2. Hague Conferences of 1899 & 1907
End of the FirstWorld War (1919)
Interwar years (1919 – 1939)
Establishment of “League of Nations” 1920
Evolution of “Idealism”
Wilson’s 14 Principles
Idealism – Realism Debate; First Debate in IR
Theories
3. In the Hague Conferences, the European states pledged to establish
an international mechanism to settle disputes among nations
In order to achieve this end; the Hague Conferences had come to the
conclusion that there should be an internationalTRIBUNAL to solve
the problmes among states!
This was the first step in the foundation of International Court; like
Permanent Court of International Justice in 1920 which has been
replaced by the International Court of Justice in 1945 under the UN
System.
For that purpose the headquarter of ICJ is located at Hague/ the
Netherlands today!
4. After the end of theWWI, the victorious
powers decided to set up an international
organization to avoid any other world war and
to maintain peace & security at international
level.
In order to cope with this situation, the
League of Nations was established which was
the first political IGO ever established.
5. Non-intervention into domestic affairs
Self-determination
Idea of Collective Security ***
Peaceful settlement of disputes
PCIJ: Permanent Court of Int Justice
Sovereign Equality of states, particularly
respect for political independence.
6. All these dynamics had demonstrated that
there should be a separate discipline to
analyze and explore the relations among the
states and to re-think how states can avoid
wars and achieve peace!
7. The result was a discussion on IR and how
does it operate?
Who are the primary actors of IR?
How we can prevent anotherWW?
8. Idealism and realism are two main images of IR.
For example;those scholars or policymakers idenitfy
themselves as realists think that “states are the principal
actors” and study the IR as comprised of states, rather
than putting the emphasis on non-state actors!
Here, idealism – realism demontrates one of the
significant step in the foundation of IR as a discipline
where there is a discussion on the methodology and
the subject matter of IR...
9. During the inter-war years the main
approach of IR was based on idealism
Basic themes of Idealism;
1. “Open diplomacy” openly arrived at!
2. Peaceful settlement of disputes
3. Wars should be the last resort!
4. Collective security
5. Idea of international society
6. Significance of InternationalOrganizations
10. Main precessors of Idealist school goes back to J. Locke,
J. J. Rousseau, H. Grotius and I. Kant
During the inter-war years, Edward H. Carr criticized the
utopian or idealist thinking and evaluates the more
extreme versions of realism that posit the divorce of
morality from politics in IR. He argues that; “any sound
political thought must be based on elements of both
utopia (value) and reality (power). Pure realism can offer
nothing but a naked struggle for power which makes any
kind of international society impossible”... (p. 63 in your
textbook)
11. The former realists wereThucydides,
Machiavelli, Hobbes and Clausewitz.
Main concepts of realists;
1. States
2. Power
3. System
4. Anarchy
5. Balance of power & stability
12. States are the key actors
IR inter-state system, for example Stanley
Hoffman – realistAmerican policy-maker –
thought that “IR is an American Social
Science”
IR is conflictual
IR is anarchic, due to not only the absence
of a higher authority, but also the clash of
interests of states
13. What does power refer to in realism?
- Some realists understand power to be the
sum of economic, military, technological,
diplomatic and other capabilities at the
disposal of states (seeViotti & Kauppi)
- Others see power not as some absolute value
determined for each state as if it were in a
vacuum but, rather as capabilities relative to
the capabilities of other states!
14. The power of the United States is evaluted in
terms of its capabilities relative to the
capabilities of other states...
15. Realist understanding and definition of power
is a static assumption & view of power, not
changing.
Power is an attribute of the state that is sum
of its CAPABILITIES whether considered
alone or relative to others.
That’s why for Hans Morgenthau;
“international politics is a quest for power &
prestige” when he wrote in his famous book
Politics Among Nations (1948).
16. In IR, the concept of “system” is very
important!
The definition of system varies from one
theory to another. Realists have a pesimisitic
view of international system.
Given that each system has its own power
capabilities distribution of power among
states; for instance neo-realists think that
characteristics of systems can be classified as
unipolar, bipolar and multipolar...
17. The polarity of the system is then measured
by the number of Great Powers
Realists emphasize the relative distribution of
power capabilities between specific states or
alliances and how shifts in these capabilities
influence state behavior, interactions, and
hence, the possibility of war!!
Conflicts are primarily relational...
18. So, try to formulate an example in this
case...
ColdWar Politics?
Super Power relations/ Rivarly?
19. System as anarchy and Its distribution of capabilities is
very important...
What is anarchy?
Literally, anarchy is reffered to violence, destruction &
chaos
For realists anarchy refers to the absence of a higher
authority above states, given the fact that states are the
only sovereign actors in IR
No one has the right to dominate another sovereign
state; states are rational & unitary actors
20. There is hierarchy of power, but not a
hierarchy of authority in IR
So anarchy absence of a hierachy of
authority
Some states are clearly more powerful than
others, but there is no recognized authority
higher than that of any state (p. 68)
Anarchy is the defining character of the
environment within which the sovereign
states interact.
21. Realists argue that the absence of a central
and overriding authority helps us to explain
why states come to rely on power, seeking to
maintain or increase their power positions
relative to other states.
So IR is a zero-sum game
There is no trust among states
Each state faces a self-help situation
22. Given that there is no world government and
covenant or agreement to tell states what to
do or what not to do; states find themselves
in a situation of security dilemma.
«The more one state arms to protect itself
from other states, the more threatened
these states become and the more prone
they are to resort to arming themselves to
protect their own national security
interests».
23. Distribution of power capabilities;
Types of Balance of power
Bipolar balance of power (two states with
relatively equal power)
Multipolar balance of power (three or more
states engaging in check and balances)
These are the two main realist categorization of
of particular power distributions.
24. Concert of Europe Idea and Post-Napoleonic
Wars era; multipolar balance of power
ColdWar years (1945 – 1990): bipolar balance
of power
25. Cold War Politics (1945 – 1990):
- Two Great Powers / Hegemons (US vs USSR)
- Two Blocs: Eastern vsWestern: “Iron Curtain”
- Nuclear deterence
- Arms race
- Policy of containment (NATO vsWarsaw PactTreaty
Organization)
- Super power discipline
26. Given the emphasis on state and concern
with national security issues, we have seen
how the concept of balance of power has
played a dominant role in realist thought and
theory.
For realists; foreign policies of states are
determined by their national interests
defined in terms of their power capabilities.
27. His main book: Politics Among Nations (1948)
For Morgenthau; balance of power refers to;
1. A policy aimed at a certain state of affairs,
2. An objective or actual state of affairs,
3. An approximately equal distribution of power
(like during the ColdWar years)
4. Any distribution of power shifts in favor of
either super power.
28. His book Politics Among Nations defined the field of international
relations theory in 1948 as it heralded the post–World War II
paradigm shift in American thinking about diplomacy.
Politics Among Nations emphasized the power interests of states as
the driver behind the relations between states.
The period before WWII was on the other hand defined by idealism
that focused on values.
29. Balance of Power has been criticized for
leading toWAR as opposed to preventing it!
Functioning as a propaganda tool...
Justifying defense spending + foreign
adventures
But it is still the main concept in realism!!!
30. Like North AtlanticTreaty Organization
founded in 1949
Warsaw PactTreaty Organization founded in
1955 and dissolved by the end of ColdWar in
1990!!!
That’s why for realists; ColdWar bipolarity
brought us equal distribution of power –
balance of power; an equilibrium.
31. All states act to increase capabilities but
negotiate rather than fight.
All states fight rather than pass up an
opportunity to increase their capabilities.
All states stop fighting rather than eliminate
an essential state.
All states act to oppose any coalition or single
state which tends to assume a position of
predominance within the system. (See your
textbook)
32. Please read:
Morton A. Kaplan, System and Process in International
Politics (NewYork, 1957).
33. A decade after the cold war ended, policy makers and
academics foresaw a new era of peace and prosperity,
an era in which democracy and open trade would herald
the "end of history."
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, John
Mearsheimer's masterful new book explains why these
harmonious visions remain utopian.
To Mearsheimer, great power politics are tragic because
the anarchy of the international system requires states to
seek dominance at one another's expense, dooming even
peaceful nations to a relentless power struggle.
34. Mearsheimer illuminates his theory of
offensive realism through a sweeping survey
of modern great power struggles and reflects
on the bleak prospects for peace in Europe
and northeast Asia, arguing that the United
States's security competition with a rising
China will intensify regardless of
"engagement" policies.
"This is the definitive work on offensive
realism."
35. Very little possibilitiy of for fundamental and peacful
transformation of international politics.
For Robert Gilpin;
“the state is the principal actor in that the nature of the
state and the patterns of relations among states are the
most important determinants of the character of
international relations at a given moment... So
contemporary nation-state is the ultimate form of
political organization”.
36. Hedley Bull’s article on “Does Order Exist
inWorld Politics?”, from
Anarchical Society, 1977.
38. For political realists, international politics,
like all other politics, is “a struggle for power
but, unlike domestic politics, a struggle
dominated by organized violence”.
For realists: “All history shows that nations
active in international politics are
continuously preparing for, actively involved
in, or recovering from organized violence in
the form of war”
39. Three assumptions are integral to the realist
vision:
First, states as coherent units are the dominant
actors in world politics.This is a double
assumption: states are predominant; and they
act as coherent units.
Second, realists assume that force is a usable
and effective instrument of policy. Other
instruments may also be employed, but using or
threatening force is the most effective means of
wielding power.
40. Third, partly because of their second
assumption, realists assume a hierarchy of
issues in world politics, headed by questions
of military security: the “high politics” of
military security dominates the “low politics”
of economic and social affairs.
These realist assumptions define an ideal
type of world politics.
41. Political integration among states is slight
and lasts only as long as it serves the national
interests of the most powerful states.
Transnational actors either do not exist or are
politically unimportant.
Only statesmen succeed in adjusting their
interests, as in a wellfunctioning balance of
power, is the system stable.
42. In Power and Interdependence; Keohane & Nye
analyzed the politics of such transnational
issues as trade, monetary relations, and
oceans policy ...
43. Multiple channels connect societies, including:
informal ties between governmental elites as
well as formal foreign office arrangements;
informal ties among nongovernmental elites;
and transnational organizations (such as
MNCs).
44. These channels can be summarized as
interstate, transgovernmental, and
transnational relations. Interstate relations
are the normal channels assumed by realists.
Transgovernmental applies when we relax the
realist assumption that states act coherently
as units; transnational applies when we relax
the assumption that states are the only units.
45. The agenda of interstate relationships consists
of multiple issues that are not arranged in a
clear or consistent hierarchy.
This absence of hierarchy among issues
means, among other things, that military
security does not consistently dominate the
agenda.
Many issues arise from what used to be
considered domestic policy, and the
distinction between domestic and foreign
issues becomes blurred. (Source:Viotti & Kauppi, IRTheory,
Longman)
46. Military force is not used by governments
toward other governments within the region,
or on the issues, when complex
interdependence prevails.
47. These issues are considered in several
government departments (not just foreign
offices), and at several levels.
Inadequate policy coordination on these
issues involves significant costs.
Different issues generate different coalitions,
both within governments and across them,
and involve different degrees of conflict.
48. These actors are important not only because of
their activities in pursuit of their own interests,
but also because they act as transmission belts,
making government policies in various
countries more sensitive to one another.
As the scope of governments’ domestic
activities has broadened – like corporations,
banks – and to a lesser extent “trade unions”
have made decisions that transcend national
boundaries, the domestic policies of different
countries impinge on one another more and
more. (Viotti & Kauppi, IRTheories, Longman)
49. Foreign affairs agendas—that is, sets of
issues relevant to foreign policy with which
governments are concerned—have become
larger and more diverse.
No longer can all issues be subordinated to
military security. As Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger described the situation in
1975 ...
50. When there are multiple issues on the agenda,
many of which threaten the interests of
domestic groups but do not clearly threaten the
nation as a whole, the problems of formulating a
coherent and consistent foreign policy increase.
In 1975; energy was a foreign policy problem,
but specific remedies, such as a tax on gasoline
and automobiles, involved domestic legislation
opposed by auto workers and companies alike
51. During the Cold War each superpower used the
threat of force to deter attacks by other
superpowers on itself or its allies; its deterrence
ability thus served an indirect, protective role,
which it could use in bargaining on other issues
with its allies.
This bargaining tool was particularly important
for the United States, whose allies were
concerned about potential Soviet threats and
which had fewer other means of influence over
its allies than did the Soviet Union over its
Eastern European partners.
52. The United States had, accordingly, taken
advantage of the Europeans’ (particularly the
Germans’)
desire for its protection and linked the issue
of troop levels in Europe to trade and
monetary negotiations.
53. International organizations also allow small and
weak states to pursue linkage strategies. In the
discussions on a New International Economic
Order,ThirdWorld states insisted on linking oil
price and availability to other questions on
which they had traditionally been unable to
achieve their objectives.
Small and weak states have also followed a
strategy of linkage in the series of Law of the
Sea conferences sponsored by the United
Nations.
54. Marxist Approaches;
a. World SystemTheory
b. GramscianTheories
Critical InternationalTheory
Post-Modernism
56. o How to analyze?
o Level of analysis Problem in IR
Historical Background
Emergence of Bath Party in 1963
Syria after 2000
Implications of Syrian Crisis on Lebanese
politics.
58. Ethnic groups
Arab 90.3%, Kurds, Armenians, and other 9.7%
Religions
Sunni Muslim 74%, other Muslim (includes Alawite,
Druze) 16%, Christian (various denominations) 10%,
Jewish (tiny communities in Damascus, Al Qamishli,
and Aleppo)
59. In the aftermath of the 1967 Arab-IsraeliWar:
Led to a change in the political power
particularly in Iraq & Syria
In 1970 – Hafız Al-Asad took the control of the
political power in Syria
Both Iraq & Syria will then ruled by single
party regimes
60. The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (also spelled Ba'th
or Baath which means "resurrection" or
"renaissance"
It is a secularist political party with strong socialist
and Arab nationalist interests, opposed to what it
sees as "Western imperialism" and calling for the
"renaissance" or "resurrection" of the Arab World
and its unity in one united state.
61. Its main ideas are: "Unity, Liberty, Socialism"
(wahda, hurriya, ishtirakiya) — refers to Arab
unity, freedom from non-Arab control and
interference, and Arab socialism rather than
to European socialism, or communism.
62. The party was founded in Damascus, Syria in
1940 by the Syrian intellectuals Michel Aflaq,
and Salah al-Bitar, and since its inception has
established branches in differentArab
countries, although the only countries it has
ever held power in are Syria and Iraq.
In Syria it has had a monopoly on political
power since the party's 1963 coup.
63. Ba'athists also seized power in Iraq in 1963,
but were deposed some months later.
They returned to power in a 1968 coup and
remained the sole party of government until
the 2003 Iraq invasion. Since then they have
been banned in Iraq.
64. 1970 Hafız al-Asad became the President of
Syrian Republic
1973 New Constitution was adopted
65. 1973 Arab-IsraeliWar (Egypt & Syria)
1978 – 79 Camp DavidAccords!
Syria was left alone in resisting againts Israel
Syrian main concern was how to prevent
“Jordan & Lebanon” to recognize Israel
67. Ethnic groups
Arab 95%, Armenian 4%, other 1%
Religions
Muslim 59.7% (Shia, Sunni, Druze, Isma'ilite,
Alawite or Nusayri),
Christian 39% (Maronite Catholic, Greek Orthodox,
Armenian Orthodox, Syrian Catholic, Armenian
Catholic, Syrian Orthodox, Roman Catholic,
Assyrian, Copt, Protestant),
other 1.3%
*17 religious sects recognized
68. Lebanon has become an independent
country in 1946 like Syria
1932 National Census
1943 National Pact establishment of a
confessional political system based on ethnic
& sectarian – religious – affiliations!!
69. Since 1946 Lebanon has been established on
a confessional system where the political
power is distributed/ allocated on the basis
of population size.
Political Power is vested in the hands of three
main branches:
1. President of the Republic will be elected
from the Maronite community
2. Prime-minister will be elected from Sunni
Community;
3. Speaker of the Parliament: will be elected
from Shia community
70. Origins/ Roots of the Civil War in Lebanon:
1. Change in the demographic structure
2. 1970 – 71 CivilWar in Jordan (Black
September Episode)
3. Camps of the PLO in Southern Lebanon
71. Two camps were involved in the CivilWar:The
Lebanese Front (LF) & Lebanese National
Movement (LNM)
Syrian intervention in 1976
Israeli interventon in 1978
Israeli intervention in 1982 (Sabra & Shatila)
72. Ta’ifAccords 1989 in SaudiArabia:
An Arab League meeting – “Syrian presence”
in Lebanon was sustained with 30,000 troops
until the assassination of RefiqAl-Hariri in
2004.
73. 1989Ta’if Agreement
This agreement actually mentioned the need
for reforms that would promote uniformity
and consensus in the fields of education and
the media; but it gave no indication of how
this could be attained.
73
74. TheTaif Agreement resulted in a greater political
representation for the Muslim population, which
had become a numerical majority.The
Agreement provided for an equal allocation of
seats in Parliament for Muslims and Christians
(the number of seats was increased from 99 to
128).
In addition, seats were to be divided
proportionately between the various
denominations and proportionately between the
districts.
74
75. The (Maronite) President ceded powers to the
(Sunni) Prime Minister and to the Council of
Ministers, while the position of the (Shiite) Speaker
gained importance as his term of office was
extended to four years.
Positions in the civil service would rely on 'capability
and specialization' instead of the 'sectarian
representation base' (which meant that jobs would
not be allocated to members of a specific
denomination).
75
76. 14 February 2005 – Assassination of Refiq al-Hariri, a Sunni,
who was the prime-minister of Lebanon in the post-Ta’if era
Hariri took the great support of US and Saudi Arabia during
his period of pm
The UN Report on Lebanon: Resolution 1559 –Withdrawal of
Syria from Lebanon after 30 years.
After Hariri, Fuad Sinyora, a Suuni, became the new pm in
the country until the 2009 parliamentary elections
2006 Lebanese – Israeli War:
Hezbollah’s charater of being resistence non-state actor
against Israel has become more apparent in this war
76
77. • Hezbollah, as a Shi’a organization, took the support of
General Michel Aoun (a prominent Christian leader in
the country who also served as a president during
early 1990s).
• The growing opposition led by Hezbollah & Aoun
proponents called for “reformation
• Assassination of Pierre Gemayel (Minister of Industry &
grandson of Phalangist Pierre Gemayel) in 21 November,
2006 has triggered the tensions in the country.
77
78. Saad Hariri declared the same day that;
“Syria is the guilty party”
Syria on the contrary condemned the
assassination
Velid Canbulat (Walid Jamblutt, leader od Druze community)
has urged “the necessity of dissasociating Lebanese politics
from Syria”!
This statement demonstrates Druze shift as compared to the
civil war era
78
79. • Emile Lahud, president of the country directed
the discussions
• “Who wins then? It’s not Syria obviously, Syria’s
allies are the losers”. Reference: The Guardian, 23
November 2006...
• Death of Pierre Gemayel has led to the solidification
of the 14 March Coalition.
• They protested Michel Aoun, Nebih Berri, and
Emile Lahud in the demonstrations & during the
funeral of Hariri.
79
80. • Two main camps in Lebanon today:
“Lebanese Forces” vs “Patriotic Movement”
80
81. Crisis in Ukraine
Arab Uprisings / Spring: Case studies
GlobalTerrorism: Cases from Nigeria & ISIS/
ISIL
82. Baylis & Smith, Globalization of World Politics,
Oxford University Press, 2013.
Beverly Milton Edwards, Contemporary Politics in
the Middle East, Polity Press, 2011.
A.LeRoy BENNETT, International Organizations:
Principles and Issues, NJ: Prentice Hall, 6th edition,
2002.
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