Tutorial 1 Causes of Global Conflicts

1. Tutorial 1 Causes of Global Conflicts Readings : Questions & Answers

2. P.M.H.Bell, The World since 1945: An International History pp 531 - 547 Ch 24: Motivation: Why do states and peoples act as they do?

3. 1) What are some of the causes of conflicts stated by PMH Bell in this chapter? • National interest • Internal politics & pressure • Economic advantage • Prestige • Ideologies • Nationalism • Religion • Historical baggage

4. 2) National interest usually refer to security? What are the 3 components in the safety of the state? Are they of equal importance? Why? • Security: the safety of the state, including its independence, its territory and the lives of its people. • No, in war, lives are sacrificed to secure independence, and in extreme circumstances countries will surrender territory or even independence rather than incur unacceptable loss of life.

5. 3) Give examples of how countries which put its citizens’ lives above loss of independence & territory. Do you think that should be the way a government should respond in a serious conflict? Explain your answer. • Egs. Denmark in 1940 surrendered to Germany • Baltic states – Latvia, Estonia & Lithuania accepted Soviet annexation.

6. 4) What could stop American presidents from pursuing their national interest? • Constraints applied by Congress, the mass media and public opinion. 5) What did President Truman use to get support from the US Congress to implement the Truman Doctrine with regard to aid to Turkey & Greece in 1947? • Whipped up anti-communist sentiments.

7. 5) Did President Johnson have problem rallying the masses for the Vietnam War? Why? • No, very strong anti-communist feelings, cannot be accused of being ‘soft on communism’ as can’t afford to be the man who lost “South Vietnam”.

8. 6)What may cause a government to sacrifice national interest in its foreign policy? Give egs • Internal politics & pressures / political manipulation • President Johnson of the US had been determined not to “lose” South Vietnam to the communists in the 1960s, allowing the effect of the “domino phenomenon” to continue. However, domestic opinion was that the war cost too many lives and resources, pressuring the United States of America to withdraw from the war. • As a result, the national interest became a matter of pacifying opposition at home rather than to pursue its foreign policy of containing the spread of communism at that time.

9. 7) How can internal pressure be a cause for international conflict? • People had the ability to influence governments to forgo their current interests and rather pick up an interest that the people think is important. In such circumstances, national interest might indeed become what some important people or group think it is rather than what is actually best for the country. • If a state becomes forced to pursue a misled national interest, it might lead to clashes of national interests that may be avoided, unnecessarily causing international conflicts.

10. 8) Give two e.gs of the demands of domestic pressure on governments in politics? • To save the life of a national condemned by foreign court. • To impose arm embargo on dangerous government to secure overthrow of an evil regime e.g. the apartheid regime in South Africa.

11. 9) What ideology caused many global conflicts between 1920s and 1980s? Why? • Marxism-Leninism /communism • Soviet Union claimed that ideology was its raison d’etre and that it was created to fulfill a mission – spread communism which conflicted with liberal democracy & capitalism spearheaded by America. • Resulted in a clash of two superpowers leading to the cold war. • Early 1980s – 22 states in Asia, Africa & Europe comprising a third of the world’s population were attracted to communism.

12. 10) What is a state? Political entity, with a government and a territory defined by specific frontiers11) What is a nation?group of people conscious of its own identity.12) Why is nationalism a more important cause compared to ideology in global conflicts?Has the strongest emotional appeal – appeals to the heart, commands emotional commitment capable of long endurance as well as fierce outbursts. Its appeal is widespread because it is protean. (very changeable; readily taking on different shapes and forms) Ideology is usually intellectual & cerebral

13. 10) What is a state? • Political entity, with a government and a territory defined by specific frontiers • 11) What is a nation? • group of people conscious of its own identity. • 12) Why is nationalism a more important cause compared to ideology in global conflicts? • Has the strongest emotional appeal – appeals to the heart, commands emotional commitment capable of long endurance as well as fierce outbursts. Its appeal is widespread because it is protean. (very changeable; readily taking on different shapes and forms) • Ideology is usually intellectual & cerebral

14. 13) How was nationalism manifested during and after the Cold War? • Polish nationalism – Poland vanished from the map from 1795 to 1918 & 1939 to 1945 and spend over 40 years under Soviet domination before surfacing again. • Eastern Europe – removed themselves from Soviet Union’s iron grip. • 2000 – the Chechens – fought 2 wars to get independence but still under Russia • Sri Lanka – Sinhalese versus Tamil separatists • 1960s: Cyprus – Enosis (Union with Greece)

15. 14) How is economic advantage a cause of conflict between nations? • to maintain or increase wealth or escape from poverty. • setting up tariffs to protect home industries and agriculture, by securing control of raw materials or be attempts of poor countries to attract aid or to cancel their debts. • 1960 – Western Europe could buy oil from the Soviet Union more cheaply than elsewhere, but was dissuaded by the USA from doing so. Why? • To persuade them not to become too dependent on imports from the enemy in the Cold War, & increase soviet revenues. • 1980s – Europeans bought natural gas from Siberia despite American arguments.

16. 15) How did Singtel’s buying of Thailand & Indonesia’s telecom company bring Singapore into conflict with Thailand & Indonesia? 16)What had caused the Thai & Indonesia public to react that way? 17) Think of other egs where economic interests come into conflict with domestic pressure, prestige and forces of nationalism.

17. 18) Why is prestige not a worthy cause for a state to come into conflict with another country? • Unmeasurable • Done at the expense of providing social services at home. • egs Poor African states must have their own national airline & countries bid to stage the Olympic Games 19) Give an eg of prestige which is not antagonistic. • Cultural diplomacy to promote one’s language, literature and art.

18. 20) What is a latent force of conflict in the 21st century? Why • Religion • Founding of Pakistan - successful demand by Jinnah to partition British India along religious line and set up of a Muslim state) • Intra-religious division : Majority of Muslims - 90% are Sunnis versus Shiites mostly in Iran, Pakistan & India •  emergence of Islamic fundamentalists • 1979 Iranian revolution – founding of Islamic Republic by Ayatollah Khomeni who supported the Hezbollah (the Party of God) & Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) – fundamental Muslims • Islamic Fundamentalism - issued fatwa (Islamic religious ruling) – to kill Salman Rushdie for his novel The Satanic Verses. • Islamic terrorists who die as a result of carrying out fatwa can achieve status of martyr

19. P.M.H.Bell, The World since 1945: An International History pp 552 - 565 The World since the Cold War: New Order and Old Chaos

20. 21) What was the most serious conflict which occurred in the Balkans with the end of the Cold War? • Breakup of Yugoslavia (1989) which produced wars & massacres lasting for 8 years. • Many-sided conflict - Slovenia (Serbs –orthodox Christians) - Croatia (Catholics with a large no of Serbs - Bosnia (Presence of Serbs, large Albanian & Muslim population) 22) What was/were the cause/s? nationalism & religion

21. 23) Explain the term “Ethnic Cleansing”. • driving out alien peoples to establish areas of homogenous population 24) How was this manifested in the conflict among Serbia, Croatia & Bosnia? • Creation of Greater Serbia & Greater Croatia • Serbs drove out Croats & Croats expelled Serbs & in Bosnia – getting rid of the Muslims

22. 25) What are Basque separatists? • The radical movement of Basqueseparatists (leftist political party) was organized in 1959 when the group known as Basque Fatherland and Freedom (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna-ETA) broke away from the much larger Basque Nationalist Party (Partido Nacionalista Vasco--PNV). • The ETA adopted a policy of armed struggle in 1968; creating a terrorist separatist group operating in the Basque regions of Spain and France.

23. 26) What is a parallel of the Gulf war when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990-1991 in history? • The German annexation of Austria in 1938 27) How did the international community show that it was not willing to repeat the 1938 mistake? • United States with 27 other countries launched an offensive against Iraq.

24. 28) State and explain a positive and a negative impact with the defeat of Iraq? • Positive – eg of collective security – the international community had come into its own. • Negative – public opinion in several Arab countries was for Iraq – revulsion against the West.

25. 29) Give egs of conflicts in Africa & Asia. • Africa - Somalia – a failed state (1991 -?) • Rwanda (1993-2000) – Movie: Hotel in Rwanda The true-life story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who housed over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda. • Congo (Former Zaire) (1998) • Sierra Leone (1999 – 2000) • Asia – little open warfare: 3 dangerous crisis • India-Pakistan over Kashmir • China-Taiwan - North & South Korean (pp 562)

26. 30) Give instances of international cooperation in the 1990s under the aegis of the United Nations. a) 1992 – Earth Summit – Rhio de Janeiro (environmental & ecological problems) b) 1993 – World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna c) 1994 – World Conference on Population and Development at Cairo (Catholics & Muslims found common ground against secular states) d) 1995 - World Summit at Copenhagen on Social Development e) 1995 – World Conference in Beijing on the position of women

27. 31) How beneficial are these world conferences to the progress of mankind? • Produced mountains of paper but little by way of results. • Revealed profound division between secular and religious countries & between rich and poor states, which took widely different views on the role and rights of women.

28. 32) Is the United Nations, the guardian of a world order, effective? So should the UN cease functioning? • Between 1991 – 1995 – More than 20 peace-keeping operations were undertaken • A number ended in humiliation eg. 1994 – withdrew from Rwanda without achieving peace • Somalia – 2 UN operations failed. • Even so, the UN was taking a more active role than at any previous time in its history • Improvement in Sino-Soviet ties (pp 562 – 563)

29. 33) What are the challenges facing the world today? (pp 564) • USA : total unwillingness to accept casualties & desire to create a global economy working on American lines limited by the generally inward-looking nature of American society. • Hesitates between the reality of being the only superpower and a reluctance to intervene if the costs are high. • Division between the industrialized and developed ‘North’ and mainly poor ‘South’. • Unrestrained immigration • Terrorism • Militant Islam

30. 34) Why can’t the study of international history be an exact science? • The mixed motives behind actions of government & people, reasons of state and national interests can often be calculated and predicted. • However, movements inspired by ideas, beliefs and emotions cannot.

31. 35) Can Singapore be like Switzerland, sheltered by its traditional neutrality policy, immune from any external threat? How can she protect herself just to settle for relative security? • Ensure military strength • Alliances • Neutrality