Selcuk University - Neba Wais Alqorni - International Politics Week 1, Assignments of Political Theory

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International

Politics

1st Week: Introduction to the International

Politics

Introduction to the course

• Description of the course:
• This course provides students with knowledge and skills of the field of

International Politics to understand and evaluate complex problems in today's

world.

• It introduces the core issues of the world politics such as the state, power,

world order, diplomacy, security, conflict, war, Cold War, peace, human rights,

international law and international organizations, and also gives a solid

grounding in historically informed international relations.

• After this course, the students are expected to analyze and understand the

major themes of international relations and global politics.

Other materials:

• Anderson, P. J. (1996) The Global Politics of Power, Justice, and Death: An Introduction to International Relations , Psychology Press.
• Basu, R. (Ed.). (2012). International politics: concepts, theories and issues. SAGE Publications India.
• Frieden, J. A., & Lake, D. A. (2015) World Politics: Interests, Interactions, Institutions: Third International Student Edition , WW Norton & Company.
• Heywood, A. (2014) Global politics , Macmillan International Higher Education.
• Kegley, C. W., & Blanton, S. L. (2010). World Politics: Trend and Transformation, Nelson Education.
• Mingst, K. A., McKibben, H. E., & Arreguin-Toft, I. M. (2018). Essentials of international relations. WW Norton & Company.
• Roskin, M. G., & Berry, N. O. (1990) IR, an Introduction to International Relations. Prentice Hall.
• Roskin, M. G. (2015) IR: The new world of international relations. Pearson Higher Ed.
• Sutch, P., Elias, J. (2007) International Relations The Basics , Routledge, Abingdon.
• Viotti, P. V., Kauppi, M. V. (2013) International Relations and World Politics , Pearson.

Outline of the course:

• 1 st^ Week: Introduction to International Politics
• 2 nd^ Week: The Historical Context: From Westphalia to post-Cold-

War Era

• 3 rd^ Week: The Modern State and Its Origins: Sovereignty and

Westphalian Order

• 4 th^ Week: Nations and Nationalism
• 5 th^ Week: The Causes and Changing Character of War
• 6 th^ Week: International Security

An Introduction to International Relations (IR): The Origins of the Discipline

• We will begin by outlining what is meant by international politics.
• Second, we will learn the story of how and why the study of international relations emerged in the early twentieth century.
• Third, we will discuss the new agenda of international politics.
• There is a shift from «international relations» to «world politics» or «global politics».

What is International Politics?

• International Politics is about understanding and explaining global challenges and developing ideas for change at the international, state and sub-state levels.
• International Politics is fundamentally an interdisciplinary subject that draws on several subjects, including: politics, history, economics, geography, philosophy, law and sociology.
• International Politics is about the world we live in, the challenges we face, power and struggles, and the opportunities and the obstacles for relations among peoples, societies, states, organizations.

What is «international»?

• The adjective ‘international’ was coined by the English political philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, in 1780.
• The neologism’s purpose was to capture in a single word relations among nations (Suganami 1978 ).
• Although ‘international’ literally means relations among nations, it has for most of its existence referred to relations among sovereign states.
• In Bentham’s time ‘ nation ’ and ‘state’ were often used interchangeably, so his meaning was closer to what we should probably call ‘interstate’ relations.

How international politics have been distinguished from domestic politics?

• «[T]he difference between national and international politics lies not in the use of force but in the different modes of organization for doing something about it.» (Waltz, 1979 : 88).
• What, then, are the modes of organisation? Waltz offers two organising principles: hierarchy and anarchy.
• Relations between units (or actors) are either hierarchical , involving clear lines of authority and obedience, or they are anarchical involving no such lines of authority and obedience.

Anarchy as one of the most important principles in International Politics

• Perhaps the term that distinguishes international relations more than any other is anarchy.
• Anarchy – meaning the absence of rule, but not necessarily disorder and chaos – has been the core presumption and constitutive principle for much of the discipline’s history (Onuf 1989 : 166; Schmidt 1998 ).
• Richard Ashley ( 1989 ) has called IR the ‘anarchy problematique’ – that is to say, a field of knowledge revolving around the organising principle of anarchy (Devetak, 2012: 5).
• Most of the IR theories assume that the nature of international system is anarchic.

The Great Divide (Devetak, 2012:

The study of international relations or politics

• A discipline comprises a distinctive focus, a set of institutions and traditions of thought.
• Disciplines grow within institutions and grow their own institutions. Universities are the most obvious sites for the institutionalisation of the research and teaching of particular subjects.
• The first department of International Relations (IR) was established in 1919 at the University of Wales, in UK. The London School of Economics and the University of Oxford followed shortly after, with the establishment of Chairs in 1923 and 1930 respectively.
• In the US, the institutionalised study of IR began with the establishment of Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service in 1919, which was followed by the University of Southern California’s School of International Relations in 1924.

Traditions of thought

• A discipline draws upon traditions of thought that have developed and evolved around the subject matter.
• (^) What are the traditions of thought that have influenced the study of international relations?
• During the discipline’s early years, the dominant classificatory scheme was of idealism or liberalism on the one hand and realism on the other.
• Realists argue that states exist in a condition of anarchy that compels them to seek and to balance power to ensure their survival and security. They paint international relations as a tragic realm of ‘ power politics ’ where ‘ national interests ’ clash.
• Liberals take a more optimistic view. If realists see history as static, liberals see it as progressive. They tend to emphasise humanity’s capacity to improve : they are committed to ideals of technological and economic as well as moral, legal and political progress.

Origins and evolution of the IR discipline

• The origins of the discipline are to be found in one crucial historical moment: World War I (1914–18).
• The traumatic experience of the war for Europeans was perhaps compounded by the fact that the years preceding it were relatively peaceful and stable , witnessing marked increases in ‘the number of multilateral conferences, institutions, and organizations’ (Reus-Smit 1999 : 133).
• After the war, an understandable tide of anti-war sentiment surged through Europe the continent that had witnessed so many terrible wars over the centuries.
• To this sentiment were added practical, institutional measures, including the establishment of the League of Nations at Geneva in 1920 and, in accordance with the League’s Covenant, the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague in

Origins and evolution of the IR discipline

• A new legislative principle of justice emerged at this time which found concrete expression in these new institutions.
• (^) This idea of justice goes back to the eighteenth century – to the Enlightenment and to the American and French revolutions.
• But it is arguable that it was only in the aftermath of the WW1 that a new diplomatic and legal order took shape based on contractual international law and multilateralism.
• This is the general context in which the discipline of International Relations was established. It was a period of progressive institutionalisation of liberal– constitutional principles as a reaction to war.
• (^) The desire of «preventing future wars» is at the heart of the discipline’s origins.