Modern State System

• The present day world community is composed of a number

of nation-states.
• The states are the basic units of the international relations.
• In recent times many non-state actors have also become
important in international relations
• The state system is the present organization of the world’s
population into a number of “Independent sovereign nation
states”.
• According to Palmer and Perkins, the state system is the
pattern of political life in which people are separately
organized into sovereign states that interact with one
another in varying degrees and in varying ways.
 Causes for the Birth of the Modern State System
1. Decline of papacy contributed to the rise of Nation
States in Europe
2. Disintegration of the Holy Roman Empire into series
of independent nations such as Spain, France etc
3. Medieval Feudal system declined and it was
displaced by highly and powerful national
monarchies
4. The theoretical contribution of thinkers like
Machiavelli, Bodin, Hobbes and others laid the
foundation of an independent secular nation state
• The Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 was the first attempt to
build up an international system based on independent
National Sovereignty.
• It recognized the independence of Holland and it gave to
France
• The European state system depended largely upon a
balance of power to prevent international disputes.
• Treaty of Westphalia 1648, the treaties of Utrecht 1713,
Vienna 1815, Versailles 1919, and the San Francisco Charter
1945, all contained plans for the preservation of peace.
• After two world wars non European states like the USA,
USSR , Japan and many other new states have become
powerful and influential.
• The European state system has been transformed into
a global structure.
• Today this global structure is composed of a number
of states of varying capabilities and of extremely
diverse cultures.
Features :
1.Territoriality
2.Concept of legal sovereignty
3.Doctrine of Nationalism
4.National Power
5.Political Anarchy
Territoriality:
• The modern state functions based on territoriality. It is
essential for statehood. Every state has a definite
territory over which its sole authority prevails. During
the Middle Ages, exclusive control was neither
possible nor necessary.
• From the seventeenth century, the state has become a
territory or frontier conscious unit due to the
inventions of new long-range armaments and the
development of the means of transport and
communication. After that defending its territorial
integrity became a matter of prestige for the state.
• As long as territoriality remained an essential
element of statehood, war consisted of the
defense of territory acquisition. Most of the wars
in history, including the last two World Wars,
were territorial wars.
• The territory was considered for its own sake and
as a source of military power. At that time, people
of different ethnic and cultural affinities lived
under one ruler as the population’s cultural
homogeneity was not essential.
• Frankel considers the rise of the modern
territorial state as a triumph of particularism over
medieval unity or as a partial victory of unity over
the Middle Ages’ anarchy and disorder.
• On either interpretation, the modern territorial
state is based on the two implements of internal
pacification and external defensibly.
• He also describes the essential element as
impenetrability or impermeability in its strategic
aspects, independence in its political aspects, and
sovereignty in its legal aspects.
Sovereignty:
• Territorial awareness implies the exclusiveness of
jurisdiction of a state within defined boundaries. Here
the state exercises a complete and unrestrained authority,
and this supreme authority is known as sovereignty. The
doctrine of sovereignty emerged along with the
nation-state system.
• Thiswas evolved as a part of the supremacy won after a
difficult and long struggle of the political power over the
papal power. Thinkers like Bodin, Grotius, Hobbes, Locke,
Rousseau, Hegel, Austin, Laski also contributed towards the
doctrine of sovereignty from the seventeenth to the
twentieth century.
• On the one hand, sovereignty has been regarded as
the supreme political characteristic or the central legal
formula of international society. On the other, its
allegedly outdated nature has been blamed for the
present malaise of international life.
• Jean Bodin’s definition made in 1576 that sovereignty
is the supreme power over citizens and subjects
unrestrained by law is still relevant even though
Bodin’s sovereign unrestrained absolutist ruler has
now been replaced by the restrained nation.
• We are not concerned with the controversy around the source
and justification of the sovereignty, its relations with the citizens,
its location, and the issue of whether it can be divided or not.
Sovereignty has both internal and external aspects. But
international relations are concerned only with external
sovereignty, which means freedom to conduct foreign relations,
its impact upon international life in general, and the state system.
• External sovereignty strengthens the state in two principal ways:
• first, the equality of status, and second, freedom in determining
foreign relations.
• Theoretically, this freedom is absolute, but an international
system consisting of completely sovereign states is not feasible as
an anarchist society consisting of fully free individuals
Nationalism:
• If sovereignty offers the legal foundation, nationalism offers
the essential soda-psychological base for the state. Through
nationalism, a state transforms itself into a nation-state; the
latter is thus the political organization that exhibits people
considering themselves a nation.
• 50 great indeed is the significance of nationalism that
references it is inescapable in discussing the contemporary
state system. Nationalism is an inclusive and
multidimensional term that defies a satisfactory definition.
Nation, nationality, national self-determination, patriotism,
and chauvinism are related terms that are often used as
broadly synonymous in different contexts.
• “Nationalism can be defined” in Couloumbis and Wolfe’s words as
a perceived identity of oneself with territoriality organized
political collective such as the United States, the USSR, and other
countries. The psychological need to define oneself in terms of
membership in a given community is at the root of nationalist
sentiment.
• The components of nationalism are a feeling of territoriality
expressed in a love of one’s homeland, a common language, a
tradition of achievement in the arts and literature, narrative
history, and, usually, the fear of the enemy whose enmity
threatens the security of the nation-state.
• According to Haye’s statement, nationalism consists of a modem
emotional fusion and exaggeration of two very old
phenomena-nationality and patriotism
Power Politics :
• Another chief characteristic of the functioning of the state system
is power politics. It implies that states’ relationship is governed
almost entirely by force or threat, without any regard for right and
justice.
• The question of whom power is exercised can be answered by
describing two domains of power. First is the internal domain that
coincides with the territory, population, and wealth within a
nation-state’s boundaries. The external domain is difficult to
explain. It includes those territories and populations outside a
nation-state that belong to its sphere of influence.
• The international political system has traditionally been stratified
because the three “classes” of states-great powers, medium
powers, and small powers have structured the whole political
process
Classification
• Richer and Poor countries
• Based on Ideology
• Based on Power
Challenges to the Modern state
• Development of Military Technology
• Psychological Challenges
• Economic Dependency
• Emergence of Non-State Actors