Power, Sovereignty and Legitimacy - Notes

Unit 1: Power, Sovereignty, and Legitimacy

• EQ: How do actors in global politics use power?

Guiding Questions

• Who do you have power over? Who has power over you?
• What is power?
• Where does power come from?
• What is the relationship between political issues and power?
• How is power shared/taken/used on a community, local, national, international, regional and global level?
• What are the various types of power?

Schindler's List

• Thoughts on Schindler's ideas of power.
• Agreement or disagreement and reasoning.

World's Most Powerful Women

• Discussion of what resonates from their definitions of power.

Eric Liu's Six Sources of Power

• Identify Liu's SIX sources of power.
• Discussion of how these play out in global politics with specific examples.

Definition of Power

• No single agreed-upon definition of power exists.
• At its simplest, power is about achieving desired goals and influencing others.
• Different ways power can be expressed:
  • Economic Power - Example?
  • Political Power - Example?
  • Military Power - Example?
  • Ideological Power - Example?
• Power gives groups involved in world politics the ability to pursue their interests.

Who Wields Power?

• Power is often associated with government/state actions.
• Discussion of who else can wield power.
• How power is exercised by people in different contexts in global politics.

IB Definition of Power

• Power: ability to effect change and an aspect of relations among people functioning within a social organization.
• Contested relationships between people and groups dominate politics.
• Understanding the dynamics of power is prominent in understanding global politics.

Nye’s Spectrum of Options:

• spectrum of power options:
  • Hard: Military Force, Sanctions
  • Smart: Payment, Diplomacy, Trade/Aid
  • Soft: Outreach, Cultural Ties

Joseph Nye’s Spectrum of Power: Hard Power

• A state or group tries to achieve its aims through coercion (force).
• State A will force State B to do what it wants.
• State B is aware that it is being forced to do what State A wants and will be less powerful than State A.
• Examples:
  • Islamic State
  • US Coalition vs. Iraq
  • NATO v. Libya

Joseph Nye’s Spectrum of Power: Soft Power

• A state or group tries to achieve its aims through persuasion or influence.
• State A will persuade State B to do what it wants, with or without State B being aware that this is what State A wants.
• “Power to get others to want what you want” - Joseph Nye
• States and groups that use soft power can use culture, foreign policy (if ethical), and political values (Democracy, rule of law, tolerance, justice) to persuade other states.
• Examples:
  • USAID to Afghanistan and Pakistan
  • Chinaʼs Infrastructure investment in Africa
  • Donations for Natural Disasters
  • Olympic Games of 2012 and 2014

Joseph Nye’s Spectrum of Power: Smart Power

• Both force and persuasion are used together to achieve a desired outcome.
• Ex: Combining economic sanctions, a threat of military action and diplomacy
• Examples:
  • Nuclear Deal signed with Iran and P5+1
  • Hezbollah
  • Obamaʼs Speech in Cairo

Summary of Hard, Smart and Soft Power

• Hard power relies on force, whereas soft power involves the use of persuasion. Smart power is the combination of both of these tactics.
• Soft power is fragile - it can easily be destroyed - and it is often embedded in society and not within a governmentʼs control
• What persuades in Paris may not persuade in Damascus

Other types of Power

Types of Power - Military (Hard)

• Essential when using hard power.
• The ultimate means to force another group or state to comply or to change their behavior.
• The most powerful states are often thought to be those with the largest armies (advanced weapons and technology).
  • Is this true? Discussion?
• Is military power declining in importance?
  • What are the arguments for and against this statement?
• “Military power is often measured by the size of a stateʼs military or itʼs military spending. It is also useful to assess how effective a stateʼs military is in the conflicts that it engages in”

Defence Spending

• Defense Spending in $ Billions
  • United States: $596.9$
  • China: $129.4$
  • Saudi Arabia: $80.8$
  • Russia: $70.0$
  • United Kingdom: $61.8$
• Defense Spending as % of GDP
  • Afghanistan: $14.6$
  • Oman: $12.0$
  • Saudi Arabia: $10.4$
  • South Sudan: $8.8$
  • Iraq: $8.1$

Armed Forces

• Armed Forces (by 1,000)
  • China: $2,333$
  • United States: $1,433$
  • India: $1,346$
  • North Korea: $1,190$
  • Russia: $771$

Types of Power - Economic Power (Hard)

• Ways to measure Economic Power
  • Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - measures the size of domestic output.
  • GDP per capita - Measures the size of the economy as a proportion of the total population.
  • Economic growth percentage - measures the annual or quarterly percentage by which a stateʼs economy has grown (or decreased)
• It is possible for states to only seek economic power (Germany, Japan)
• Unlikely for a state to be a significant military power if it is not also a significant economic power.
• States can use economic power as a form of hard power
  • Sanctions - eliminating trade with a country as a form of punishment.
• “Economic power can be measured in different ways. It can be used as a method of hard power- in the form of sanctions - and is needed if states wish to be strong military powers.”

Types of Power - Structural Power (Soft)

• When states influence the political ideas, structure, and frameworks of global politics itself.
• States may wish to push others towards a more democratic, capitalist, free market model.
• Ex:
  • Cold War (Democracy v. Communism)
  • Removal of Authoritarian regimes in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya
  • Arab Uprisings of 2011 were driven by large popular demonstrations in hope of a more democratic Middle East and North Africa
• “The means by which states affect global politics, usually by promoting a model of politics that they favor, such as democracy or capitalism”

Types of Power - Relational Power (Soft/Smart)

• When a state has a relationship with another state and uses this relationship to influence the other state to change its behavior.
• Inclusion or exclusion of a state in a regional or global governance institution
• A state may use military, economic, hard, soft or smart power or a combination of all of these to achieve its aims.

Types of Power - Social, Cultural and Cyber Power (Soft?)

• Globalization has made it possible for some countries to export their cultural resources across the world
  • Global brands have become universally known and popular.
• The Cyber revolution has created an entirely new way for political groups to try and influence others.
  • Internet has empowered many groups both at the state and individual level.
    • Wikileaks, Facebook
    • State and Non-State actors
• “The relatively new social, cultural and cyber powers have varying effectiveness. Cultural power may do little for nation states, whereas cyber power has many groups, states and individuals”

Global Power Diffusion

• Diagrams illustrating unipolar, bipolar, and multipolar world orders.

Discussion Questions

• Is the world characterized by cooperation or conflict?

Theoretical Perspectives on Power

• What are theoretical foundations? Why theory?
  • Theories that provide alternate interpretations of big ideas
  • Different perspectives to view our “key concepts”
  • Depend on context
• In this instance – how do we explain how/why states seek power?

Overview of Theories related to Power

1. Realist Theory - they believe states act in their own self-interest.
2. Liberalist Theory - they see cooperation between states as beneficial and something that leads to interdependence and relative cooperation.
3. Marxist Theory - they see the world as a byproduct of capitalism and itʼs inevitable creation of haves and have-nots.
4. Constructivism - they believe that individuals and their values can shape the direction of global politics.

Theory 1: Realism

• View world in competitive terms
• Global politics dominated by states (rather than other organizations or actors)
• States act in own self-interest (national security)
• Realists pursue relative gains, and could see the balance of power as a zero-sum game.
  • Zero-sum Game = when one state “wins/gains” another state automatically “loses”
  • Relative gains= seeking to maximize power/influence relative to other states.
  • Realist see resources as finite. “Your gain is my loss!”
• Theorist: John Mearsheimer ---- “Structural” Realism
  • International system is anarchic ----- no credible power above the states
  • States can’t be sure of other states’ intentions/ abilities

Theory 2: Liberalism

• Liberalist think resources are not finite. - Positive-Sum instead of Zero-Sum.
• Technology will offer solutions to true finite resources.
• Solutions to these kinds of problems will take cooperation.
• Cooperation leads to interdependence.
• Interdependence makes war unlikely.
• Liberals understand Liberalism to include universal values.
  • Everyone should embrace democracy, equality, and a shared notion of justice.
• WARNING: Liberalism / liberal in international relations should not be confused with the way in which they are used in domestic politics – meaning left of center

Interdependence

• Societies and states have become so interdependent by the second of 20th century that, according to liberalism, the way they relate to each other changed in fundamental ways
• Interdependence: The idea that states and their fortunes are connected to each other
  • What happens in one state can have effects on another state
  • Relations between two states can greatly affect the relations between other states

Complex Interdependence

• Yes… but
• Liberalism suggests a particular kind of interdependence characterized the international system
• Started after WWII and was in place by 1970s
• This kind of interdependence is known as Complex Interdependence:

The world is defined by: Complex Interdependence

1. Multiple channels
   • Non-state
   • Substate
2. Multiple issues
   • Economic, ideological, religious and cultural issues all part of global agenda
   • Climate Change!
3. Decline in use and effectiveness of military force
   • Not as effective or as frequently used as in the past.
   • Trade agreements make military action less effective or optimal
   • Complex interdependence means states are constrained in use of military power because this power only harms multiple interests of states and other actors

Liberalism Summary

• In sum, liberalism sees the world as a complex set of global connections… this means states are interdependent… and therefore, liberals argue, are more likely to cooperate than enter conflict
• Interdependence - the dependence of two or more people or things on each other.

Theory 3: Constructivism

• The world is made up of social constructs(ivism)!!
• Constructivism accounts for the roles of individuals in making decisions and change in the world.
• Actors (usually powerful ones, like leaders and influential citizens) continually shape – and sometimes reshape – the very nature of international relations through their actions and interactions.
• Constructivism sees the world, and what we can know about the world, as socially constructed.
• Ex: The end of the Cold War, Arab Uprisings of 2011