International Relations from 1945 to present

8/9/2019 International Relations from 1945 to present

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International Relations Theory: to which extent can a theoryof your choice explain world politics 1990 to the present day

Problems of lobal international society in the contemporaryworld

lobal o!ernance: absence of a common underlying culture.Western norms, values of capitalism, human rights discourses,

liberal democracy are not yet universalized (nor imposed).

"lobal o!ernance is a movement towards politicalintegration of transnational actors aimed at negotiating

responses to problems that aect more than one state or

region. It tends to involve institutionalization. hese institutions

of global governance ! the "nited #ations, the International

$riminal $ourt, the World %an&, etc. ! tend to have limited or

demarcated power to enforce compliance. he modern 'uestion

of world governance eists in the contet of globalization and

globalizing regimes of power: politically, economically and

culturally. lobal norms would need the support of a !ast ma#ority

of states: the global outh will hardly subordinate to the global#orth, substantive ine'ualities remain and increase.

a reional$cultural pluralism exists, which is di*cult toaccommodate under global norms.

boundaries are contested throuh !iolent con%icts &war'( collapsed &or failed' states are a challene to security

concerns: a security threat is li&ely to come from within, and atthe same time such wea& states are open to penetration from

outside. + failed stateis a state perceived as having failed atsome of the basic conditions and responsibilities of a sovereign

government. +lthough there is no general consensus on the

denition, -und for eace characterizes a failed state as having

the following characteristics: loss of control of its territory, or of

the monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force therein/

erosion of legitimate authority to ma&e collective decisions/

inability to provide public services/ inability to interact with

other states as a full member of the international community. )osmopolitan norms (e.g. 0uman 1ights) are a direct

challenge to the principles of sovereignty and non!intervention.

)osmopolitan norms are norms dening 2crimes againsthumanity3 and human rights norms, which oer rights and

protections to, and impose obligations on, human individuals assuch, not 4ust states.


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*ailed states

+omaliahis war!torn state has a life epectancy of only 56 andan infant mortality rate of 7 out of 68. It tied for the worst rating on

refugees and internally displaced people, human rights, and

factionalized elites.

)onoWith rampant +I9, malnutrition, pollution, and disease,$ongo alone got the worst possible score for demographic pressures.

0undreds of thousands of people are &illed each year in internal

conicts, while an estimated ;88,888 women are raped every year.

,fhanistan +fter "..!led regime change and more than adecade of ".#.!led reconstruction, +fghanistan got the worst possible

score for foreign intervention. he country has emerged with wea&

security apparatus and a wea& government, among other problems.

1ight after


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worse. here have been protests against resident %ashar al!+ssadFs

government, whose forces responded with violent repressions by the

police.

Realism

ItGs based on a 2classical tradition3 of thought provided by

Thucydides(he eloponnesian War), 2achia!elli(he rince), and3obbes (Heviathan). he &ey assumption is that human nature isbad, and humans are in a constant strule for sur!i!al andpower. ey doctrines: raison dGJtat or reason of state and security.

he survival of the state and boosting state power is the &ey duty.

War is a legitimate instrument of statecraft to achieve this goal.

In modern times realism (2orenthau) is identied with statism,sur!i!al, and self$help. tates operate in a system of anarchy, i.e.no underlying central authority eists above the sovereign state.

tates should not depend on other states or institutions to ensure

their own security. It is rational for states to compete for power and

security.

+tructural realism or neorealism (4alt56 2earsheimer) claimsthat the distribution of power between actors is the &ey valuable

to understanding important international outcomes such as war andpeace. It is suggested that a uni$ or bipolar system is more stablethan a multipolar one. he notion of heemony createsstability, a structural realist would argue. he ultimate concern, saysWaltz, is security, not power (defensive realism). tates wish to

maimize their relative power position, says ?earsheimer, and self!

help is the principle of action for this (oensive realism).

)ontemporary challenes:

rational choice theory and neo!liberals assume that maimizing

relative power cannot prevent durable patterns of cooperation. global networ&s of capital (e.g. #$Gs) or terrorism (e.g. al

>aeda) do not stop at the borders of states, neither do

ideologies or institutions that provide values (e.g. liberalism,

socialism, religion).

.asic realist ideas and assumptions are:

a pessimistic !iew of human nature: humans arepreoccupied with their own well!being in their competitive


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relations with each other. he desire to en4oy an advantage over

others and to avoid domination by others is universal (including

international relations with other countries). strule for sur!i!al and power: men and women have a

Kwill to powerG/ this is particularly evident in politics and

especially international politics: Kolitics is a struggle for power

over men, and whatever its ultimate aim may be, power is its

immediate goal and the modes of ac'uiring, maintaining, and

demonstrating it determine the techni'ue of political actionG. international relations are con%ictual and international

con%icts are ultimately resol!ed by war in fa!or ofnational security and state sur!i!al: the ac'uisition andpossession of power, and the deployment and uses of power,

are central preoccupations of political activity. International

politics is thus portrayed asLabove all elseLKpower politicsG: anarena of rivalry, conict, and war between states in which the

same basic problems of defending the national interest and

ensuring the survival of the state, and the security of its people,

repeat themselves over and over again. the international state system is anarchy: itFs a system

with no higher, overarching authority, no world government.

he state is the preeminent actor in world politics. International

relations are primarily relations of states. +ll other actors in

world politicsLindividuals, international organizations (IMNs),nongovernmental organizations (#MNs), etc.Lare either far less

important or unimportant. he main point of foreign policy is to

advance and defend the interests of the state. %ut states are

not e'ual. Nn the contrary, there is an international hierarchy of

power among states. he most important states in world politics

are the great powers. International relations are understood by

realists as primarily a struggle between the great powers for

domination and security. Hesser and wea&er powers are of

secondary importance. normati!e core of realism is national security and statesur!i!al: these are the values that drive realist doctrine andrealist foreign policy. he state is considered to be essential for

the good life of its citizens: without a state to guarantee the

means and conditions of security human life is bound to be, in

the famous phrase of homas 0obbes (6


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fact that all states must pursue their own national interest

means that other countries and governments can never be

relied upon or completely trusted. +ll international agreements

are provisional and conditional on the willingness of states to

observe them. hat ma&es treaties and all other agreements,conventions, customs, rules, laws, and so on between states

merely epedient arrangements which can and will be set aside

if they conict with the vital interests of states. here are no

international obligations in the legal or ethical sense of the word

Li.e., bonds of mutual dutyLbetween independent states. he

only fundamental responsibility of statespeople is to advance

and to defend the national interest. hat is nowhere stated

more brutally than by ?achiavelli in his famous boo& he rince. a basic septicism that there can be proress in

international politics which is comparable to that indomestic political life: this all means that there can be noprogressive change in world politics comparable to the

developments that characterize domestic political life. hat also

means that realist I1 theory is considered to be valid not only at

particular times but at all times, because the foregoing basic

facts of world politics never change. hat, at any rate, is what

most realists argue and evidently believe.

iberalism

iberalismis a modern ideology based on ideas of enlightenmentand the individual freedom of citizens. Immanuel antGs erpetualeace: a philosophical s&etch (6O


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obligations within the state. +nother &ey feature is representati!edemocracy. $itizens actively participate in politics, because forliberals society is important and politicians and bureaucrats are thus

representatives of that society (whereas realism is rather ignorant of

society). Hiberals believe in values that do not stop at state borders.In international relations a liberal believes in society$to$societyrelations, or a transnational society and transnational relations.Interation, cooperation, and collaboration should occur. hisleads to a transnational, interdependent, and tolerant pluralistsociety. 1elations between states are thus only the upper tip of theserelations.

In international politics, liberalism gained a boost with the beginning

of the post World War Nne order, initiated by " president Woodrow

Wilson, and the conviction of many Western (nationalist) politicians

that democratic nation!states shall be the optimum state unit in

international relations. Nne argument is also that liberal democraticstates do not o to war aainst each other (the 2democraticpeace3 argument). International organizations created to better

handle international issues, e.g. the Heague of #ations and later the

"#.


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2freedom under the law3,/ individuals should en4oy themaimum possible liberty consistent with a li&e liberty for all.

reason: the ability of individuals to ma&e wise 4udgments ontheir own behalf, being, in most cases, the best 4udges of their

own interests based, therefore, on human reason and critical

en'uiry/ human beings are also believed to resolve their

dierences through debate and arument rather thanbloodshed and war, because they believe in proress/

belief in proress: the core concern of liberalism is thehappiness and contentment of indi!idual human beins.

;ohn oceargued that states eisted to underwrite the libertyof their citizens and thus enable them to live their lives and

pursue their happiness without undue interference from other

people. In contrast to realists, who see the state rst and

foremost as a concentration and instrument of power, a?achtstaat, liberals see the state as a constitutional entity,a 1echtsstaat (state of law), which establishes and enforcesthe rule of law that respects the rihts of citi5ens to life6liberty6 and property. uch constitutional states would alsorespect each other and would deal with each other in

accordance with norms of mutual toleration. international relations can be cooperati!e rather than

con%ictual: conict and war are not inevitable/ when people

employ their reason they can achieve mutually bene=cialcooperation not only within states but also across internationalboundaries. Hiberal theorists thus believe that human reason

can triumph over human fear and the lust for power. +ll liberals

agree that in the long run cooperation based on mutualinterestswill prevail. hat is because modernization constantlyincreases the scope and the need for cooperation.

e-uality: it is the belief that individuals are 2born e'ual3, atleast in terms of moral worth, and it is reected in the form of

leal e-uality(e'uality before the law) and political e-uality(one person, one vote/ one vote, one value)/ social e'uality isnot endorsed by liberals as individuals do not possess the same

levels of talent or willingness to wor&, but they are in favor of

e'uality of opportunity that gives all the individuals an e'ual

chance to realize their une'ual potential, based on the principle

of meritocracy6with merit reecting, talent plus wor&. toleration: pluralism in the form of moral6 cultural and

political di!ersity is positively healthy: it promotes debatesand intellectual progress by ensuring that all beliefs are tested


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in a free mar&et of ideas, guided by a balance=natural harmony

between rival views and interests. consent: authority and social relationships should always be

based on consent or willing agreement, in this light,

government must be based on the 2consent of the governed3 in

favor of representation and democracy/ and the authority ofsocial bodies and associations arises from the below, grounded

in legitimacy. constitutionalism: although government is a vital guarantee

of order and stability in society, it may become a tyranny

against the individual, thus it must be limited through

separation of o!ernment power, by the creation of checsand balances among the institutions of government, andthrough the establishment of a codi=ed>written constitution

embodying a bill of rights that denes the relationship betweenthe state and the individual/ this is the constitutional state.

2odern liberalism: is characterized by the support for 2big3government rather than 2minimal3 government. + big government is

an interventionist government, usually understood to imply economic

management and social regulation.

freedom: does not 4ust mean being left alone, it is lin&ed to

personal development and the ourishing of the individual: theability of the individual to gain fulllment and achieve self!

realization. tate intervention, in the form of Welfare tate, can

enlarge liberty by safeguarding individuals from the social evils

(want, ignorance, idleness, s'ualor, disease) that ruin individual

eistence. abandonment of laisse5$faire capitalism: as a result of

eynesG insight, growth and prosperity could be maintained only

through a system of regulated capitalism, with &ey

responsibilities in the hands of the state/ thus, the belief in thefree maretas a self!regulating mechanism, actually doesnGtdeliver general prosperity and opportunities for all.

The )old 4ar


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19?@$@A: BRI"I/+ ,/C )B/T,I/2


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attac&ed the Papanese army in ?anchuria, mar&ing the fourth 1usso!

Papanese conict of the 78thcentury.

The formation of the nited /ations to replace the oldeaue of /ations

1oosevelt proposed the power of an absolute veto for the worldGs

great powers over any "nited #ations action they opposed, and

$hurchill and talin accepted. he "nited #ations could not be used

against the interest of any of the ma4or powers, and the "# could act

only when the big ve were in concert.

The fate of "ermany

It was decided to divide the territory of the hird 1eich S including

+ustria, which 0itler had anneed in 6


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gave the oviets more reason to distrust and suspect the intentions of

the "nited tates.

)ontainment)ontainmentwas a "nited tates policy to prevent the spread ofcommunism abroad. + component of the $old War, this policy was a

response to a series of moves by the oviet "nion to enlarge

communist inuence in @astern @urope, $hina, orea, +frica, and

Eietnam. It represented a middle!ground position between

appeasement (diplomatic policy of ma&ing political or material

concessions to an enemy power in order to avoid conict) and

rollbac& (strategy of forcing change in the ma4or policies of a state/

the rollbac& strategy was tried, and failed, in orea in 6


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The 2arshall Plan

hree months after the Truman Coctrine, the "nited tates too&another step to protect its interests in @urope and for the containment

of oviet inuence with the 2arshall Plan. ?arshall and rumanas&ed $ongress for C6O billion to fund the @uropean 1ecovery

rogram, which was intended to provide funds for the rebuilding of

the heavily damaged economies of @urope to get the economy of

@urope going again.

+fter World War II, the " established an international system of 2free

trade3 or relatively unrestricted trade, but the access to @uropean

mar&ets demanded a prosperous @urope that in turn would be

capable of purchasing " goods. he ?arshall lan helped to bloc

the )ommunist parties in 4estern


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In Pune 6


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the reaty but West Mermany was not a treaty member, because of

the fear of a reappearance of Merman militarism, which later was

overshadowed by the fear of potential oviet aggression. %y the end

of 6


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was divided li&e %erlin, and a city with one of the largest

concentrations of foreign spies in the world.

hrushchev and @isenhower even had a series of meetins in the" in 6


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$old War. he result was the dJtente, the lessening of tensions in

international relations.

+lthough West Mermany was not willing to neither have dealings with

the oviet client states of @astern @urope nor recognize these

countries under +denauer and 0allstein, with the rise of Willy %randt

in 6


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"ntil 6


19/37

0owever, the " had shown interest in +fghanistan even before the

oviet "nion invasion. $I+ director 1obert Mates conrmed that the

" had begun to assist +fghan rebels si months earlier and in 6


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In the post!World War II, the concept of neutrality had signicantly

changed, and it was believed that war had been outlawed and thus

there would not be any reason or action for a nation to wage war. %ut

very soon this idea was about to change as the tension between the

two ma4or countries was rising in the new antagonistic world scenario.ince the di!ision of "ermany in 6


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growth of a national consciousness and the development of a sense of

political unity. +fricans received an education at the hands of the

@uropeans, and colonialism was the responsible itself for its own

destruction, because the @uropeans created new educational and

economic opportunities.

.RIT,I/

%ritain too& the lead in decolonization as it did more to prepare its

+frican colonies for self!rule and independence than -rance, %elgium

or ortugal.

In India, when World War II bro&e out, the %ritish faced a well!organized independence mo!ement led by Pawaharlal /ehru and

?ohandas "andhi, who presented passive resistance to the %ritishcolonial laws through non!violent methods as refusing to pay %ritish!imposed taes, organizing wor& stoppages and fasting.

he 2uslims eaue, led by ?ohammed +li Pinnah insisted on aseparate state for ?uslims because of the unresolved 3indu$2uslimantaonism. 0owever, Mandhi and #ehru, as well as the %ritish,were opposed to such a division.

Hater, as the conicts between 0indus and ?uslims intensied, the

%ritish decided on the partition of India in two nations in 6


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the granting of universal surage, paving the way to the creation of

nationalist and pro!independence parties. he rst colony to gain

independence was "hana in 6


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Hater the -rench were beaten by the Eietnamese army, despite the

+mericanGs clandestine assistance to -rance, through its guerrilla

tactics and with the $hinese $ommunistsG heavy artillery at the

battle of Cien .ien Phu in 6


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resident in 6


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+s the economy was collapsing during the transition to capitalism, the

collapse of the $ommunist regimes in @astern @urope brought an end

to $N?@$N#, the remlin!imposed system of economic transition,

which caused the oviet "nionGs healthcare to decline even more as it

depended on medicines from $N?@$N# trading partners. o softenthe shoc& of higher prices, QeltsinGs government printed evermore

money, and the result was an ination rate of 7,888B and a

government budget decit of 75B in 6


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$ollectivization became a bloody civil war during the late 6


27/37

a wor&er who had employed hard wor& to over!achieve at

wor&.

eonid .re5hne!Fs rise to power in 6


28/37

and freely elected parliament of Hithuania unilaterally declared

its independence.

he fall of $ommunism in @astern countries perhaps would haveoccurred before 6

Hithuania unilaterally declared its independence, triggering other

eastern countriesG reaction against the oviet control.

In 6


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$ommunist party responsible for the coup and suspended it

indenitely and he then dissolved the oviet "nion.

+TCD ),+


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ood of refugee westward. %y the end of 6


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and he soon found out that he couldnGt rule oland without olidarity,

as the economy continued to deteriorate.

In Panuary 6


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he sarist immigration policy started trying to russify the region

articially with mass industrialization and urbanization from the 6AD8s

onwards, but "&rainian nationalists believe itFs a postwar

phenomenon, as by 6


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?iddle!class activists too& to the streets of iev protesting against a

decision by itorDanuo!ychto tear up an association agreementwith the @uropean "nion, and instead Qanu&ovych accepted a

nancial aid (bailout) from 1ussia.

*ebruary L01?

Danuo!ych ed the country for 1ussia after his snipers(Qanu&ovychGs %er&ut militia) shot dead over 688 people. + wee& later

heavily armed gunmen seized the $rimean parliament in imferopol

and installed a pro$Russian puppet o!ernment (ergey+&syonov). #et, ladimir Putin anneed $rimea to 1ussia. hen?oscow instigated an armed uprising in the Conbas reion ofeastern "&raine.

+fter winning the 7868 presidential election, Danuo!ych 'uic&lydemolished all of the democratic gains of the 788; Nrange

1evolution. 0e 4ailed his chief political rival Qulia ymoshen&o, whose

chaotic term as prime minister contributed to "&raineGs

dysfunctionality.

he president allegedly too& CR7bn with him (from C688bn looted in

4ust under four years), much of it furtively truc&ed across the 1ussian

border. Nther leading gures from his regime legged it too.

2arch$;uly L01?

he immediate big losers were $rimeaGs artars. he artars S whose

claim to the peninsula long pre!dates 1ussiaGs S refused to accept a

fa&e 2referendum3 held in ?arch, which resulted in a vote for union

with ?oscow. 1ussiaGs state media casts the artars as pro!"&rainian

fth columnists. he remlin has banned artar leader ?ustafa

Pemilev from $rimean territory/ young artars are now disappearing

and turning up dead.

he @" wasnGt prepared to respond to 1ussian hard power with

anything more than diplomatic platitudes and 2grave concern3. he

@" moved to tough sanctions against 1ussia only after the shooting

down in Puly of ?alaysia +irlines ight ?06O, with the deaths of 7


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In ?ay 786;, Petro Poroshenowas elected president, because heseemed to promise both reform and stability, then the government

became more eective against 1ussian!bac&ed separatists in the

east.

ome argue that the anti$terrorist operation in the Conbasshould be the new presidentGs priority. his operation would re'uire

compromises, including bac&ing the oligarchs who have been helping

both to fund the operation and to prevent trouble from spreading to

other parts of "&raine. Nthers argue that the original protest

movement was a last chance to reform raine7s corrupt anddysfunctionalpost!oviet state.

he signing of the economic parts of the +ssociation +greement with

the @uropean "nion at the end of Pune will help "&raine. 0owever, thenew agreement could also provo&e further harsh reactions from

1ussia. oroshen&o said in his inauguration speech on O Pune that 2the

time of inevitable positive changes has come3. %ut, he said, 2to

implement them, we need rst of all peace, security, and unity. + real

war, planned and unleashed in the "&rainian 9onbas, became an

obstacle to enormous opportunities that opened for the @uropean

modernization of "&raine after the fall of tyranny.3 6 he @" can still

do a lot to help &eep "&raine on trac& in such trying circumstances S

most fundamentally, by encouraging it to be bold.

R++I,

The Deltsin Presidency

Qeltsin embraced the capitalism and transferred state properties to

individuals with connections to his government. he oil and gasindustry fell into private hands. oliticians began to eploit the state!

owned properties and their managers paid themselves generous

salaries. he situation was corrupt even by oviet standards. ?illions

of citizens lost their savings because of the ination.

he economic disaster triggered a rebellion by 1ussiaGs parliament: by

early spring 6


35/37

suspended the $onstitutional $ourt and banned the opposition press

and television. he new constitution promulgated later in 6


36/37

2independent Islamic state of 9agestan3 to spur an Islamic anti!

1ussian uprising. 5 days later utin sent ghter 4ets to Mrozny and R

wee&s later a series of eplosions shoo& ?oscow, led by $hechen

terrorists. +fter the 1ussian army too& Mrozny, the rebels retreated in

the mountains, vowing to continue the ght. In the end, the conictbecame more than a merely a war of secession: it too& on ethnic and

religious connotations, with 1ussians against $hechens and $hristians

against ?uslins.

utin oered his people a 2dictatorship of the law3 instead of a

democracy, and he never solved the $hechen issue. ?any terrorist

attac&s happened in the following years: in Nctober 7887, $hechen

terrorists and blac& widows seized O88 hostages in a ?oscow theater

and 67< of them perished/ months later $hechens bombed a train in

southern 1ussia, ?oscowGs military command base in Mrozny and asubway station in ?oscow/ in 788;, blac& widows on suicide missions

brought down two 1ussian airliners, and then $hechens seized a

school in %eslan in southern 1ussin &illing RR5 people, most were

children. utin then issued a decree ending popular elections of

regional governors to establish a 2single chain of command3 to

strengthen the 2unity of the country and prevent further crises3.

utin also turned against media outlets and &idnapped, arrested,

4ailed and 2eliminated3 some 4ournalists that were engaged inshowing ?oscowGs brutality in $hechnya war. Nnly with the arrest in

788R of ?i&hail hodor&ovs&y on charges of ta evasion, the chief

eecutive of the Qu&osibneft oil company and one of the worldGs

richest men, that public criticism of utin came to an end. In 788D, a

former M%!-% o*cer, +leander Hitvinen&o, suered an agonizing

death because of a olonium!radiation poisoning. @arlies before he

charged utin and -% of having ties to the al >uaeda terror networ&,

organizing violent acts in 1ussia, and then blaming the $hechens.

Nne of utinGs priorities was to rebuild the military. In the subse'uentyears 1ussiaGs economy began to recover, than&s to the rise of the

cost of energy and the remlin began to play a more condent, at

times belligerent, role in international aairs.

+s the 1ussian constitution limited utin to two 5!year terms as

president, he simply switched 4obs with the rime ?inister Cimitri2ed!ede!, who in ?arch 788A was elected resident as thecandidate of the "nited 1ussia political party. utin then moved into

?edvedevGs former o*ce of the prime minister, from where heepected to eercise his enormous inuence.


37/37

The disinteration of Duosla!ia: oriins and two countrycases

Duosla!ia7s detachment from the +o!iet nion

Poseph ito, the $ommunist ruler of Qugoslavia, was loyal to talin and

to the allies while ghting #azi Mermany, but once World War II was

over, ito established independence from ?oscow, but he did not

move into the capitalist camp, although he accepted aid from the

West. he immediate conse'uence of itoGs defection was talinGs

reorganization of the $ommunist governments of @astern @urope, he

eecuted and 4ailed $ommunists (such as olandGs 4ladyslaw"omula, of whom he suspected of nationalist or itoist tendencies).talinGs brutal cleansing of the @ast @uropean $ommunist parties

made these parties outwardly loyal to the oviet "nion until talinGs

death.

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International Relations from 1945 to present

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