A detailed, in-depth summary of chapter 19 of the book Politics by Andrew Heywood. The summary includes all terms and definitions and is sufficient scope for an exam. This book is often used for first-year political science courses.
CHAPTER 19 – WORLD ORDER AND GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY WORLD ORDER
The ‘new world order’ and its fate
- During the cold war period – two power blocks – USA and USSR (east vs west)
o Two rival military alliances – NATO vs Warsaw Pact
- World order → the distribution of power between and amongst states and other key
actors, giving rise to a relatively stable pattern of relationships and behaviours
- Bipolarity → the tendency of the international system to revolve around two poles
(major power blocs)
- Superpower → power that is greater than the traditional great power
o USA and former USSR
o Characteristics
▪ 1. Global reach
▪ 2. Predominant economic and strategic role in the world
▪ 3. Military capacity (nuclear weapons)
- End of Cold war – liberal internationalism → towards a new world order (Gorbachev)
- Wider use of humanitarian intervention (such as one in Kosovo)
- Humanitarian intervention – when justified
o 1. Gross abuses of human rights
o 2. Threats to security of neighbouring states
o 3. Absence of democracy weakens the principle of national self-determination
o 4. Diplomatic means have been exhausted
- Criticism of humanitarian intervention
o Violation of state sovereignty
o Aggression has almost always been legitimized by humanitarian justification
(Mussolini and Hitler)
o Military intervention can make matters worse not better
- Wave of optimism did not last long
o Bloodshed in Yugoslavia in 1990s
o Kosovo, genocidal policies
- USA has been the only global hegemon
- Genocide → an attempt to eradicate a people – identified by their nationality, race,
ethnicity or religion – through acts including mass murder, forced resettlement and
forced sterilization
- Hyperpower → a power that commands much greater power than any of its
potential rivals and so dominates world politics
- Unipolarity → international system in which there is one pre-eminent state, the
existence of a single great power
The ‘war on terror’ and beyond
- Started after the 9/11 attacks
, - Huntington – clash of civilisations → conflict between China and the west and Islam
and the west
o Criticism – globalization has blurred cultural differences
o The link between cultural difference and political antagonism is questionable
o Conflict may be more an expression of perceived economic and political
injustice than of cultural rivalry
- Huntington
o US academic and political commentator
o Fields: military politics, strategy and civil-military relations
o The Third Wave
- Fukuyama – end of history
- War on terror – US assault on Afghanistan and Iraq war
- Pre-emptive attack → military action that is designed to forestall or prevent likely
future aggression (getting retaliation in first)
- Drift towards multilateralism
- Donald Trump – promised to end the interventions but escalated military operations
in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria
- Imperialism → policy of extending power or rule of a state beyond its borders
From unipolarity to multipolarity?
- Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq raised questions about the nature and extend of USA’s
global leadership
o Noam Chomsky – USA’s a rogue superpower
- Hegemon → a leading or paramount power
- Multipolarity → international system in which there are three or more power
centres, creating a bias in favour of fluidity and instability
- Rising multipolarity has been associated with 3 main trends
o 1. The decline of the USA
o 2. The rise of China and other ‘emerging powers’
o 3. The changing nature of power and power relations
Decline of the USA?
- First mentioned because of the resurgence of Japan and Germany
o But renewed in the 21st century
- Great power → a state deemed to rank amongst the most powerful in a hierarchical
state system, reflecting its influence over minor states
- Imperial over-reach → the tendency for imperial expansion to be unsustainable as
wider military responsibilities outstrip the growth of the domestic economy
o US’s military dominance
o But military power may no longer be a secure basis for hegemony
- Dimensions of global power
o Military power → effectiveness of the military
o Economic power
o ‘soft power’ → cooperative power, smart power
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