THE CONTEMPORARY

WORLD
 HISTORY OF GLOBAL POLITICS:
CREATING INTERNATIONAL ORDER
The world is composed of many countries or states, all of
them having different forms of government.
International Relations- is the study of interconnectedness of
politics, economics and law on a global level.
▪ Internationalization- when explore the deepening of
interactions between states.
 THE ATTRIBUTES OF TODAY'S GLOBAL
SYSTEM

World politics has four key attributes.

First there are countries or states that
are independent and govern
themselves.
▪ Second, these countries interact with each other through
diplomacy.
Third,there are international
organizations, like the United
Nations (UN) that facilitate
these interactions.
Fourth, beyond simply facilitating meetings between states, international
organizations also take on lives of their own. the UN for example apart
from being a meeting ground for presidents and other heads of state, also
has a task-specific agencies like the World Health Organization (WHO)
 What is the difference between nation and state?

State refers to a country and its government. a state has four

attributes, First, it exercises authority over specific population
called citizens.
Second, it governs a specific territory. Third, a state has a
structure of government that crafts various rules that people
follow.
Fourth, the state has sovereignty over its territory. Sovereignty
refers to internal and external authority.
A nation according to Bendict Anderson is an “imagined
community”. It is limited because it does not go beyond a given
“official boundary” and because rights and responsibilities are
mainly the privilege and concern of the citizens of that nation.
Nation and state are closely related because it is
nationalism that facilitates state formation. it has been
nationalist movements that have allowed for creation of
nation-states.
Sovereignty is one of the fundamental principles of
modern state politics.
 THE INTERSTATE SYSTEM

The origins of the present day concept

of sovereignty can be traced back to
the Treaty of Westphalia which was a
set of agreements to end the Thirty
Year's War between the major
continental powers of Europe.
After a brutal religious war between the Catholics and Protestants, the
Holy Roman Empire, Spain, France and Sweden and Dutch Republics
designed a system that would avert wars in the future by recognizing that
the treaty signers exercise complete control over their domestic affairs
and swear not to meddle in each other's affairs
The Westphalian System provided stability for the nations of Europe until
it face its first major challenge by Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte
believed in spreading the principles of the French Revolution-liberty,
fraternity and equality and thus challenge the powers of kings, nobility
and religion of Europe.
the French implemented the Napoleonic Code that forbade birth
privileges, encouraged freedom of religion and meritocracy in
government service.
To prevent another war and to keep their systems of privilege, the
royal powers created new system in effect restored the
Westphalian system. the Concert of Europe was an alliance of
“great powers” . The United Kingdom, Austria, Russia and Prussia.
Klemens von Metternich the
main architect, restore the
monarchical, hereditary and
religious privileges. Under the
Mitternich system
 INTERNATIONALISM

A system of heigthened interaction between various sovereign

states the desire for greater cooperation unity among states and
people.
• The first major thinker of liberal
internationalism was the German
philospher Immanuel Kant.
without a form of government ,
the international system would be
choatic.
• Kant imagined a form of world
government
• British Philosopher Jeremy
Bentham advocated the creation
of “International Law” that would
govern the inner states.
• He believed that objective global
legislators should aim to propose
legislation that would create “the
greatest happiness of all nations
taken together”
Guiseppe Mazzini believed in a Republican government (without
kings, queens and hereditary succession) and proposed a
system of free nations that cooperated with each other to create
an international system.
 United States President (1913-1921) Woodrow Wilson one of the most
prominent internationalist. because of his faith in nationalism, he
forwarded the principle of self determination - the belief that the world's
nations had a right to a free and sovereign government.
 Wilson became the most notable advocate for the creation of
League of Nations at the end of World War I in 1918. he pushed
to transform the League into a venue for conciliation and
arbitration to prevent another war.
For this effort, Wilson was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1919.
Unfortunately for Wilson the United
States was not able to join the
organization due to the strong
opposition from the Senate.
The league was unable to hinder another war from breaking out.
it was practically helpless to prevent the onset and
intensification of Worl War II.
• The Axis Power who were ultra
nationalist that had an
instinctive disdain for
internationalism and preferred
to violently impose their
dominance over nations
• The League was the concretization of the concepts of liberal
internationalism.
• From Kant the need to form common principles
• From Mazzini -principles of cooperation and respect among nation
states
• From Wilson- Democracy and Self Determination
• These ideas would re-assert
themselves in the creation of
the United Nations in 1946
German socialist philospher Karl Marx was
also and internationalist but he did not
belived in nationalism. he placed a premium
on economic equality.
He did not divide the world into countries but
into classes.
the capitalist class referred to the owners of
factories, companies and other means of
production.

the proletariat class included those who did

not won the means of production but instead
worked for the capitalist.
The Russian revolution of 1917 overthrow the monarchy and
replaced by a revolutionary government led by Vladimir Lenin.
did not believe in obtaining power through elections but lead the
revolution across the world using methods of terror if necessary.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 the existing thoughts of
communist internationalism practically disappeared. for the
postwar period liberal internationalism once again be
ascendant. and the best evidence of this is the rise of the United
Nations as the center of global governance.