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Lesson 9 Global Interstate System Introduction

The document discusses the emergence of global governance in the 21st century. It points to several factors driving this, including the declining power of nation-states due to flows of people, information, and goods across borders. International organizations are needed to handle issues like human rights crises, criminal networks, and problems no single state can address alone, like financial crises or climate change. The document examines how the modern world system of states developed over time from early human social structures.

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Angelyn Mortel
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55 views52 pages

Lesson 9 Global Interstate System Introduction

The document discusses the emergence of global governance in the 21st century. It points to several factors driving this, including the declining power of nation-states due to flows of people, information, and goods across borders. International organizations are needed to handle issues like human rights crises, criminal networks, and problems no single state can address alone, like financial crises or climate change. The document examines how the modern world system of states developed over time from early human social structures.

Uploaded by

Angelyn Mortel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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THE GLOBAL INTERSTATE SYSTEM

(Chapter 4)

Lesson 9
OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the semester, the students shall be
able to:

1. explain the effects of globalization on


governments;
2. identify the institutions that govern international
relations; and
3. differentiate informationalism from globalization.
INTRODUCTION:

Traditionally, the state has always been the subject


of most interest to scholars of global politics. The
state has always been viewed as the “institution that
creates warfare and sets economic policies for a
country.” Other countries recognize its boundaries
making state as a political unit that has authority
over its own affairs. Therefore, its leader or in charge
of the borders has the right to know exactly what is
happening in their country. The Treaty of Westphalia
of 1648 established the idea of the nation-state and
of sovereignty.
This chapter will discuss about the state,
regional alliances, and worldwide
organizations of states, among others. The
Amnesty International, other multinational
corporations and non-governmental
organizations are important organizations
that test the strength of national
autonomy and global politics.
The State and the International System
The International System
What do we mean by “system”?

Interactions by various political entities, but


mostly states. Today the system is global, but it
has not always been the case. Some parts of the
world did not know of other parts, much less
interact.
Other International Actors

– MNCs: Multinational Corporations


– IGOs: Intergovernmental Organizations
– INGOs: International nongovernmental
organizations
– Other individuals or groups that are politically
active but not necessarily recognized officially
(terrorists, nations, etc.)
The State

• The Primary actors we study in


international relations are states.

• Also known as Countries, Nation-


States
A state is a political entity with:

1. control of some area of land -- territorial unit

2. solely responsible for military security -- control over military for


defense

3. Economic control such as power to print money, trade restrictions,


and power to tax

4. Administered by a governmental bureaucracy (social welfare, tax,


police, transportation)
• Some say states require legitimacy with
their people, but in reality this is not always
the case.

• States generally have a monopoly to use


force in legitimate societies, although this is
an object of conflict in countries where there
are civil wars.
Sovereignty

1. Key concept in the international state system and international


law.

2. States recognized each other in the international system


(usually)

3. By sovereignty, we mean that in principal all states are legally


equal (de jure).

4. Sovereignty is recognition by other states that a state may


manage its internal affairs how it pleases.
Problems of Sovereignty

• Sovereignty is a legal definition and does not mean that


all states are equal in their power, influence, wealth,
etc.

• Sovereignty also does not mean that states can prevent


all crime, injustice, etc. Some states have higher
capacity to regulate their own borders and people than
others.
What is a nation? Is it the same thing as a state?

No. The term nation is not necessarily synonymous with state.

This becomes confusing because Nation is still used loosely by


some in the field of international relations and in the media.
• A nation is a group of people who feel they have something
in common.

• Nations are defined as socially cohesive groups that have


common political goals, common language; usually share a
single perception of history, as well as common religion,
traditions, symbols and myths.

• Where the people and the political unit have the same
identification we then have a NATION-STATE, like Japan or
Finland.
• Some states have more than one nation, such as Iraq.

• Some multi-nation states collapse from civil war,


such as Yugoslavia, while others survive, such as
Belgium

• Some nations have no state, such as the Kurds or the


Palestinians
Collapse of Yugoslavia
The Origin of States

How did the world come to look like it does?


What did it once look like?
WHERE DID STATES COME FROM?

The international state system is only a few centuries old.


Before then, the transition took a few thousand years.

1. primitive times -- loyalty to family


2. Then village
3. Then tribe
4. Then city-state or kingdom by about 3000 b.c. to 1648 a.d
The international state system was born in Europe with the
Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, after the Thirty Years War.

• With this, treaty state sovereignty was recognized for the first
time. States begin to grow in power.

• Nationalism finally emerges with American and French


Revolutions, before then allegiance was paid to local affiliations,
not abstractly to people never met before.
Expansion of the Interstate System
• The state system expanded most rapidly in last 150 years, especially the last
50 years.

• It started in Europe and spread to the rest of the world.

• Europeans experienced fast development necessary (tax systems and military


power) to spread influence and power around the world.

• Earlier there existed large empires in other parts of the world. For example,
China was the strongest empire in the world for most of the period from 700
a.d. to 1300 a.d.
Which areas outside of Western Europe were the first to form
new States?

Three Waves

1. USA and Latin America (1780 -- 1850)

2. East Europe (after WWI) Self-determination

3. Asia and Africa (after WWII), later fall of communism of Russian


Empire and Yugoslavia (after 1989)
• The expansion of the Interstate system began in
Europe, spread globally through imperialism,
resulting in over two hundred states and most
existing in poverty.

• Today nearly all the world’s land mass except


Antarctica falls under the direct control of states.
• Interstate system may refer to:

A system for international relations


GLOBAL GOVERNANCE in the
TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
The declining power of nation-states is the first on
the list of specific factors behind the emergence of
global governance. The vast flows of all sorts of
things that run into and often right through the
boarders of nation-states is a second factor. The
flow of digital information of all kinds from the
internet is included in this which is very difficult to
stop.
Another is the mass migration of people wherein
some enter various nation-states illegally. This also
involves the problem of the flow of criminal
elements and their products such as illegal drugs,
laundered money, sex trafficking, and the like. This
needs call for global governance (Levy and
Sznaider, 2006). A need for an effective authority
and improvement of human life are a few of the
concerns that must be taken priority.
There are also the horrendous events that happened like
that in Darfur, Sudan in 2003, wherein hundreds of
thousands have been killed and millions of people have
been displaced, because of the conflict between the
ethnic and tribal groups and the resistance of Sudanese
government from outside interference in its internal affairs.
In addition with this, who would forget the Holocaust that
happened in WWII?
Besides there are also global problems that
single nation-states cannot handle on their
own like the global financial crises wherein
Southeast Asian nations have always been the
victims (Strange, 1996).

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