Introduction to International Relations

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Introduction to International Relations
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The Study of International Relations

• International relations pertains to the study of
  state and non-state actors and their relationship
  to each other in the international system.
  Narrowly defined The field of IR concerns the
  relationships among states (or governments).
• International system
• A patterned set of interactions among the major
  political actors on the international stage.

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IR and Daily Life

• IR profoundly affects your life as well as that
  of other citizens.
• Prospects for getting jobs
• Global economy
• International economic competition
• Jobs entail international travel, sales, or
  communication.
• Rules of the world-trading system affect what you
  may consume.
• War is among the most pervasive international
  influences in daily life, even in peacetime.
• World is shrinking year by year.

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OPPORTUNITIES FOR COOPERATION

• Information Revolution Growing accumulation of
  human knowledge and the accessibility of new
  knowledge through rapidly spreading technologies
• Increasing Global Productivity efficiency of
  economic output is enhanced through the
  introduction, spread, and improvement of
  computer-based technologies, spread of MNCs
  (economic enterprises with operations in two or
  more countries), and the mobility of global
  capital
• Rapid Rise of Newly Emerging Global Economies
  China, India, Brazil augers the potential for
  reduction in global poverty
• Development of Renewable Energy Sources new
  research and technology investment in energy
  sources of sun, wind, and biomass etc.
• Global Spread of Democracy unprecedented
  adoption of democratic ideas and institutions
  around the world

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OPPORTUNITIES FOR COOPERATION

• Continued Growth of Authoritative Global and
  Regional Institutions WTO, WHO, EU, OPECthese
  coordinate national policies with regional and
  even global norms and practices
• Proliferation and Networking of NGOs Growth of
  global civil society through people organizing
  across borders to address global threats,
  humanitarian crisis and aid, technical
  information, cultural, political, and social
  cooperation.
• Growth of international regimes formal and
  informal coordination and collaboration in
  certain issue areas to maximize global security
  and prosperity
• Decline of interstate Warfare
• Rapid Proliferation of International Law
  protecting the individual codification of human
  rights, spreading norms or racial and gender
  equality

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POSSIBILITIES FOR CONFLICT

• Global Environmental Degradation these global
  threats include
• global warming, the thinning of the protective
  ozone layer of the atmosphere accompanied by
  rising rates of skin cancer
• destruction of the worlds rain forests (global
  lungs) and denuding of other forested areas
• rapid urbanization owing to peasant flight to
  megacities in countries like China and India with
  accompanying pollution and urban poverty
• Spread of deserts into formerly fertile regions
  of Asia, Africa, and Latin America
• The elimination of species of plants and animals
  and reduction in biodiversity
• Accumulation of radioactive debris and nuclear
  waste

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POSSIBILITIES FOR CONFLICT

• Overpopulation in developing world may
  contribute to famine, spread of disease (AIDS),
  land hunger, political unrest, and large-scale
  migration to rich states with aging and shrinking
  population
• Resource Depletion energy demands outstrip known
  reserves of petroleum and natural gas as growing
  populations and economic development places ever
  greater stress on finite sources of fresh water
  and fertile land
• Proliferation of Religious and Ethnic Extremism
  identity construction in the age of globalization
  prompts fragmentation, the questioning of
  authoritative governmental and social structures
  from below target often innocent civilians
• Global Proliferation of WMD spread of nuclear,
  chemical, and biological weapons to countries
  divided by profound political differences, f.ex.
  Pakistan and India

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POSSIBILITIES FOR CONFLICT

• WMD may spread into rogue states (Iran, North
  Korea) and non-state actors, such as global
  terrorist networks
• Collapse of states spread of socio-political
  disorder in selected regions
• Global spread of disease rapid spread of
  pathogens that threaten humans, livestock, and
  plant life and the threat of new pandemics such
  as the avian influenza
• Growing North-South wealth discrepancies rising
  disparities in wealth between winners and losers
  in the course of globalization
• Threats to the LIEO established by the West
  after WWII, responsible for much of western
  wealth and prosperity, by increasing trade
  demands from poorer countries
• Resistance by the U.S. to work with international
  and multilateral organizations global threats
  cannot be managed unilaterally

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Core Principles

• IR revolves around one key problem
• How can a group such as two or more states
  serve its collective interests when doing so
  requires its members to forego their national
  interests?
• Example Problem of global warning. Solving it
  can only be achieved by many countries acting
  together.
• Collective goods problem
• The problem of how to provide something that
  benefits all members of a group regardless of
  what each member contributes to it

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Core Principles

• In general, collective goods are easier to
  provide in small groups than large ones.
• Small group defection (free riding) is harder to
  conceal and has a greater impact on the overall
  collective good, and is easier to punish.
• Collective goods problem occurs in all groups and
  societies but within a state, govts provide
  public or collective goods.
• Particularly acute in international affairs
• No central authority such as a world government
  to enforce on individual nations the necessary
  measures to provide for the common good

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Core Principles

• Three basic principles offer possible solutions
  for this core problem of getting individuals to
  cooperate for the common good without a central
  authority to make them do so.
• Dominance
• Reciprocity
• Identity

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Table 1.1
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Dominance

• Solves the collective goods problem by
  establishing a power hierarchy in which those at
  the top control those below
• Status hierarchy
• Symbolic acts of submission and dominance
  reinforce the hierarchy.
• Hegemon
• The advantage of the dominance solution
• Forces members of a group to contribute to the
  common good
• Minimizes open conflict within the group
• Disadvantage of the dominance solution
• Stability comes at a cost of constant oppression
  of, and resentment by, the lower-ranking members
  of the status hierarchy.
• Conflicts over position can sometimes harm the
  groups stability and well-being.

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Reciprocity

• Solves the collective goods problem by rewarding
  behavior that contributes to the group and
  punishing behavior that pursues self-interest at
  the cost of the group
• Easy to understand and can be enforced without
  any central authority
• Positive and negative reciprocity
• Disadvantage It can lead to a downward spiral as
  each side punishes what it believes to be the
  negative acts of the other.
• Generally people overestimate their own good
  intentions and underestimate those of opponents
  or rivals.

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Identity

• Identity principle does not rely on
  self-interest.
• Members of an identity community care about the
  interests of others in the community enough to
  sacrifice their own interests to benefit others.
• Family, extended family, kinship group roots,
  clan, nation, religious and ethnic groups
• In IR, identity communities play important roles
  in overcoming difficult collective goods
  problems while at times identity construction
  can intensify the collective goods problem
• Nonstate actors also rely on identity politics.

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IR as a Field of Study

• Practical discipline
• Theoretical debates are fundamental
• IR is about international politics, but the field
  is interdisciplinary economics, history,
  sociology, anthropology, geography etc.
• Usually taught within discipline of political
  science
• Domestic politics of foreign countries, although
  overlapping with IR, generally make up the
  separate field of comparative politics.
• Issue areas political, economic, environmental,
  social
• Conflict and Cooperation
• Subfields
• International security
• International political economy

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Actors and Influences

• Principal actors in IR are states
• IR scholars traditionally study the decisions and
  acts of those governments, in relation to other
  governments.
• Individual actors Leaders and citizens,
  bureaucratic agencies in foreign ministries,
  multinational corporations, and terrorist groups

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State Actors

• Most important actors in IR are states.
• State A territorial entity controlled by a
  government and inhabited by a population.
• Theoretical assumptions
• State government exercises sovereignty over its
  territory.
• Recognized as sovereign by other states
• Population forms a civil society group identity
• Seat of government with a leader head of
  government or head of state

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State Actors

• International system
• Set of relationships among the worlds states,
  structured according to certain rules and
  patterns of interaction.
• Modern international system has existed for less
  than 500 years.
• Origin in Treaty of Westphalia 1648
• Nation-states
• Major source of conflict Frequent mismatch
  between perceived nations and actual borders.
• Populations vary dramatically.
• Great variation in terms of the size of states
  total annual economic activity
• Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
• Great powers
• Most powerful of these states are called
  superpowers

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Figure 1.2
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Figure 1.1
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Table 1.4