.

Chapter 2 The End of Bipolarity Class 12 Political Science

Notes

What was the Soviet System?

• The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) came into being after the
socialist revolution in Russia in 1917.

• The revolution was inspired by the ideals of socialism, as opposed to capitalism,

and the need for an egalitarian society.

• The Soviet political system centred around the communist party, and no other
political party or opposition was allowed. The economy was planned and
controlled by the state.

• After the Second World War, the east European countries that the Soviet army
had liberated from the fascist forces came under the control of the USSR. This
group of countries was called the Second

World or the ‘socialist bloc’ held together by Warsaw Pact, a military alliance.

• After the Second World War, the Soviet economy was then more developed than
the rest of the world except for the US. The Soviet state ensured a minimum
standard of living for all citizens, and the government subsidised basic
necessities including health, education, childcare and other welfare schemes.
There was no unemployment.

• The Soviet system became very bureaucratic and authoritarian, making life
very difficult for its citizens.
• In the arms race, the Soviet Union managed to match the US from time to time,
but the Soviet Union lagged behind the West in technology, infrastructure and in
fulfilling the political or economic aspirations of citizens.

• The Soviet economy was faltering in the late 1970s and became stagnant.

Gorbachev and the Disintegration

• Mikhail Gorbachev, who had become General Secretary of the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union in 1985 started reforming the system.

• He decided to normalise relations with the West and democratise and reform
the Soviet Union but he did not anticipate the defects of the system.

• The people in the East European countries which were part of the Soviet bloc
started to protest against their own governments and Soviet control. Gorbachev,
did not intervene when the disturbances occurred, and the communist regimes
collapsed one after another.

• The democratic reforms were opposed by leaders within the Communist Party.
A coup took place in 1991 that was encouraged by Communist Party hardliners.
The people did not want the old-style rule of the Communist Party and wanted
freedom.

• In December 1991, under the leadership of Yeltsin, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus,
three major republics of the USSR, declared that the Soviet Union was disbanded.
Capitalism and democracy were adopted as the bases for the post-Soviet
republics.

• Russia was now accepted as the successor state of the Soviet Union. It inherited
the Soviet seat in the UN Security Council. Russia accepted all the international
treaties and commitments of the Soviet Union.
Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate?

• The internal weaknesses of Soviet political and economic institutions failed to

meet the aspirations of the people.

• The Soviet economy used much of its resources in maintaining a nuclear and
military arsenal and the development of its satellite states in Eastern Europe and
within the Soviet system (the five Central Asian Republics in particular). Thus,
economic stagnation for many years led to severe consumer shortages and a
large section of Soviet society began to doubt and question the system.

• The Communist Party that had ruled the Soviet Union for over 70 years was not
accountable to the people. Ordinary people were alienated by slow and stifling
administration, rampant corruption, the inability of the system to correct
mistakes it had made, the unwillingness to allow more openness in government,
and the centralisation of authority in a vast land.

• A section of the society was not happy with the reforms of Gorbachev. It was
believed that the reforms introduced by Gorbachev were at a very slow pace.

• The rise of nationalism and the desire for sovereignty within various republics
including Russia and the Baltic republics.

Consequences of Disintegration

• It meant the end of Cold War confrontations. The ideological dispute over
whether the socialist system was over.

• Power relations in world politics changed therefore it led to change in the

relative influence of ideas and institutions.
• The US became the sole superpower. Backed by the power and prestige of the
US, the capitalist economy was now the dominant economic system
internationally.

• Institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund became
powerful advisors to all countries.

• Politically, the notion of liberal democracy emerged as the best way to organise
political life.

• The end of the Soviet bloc paved way for the emergence of many new countries
who had their own independent aspirations and choices. Some of them,
especially the Baltic and east European states, wanted to join the European Union
and become part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The Central
Asian countries wanted to take advantage of their geographical location and
continue their close ties with Russia and also to establish ties with the West, the
US, China and others.

Shock therapy in post-communist regimes

• The model of transition in Russia, Central Asia and East Europe from an
authoritarian socialist system to a democratic capitalist system which was
influenced by the World Bank and the IMF came to be known as ‘Shock Therapy’.

• Shock therapy varied in intensity and speed amongst the former second world
countries, but its direction and features were quite similar.

• Each of the countries was required to make a total shift to a capitalist economy,
which meant rooting out completely any structures evolved during the Soviet
period.

• The transition also involved a break up of the existing trade alliances among the
countries of the Soviet bloc.
Consequences of Shock Therapy

• The shock therapy brought ruin to the economies and disaster upon the people
of the entire region.

• The value of the ruble, the Russian currency, declined dramatically and the rate
of inflation was so high that people lost all their savings.

• The old system of social welfare was systematically destroyed. The withdrawal
of government subsidies pushed large sections of the people into poverty.

• The construction of democratic institutions was not given the same attention
and priority as the demands of economic transformation.

Tensions and Conflicts

• Most of the former Soviet Republics are prone to conflicts, and many have had
civil wars and insurgencies.

• In Russia, two republics, Chechnya and Dagestan, have had violent secessionist
movements.

• Tajikistan witnessed a civil war for almost 10 years till 2001. The region had
many sectarian conflicts.

Central Asia too become a zone of competition between outside powers and oil
companies.

• In eastern Europe, Czechoslovakia was divided into two, the Czechs and the
Slovaks thus forming independent countries.

• Yugoslavia broke apart with several provinces like Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia
and Herzegovina declaring independence.
India and Post-Communist Countries

• India has maintained good relations with all the post- communist countries.
India’s relations with Russia are an important aspect of India’s foreign policy as
both the countries share a vision of a multipolar world order.

• More than 80 bilateral agreements have been signed between India and Russia
as part of the Indo-Russian Strategic Agreement of 2001.

• India benefitted from Russia over issues like Kashmir, energy supplies, access to
Central Asia, balancing its relations with China.

• Russia benefitted from this relationship because India is the second largest
arms market for Russia.

Timeline of Chapter 2 The End of Bipolarity

• March 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev elected as the General Secretary of the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union; appoints Boris Yeltsin as the head of the
Communist Party in Moscow; initiates a series of reforms in the Soviet Union

• 1988: Independence movement begins in Lithuania; later spreads to Estonia

and Latvia

• October 1989: Soviet Union declares that the Warsaw Pact members are free to
decide their own futures; Berlin Wall falls in November

• February 1990: Gorbachev strips the Soviet Communist Party of its 72-year-
long monopoly on power by calling on the Soviet parliament (Duma) to permit
multi- party politics

• March 1990: Lithuania becomes the first of the 15 Soviet republics to declare its
independence
• June 1990: Russian parliament declares its independence from the Soviet Union

• June 1991: Yeltsin, no longer in the Communist Party, becomes the President of
Russia

• August 1991: The Communist Party hardliners stage an abortive coup against
Gorbachev

• September 1991: Three Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

become UN members (later join NATO in March 2004)

• December 1991: Russia, Belarus and Ukraine decide to annul the 1922 Treaty
on the Creation of the USSR and establish the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS); Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan join the CIS (Georgia joins later in 1993); Russia
takes over the USSR seat in the United Nations

• 25 December 1991 : Gorbachev resigns as the President of the Soviet Union; the
end of the Soviet Union
Chapter 4 Alternative Centres of Power Class 12 Political Science Notes

European Union

• European integration after 1945 was aided by the Cold War. America extended massive
financial help for reviving Europe’s economy under what was called the ‘Marshall Plan’.

• Under the Marshall Plan, the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC)
was established in 1948 to channel aid to the west European states.

• The Council of Europe established in 1949 was another step forward in political
cooperation. The Process of economic integration of European capitalist countries
proceeded leading to the formation of the European Economic Community in 1957.

• After the collapse of Soviet bloc, European Union was established in 1992. It has its own
flag, anthem, founding date and currency.

• European union was the world’s largest economy in 2005. It had a GDP of more than US
$17 trillion in 2016. Its share of world trade is much larger than that of the United States. Its
currency, the euro, can pose a threat to the dominance of US dollar.

• Militarily, the EU’s combined armed forces are the second largest in the world. Its total
spending on defence is second after the US. Two EU member states, France and Britain,
also have nuclear arsenals of approximately 550 nuclear warheads. It is also the world’s
most important source of space and communication technology.

On the political and diplomatic ground, Britain and France, the two members of EU are
permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Association of South East Asian nations (ASEAN)

• Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established in 1967 by five

countries of this region – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand by
signing the Bangkok Declaration.
• On the ASEAN logo, the ten stalks of paddy (Rice) represent the ten South East Asian
countries bound together in friendship and solidarity. The circle symbolises the unity of
ASEAN.

• The objectives of ASEAN were primarily to accelerate economic growth and through that
‘social progress and cultural development’. A secondary objective was to promote regional
peace and stability based on the rule of law and the principles of the United Nations
Charter.

• ASEAN countries have adopted the ‘ASEAN way’ as a form of interaction that is informal,
non-confrontationist and cooperative.

• In 2003, ASEAN moved along the path of establishing an ASEAN community comprising
three pillary, namely, the ASEAN security community, the ASEAN Economic Community
and the ASEAN Sociocultural community.

• ASEAN had several agreements in place by which member states promised to uphold
peace, neutrality, cooperation, non-interference and respect for national differences and
sovereign rights.

• ASEAN has focused on creating a Free Trade Area (FTA) for investment, labour and
services.

• ASEAN vision 2020 has defined an outward-looking role for ASEAN in the international
community. This builds on the existing ASEAN policy to encourage negotiation over
conflicts in the region.

• India signed trade agreements with three ASEAN members, Malaysia, Singapore and
Thailand. The ASEAN-India FTA came into effect in 2010.

The Rise of the Chinese Economy

• China has been growing as an economic power since 1978. It is projected to overtake the
US as the world’s largest economy by 2040. Its economic integration into the region makes
it the driver of East Asian growth.

• After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, under the leadership of
Mao, its Economy was based on the Soviet model. This model allowed China to use its
resources to establish the foundations of an industrial economy on a scale that did not
exist before.
• China ended its political and economic isolation with the establishment of relations with
the United States in 1972. Premier Zhou Enlai proposed the ‘four
modernisations’(agriculture, industry, science and technology and military) in 1973.

• By 1978, the then leader Deng Xiaoping announced the ‘open door’ policy and economic
reforms in China.

• The privatisation of agriculture in 1982 was followed by the privatisation of industry in

1998. Trade barriers were eliminated only in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) where foreign
investors could set up enterprises.

• Privatisation of agriculture led to a remarkable rise in agricultural production and rural

incomes. The new trading laws and the creation of Special Economic Zones led to a
phenomenal rise in foreign trade and become the most important destination for foreign
direct investment (FDI) anywhere in the world.

• While the Chinese economy has improved dramatically, not everyone in China has
received the benefits of the reforms.

• The rate of unemployment has risen, working conditions and female employment is bad.

• However, regionally and globally, China has become an economic power to reckon with.

India-China Relations

• Historically, there was limited political and cultural interaction between India and China.

• After independence, both states were involved in differences arising from the Chinese
takeover of Tibet in 1950 and the final settlement of the Sino-Indian border.

• The conflict of 1962, in which India suffered military reverses, had long-term implications
for India–China relations. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were
downgraded until 1976.

• After the change in China’s political leadership from the mid to late 1970s, China’s policy
became more reasonable and less ideological.

• A series of talks to resolve the border issue were also initiated in 1981.

• Rajiv Gandhi’s visit to China in December 1988 provided the impetus for an improvement
in India–China relations.
• Bilateral trade between India and China has increased from $338 million in 1992 to more
than $84 billion in 2017. Both countries have agreed to cooperate with each other in areas
that could otherwise create conflict between the two, such as bidding for energy deals
abroad.

Timeline of European Integration

• April 1951: Six west European countries, France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the
Netherlands and Luxembourg sign the Treaty of Paris establishing the European Coal and
Steel Community (ECSC).

• 25 March 1957: These six countries sign the Treaties of Rome establishing the European
Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom).

• January 1973: Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom join the European Community
(EC).

• June 1979: First direct elections to the European Parliament

• January 1981: Greece joins the EC.

• June 1985: The Schengen Agreement abolishes border controls among the EC members.

• January 1986: Spain and Portugal join the EC.

• October 1990: Unification of Germany.

• 7 February 1992: The Treaty of Maastricht was signed establishing the European Union
(EU).

• January 1993: The single market was created.

• January 1995: Austria, Finland and Sweden join the EU.

• January 2002: Euro, the new currency, was introduced in the 12 EU members.

• May 2004: Ten new members, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia,
Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia join the EU.

• January 2007: Bulgaria and Romania join the EU. Slovenia adopts the Euro.

• December 2009: The Lisbon Treaty came into force.

• 2012: The EU is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

• 2013: Croatia becomes the 28th member of the EU.

• 2016: Referendum in Britain, 51.9 per cent voters decide that Britain exit (Brexit) from the
EU.
Chapter 5 Contemporary South Asia Class 12 Political Science
Notes

What is South Asia?

• South Asia usually includes the following countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India,
the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The various countries in South Asia
do not have the same kind of political systems.

• Pakistan and Bangladesh have experienced both civilian and military rulers.
Nepal was a constitutional monarchy but democracy has been established there.
Democracy can also be seen in Bhutan and Maldives.

The Military and Democracy in Pakistan

• After Pakistan framed its first constitution, General Ayub Khan took over the
administration of the country and soon got himself elected. There was popular
dissatisfaction against his rule.

• After this, General Yahya Khan took over the control. During Yahya’s military
rule, Pakistan faced the Bangladesh crisis, and after a war with India in 1971,
East Pakistan broke away to emerge as an independent country called
Bangladesh.
• After this, a government was formed under the leadership of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
from 1971 to 1977.

• The Bhutto government was removed by General Zia-ul-Haq in 1977.

• General Zia faced a pro-democracy movement from 1982 onwards and an

elected democratic

government was established once again in 1988 under the leadership of Benazir
Bhutto. After this, she had to face competition from the Pakistan People’s Party
and the Muslim League.

• In 1999, the army stepped in again and General Pervez Musharraf removed
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

• In 2001, General Musharraf got himself elected as the President.

• Since 2008, democratically elected leaders have been ruling Pakistan.

Factors that have contributed to Pakistan’s failure in building a stable

democracy:

• The social dominance of the military, clergy, and landowning aristocracy has led
to the frequent overthrow of elected governments and the establishment of
military government.
• Pakistan’s conflict with India has made the pro-military groups more powerful.

• The lack of genuine international support for democratic rule in Pakistan has
further encouraged the military to continue its dominance.

Democracy in Bangladesh

• Bangladesh was a part of Pakistan from 1947 to 1971. The people of this region
resented the domination of western Pakistan and the imposition of the Urdu
language.

• After the partition, they began protests against the unfair treatment meted out
to the Bengali culture and language.

• Sheikh Mujib-ur Rahman led the popular struggle against West Pakistani
domination. He demanded autonomy for the eastern region.

• In 1970 elections, the Awani league under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman won all
seats but the government dominated by the West Pakistani leadership refused to
convene the assembly.

• Under the military rule of General Yahya Khan, the Pakistani army tried to
suppress the mass movement of the Bengali people. Thousands were killed by
the Pakistan army.

• The government of India supported the demand of the people of East Pakistan
for their independence and helped them financially and militarily.

• This resulted in a war between India and Pakistan in December 1971 that
ended in the surrender of the Pakistani forces in East Pakistan and the formation
of Bangladesh as an independent country.
• Bangladesh drafted its constitution declaring faith in secularism, democracy
and socialism.

• In 1975 Sheikh Mujib got the constitution amended to shift from the
parliamentary to presidential form of government. He also abolished all parties
except his own, the Awami League.

• Sheikh Mujib was assassinated and a military rule was established under Ziaur
Rahman. He was assassinated and another military takeover followed under the
leadership of Lt Gen H. M. Ershad.

• Mass public protests made Ershad step down in 1990. Elections were held in
1991. Since then representative democracy based on multi-party elections has
been working in Bangladesh.

Monarchy and Democracy in Nepal

• Nepal was a Hindu Kingdom in the past but later changed into a constitutional
monarchy in the modern period for many years.

• The king accepted the demand for a new democratic constitution in 1990, in the
wake of a strong pro-democracy movement.

• During the nineties, the Maoists of Nepal were successful in spreading their
influence in many parts of Nepal.

• In 2002, the king abolished the parliament and dismissed the government, thus
ending even the limited democracy that existed in Nepal.

• In April 2006, there were massive, country wide, pro-democracy protests. The
largely non-violent movement was led by the Seven Party Alliance (SPA), the
Maoists and social activists. The pro-democracy forces achieved their first major
victory when the king was forced to restore the House of Representatives that
had been dissolved in April 2002.
• In 2008, Nepal became a democratic republic after abolishing the monarchy. In
2015, it adopted a new constitution.

Ethnic Conflict and Democracy in Sri Lanka

• Sri Lanka has retained democracy since its independence in 1948 but it faced a
serious challenge from ethnic conflict leading to the demand for secession by one
of the regions.

• After its independence, politics in Sri Lanka was dominated by forces that
represented the interest of the majority Sinhala community.

• The Sinhala nationalists thought that Sri Lanka should not give ‘concessions’ to
the Tamils because Sri Lanka belongs to the Sinhala people only.

• From 1983 onwards, the militant organisation, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) has been fighting an armed struggle with the army of Sri Lanka and
demanding ‘Tamil Eelam’ or a separate country for the Tamils of Sri Lanka. The
LTTE controls the northeastern parts of Sri Lanka.

• In 1987, the government of India signed an accord with Sri Lanka and sent
troops to stabilise relations between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamils.

• In 1989, the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) pulled out of Sri Lanka without
attaining its objective.

• The Scandinavian countries such as Norway and Iceland tried to bring the
warring groups back to negotiations. Finally, the armed conflict came to an end,
as the LTTE was vanquished in 2009.

• Despite of the conflict, Sri Lanka has registered considerable economic growth
and recorded high levels of human development.
India-Pakistan Conflicts

• After independence, India and Pakistan got involved in issue related to Kashmir.
It led to wars in 1947-48 and 1965 which failed to settle the matter.

• In 1971, India won a decisive war against Pakistan but the Kashmir issue
remained unsettled.

• India’s conflict with Pakistan is also over strategic issues like the control of the
Siachen glacier and over acquisition of arms.

• In 1998, India conducted nuclear explosion in Pokaran. Pakistan responded

within a few days by carrying out nuclear tests in the Chagai Hills.

• India and Pakistan also have had problems over the sharing of river waters of
Indus.

• The two countries are not in agreement over the demarcation line in Sir Creek
in the Rann of Kutch.

India and its other neighbours

• The governments of India and Bangladesh have had differences over several
issues including the sharing of the Ganga and Brahmaputra river waters.

• The Indian government has been unhappy with Bangladesh’s denial of illegal
immigration to India, its support for anti-Indian Islamic fundamentalist groups,
Bangladesh’s refusal to allow Indian troops to move through its territory to
northeastern India, and its decision not to export natural gas to India.
• Nepal and India enjoy a very special relationship. A treaty between the two
countries allows the citizens of the two countries to travel to and work in the
other country without visas and passports. Areas such as trade, scientific
cooperation, common natural resources, electricity generation and interlocking
water management grids hold the two countries together, but there are some
differences too.

• India has stopped interfering in the internal and ethnic affairs of Sri Lanka since
1987. Both the countries share a sound relationship now. Both have signed Free
Trade Agreement. India supported Sri Lanka at the time of Tsunami.

• India enjoys a very special relationship with Bhutan too. The efforts made by
the Bhutanese monarch to weed out the guerrillas and militant from
northeastern India that operate in his country have been helpful to India.

• India and Maldives also have a good relationship. India had provided military
support to Maldives in 1969 when a mercenary Tamil soldier from Sri Lanka
attacked Maldives.

• Nepal and Bhutan, as well as Bangladesh and Myanmar, have had

disagreements in the past over the migration of ethnic Nepalese into Bhutan and
the Rohingyas into Myanmar, respectively.

• Bangladesh and Nepal have had some differences over the future of the
Himalayan river waters.

Peace and Cooperation

• The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is a major

regional initiative by the South Asian states to evolve cooperation through
multilateral means which began in 1985.
• SAARC members signed the South Asian Free Trade (SAFTA) agreement which
promised the formation of a free trade zone for the whole of South Asia.

• SAFTA was signed in 2004 and came into effect on 1 January 2006. SAFTA aims
at lowering trade tariffs. But some of our neighbours fear that SAFTA is a way for
India to ‘invade’ their markets and to influence their societies and politics
through commercial ventures and a commercial presence in their countries.

• Although India-Pakistan relations are of conflict and violence, there have been a
series of efforts to manage tensions and build peace.

• China and the United States remain key players in South Asian politics. Sino-
Indian relations have improved significantly in the last ten years, but China’s
strategic partnership with Pakistan remains a major irritant.

• The US has had good relations with both India and Pakistan since the end of the
Cold War and increasingly works as a moderator in India-Pakistan relations.

Timeline of Contemporary South Asia

• 1947: India and Pakistan emerge as independent nations after the end of
British rule.

• 1948: Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) gains independence; Indo- Pak conflict over
Kashmir.

• 1954-55: Pakistan joins the Cold War military blocs, SEATO and CENTO.

• 1960: India and Pakistan sign the Indus Waters Treaty.

• 1962: Border conflict between India and China.

• 1965: Indo-Pak War; UN India-Pakistan Observation Mission.

• 1966: India and Pakistan sign the Tashkent Agreement; Six-point proposal of
Sheikh Mujib-ur Rahman for greater autonomy to East Pakistan.
• March 1971: Proclamation of Independence by leaders of Bangladesh.

• August 1971: Indo-Soviet Treaty of Friendship signed for 20 years.

• December 1971: Indo-Pak War, Liberation of Bangladesh.

• July 1972: India and Pakistan sign the Shimla Agreement.

• May 1974 : India conducts nuclear test.

• 1976: Pakistan and Bangladesh establish diplomatic ties.

• December 1985: South Asian leaders sign the SAARC Charter at the first summit
in Dhaka.

• 1987: Indo-Sri Lanka Accord; Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) operation in
Sri Lanka (1987-90).

• 1988: India sends troops to the Maldives to foil a coup attempt by mercenaries
India and Pakistan sign the agreement not to attack nuclear installations and
facilities of each other.

• 1988-91: Democracy restoration in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.

• December 1996: India and Bangladesh sign the Farakka Treaty for sharing of
the Ganga Waters.

• May 1998: India and Pakistan conduct nuclear tests.

• December 1998: India and Sri Lanka sign the Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

• February 1999: Indian PM Vajpayee undertakes bus journey to Lahore to sign a

Peace Declaration.

• June-July 1999: Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan.

• July 2001: Vajpayee - Musharraf Agra Summit unsuccessful.

• January 2004: SAFTA signed at the 12th SAARC Summit in Islamabad.

• 2007: Afghanistan joins SAARC.

• November 2014: The 18th SAARC Summit in Kathmandu, Nepal.

 Chapter 6 International Organisations Class 12 Political
Science Notes

Why International Organisations?

• International organisations help with matters of war and peace. They also help
countries cooperate to make better living conditions for us all.

• An international organisation can help produce information and ideas about

how to cooperate. It can provide mechanisms, rules and a bureaucracy, to help
members have more confidence that costs will be shared properly, that the
benefits will be fairly divided, and that once a member joins an agreement it will
honour the terms and conditions of the agreement.

Evolution of the UN

• The League of Nations was born after the First World War encouraged the
world to invest in an international organisation to deal with conflict.

• The United Nations (UN) was founded as a successor to the League of Nations
which was established in 1945 immediately after the Second World War. The
organisation was set up through the signing of the United Nations Charter by 51
states.
• The UN’s objective is to prevent international conflict and to facilitate
cooperation among states.

• By 2011, the UN had 193 member states. In the UN General Assembly, all
members have one vote each. In the UN Security Council, there are five
permanent members. These are: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom,
France and China. The most important public figure of the UN is the Secretary
General.

• There are different structures and agencies of UN that includes World Health
Organisation (WHO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the
United Nations Human Rights Commision (UNHRC), the United Nations High
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organisation (UNESCO), among others.

Reform of the UN after the Cold War

• Reform and improvement are fundamental to any organisation to serve the

needs of a changing environment.

• Two basic kinds of reforms face the UN:

→ reform of the organisation’s structures and processes.

→ a review of the issues that fall within the jurisdiction of the organisation.
• On the reform of structures and processes, there has been the demand to
increase the membership of permanent and non-permanent in UN Security
Council.

• On the issues within the jurisdiction of the UN, some countries want the
organisation to play a greater role in peace and security missions.

• After the formation of UN, many changes have occurred:

→ The Soviet Union has collapsed.

→ The US is the strongest power.

→ The relationship between Russia, the successor to the Soviet Union, and the US
is much more cooperative.

→ China is fast emerging as a great power, and India also is growing rapidly.

→ The economies of Asia are growing at an unprecedented rate.

→ Many new countries have joined the UN after gaining independence from the
Soviet Union or former communist states in eastern Europe.

→ A whole new set of challenges confronts the world (genocide, civil war, ethnic
conflict, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, climate change, environmental
degradation, epidemics).

Reform of Structures and Processes

• In 1992, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution that reflected three

main complaints:

→ The Security Council no longer represents contemporary political realities.

→ Its decisions reflect only Western values and interests and are dominated by a
few powers.

→ It lacks equitable representation.

• On 1 January 1997, the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan initiated an inquiry

into how the UN should be reformed. Criteria for new permanent and non-
permanent members of the Security Council should be:

→ A major economic power

→ A major military power

→ A substantial contributor to the UN budget

→ A big nation in terms of its population

→ A nation that respects democracy and human rights

→ A country that would make the Council more representative of the world’s
diversity in terms of geography, economic systems, and culture.

• Governments saw advantages in some criteria and disadvantages in others

depending on their interests and aspirations.

• In the Security Council, there are five permanent members and ten non-
permanent members. The Charter gave the permanent members a privileged
position to after the Second World War. l The main privileges members are
permanency and the veto power world. The non-permanent members do not
have the veto power.

• A demand to abolish the veto power altogether was also raised. Many perceived
the veto to be in conflict with the concept of democracy and sovereign equality in
the UN.
Jurisdiction of the UN

• In September 2005, a meeting was held to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the
United Nation and to review the situation.

• The leaders in this meeting decided some steps that should be taken to make
the UN more relevant by creating peace building commissions, human rights
council, agreement to achieve Millennium Development Goals, condemnation of
terrorism, creation of democracy fund and an agreement to wind up Trusteeship
Council.

India and the UN Reforms

• India has supported the restructuring of the UN on several grounds. It also

supports an enhanced role for the UN in promoting development and
cooperation among states.

• One of India’s important concerns has been the composition of the Security
Council, which has remained largely static while the UN General Assembly
membership has expanded considerably.

• India supports an increase in the number of both permanent and non-

permanent members. India itself also wishes to be a permanent member in a
restructured UN.

• India has participated in virtually all of the initiatives of the UN. Its role in the
UN’s peacekeeping efforts is a long and substantial one.

• The country’s economic emergence on the world stage is another factor that
perhaps justifies India’s claim to a permanent seat in the Security Council.

• Despite India’s wish to be a permanent veto holding member of the UN, some
countries question its inclusion. They are concerned about Indo-Pak relations,
India’s nuclear capabilities and others.
The UN in a Unipolar World

• The UN cannot serve as a balance against US dominance because the US is the

only superpower after the end of the Cold War. Its military and economic power
allow it to ignore the UN or any other international organisation.

• Within the UN, the influence of the US is considerable. As the single largest
contributor to the UN, the US has unmatched financial power.

• The UN is not therefore a great balance to the US. Nevertheless, in a unipolar

world in which the US is dominant, the UN can and has served to bring the US
and the rest of the world into discussions over various issues.

• The UN is an imperfect body, but without it the world would be worse off. The
UN does provide a space within which arguments against specific US attitudes
and policies are heard and compromises and concessions can be shaped.

UN's Agencies

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

• Overseas financial institutions and regulations at the international level

• It consists of 189 members.

• The US alone enjoys 16.75% voting rights.

• The G-8 members (the US, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Canada, Russia),
China and Saudi Arabia have more than 52 per cent votes in IMF.
World Bank

• It was created in 1944.

• It works for human development, agriculture and rural development,

environmental protection, infrastructure and governance and provides loans and
grants to developing countries.

• It is often criticised for setting the economic agenda of poorer nations, attaching
stringent conditions to its loans and forcing free market reforms.

World Trade Organisation (WTO)

• An international organisation to set the rules for global trade which was set up
in 1995 as a successor to General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) and has
164 members. (as on 29 July 2016)

• Major economic powers such as the US, EU and Japan have managed to use the
WTO to frame rules of trade to advance their own interests.

• The developing countries often complain of non-transparent procedure and

being pushed around by big powers.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

• It was established in 1957 to implement US president Dwight Eisenhower’s

“Atoms for Peace” proposal.

• It seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to prevent its use
for military purpose.

• IAEA teams regularly inspect nuclear facilities all over the world to ensure
that civilian reactors are not being used for military purposes.
Amnesty International

• An NGO to campaign for the protection of human rights all over the world.

• It prepares and publishes reports on human rights to research and advocate

human rights.

• Governments are not always happy with these reports since a major focus of
Amnesty is the misconduct of government authorities.

Human Rights Watch

• Another international NGO involved in research and advocacy of human rights.

• The largest international human rights organisation in the US.

• It draws the global media’s attention to human rights abuses.

• It helped in building international coalitions like the campaigns to ban

landmines, to stop the use of child-soldier and to establish the international
criminal court.

Timeline of United Nations

August 1941: Signing of the Atlantic Charter by the US President Franklin D.

Roosevelt and British PM Winston S. Churchill
January 1942: 26 Allied nations fighting against the Axis Powers meet in
Washington, D.C., to support the Atlantic Charter and sign the ‘Declaration by
United Nations’

December 1943: Tehran Conference Declaration of the Three Powers (US, Britain
and Soviet Union)

February 1945: Yalta Conference of the ‘Big Three’ (Roosevelt, Churchill and
Stalin) decides to organise a United Nations conference on the proposed world
organisation

April-May 1945: The 2-month long United Nations Conference on International

Organisation at San Francisco

26 June 1945: Signing of the UN Charter by 50 nations (Poland signed on October

15; so the UN has 51 original founding members)

24 October1945: the UN was founded (hence October 24 is celebrated as UN Day)

30 October 1945: India joins the UN

Chapter 7 Security in the Contemporary World Class 12 Political Science Notes

What is Security?

• Security implies freedom from threats. Security relates only to extremely dangerous
threats that could so endanger core values that those values would be damaged beyond
repair if we did not do something to deal with the situation.

Traditional Notions: External

• The greatest danger to a country is from military threats. The source of this danger is
another country which by threatening military action endangers the core values of
sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.

• In response to the threat of war, there are three choices with the government, to
surrender; to prevent

The other side from attacking by promising to raise the costs of war to an unacceptable
level; and to defend itself.

• Security policy is concerned with preventing war, which is called deterrence, and with
limiting or ending war, which is called defence.

• Balance of power means there should be balance between bigger and smaller countries.

• Alliance building means a coalition of states that coordinate their actions to deter or
defend against military attack.

• In the traditional view of security, most threats to a country’s security come from outside
its borders because the international system is a rather brutal arena in which there is no
central authority capable of controlling behaviour.

• Within a country, the threat of violence is regulated by an acknowledged central authority

– the government.

Traditional Notions: Internal

• Traditional security concern itself with internal security. After the Second
World War, internal security was more or less assured to the powerful countries
on the Earth.

• Most of the European countries faced no serious threats from groups or

communities living within those borders. Hence these countries gave importance
to external security.

• The security challenges facing the newly-independent countries of Asia and

Africa were different from the challenges Europe in two ways.

→ The new countries faced the prospect of military conflict with

neighbouring countries.

→ They had to worry about internal military conflict.

• Internally, the new states worried about threats from separatist movements
which wanted to form independent countries.

Traditional Security and Cooperation

• In traditional security, there is a recognition that cooperation in limiting

violence is possible. These limits relate both to the ends and the means of war.

• Traditional views of security also mean disarmament, arms control, and

confidence building.

• Arms control regulates the acquisition or development of weapons. In 1992, the

AntiBallistic Missile (ABM) Treaty tried to stop the United States and Soviet
Union from using ballistic missiles as a defensive shield to launch a nuclear
attack.
• US and Soviet Union signed a number of other arms control treaties including
the Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty II or SALT II and the Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty (START). The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968
was an arms control treaty that regulated the acquisition of nuclear weapons.

• Traditional security also accepts confidence building as a means of avoiding

violence. Confidence building is a process in which countries share ideas and
information with their rivals.

• In traditional security, force is both the principal threat to security and the
principal means of achieving security.

Non-Traditional Notions

• Non-traditional notions security go beyond military threats to include a wide

range of threats and dangers affecting the conditions of human existence.

• Non-traditional security focuses on human and global security.

• Human security is about the protection of people more than the protection of
states. All proponents of human security agree that its primary goal is the
protection of individuals.

• Proponents of the ‘narrow concept’ of human security focus on violent threats

to individuals while proponents of the ‘broad concept’ of human security argue
that the threat agenda should include hunger, disease and natural disaster.
• The idea of global security emerged in the 1990s in response to the global
nature of threats such as global warming, international terrorism, and health
epidemics like AIDS and bird flu and so on.

New Sources of Threats

• Terrorism refers to political violence that targets civilians deliberately and
indiscriminately. International terrorism involves the citizens or territory of more than one
country.

• The classic cases of terrorism involve hijacking planes or planting bombs in trains, cafes,
markets and other crowded places.

• Human rights have come to be classified into three types:

→ The first type is political rights such as freedom of speech and assembly.

→ The second type is economic and social rights.

→ The third type is the rights of colonised people or ethnic and indigenous minorities.

• Global poverty is another source of insecurity. High per capita income and low population
growth make rich states or rich social groups get richer, whereas low incomes and high
population growth reinforce each other to make poor states and poor groups get poorer.

• Health epidemics such as HIV-AIDS, bird flu, and severe acute respiratory syndrome
(SARS) have rapidly spread across countries through migration, business, tourism and
military operations.

Cooperative Security

• Dealing with many of non-traditional threats to security require cooperation rather than
military confrontation.

• Cooperation may be bilateral, regional, continental, or global which would all depend on
the nature of the threat and the willingness and ability of countries to respond.

India’s Security Strategy

• India has faced both traditional and non-traditional threats to its security. Its security
strategy depends upon four broad components:

• The first component was strengthening its military capabilities because India has been
involved in conflicts with its neighbours – Pakistan in 1947–48, 1965, 1971 and 1999; and
China in 1962.

• The second component of India’s security strategy has been to strengthen international
norms and international institutions to protect its security interests.

• The third component of Indian security strategy is geared towards meeting security
challenges within the country.

• Fourth, there has been an attempt in India to develop its economy in a way that the vast
mass of citizens are lifted out of poverty and misery and huge economic inequalities are
not allowed to exist which has not quite succeeded.
Chapter 8 Environment and Natural Resources Class 12 Political Science Notes

Environmental Concerns in Global Politics

• Global politics are concerned with variety off environmental issues such as losing fertility
of agricultural land, depletion of water resources, loss of bio-diversity, deteriorating of
marine environment, decline in the total amount of ozone in the Earth’s stratosphere and
coastal pollution.

• The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, in June 1992 which was attended by 170 states, thousands of NGOs and many
multinational corporations.

• The 1987 Brundtland Report, Our Common Future, had warned that traditional patterns
of economic growth were not sustainable in the long term.

• The Rio Summit produced conventions dealing with climate change, biodiversity, forestry,
and recommended a list of development practices called ‘Agenda 21’ in which there was a
consensus on combining economic growth with ecological responsibility. This approach to
development is commonly known as ‘sustainable development’.

The Protection of Global Commons

• ‘Commons’ are those resources which are not owned by anyone but rather shared by a
community.

For example, a ‘common room’, a ‘community centre’, a park or a river.

• There are some regions of the world which are located outside the sovereign jurisdiction
of any one state, and therefore require common governance by the international
community. These are known as global commons. It include the earth’s atmosphere,
Antarctica, the ocean floor, and outer space.

• Agreements such as the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, the 1987 Montreal Protocol, and the 1991
Antarctic Environmental Protocol are some of the cooperation over the global commons.
• The history of outer space as a global commons shows that the management of these
areas is thoroughly influenced by North-South inequalities.

Common but Differentiated Responsibilities

• The Northern countries want everyone to be equally responsible for ecological

conservation.

• The developing countries of the South believes that the ecological degradation is the
product of industrial development undertaken by the developed countries.

• The Rio Declaration at the Earth Summit in 1992 adopted the principle of common but
differentiated responsibilities. It was accepted that special needs of the developing
countries must be taken into account in the development and interpretation of rules of
international environmental law.

• The 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) also
emphasised to protect the climate system on the basis of equity and in accordance with
their common but differentiated responsibilities and capabilities.

• The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement setting targets for industrialised

countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.

• The protocol was agreed to in 1997 in Kyoto in Japan, based on principles set out in
UNFCCC.

Common Property Resources

• Common property represents common property for the group. It represents common
property for the group but with a rule that members of the group have both rights and duties
with respect to the nature, levels of use of a given resource.

• A combination of factors, including privatisation, agricultural intensification, population

growth and ecosystem degradation have caused common property to dwindle in size,
quality, and availability to the poor in much of the world.
India’s Stand on Environmental Issues

• India signed and ratified the 1997 Kyoto Protocol in August 2002.

• At the G-8 meeting in June 2005, India pointed out that the per capita emission rates of
the developing countries are a tiny fraction of those in the developed world.

• The Indian government is already participating in global efforts through a number of

programmes. India’s National Auto-fuel Policy mandates cleaner fuels for vehicles. The
Energy Conservation Act, passed in 2001, outlines initiatives to improve energy efficiency.
The Electricity Act of 2003 encourages the use of renewable energy.

• India is also of the view that the SAARC countries should adopt a common position on
major global environment issues, so that the region’s voice carries greater weight.

Environmental Movements: One or Many?

• Environmental Movements are led by groups of environmentally conscious volunteers

working in different parts of the world. Some of them work at the international level, but
most of them work at the local level.

• The forest movements of the South in Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia,
Continental Africa and India are faced enormous pressures.

• Another group of movements are those involved in struggles against mega-dams. In every
country where a mega-dam is being built, one is likely to find an environmental movement
opposing it.

• The early 1980s saw the first anti-dam movement launched in the North, namely, the
campaign to save the Franklin River and its surrounding forests in Australia. India has had
some of the leading anti-dam, pro-river movements. Narmada Bachao Andolan is an
example of such type of movements.

Resource Geopolitics

• Resource geopolitics is all about who gets what, when, where and how.
• Throughout a cold war, industrialised countries adopted methods to ensure a steady flow
of resources by deployment of military forces near exploitation sites and sea-lanes of
communications, the stock pulling of strategic resources and efforts to prop up friendly
governments.

• A particular concern was Western control of oil in the Gulf and strategic minerals in
Southern and Central Africa.

• The global economy relied on oil for much of the 20 th century as a portable and
indispensable fuel. Fuel. The history of petroleum is the history of war and struggle.

• Water is another important resource relevant to global politics. Regional variations and
increasing scaring of fresh water may also lead to conflicts in the world to play politics.

The Indigenous People and their Rights

• The UN defines indigenous populations as peoples who inhabited the present territory of
a country at the time when persons of different culture or ethnic origin arrived there from
other parts of the world and overcame them.

• Indigenous people today live more in conformity with their particular social, economic,
and cultural Customs and traditions than the institutions of the country of which they now
form a part.

• Like other social movements, indigenous people speak of their struggles, their agenda
and their rights.

• Indigenous people occupy areas in Central and South America, Africa, India (where they
are known as Tribals) and Southeast Asia.

• In India, indigenous people applies to the scheduled tribes who constitute nearly 8 per
cent of the population of the country.

• The World Council of Indigenous People was formed in 1975 which became first of
11 indigenous NGOs to receive consultative status in the UN.
 Chapter 9 Globalisation Class 12 Political Science Notes

The Concept of Globalisation

• Globalisation as a concept fundamentally deals with flows. These flows could be

of various kinds - ideas moving from one part of the world to another, capital
shunted between two or more places, commodities being traded across borders,
and people moving in search of better livelihoods to different parts of the world.

• The crucial element is the worldwide inter connectedness which is created and
sustained as a consequence of these constant flows.

• Globalisation is a multi-dimensional concept, it has political, economic and

cultural manifestations and these must be distinguished adequately.

Causes of Globalisation

• Globalisation is not caused by any single factor but technology remains a critical
element.

• The ability of ideas, capital, commodities and people to move more easily from
one part of the world to another has been made possible by technological
advances.
• Interconnection also a major part in Globalisation as any activity like the Bird
flu or tsunami is not confined to any particular nation. It does not respect
national boundaries.

Political Consequences

• Globalisation results in an erosion of state capacity, that is, the ability of

government to do what they do.

• All over the world, the old ‘welfare state’ is now giving way to a more minimalist
state and the market becomes the prime determinant of economic and social
priorities.

• Globalisation does not always reduce state capacity. The primacy of the state
continues to be the unchallenged basis of political community.

• State capacity has got a boost as a consequence of globalisation, with enhanced

technologies available at the disposal of the state to collect information about its
citizens.

Economic Consequences

• Economic globalisation usually involves greater economic flows among

different countries of the world. Some of this is voluntary and some forced by
international institutions and powerful countries.
• Globalisation has involved greater trade in commodities across the globe as it
has reduced the imposing of restrictions on the imports of one country on
another.

• It also draws attention towards the role of JMF and WTO in determining
economic policies across the world.

• According to some, economic globalisation is likely to benefit only a small

section of the population.

• Advocates of economic globlisation argue that it generates greater economic

growth and well-being for larger sections of the population.

Cultural Consequences

• Globalisation leads to the rise of a uniform culture or what is called cultural

homogenisation.

• The culture of the politically and economically dominant society leaves its
imprint on a less powerful society, and the world begins to look more like the
dominant power wishes it to be.

• All cultures accept outside influences all the time. Some external influences are
negative because they reduce our choices. But sometimes external influences
simply enlarge our choices, and sometimes they modify our culture without
overwhelming the traditional.
• While cultural homogenisation is an aspect of globalisation, the same process
also generates precisely the opposite effect. It leads to each culture becoming
more different and distinctive. This phenomenon is called cultural
heterogenisation.

India and Globalisation

• During the colonial period, as a consequence of Britain’s imperial ambitions,

India became an exporter of primary goods and raw materials and a consumer of
finished goods. After independence, because of this experience with the British,
we decided to make things ourselves rather than relying on others. We also
decided not to allow others to export to us so that our own producers could learn
to make things.

• In 1991, responding to a financial crisis and to the desire for higher rates of
economic growth, India embarked on a programme of economic reforms that has
sought increasingly to de-regulate various sectors including trade and foreign
investment.

Resistance to Globalisation

• Critics of globalisation make a variety of arguments. Those on the left argue that
contemporary globalisation represents a particular phase of global capitalism
that makes the rich richer and the poor poorer.

• Politically, critics of globalisation also fear the weakening of the state.

• Economically, they want a return to self-reliance and protectionism, at least in
certain areas of the economy.

• Culturally, they are worried that traditional culture will be harmed and people
will lose their age-old values and ways.

• Anti-globalisation movements too participate in global networks, allying with

those who feel like them in other countries.

• In 1999, at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Meeting there were
widespread protests at Seattle alleging unfair trading practices by the
economically powerful states. It was argued that the interests of the developing
world were not given sufficient importance in the evolving global economic
system.

• The World Social Forum (WSF) is a global platform bringing together human
rights activists, environmentalists, labour, youth and women activists opposed to
neo-liberal globalistion.

India and Resistance to Globalisation

• Resistance to globalisation in India has come from different quarters.

• There have been left wing protests to economic liberalisation voiced through
political parties as well as through forums like the Indian Social Forum.

• Resistance to globalisation has also come from the political right taking the
form of objecting particularly to various cultural influences - ranging from the
availability of foreign television channels provided by cable networks, celebration
of Valentine’s Day, and westernisation of the dress tastes of girl students in
schools and colleges.