Unit 1 - Power, Sovereignty, International Relations

Power

The ability to affect change (getting others to achieve the outcomes you want).

Sovereignty

Legitimate or widely recognised ability to exercise effective control of a territory within recognised borders.

Primary organizing principle of global politics which provides states with the authority to represent their territorial entity within the international community.

State sovereignty can be challenged internally (for example, secessionist groups) or externally (for example, one state invades another).

Legitimacy

The popular acceptance of authority. It is considered to be the basic condition for government, without which it will collapse.

Sometimes it only takes a small-influential elite to render a nation legitimate despite the regime being unpopular (Syria).

Interdependence

The mutual reliance between and among groups, organizations, areas and states for access to goods and services that sustain living arrangements.

Often, this mutual reliance is economic (such as trade), but can also have a security dimension (such as defense arrangements) and, increasingly, a sustainability dimension (such as environmental treaties).

Globalization has increased interdependence , while often changing the relationships of power among the various actors engaged in global politics.

Hard Power

The use of force (military, sanctions) and threats of force to influence the decision-making of those in charge and achieve certain aims.

Soft Power

Achieving aims through persuasion or influence; the power to get others to want what you want. Uses negotiation, promises of aid, cooperation, and other non-military means of influencing change.

Smart Power

The strategic combination of both hard and soft power.

Realism (theory, Mearsheimer)

Belief that power is the currency in politics and that a states’ hard power capabilities is the most important. They see states as locked in competition with each other, with each state wanting to protect its national security against threats from other states in an anarchic world order. States either pursue offensive realism (i.e aiming to expand their global power and hegemony) or defensive realism (i.e aiming merely to defend themselves against external threats

Liberalism (theory, Nye)

Belief that soft-power, cooperation and a rules-based international order are the most effective and safest way of using power in global politics. Liberals perceive states as more powerful when they work together (i.e through cooperation in international organizations. States should use power by conforming to a world order governed by international law and respecting human rights.

Further types of power

Military: Essential for hard power. Military resources aren’t always successful.

Structural:  When states influence the political ideas, structure and framework of global politics itself. States may wish to push others towards a more democratic, capitalist, free market model

Economic: GDP, GDP per capita, economic growth %

Social & Cultural: Global brands are universally known and used. Cultural power connects populations at a human, rather than a strategic level