Mg San Htay

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Exam

Short Questions
(1)   Explain what is meant by ‘international anarchy’?
Anarchy in international relations is defined as the lack of central authority in the
international system that can protect the sovereignty of the states. That means there is no
international government that can punish violations of Sovereignty. Within this context,
sovereign states should be able to control their own domestic affairs and other sovereign states
should not be meddling internal affairs of other sovereign states. Nevertheless, when a powerful
state such as the United States violated the sovereignty of Pakistan killing Osama Bin Laden, and
the Soviet Union meddled in Czechoslovakia, there was no agency and overarching power to
punish those deviations. On the other hand, anarchy is also defined as the self-help system
because all the states functionally pursue their national interests and power maximization. To
make this clear, the states are always suspicious of each other and trust is almost non-existent.
That is the reason why they seek to maintain their territorial integrity and self-sufficiency of their
domestic political order because there is no government that would come and deploys a military
force that grantees other states’ security. In fact, anarchy does not imply chaos, but it actually
means without governments and masters. It can also be seen as freedom from an oppressive
centralized authority that empowers people to take control of their own lives. Therefore, the key
concept of anarchy is the lack of political authority and lawlessness in the international system
but anarchy can probably be the product of near perfect order when all disorderly people were
eliminated from this world.

(2) What are the basic assumptions in realist theory?

The basic assumption in realist theory is the states always struggle only to stimulate their
own power, their interests, and self-help. On the other hand, the most crucial responsibility of
states is to ensure its survival and for the protection of its population. The first assumption in
realist theory is that due to the absence of a global sovereign in the international environment,
states exist in self-preservation system. That is the reason why states only focus on the power
maximization and relentlessly seek power and security because if states want to be safe, power is
the only thing that can grantee security in the international environment. The second assumption
states still remain as the most powerful actors and for those who are the best armed and the best

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equipped will become powerful states and dominate weak states. Even the largest international
organization, the United Nations cannot make the decision against the power of states and the
international institutions are only the reflections of powers. Thus, states play a major role in
global politics and they cannot anticipate how much power is enough. The third assumption is
actually about the international distribution of power that means the power is not equally
distributed within the states. At this point, some states are more powerful than others and they do
not trust each other. Therefore, the weak states adopt the idea of forming an alliance in order to
balance the growing power of powerful states. The relationships among states can be changed in
anytime. Final assumption says that the way the states behave and think, mostly focus on the
protection of their national interests. For instance, despite the violation of the human right record
and aggressive nuclear testing, Russia and China continue the strategic relations with the North
Korea’s government to protect their economic interests. Therefore, the basic assumption in
realist theory analyze human nature that impacts on state behavior.

(3) What are the basic assumptions in liberal theory?

The basic assumption in liberal theory is the establishment of peace in the international
environment and it also focuses on the idea that peace and cooperation among states that produce
absolute gains. On the other hand, liberalists believe that liberalism is a fundamental force in
global politic as globalization that creates democracy, interdependence, institutions, international
law, and transnational cooperation between the interests of groups and different societies.
Liberalists claim that unlike realism, states are not major actors and power is not the capacity for
force, but it will be for the collective political action because liberalism only struggles to
promote transnational cooperation, led by the global institution such as the United Nations.
Therefore, liberal theory focuses on the establishment of the international institutions and sharing
power through democracy that will also foster the human right. That is why the implementation
of more democracy can stimulate more interdependence not only among states but also citizens.
In this context, the rise of China will be a good example because while the middle class is
growing in China, it will accelerate the demission of political right and freedom. Even though the
United States and China are economically and militarily competing against each other, there are
the trade agreements that both countries have to abide. Therefore, the national interests of the
states are depending on each other and states have to adopt the international law. In fact, since
the international communities started to approach practicing liberal theory, the relationships

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among states have been developing. Nevertheless, states still hold power and all they do is to
escalate power and to be as powerful as possible in the international system.

Long Questions
(4) How did the world change after the Cold War? Be explicit in terms of your ‘thinking’/theory
about why states behave the way they do.
During the Cold War, there were the two main antagonists, the United States and the
Soviet Union. After the Cold War ended up in 1991, I think it brought three tremendous changes.
The first one is the ideas of approaching to humanitarian relief and interventions, and the second
is the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Europe and the third is the
clash of civilization. Firstly, during the post-Cold War era, many countries started to focus on
humanitarian affairs such as the effects of natural disasters, conflicts, and environmental
degradation and they tried to adopt liberalism by empowering the effectiveness of the
intergovernmental institutions like the United Nations. Within this context, if one government
commits crimes against humanity such as violation of human rights, genocides, and ethnic
cleansing, the United Nations can get involved in the internal affairs of states and applied
economic and diplomatic sanctions. On the other hand, the United Nations can authorize military
interventions in other sovereign states under the international law. In my opinion, military
interventions should never happen in other countries because the UN is always being controlled
by powerful states and it cannot make its own decision against the five veto powers. On another
hand, humanitarian interventions are noticeably driven by states that only focus on their national
interests and every military intervention is not always successful. For example, the Libya
intervention is one of the most controversial cases which is widely criticized and considered as a
failure of R2P. Indeed, although the main purpose of the NATO intervention was to protect
civilians, it failed to rebuild the country and left mass violence in Libya. Secondly, the expansion
of the NATO, led by the United States initiated in some of the former Soviet allies after
collapsing of the Soviet Union. I think the expansion of the NATO has an advantage of
promoting democratic regimes in the former Soviet communist regions that empower the
transnational cooperation and enhance the human rights. Nonetheless, many argued that the
NATO violated humanitarian laws by booming civilians and infrastructures when they
intervened in Kosovo. Finally, the clash of civilization is one of the most significant issues in

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which the Cold War affected and changed the way states behave to ensure their security. Every
country is being undertaken by terrorism and in order to eliminate it, states are cooperating to
protect their security. For example, the US is supporting the Philippine government to fight
terrorists in Marawi island. In fact, the clash of civilization is the legacy of the Cold War in
which the engagement of two superpowers in proxy wars in Afghanistan where the Soviet Union
invaded and the United States created Mujahedeen rebel group to fight against the communist
government. In reality, the US’s empowerment of Islamic groups was transformed from the
Taliban to Al-Qaeda and the US and its alliances are becoming the main target of the terrorist
attacks. Therefore, Samuel Huntington said that “in the emerging era, clashes of civilization are
the greatest threat to world peace, and an international order based on civilizations is the surest
safeguard against world war”. So, I think that as long as there is no overarching power in the
international environment, the clashes of civilization will not be evitable within human
communities. Therefore, after the Cold War, it enormously changed the world by producing both
negative and positive impacts.
 
(5) What do you believe will be the main challenge in international relations in the future? Be
explicit in terms of your ‘thinking’/theory about why states behave the way they do.
In the future, the world will face many challenges, but I believe that there will be three
main challenges in international relations in the future. They are (1) the rise of China, (2) global
climate change, and (3) nuclear weapons. Firstly, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the
hegemonic ascendancy of the United States has become the only superpower in the world. In the
same era, with the emergence of the new global economic order, China has accelerated its
economic growth. Within decades, China’ stunning economic growth, rapidly involvement in
world politics and military expansion are being conceptualized as a threat to international
security. Especially, the rise of China is the biggest concern to maintain the US’s hegemonic
status mainly in Asia. In this point, from the perspective of realism, I think that China could
probably persuade all Asian countries to build its hegemonic ascendancy by forming alliances to
challenge the Western powers such as the US and NATO. Indeed, I personally do not consider
the rise of China as a threat, because the more middle-class increases in China, the more people
will demand freedom and rights. Therefore, I believe that China will become more democratic
and increase more interdependence in the future and it will be a peaceful rise of China. The
second main challenge in international relations in future is that the concern over the global

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climate change which has been being discussed in the top of the international agenda in the
United Nations Security Council in recent decades and it is also assumed as one of the most
significant threats to the international security and peace. In fact, climate change can seriously
cause floods, storms, and droughts. Those kinds of ecological crisis can affect relations between
states through humanitarian crises, dependency on imports of vital good, migration, and
conflicts. In order to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, I think international
coordination and cooperation will be required to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that have
resulted from human activities such as burning coal, oil, and natural gas. Therefore, I think states
should focus on utilizing renewable energy resources and reduce using fossil fuels. This is the
era of ecological excess and the world leaders’ attitude in climate change negotiations is very
crucial to ensure ecological sustainability. Thus, climate change is a great threat to humanity in
the future and can cause global instability. The final main challenge is the nuclear weapon which
is an existential threat to international security. Actually, many states think that nuclear weapons
provide the highest security protection for their citizens. In my opinion, having nuclear weapon
cannot provide physical protection because the use of the nuclear weapon to attack other states
will push its own citizens into great danger. However, as realism says that the states still believe
that power is never enough. At this point, by looking at the new invention of Russia’s invisible
nuclear weapons in recent year, it is undeniable that the states that possess nuclear weapons are
developing their weapons. That means that the world is facing a greater risk of nuclear weapon
use than in the Cold War and the future of humanity is in the hand of a single leader to start a
nuclear war. Therefore, I believe that these three issues are main challenges in international
relations in the future and in order to deal with these threats, the world leaders should negotiate
with the optimistic feelings for the future.