THE ATTRIBUTES OF TODAY’S GLOBAL SYSTEM

Four Attributes of World Politics

• Countries or states that are independent

and can govern themselves (there is no
way that colonialism will happen)
• These countries interact with each other
through diplomacy
A History of Global Politics: • The presence of international
organizations like the United Nations
Creating an International Order (UN) that facilitate interactions the
interactions between states (because of
united nations, independent countries
can interact diplomatically with other
countries) Diplomats are the ones sent by
Politics - refers to the activities associated with the country to represent them and
the governance of a certain country. This also become their voice in terms of voting of
covers the activities of the government global policies.
concerning the political relations between the
• United Nation mediates the
country. It is also the academic study of
interaction of states and has become
government and the state
the driving force towards creating
peace between war thorn countries
• The international organizations (UN) take
on lives of their own; independent
• i.e. the UN having task – specific
agencies like the World Health
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Organization (WHO) and the
International Labor Organization
• Refers to the interactions between two or (ILO)
more countries or states including is
trade deals, political, military, and other these four attributes is what each independent
diplomatic engagements countries has in them

INTERNATIONALIZATION What is a country or nation – state?

• Exploring the deepening of interactions • Relatively phenomenon in human history

between states • Composed of two non-interchangeable
• This does not mean globalization but is terms; meaning not all states are nations
one of the major part of globalization and not all nations are states
• It is important to study international
How many countries are there in the world?
relations as a facet of globalization
because the state/government are the • Today, there are 195 independent
“key drivers of global process”. countries or states recognized in the
(without a state or government world. Kosovo, which declared
interacting with different leaders there independence from Servia in February
will be no way that a certain global 2008 is the newest country. Territories,
process will continue ) such as Hong Kong (territory of china),
• Serves as the window to view the Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and Greenland
globalization of politics
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 that belong to other countries are not emotional, and political unity: the state is a
considered countries political organization which fulfills the
• Disputes often arise when a territory security and welfare needs of its people. It is
claims to be a country but is not concerned with external human actions. It is
recognized by any other countries. a legal entity. On the other hand, a nation is
Taiwan, for example, claims to be an a united unit of population which is full of
independent country, but China states emotional., spiritual bonds. A nation has little
that Taiwan is a part of China. Therefore, to do with the physical needs of the people
other countries that don’t want to upset • Possession of a Definite Territory is
China also do not recognize Taiwan as essential for the State but not for a Nation:
independent it is essential for each State to possess a fixed
territory. It is the physical element of the
The total comprises 193 countries that are State. State is a territorial entity. But for a
member states of the united nations and 2 nation territory is not an essential
countries that are non-member observer states: requirement. A nation can survive even
the Holy See and the State of Palestine without a fixed territory. Love of a common
Switzerland – latest country that is part of the motherland acts as a source of unity. For
united nations (2002) example, before 1948 the Jews were a nation
even though they had no fixed territory of
Of the 195 countries in the world: their own. When, in 1948, they secured a
definite and defined territory, they
• 54 countries are in Africa established the State of Israel.
• 48 in Asia • Sovereignty is essential for State but not
• 44 in Europe for Nation: Sovereignty – refers to the
• 33 in Latin America and the Caribbean authority of a state to govern itself.
• 14 in Oceania Sovereignty is an essential element of the
• 2 in Northern America State. It is the soul of the State. In the
absence of sovereignty, the State loses its
https://www.worldometers.info/geography/how
existence. It is the element of sovereignty
-many-countries-are -there-in-the-world
which makes the state different from all
CHINA – most populated country/state other associations of the people. It is not
essential for a nation to possess sovereignty.
HOLY SEE – Vatican state. less populated
• The basic requirement of nation is the strong
country/state
bonds of emotional unity among its people
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN STATE & NATION which develop due to several common social
cultural elements. Before 1947, India was a
• The elements of State and Nation are nation but not a State because it did not have
different: The State has four elements – sovereignty (State = Nation + Sovereignty)
population, territory, government, and • After her independence in 1947, India became
sovereignty (function as independent a State because after the end of British
government / soul of the state). In the imperial rule it became a sovereign entity.
absence of even one element , a state However, each nation always aspires to be
cannot be really a state. A state is always sovereign and independent of the control of
characterized by all these four elements. every other nation
On the contrary, a Nation is a group of • Nation can be wider than the State: The State
people who have a strong sense of unity is limited to a fixed territory. Its boundaries
and common consciousness can increase or decrease but the process of
• State is a Political Organization while change is always very complex. However, a
Nation is a social, cultural, psychological, nation may or may not remain within the
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 bounds of a fixed territory. Nation is a power or force or coercive power. It
community based on common ethnicity, is backed by moral, emotional and
history and traditions and aspirations. spiritual power. A nations survives on
• Obviously, its boundaries can easily extend the power of sense of unity of the
beyond the boundaries of the State. For people. A nation appeals, the State
example, in a way the French nation extends orders; a nation persuades, a State
even to Belgium, Switzerland and Italy coerces and a nation boycotts, the
because people in these countries belong to State punishes. State is a political
the same race to which the French claim to organization while nation is a unity
belong • State and nation do not have the
same boundaries and yet there is a
• There can be two or more Nationalities living
tendency for a nation and state to be
in one state: There can be two or more than
one. Most of the national today stand
two nations within a single state. Before the
organized into different states. Most
First World War, Austria and Hungary were one
of the modern states are
State, but two different nations. Most of the
multinational states. The modern
modern state are multinational states
state is called a nation-state
• State – idea of government, self-
because all the (nationalities) living
governing entity
in one state stand integrated into one
• state – places that covers or that forms nation
different areas in that certain state
• Nation is more stable than State: a nation is THE INTERSTATE SYSTEM
stable than the state. When sovereignty ends,
Treaty of Westphalia – becomes the origin of the
the state dies, but not the nation. A nation will
present-day concept sovereignty. This is a set of
survive even without sovereignty . For
agreements signed in 1648 to end the Thirty
example, after their defeat in the World War II,
Years’ War between the major continental powers
bot Germany and Japan lost their sovereign
of Europe; a brutal religious war between
statuses and outside powers began to control
Catholics and Protestants. It is a system signed by
them they ceased to exist as States. But as
the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, France, Sweden
nations they continued to love as nations
and the Dutch Republic that would avert wars by
which after some months regained their
recognizing that the treaty signers would
sovereign statuses and became sovereign
exercise complete control over their domestic
independent states
affairs and swear no to meddle in each others’
• A State can be created while a Nation is
affairs.
always the result of evolution A State can be
created with the conscious endeavors of the This was challenged by Napoleon Banaparte who
people. Physical elements play an important spread the belief of the principles of French
role in the birth of a State. For example, after Revolution – liberty, equality, and fraternity to
the Second World War, Germany got divided the rest of the Europe thus the beginning of
into two separate states, West Germany, and Napoleonic War. Fore every country that they
East Germany. But Germans remained conquer, they implement the Napoleonic Code
emotionally as one nation that forbade birth privileges, encouraged
• The State uses police power (force) for freedom of religion, and promoted meritocracy
preserving its unity and integrity, the Nation (merit system – the more effort that you give, the
is bound by strong cultural and historical more gifts, privileges you’ll have) in government
links service. Until Anglo and Prussian armies defeated
• State has police power. Those who Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo that led to the
dare to disobey it are punished by the creation of the New System, the Concert of
state. A nation does not have police Europe that restored the Westphalian system
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INTERNATIONALISM international relations. He believed that
objective global legislators should aim to
• The Westphalian and the Concert System
divided the world into separate sovereign propose legislations that would create “the
entities. And so, to create a greater greatest happiness of all nations taken
cooperation and unity among states and together.”
people comes the creation of
Internationalism GIUSEPPE MAZZINI – Italian Patriot who
advocated the unification of various Italian
Internationalism is divided by two different
speaking mini-states. He believed in a
categories
Republican government and proposed a system
• LIBERAL INTERNATIONALISM – an of free nations that cooperated with each other
approach to international relations to create an international system. He also
aiming to spread liberal democracy believed that free, unified nation – states
throughout the world in order to bring an should be the basis of global cooperation
end to conflicts. Through this, they can
create and spread the ideals of liberal US PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON – believed
democracy (freedom to make its people that nationalism is the prerequisite of
choose and make decisions for internationalism
themselves to prevent war and conflict
between nations) [right to choose • If a certain has a true sense of
leaders]
nationalism in them, its now going to be
• SOCIAL INTERNATIONALISM
easier for them to have a international

LIBERAL relation with each other because it is only

thru nationalism that you can be able to
IMMANUEL KANT – was the first major thinker of protect your state and nationality
liberal in liberal internationalism where he is • Suggested that the cause of instability
advocating a “federation of free states governed
and conflict was the “undemocratic
by the rule of law”. Kant imagined a form of
global government. nature of international politics”,
particularly in regard to foreign policy
• Kant suggested that when states became and the balance of power (Baylis et al.
republics and their citizens are given the 2008:pg 111). Having identified the cause
opportunity to make decisions, they are
of conflict, it is possible to suggest that
less likely to choose to go to war, that as
more states become republics and the aims of liberal internationalism are
democracy spreads then the likelihood of protecting and expanding democratic
war between nations becomes smaller
practices and free trade, defending
until eventually all nations view war as
irrational and peace triumphs over democracy from its rivals while
conflict (Kant, 1795; (Baylis et al. 2008). protecting and promoting human rights
• One of the most notable advocate of the
• The pursuit of perpetual peace seems to
League of the Nations which serves a
be a key aspect of liberal
internationalism. venue for conciliation and arbitration to
prevent war. The League of the Nations
JEREMY BENTHAM – advocate the creation of gave birth to the creation of World Health
“international law” that would govern Organization (WHO) and the International
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 Labor Organization (ILO). It also gave countries, but into classes – The
birth to the idea of creating a United capitalist (the owners of factories) and
Nations the Proletariat class (workers of the
• The United States was not able to join capitalist)
the league due to a strong opposition • Marx together with Friedrich Engels
from the senate. The league was also opposed nationalism because they
unable to hinder another war from believed that it prevented the unification
breaking out of world’s workers (because if one set of
• Despite its failures, the league still made workers have a strong sense of
a big contribution to how the world nationalism, they will only love their own
politics is now at present because the country, however if they don’t have their
league of the nations was able to create own sense of nationalism, what they will
the WHO and ILO have is more of widening their
boundaries and creating more of
cooperation between the world’s
workers)
• The SI collapsed during the WWI. As the SI
collapsed a more radical version (more
oppressive because the state controls
everything) of it emerged in the form of the
UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS

SOCIALIST •
(USSR) lead by Vladimir Lenin
USSR comprising a confederation of Russia,
was a union of European socialist and labor Belorussia, Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian
parties established in Paris in 1889. It created Federation (divided in 1936 into the Georgian,
May 1 as Labor Day and International Women’s Azerbaijan, and the Armenian republics) and
Day
the first countries that is based on Marxist
socialism
Karl Marx – is an internationalist who believed
that any form of internationalism should be • Which in turn referred to as the Communist
deliberately reject nationalism, which rooted Parties. Lenin established Communist
people to domestic concerns instead of global International which served as the Central
body for directing Communist Parties all over
• Gives more emphasis to the workers. The the world
workers are the building blocks of the • COMINTERN – more radical than Socialist
nation International and less democratic as it
• Less believer of nationalism because follows the top-down governance of the
sometimes it prevents people to think Bolsheviks (party of Lenin who started the
more of having a global perspective USSR)
• He believed on economic equality; where • In the decades after it was established, the
he did not divided the world into Russian-dominated Soviet Union grew into
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 one of the world’s most powerful and
influential states and eventually
encompasses 15 republics – Russia, Ukraine,
Georgia, Belorussia, Uzbekistan, Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Latvia,
Lithuania, and Estonia (all of these are
communist state party – everything is
controlled by states). In 1991, the Soviet
Union was dissolved following the collapse of
its communist government (when this fade
away, its influence were primarily confined to
Europe and has never been considered to be
the major player in the international relations
to this very day)

The most feared war the Liberal Internationalism

would be ascendant and the best evidence to this
is the rise of the United Nations which is the
center of global governance

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