Lecture 1: Introduction

• I will start by Robert Frost ‘Most of change we thing

we see in life is due to truths being in and out of flavour’

• International

relations political, socio-cultural) (its overall-economic,

• International politics/world politics (deals with

specific field-POLITICS-POLITICAL ECONOMY)

• It is not a history course- it studies NOT what

happened but why things happened, or why do they happen.It EXPLAINS rather than DESCRIBE

1.2

•

WHY INTERNATIONAL POLITICS DIFFER FROM DOMESTIC POLITICS?

• Anarchy – there is no international government (legislature, courts, executive weak) • Self-help system- world politics is seen as struggle for power. Nations in constant state of war but not always at war but threat of war constantly looms. Use of force is considered a legitimate means for settling disputes among nations. Zimbabwe defends itself and no any other can, if its goal is to survive

1.3

• • • Law is not enforceable in international system- few rules and no enforcement Governments have no monopoly on legitimate use of force in domestic society but no equivalent in international society.

Weaker sense of community and shared values and norms, standards of justice, views of authority, goals and aspirations

Lecture 1.1

• • Two issues are clear in IR: • 1. • 1.

CHANGE in IR CONTINUITY IR

Lecture 1.2

• 1.

CHANGE in IR

• • Politically –towards integration (EU, AU)

/towards disintegration (USSR, Yugoslavia)

• Militarily –end of cold war, new nuclear

powers, and small arms

• Environmentally- ozone depletion, Kyoto

treaty, deforestation, desertification, tsunami

Lecture 1.3

• Economically-globalization, regional blocks, MNCs

– nandos, chicken in, pizza in

• Human rights and social welfare-colonization

revisited, Tianamen square, taliban, riots WTO.

• • Robert Frost 1911 “ most of the change we think we

see in life is due to truths being in and out of flavour”

Lecture 1.4

• • 1.

CONTINUITY IR

• Militarily- war- Kosovo, Congo, Sudan, Afghanistan,

Iraq etc

• Politically – failure to have world government,

disintegration of some states

• Economically – exploitation continues, extraction of

resources

• Environmentally- degradation continues- land, air,

ocean

• s

Lecture 1.5

• Human rights- poverty and degradation of human

life continues

• Health- millions die of diseases, life expectances

much shorter.

• HENCE a quote from Keegley and Wittkompf 1997

“WORLD AFFAIRS TODAY CAN BE LIKENED TO A DISASSEMBLED JIGSAW PUZZLE SCATTERED ON THE TABLE BEFORE US”

• Some depicts resurgent nationalism, Other

spreading of democracy, Some picture genocide

Lecture 1.6

• Portray prosperity through trade and investment • Other picture nuclear proliferation • Other picture disarmament • Some indicate reinvigorated United Nations • Others see UN as enfeebled and ineffective • Some describe actual globalisation • Some depict clash of civilization

Lecture 1.7

• • NB take a NEWSPAPER/ international news/ ask

WHY?

• Why did Sept 11 take place? • Why is North Korea embarking on nuclear weapons

programme

• Why demonstration did took place-Davos, Seattle • Why US refused to sign Kyoto treaty.

Lecture 1.8

• “so in our theoretical exploration of world

politics, we must critically assess the accuracy our impressions, avoiding the temptation to embrace one world view and abandon another without any assurance that their relative worth is permanently fixed” Keegley and Witkompf.

Lecture 1.9

• The central question often to be asked is: What is

Politics?

• There are very few political structures in the

international system that exercise power over states (supranational power);

• As a result, some scholars believe that the

international system is best described as an anarchical society (anarchy);

• Does the absence of political structures mean that

the international system is not a political system?

Lecture 1.13

• International Relations as a Field of Study.

International Relations (IR) is one of several subfields of political science. IR itself is broken down into at least two broad subfields: 1. International security: Focuses on questions of war and peace. 2. International political economy: the study of the politics of trade, monetary, and other economic relations among nations, and their connection to other trans national forces.

Lecture 1.23

• Actors and Influences -- Nonstate Actors • NSAs rival the state for power and influence. • There are several types of NSAs:

1. Substate actors (domestic influences on foreign policy) 2. Transnational actors (interact with each other and states across international boundaries)

• Multinational Corporations (MNCs) • Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) • Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs)

Lecture 1.24

• Levels of Analysis • A method of organizing both description and theory in IR. • Individual Level: The impact of the perceptions, choices,

and actions of individual human beings.

• Domestic (State) Level: The impact of different forms of

government or economic policies on foreign policy.

• Interstate (System) Level: The impact of the features of

international system on outcomes.

• Global Level: The impact of influences that transcend the

interactions of states themselves.

Lecture 1.25

• Geography and World Regions • In order to highlight the insights afforded by the

Global Level, Goldstein divides the world into nine geographic regions;

• Later chapters will refer back to these regions: o The South ("Third World") includes China, the

Middle East, Latin America, South Asia, and Africa.

o The North includes North America, Western Europe,

Japan/Pacific, and Russia/Eastern Europe.

Lecture 1.26

• Geography and World Regions • The most important division between these regions

is the North-South gap;

• This is the division that exists between the rich,

economically developed, industrialized world and the poor, economically underdeveloped, non industrialized world;

• It is the most important geographical element at the

Global Level of analysis;

Lecture 1.27

• North-South Gap • The North contains less than 20% of the world's

population, but produces 60% of the world's GDP;

• Even in higher income areas in the South, income is

unevenly distributed;

• IR scholars have no single explanation for the

growing gap between the North and the South;