Approaches to the Study of International Relations

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Approaches to the Studyof International Relations
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Realist Approach to World Politics

• Key Actors International system, sovereign
  states
• View of the Power-seeking, selfishIndividual an
  tagonistic
• View of the state Seeks power, unitary actor with
  a defined national interest
• View of the inter- Anarchy, stability thru
  balance national system of power system
• Belief about Potential for change
  slow structural Change change also low
• Theorists Thucydides, St. Augustine,
  Machiavelli, Hobbes, Morganthau

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Liberal Approach to World Politics

• Key Actors States, non governmental groups,
  international organizations
• View of the Basically good, ability to cooperate
  and Individual compromise
• View of the state Not an autonomous actor, many
  different interests and actors
  in the system
• View of the inter- Interdependence among actors,
  national system international society, anarchy
• Belief about Probable and desirable
  processChange
• Theorists Montesquieu, Kant, Wilson, Koehane

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Marxist Approach to World Politics

• Key Actors Social classes, transnational elites,
  MNCs
• View of the Actions determined by economic
  classes Individual
• View of the state State is agent of international
  capitalist class
• View of the inter- Highly stratified and
  dominated by national system international
  capitalist classes
• Belief about Radical change and revolution
  soughtChange
• Theorists Marx, Lenin, Hobson, Wallerstein

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Indicators of World Inequality

• One-fifth of the world's population are living in
  extreme poverty.
• 70 per cent of the world's poor and two-thirds of
  the world's illiterates are women.
• One-third of the world's children are
  undernourished.
• Half the world's population lacks regular access
  to the most essential drugs.
• 100 million children live or work on the street
• In 1998 the 4 least developed countries attracted
  less than US3 billion in direct foreign
  investment, 0.4 per cent of the global total.
• The combined wealth of the world's 200 richest
  people reached US 1 trillion in 1999 the
  combined income of 582 million people a living in
  the 43 least developed counties is US 1.46
  billion

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• More than 30,000 children die a day from easily
  preventable diseases.
• Since 1980 more than US 1.3 trillion has been
  transferred from less developed countries to more
  developed countries in debt interest payments,
  yet a size of total debt has not decreased.
• Each year the developing world pays the West nine
  times more in debt repayments than it receives in
  aid.
• In 1996 Comic Relief in the UK raised an
  estimated 26 million in the world's biggest
  telethon. This is roughly what Africa pays out in
  debt in one day.
• To achieve universal provision of basic services
  in developing countries would cost 80 billion/
  year.
• (Sources World Health Organization, United
  Nations,World Bank, Jubilee 2000