Global Interstate

System and Governance

The Interstate System
What do we mean by this “system”
Interactions by various political entities, but
mostly states. Today the system is global, but it
has not always been the case. Some parts of the
world did not know of other parts, much less
interact.
 INTERSTATE
SYSTEM

State
Actors Non-State Actors
 • State- political organization with a
State centralized government that maintains the
legitimate use of force in a certain
Actors territory.
• Primary and principal actors are states:
country or nation states
State Actors
• State: A territorial entity controlled by
a government and inhabited by a
population.
• Theoretical assumptions: (4 elements)
• State government exercises
sovereignty over its territory.
• Recognized as sovereign by other
states
• Population forms a civil society;
group identity
• Seat of government with a leader –
head of government or head of
state
Characteristics of State Actors
• Set of relationships among the world’s states,
structured according to certain rules and patterns
of interaction.
• Major source of conflict: Frequent mismatch
between perceived nations and actual borders.
• Great variation in terms of the size of states’ total
annual economic activity
• Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
• Great powers
• Most powerful of these states are called
superpowers
 Non-State Actors
• MNCs: Multinational
Corporations
• IGOs: Intergovernmental
Organizations
• INGOs: International
nongovernmental organizations
• Other individuals or groups that
are politically active but not
necessarily recognized officially
(terrorists, nations, etc.)
WHERE DID STATES STAGES:
COME FROM?
1. primitive times -- loyalty to
family
The international state 2. Then village
system is only a few 3. Then tribe
centuries old. Before then, 4. Then city-state or kingdom
the transition was taking a by about 3000 b.c. to 1648
a.d
few thousand years.
POWER
OF THE
STATE
 Sovereignty
• Key concept in the international
state system and international law.
• States recognized each others in
the international system (usually)
• By sovereignty, we mean that in
principle all states are legally
equal (de jure).
• Sovereignty is recognition by other
states that a state may manage its
internal affairs how it pleases.
Problems of Sovereignty

• Sovereignty is a legal definition

and does not mean that all states
are equal in their power, influence,
wealth, etc.
• Sovereignty also does not mean
that states can prevent all crime,
injustice, etc. Some states have
higher capacity to regulate their
own borders and people than
others.
Concept of
Nation
What is a nation? Is it
the same thing as a
state?
• No. For our purposes in international
relations and comparative politics, the
term nation is not necessarily
synonymous with state.
• This becomes confusing because Nation
is still used loosely by some in the field of
international relations and in the media.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

 A nation is a group of
people who feel they have
something in common.

• Nations are defined as socially

cohesive groups that have
common political goals, common
language; usually share a single
perception of history, as well as
common religion, traditions,
symbols and myths.
• Some states have more
than one nation, such as
Iraq.
• Some multi-nation states
collapse from civil war,
such as Yugoslavia, while
others survive, such as
Belgium
• Some nations have no
state, such as the Kurds or
the Palestinians
Collapse of
Yugoslavia
Advantages of InterState
System
 • Information Revolution:
• Increasing Global
Productivity:
OPPORTUNITIES • Rapid Rise of Newly
FOR
Emerging Global Economies
COOPERATION
• Development of Renewable
Energy Sources
• Global Spread of
Democracy:
 • Continued Growth of Authoritative Global and Regional
Institutions: WTO, WHO, EU, OPEC—these coordinate
national policies with regional and even global norms and
practices
• Proliferation and Networking of NGOs: Growth of global
civil society through people organizing across borders to
OPPORTUNITIES address global threats, humanitarian crisis and aid,
FOR technical information, cultural, political, and social
cooperation.
COOPERATION • Growth of international regimes: formal and informal
coordination and collaboration in certain issue areas to
maximize global security and prosperity
• Decline of interstate Warfare
• Rapid Proliferation of International Law protecting the
individual: codification of human rights, spreading norms
or racial and gender equality
Disadvantages of
InterState System
 • Global Environmental Degradation: these global
threats include
1. global warming, the thinning of the protective
ozone layer of the atmosphere accompanied by
rising rates of skin cancer;
2.destruction of the world’s rain forests (global
lungs) and denuding of other forested areas;
POSSIBILITIES 3.rapid urbanization owing to peasant flight to
FOR CONFLICT megacities in countries like China and India with
accompanying pollution and urban poverty;
4.Spread of deserts into formerly fertile regions of
Asia, Africa, and Latin America;
5.The elimination of species of plants and animals
and reduction in biodiversity;
6.Accumulation of radioactive debris and nuclear
waste
 • Overpopulation: in developing world
may contribute to famine, spread of
disease (AIDS), land hunger, political
unrest, and large-scale migration to rich
states with aging and shrinking
population
POSSIBILITIES
FOR CONFLICT • Resource Depletion: energy demands
outstrip known reserves of petroleum
and natural gas as growing populations
and economic development places ever
greater stress on finite sources of fresh
water and fertile land
 • Proliferation of Religious and Ethnic
Extremism: identity construction in the age
of globalization prompts fragmentation,
the questioning of authoritative
governmental and social structures from
POSSIBILITIES below; target often innocent civilians
FOR CONFLICT
• Global Proliferation of WMD: spread of
nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons
to countries divided by profound political
differences, f.ex. Pakistan and India
 • Collapse of states: spread of
socio-political disorder in
selected regions
POSSIBILITIES • Global spread of disease:
FOR CONFLICT rapid spread of pathogens that
threaten humans, livestock,
and plant life and the threat of
new pandemics such as the
avian influenza
 • Growing North-South wealth
discrepancies: rising disparities
in wealth between winners and
losers in the course of
POSSIBILITIES globalization
FOR CONFLICT • Resistance by the U.S. to work
with international and
multilateral organizations:
global threats cannot be
managed unilaterally
Core Principles for Solving
Collective Goods Problem
 • Three basic principles offer possible
solutions for this core problem of getting
individuals to cooperate for the common
Core good without a central authority to make
them do so.
Principles •Dominance
•Reciprocity
•Identity
Table 1.1
Dominance
Dominance
 Reciprocity
• Solves the collective goods problem by rewarding
behavior that contributes to the group and punishing
behavior that pursues self-interest at the cost of the
group
• Easy to understand and can be “enforced” without
any central authority
• Positive and negative reciprocity
• Disadvantage: It can lead to a downward spiral as
each side punishes what it believes to be the
negative acts of the other.
• Generally, people overestimate their own good
intentions and underestimate those of
opponents or rivals.
Identity