Question 2.

Explain the Key concepts in International Relations in detail and Levels of

Analysis in International Relations?

Answer :- Before explaining about the key concepts in International Relations we would first
appreciate what is the meaning of International Relation, its nature and scope in a brief
paragraph.

International Relations is the study of relations of states with each other and with
international organizations and certain subnational entities (e.g., bureaucracies, political
parties, and interest groups). It also means the relationship and interaction between the
countries, nature and consequences of such relationship1.

Nature: The context and nature of International Relations have undergone major changes
after the Second World War. Traditionally, world politics was centered on Europe and
relations among nations were largely conducted by officials of foreign offices in secrecy. The
common man was hardly ever involved, and treaties were often kept secret. Today public
opinion has begun to play an important role in the decision-making process in foreign
offices, thus, changing completely the nature of international relations.

Scope: International Relation being a different curriculum has followed a constant trend in
international society since 1930’s and thus it is not possible to draw a permanent line of
scope of international relations.

Key concepts in International Relations:- Some of the key concepts of International

Relations being sovereignty, balance of power, collective security, deterrence, alliances, arms
race, north-south divide, third world nations, nationalism, peace building, middle power, etc.

Alliance:- Alliance means aligning with or an agreement between two or more states to work
together mutually on security issues. States enter into such agreements in order to protect
their country against a common threat. By acting together, they think that they will have a
greater number of resources and can position themselves at a better place among other states.
It can be either formal or informal. Formal agreements are recognized publicly through
signing of a treaty for example NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). Informal ones
are less stable cannot be relied upon the word of the parties for example secret agreements.

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Sovereignty:- the word ‘sovereignty’ harks back to an era when a single individual – the
sovereign or king – governed states. The vestiges of this original meaning of the word remain
in our modern usage with the tendency to treat sovereign states as individuals. However, the
locus of sovereignty has gradually been seen to rest with the people or commonwealth
(popular sovereignty), and not with an individual sovereign (as in dynastic sovereignty).

Sovereign states are, in international law, equal, and sovereign equality is the basis upon
which the United Nations (UN) operates. This principle of sovereign equality is what
guarantees equal participation by all states in international relations.

Negative sovereignty refers to the legal right to demand that other states refrain from
interfering in a state’s internal affairs. Positive sovereignty refers to the ability of the state to
exercise effective control in the arena of its formal jurisdiction. Sovereignty is also being re-
examined in a normative sense.2

1. States are legally equal.

2. Every state enjoys the rights inherent in full sovereignty.
3. Every state is obligated to respect the fact of the legal entity of other states.
4. The territorial integrity and political independence of a state are inviolable.
5. Each state has the right to freely choose and develop its own political, social,
economic, and cultural systems.
6. Each state is obligated to carry out its international obligations fully and
conscientiously and to live in peace with other states.

Balance of Power:- No idea in the investigation of global relations has been talked about
more frequently than this one. It has been characterized from various perspectives, in any
case, that it's anything but an uncertain thought. The term indicates the relative distribution of
power among states into equal or unequal shares. Traditionally, it refers to a state of affairs in
which no one state predominates over others. Prescriptively, it refers to a policy of promoting
a power equilibrium on the assumption that unbalanced power is dangerous. Prudent states
that are at a disadvantage in the balance of power will (or at least should) form an alliance
against a potentially hegemonic state or take other measures to enhance their ability to
restrain a possible aggressor. Also, one state may opt for a self-conscious balancing role,
changing sides as necessary to preserve the equilibrium 3. A balance of power policy requires

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that a state moderate its independent quest for power, since too much power for one state
may bring about self-defeating reactions of fear and hostility from other states.

All balance of power systems has certain conditions in common:

1. A multiplicity of sovereign states unconstrained by any legitimate central authority;

2. Continuous but controlled competition over scarce resources or conflicting values;
3. An unequal distribution of status, wealth, and power potential among the political
actors that make up the system.

Collective security:- The basic principle behind this concept can be summed up in the
phrase ‘one for all and all for one’. As a means of maintaining peace between states, the legal
and diplomatic organisation of collective security can be located midway between the two
extremes of an unregulated balance of power and a world government.

For example, NATO is not a collective security system. It is an alliance, or perhaps it could
be called a collective defence system. Ideally, in a global collective security system alliances
are unnecessary.

 Unless Collective Security Really Is Universal, And In Particular Includes The Most
Powerful States In The System, It Is Unlikely To Be Effective.
 The Effectiveness Of Collective Security Depends On States Sharing The View That
Peace Is ‘Indivisible’.
 The Term ‘Aggression’ Is Difficult To Define In Practice From Self Defence.
 The Concept Of Collective Security Is Deeply Conservative.

Deterrance:- In its simplest form, deterrence consists of the following threat, intended to
dissuade a state from aggression: ‘Do not attack me because if you do, something
unacceptably horrible will happen to you.’4 In other words, deterrence is a form of persuasion
in military strategy. To convey such a threat, the deterrer must decide what constitutes an
attack, and must then decide what level of response would be adequate to deter it.

Before the arrival of mutually assured destruction (MAD), the terms ‘deterrence’ and
‘defence’ simply referred to different time periods.

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First, there is much debate over the scope of nuclear deterrence, and the dilemmas associated
with attempting to deter threats not only to one’s own state, but also to one’s allies.

Second, there is no consensus in the literature on how best to make nuclear deterrence
credible in the eyes of an adversary.

Third, there has always been a heated debate over the levels and types of nuclear weapons
necessary to achieve nuclear deterrence.

Arms Race:- A competitive struggle between two or more states seeking to improve their
security relative to each other by building up their military strength. The logic behind arms
races is sometimes referred to as an action–reaction phenomenon.

Example:- If state A embarks on an aggressive military acquisitions programme, a

neighbouring state B may assume the worst, i.e. that state A is preparing for war.

United States was the first country to develop and use nuclear weapons.

Arms races do not have to be a competition to increase the number of bombs, tanks, planes,
ships, and submarines that a state has relative to an opponent. For example, in the years
leading up to the First World War (1914–18), France and Germany engaged in an arms race
to increase the number of men in uniform.

Non-governmental Organization- One of the most prominent features of contemporary

international relations is the growth in the number of non-governmental organisations
(NGOs). Increased interconnectedness, partly associated with improvements in
communications technology and transport, has given rise to literally thousands of specialized
organizations, agencies, and groups. They are made up of private individuals, both paid and
unpaid, and are committed to a vast range of issues, including protection of the environment,
improving the level of basic needs in the Third World, stopping human rights abuses,
delivering food and medicine to warzones, advancing religious beliefs, and promoting the
cause of women (see women in development).5

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting

Countries (OPEC), the European Union (EU), and the North Atlantic Treaty
Organisation (NATO) are also important examples. In each of these cases, the members are
states, not private individuals.
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At the same time, some NGOs exert significant influence over other NGOs. Oil companies
such as Shell and Exxon, for example, have to deal with Greenpeace activists.

North-South Divide- Richer countries are almost all located in the Northern Hemisphere,
with the exception of Australia and New Zealand.

Poorer countries are mostly located in tropical regions and in the Southern Hemisphere.

 Why is there a Gap:- There Are Many Causes For These Inequalities Including The
Availability Of Natural Resources
 Different Levels Of Health And Education
 The Nature Of A Country’s Economy And Its Industrial Sectors
 International Trading Policies And Access To Markets
 How Countries Are Governed And International Relationships Between Countries
 Conflict Within And Between Countries
 Country’s Vulnerability To Natural Hazards And Climate Change.

Third World Nations:- This term is used (loosely) to refer to the economically
underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Latin America, considered as an
entity with common characteristics, such as poverty, high birthrates, and economic
dependence on the advanced countries. The First World is the developed world – US,
Canada, Western Europe, Japan – and the newly industrialising countries (Hong Kong,
Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan), Australia and New Zealand. The Second World is the
ex-communist world led by the former Soviet Union (USSR).

The term ‘Third World’ is not universally accepted. Some prefer other terms such as ‘the
South’, ‘non-industrialised countries’, ‘lessdeveloped countries’, or ‘emerging nations’.
None the less, the term ‘Third World’ is probably the one most widely used in the media
today. Of course, no term adequately describes all non-‘First World’, non-industrialised,
non-‘Western’ countries accurately.6

For example:- The Bandung conference, in 1955, was the beginning of the political
emergence of the Third World. China and India, two states whose social and economic
systems were sharply opposed, played a major role in promoting that conference and in
changing the relationship between the Third World and the industrial countries, capitalist and
communist.
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  Features:- Distorted And Highly Dependent Economies

 Most Production Of Primary Products For The Developed World And Providing
Markets For Their Finished Goods

 Traditional, Rural Social Structures; High Population Growth And Widespread

Poverty

 Various Levels Of Economic Development

 The Ruling Elites Of Most Third World Countries Are Wealthy

 Level of Analysis approach in International Relation

In International Relations research and studies, focusing on a particular level in terms of

components and the system, or in terms of parts and whole. Level of analysis is very
common approach in Natural Science and Social Science researchers. Different level gives
different perspective, frame of reference, and lenses to understand the dynamic of
International Relations. It is similar to Cartography in which different projection methods are
used to draw two dimensional map of spherical earth-different projection gives different
details of the earth.7
Example: In organisation studies, individual, group, and organisation cab be the levels; in
Electronics, atoms, sub-atoms, and electronic levels, and levels of analysis in International
Relation may be International System, National level, and individual.

Level of Analysis

Individual National International System

International System Level: Systematic Approach

Unit or level of analysis is globally International System or Inter-state system.

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Typical Phenomenon under analysis: creation and dissolution of coalitions, frequency and
duration of specific power configuration in the global world order, global terrorism,
environmental degradation, war, etc.

Advantages: Comprehensiveness, overall big picture, whole is more than its parts, easy to
comprehend because of uniformity of phenomenon at national level- like uniform foreign
policies, good descriptive and predictive capabilities.

Disadvantages: Insufficient explanatory capabilities, deterministic, treating nation-state as

black box, ignores variations at national level- undermine national autonomy and
independence of choice.

Examples: focusing on Anarchic word order to develop theory of International Relations –

neo-realism; uniform foreign policies of nations guided by interest defined in terms of
powers.

National level: Nation-State as prime Actor

Unit or level of analysis is Nation-State, internal dynamics of nations, Nation as actor

analysis; also called unit level analysis.

Typical Phenomenon under analysis: National Foreign policies, National Interest, National
Ideologies, relation between the national government and the civil society, Regime type in
nations, etc.

Advantages: More descriptive capabilities- more detailing, comparative analysis, more

explanatory capabilities, unpack the ‘black box’.

Disadvantage: Over emphasis on national differentiations, ethnocentrism, lose sight of big

picture, much more complex and time consuming.

Example: To explain the cause of World War II, analysing ideology, motives, and actions of
key nations- Germany, Russia, England, and France- as prime actor.

Individual Level Analysis

Unit level of analysis is the key leader statesman; individual as actors in International
Relations.
Typical Phenomenon under analysis: Human nature and motives, ideologies and world view
of the individual actors, role of individuals in shaping the foreign policies of nations and key
events in International Relations.

Advantages: Much deeper and micro analysis, more explanatory and descriptive capabilities.

Disadvantage: Not very comprehensive analysis, loses sight of big picture, difficult to
analyse individual motives, complex and time consuming.

Examples: To explain the causes of World War II, analysing nature, motives, and actions of
key individual- Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, and Mussolini as prime actors.

Other possible Levels of Analysis

Group level: People, community, interest and pressure groups within nation states.

Examples: Role of lobbying by interest groups in national foreign policy.

Religion level: Group of nations in a geographic region.

Examples: Analysis of religion alliances, religion power configuration, EU, NATO, Middle
East, ASEAN, South Asia, etc.