This slide about the history of International Relations and World Politics.

1. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
AND WORLD POLITICS
Chapter Three: History
1
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2. HISTORY
• History contributes to an understanding of contemporary
international politics in terms of what is similar or different from
earlier practices
• History encourages caution in the use of historical analogies
• Historical relations incorporate influential political theorists
• History incorporates concepts and theories beyond just facts
and figures
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3. INTERNATIONAL SYSTEMS
An international system is an aggregation of diverse entities
(including states, empires, international organizations, and non-
state actors) linked by regular interactions
Types of international systems:
• Independent
• Hegemonic
• Imperial
• Feudal
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4. INDEPENDENT STATE SYSTEM
• Consists of sovereign entities with no superior power
• Despite differences in their power and capabilities, states are
equally sovereign, and all possess the right to make their own
foreign and domestic policy
• States will tend to balance a rising power in the system by
forming an alliance against it to maintain the balance of power
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5. HEGEMONIC STATE SYSTEM
• System is dominated by one or more powerful states
– Unipolarity – a single dominant state
– Bipolarity/dual hegemony - two dominant states
– Multipolarity or collective hegemony – three or more states
dominate the system
• Less powerful states may align with great powers
• States maintain independence in their domestic affairs
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6. IMPERIAL SYSTEM
• One unit asserts political supremacy over the others, which
accept that claim
• Unlike a hegemonic system, the non-dominant units do not
maintain domestic independence, but their domestic affairs are
instead managed by the dominant power
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7. FEUDAL SYSTEM
• Existed between the 9th and 14th centuries
• Consisted of diverse entities, including governmental units, trade
associations, and the Catholic Church
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8. INTERNATIONAL SYSTEMS
• The four systems are ideal types
• Systems may coexist and even overlap with one another
• Future of the international system may diverge from current
trends in important ways
• Ideas (like democracy) wield significant power in the future
direction of the international system
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9. HISTORICAL INTERNATIONAL
SYSTEMS
• Persian Empire
• Greece
• India
• Rome
• East Asia
• Feudal Europe
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10. PERSIAN EMPIRE
• Persian Empire was located in present-day Iran (but extended as
far as Egypt and India)
• Emperor Darius the Great ordered the use of Aramaic as the
common language for the empire
• Politically, the empire was organized as a series of concentric
circles, with control becoming more indirect in the outlying
circles, which enjoyed quasi-autonomy
• Persians successfully avoided conflict among members of their
empire
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11. CLASSICAL GREECE
• Greek system consisted of several small city-states
– Small populations and limited territory
– Close proximity to one another
– Diverse internal political systems
• City-states sought to maintain their independence, but
eventually a dual hegemony dominated by Athens and Sparta
emerged
– Athens and Sparta both exerted control over the domestic
politics of their allies
– Both powers consolidated control over their spheres of
influence until war broke out between them and Sparta
defeated Athens
– An anti-Sparta alliance led to the emergence of an
independent state system that ultimately fell to Alexander
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12. INDIA
• United by geography and Hinduism’s common values
• India included many independent political units, whose relations
often included war
• Influences from Persia and Alexander the Great prompted the
rise of an Indian empire under Chandragupta Maurya
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13. ROMAN EMPIRE
• Although it began as a city-state, Rome constructed a vast
empire that came to be viewed as a legitimate authority by most
of the communities under its rule
– Conquered territories reaped the benefit of law and order
and, for some, Roman citizenship
– As with the Persian Empire, far-flung territories enjoyed
considerable autonomy
• Conquests of Carthage, Greece, and Macedon rapidly expanded
the territory of the Roman Empire and spurred the rise of a
central bureaucracy
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14. EAST ASIA
• Empires also emerged in China and Japan that survived to the
20th century
• Buddhism moved from India to China, and eventually to Korea
and Japan
• Contact between Asia and Europe was all but non-existent prior
to Marco Polo’s trip in 1369
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15. FEUDALISM IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE
• Feudal system existed between the collapse of the Roman
Empire until the renaissance and Reformation of the 15th and
16th centuries
• The Church, which acquired significant wealth and power, spread
a message of universality
• By contrast, secular power was highly fragmented and divided
among competing authorities
• Diplomacy and politics were driven by personal interests and
relationships among monarchs
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16. THE RISE OF THE EUROPEAN
INDEPENDENT STATE SYSTEM
• Power was again concentrated in monarchs’ hands in the 12th
century, partly as a result of peace on the periphery of Europe
– Peace allowed for inward focus and population growth in Europe
– Expanded economic activity allowed for taxation and gave
monarchs financial resources through which they secured coercive
power
• Growth of literacy allowed for the widespread use of contracts
and the dissemination of ideas, laws, and other norms
• Secular and religious authorities clashed over learning,
commerce, and politics, with the state attaining political
supremacy over the Church
– The Renaissance and the Reformation weakened the Church
– The Thirty Years’ War and its resolution solidified the authority of
sovereigns’ authority over their citizens and shifted the balance of
power
• By the mid 1600s, the territorial state had become the key
political actor in Europe
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17. THE RISE OF THE EUROPEAN
INDEPENDENT STATE SYSTEM
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18. INDEPENDENT STATE SYSTEM
• Sovereignty of the state became widely accepted
– Internal sovereignty – the state possesses exclusive authority
within its borders
– External sovereignty – the state is independent in its foreign
relations, though this did little to curtail military competition
between states
• Nationalism also became important in the context of the
independent state system
• Mercantilism suggested that the state should play an important
role in the economy with a view to maximizing its position
relative to other states
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19. THE EMERGENCE OF COLLECTIVE
HEGEMONY
• Rise of Napoleon beginning in 1789 prompted cooperation
among major European powers
• The Concert of Europe sought to develop rules for the
international system and to maintain a balance of power in
Europe
• The Concert of Europe maintained a long period of stability in
Europe
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20. GLOBALIZATION OF THE
EUROPEAN SYSTEM
• Competition among European states drove their acquisition of
empires
• By the early 20th century, the non-European parts of the world
also consisted of states
– All states were embedded in the global capitalist economic
system
– Acceptance of Western rules and practices was widespread
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21. GLOBALIZATION OF THE
EUROPEAN SYSTEM
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22. GLOBALIZATION OF THE
EUROPEAN SYSTEM
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23. TWENTIETH CENTURY HEGEMONIC
SYSTEMS IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
• Post-World War I, states attempted to create a collective security
framework in the League of Nations
– System provided for collective action against aggressive
states
– The League failed to halt the aggression of the Axis powers
(Germany, Italy and Japan), which led to World War II
• Following World War II, states again tried to establish an
international organization to keep the peace, the United Nations
(UN)
– Cold War politics led to deadlock in the UN
– The UN provided the framework for the dismantling of
colonial empires and the emergence of the Third World
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24. DUAL HEGEMONY DURING THE
COLD WAR
• During WW II, the Soviet Union had been an ally of the West
against the Axis powers
• Following the end of the war, relations between the US and the
Soviet Union deteriorated
– The Soviet Union sought to expand its sphere of influence
into eastern Europe
– The US response was a policy of containment of the USSR
and communism more broadly
• Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the US and Soviet Union
engaged in a global competition, most notably in Cuba where
the Soviet placement of missiles nearly led to nuclear war
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25. DUAL HEGEMONY DURING THE
COLD WAR
• The 1970s saw improved relations (détente) and arms control
talks between the US and the Soviet Union
• Détente persisted until the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in
1979, which brought about new competition in defense
spending, contributing to the collapse of the Soviet Union
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26. RISING POWERS
• European Union
– Integrated economic and monetary union
– Formed in response to global economic conditions to
enhance competitiveness
• China
– Military and economic modernization
– Potential to compete with the US militarily and economically
• India
– Second only to China in terms of population size
– Locked in regional competition with Pakistan over the
disputed Kashmir region
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27. RISING POWERS
• Russia
– Nationalist backlash against the dominance of the US
– Economic resurgence
• Brazil
– 5th largest state in area and population
– Economic growth
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