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Explain emergence of modern international relations in terms of units, interaction capacity, process, and structure. What core factors distinguish modern from premodern international relations?
Units States are the main units The modern state emerged because it was advantageous It provided a secure environment, lower transaction costs, standardized taxes, provided defense, and ensured compliance The key synthesis in the modern state is that capital holders provide financial resources for the state, while the holders of coercion allow capital a significant role in government The global dominance of the modern state can be attributed to its ability to mobilize the potential of populations o This made for high effectiveness in both war and economics The modern state also had clearly marked boundaries and all were "like" units acting in the anarchic international system o There is no structural or functional differentiation among states like there were in Empires which dominated over their differentiated units Non-state units, such as firms (banks, charter companies, trade diasporas) and INGOs also act under the state and play an important role in world politics Interaction Capacity Increased physical technologies were well underway in pre-international systems o Seagoing sailing ships, improved navigation techniques The modern international system saw improvements in physical technologies o This allowed for the development and propagation of the modern state as the dominant unit and a shift from a world of multiple international systems to a single, global international system Revolutions: o Sea Ship construction and design techniques stern-post rudder, improved rigging and sails, robust hull construction, navigation techniques Increased speed and carrying capacity of ships Changed from wood to steel built and engine powered o Land All weather roads, canal networks, locomotives o Air Aircrafts and improvements for reliability and mass transportation, jet engines, space technology o Communications Telegraph, radio, TV o Social Universal money, credit, socio-political advance (international law, rise of diplomacy, international law, international organizations) Shift to liberal economy from mercantilist economy
Universal religion and lengua francas continued to play an important role Increased interaction capacity allowed for an interconnectedness that was previously not possible Gave way to globalization and all its implications
Process Military-political process o Expansions in physical interaction capacity expanded war, alliance, arms racing, and security dilemma into the modern era o A marked acceleration in the pace and significance in weaponry technologies emerged o A growth of fear of the war process itself instead of fear of defeat by other actors in the system emerged Economic Process o Shift in world trade from luxury goods to bulk goods and items of mass production Increase in world trade from 1750 to 1940 11,506 times o Negotiations of the rules of international trade emerged as a central part of the economic process o Expansion of credit o Liberalized trade allowed for the development the of welfare state This increased uneven development (centre-periphery process formation) Societal process o Diplomacy and international law, and cross-cultural contact marked the societal processes of the modern era Environmental process o Massive mixing of previously separated flora and fauna and the rising impact of pollution of the ecosphere marked the modern international system's environmental processes
Structure Depends on interaction capacity and process System became multi-ordinate o Much stronger in relation to the units because had to deal with much wider, more varied, and more penetrative international system o Local became weaker Military-political o One unit becomes dominate and system retains stable anarchic structure with no sign of deep structure shift to hierarchy o Socialization and competition o Surrendered empires with waves of decolonization and capitalism o Anarchy Capitalist structuration Socialization and competition to produce a system of like units which in return reproduces the anarchic structure Structure continues to operate o International political structure grows strong and its effects become pervasive East tried to incorporate idea of capitalism Economic structure o Making a full international system merged global economy in the same geographical space as the military-political one Surge in interaction capacity Linear to multiordinate Increase in trade and financial activity o State making required better transportation and communication and break down of local tariffs, tolls Capital and Coercion State incorporates values that help to sustain international anarchy Societal Structure o System states became fully conscious of itself as a legal and political construct whose components parts nearly all accepted each other as being the same sort of unit as themselves Differences Achieved global scale and geographical closure o Single international system instead of multiple ones o Military-political systems merged into geographical space Linear system gave way to multiordinate One type of unit become universally dominant and system retains anarchic structure o Non-state organization were created Interaction capacity increased o Social technologies accompanied Diplomacy, law, IGOs, liberalism International processes expanded
o Warfare became more destructive o International trade and finance grew hugely in relation to domestic economies o Global diplomacy became universal Foreign policy become extinct System structures become stronger and their effects became stronger o Structuration Shaped both the units and the system Military political structure created like units but modern states worked to define themselves and modern state promoted defining unit features of sovereignty and territoriality that sustained anarchic structure o Created like units o Centre-periphery substructure Global operation of structures generated regional substructures, security complexes, regional IGSs and regional economic zones o Rise to prominence of a global market structure o One type of unit does became universally dominant and system retains anarchic structure o Linear to multiordinate