The document discusses key issues around power and world order in the 21st century. It examines the changing nature of power from military to economic power. It explores theories of hegemony and debates if the US is a hegemonic power or in decline. It also analyzes if the world is becoming multipolar with the rise of countries like China and India, and how this may impact global politics. Key models of world order discussed include unipolarity, multipolarity, and Robert Cooper's model of pre-modern, modern and post-modern states.

1. Power & 21st century world order
KEY ISSUES/QUESTIONS:
 WHAT IS POWER?
 HOW, AND TO WHAT EXTENT, HAS THE NATURE OF POWER CHANGED?
 WHAT WERE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR WORLD ORDER OF THE END OF THE COLD WAR?
 IS THE USA A HEGEMONIC POWER, OR A POWER IN DECLINE?
 TO WHAT EXTENT IS THE WORLD NOW MULTIPOLAR, AND ARE THESE TRENDS SET TO
CONTINUE?
 HOW IS GROWING MULTIPOLARITY LIKELY TO AFFECT GLOBAL POLITICS?

2. What is power?

3. Power punch!!!

4. What is power?

5. What is power?

6. What is power?

7. What is power?
 It is the ability to influence the outcome of events, to do something
 the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of
events
 In global politics, this includes the ability of a country to conduct its own affairs
without the interference of other countries = independence
 A sort of relationship; power is relative
 Doesn’t exist in isolation; power ‘over’ others
 potential/actual power; relational/structural power and hard/soft power
 Power = love: ‘easier to experience than to define or measure, but no less real…’
Joseph Nye (2004)

8. Elements of national power
 Military strength: Realist perspective; size, effectiveness, advanced weapons, etc.
 Economic development: Liberal perspective; wealth as base for other advantages
 Population: quality & quantity
 Geography: location, topography, climate, natural resources, energy resources,
etc
 Quick activity: In pairs, compare the ‘power’ of each other’s country on the basis of
above elements. Which is more powerful?
 Structural Power: Susan Strange (New Realist) – Knowledge structure, financial
structure, security structure, production structure. Different actors/states may
dominate different structures

9. Changing nature of power
 Two shifts: Military power to economic power; decline of hard power (command power,
military + economic) and rise of soft power (attraction, co-optive power)
 Driven by growing interdependence and cross-border mobility of peoples and ideas;
spread of democracy; etc
 Who wields power now? State or non-state actors?
 Smart power: Hard and soft power reinforce each other
(https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2009-07-01/get-smart)
 Quick activity: Working in pairs, list out examples from the real world where use of hard
power is evident. Do you think that is the best option and is likely to achieve its
objectives?

10. Get Smart: Combining Hard and soft power
(Joseph S. Nye, Jr., 2009)
 US‘s Cold War strategy: a smart combination of hard and soft power. The U.S. military deterred Soviet
aggression, while American ideas undercut communism behind the Iron Curtain.
 ‘America cannot solve the most pressing problems on our own, and the world cannot solve them
without America. . . . We must use what has been called 'smart power,‘ (Hillary Clinton, 2009)
 3 ways of getting things done: coercion, payment, (hard) and attraction (soft)
 Smart strategies: combine the tools of both hard and soft power
 Leadership is about getting people to do something "not only because you tell them to do so and
enforce your orders but because they instinctively want to do it for you.“ (Dwight Eisenhower)
 A country's soft power include: its culture (when it is pleasing to others), its values (when they are
attractive and consistently practiced), and its policies (when they are seen as inclusive and
legitimate)
 Recent decline in US’s popularity: inconsistent foreign policies
 Question: Is soft power the solution of all problems?

11. World Order
 Defined as ‘the distribution of power between and amongst states and other key actors
giving rise to a relativelyy stable pattern of relationships and behaviours.’
 Cold War (1945-1991): Bipolarity – US and USSR; NATO vs Warsaw Pact; Debate: Was it
good or bad?
 The New World Order: Post-1991: first mooted by Gorbachev in a speech to the UN
General Assembly in December 1988.
 Bush Sr.: included US leadership to ensure the international rule of law, a partnership
between the USA and the Soviet Union, and promotion of collective security. This
idealism soon fizzled out. New World Disorder?
 1990s: Rise of conflicts and centrifugal tendencies, esp in East Europe; world became
more unstable; search for alternative models of World Order

12. 3-D chess game model of World Order
(Joseph S Nye, Jr.)
 Top level: military power among states is unipolar
 Middle level: interstate economic relations, the world is
multipolar
 Bottom level: transnational relations (involving such issues as
climate change, illegal drugs, pandemics, and terrorism),
power is chaotically distributed and diffuses to non-state
actors

13. US HEGEMONY AND GLOBAL ORDER
 Post 1991: ‘American empire’, a ‘global hegemon’ or a ‘hyperpower’
 Hegemony: (from the Greek hegemonia, meaning ‘leader’) the leadership or
domination of one element of a system over others. In Global Politics, it refers to a
leading state within a collection of states. Hegemonic status is based on the possession
of structural power, particularly the control of economic and military resources.
 Driving factors: Collapse of the USSR, economic globalization, Gulf War 1991, increase
in humanitarian interventions; 9/11 (decisive point in creating the New World Order)
 Unipolarity: a single great power, implying an absence of constraints or potential rivals.
 Chomsky’s ‘radical’ realism: the more powerful the state, the greater will be its
tendency towards tyranny and oppression (USA)
 Hegemonic stability theory: highlights the positive benefits that a global hegemon can
bring to other states and the international system as a whole
 Quick activity: Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of unipolarity for global
politics.

14. Robert Cooper’s New World Order
 Pre-modern world: Weak/failed/rogue states; chaos and instability; Egs are Somalia,
Afghanistan, Liberia, etc. Post-colonial times, they have not benefitted in anyway.
 Modern states: states continue to be effective and are fiercely protective of their own
sovereignty. Such a world operates on the basis of a balance of power.
 Post-modern states: Europe and the EU; have evolved ‘beyond’ power politics and
have abandoned war as a means of maintaining security; favor multilateral
agreements, international law and global governance.
 Criticism: Not a very stable system, especially in the context of Nuclear proliferation

15. A Multipolar global order??
 Two main issues: To what extent, and in what ways, is world order acquiring a multipolar
character? And, what are the likely implications of multipolarity?
 Multipolar trends: Rise of emerging powers, both regionally and globally (BRICs);
globalization; regional/global governance;
 21st century will be The Chinese Century. Annual growth rates of between 8 -10 % for
almost 30 years (about twice the levels achieved by the USA and other western states);
world’s largest exporter in 2009, and in 2010 it overtook Japan to become the world’s
second largest economy. By 2010, the Chinese economy was 90 times larger than it had
been in 1978; largest population, cheap labour, second only to the USA in terms of arms
expenditure
 http://www.ndtv.com/news/view/news/1211101/site=classic/?device=androidv2&show
ads=no&site=classic
 Activity: In pairs, research the basic economic/demographic/military indicators of
China, India, Brazil, Russia

16. Multipolar order or disorder??
 Neorealists: Multipolarity is bad and dangerous for world security; more actors enhance
security dilemma and hence the possibility of conflict; Clash of Civilizations (Huntington);
rise of revisionist states like Russia, Iran and China seeking to undo the wrongs of the
1990s
 Liberalists: glorify multipolarity and the growing importance of international organization;
belief in world governance; believe that hegemonic powers are always malign and self-
seeking