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Lesson 3

International Relations

- The individual states and the internal politics of the country. - Interaction and trade deals between states. - Political, military and other diplomatic engagements between two or more countries

Internationalization

The phenomenon of exploring the deepening of interactions between states.

Not equal to globalization, though it is a major part of globalization.

The Attributes of Today’s Global System

First, There are countries or states that are independent and govern themselves.

Second, These countries interact with each other through diplomacy.

Third, There are international organization, like the United Nations (UN) that facilitates these interactions.

Fourth, beyond simply facilitating meetings between states, international organizations also take on lives of their own.

Concept of nation, state, country

“country,” or what academics also call the nation-state. This concept is not as simple as it seems. The nation-state is a relatively modern phenomenon in human history, and people did not always organize themselves as countries.

State is a political concept, nation is an ethnic concept (religion, customs, traditions, languages etc)

The nation-state is composed of two non-interchangeable terms. Not all states are nations and not all nations are states. The nation of Scotland, for example, has its own flag and national culture, but still belongs to a state called the United Kingdom.

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Great Britain=England=London

England, Wales and Scotland

USA- 50 states/ nations:1 country; 1 state (USA); 50 nations

Every “states” have their own laws based on their culture, but one federal gov’t (one state and that is United States of America composed of 50 distinct states/ nations).

Meanwhile, if there are states with multiple nations, there are also single nations with multiple states. The nation of Korea is divided into North and South Korea, whereas they share the same nation.

“Chinese nation” may refer to both the People’s Republic of China (the mainland) and Taiwan.

China

PROC = Peoples Republic of China

Capital : Beijing

Taiwan

ROC = Republic of China

Capital is Taipei

One China Policy- there is only one China and that is PROC.

Embassy (China) – Beijing

Embassy – political, economic, cultural relations (bilateral or diplomatic relations)

Taiwan – non-diplomatic relations, economic and cultural relations only

Taipei (Taiwan) – MECO – Manila Economic Cultural Office

Manila (Phil) TECO – Taipei Economic Cultural Office

Arab nations

United by Islam and geography, Arabic language

Many states or independent govt

Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Syria, Sudan, Tunisia, UAE, etc

In general, this area is tied together as a region because all of the countries within it are Arabic-speaking. Some of the countries list Arabic as their only official language, while others speak it, in addition to other languages.

What then is the difference between nation and state?

In layman’s terms, state refers to a country and its government, i.e., the government of the Philippines. A state has four attributes. First, it exercises authority over a specific population, called its citizens. Second, it governs a specific territory. Third, a state has a structure of government that crafts various rules that people (society) follow. Fourth and the most crucial, the state has sovereignty over its territory.

Sovereignty here refers to internal and external authority. Internally, no individuals or groups can operate in a given national territory by ignoring the state’s rules. This means that groups like churches, civil society organizations, corporations, and other entities have to follow the laws of the state where they establish their parishes, offices, or headquarters. Externally, sovereignty means that a state’s policies and procedures are independent of the interventions of other states. Russia or China, for example, cannot pass laws for the Philippines and vice versa.

Calling it "imagined" does not mean that the nation is made-up. Rather, the nation allows one to feel a connection with a community of people even if he/she will never meet all of them in his/her lifetime. Nation and state are closely related because it is nationalism that facilitates state formation. In the modern and contemporary era, it has been the nationalist movements that have allowed for the creation of nation-states. States become independent and sovereign because of nationalist sentiment that clamors for this. Sovereignty is, thus, one of the fundamental principles of modern state politics.

The Interstate System

Treaty of Westphalia: a set of agreements signed in 1648 to end the thirty years war between the major continental powers of Europe.

Provided a stability for the nations of Europe until it faced its major challenge by Napoleon Bonaparte.

The Napoleonic War - lasted from 1803-1815 with Napoleon and his armies marching all over much of Europe.

Napoleon believes in spreading the principles of the French Revolution (Liberty, Equality and Fraternity) to the rest of Europe and challenge the power of Kings, nobility and Religion.

Napoleonic Code - forbade birth privileges, encourage freedom or religion and promoted meritocracy in government services.

Concert of Europe - an alliance of "great powers" (UK, Austria, Russia and Prussia) that sought to restore the world of monarchical, hereditary and religious privileges of the time before French revolution and Napoleonic Wars.

For most of Europe, it was an alliance that sought to restore the sovereignty of states.

Klemens Von Metternich: The Austrian diplomat, who was the Concert of Europe’s main architect.

Internationalism

A system of heightened interaction between various sovereign states, particularly the desire for greater cooperation and unity among states and people.

Two broad categories: Liberal Internationalism and Socialist Internationalism

Liberal Internationalism

First major thinker was Immanuel Kant - States like citizens of countries, must give up some freedom and establish a continuously growing state consisting of various nations which will ultimately include the nations of the world.

Jeremy Bentham – coined the word “international” in 1780, advocated the creation of “international law” that would govern the inter-state relations. - Bentham believed that objective global legislators should aim to propose legislation that would create “the greatest happiness of all nations taken together” (utilitarianism).

Giuseppe Mazzini – An Italian patriot and the first thinker to reconcile nationalism with liberal internationalism. - Mazzini was both an advocate of the unification of the various Italian-speaking mini-states and a major critic of the Metternich System. - Mazzini also believes in a Republican Government (w/o kings, queens and hereditary succession) and proposed a system of free nations that cooperated with each other to create an international system. - Republic (Indirect democracy, representative democracy) For Mazzini, free independent states would be the basis of an equally free and cooperative international system.

Woodrow Wilson – US President (1913-1921) who became one of the 20th century most prominent internationalist. - Like Mazzini, Wilson saw nationalisms as a prerequisite for internationalism. For his faith in nationalism, he forwarded the principle of self-determination – belief that the world’s nation had a right to a free, and sovereign government. - One of Mazzini’s biggest critics was German.

Socialist philosopher Karl Marx - Karl Marx believed that any true form of internationalism should deliberately reject nationalism, which rooted people in domestic concerns instead of global ones. - Marx placed a premium on economic equality and he divided the world into classes.

Social Internationalism

- A union of European socialist and labor parties established in Paris in 1889. - The achievement included the declaration of May 1 as Labor Day and the creation of International Women’s day and it initiated the successful campaign for an 8-hour workday. - As the 1st collapsed during World War I, a more radical version emerged. In the so-called Russian Revolution of 1917, Czar Nicholas II was overthrown and replaced by a revolutionary government led by the Bolshevik Party and its leader, Vladimir Lenin. - The new state was called the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

Communist International (Comintern)

- Russian Revolutionary Vladimir Lenin established it to encourage these socialist revolutions across the world. - The Comintern served as the central body for directing only more radical than the Socialist International, it was also less democratic because it followed closely the top-down governance of the Bolsheviks. - Joseph Stalin - Lenin’s successor, dissolved the Comintern in 1943. - However, Stalin re-established the Comintern as the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform). - The Cominform, like the comintern before helped direct the various communist parties that had taken power in Eastern Europe

With the eventual collapsed of the Soviet Union in 1991, whatever existing thoughts about communist internationalism also practically disappeared.

Mikhail Gorbachev—perestroika (economic reform, restructuring)

Glasnost- political (transparency)

The SI managed to re-establish itself in 1951, but its influence remained primarily confined to Europe, and has never been considered a major player in international relations to this very day.

Internationalism is a very crucial aspect of globalization since global interactions are heightened by the increased interdependence of states.

Increasingly, international relations are also facilitated by international organizations that promote global norms and policies such as the United Nations.

Lesson 4

International Organizations

- United Nations - International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD or World Bank) - International Monetary Fund (IMF) - World Trade Organization

United Nations

The most prominent International Organization (IO) in the contemporary world.

Five Active Organs of the United Nations (UN)

General Assembly (GA) Security Council (SC) Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) International Court of Justice (ICJ) Secretary General

General Assembly (GA)

- Main deliberative policymaking and representative organ. - The GA elects its president annually to serve a one-year term of office. - Filipino Diplomat Carlos P. Romulo was elected as GA President from 1949-1950.

Security Council (SC)

- Considered by many commentators as the most powerful organ of UN as it consists of 15 member states. - GA elects 10 of these 15 to two-year terms. Other five referred to as Permanent five (P5): China, France, Russia, UK and USA. - Takes lead in determining the existence or the threat to the peace. - Calls upon parties to a dispute to settle and recommends adjustment or term of settlement. - States that seek to intervene militarily in another state need to obtain the approval of SC. SC’s approval leads to military intervention may be deemed legal.

Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

The principal body for coordination, policy review, policy dialogue and recommendations on social and environmental issues as well as the implementation of internationally agreed development goals.

Has 54 members elected for three-year terms.

It is the UN’s central platform for discussions on sustainable development.

International Court of Justice (ICJ)

Its task is to settle in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by states and to give advisory opinions referred to it by authorized UN organs and specialized agencies.

Secretary General

It is the bureaucracy of the UN, serving as a kind of international civil service.

Members of the secretariat serve in their capacity as UN employees and not as state representatives.

The UN is not a world government, and its functions primarily because of voluntary cooperation from states. If states refuse to cooperate, the influence of UN can be severely circumscribed.

Challenges of the United Nation

Perhaps, the biggest challenge of UN is related to issues of security. The UN Security Council is tasked with authorizing international acts of military intervention.

Despite these problems, it remains important for the SC to place a high bar on military intervention. The UN Security Council has been wrong on issues of intervention, but it has also made right decisions.

International organizations are highlighted because they are the most visible symbols of global governance.

The UN in particular is the closest to a world government that is why it is important to remember that international institutions like the UN are always in a precarious position.

LESSON 5

Regionalism

Seen as a political and economic phenomenon and examines relation to identities, ethnics, religion, ecological sustainability and health.

A process that must be treated as an “emergent, socially constituted phenomenon.

Regions are not natural or given; they are constructed and defined by policymakers, economic actors and even social movements.

Regions

Group of countries located in the same geographically specified area.

Two regions united or a combination of more than two regions.

Regionalization and Regionalism

- Regionalization refers to the regional concentration of economic flows

- Regionalism is a political process characterized by economic policy cooperation and coordination among countries.

Countries

- It respond economically and politically to globalization in various ways.

- Large countries have a lot of resources to dictate how they participate in process of global integration.

- GNP/population = per capita

- Small countries take advantage of their strategic resources by turning themselves into financial and banking hubs.

Reasons why Countries Form Regional Associations:

For Military Defense

To pool their resources

To protect their independence

Compels countries to come together

Economic crisis

Non-State Regionalism

New Regionalism

Tiny associations that include no more than a few actors and focus on a single issue, or huge continental unions that address a multitudes of common problems from territorial defense to food security.

Contemporary Challenges to Regionalism

Nationalism

Populism

Financial Crisis

Regional Stability

Different visions of what regionalism should be for.

Countries will found it difficult to reject all forms of global economic integration, it will also be hard for them to turn their backs on their regions.

The future regionalism will be contingent on the immense changes in global politics that will emerge in the 21st century.