Attributes of Today’s Global System

1. There are countries or states that are

independent and govern themselves .
2. These countries interact with each other
through diplomacy.
3.There are international organizations like the
UN that facilitate these interactions .
4. Beyond facilitating meetings between states ,
international organizations take on lives of their
own.
 Interstate System
• Treaty of Westphalia
-the origin of the present-day concept of
sovereignty can be traced back to this treaty.
-a set of agreements signed in 1648 to end the
THIRTY YEARS’ WAR
-after a brutal religious war between Catholics
and Protestants , the Holy Roman Empire, Spain,
France , Sweden and Dutch Republic 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 others
affairs.
 Westphalian System
• Provided stability for the nations of Europe
until its first major challenge by Napoleon
Bonaparte.
 Bonaparte
• Believed in spreading the principles of the
French Revolution :liberty, equality and
fraternity to the rest of Europe and thus
challenged the power of kings , nobility and
religion in Europe .
 Napoleonic Wars
• Lasted from 1803-1815 with napoleon and his
armies marching all over Europe .
• In every country they conquered , the French
implemented the Napoleonic Code that
forbade birth right privileges , encourage
freedom or religion and promoted
meritocracy in government service.
• This system shocked the monarchies and
hereditary elites (dukes and duchess )of
Europe
• They mustered armies to push back against
the French emperor.
 Battle of Waterloo in 1815
• Anglo and Prussian armies finally defeated
Napoleon ending the latters’ mission to
spread his liberal code across Europe.
• To prevent another war and to keep their
systems of privilege , the royal powers created
a new system that in effect restored the
Westphalian system- Concert of Europe.
 Concert of Europe
- It was as an alliance of great powers :
• UK
• Austria
• Russia and
• Prussia .
• They sought to restore the world of
monarchial , hereditary and religious
privileges of the time before the French
Revolution and Napoleonic Wars .
• More importantly ,it was an alliance that
sought to restore the sovereignty of states
•
 Metternich System
• Named after the Austrian diplomat KLEMENS
VON METTERNICH who was the systems’ main
architect .
• Concert’s power and authority lasted from
1815 to 1914 at the dawn of WWI
 Present-day International System
• Despite the challenge of Napoleon to the
Westphalian System and the eventual collapse
of the Concert of Europe after WWI , the
present day international system still had
traces of this history .
• Until now , states are considered sovereign
and Napoleonic attempt to violently impose
systems of government in other countries are
frowned upon.
 Great Powers
• Like the Concert of Europe , great powers still
hold significant influence over world politics .
• The most powerful groupings in the UN
Security Council , has a core of five permanent
members , all having veto powers over the
council’s decision making process .
 Internationalism
• The Westphalian System and Concert of Europe
divided the world into separate , sovereign
entities.
• Since the existence of this interstate, there have
been attempts to transcend it .
• Some like Bonaparte directly challenged the
system by infringing on other states’ sovereignty
while others sought to imagine other systems of
governance that go beyond , but do not
necessarily challenge sovereignty.
• Still others imagine a system of heightened
interaction between various sovereign states ,
particularly the greater desire for greater
cooperation and unity among states and
peoples, this desire is called internationalism
 Broad Categories of Internationalism
• Liberal
• Socialist
 Immanuel Kant
• First major thinker of liberal internationalism
• He liked states in a global system to people
living in a given territory
• If people living in a territory require a
government to prevent lawlessness , shouldn’t
the same principle be applied to states ?
• Without a form of government , the
international system would be chaotic .
• Therefore, citizens like countries must give –
up some freedoms and establish a
continuously growing state consisting of
various nations which will ultimately include
the nations of the world.
• Kant imagined a form of global government .
 Jeremy Bentham
• Writing in the late 18th century
• A British philosopher who coined the term
international in 1780
• Advocated the creation of international law
that would govern inter-state relations .
• He believed that objective global legislators
should aim to propose a legislation that would
create the greatest good of all nations taken
together.
 Giuseppe Mazzini
• A 19th century Italian patriot.
• Reconciled nationalism with liberal
internationalism
• An advocate for the unification of all Italian –
speaking mini- states
• Critic of the Metternich System
• He believed in a republican system without
kings.
• Proposed a system of free nations that
cooperated with each other to create an
international system.
 Woodrow Wilson (1913-21)
• One of the 20th century most prominent
internationalist
• Like Mazzini , Wilson saw nationalism as a pre-
requisite for internationalism
• Because of his faith in nationalism , he
forwarded the principle of self-determination
 Principle of self-determination
• The belief that the world’s nations had a right
to free and sovereign governments.
• He hoped that these free nations would
become democracies , because only by being
such would be able to build a free system of
international relations based on international
law and cooperation .
• 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 his efforts , Wilson was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1919
 League of Nations
• The league came into being that same year
• Ironically and unfortunately, US was not able
to join the organization due to strong
opposition from the Senate
• The League was also unable to hinder another
war from breaking out
• It was practically helpless to prevent the onset
and intensification of WWII
• On one side of the war were the AXIS POWERS
1. Hitler’s Germany
2. Mussolini’s Italy and
3. Hirohito’s Japan
who were ultra-nationalists that had an
instinctive disdain for internationalism and
preferred to violently impose their dominance
over nations
• It was in the midst of this war between the
Axis and the Allied that internationalism
would be eclipsed.
• Despite it’s failure, the League gave birth to
some of the more specific international
organizations that are still around until today.
The most popular are:
• WHO (World Health Organization ) and
• ILO (International Labour Organization )
• More importantly , it would serve as the
blueprint for future forms of international
cooperation
• In this respect , despite it’s organizational
dissolution , the League of Nations’ principles
survived WWII
 League of Nations
• Was a concretization of the concepts of liberal
internationalism
Kant- emphasized the need to form common
international principles
Mazzini -enshrined the principles of
cooperation and respect among nation-states
Wilson –called for democracy and self-
determination
• These ideas would re-assert themselves in the
creation of United Nations in 1946 .