= more than
one country and not just the rich population, but everyone)
BACK TO BASICS
- Pure public goods à non rivalrous in consumption and non-excludable à If I use it, I
don’t take it away from others ( = peace, it’s not limited like a cake)
o It does not take away from eachother
o Non-excludableà ideal type, very rare. If I live in peace, I can’t exclude u
from livin and join my peace,
- Impure public goods à not both criteria are met
o Club goodsà NATO ( article 5, protec eachother, only countries within)
o Common pool resources à mostly non-excludable, rivalrous in consumption
§ Ex. The fields outside villages ( common properties)
§ Ex. Outer space treaties à everyone can put satellites
Global public goods and global public bads
- Clean air, pollution ( public bad)
, - Public badsà we collectively create something that is bad for everyone but none
actually planned it
o Ex. International financial crises à starts somewhere, get out of control, start
ina country and grow internationally
o Ex. Global health àwe try first at national level, but international mobility,
spread around
- Supply problems and collective action problems
o Free rider problems à why am I doin it, if the others are not either? (
calculation of
o Tragedy of the commons à why limit yourself if u are not sure others will
§ We don’t trust eachother in doing the right thing
§ Trust à
o Prisoners’ dilemma à lack of info leads to a collective suboptimal outcome
§ Theoretical construct, two people arrested on suspiscious crime
• Start saying” if u cooperate, less jail”
o They cannot communicate, if the don’t say anything
they will both get charge, ( temptation to go after the
other)à cooperation w no exchange of info and not
trust in eachother
Definition of global public gooods
- Pure public goods à universality, what we aim for in an ideal world
- Impure global public goods à what world actually looks like, tryin to figure out how
to do things
In the absence of a global gov, how do we produce GBG?
- Intermediate global public goods (= UN, …international red cross,…
o Negotiate and cooperate
§ Two-tier negotiation à among states, keep agenda to fix problems,
after international way, need to go back to your citizens to explain
why it s a good allocation of money…….
Two main questions for GBG
- One way to look at global cooperation
- Prioritization = who defines them at national and international agenda?
o Political agenda?
- Access = who defines the groups?
- Politics = who gets what, when and how ?
o How do u deal w states that have different agendas?
o Ex. Vaccines, mostly rich countries have them
What is a vital interest and to whom?
- An interest is always na interest to someone
How are VI identified?
- What is the role of expertise?
- Who
- What are the challenges in assessing risks and threats?
How do decision-makers prioritise and choose which interests to protect?
