This course is named global affairs and it teach students about international relations. This ppt designed by me for first year students.

1. Course name: Global Affairs
Course code: GLAF 1012
Contact: 2cr.hr
Year of student: 1st, semester 2nd

2. Chapter one
Understanding International Relations/politics
The focuses of discussion:
 The nature, scope, evolution of IR’s
 Actors and levels of analysis in IR’s
 Structure and theories of IR’s

3. 1.1. Conceptualizing Nationalism, Nations and States
 The words “nation” “state” and “country” are used interchangeably and
this is not correct.
1. Nationalism
Is the doctrine that asserts the nation as the basic political unit in
organizing society (Heywood, 2014).
It is the most influential force in international affairs.
It is used to reshape and reinforce regimes in history
It has caused to the outbreak of revolutions and wars across the globe.
It is noted as:
factor for the collapse of age old empires,
marker for new borders,
a powerful component for the emergence of new states

4. Con…d
E.g. the revolutions that took place in Britain‘s North American colonies
in 1776, and in France in 1789, provided models for other nationalists to
follow. ‘We the People of the United States’ – the first words of the
Preamble to the US Constitution – was a phrase which itself would have
been literally unthinkable in an earlier era.
In the revolution of France (1789), the old regime was overthrown and
with it the entire social order. The French nation was from now on to be
governed by the people, the nation, and in accordance with the principles
of liberty, equality and brotherhood.
Nationalism in the first part of the 19th C was a liberal sentiment
concerning self-determination – the right of a people to determine its own
fate.

5.  Nationalism‘s triumph
 The coming of the nation-state as key actors in world politics.
 accepted as ultimate, legitimate and the most basic form of political
entity.
2. Nations
 Are historical entities that evolve organically out of more similar ethnic
communities and they reveal themselves in myths, legends and songs
(Heywood, 2014).
 Are community of people who share a common sense of identity which
may be derived from language, culture or ethnicity and common social
practice.
 The nation was a soul added to the body of the early modern state
machinery.
Con…d

6. 3. State
Is a legal entity composed of a stable population and
government; it possesses a monopoly over the legitimate use of
force; its sovereignty is recognized by other states in the
international system.
At the end of the 18th C this state came to be radically
transformed.
The ‘state’ was combined with a ‘nation‘ forming a compound
noun – the ‘nation-state‘ – which was organized differently and
pursued different goals.
Con…d

7. 4. Nation-state
A nation which corresponds the geographical combines of the state.
A territorially bounded sovereign polity-i.e., a state-that is ruled in the name
of a community of citizens who identify themselves as a nation.
The ‘nation-state’ refers to a state within the boundaries of which there is
only one nation.
Historically speaking, the idea of the modern state was based on that of the
nation-state.
The nation-state is a state encompassing a single nation in which the
overwhelming majority of the people form a dominant in-group who share
common cultural, ethnic, and linguistic characteristics, and all others are
part of a distinct out-group or minority
Con…d

8.  Evolution: Nation Vs. Nationalism:
 evolution of the European state system.
 Revolutions :
Britain’s North American colonies in 1776.
France in 1789.
 Provided models for other nationalists to follow.
 E.g. In America the phrase ‘we the people of America is literally
unthinkable in an earlier era. ’
 In France old regime was overthrown and with it the entire social
order.
 The principles of liberté, égalité et fraternité– liberty, equality
and brotherhood is adopted.
Con…d

9. The Congress of Vienna of 1815:
settlement was reached at the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
 Europe national communities demanded to be included into
the politics of their respective countries.
Liberal Nationalism (early 19th century):
first part of the nineteenth century.
Far-reaching implications for the way politics was
organized domestically.
profound ramifications for international politics.
E.g. undermined the political legitimacy of Europe’s
empires.
Con…d

10. 1848 redrawn the Map Of Europe.
Everywhere the people demanded the right to rule
themselves.
E.g.
Finns wanted an independent Finland;
the Bulgarians an independent Bulgaria;
the Serbs an independent Serbia, and so on.
In 1861 Italy that was long divided into separate city-
states and dominated by the Church : became a
unified country and an independent nation.
Con…d

11.  First World War.
War in 1918 that self-determination was acknowledged as a
right.
most people in Europe formed their own nation-states.
 the Westphalian inter-state system.
Inter-national system continued to operate in much the same
fashion as the Westphalian inter state system.
Nation-states claimed the same right to sovereignty which
meant that they were formally equal to each other.
Con…d

12. 1.2. Understanding International Relations
 IR’s is a branch of social science concerned with relations
among nations.
 And it concentrate on the issues like
 Non-state actors,
 International political economy,
 International security,
 Foreign policies of major powers,
 Globalization,
 International terrorism,
 International environment and areas of study.

13.  IR’s is not merely a field of study at university but is an integral aspect
of our (increasingly international) everyday lives.
 We now live:
 world where it is impossible to isolate our experiences and
transactions from an international dimension.
 IRs will continue to impact your life is tremendous.
E.g. Watches the sitcom Friends or the soap opera Neighbours:
 learning about and participating in a culture d/t from their own.
If flies from Addis to Washington DC or London:
 subject to international air space agreements and contributing to
global warming.
If buy a fair-trade coffee:
 contributing to a state and a people’s development.
Con…d

14. Historical Evolution
The term international first used by Jeremy Bentham in 1798:
seen largely as a branch of the study of law, philosophy or history.
First World War:
Emerged an academic undertaking.
first university chair of international relations was founded at the
University of Wales in 1919.
After WW II:
Describe a range of interactions between:
 people,
groups,
firms,
associations,
parties,
States
IGO’s
NGO’s
Con…d

15. Difference between domestic and international politics
There are legal, political and social differences between domestic and
international politics.
Domestic law International law
Is generally obeyed, and if not, the
police and courts enforce sanctions.
Is rests on competing legal systems,
and there is no common enforcement.
Domestically a government has a
monopoly on the legitimate use of
force.
In international politics no one has a
monopoly of force, and therefore
international politics has often been
interpreted as the realm of self-help.
International politics is also about
maintaining international order.
Con…d

16. 1.3. The Nature and Evolution/ dev't of IRs
 Philosophical disputes about the nature of international
relation is between:
Hobbesian versus the Lockean state of nature in the 17th C.
Realist versus Idealist debate of the first part of the 20th C.
 Hobbes, in 1651interpreted the state of society:
 continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of
man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’.
 Locke’s more optimistic view:
 sociability was the strongest bond between men –men
were equal, sociable and free.
Con…d

17.  As an academic discipline IR is not very old.
 It is a systematic study started after the WWI and
universities in Western Europe and the United States
introduced a separate courses on it from the 1920’s.
 As relations among states or pre-state political system the
subject is very old.
 Before the birth of modern nation state, pre-state political
systems had developed in different part of the world.
 The rise of the sovereign state in medieval Europe consisted of a
complicated pattern of overlapping jurisdictions and loyalties.
 Most of life was local and most political power was local too.
Con…d

18.  At the local level there was an enormous diversity of political entities:
 feudal lords who ruled their respective estates much as they
saw fit, cities made up of independent merchants, states ruled
by clerics and smaller political entities such as principalities
and duchies.
 In medieval Europe there were two institutions with pretensions to
power over the continent as a whole-the (Catholic) Church and the
Empire.
 The Church was the spiritual authority, with its center in Rome.
 The Empire - known as the Holy Roman Empire-was established in
the 10thC in central, predominantly German-speaking, Europe.
Con…d

19.  It also included parts of Italy, France and today‘s
Netherlands and Belgium.
 It too derived legitimacy from the Roman Empire, but had
none of its political power.
 The Holy Roman Empire is best compared to a loosely
structured federation of many hundreds of separate
political units.
 The political system of medieval Europe was thus a curious
combination of the local and the universal.
Con…d

20.  Yet, from the fourteenth century onward this system was
greatly simplified as the state emerged as a political entity
located at an intermediate level between the local and the
universal.
 The new states simultaneously set themselves in opposition to
popes and emperors on the universal level, and to feudal lords,
peasants and assorted other rulers on the local level.
 This is how the state came to make itself independent and self-
governing.
Con…d

21. • The process started in Italy where northern city-states such as
Florence, Venice, Ravenna and Milan began playing the pope
against the emperor, eventually making themselves
independent of both.
• Meanwhile, in Germany, the pope struggled with the emperor
over the issue of who of the two should have the right to
appoint bishops.
Therefore, as the relation among nation-state, IR is believed
to have developed with the Peace Treaty of Westphalia in
1648, which is considered as the creator of modern nation-
state in Europe.
Con…d

22.  It is believed that the Treaty of Westphalia encourage the rise of
independent nation-states by recognizing territorial sovereignty.
 The also led to the rise of institutionalization of diplomacy and
armies.
 It was an agreement among Europe's rulers to recognize each other’s
right to rule their own territory, free from external influences.
 The nation-state system that emerge after Westphalia had undergone
along process of evolution and change to assume the present nature.
 During the long process of evolution, this system was influenced,
strengthen, and also affected by several developments, socio-political,
economic and scientific.
Con…d

23.  The rise of capitalism, industrial revolution, the French
revolution, the American war of independence, colonialism
influenced this evolving process till the 19th c.
 Therefore, IR- as system of interaction among nation state has
also undergone change from time to times, yet its basic nature
has remained the same from time to time, it is a system were
nation state mainly interact and make the system operative.
 As an academic discipline, IR is mainly concerned with the
study of such interaction that have assumed multidimensional
character since the last century.
Con…d

24. 1.4. Actors in international relation
1. State actors
 IRs traditionally focused on interactions between states.
 The states are the leading actors.
 international politics come to be defined in terms of interactions
between states in an international system
 The number of actors and issues that are relevant because IR captures a
vast array of themes ranging from
interconnectedness of people to old and new forms of security,
dialogue and conflict between visions, beliefs and ideologies,
the environment, space, the global economy,
poverty and climate change.
Con…d

25. A lot of states in the world: no fewer than 195 of them. call
themselves ‘sovereign’:
exclusive right to govern their respective territories in their own
fashion.
Moreover, all states have their own
capitals, armies, foreign ministries, flags and national anthems.
But states are also sovereign in relation to each other:
they act in relation to other states,
declaring war,
concluding a peace,
negotiating a treaty, and many other things.
Con…d

26. 2. Non-state actors
This includes:
International governmental institutions,
Non-governmental organizations
Multinational corporations (MNCs)-often with headquarters
in one state and operational capability in a range of others –
contribute significantly to international relations.
Interaction between individual and group
Social medias- provide accessible platforms of communication that
allow for the projection and promotion of ideas across borders
Con…d

27. 1.5. Levels of Analysis in International Relations
 Level of analysis/perspectives is the level of generalization to help
understand highly complex problem in the world politics.
 According to Singer (1961) the international system is the most
comprehensive level of analysis that encompasses the interaction of
the system alongside component part of the system
 First it was developed by Kenneth Waltz, (State and War: A
Theoretical Analysis (1959))
 Levels of analysis
1. Individual level
2. Group level
3. State level
4. System level
Con…d

28. 1. The individual level:
 International analysed from the perspective of individuals.
Look at the behaviours, motivations, beliefs and orientation.
affecting a particular international phenomenon.
Need to engage with the implications of human nature.
Psychology and emotions behind people’s actions and
decisions.
 Their fears and their visions as well as their access to
information and capacity to make a difference.
Important factor in the analysis of foreign policy.
 Particular actions of specific personalities in the public realm
 be they politicians, diplomats or bankers.
Con…d

29. 2. The group level
 Break the analysis down into certain kinds of groups.
How they relate to the state level and where they position
themselves with respect to the global dimension.
E.g. the role of lobbying groups and the way they
influence national decision – making.
Activist/pressure groups like ‘Anonymous’.
influence the global debate about the winners and losers
of globalization and capitalism.
In this sense, a group-level analysis would be more
interested in the actions of groups of individuals.
Con…d

30. 3. The state level:
 state as the dominant unit of analysis.
state-centrism.
state as a point of reference for other types of actors.
state acts as the arena in which state officials, politicians and
decision-makers operate.
look at the foreign policy of states.
policies proposed and decided by governments,
statements of top-level politicians,
the role and behaviour of diplomats and their bureaucratic structures.
Why state is dominant?
Max Weber’s monopoly on violence.
the exclusive right to the legitimate use of physical force.
Con…d

31. 4. The system level.
It is a level above the state.
global system:
the structure or context within which states cooperate, compete
and confront each other.
national interest.
distribution of power amongst states.
Un-polarity: one main concentration of power. E.g. AFTER WW I.
Two (bi-polarity): concentration of power at two poles. E.g. Cold
War.
Multi-polarity: concentration of power at several poles. E.g. NEW
WORLD ORDER.
Con…d

32. 1.6. The Structure of International System
IR’s scholars maintain that political power is usually
distributed into three main types of systems, namely:
(i) Uni-polar system,
(ii)Bipolar system and,
(iii)Multipolar system.
These three different systems reflect the number of powerful
states competing for power and their hierarchical
relationship.
Con…d

33. 1. Uni-polar international system:
There is one state with the greatest political, economic,
cultural and military power.
The ability to totally control other states.
In both bipolar and multipolar systems there is no one single
state with a preponderant power and hence ability to control
other states.
Con…d

34. 2. The bipolar system
There are two dominant states (super powers) and the less
powerful states join.
Either sides through alliance and counter alliance
formations.
Vulnerable for zero-sum game politics
Because when one superpower gains the other would
inevitably lose.
One typical historical example “the cold war period.”
Con…d

35. 3. Multipolar system
Various equally powerful states competing for power.
Is possible to bring change without gaining or losing
power.
Typical world system through history.
Con…d

36. Basic concepts in IR (common element of international system)
A. Power
Determines the relative influence of actors.
Shapes the structure of the international system.
Power can be defined in terms:
relations and material (capability) aspects.
The relational definition of power: by Robert Dahl.
‘A’s’ ability to get ‘B’ to do something it would not otherwise do.
Hans Morgenthau argues that
International politics, like all other politics, is a struggle for power.
Thus, power is the blood line of international relations.
Con…d

37. B. Anarchy
A situation where there is absence of authority (government) in
global level.
System where power is decentralized.
Lack of shared institutions with the right to enforce common rules.
Anarchical world:
A world where everyone looks after themselves and no one looks
after the system as a whole.
states had to rely on their own resources or
form alliances:
 Power of one alliance of states could be balanced against the
power of another alliance.
Con…d

38. B. Sovereignty
An expression of:
(i) A state’s ultimate authority within its territorial entity
(internal sovereignty),
(ii) The state’s involvement in the international community
(external sovereignty).
Denotes double claim of states:
international system.
 autonomy in foreign policy.
independence/freedom in its domestic affairs.
Con…d

39. 1.7. Theories of International Relations
1. Idealism/Liberalism:
Referred as a ‘utopian’ theory.
View on human beings:
innately good .
believe peace and harmony between nations is not only achievable,
but desirable.
Immanuel Kant in late 18th century:
States that shared liberal values should have no reason for going to
war against one another.
The more liberal states there were in the world, the more
peaceful it would become.
Con…d

40. Modern liberal’s democratic peace theory:
democracies do not go to war with each other.
1919 to the 1930s discipline (liberalism) was dominated by liberal
internationalism:
Conditions of WWs and their devastation should not be allowed to
occur in the future.
Foundations in the Enlightenment.
According to Burchill, the prospects for the elimination of war lay
with a preference:
Democracy over aristocracy,
Free trade over autarky, and
Collective security over the balance of power system.
Con…d

41. Two ideas Kant’s perpetual peace laid foundation for liberal
internationalism
 governed relations of cooperation between states:
1.democratic governance
–democracy
2. institutionalized law.
–free trade.
Collective security’ to replace antagonistic alliance systems.
–domestic analogy of a social contract transferred for the
international level.
The creation of the LG after the end of the WWI
was the culmination of the liberal ideal of IRs.
Con…d

42. LN collapsed due to the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.
difficult for liberals to comprehend, as events seemed to contradict
their theories.
For liberals International law:
Mechanism by which cooperation among states is made possible.
International law:
 body of customary and conventional rules which are binding on
civilized states in their intercourse with each other.
Provides normative framework for political discourse :
 framework does not guarantee consensus, but it does foster the
discourse and participation.
Con…d

43. International law performs two different functions.
A. Provide mechanisms for cross-border interactions.
–“operating system’’ of international law
B. Shape the values and goals these interactions are pursuing.
–‘‘normative system.”
Legal standing of international law is a contentious issue.
– three competing views:
 For Some scholars
– IL is not a law at all but a branch of international morality.
 For Others
–International law is a law in all senses of the term.
 Others argued:
–International law is a matter of definition.
»operating system of international law functions in some
ways as a constitution does in a domestic legal system
Con…d

44. 2. Realism
Idealism after WWII assumed as futile and utopian.
Idealism’ of the interwar period replaced by realism
E.H. Carr’s ‘Twenty Years’ Crisis’, published in 1939:
–wishful thinking of liberal internationalism.
–Urged for value distinction:
»‘what is’ from the ‘what ought to be’ .
Realists argued:
Values are context bound.
Morality is determined by interest.
Conditions of the present are determined by historical processes.
Con…d

45. Realism thought centre on the view:
International system is ‘anarchic’
It is devoid/lacking of an all-encompassing authority.
Look out for their own interests first
Military and economic power are the keys to security
Conflict is an inevitable and continual feature of inter-
national relations
Inter-national law is non-binding and ultimately
ineffectual
in the regulation of relations between states
Con…d

46. Realism locates its roots in the works:
Thucydides, Machiavelli and Hobbes.
–International politics, like all politics, is a struggle for
power’.
clear separation of fact and value, of theory and
practice.
Realism gained momentum during the Second World War:
Thomas Hobbes characterization of human nature and
brutality of life during the English Civil War of 1642–1651 is
proved.
–described human beings as living in an order-less ‘state of
nature.
a war of all against all.
Con…d

47. Kenneth Waltz’s ’ (1959) in his ‘Man, the State and War’:
Neo-realist:
Focuses on the international system itself.
–dynamics and the constraints it imposes on state behaviour.
International system:
Anarchical
Perpetually threatening and conflictual.
Imperatives of the international system and the distribution of
capabilities within it.
determine state behaviour.
War as inevitable/unavoidable.
international anarchy’
world has no sovereign to give it order.
Con…d

48. Idealism Vs. Realism
Point of
difference
Idealism Realism
Human Nature human beings are
inherently good, or
have the potential for
good
Humans are selfish.
behave according to their
own needs without
considering needs of
others.
Politics politics is primarily
about cooperation.
all politics is a struggle
for power
Con…d

49. Point of
difference
Idealism Realism
International
System
optimistic view of IR. World
order can be improved, with
peace and progress gradually
replacing war.
pessimistic view of IR. In
anarchical system state can
only truly rely on itself.
IR war and conflict is
common.
Role of the state Non-state actors are
valuable in assisting states to
formalize cooperation that
leads to peaceful outcomes.
E.g. International
Organizations.
states partake in
international
organizations only when
it is in their self-interest to
do so.
Con…d

50. 3. Structuralism/Marxism.
Marxism:
ideology that argues that a capitalist society is divided into two
contradictory classes.
the business class (the bourgeoisie)
the working class (the proletariat).
1960s alternative modes of conceptualizing international politics.
global relations came to encompass matters which seemed far
removed from the Cold War rhetoric
Decolonization: look
US withdrawal from Vietnam.
rise of a Third World alliance.
United Nations.
Con…d

51. For Marxism:
Economic and financial relations, dev’t, social issues & regional integration:
challenge the primacy of the state as sole unit of analysis.
Challenge power as the ultimate determinant of relations b/n states.
global relations were multiform in content.
GR involves number of different types of actor, from individuals to
states, to non-state organizations.
GR indicates inequalities that exist within the international system.
Between North’ or the ‘First World’ and the poor ‘South’ or the
‘Third World’.
Most states were not free.
exploitation and the international division of labour.
complicities of elite groups within these societies.
Subjugated by the political, ideological and social consequences of
economic forces.
Con…d

52. Imperialism: to Marxist doctrine, is the highest stage of capitalism.
generated by the vigour of free enterprise capitalism in the West, and
state capitalism in the socialist bloc.
imposed unequal exchange of every kind upon the Third World.
Create capitalist structure of the international system:
accrued benefits to some.
Causing the impoverishment of the vast majority of others.
through unequal exchange relations.
producing centre–periphery relations:
basis of inequality, the debt burden, violence and instability.
Major writers in the Structuralist perspective:
emerged from Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.
Andre Gunter Frank and Samir Amin.
concentrated on dependency theory.
Con…d

53. 4. Constructivism
Constructivism’s arrival in IR is often associated with the end of the
Cold War.
Constructivism accounts by arguing that the social world is of our
making.
Constructivism sees the world, and what we can know about the
world, as socially constructed.
For the Constructivists that actions, interactions and perceptions shape
reality.
Actors
usually powerful ones, like leaders and influential citizens)
continually shape – and sometimes reshape – the very nature of
international relations through their actions and interactions.
Con…d

54.  Alexander Wendt, a prominent constructivist;
 described the relationship between agents (individuals) and
structures (such as the state) as one in which structures not only
constrain agents but also construct their identities and interests.
 ‘anarchy is what states make of it’
 After all, states do not interact; it is agents of those states, such as
politicians and diplomats, who interact.
 Constructivists argue that agency and structure are mutually constituted,
 which implies that structures influence agency and that agency
influences structures.
 Agency can be understood as the ability of someone to act,
 Structure refers to the international system that consists of material
and ideational elements.
Con…d

55.  International anarchy could even be replaced with a different
system
 if a critical mass of other individuals (and by proxy the states
they represent) accepted the idea.
 Constructivists purports that:
 Nation-states are not all alike
 Political culture shapes foreign policy
 Form of government shapes foreign policy
 History shapes foreign policy
 Domestic political trends and debates shape foreign policy
 State identity influences the way states interact with each other
Con…d

56. 5. Critical Theories
Incorporates an idea of freeing people from the modern state
and economic system
a concept known to critical theorists as emancipation.
The idea originates from the work of Kant and Marx who,
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
It refer to a wide spectrum of theories that have been
established in response to mainstream approaches in the field,
mainly liberalism and realism.
From a critical perspective, then,
people – not states – must be put at the centre of politics,
global or otherwise.
Con…d

57. Is a diverse set of schools of thought in international
relations (IR) that have criticized
the theoretical, meta-theoretical and/or political status
quo, both in IR theory and in international politics
broadly-from positivist as well as post-positivist positions.
Additionally, political arrangements should be judged, or
critiqued,
according to their capacity to
advance emancipation and the broadening of moral
boundaries.
Con…d

58. Critical Theories also provide
A voice to individuals who have frequently been
marginalized,
particularly women and those from the Global South.
Sets out to critique repressive social practices and
institutions in today’s world and
Advance emancipation by supporting ideas and practices
that meet the universalist principles of justice.
Con…d