Globalization

• Internationalization

• Globalization

• Conflict and cooperation on the international scale

• Reducing conflict and enhancing cooperation

• Issues:

• How to provide for human security
• How to facilitate social development
• How to protect and advance human rights

• Organizing an international order

• As an alternative to international anarchy

• HOW TO BUILD AN INTERNATIONAL ORDER

• 1. The oldest method: an empire

• Direct compulsion of the weak by the strong, or:
• “Hegemonic stability”

• 2. A more democratic approach: sovereign states

• Voluntary agreements between sovereign states to work out and maintain international rules of behaviour (international law)
• Where are the guarantees that states will abide by the rules?

• 3. The states must be democratic

• Democratic in what sense? Have elections?

• 4. Transform societies to establish conditions for social justice, equality, development, well-being

• THE 20TH CENTURY EXPERIENCE

• International governance and state sovereignty

• Are they at odds?

• International governance presumes limits on national sovereignty –

• But many states feel they are not sovereign enough

• So, the issue is not how much sovereignty, but what kind of sovereignty?

• Sovereignty to control a nation’s resources?
• Sovereignty to ignore international environmental protection rules?
• Sovereignty to violate human rights?

• On the one hand:

• The sovereign state remains the key organizing principle of the global society

• The nation-state is considered the legitimate political unit

• Empires are no longer considered legitimate

• Struggle for state sovereignty is continuing –

• power to regulate economic forces in the interests of the nation is clearly insufficient
• Inequalities of power among states
• “Concert of Great Powers”
• The Superpowers
• Nuclear vs. non-nuclear states

• The proliferation of sovereign states has a positive impact on world politics

• The greater the number of sovereign states,
• The more dispersed the power in the global society
• The more collective the international governance
• Multilateralism vs. unilateralism

• On the other hand, sovereignty can be abused. It can be invoked:

• To violate human rights
• To justify acts of aggression
• To violate international law
• To ignore international opinion

• Nationalism has two faces:

• National liberation
• Imperialism

• The key variable: democracy

• The more democratic a state,

• the less likely are its rulers to abuse sovereignty
• the more cooperative and responsible it will be in its relations with other states
• the more interested it will be in democratic international governance

• Democracy enhances sovereignty by giving the state a strong base in society -

• And it also limits it by making the rulers more accountable both domestically and internationally

• But what about cases when democracy destroys a state?

• Or makes it incapable of any independent actions?

• In such cases, a state may go authoritarian to defend its sovereignty

• Should democratic states tolerate this authoritarianism?

• Or should they violate state sovereignty in the name of democracy?

• Current consensus: only in extreme cases

International organizations are created on the basis of interests and concerns which transcend interstate borders

• International organizations are created on the basis of interests and concerns which transcend interstate borders

• Examples:

• Universal Postal Union Universal Postal Union, UPU: Worldwide postal organization
• International Red Cross/Red Crescent International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) - Home
• International Labour Organization International Labour Organization - ILO Web site
• World Health Organization WHO | World Health Organization
• Greenpeace http://www.greenpeace.org/international/
• Amnesty International Amnesty International - Working To Protect Human Rights Worldwide
• Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) U.S. Web Site
• The Trilateral Commission The Trilateral Commission
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization http://www.nato.int

• Structures and networks of the growing global society

• What do they do?

• What goals do they pursue?

• What impact do they make on the human condition?

• World government or global governance?

• Types of international organizations

• By membership:

• States: Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs)

• Global (UN, IMF))
• Regional (NAFTA, EU, NATO)

• Investors: Transnational corporations (TNCs)

• Individuals: Civil society organizations (CSOs)

• Legitimate
• Illegitimate (terrorist groups, organized crime structures)

• By focus of activity:

• International security

• Trade and investment

• Economic development

• Human rights

• Social problems

• Protection of the environment

• Political agendas

• Others

• UNIVERSAL (all of the above) – The United Nations system

• What interests, what forces determine the activities of these organizations?

• Powerful states weigh in on political issues
• TNCs weigh in on economic issues

• The global society is shaped by the structures of power in the same way as are national societies:

• those possessing more power will have more say in making policy

• So, the challenge is to develop international organizations in such a way as to reduce the inequalities of power

• The struggle for a democratic global society -

• The best path to a viable international order

• Issues in the struggle

• How representative are the IGOs?

• Do the IGOs have influence over TNCs?

• Do CSOs have influence over IGOs?

• The status quo:

• IGOs are dominated by the most powerful states
• They have less power than TNCs
• CSOs have minimum impact on IGOs

• Concentration of political, economic and military power on a global scale

• An alternative model, based on democratic principles:

• Power in IGOs would be distributed more equally between states
• IGOs would be directly accountable to citizens
• CSOs would have real influence on IGOs

• As a result, international institutions have a greater amount of democratic power -

• To counterbalance the current concentration of state/corporate power

• Citizens will have more control over nation-states and IGOs

• The power gap between major powers and the other states will be reduced

• The global society will have more control over the TNCs

• Can it be done?

• The United Nations System

• Welcome to the UN. It's your world.