Robert Cooper: The post-modern state and the world order

1. Robert Cooper: The post-modern state and the world order Jonathan Smith 4013R966-2 Europe and asia class 2013/11/18

2. Contents • The old order 11. Dangers • Cold War order 12. Reflections • The new world order 13. World order apartheid • Pre-modern world 14. Intervention Problems • Modern world 15. The U.S. • Post-modern world 16. Can the EU go alone? • Post-modern state • Security implications • Security and the modern world • Security and the pre-modern world

3. The old order • 1648 – 1945 • Small European states competing with one another • Balance of power • Inherent instability • Imposed on rest of world through empire • Seeds of destruction sewn long before the end • 1) German unification • 2) Military technology • 3) Rise of democracy • Assumptions of hegemony

4. The Cold war system • Not really a new system • Global balance of power logic • Nuclear deterrence • System not built to last • War of ideas

5. New world order • 1989 • End of balance of power system in Europe • Europe sought method of solving disputes

6. Pre-modern world order • Pre-state/post-imperial chaos • State lost monopoly on legitimate use of force • Either lost or taken away • Imperial urge gone

7. Modern world order • Classical state remains intact • State sovereignty • World of IR scholarship • Balance of power still developing • New states

8. Post-Modern world order • Collapse of state system • Failure of balance of power to ensure security • Treaty of Rome • Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty • Balance and transparency • Open governance revolution • Key characteristics

9. Post-modern world • Conquest of territory and population unattractive • Why? • i) Disconnect between resources and prosperity • ii) Nationalism • Security through transparency, transparency through integration • New way of seeing national interest • Who’s in the order? Europe, Canada. Japan? Russia? US?

10. Post-modern state • Pluralist, complex, de-centralised • Not chaotic • Individual value

11. Security implications • New world but no world order • European zone of safety, outside zone of danger and chaos • Threefold security policy needed • Accompanied by threefold mindset • No more absolutes • Security within post-modern zone

12. Security and the modern world • Possibility of joining post-modern system • Still playing by previous rules • Uncertainty • Wars against threats, not for principles • Danger of unity • Deliberate double standards • Cannot neglect defences

13. Security and pre-modern world • Rational response • Dangers of becoming actively involved • Rational but not realistic • Domestic sentiments • Liberal cosmopolitanism • Wide scope for humanitarian intervention • Halfway houses • Different set of rules

14. Dangers facing post-modern state • Danger from pre-modern • Danger from modern • Danger from within

15. REFLECTIONS

16. World order apartheid • How does a modern state become post-modern? • Who could do it? • When did this divide become inevitable?

17. Intervention problems • What an army is for • Can relative goals sit with leading post-modern states’ self-image?

18. The United States • Is it a post-modern state? • Does European post-modernism depend on the U.S.?

19. Independent eu • Can the EU go alone? • Double standards and compromises • Post-modern imperialism? • Possibility of backsliding?