IRO - AWP: TR Readings

Actors in world politics Transnational Reader flashcards from the 2023-2024 academic year Leiden University Taught by Professor Ragazzi

TR reader chapter 2: Transnational Relations and World Politics: An Introduction

written by Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye

TR N&K: Realism dominates IR

• focus on states

• focus on security (war and peace)

• Neglect for economic issues (neoliberal institutionalism brought in bc of this)

TR N&K: The texts main research points:

• effect of transnational relations

• implications of transnational relations for theory

• implications of transnational relations for power relations

• implications for US foreign Policy

• challenges for IO’s

TR N&K: Transnational Interactions

movement of tangible or intangible items across state boundaries where at least one actor is not an agent of a government or an IO

society to society, society to other governments and society to IGO’s

TR N&K: Interstate Politics

gov to gov, gov to IGO

TR N&K: Transnational interactions Effects on Interstate Politics

1) Attitude changes: face to face interactions (changes attitude towards people abroad)

2) international pluralism: linking of interest groups

3) constraints on states through dependence and interdependence: transport and finance

4) Increase in the ability of certain governments to influence others: transnational corporations

5) autonomous actors with private foreign policies that may deliberately oppose or impinge on state policies: roman catholic church, banks

TR N&K: Transnational Relations and “loss of control” by governments (p31)

• states remain the most powerful actors

• Transnational relations create a “control gap”: an empirical question

• this empirical question is regarding whether governments are losing control

• E.G. chocolate companies interacting with fragile african states

TR N&K: effect of Transnational relations on equality in the international system

• reinforce the inequalities between rich and poor countries

TR N&K: Transnational Relations and the state-centered paradigm

• state centered theories are inadequate to study world politics

• Change the definition of World Politics

TR N&K: Changing the definition of world politics (p.32)

All political interactions between significant actors in a world system

in which significant actor is any somewhat autonomous individual or organisation that controls substantial resources

and participate in political relationships with other actors across state line

TR N&K: Transnational relations and values

• They enrich and strengthen the strong and rich

• Could be considered as imperialism (authors don’t want to use marxist language however)

• K&N: Better speak of a system of “asymmetries” and “inequalities”

TR Chapter 9: methodological Nationalism, The social sciences and the study of migration

Written by Nina Glick-Schiller and Andreas Wimmer

TR G&W: Methodological Nationalism

• The naturalisation of the nation-state by the social sciences

  • Scholars who share this intellectual orientation assume that countries are natural units for comparative studies

  • equate society with the nation state.

  • Conflate natural interests with the purposes of social science

• Reflects and reinforces the identification that many scholars maintain with their own national state (Glick Schiller and Wimmer p.104)

TR G&W: Naturalisation

consider something as natural rather than something that needs to be explained

TR G&W: An example of Methodological nationalism is…

Analysing the history of europe through the diplomatic relations between france, germany, the united kingdom and russia

• only views states as important

• excludes nationalism and/or colonialism

TR G&W: Three variants of Methodological nationalism

• Ignoring or disregarding importance of nationalism

• Naturalisation: taking for granted the boundaries of the national state, define the units of analysis

• Territorial limitation: confining the study of social processes to the territory of the nation state

TR G&W: Why have the social sciences disregarded the fundamental importance of nationalism for modern societies

• Marx, Durkheim and Weber believed in the power of modernisation in reducing nationalism

• Division of labour between disciplines, focus on societies rather than the border of those societies

• This led to naturalisation: belief in a “container” model of society

TR G&W: Concerning Methodological Nationalism, what happened in the pre-war (ww1) era phase 1

• Science legitimated understandings of the nations as “ethnic” and primordial, which in turn justified racism and colonisation

• 2 trends

  • nation-state building

  • intensive globalisation

• Imperialism (europe nation-states to africa and asia)

• Emergence of racial notions of “the people”

• Long distance nationalism

• Racism becomes grounded in scientific theories (measuring skulls etc)

TR G&W: What characterised academic approaches between two wars (phase 2)

• social science was focused on measuring how societies could “better fit” into the nation state “container

TR G&W: Phase 2 ww1 - cold war

• End of free movement of labour

• closing of borders, inability to migrate

• ww1 created and exacerbated national sentimate (more racism again)

• More border policing

• Social sciences

  • Chicago school: migrations as assimilation (how to make people forget their identities to assimilate)

  • Migrant identities as a security threat

TR G&W: Phase 3: The cold war

• Erasure of historical memory of transnationalism

• Decolonisation: growth of nationalism (of colonised towards colonisers)

• Development of welfare capitalism

• Cold war: Tighter policing of borders and migration. Refugees/guest workers assimilated.

TR G&W How did political developments after WW2 influence the understanding of methodological nationalism. phase 3

• the memory of transnationalism was definitely erased

• Welfare capitalism in read the national feeling and xenophobia

TR G&W: What do Glick-Schiller and Wimmer argue against in their conclusion (chapter 9)

• We should recover the history of transnationalism

• We should not fall into the thinking that the nation state is dead

• All theories highlight some aspects and hide others

TR Chapter 19: The Nation-State and its Others: In Lieu of a Preface

written by Khachig Tololyan (both a refugee and diaspora member)

TR T: what kind of document was Khachig Tololyan’s article

It is a research agenda-setting paper

• explaining why something should be researched

It was Volume 1 Issue 1 (the programmatic text) of the Journal Diaspora: a journal of transnational studies

TR T: What is the main claim of Tololyan about diasporas?

Diasporas are a product of the nation state as well as the paradigmatic other of the nation-state.

TR T: what is the relation between Diasporas and Territory?

some nations are both confined in a territory and dispersed

TR T: Diasporas and Territories

• The impact of transnational, global forces is the view that nation-states may not always be the most effective or legitimate units of collective organisation

• “infranational” condition: Navajo, Unuit, Quebecois …

• “infranational and transnational” Armenian, Magyar …

• Other forms of transnationalism are also valid and relevant: such as ex-cuban americans

TR T: What does Tololyan say about the relation to the jewish experience?

Diasporas are proliferating, and different populations can be called like that (not just the og groups like the jewish people):

Diasporas are one kind of transnational community

TR T: The Jewish, greek and Armenians are what kind of diasporas?

Praradigmatic diasporas. They are how the term developed

TR T: The concept of transnationalism

• movements of capital

• Introduction of “alien cultures” through “media imperialism”

• Double allegiance of dual citizens

• Plural affiliation of transnational corporations

TR T: What does Tololyan say about the relation between diasporas and the nation-state today?

Diasporas are very much part and parcel of international relations

TR T: Diasporas and the nation state today

• the nation state is a strong player in ir (e.g. Iraq/Koweit war)

• Transnationalism however is everywhere

  • Diasporas that form part of koweit

  • Diasporic groups that take arms and participate in nationalist movements

  • Diasporic groups have shaped modern western countries (guestworkers)

TR T: is the homogeneity of the nation-state still possible?

no, not any longer

TR Chapter 27: Introduction: Religion, States and Transnational Civil Society

written by Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, 1997

TR R: According to Rudolph, Secularism has failed. this means that religions…?

Religions overlap in complex ways with the nation-state, but don’t replace it

TR R: Religion in a Liminal space

• Secularist and modern interpretations have failed

• Religions provide:

  • A pluralist transnational polity (multiplicities of different religions in one nation-state and across the world)

  • Which shapes perceptions and expectations

• Print & electronic media, increased literacy and urbanisation has caused the explosion of religious formations

• While previously metropolis irrigated the periphery, the flow is now reversed - before the centres of power were where the religious teachings and influence came from, now religiousity travels with migrants

TR R: religions according to Rudolph:

• Religions can work for peace: liberation theology and pentecostal congregations

• Religions can provide the symbols and language to justify wars however religion is never the cause of a war, rather one of the identity markers of groups.

  • groups may use religion to appeal to groups for justification

TR R: Which era does rudolph believe gave a bad name for religion:

Enlightenment

• Voltaire, Comte, Marx

TR R: Avoiding Domestic Conflict

• Homogenizing assimilation and multicultural pluralism are contrasting cultural regimes

• Homogeneity is not the usual form of existence

• Pluralism is the usual form of existence

TR R: what is the relation between sovereignty and religion?

• Religions manage a part of kinship transactions, market behaviours and political demands

• communities may have authority and power but not sovereignty

TR R: Thinning out the monopoly of sovereignty

• Communities constituting transnational civil society may have authority and power but do not claim sovereignty

• Religious authority Challenges the Monopoly of sovereignty of the state

TR Chapter 39: Imperialism, Dependency and Dependent Development

Written by Peter evans, 1979. first chapter of his book.

TR E: What is the general theoretical framework of Evan’s book?

Marxist

TR E: What is Dependency?

• “ A situation in which the rate and direction of accumulation are externally conditioned

  • another actor is able to control this essentially

  • Accumulation is of wealth (duh)

TR E: What is a dependent country:

One whose development is conditioned by the development and expansion of another economy. (Dos Santos, 1970)

• One country’s development is dependent on the development of another

• This does NOT mean every country is dependent on another, rather a set of countries lead the periphery and semi-periphery

TR E: which countries are the main places of power (for economic development)?

US, Europe, China, Australia

TR E: How would you define the Core / Periphery / semi- periphery relation:

The elite of the core and parts of the elite of the periphery have common interests

• not a relation from nation to nation

• elite of periphery are bourgeoisie (wealth owners), agrarian owners (owners of means of production)

• International product of life cycle

• Development of selected dependent countries: semi-periphery

TR E: Periphery countries

Countries who are entirely disconnected from the rest of the world economy such as ethiopia

TR E: According to Evans what is the relation between ‘disarticulation’ and ‘exclusion’?

The disarticulation of the periphery causes the exclusion of the periphery’s masses

TR E: Disarticulation

Disarticulation (p 417) The problem of disarticulation means there is a disconnect between the infrastructure needed to manufacture a specific advanced product and the way the local society can benefit from this product

TR E: Example of Disarticulation

Cocoa producers and those who harvest cocoa have generally never tasted (/been able to taste) chocolate themselves

• too expensive

• TMC’s come and exploit the communities, if they go away however, the producers and harvesters cannot produce cocoa themselves (knowledge and capital required to manufacture)

TR E: Disarticulation & exclusion

There is disarticulation between the needs and lifestyles of the elite and the needs and lifestyles of the rest of the world. As a result Products imported in the centre are mostly for the consumption of the rich elites and have 0 possibilities of coming to the rest of the population

Capital intensive technologies in modern sectors marginalise the masses of producer. Economic circuits are dependent on western companies organising the entire line of production. Exclusion of the masses of the Periphery

TR E: According to Evans, transnational corporations…

Are the organisational embodiment of international capital

• they remove control over production

• extend alienation across political boundaries

  • delocalise production to maximise profit by exploiting workers and labour laws in other countries

TR E: According to Evans, how do transnational corporations reinforce disarticulation?

• TNC’s develop infrastructure which only benefit them

• gatekeep their knowledge and tech in the centre

• Products produced are aimed at dependent elites

TR E: The state in dependent countries

• Unless the state intervenes there is no effective sponsor for peripheral industrialisation

• States must have “internal foreign policy” to both entice and coerce TMC’s to better their economy but prevent exploitation of workers

• Repression to preserve the benefit of the local bourgeoisie

TR Chapter 48 : Who wrote Transnational Organized Crime: An Imminent Threat to the Nation-State? (Transcending National Boundaries)

Louise Shelley, published in 1995. academic article in journal of international Affairs.

TR S: What are the factors in the growth of transnational organised crime?

• technology

• Economic boom

• End of the cold war

• Growth of international trade

TR S: What is an example of what Shelley would consider a factor in the growth of transnational organised crime?

The increasing number of free trade agreements

TR S: TOC’s have Pernicious (harmful) consequences on..

• Civil society and human rights

• Freedom of the press and individual expression (murder of journalists)

• creation of a vibrant civil society

• undermines Labour unions

• favours Prostitution

• illegal smuggling of individuals

TR S: what is an example of the pernicious (harmful) consequences of TOC (transnational organised crime)

• The mafia hiring youth as drug dealers, drivers, bodyguards

TR S: TOC (transnational organised crime)‘s effect on world order

• Detrimental to states in transition to democracy

• Undermines the rule of law and legitimacy of governments

• Undermines political stability and Increases corruption

• Problematic relation to terror organisations (especially for funding)

• Takes over states (e.g. italy, colombia)

TR S: What is an example symptom of TOC (transnational organised crime) ‘s impact on world order?

The revelation of the operation “mani pulite” in italy in the 1990’s where judges cracked down om the mafia

TR S: What are the effect of TOC (transnational organised crime) on the world economy?

• Undermines financial and trade markets effects

  • skews markets as it introduces capital that hasn’t been obtained legally, affecting exchanges

• Savings of citizens are in danger

TR S: What are the effects of TOC (transnational organised crime) on the society?

• encourages Violence, prostitution, drug addiction

• Affects quality of life of citizens

• Creates environmental damage

TR S: What would Shelley say is an example of the effects of TOC (transnational organised crime) on the world economy and national societies?

• The increase in violence and prostitution

TR S: Combatting TOC’s (transnational organised crime)

• Transnational nature of activities require international cooperation

• Transnational nature of activities weakens resistance through corruption

• UN and other structures are in place to fight International organised crime

TR S: What is an example of measures Shelley recommends to fight TOC (transnational organised crime)

Increased international and transnational cooperation through agreements and international organisations (IO’s)

TR S: What are the named examples of Stuctures in place to fight international organised crime?

Vienna Drug Convention, Financial Action Task Force, Basel Committee

• UNODC is also an example but was created in 1997 after this text.

TR Chapter 47: Who wrote Global Prohibition Regimes: The Evolution of Norms in International Society

TR Chapter 47: Who wrote Global Prohibition Regimes: The Evolution of Norms in International Society

TR Na: Which structural theory was Nadelmann’s article categorised by?

Construcitivism (Wendt)

TR Na: What are the objectives of Nadelmann’s article?

• Specific category of Norms

  • Those which prohibit both in international law and in the domestic criminal law of states, the involvement of state and non-state actors in particular activities”

• How and why particular norms have evolved into Global/ International Prohibition Regimes

• Why these have proven more or less successful in deviant activities

TR Na: what do we mean with International Prohibition regimes?

• Ideas that spread across different countries that some things needed to be prohibited

  • such as cocaine or marijuana

TR Na: Why do International Prohibition Regimes exist?

• To protect the interests of the state and other powerful members of society (not the working class)

• To deter, suppress and punish undesirable activities

• To provide for order, security and justice among members of a community

• To give force and symbolic representation to the moral values, beliefs and prejudices of those who make the laws

TR Na: What is an example of the reason for International prohibition regimes to emerge?

• to meet the moral demands of EU’s elites concerning the use of cannabis

TR Na: Which crimes call for international prohibition regimes (IPR):

• Crimes that cannot be solved bilaterally or unilaterally by states

  • (due to crime bypassing borders)

• Larceny on the high seas; murder of diplomats, trafficking

TR Na: What is the objective of IPRs (International prohibition regimes)?

• To minimise safe havens

• Standardisation to cooperation

TR Na: Why are IPR’s needed to minimise/prevent ‘safe havens’?

• if one country legalises it (e.g. weed in NL) it creates a safe haven/loophole for citizens of other connected countries (such as in the EU) to get their hands on these substances

TR Na: Evolution of Normative Structures:

• Linked to the emergence of an “international society”

  • interdependence and globalisation

• Not state to state but “Cosmopolitan norms”

• Europe and the United states are historically dominant in the formulation of these normative regimes

  • norms present themselves as universal but all have their own geographic/ historical origin

TR Na: What are the five stages of the global prohibition regimes?

1. Activity’s is considered normal

2. Activity is redefined as a problem by moral entrepreneurs (scholars/ religious groups)

3. Regime demands criminalisation of the activity by states through diplomacy

4. Criminalisation and police action are deployed. international institutions and conventions are created

5. The activity is reduced thanks to state intervention at the international level

TR Chapter 45: Who wrote conclusions: advocacy networks and International society

Margaret Keck & Katheryn sikkink

TR ke&Si: Which theory is this text (and the book it’s from) a key literature work for?

The International Relations & Social Movement theory

TR Ke&Si: How are Keck and Sikkink’s version of inernational society different to Hadley Bull’s concept?

Keck and Sennik view international as a society, but not a society of states

• their vision is closer to ‘neo-medievalism’: overlapping authority and multiple loyalty (not states)

Keck and Sikkik agree with Bull that the international is a society based on common interest and values

TR Ke&Si: What is the “world Polity” Thesis

• A theory that posits that the international society is a site of diffusion of a ‘world culture’

  • IGO’s and NGO’s are conveyor belts of western liberal norms

• John M, John Boli, George Thomas

TR Ke&Si: What caused the creation of the “world polity” thesis?

To act as a replacement for international relations theories such as realism and neo-realism after the cold war

TR Ke&Si: How is Keck and Sikkik’s vision different to the “world Polity” Thesis

• World polity removes politics, power and conflict

  • Not everyone just agrees with western ideas

• Transnational actors have profoundly divergent purposes and goals and are a space of negotiation

• An understanding of thresholds allows the two theories to be integrated

  • TAN (transnational actor network) focuses on norm formation

  • WP (World polity) focuses on norm diffusion

TR Ke&Si: How is Transnational Actor Network different from Realism and Liberalism?

It addresses change

• Realism: no motor of change

• Liberalism: aware of domestic political regimes and acknowledges collapse of domestic/foreign distinction, however,

  • Liberalism conceives actors as being risk-averse

  • Liberalism sees the state as the sole “path” to international for domestic interests groups

TR Ke&Si: what is the status of sovereignty for Keck and Sikkik?

• States remain the main actors

• Sovereignty is eroded, but only in delimited circumstances

  • cosmopolitan community can out pressure but only when the political structure allows an opening for it

• They do not follow either the strong globalisation thesis (state’s disappearing), however they see specific interactions where sovereignty can be eroded.

TR Ke&Si: How is the erosion of sovereignty perceived differently in the global north and global south?

• Global north: activists perceive it as a positive development

• Global south: recalls imperialism and domination

TR Ke&Si: How is the question of “rights” linked to the question of inequality?

• For the north, erosion of sovereignty means less abuses

• For the Global South sovereignty is a feature of self-determination - acquired as a result of postcolonial struggles