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ETIT 102 - WEEK 2. Defining International Relations and Basic Concepts. What is International Relations (IR) ? . Broad Definition of IR. The study of the political and social interaction of state , non-state actors, and individuals .
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ETIT 102 - WEEK 2 Defining International Relations and Basic Concepts
Broad Definition of IR The study of the political and social interaction of state, non-state actors, and individuals.
States Diplomatic – Strategic relations focusing on war-peace & conflict-cooperation ( Conventional Definition)
Non-stateactors, IOs , NGOs (i.e.UN, EU, MNCs , GreenPeace) cross-border transactions of all kinds (political, economic, social)
Eachdefinition has quitedistinctfeatureswithsiginificantconsequencesforthe rest ourstudyof IR. • ‘ How weunderstandandinterprettheworld is depedent on how we define theworldthatwearetryingtounderstandandinterpret’ • Therefore, anydefinitionweadoptwill be controversial. • Thisdifficulty is sharedbythesocialsciences as a whole.
Twoinferencesfordefining IR • Our definition will be just for convenience , no equivalent of rock • Whateverdefinitionwewillpick, it will not be a politically neutral one.
Conventional Definition of IR • The way diplomats, historians and most scholars define • IR as the study of state relations , primarily in diplomatic, military & strategic terms. • The relevant unit is the state, not the nation.
Nation-State (1) • Nations and states may seem identical, but they are not. • States govern people in a territory with boundaries. They have laws, taxes, officials, currencies, postal services, police, and (usually) armies. They wage war, negotiate treaties, put people in prison, and regulate life in thousands of ways. They claim sovereignty within their territory.
Nation-State (2) • Nations are groups of people claiming common bonds like language, culture, and historicalidentity. • Some groups claiming to be nations have a state of their own, like Turks. Others want a state but do not have one: Palestinians. • Some imagined nations are larger than states or cross state boundaries ( Arabs , Turks, Kurds).
Nation-State (3) • Diplomatic recognition confers legitimacy on a new state (or on the government of a state such as Palestine , Northern Cyprus, Catalonia , Quebec) but sometimes there is a lack of consensus within the international community.
Nationalism (1) • Definitions rely either upon objective or subjective criteria, or on some combination of the two. • The commonality of some particular trait among members of a group. Shared language, religion, ethnicity (common descent), and culture have all been used as criteria for defining nations.
Nationalism (2) The claim that people belonging to a particular group called a nation should inhabit a particular area and control a state of their own. Such a definition points to nationalism as a method of drawing boundaries among people (i.e. self and other).
Ethnicity • The word ethnicity is derived from the Greek ethnos (which in turnderived from the word ethnikos), meaning nation. • Ineverydaylanguage, the word ethnicity still has a ring of ‘minority issues’ and ‘race relations’. • In IR, it refers to aspects of relationships between groups that consider themselves, and are regarded by others, as being culturally distinctive.
Sovereignty Acknowledgement of a central governing authority within a specified geographical territory, combined with the recognition of its status by other states.
Legitimacy • Legitimacy in international relations generally refers to the right to exercise moral and political authority. Political that play a key role in promoting human rights tend to enjoy a high degree of legitimacy. • In this sense, legitimacy derives from the perception of the public authority’s right to rule and exercise jurisdiction over an issue and/or territorial boundaries.
National Interest • Of all the concepts, the most vague and therefore easily used and abused, particularly by politicians to legitimize their policies. • The problem of determining the criteria that can establish a correspondence between the national interest expressed as a principle and the sorts of policies by which it is advanced.
Super Power • Implies that there is a hierarchy of power among states. • Plays a crucial leadership role in the international system and is able to gain the allegiance of other states. • Within its sphere of influence, a superpower can impose its political will on smaller states with relative impunity. • Not only does a superpower have the capacity to project effective military power far from its territory, but it also has enormous military resources at its disposal. • A superpower has special duties with respect to the maintenance of international order and holds a privileged status in international organizationssuch as the United Nations (UN).
Great Powers • The most influential states in the international system at any one time. • The very definition of what constitutes a great power is a matter of some debate. It implies the existence of a club with some rule of membership. • Great powers were at the front rank in terms of military strength and were recognised to have certain rights and duties regarding international peace and security.
Diplomacy In a broad sense, diplomacy is the entire process through which statesconduct their foreign relations. States communicate, bargain,influence one another, and adjust their differences through diplomacy. In a more narrow sense, diplomacy is the implementation of foreignpolicy, as distinct from the process of policy formation.Diplomacy has two faces: 1) The vehicle through which a state assertsitself and represents its concerns to the world 2) One of the principalmeans for conciliating competing national interests.
Anarchy International politics is said to be anarchical because no single state orcoalition of states has absolute control over the entire system. the absence of a supreme power capable of enforcingorder across the entire system means that individual states are in apermanent state of insecurity and must be prepared to do whatever theycan to survive in this hostile self-help environment. The relationshipbetween anarchy and war, then, is extremely close.
