of Wars the World
* Largest contemporary wars
- Iraq; Western Sudan, Afghanistan
* All 13 wars are in the global South
* Dozens of wars of recent decades have ended
* Most peace agreements in the worlds postwar zones are holding up
Five Types of War
* Hegemonic Wars
- War over control over the entire world order
- Last hegemonic war was World War 2
- End of hegemonic war?
* Nuclear peace?
* Smarter leaders?
* Total War
- To conquer and occupy another country
* Force the surrender of the government
* Involving all of the societies
* I.E. Napoleonic Wars
* Last total war: World War 2
* Limited War
- To gain some objective short of the surrender and occupation of the enemy
* War to retake Kuwait from Iraq (1991)
- Raids
* Limited wars that consist of a single action low intensity conflict
* Civil War
- Between factions within a state for a new government or for control over the entire state
- Often among the most brutal wars
* Guerrilla War
- Certain types of civil wars, warfare without front lines
- Irregular forces operate in the midst of civilian populations
- Mainly to harass and punish as to gradually limit enemys operation and effectively
liberate territory
Causes of War
* Levels of analysis; multi factors
* Wars do not have a single or simple cause
* Three or four levels:
- Individual causes
- Domestic factors
- International/foreign factors
- Global/systemic causes
Causes of War: The Individual Level
* The use of war and violence is normal and reflects decisions of national leaders
* Or: conflicts often escalate to war because of deviations from rationality in the individual
decision-making processes of national leaders
* Insufficient to explain wars
Causes of War: The Domestic Level
* Characteristics of states or societies more or less prone to use violence
- Ethno-cultural
- Political Characteristics
*Maybe explanatory: hard to generalize
- Cultural differences may be mute
- Same society may change greatly over time. Ex. Japan
Causes of War: The Interstate Level
* Power Transition Theory: large wars happen when power is relatively equally distributed and a
rising power is overtaking a hegemon
* Deterrence and preemption wars
* Arms race/security dilemma leads to unnecessary wars
Causes of War: The Global Level
* The permitting cause: The IPA general tendencies toward war in IR system
* Major warfare is cyclical links with long economic waves in the world economy (~50 years)
or a 100-year cycle based on the creation and decay of world orders
* Theory of linear long-term change: the permitting cause may be changing war less likely
over time due to the worldwide development of both technology and international norms/regimes
International Conflicts
*Six types of international conflict
- Ethnic
Ideas
- Religious
Ideas
- Ideological
Ideas
- Territorial
Interests
- Governmental
Interests
- Economic
Interests
* Most difficult types of conflict have intangible elements such as ethnic hatred, religious fervor,
or ideology all conflicts of ideas.
* These identity-based sources of international conflict today have been shaped historically by
nationalism
Nationalism
* Nation, nation-state, nationalism
* Nationalism: devotion to the interests of ones own nation over others - exclusive
* Historical development of nationalism
- Principle of self-determination
- May be the most important force in world politics in the past two centuries
- Often inaccurate, manipulated, used and abused
Ethnic Conflict
* Possibly the most important source of conflict in the numerous wars now occurring throughout
the world
* Ethnic Groups
- Large groups of people who share ancestral, language, cultural, or religious ties and a
common identity
- Often form the basis for nationalist sentiments/nationalism
* Territorial control
- Pressure to redraw borders by force
- Outside states concerned about the fate of their people living as minorities in other state
Ethnic conflicts: causes of ethnic hostility
* Historical conflicts over territories, natural resources, or political domination of another
* Abused Nationalism:
- Ethnocentrism
- Dehumanization
- Genocide
Rwanda (Hutu and Tutsi)
Sudan (Northern Muslims and Southern Christians)
* Role of education to overcome ethnic animosities
- France and Germany rewriting of textbooks?
* Global identity in the future?
Religious Conflict
* Religion, a core of a communitys value system, people whose religious practices differ are
easily disdained and treated as unworthy or even inhuman
- Fundamentalist Movements
- Secular political organizations
Religiously Based Conflicts
* Armed Islamist Groups
- Vary tremendously
- Sunni and Shiite
- Iran
* Hezbollah
* Shiites in Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Pakistan
* Al Qaeda
* Saudi Arabia
* Palestine
Ideological Conflict
* Ideology symbolizes and intensifies conflicts between groups and states more than it causes
them
- Because they have a somewhat weaker hold on core values
Conflicts of Interests
* Territorial Disputes
- Secession province or region leaving an existing state
* Ethnic cleansing
- Interstate Borders
* Role of the norm of territorial integrity
- Lingering disputes
- Territorial Waters
- Airspace
Economic Conflict
* Economic Conflict
- Conflicts of interests
- Use of economic means lead to conflicts, sanctions
* Economic Conflicts usually do not lead to military force and war today
- But this was not always the case historically
Drug Trafficking
* Smuggling that deprives states of revenue and violates states legal control of their borders.
Generally an economic issue rather than a security one
* Drug Smuggling is different
- Effect on national (and military) morale and efficiency
- Heavily armed gun traffickers involve military
- Concern states and nonstate actors
- Funding of rebel armies
Use of Force
Force and Military Capabilities
* Statecrafts addressing conflicts:
- Nonviolent levers foreign aid, economic sanctions, personal diplomacy
- Violent levers violent actions such as sending out armies, suicide bombers, or missiles
- Can be effective if well and victoriously executed
- Costly to the sender and receiver and tend to be a last resort
* Military capabilities divided into three types:
- Conventional forces
- Irregular forces
- Weapons of mass destruction
Conventional forces
* Most states devote vast resources to military capabilities
- Defending territories
- Deter attack
- Compel other states
- Humanitarian assistance for disasters
- Surveillance of drug trafficking
- Seeking international power
- Repression of political dissent
* The fundamental purpose of conventional forces is to take, hold, or defend territory.
Types of Forces
* Armies
- Infantry boots on the ground
* Navies
- Aircraft carriers instruments of power projections
- Maries
* Air Forces
- Strategic Bombing
* Special Operation Forces
- SEALS
- Green Berates
- Cyber Warfare
* Logistics and Intelligence
- Global Research Capabilities
- Special Forces
- NSA and other agencies
* Key New Technologies
- Missiles and anti-missiles
- Precision munitions smart bombs
- Electronic warfare/information warfare
- Stealth technology
- Cyber war
- Space warfare
Unconventional Force: Weapons of mass destruction
* Three general types: nuclear, chemical, and biological
- Enormously lethal/destructive
- No discrimination in whom they kill
* Different purposes than conventional weapons:
- Deter attacks by giving state leaders the means to inflict great pain against a would-be
enemy
- Symbolic equalizer for middle power
- For terrorists, their purpose is to kill a great many people
Nuclear Weapons
* Fission Weapons
- Two elements can be split or fissioned: uranium-235 and plutonium
- Obstacle often is finding fissionable material
- Plutonium bomb is more difficult to build uranium one
* Fusion Weapons
- Extremely expensive and technically demanding
* Heat and Radiation and nuclear fallout
* EMP electromagnetic pulse
Delivery System for Nukes
* Delivery system for getting nuclear weapons to their targets are the basis of states nuclear
arsenals and strategies
* Cold War: nuclear delivery systems
- Strategic: hit enemys homeland
- Tactical: battlefield use
* Main Strategic Delivery Vehicles
- Ballistic Missiles
Chemical and Biological Weapons
* A chemical weapon releases chemicals that disable and kill people
- From tear gas to nerve gas
- Indiscriminate about whom they kill
- Use has been rare
- Chemical weapons convention (1992)
* Biological weapons
- Microorganisms or biologically derived toxins
- Biological weapons convention (1972)
Proliferation
* The spread of weapons of mass destruction into the hands of more actors
* Two sides to the proliferation argument
- Realists not to worry: WMD/nuke peace
- Well, it does lead to erosion of power of nuke nations
- Others distrust the rationality of some state leaders and are very concerned
* Commercial Causes: proliferation of technology with WMD potential
* As part of arms race
* Non-proliferation Treaty (1968)
* International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
* At present, nuclear states are the big five plus Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea
* A number of middle powers and two great powers (Japan and Germany) have the potential to
make nuclear weapons but have not chosen to do so
- Brazil and Argentina: civilian governments replaced military ones and moved away
from nuclear weapons
- South Africa: the only nuclear country gave it up, so far.
Nuclear Strategy and Arms Control
* Deterrence - MAD
* SDI or BMD
* ABM
* SALT
* CTBT
* Efforts to control conventional arms through treaties has had little success
* Weapons of mass destruction: expensive and difficult to build. This is one reason many states
do not acquire them
Control of Military Forces
* Command, control, and coordination
- Civilian leadership
- Chain of command military hierarchy
- Discipline
- Training
- Group solidarity
- Logistical support
- Role of accurate information/intelligence
* NATO forces operate under strong civilian control
- Covert Operations:
* Can get out of control of a government
* Secret Wars
* Role of oversight and greater scrutiny
* Military governments
- Most common in poor countries, where the military may be the only large modern
institution in the country
- Coup dtat seizure of political power by domestic military forces a change of
political power outside the states constitutional powers
Asymmetrical use of Force: Terrorism
* U.S. State Department listed 43 foreign terrorist organizations in 2008
* Terrorism: goal-oriented/political violence that targets civilians deliberately and
indiscriminately by non-state actors
- But one persons freedom fighter is anothers terrorist
- Shadowy world of faceless enemies and irregular tactics marked by extreme brutality
- Purpose: to demoralize a civilian population in order to use its discontent as leverage on
national governments or other parties to a conflict
- Primary effect is psychological
Terrorism
* Persistence of terrorism
- It is effective!
- Increasingly more effective modern media and heightened values of life
* Terrorists are more willing than states are to violate the norms of the international system
* Arguments regarding the definition of terrorism
* State sponsored terrorism
- Use of terrorist groups by states usually under the control of the states intelligence
agency to achieve political aims
International Law
Roles of International Organizations
* Most international conflicts are not settled by military force
- States generally prefer long-term interests
- States can and have worked together by following rules they develop to govern their
interactions
- Institutions grow up around rules to affect states actions
* Codification of international norms
International Norms
* International Norms
- Sovereignty-based equality
- Respect for treaties credibility
- Adherence to norms may vary different expectations for normal
- When norms and habits are not enough (power changes or new conflicts), institutions
play a key role
* International Organizations (IOs)
- Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs): UN
- Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs): Red Cross
- Growth of IOs
- Global versus Regional or Bilateral
- NGOs more specialized in function than IGOs
* Often religious groups are among the largest NGOs
- Web of interdependence; of provision some world order
Purpose of the UN
* Members are sovereign states
* UN Charter
- Based on the principles of sovereignty-based equality
- States have full sovereignty over their own affairs
- States should have full independence and territorial integrity
- States should carry out their international obligations
- Lays out the structure of the UN and how is operates
Structure of the UN
* UN General Assembly
- One state, one vote
- Universal membership of the states (192)
* UN Security Council
- Five great powers (veto power) and 10 rotating states (2-year term)
- U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China
* UN Secretariat
- Administration, led by the secretary general
* World Court
- Judicial arm of the UN handicapped
* National delegations to the UN
History of the UN
* Founded in 1945 in San Francisco by 51 states
* Currently follows the principles of the three pillars
- Security, economic development and human rights
* Constant shortage of resources and commitments
* A massive umbrella
The Security Council
* Responsible for maintaining and restoring international peace and security
* Decisions binding on all UN member states
* Has tremendous power
- Define a security threat
- Structure the response to threat
- Enforce its decisions
* 1,700 resolutions in six decades mixed record of enforcement
- Depend entirely on the interests of its member states
- Member states often evades or softens its decisions
(Chapter 7)
UN Programs and Agencies
* UN programs
- UN Environment Program
- UNICEF
- UN High Commissioner for Refugees
- UN Development Program
- UN Conference on Trade and Development
- 2006 new Human Rights Council
* 20 autonomous international agencies
- International Atomic Energy Agency
- World Health Organization
- Food and Agriculture Organization
- International Labor Organization and others
Inernational Law
* Derives from no central authority, but from tradition and agreements signed by states
* Difficulty of enforcement
- Depends on reciprocity, collective action, and international norms
- Can be enforced by multinational efforts or even unilateral efforts
Sources of International Law
* Declarations of the UN General Assembly are not laws, and most do not bind members
* Treaties and other written conventions signed by states are the most important source.
* Custom is the second major source of international law.
* Great principles of law also serve as another source.
* Legal scholarship is a fourth source.
The World Court
* International Court of Justice in the Hague
- Jurisdiction limited and caseload light
* Only states can sue or be sued
* 15 judges elected to 9-year terms by a majority of both the Security Council and the General
Assembly of the UN
* Main use of the World Court now is to arbitrate issues of secondary importance.
International Cases in National Courts
* A party with a dispute that crosses national borders may pursue the matter through the national
courts of one of the relevant states.
- Judgments are enforceable
- Individuals and companies can pursue legal complaints through national courts
- One picks the legal system most favorable to ones case
* U.S. is a favorable jurisdiction within which to bring cases for two reasons:
- U.S. juries have a reputation for awarding bigger settlements
- Because many people and governments do business in the U.S. it is often possible to
collect damages awarded by a U.S. Court
* Extradition
* Immigration Law
Law and Sovereignty: Laws of Diplomacy
* Diplomatic Recognition
- Credentials
* Embassy in the host county: as home states territory
* Diplomatic immunity
- Espionage
Just-War Doctrine
* International law distinguishes just wars (wars that are legal) from wars of aggression (which
are illegal)
* Today, legality of war is defined by the UN Charter, which outlaws aggression but allows
international police actions
* Just-war approach explicitly rules out war as an instrument to change another states
government
Human Rights: Individual vs. Sovereignty
* Human rights versus sovereignty and territorial integrity
* Consensus on the most important human rights are lacking
- Rights are universal versus relativism
* Human rights from at least three sources
- Religion
- Political and legal philosophy
- Theory of natural law and natural rights
Human-Rights Institutions
* Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
- Does not have the force of international law
- Does set forth international norms
- Since its adoption, the UN has opened 7 treaties for state signature to further define
protections of human rights
* Two important treaties: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and
the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
* Convention Against Torture (CAT), 1987
International Trade
Studies of Trade
* International political economy (IPE)
- Trade, monetary relations and multinational corporations
- States are the most important actors in IPE, but not as exclusively important as in
international security
* Liberalism, Mercantilism, and Marxism
Mercantilism
*Mercantilism
- In line with realism each state must protect its own interests at the expense of others
- Emphasizes relative power: my slice of the pie matters
- Importance of economic transactions lies in their implications for their military and
national security
- Seek trade surplus (jobs) and national competiveness
Liberalism
* Economic Liberalism
- Calls for cooperation under IPA to realize common gains world economy is one
- By building international organizations, institutions, and norms, states can mutually
benefit from economic exchanges
- Not relative gains, but more emphasis on absolute gains, is the pie growing?
- Free trade benefits everyone, sooner or later, and helps world peace
Liberalism and Mercantilism
* Liberalism and mercantilism are theories of economics and also ideologies that shape state
politics
* Liberalism is currently the dominant approach in Western economics, so far.
Policies of Liberalism
* Free market and liberal economists
- Bargaining space
- Market price
- Demand Curve
- Supply Curve
- Equilibrium Prince
- World Economic Integration
* Mercantilism
- Economics should serve politics
- Creation of wealth underlies state power
- Declined in the 19th Century
- Practiced by many:
* Japan, China,
- Seeing favorable balance of trade (surplus) and domestic wealth and jobs
Why Trade??
* Absolute Advantage
- Division of labor
- Scale of production
- Different natural endowment
* Comparative Advantage
- A state need not have an absolute advantage in producing one kind of good in order to
make specialization pay.
* International trade increases overall efficiency of production
* Trade is not without drawbacks:
- Long-term benefits may incur short-term costs
- Benefits and costs of trade tend not to be evenly distributed within a state
- Non-economic reasons for protectionism
Free Market
*A free Markey and efficient market require:
- large numbers of buyers and sellers
- individual decision, free entry and withdrawal
- Participants have fairly complete information about market
- Property rights defined and protected
- Enforceable contracts
Problems in Markets
*Monopoly
- diamond market De Beers
- MNCs
* Oligopoly
- OPEC
* Corruption
* Centrally Planned economies
* Lack of good legal framework for markets
* Externalities
- pollution
- poverty
Political Interference on markets
* Taxation
* Sanctions
- can backfire
- not always effective
Autarky
* self-reliance
- ex. Albania and China Cultural Revolution
Protectionism
* States manipulate international trade to strengthen one or more domestic industries
- The lack of world labor market and redistribution system
- Protection of domestic industries from international competition
- Infant industry protection considered a relatively legitimate reason for temporary
protectionism
- Protection of industry vital to national security
- Defense effort to ward off predatory practices by foreign companies or states
* Means to discourage imports
- Tariff or duties
- Nontariff barriers
* Quota often voluntary
- Subsidies to a domestic industry, which allows it to lower prices without losing money
tax breaks
- Restrictions and regulations
- Economic nationalism
* Buying American
* Protectionism can have both positive and negative effects on an economy
- Short-term protectionism stabilizing effect
Trade Regimes
* Information technologies link the world across space the infrastructure
* Global integration process based on free trade norms and treaties and zones
The World Trade Organization
* WTO is a global, multilateral IGO that promotes, monitors, and adjudiciates international trade
- Central to the overall expectations and practices of states with regard to international
trade
- Successor organization to GATT (1947)
- In 2009, WTO had 153 countries (all of the major countries with the exception of
Russia) in membership
* Most countries most likely to become members
* Condition of membership liberalization of the trading practices
* Reciprocity
- Most favored nation concept: trade restrictions imposed by a WTO member on its MFN
trading partner must be applied equally to all WTO members
- Exception: Generalized System of Preferences (GSP)
* trade concessions to third world states to help economic development
* Benefits to belonging to WTO outweigh the costs
Bilateral and Regional Agreements
* Most international trade is governed by more specific international political agreements.
* There are generally two types:
- Bilateral Trade Agreements
* Reciprocal agreements to lower barriers to trade
- Regional free-trade areas
* Groups of states agree to remove free trade barriers and or adopt a common
tariff toward outside states that are not members of the agreement (customs union)
* If they coordinate other policies such as monetary exchange, the customs union
becomes a common market
* NAFTA
Cartels
* An association of producers or consumers, or both, of a certain product formed to manipulate
its price on the world market
- Can use a variety of means to affect prices
* Most effective is to coordinate limits on production by each member so as to
lower the supply, relative to demand of the good
Industries and Interest Groups
* Lobby for industrial policies and trade policies
* Agriculture
* Exporters
* Intellectual property rights
- World Intellectual Property Organization
* Service sector of the economy
- Banking, insurance
* Arms Trade
- Operates outside of normal commercial transactions
- Military industrial sector of the economy
* Smuggling
- Illicit trade
- Black markets are widespread
Enforcement of Trade Rules
* Depends strongly on the reciprocity principle
* Enforcement is complicated by differing interpretations of what is fair
* Retaliation
- Dumping
* International Trade Commission
* Trade cooperation easier to achieve under hegemony
The Evolving World Economy
* From UK to the US: the 1890s
* Technological Innovation
* Great depression and Keynesian economics
* WW2
* Soviet Bloc centrally planned economy
- State-owned industries
- Shift to market economy China
* Today there is a single integrated world economy that almost no country can resist joining.
- Mixed economies
Economic Globalization
* Globalization is transforming not only trade, but money, business, integration, communication,
environmental management and the other economic development of all countries
Resistance to Free Trade
* Globalization of the world economy has created a backlash in many parts of the world,
including the US race to the bottom
- Growing nationalism
- Competition from low-wage countries in global South
* Impact on wages in other countries
* Standards of labor regulation/worker safety
_ Labor unions have been among the strongest political opponents of
unfettered trade expansion
- Human rights
* minimum wage issues, child labor, and worker safety issues
- Environmental issues
* Consumers may spend more money on cheap imported products and services, eventually
employing more US workers
* Cheap imports help keep inflation low, which benefits citizens and polititians
* but small comfort if you experience job loss
* national security concerns
* environmental and human rights concerns
* from free trade to fair trade