...POWER AND WEALTH Individual Assignment “Power and wealth are intricately linked. Critically discuss drawing on at least two perspectives from the field of International Political Economy and practical examples from the global political economy” Introduction Robert Gilpin (1975) once defined International Political Economy as the “reciprocal and dynamic interaction in international relations of the pursuit of wealth and the pursuit of power”, allowing for the understanding of the relevance of power and wealth in the global economy. The study of International Political Economy provides an understanding of the interaction between the Market and the State, as well as the importance of their existence within countries around the world. In studying this particular area, it is important to familiarize oneself with the key elements and determinants which make up the global economy. Two factors which play an essential role in the global political economy are Power and Wealth. These are considered to be significantly linked, as they share many similar attributes, and many corporations and actively involved members of the State seek to achieve and/or maintain both aspects. Power is globally acknowledged as the ability to influence the behavior in other individuals, or the authority to make decisions. As illustrated by Dahl (1957), the intuitive idea of power allows for the understanding that “A has power over B to the extent that he can get B to do something that B would not otherwise...
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...The 20th century has undoubtedly been a time of extreme international uncertainty and political turbulence. Major international conflicts including two world wars, and numerous threats of terrorism has escalated states fear of their own nation's security. Organski explained the direct correlation between war and security when he said , “war occurs because power is expected to conduce to proportional influence, wealth, and security.”. A simple definition of security dilemma is when one state’s security becomes another state’s insecurity. Vague signals along with lack of communication can cause uncertainty, which can result in unwanted fighting. The big question is whether or not we can resolve the never ending security dilemma spiral through globalization and international institutions. Is it possible to learn from past mistakes and learn from new perspectives in order to obtain peace, I believe so. This essay will provide explanations from all of the International Relations theories, and will furthermore discuss how global order can be achieved through careful cooperation between states. To begin with liberalism is optimistic about cooperation, and believes that decision makers are rational and human nature is good. Liberalism focuses on three main concepts: international institutions, democratic peace, and economic interdependence. Liberalists view war as avoidable if government is reduced and if more international institutions are created. They hold international institutions with a lot of merit...
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...attributable to realist thinking on foreign policy. * * According to realist thinking on foreign policy, international relations and politics are formulated in accordance with national interest. This presupposes that the key actors in International Relations are sovereign states that behave similarly regardless of their type of government. As well, a state of anarchy is at the fundamental core of this argument and national interests of egoistic states as the main outward presence in international realm. Classic Realism, originally emerged from the European concert of aristocratic diplomacy. By evaluating this claim, this essay will reassert the position and importance of Offensive and Defensive Realism in our contemporary post 9/11 world. These are respectively neoclassical realism and neorealism. Firstly, a detailed account of realism will be produced highlighting the emergence of national interest as the fundamental feature or goal of sovereign states. This is done either through the maintenance of a status quo or aspiration of accumulating influence. It will be concluded that Defensive Realism or neorealism is the principal theoretical sub-school in according this claim any legitimacy. Secondly, a general evaluation of neorealism in post 9/11 world will be provided; and a comparison, and ultimately an association of anarchy and interdependence (emerging from neoliberalism) will be enunciated. Finally, resulting from the discoveries of the evaluation of realist foreign policy...
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...Essay Questions 1. How do the different actors in international system affect international relations? How do the different theories explain the role of these actors in the international system. The actors consist of state actors and non-state actors. Non-state actors and terrorism work outside the westphalian system and take power away from state sovereignty. They consist of terrorist groups, IGO’s like the European Union, NGO’s like multinational corporations. NGO’s increase interdependence and globalization. IGO’s bring about peace and spread democracy and war is not realistic. NGO’s even have the ability to remove state governments through public support and pressure placed on high ranking officials as shown in -----. They also have the power to hinder development of countries as shown in the Global South, but at the same time they provide many jobs for the economy. For state actors, the actions and decisions of states can effect profoundly the international because of polarity, hegemony, and economy. The Liberalist view would see non-state actors as a positive because they are bringing countries allowing them to work together through institutions increasing interdependence and globalization. Realists would say that these non-state actors are only out for self interest in profit and will use up resources taking advantage of wages whenever possible. Constructivist view would see terrorist groups specifically as falling under Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations...
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...1 The Foundations of International Society 2013-2014 Part I: Politics 2 (International Relations I) Paper organiser: Professor Christopher Hill (POLIS): Room 105, Alison Richard Building Email: cjh68@cam.ac.uk Lecturers: Professor Hill (CH), Dr Elisabetta Brighi (EB), Dr Aaron Rapport (AR) and Dr Stefano Recchia (SR). Aims and Objectives The course aims to introduce students to the subject of International Relations (IR), whose main focus is the nature of politics at the international level. Students will acquire the empirical and conceptual foundations needed to understand a world political system which cannot be accurately described as either pure anarchy or a coherent form of ‘global governance’. The starting point is the notion of ‘international society’, which refers to the set of institutions and common procedures generated by states over the last three and a half centuries in their attempts to achieve some minimal form of co-existence, but which has gradually evolved to include many non-state actors and different levels of activity – diplomatic, economic and cultural, as well as that of military competition. By the end of the course you should be able to have an informed discussion about: the historical origins of the present system; what is distinctive about international politics as opposed to politics inside the state; and the main challenges which confront humanity in the twenty-first century. You will also acquire a basic familiarity with the main theories needed...
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...Power and the Balance of Power The first concept that we will discuss is power, and its related concept, the balance of power. Power is an important concept in global relations, and a fundamental idea within the school of thought known as Realism. Realism is based on the assumption of anarchy, or the absence of a central order, as the key description of global relations. This is supposedly a self-help system, in which states compete with each other for power. Power is defined as the ability to get someone to change their behaviour in a direction desired by a stronger actor. The idea of power and the balance of power go back only 300 years, but there is evidence, according to Realists, that the Ancient Greeks and Romans pursued power politics. The idea of the balance of power is that interstate interaction will be stable if states, operating under Realist principles, seek to balance each other in their relations. By acting prudently, "carefully, with foresight, avoiding rash acts," no state will seek to upset the system. Each state will check the others, and no state will grow powerful enough to overthrow the others. A state that seeks domination will be defeated, so no state will attempt this. The classical balance of power operated only under a certain number of conditions: 1. There were a large number of states for alliance formation. 2. There were clear geographic confines in the system e.g. the European continent. 3. There must be flexibility/freedom...
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...Theories of International Relations Third edition Scott Burchill, Andrew Linklater, Richard Devetak, Jack Donnelly, Matthew Paterson, Christian Reus-Smit and Jacqui True Theories of International Relations This page intentionally left blank Theories of International Relations Third edition Scott Burchill, Andrew Linklater, Richard Devetak, Jack Donnelly, Matthew Paterson, Christian Reus-Smit and Jacqui True Material from 1st edition © Deakin University 1995, 1996 Chapter 1 © Scott Burchill 2001, Scott Burchill and Andrew Linklater 2005 Chapter 2 © Jack Donnelly 2005 Chapter 3 © Scott Burchill, Chapters 4 and 5 © Andrew Linklater, Chapters 6 and 7 © Richard Devetak, Chapter 8 © Christian Reus-Smit, Chapter 9 © Jacqui True, Chapter 10 © Matthew Paterson 2001, 2005 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright...
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...August 13, 2013 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5430/wjss.v1n1p20 Abstract This article reviews major theoretical perspectives to US foreign policy as well as on how these theoretical perspectives explain foreign policy decision making and conducting of the US. First, the paper will discuss the process of making foreign policy to sustain US core values and interests which are determined by five major categories of sources (i) the external environment, (ii) the societal environment of the nation, (iii) the governmental setting, (iv) the roles of foreign policymakers, and (v) the individual personalities of foreign policy-making elites (Wittkopf et al 2008, p. 15). Then, the paper will examine the defensive and offensive realism, liberalism, marxism, neoclassical realism, constructivism which can be based on to understand US foreign policy behaviour. It will be concluded that no single theory has the capacity to describe, explain and predict US foreign policy behaviour. A mixture of such theoretical approaches seems to be necessary to obtain a comprehensive picture of US foreign policy. Keywords: US foreign policy, defensive and offensive realism, liberalism, marxism, neoclassical realism, constructivism 1. Introduction This paper aims to examine some of the prominent approaches to US foreign policy which have been put forth by International Relations scholars to explain...
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...the able political practitioner takes into account ... and incorporates ... into his political conceptions and his political acts "(Ibid, 1-2). In the field of international relations, realism became the dominant analytical paradigm mostly after the start of the Second World War, when it displaced idealist doctrines, promising "to provide more accurate information, more powerful, and more relevant answers" to the roots or causes of peace and war (Brecher& Harvey, 54). At the same time, many features of the current realist paradigm can be traced back to the time of Thucydides, Niccolo Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes. Among contemporary thinkers recognized as major writers and contributors to the realist tradition are Hans Morgenthau, Edward Carr and Kenneth Waltz (Freyberg-Inan, 8). What are then the basic tenets or common features of a realist thinker? Machiavelli would acknowledge that to be a realist one has to look at history as "a sequence of cause and effect whose course can be analysed and understood by intellectual effort, but not directed by imagination" (Carr, 64). Hobbes would persist in the same train of thought and insist that to be a realist thinker one must look at things as they are and not as they should be (Warner, 37). Thus, both of these thinkers direct us to the idea that the creation of the realist paradigm and theories are in fact an inductive process whereby "theory does not create practice, but practice theory" (Carr, 64). Suggestive and provocative declarations...
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...identity in international relations Ji Young Choi Department of Politics & Government, Ohio Wesleyan University, Elliott Hall 204, Delaware, OH 43015, USA. E-mail: jychoi@owu.edu Abstract This article examines major debates between rationalism and constructivism. It presents that there are politically significant motives of social actions, including norms and identity, which cannot be completely subsumed by the concept of instrumental rationality. These ideational or social-psychological motivations are governed primarily by thymos or affect (the moral or emotional part of the human personality) and/or valueoriented rationality. We need more flexible assumptions about main actors and their motives than those of rationalism to explain appropriately the politics of anger, loyalty and a sense of justice at international levels. However, constructivism’s emphasis on ideational motivations cannot totally replace rationalism in explaining international political life. Constructivism maintains that identity or norms are causally prior to actors’ interests. Yet when there is conflict between pursuit of interests and maintenance of identity or norms, actors’ strong and well-defined self-interests can overrule their contested or unstable identity or norms. In short, causal arrows can flow in either direction between identity or norms and interests. This implies that rationalism and constructivism are complementary rather than competitive in explaining international political...
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...Conflict in Realist and Materialist Terms Kofi Adu Frimpong Kholmati Kholik Global Political Economy Global Political Economy 33423968 33420343 kadfrimpong@yahoo.com kkholik@gmail.com 15/03/2016 Abstract The so called Euromaidan revolution – Ukraine’s struggle to move one step further to closer ties with Europe by liberating itself from the Russian orbit, have created the Russia-Ukraine Crisis. It has re-established and heightened the tensions between Russia and West. Realism has been on the fore front of the academic discussion in explaining the crisis as the power competition between Russia and the West. Alternatively, Materialism has provided a different yet deeper analytical perspective on the conflict by attributing it to the broadening of the transnational class capitalism. This paper will seek to explain and scrutinize the analytical differences in conceptualizing this crisis in Realist and Materialist terms. Keywords: Ukraine crisis, Realism, Security, Materialism, Lockean heartland, Contender states Table of Contents 1 Introduction 4 2 Theoretical framework 5 2.1 Theoretical underpinnings of the Realist school of thought 5 2.2 Theoretical underpinnings of Materialism: Amsterdam School Approach 7 2.2.1 The Lockean Heartland 8 2.2.2 Contender States 9 2.2.3 Ex-contender states, aspirant states, and capitalist class fraction 10 3 The Russia-Ukraine conflict 12 3.1 Russia-Ukraine conflict in Realist terms 12 3.1...
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...International Security Lecture 1 March 30th, 2015 The politics of security knowledge What is international security? We could start thinking about the security council of the UN But also about the invasion of Afghanistan (chapter 7 UN in order to secure the international security) We can also think about security in terms of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. This was a unilateral act of war, but sure it can also mean other things We can think of the national security agency, the agency in charge of spying all the signals and communications to a certain extent. What’s interesting about the NSA, it is seen as a threat to the security of the privacy. Lately, with the reports of the UN development programme, we start talking about HUMAN security (not military security, but rather the security of individuals, having a livelihood that’s acceptable). Whether security is international or not, it can be a rather confusing word The protection of values we hold dear. We search for it, we pursue it, we achieve it, we deny it to others. * what is to be secured? Is it the security of states? Or individuals? * What is the actual threat that we’re facing? Primarily to be dealing with military threats, or are there other types of threats we are facing. Essentially contested concept A concept that ‘inevitably’ involves endless disputes about their proper uses on the part of their users – Walter Gallie There can be ambiguity (one persons freedom-fighter is the other’s...
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...International political economy (IPE), also known as global political economy, is an academic discipline within the social sciences that analyzes international relations in combination with political economy. As an interdisciplinary field it draws on many distinct academic schools, most notably political science and economics, but also sociology, history, and cultural studies. The academic boundaries of IPE are flexible, and along with acceptable epistemologies are the subject of robust debate. This debate is essentially framed by the discipline's status as a new and interdisciplinary field of study. Despite such disagreements, most scholars can concur that IPE ultimately is concerned with the ways in which political forces (states, institutions, individual actors, etc.) shape the systems through which economic interactions are expressed, and conversely the effect that economic interactions (including the power of collective markets and individuals acting both within and outside them) have upon political structures and outcomes. IPE scholars are at the center of the debate and research surrounding globalization, both in the popular and academic spheres. Other topics that command substantial attention among IPE scholars are international trade (with particular attention to the politics surrounding trade deals, but also significant work examining the results of trade deals), development, the relationship between democracy and markets, international finance, global markets, multi-state...
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...Social Theory of International Politics Is it a good alternative on established theories in international relations? 1811 Words Maxim de la Haije (2509740) VU University Political Analysis Dr. Paul Pennings Amsterdam, 28 June 2013 Introduction In recent decades, many approaches have emerged which all try to clarify the processes of international relations as best as possible. Alexander Wendt, a staunch supporter of the social constructivist school, developed the ‘Social Theory of International Politics’ to explain this process, this theory is based on social constructivism. His works can be seen as a response to the theory developed by Waltz, which provided the basis for the neorealist school. This new approach to international relations is increasingly gaining ground and can be seen as a important contribution towards existing theories of international relations. Wendt felt that the existing theories in international relations were too restrictive and too much adherence to guidelines. He thinks out of the box and is in certain areas very rebellious. He beliefs that realism misses the inter subjectively shared ideas which shape behaviour by constituting the identities and interest of actors. Wendt (1999) sees the international system as a social construction. In his works he emphasizes the role of shared ideas and norms in shaping state behavior. Liberal and realist perspectives aim that materialist or individualist reasons causes actions by states. Wendt...
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...International Relations: Contemporary Issues and Actors Elective, 2nd year BA ES, Period 3 (4.5 ECTs) 1. General overview 2. Organisational Issues 3. Participation 4. Attendance rules 5. Grading 6. Essay questions 7. Main rationale and acquired skills 8. Changes introduced to last year’s course 9. Lectures 10. Tutorials 11. Essay writing - Quality criteria 3 4 6 9 10 10 14 15 16 17 36 2 1. General Overview This course is about how we understand International Relations (IR) and what major international actors operate in a number of contemporary policy areas. As it serves as an introduction to the discipline of IR, it starts with some of the basic concepts in it: e.g. war and peace; the role of the state, etc. This is complemented by introducing the role of International (governmental) Organizations (IOs) such as the UN, WTO, NATO, the EU, OSCE, CoE; and International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs), such as Amnesty International; Greenpeace; Medicins Sans Frontieres; etc. The course also introduces the role of the individual and self-organized groups of individuals that claim actorness in IR (advocacy groups; epistemic communities, policy networks; guerrillas; pirates; terrorist groups, etc.). In covering these issues, students are acquainted with some of the main theoretical debates in IR (e.g. Neo-Realism; Neo-Liberal Institutionalism; Social Constructivism; etc.). The lectures provide the general framework for discussing the role of the abovementioned...
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