POLI-203 Midterm Exam

Globalization

Globalization

The complex web of different cultures and societies

• Can pose a threat to local cultures and traditions b/c of the possibility of a hegemonic global culture

  • Globalization has a link to imperialism (forceful superseding of native cultures)

• Four characteristics:

  • Stretching: wider reach to different parts of culture

  • Intensification: the interconnectedness of cultures and economies intensifies their influence on each other

  • Accelerating pace: patents and copyrights give incentives for newer, better inventions

  • Developing/Deepening: greater sense of being a small part of a large global system

    • Stoics strive to be cosmopolitan (understanding your role in the world)

    • There is pushback against this cosmopolitan view

• Different ways of seeing interconnectedness

  • International relations: Emphasizes countries

  • Global (planetary) relation: We are one planet

Hegemony

Cultural Hegemony: Cultural dominance of a diverse society by the ruling class

• Globalization has led to an increasingly homogenous culture

  • Many fear the rise of a worldwide hegemonic culture b/c that would mean losing their unique cultures

    • Ex: traditionalists, nationalists, anti-globalists

  • Some believe that globalization is just another form of imperialism b/c of its adverse effects on local traditions

View of Globalization

Skeptics:

A result of imperialism and hegemony

Globalists:

Separate process from politics

Transformationalists:

We need to get away from country/state thinking

Crisis of Globalization and the Liberal World Order

Possible threats to a global world order

1. Global Populist Revolt

• Populists didn’t want to be part of a global world order (not an organized revolt, scattered worldwide)

• Ex: Union pushback and boycotting of foreign goods

1. Great Power Rivalry

• Country superpowers will stop cooperating to “one up” the other or act on worsening relations

• Ex: When China took all pandas from US zoos

1. Securing Global Connectivity

• A possible threat to our electrical grid, internet, or economic supply chains can heavily disrupt society because we all now rely on global interconnectedness to live as we do now

• Ex: The COVID-19 virus disrupted US supply chains which gave too many supplies to “dead” restaurants and not enough to individual consumers

Skeptics don’t think there’s a threat while globalists do

• Skeptics believe that the crisis is exaggerated and is only due to disruptive restructuring

  • Capitalism and liberalism are not threatened

• Globalists believe in different threats

  • Liberal Globalists: Country superpowers like Russia and China are threats to international peace

  • Transformational Globalists: Globalization will change to be less US-dominated

Multicentric Globalization

When several nations are each the global superpower

• Currently, we live in a unipolar international society where the US is recognized worldwide as the primary superpower

• Globalists believe that any changes toward this established US-centric global society should be perceived as a threat

  • Especially concerning Russia and China

Two ways of dealing with international world politics:

• Realism

  • Sees states as sovereign and independent

  • Has military for defense, NOT as a police force (aka protecting borders)

  • Priority is SELF-DEFENSE

• Liberalism

  • Believes that nations can cooperate through institutions and organizations

  • Thinks that every nation-state has the right to be free and not invaded

  • Emphasizes that countries should be proactive and get involved in international affairs even if they are not directly affected because it would set worrying precedents

  • Priority is COOPERATION

• Both methods are militaristic

The Rise of the Modern International Order

Treaty of Westphalia (1648)

Marked the end of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648)

• It began because the Holy Roman Emperor attempted to impose Roman Catholic absolutism on the whole Holy Roman Empire

  • Protestant kings and territories revolted

  • Historians credit the Treaty as the first official establishment of state sovereignty

• Kings rule instead of the Pope

• It also introduced geographical boundaries of states

  • Implied non-intervention

Imperialism

One of the factors that brought about the modern international order

• Larger states took over less powerful regions to take advantage of their resources (human and material)

• The two other factors

  • Industrialization: Production shot up and incentivized producers to seek consumers and raw materials from external areas

  • Rise of rational states: More rational decision-making in who’s in charge (merit-based instead of nepotism)

Dual Character of International Law

Consequences of Global Transformation

• Regularized exchange: Increase in communication and regulations between nation-states

• Rise of Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) and Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs)

  • IGOs like NATO, World Bank, WHO

  • NGOs like the Red Cross, PETA, religious organizations

• Increased inequality: Stems from imperialism (racism, exploitation, lack of rights)

• International law

There are two sides to international law

• Enables inequality

  • Laws and rules that are unfair are still enforced

• Possible route to equality

  • International laws can be used to protect exploited groups

Opium Wars

First Opium War (1839-1842)

Treaty of Nanjing (Aug 29, 1842)

Second Opium War (1856-1860)

Represented imperialism in China

• European countries (mainly Britain) demanded greater trading privileges in Qing China, especially to sell opium drug

  • Opium came from India and was highly addictive

• The first war began because China was implementing measures to limit the trade of opium

  • Fought against Britain but lost

  • Ended with Nanjing treaty that granted Europeans many political and economic privileges in China

• The second war began while China was trying to quell the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864)

  • Fought against Britain and France but lost

International History of the 20th Century

Modern Total Wars

The First World War (1914-1918)

• Lots of propaganda supporting the war effort

• Citizens devoted domestic resources to helping the war

  • Ex: Citizens ate rations so more food would go to the soldiers fighting at the front lines

The Second World War (1939-1945)

• Hitler was eventually elected as the chancellor

  • Created an extensive network within the gov’t even though the Nazi party was a minority

• Soviet Union (USSR), the US, the UK, and France formed an alliance to fight against fascism

  • Capitalism was working with communism

• The USSR suffered the largest death toll during the war

• The Holocaust happened in Germany

  • Jewish people were treated as scapegoats for Germany’s suffering and were exterminated

  • Also exterminated Roma people, queer men, disabled people, etc.

• Japan didn’t surrender because they worshipped their emperor

• US secretly develops a nuclear weapon using escaped German scientists (like Albert Einstein)

  • Used two to bomb Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki, first time a nuclear bomb was deployed

• The USSR became paranoid about the US using a nuclear weapon on Soviet land

  • Kickstarted the Cold War

Treaty of Versailles (June 1918)

Formally ended the Great War (World War I)

• It was a big deal because it was the first time that an attacker (Germany), was forced to pay

• However, it led to hyperinflation in Germany and much suffering

• This, as well as other reasons, resulted in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power because he was like a superhero to Germans

Decolonization

Guided by self-determination because most states wanted to be independent from the imperial power they were colonized by

• Not always a smooth transition from an imperial territory to a newly independent nation-state

  • Ex: India leaving the British Empire

    • Post-decolonization, India found itself in a civil war between those of the Muslim faith and those of the Hindu faith

• European decolonization (1945-1980)

  • Happened after WWII

  • Mostly in Asia and Africa

Self-determination

Believed that states under imperial powers should be allowed to choose whether they want to stay under the empire or leave

• The idea that spread after WWI and led to the fall of empires

• This only applied to Western-occupied states, not Africa

Cold War (1945-1991)

Directly after WWII

A cold war meant that there was no direct confrontation between the US and the USSR

• But this is a Eurocentric view on the Cold War since there were proxy wars between capitalist and communist parties

  • Ex: Korean War, Vietnam War, Afghanistan War, etc.

Marked a very polarized period in history (about 50 years)

• The US (plus NATO countries) vs USSR (plus countries under the Warsaw Pact)

• Global battle of ideologies (capitalism vs. communism)

• Main reason: The development of nuclear weapons in the US made the USSR insecure and that spiraled into a Cold War

• The rise of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) during it

  • Also a communist nation like the USSR, but they weren’t friendly as they had differing goals for communism

Containment

The US enacted a policy of containment because it was concerned about the possible spread of Soviet communism to other countries

Détente

After China joined the world superpowers, the US felt that instead of a policy of containment, they would maintain friendly relations

Cuban Missle Crisis (1962)

Nuclear weapons became a big concern for the US because of the possibility that any country could develop and use it, bringing a nuclear war

• Fidel Castro rises to power in Cuba

• Cuba was originally not on the Soviet side but the US imposed an embargo on Cuba which resulted in Cuba trading with the USSR

  • The embargo placed because Cuba nationalized a lot of its resources, upsetting the Cuban-based American businesses

• Later Castro becomes a Marxist, like his brother

• Cuban Missle Crisis

  • The USSR built nuclear weapons in Cuba

  • Alarmed the US government and Americans because of how close those USSR Cuban-made missiles were to American soil

  • Possibility of nuclear war between the US and USSR

End of the Cold War

Berlin Wall (1945-1989)

The City of Berlin (1945-1989)

• The capital city of Germany

• Created after the end of WWII

• The territory was split between the West (capitalism) and East (communism) along the Berlin Wall

  • Western Berlin was overseen by the US, France, and the UK

  • Eastern Berlin was overseen by the Soviet Union

  • Often, Eastern Berlin citizens attempted to cross the wall with the risk of getting shot by guards

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

Opposing Opinions of Nuclear Weapons

• During the Cold War, the benefits of developing nuclear weapons outweighed its costs and risks

  • MAD acted as a deterrent for both the US and the USSR because if either country were to start a nuclear war, they would know that they’d be destroyed as well since they both have nuclear weapons

Unipolarity

Polarity is how power is distributed within the international system– unipolarity is when one state exercises most of that power and influence

• The US became the unipolar power for a moment after the USSR broke up

  • The US saw itself as the world’s police force

  • Under President Bill Clinton, this temporary unipolar status was exploited to push for economic protections for China

• There are fears around the idea of a unipolar world

Post-Cold War (after 1991)

Country alignments:

• First World: The US and NATO countries

• Second World: Russia and countries from the Warsaw Pact

• Third World: non-aligned countries, but now is synonymous with “poor”

Europe:

• In Germany, the Berlin Wall falls and the country unifies

• Brexit happens and the UK official leaves the European Union (EU)

Middle East:

• The 9/11 attack on the US Twin Towers heavily sours relations between the US and the Middle East

• The rise of Islamophobia and racism against Middle Eastern people

• Arab Spring

China:

• Experiences explosive economic development

• Rises to become a global superpower

• Part of BRICS

Russia:

• Soviet Union falls

• Power shifts from Yeltsin to Putin, who is more powerful

• US–Russia relations sour, “New Cold War”?

  • Russia is not technically Communist

  • Now centered on associating with oligarchs and democracy

  • Putin is more reasonable, not an idealogue like Stalin

United States:

• Presidential power shifted from Obama to Trump to Biden

• Each president had different strategies to managing foreign affairs

  • Obama focused on soft power over the military because the US lost influence after the Iraq war

  • Trump managed to maintain friendly relations with leaders whom Obama didn’t have a good relationship with (ex: North Korea) and brought about the Abraham Accords (agreement with Israel without war)

  • Biden rekindled relations that Trump ignored such as the European Union, which returned to the US’s side

• Each one also had different diplomatic victories

Arab Spring (2010-2013)

It was a period when Arab countries started moving toward democracy through grassroots movements

• Not organized, but many countries coincidentally had major civilian protests demanding more representation in their respective governments

Global South

Refers to countries located south of the equator

• Historically less developed countries because most global superpowers are north of the equator

BRICS

Stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa

• New Global South

• Organization of countries with the fastest-growing economies

Soft Power vs. Hard Power

Soft Power:

• AKA influence

• Relies on diplomacy

• Goal: discussion and not war or an international pissing contest

Hard Power:

• AKA military might

• Used to be the desired characteristic

• Defined the Cold War

Populism vs. the Liberal World Order

Populism:

• Refers to the masses and their collective wants

• Sometimes their ire is wrongly directed to other working-class members

• Because the real cause of their problems are the elites at the top who use marginalized groups as scapegoats

Liberal World Order:

• End of the order?

• Globalization tends to eventually lead to anti-globalist populists who believe that it is the source of the problem

• Mainly because of the increased inter- connectedness that makes it easier for the “other” to “infiltrate”

Rising Powers and the Emerging Global Order

Post-Cold War Order

Old Theory: Democracies are more peaceful than authoritarian governments

New Theory (Democratic Peace Theory): Democracies don’t go to war with other democracies, doesn’t mean they’re peaceful

• AKA Western powers don’t go to war with each other

• Is the reason why Western countries like the US want other nations to function more like a democracy, to prevent war

  • The US wants this by any means necessary, feared by some countries because of how powerful the US is and how easily it could manipulate countries

• US Order under Challenge because of emerging powers like the BRICS countries rising to US’ level of power

Realism vs Liberalism

Liberalism is NOT in reference to the Democratic Party

Liberal Internationalism

Liberal Internationalism (19th century)

• Concerned about secret alliances and backroom deals that may end up causing more conflict

• Goal is international peace

• Democratic Peace Theory (more democracy = more peace)

Jeremy Bentham

Peace through internationalism

• Invented term “international”

• The more interconnected we are, the more equal we’ll be

Immanuel Kant

Perpetual Peace

• Thought if we become more aware of our “global citizenship/consciousness” (person of the world rather than specific country), we can move beyond conflict

• More democracy because there’d be contractual agreements to not go to war

J.S. Mill

Fight for Peace

• Justified European imperialism because he claimed it would result in world peace (a homogenous global society)

Francis Fukuyama

• Thought democratic capitalism (liberalism) triumphed over communism around the beginning of the end of the fall of the Soviet Union

• However, communism still exists today in Russia

Woodrow Wilson

(28th US president)

Peace through Law

• Believed that peace needed to be put into law because it doesn’t come naturally to people

• Created the League of Nations after WWI (but US Senate didn’t ratify it)

League of Nations (1920)

Idea from President Woodrow Wilson after WWI

• It wasn’t ratified by the US Senate so the US didn’t take part

• Organization of nations with the goal of international cooperation, regulating anarchy, and collective security

• Precursor of the United Nations (UN)

Collective Security

A system where states work together to prevent/stop wars by responding to threats against a single state as a threat against all

• AKA look out for your neighbors so everyone is safe

• Realists say this is stupid and to build up your own security

• They saw international organizations as an illusion of security because it’s not guaranteed when you may need it the most

Challenges Confronting Liberal Internationalism

There are reasons to believe that international cooperation among democracies isn’t foolproof

• There was still mistrust between world powers because of the unequal balance of power

  • No guarantee that that power will be used for nefarious purposes

    • Ex: British Empire

Indispensible Nation

The “indispensable nation” is the one nation that supposedly keeps world affairs in check through its economic and military power.

• Arguably been the US in the past decades

• Some argue that if the US steps back and doesn’t take as much action, China way replace it as the world police force

• Fear of a unipolar world with China at the center

Sovereignty as Responsibility and the Right to Protect

Who’s responsible for protecting the sovereignty of African countries?

Two answers to the issue:

• Let them manage on their own (isolationism)

• Actively try to protect their sovereignty (proactive involvement)

Within Africa:

• The African Union emphasizes that it can handle any issues about countries in Africa rather without countries like the US intervening

Realism

Realism and Human Nature

Thomas Hobbes:

• Believed humans were evil and self-serving by nature

• The purpose of the government's existence is to manage the evil nature of humans

  • Life would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” if we lived without laws in an anarchist society, lack of security

  • However, in that society, we can literally do anything

  • By sacrificing a bit of that freedom/liberty, you can make your life more secure

• Humans are law-abiding because there are laws in place and not because they are, by nature, good

“Leviathan” book

• Leviathan is a representation of government–it is a monster of sorts that rules over everyone and limits our liberty to an extent, but we are better and more secure with it

  • (it is essentially saving us from our own nature?)

Power:

• Argues that one needs to be more powerful than their enemies

• Better to have the threat of weapons than no weapons

  • AKA nuclear weapons, MAD

Anarchy:

• There’s no place on earth that has anarchy (everywhere is always part of some society and thus has rules) BUT the WORLD itself is anarchical since there is no entity looking over the globe as a whole!!! (that’s so trippy!!!!)

• So in the perspective of countries, they live in an anarchical environment because of the lack of a world government

  • Therefore they can’t be held accountable

  • Instead of a world government, there have been world powers like the Roman Empire in the past and the US in the present that make the globe unipolar

Statism:

• The state has supreme authority in its territory

• They are the main actors on the international stage, not individuals or international organizations

  • Example: Kamala Harris said in the presidential debate how Israel has the right to defend itself – that’s sovereignty

• Currently have an anarchic international system

Survival and Self-Help:

• Priority is survival against foreign invasion (realism)

  • Fund military and build weapons to protect oneself

  • Self-help: Look out for your country first.

• International organizations are seen as too weak to manage the globe properly

Geopolitics

Each nation has a unique geographical profile (different natural resources, landscapes, can be landlocked or coastal, etc.)

• How does geography impact a nation’s power?

• The US viewed its oceans as buffer zones against attacks from Europe and Asia

• The UK, as an island nation, needed ships to travel

Mackinder’s Heartland Theory

“Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland. Who rules the Heartland commands the World Island. Who rules the World Island Commands the World”

Essentially means that whoever controls East Europe (which is the Heartland), controls the world

Neorealism

AKA Structural Realism

Offensive:

• Be the “bully”

Defensive:

• Countries must team up to take down the “bully”

Kautilya

*isn’t this also a meme from The Office?? “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” or sumn

His Realist Theory:

The immediate neighbor(s) to your country is/are the enemy/enemies, but the other immediate neighbor of your neighbor is your friend (because the neighbor can attack you, but your neighbor’s other neighbor could attack your neighbor)

| | | |

| a | b | c |

^^^A’s enemy is B but C is A’s friend. B is the enemy because B can invade A, but C can invade B, so C is a friend

• Essentially, having a common enemy can foster international alliances because countries can’t trust their neighbors

Marxist Theories of International Relations

Marxism and World Politics

Karl Marx

• Proletariat: sells their labor and that can be exploited

• Bourgousie: can be wealthy and can exploit laborers

• Believed that workers would eventually revolt against the industrial system, beginning in cities, to take back means of production

  • Revolution actually happened in the feudalist, rural country of Russia (rise of communism)

  • Opposite to what Marx stated

• Now Marxism is mainly used to critique capitalism

• How do you break out of the capitalist system?

  • However, because many people have a futuristic view of when they’ll “break out,” they are hesitant to revolt right now

Essential Elements

• Looking at the world as a whole and asking what system is there

• History is seen with a materialistic lens: goods, resources

• Marxists believe that one’s class is their primary identity

  • More significant than race or gender

World Systems Theory

AKA Dependency Theory

Marx Internationalized: Imperialism to World Systems Theory

• To prevent exploitation (ie sweatshops and cheap labor), Marx says that the workers of the world must unite

• Vladimir Lenin (Bolshevik revolutionist)

  • Claimed that imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism because it prioritizes cheapening inputs of production

World Systems Theory

• Three types of countries: core, peripheral, and semi-peripheral countries

  • Core: Nations like the US and UK that take advantage/make use of resources from peripheral countries

  • Peripheral: Countries that have raw materials

  • Semi-Peripheral: In-between core and peripheral, includes places like India and China (which may have been periphery countries at first but are transitioning towards the manufacturing/innovation of goods as well instead of just supplying material)

  • Core countries have a greater range and variety of options than peripheral countries, especially during disasters and disruptive market forces

  • Peripheral countries mostly focus their economic resources on one aspect, making them vulnerable to disruptions

Gramscianism

Relied on the theory that society was made up of two structures:

• Superstructure: social institutions (religion, education, family, etc.)

• Base: political economy (capitalism, socialism, etc.)

Theory of society + power based on Antonio Gramsci

• Marx focused a lot on the “base” of society

• Gramsci focused on the superstructure and believed that it should be the main focus

• Gramscianism says that culture DOES matter significantly because, unless they are meant to inspire the proletariat revolution, it just exists for the ruling class to pacify the working class into accepting injustice

Cultural Hegemony

The idea that the dominant ideology of society – the beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values, and morals – reflect that of the ruling class

• This dominant ideology justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural, inevitable, perpetual, and beneficial for everyone when really they’re artificial social constructs that benefit the ruling class

Critical Theory and Habermas

Wants to understand the systemic structures of society to see its influence on the different aspects of our lives

• Focus on the bigger picture instead of individual players

  • Ex: There aren’t many women in STEM careers, not because women aren’t “suited” for them, but because of the systemic effects of sexism that still pervade society today

Critical theorist Jürgen Habermas believed that instead of revolution, workers should use democracy

• Ex: Voting for what they want to change

  • Uses the system instead of dismantling it entirely

New Marxism

Adds nuance to Marx’s revolution theory

• Breaking away from Marx’s clear path to revolution from:

Feudalism → Capitalism → Revolution

• He believed revolutions would happen in industrialized settings like factories

New Marxism said that the path to revolution isn’t always in that particular order

• Could happen in agrarian societies and go directly from Feudalism → Revolution

• Doesn't always have to take place after industrialization or even be against the bourgeois

New Marxism says revolution depends on the context of where the revolution is happening, who is doing it, against who, when it’s happening, etc.

Transformative Power of Capitalism

Can move people away from feudalism

• In some ways, it can be liberating

However, today, people see capitalism as the root problem of inequality

• Pushes people to want more even at the cost of other people’s quality of life and the environment