The foundation of world politics is described in this file.

1. World Politics
• What is World politics and why do we
study it?
Kelly Walker
Global Systems
Tallwood High School

2. Terms:
• Theory: a logically consistent set of
statements that explains a
phenomenon of interest.
• Political Scientists analyze events
and develop criteria for understanding
the conditions as to why they occur.
• Why did this happen?
Political science hat

3. The Framework
• A way of thinking about world politics that will build theories that
shed light on events.
• Interests: What actors want to achieve through political action;
their preferences over the outcomes that might result from their
political choices.
Business have an interest in maximizing profits
• Interactions: The ways in which the choices of two or more actors
combine to produce political outcomes.
War is the product of an interaction
• Institution: a set of rules, known and shared by the community, that
structure political interactions in particular ways.
United Nations

4. Interactions
• Two broad types of interactions:
1.Bargaining: situations in which two or more
actors try to divide something they both want-
states bargain over territory
2.Cooperation: actors have common interests and
need to act together in order to achieve their
interests. Governments that want to stop one
country from invading another may collectively
set sanctions on the aggressor.

5. Levels of Analysis
• Interactions at 3 levels
1.International Level (UN, WTO)
2.Domestic Level (subnational actors,
politicians, business and labor
groups)
3.Transnational Level (MNC’s, terrorist
organizations)

6. Realism, Liberalism, and
Constructivism
• Realism: States are dominant actor and world politics is
characterized by anarchy- War a permanent condition as
states always wag war when it is in their interest to do
so.
• Liberalism: No single interest dominates and wealth is a
common goal. Optimistic about cooperation in the world.
Progress is possible.
• Constructivism: Many types of actors are important
and actors’ interests are influenced by culture, identity,
and prevailing ideas. Similar to liberals, except they do
not believe in material sources of interest. Nonmaterial
factors such as ideas, culture, and norms are important.
Transformers.

7. What Shaped Our
World?
1

8. What Shaped Our World?
1. Cooperation Through History
2. The Mercantilist Era, 1492–1815
3. The Pax Britannica, 1815–1914
4. The Thirty Years’ Crisis, 1914–1945
5. The Cold War, 1945–1990
6. Post–Cold War, 1991–Present
7. Future Trends and Challenges

9. What Shaped Our World?
1. Cooperation Through History
2. The Mercantilist Era, 1492–1815
3. The Pax Britannica, 1815–1914
4. The Thirty Years’ Crisis, 1914–1945
5. The Cold War, 1945–1990
6. Post–Cold War, 1991–Present
7. Future Trends and Challenges

10. Cooperation Through History
• 1800s: Relative peace and prosperity
• Early–mid-1900s: Wars, depression
• Late 1900s: Economic globalization
• 2000s: Still unknown

11. What Shaped Our World?
1. Cooperation Through History
2. The Mercantilist Era, 1492–1815
3. The Pax Britannica, 1815–1914
4. The Thirty Years’ Crisis, 1914–1945
5. The Cold War, 1945–1990
6. Post–Cold War, 1991–Present
7. Future Trends and Challenges

12. The Mercantilist Era,
1492–1815
Explorers and
traders discover
the “New World”
• Mercantilism: the use of military power
to enrich imperial governments
• Height of mercantilism was from the
16th to 18th Centuries.
• Favor the mother country over both
colonies and competing empires
• Key mechanisms
• - State monopolies (Spanish
mines, Hudson’s Bay Company)
• - Controls on colonial trade

13. The Mercantilist Era,
1492–1815
• Mercantilism as economic
doctrine
• Military and economic power
complementary

14. The Mercantilist Era,
1492–1815
• The British imposed mercantilist policies on their colonies in North
America. For example, the tobacco being loaded onto these ships in
the Virginia Colony could be exported only to Britain, where the
American producers received a lower price for their crops than they
would on world markets.
• Sought goods to satisfy empire: for example, tea, cocoa, rubber,
gold, and silver.

15. The Mercantilist Era,
1492–1815
Controls on Trade: An Example
- Britain restricted Virginia’s commerce.
- Virginia Colony could sell tobacco only to Britain
The British paid Virginia Colony about 49% less for its tobacco than
growers could have earned on world markets, and paid rice planters
of South Carolina less than half what they could have gotten on world
markets.
Britain’s colonies could buy goods only from Britain.
Net effect:
- Lower price for tobacco and rice (leading to
underproduction)
- Higher price for manufactured goods
- Unfavorable terms of trade for colonies

16. The Mercantilist Era,
1492–1815
• The Thirty Years’ War, 1618–1648
–The Peace of WestphaliaThe Thirty Years’ War
–
- Rising imperial competitors emerged
– - Between 1618 and 1648, the French and Dutch battled Spain
– - Sealed the decline of Spain
– The Peace of Westphalia
• Effects
• - Stabilized borders
• - Helped resolve religious conflicts
• - Beginning of the modern system of states; pledge of
noninterference

17. Sovereignty
• Establishing sovereignty
• - Sovereignty refers to the expectation that states have legal and
political supremacy within their boundaries, and control over their own
policies and political processes such as the maintenance of domestic order
and provision of governance.
• In practice, intervention still occurs; for example, when the U.S. government
demanded that Saddam Hussein step down from power in Iraq. Sovereignty
is presumed but not always respected. This topic will come up again when
we talk about humanitarian intervention, and when we consider the U.S.
withdrawal from Afghanistan.
• Early understandings of sovereignty emphasized ethical obligations, and
later understandings emphasize:
• 1. territorial integrity,
• 2. border inviolability
• 3. supremacy of the state
• 4. the “sovereign” as supreme lawmaking authority within its jurisdiction

18. The Mercantilist Era,
1492–1815
• Fight for Hegemony
• Anglo-French Rivalry
Seven Years’ War
Napoleonic Wars (Waterloo)

19. • Interests
– Security through power
– Control of markets and resources
• Interactions
– Zero-sum bargaining among states
• Institutions
– Few international institutions beyond the norm of
sovereignty
The Mercantilist Era,
1492–1815

20. What Shaped Our World?
1. Cooperation Through History
2. The Mercantilist Era, 1492–1815
3. The Pax Britannica, 1815–1914
4. The Thirty Years’ Crisis, 1914–1945
5. The Cold War, 1945–1990
6. Post–Cold War, 1991–Present
7. Future Trends and Challenges

21. The Pax Britannica, 1815–1914
• “The Hundred Years’ Peace”
• Sources of Cooperation

22. The Pax Britannica, 1815–1914
Figure 1.1: GDP per Capita, 1500-2008

23. The Pax Britannica, 1815–1914
• Industrial revolution altered interests
• Exchange replaces mercantilism
• Economic integration increases
• Mechanisms
– migration
– free trade
– gold standard

24. The Pax Britannica, 1815–1914
The Gold Standard
Gold becomes the major monetary
system, promoting stability and
predictability.

25. The Pax Britannica, 1815–1914
The Colonial Empires, 1914

26. The Pax Britannica, 1815–1914
• Interests
– Economic wealth through trade and investment
• Interactions
– Informal diplomacy; state cooperation in security and
economic affairs
• Institutions
– British hegemony and the Concert of Europe

27. What Shaped Our World?
1. Cooperation Through History
2. The Mercantilist Era, 1492–1815
3. The Pax Britannica, 1815–1914
4. The Thirty Years’ Crisis, 1914–1945
5. The Cold War, 1945–1990
6. Post–Cold War, 1991–Present
7. Future Trends and Challenges

28. The Thirty Years’ Crisis,
1914–1945
• Europe divides into two camps
• Central Powers
• Allied Powers

29. The Thirty Years’ Crisis,
1914–1945
Map 1.2:
Europe, 1914

30. The Thirty Years’ Crisis,
1914–1945
Map 1.3:
Europe after
World War I,
1920

31. The Thirty Years’ Crisis,
1914–1945
• The Treaty of Versailles

32. The Thirty Years’ Crisis,
1914–1945

33. The Thirty Years’ Crisis,
1914–1945
• The Great Depression of 1929
• Countries turn inward

34. The Thirty Years’ Crisis,
1914–1945
• World War II
• Axis Powers
• Allied Powers

35. The Thirty Years’ Crisis,
1914–1945
• Interests
– Security through alliances, expansion, and economic
self-sufficiency
• Interactions
– World Wars I and II
• Institutions
– The League of Nations

36. What Shaped Our World?
1. Cooperation Through History
2. The Mercantilist Era, 1492–1815
3. The Pax Britannica, 1815–1914
4. The Thirty Years’ Crisis, 1914–1945
5. The Cold War, 1945–1990
6. Post–Cold War, 1991–Present
7. Future Trends and Challenges

37. The Cold War, 1945–1990
Map 1.4:
The Cold
War and Its
Alliances,
1980

38. The Cold War, 1945–1990
• The Eastern Bloc: Command
Economy, centralized government
with few civil liberties
• The Western Bloc: Free enterprise
economy, democracies, protect civil
liberties

39. The Cold War, 1945–1990
• Conflicts, crises, and coups
• Rise of the Third World
• NATO forms to combat USSR
hegemony (Warsaw Pact)
• Bretton Woods: lowered trade
barriers among member states

40. The Cold War, 1945–1990
• GATT- General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade (WTO)
• IMF-US $ tied to gold and all other
currencies were tied to the $- Go US
• World Bank-Fostered development in
developing nations.
• Created an integrated international
economy = Peace

41. The Cold War, 1945–1990
• Warsaw Pact- military alliance formed
by the USSR to include its satellite
states
• Comecon-(Council for Mutual
Economic Assistance) Economic
alliance formed by the USSR and its
satellite states

42. The Cold War, 1945–1990
• Interests
– Superpowers and allies sought to maximize global
influence
– All countries sought gains in wealth
• Interactions
– Bipolar structure turned more pluralistic
– Coercive diplomacy slowly yielded to bargaining
– Brinkmanship- Berlin Airlift/ Cuban Missile Crisis
– Decolonization
• Institutions
– U.S.-supported institutions survived
– Soviet institutions lacked legitimacy

43. What Shaped Our World?
1. Cooperation Through History
2. The Mercantilist Era, 1492–1815
3. The Pax Britannica, 1815–1914
4. The Thirty Years’ Crisis, 1914–1945
5. The Cold War, 1945–1990
6. Post–Cold War, 1991–Present
7. Future Trends and Challenges

44. Post–Cold War, 1991–Present

45. Post–Cold War, 1991–Present
• Collapse of the USSR
• Cooperation
Economic Developments
• Regional Trade Agreements
• EU grows=Euro
• Free Trade Agreements NAFTA

46. Post–Cold War, 1991–Present
Diplomatic Challenges
•Ethnic and regional conflict
•Non-state actors
•Transnational issues (environment,
human trafficking, narcoterrorism)
•Who is the enemy????

47. Post–Cold War, 1991–Present
• Interests
– States increasingly focus on wealth gains through
trade and investment
– Rise of non-state actors with diverse goals
• Interactions
– “Complex interdependence”
– Weak states often bargain with global institutions
• Institutions
– UN and global financial and trade institutions
– NGOs participate

48. What Shaped Our World?
1. Cooperation Through History
2. The Mercantilist Era, 1492–1815
3. The Pax Britannica, 1815–1914
4. The Thirty Years’ Crisis, 1914–1945
5. The Cold War, 1945–1990
6. Post–Cold War, 1991–Present
7. Future Trends and Challenges

49. Future Trends and Challenges
1.Predominance of the United States
2.Globalization

50. Future Trends and Challenges
• US political Challenges in the 21st
century
• Military, political and ethnic conflicts
• Environmental costs
• Nuclear proliferation
• Financial crises
• Power shifts

51. Additional art from the text
follows this slide