Tai Lieu Chat Luong 1 2 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 3 4 5 THE BASICS 6 722 8 9 10 1 2 3 International Relations: the Basics is a concise and accessible 4 introduction for students new to international relations and for the 5 general reader. It offers the most up-to-date guide to the major issues 6 and areas of debate and 7 822 • explains key issues including humanitarian intervention and 9 economic justice 20 • features illustrative and familiar case studies from around the 1222 world 2 • examines topical debates on globalization and terrorism 3 • provides an overview of the discipline to situate the new reader 4 at the heart of the study of global politics. 5 6 Covering all the basics and more, this is the ideal book for anyone 7 who wants to understand contemporary international relations. 8 9 Peter Sutch is currently head of the Politics Department and Senior 30 Lecturer in Political Thought and International Relations at Cardiff 1 University.
His current research is on international law and 2 international justice. 3 4 Juanita Elias is Senior Lecturer in International Politics at the 5 University of Adelaide, Australia. Her research interests include 6 gender perspectives in international political economy, the politics 7 of corporate social responsibility and the political economy of 822 Malaysia and South East Asia. ALSO AVAILABLE FROM ROUTLEDGE POLITICS: THE BASICS (THIRD EDITION) STEPHEN TANSEY 978–0–415–30329–3 THE ROUTLEDGE DICTIONARY OF POLITICS DAVID ROBERTSON 978–0–415–32377–2 FIFTY MAJOR POLITICAL THINKERS (SECOND EDITION) IAN ADAMS AND R.
DYSON 978–0–415–40099–2 FIFTY KEY FIGURES IN TWENTIETH CENTURY BRITISH POLITICS KEITH LAYBOURN 978–0–415–22677–6 FIFTY KEY THINKERS IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS MARTIN GRIFFITHS 978–0–415–16228–9 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: THE KEY CONCEPTS MARTIN GRIFFITHS AND TERRY O’CALLAGHAN 978–0–415–22883–1 THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO FASCISM AND THE FAR RIGHT PETER DAVIES AND DEREK LYNCH 978–0–415–21495–7 1 2 3 INTERNATIONAL 4 5 RELATIONS 6 722 8 THE BASICS 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 822 Peter Sutch and Juanita Elias 9 20 1222 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 822 First published 2007 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.” © 2007 Peter Sutch and Juanita Elias All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Sutch, Peter, 1971– International relations: the basics/Peter Sutch and Juanita Elias p.
Includes bibliographical references and index.S875 2007 327–dc22 2006038113 ISBN 0-203-96093-9 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0–415–31184–5 (hbk) ISBN10: 0–415–31185–3 (pbk) ISBN10: 0–203–96093–9 (ebk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–31184–7 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–31185–4 (pbk) ISBN13: 978–0–203–96093–6 (ebk) 1 2 CONTENTS 3 4 5 6 722 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 822 List of illustrations vii 9 Acknowledgements ix 20 1222 2 1 The nature of international relations 1 3 4 2 Anarchy and the origin of the modern international 5 system: world politics 1648–1939 21 6 7 3 Realism: the basics 41 8 9 4 Liberalism: the basics 64 30 1 5 Challenging anarchy: building world politics 82 2 3 6 Criticizing world politics 108 4 5 7 Reconfiguring world politics: globalization 132 6 7 8 From stability to justice? Contemporary challenges 822 in international relations 158 vi C ONTENTS Glossary of key terms 179 References 192 Index 207 1 2 ILLUSTRATIONS 3 4 5 6 722 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 822 Figures 9 3.1 Stopford and Strange on triangular diplomacy 96 1222 5.2 Two ‘pictures’ of actors in world politics 100 2 8.1 Child malnutrition in the developing world 172 3 4 5 Boxes 6 7 1.1 The great debates in IR 8 8 1.2 Morgenthau and Waltz on IR 10 9 2.1 Jackson on the spread of the modern European 30 states system 29 1 2.2 Peace treaties that shaped IR 31 2 2.3 Preamble to the Covenant of the League of Nations 35 3 3.1 Realism in the history of ideas 46 4 4.1 Liberalism in the history of ideas 70 5 5.1 Multilateralism and international organizations 85 6 5.2 ASEAN: building regional cooperation and community 90 7 5.3 Robert Keohane on the importance of international 822 institutions 102 viii I LLUSTRATIONS 6.1 Competing ‘pictures’ of world politics 109 6.2 Steve Smith considers post-positivism 115 7.1 The anti-globalization movement 152 1 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 3 4 5 6 722 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 822 A book like this relies on the input and patience of many colleagues 9 and students. Our debts are suitably global and we would like to 20 thank colleagues in the UK and Australia for the time they spent 1222 reading material and encouraging us to get on with it. In particular 2 we would like to thank David Boucher, Peri Roberts, Bruce Haddock, 3 Keiron Curtis, Edwin Egede, Stuart Shields, Jocelyn Mawdsley, 4 Sophie Hague, Ian Hall and Andreas Gofas. Just as importantly we 5 would like to thank Phil, Nicola, Victoria and Matthew for creating 6 the space in their lives to let us write.
7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 822 1 2 3 1 4 5 6 722 THE NATURE OF 8 9 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 822 THE BASIC VOCABULARY OF IR 9 20 The purpose of this book is to offer you a critical introduction 1222 to the basics of international relations (IR). The key word here is 2 ‘critical’ rather than ‘basics’. If, at the end of this introduction, you 3 understand why the word critical is key, you will be in a strong 4 position to move on to the next chapters. To help you reach this 5 initial goal this introductory chapter will focus on the nature of the 6 study of IR as an academic discipline.
Here we aim to give you a 7 sense of the ‘shape’ of the subject and an insight in to the challenges 8 that lie ahead. 9 IR is usually characterized as a separate and discrete academic 30 discipline. You will find separate departments of ‘International 1 Relations’ or ‘International Politics’ in many universities. You will 2 find separate curricula and degree schemes, and professors and 3 lecturers of IR.
However, in an important sense this separateness 4 is artificial. On the one hand it seems intuitively simple to say that 5 IR is a distinct entity. It is at the most basic level, the study of 6 something that exists out there. Inter – National – Relations, the 7 study of relations between nations.
When we say ‘nations’ here we 822 usually intend to refer to the interactions of nation-states – sovereign, 2 T HE NATURE OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS territorially bounded political units like the United States of America or France. However, it is also clear that this does not tell us very much about our subject. Taking a brief glance at the world around us we find that some of the principal actors in world politics, the agents of international relations that make up the political landscape of our subject area, are not nations at all. When we look at the world of global politics we inevitably see international or trans-national governmental organizations (IGOs) such as the United Nations (UN) or the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
We see regional organizations, such as the European Union (EU) or the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), important non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as the Red Cross (and Red Crescent) or Amnesty International, and powerful multinational corporations (MNCs) with bigger annual turnovers than the gross national product (GNP) of many countries. We also find that many issues that we associate with IR transcend this basic description. Are our concerns about an HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa, or human rights reducible to IR in this narrow sense? There is clearly much more to IR than inter-national relations. We also find that the questions and issues that arise as an obvious part of IR seem more properly to be thought of as questions of politics, economics, law, development studies, geography, history, moral philosophy, strategic or war studies (the list could go on and on).
Take a closer look at your faculty list and you will find that each ‘IR specialist’ is in fact a specialist in a subfield of IR. They may be experts in ‘theory’, ‘security studies’, ‘international political economy’, ‘foreign policy studies’, ‘international history’ or ‘inter- national law’ (again the list could go on). What does all this tell us about IR? First and foremost it tells us that IR is a general descriptor for a complex, multidisciplinary subject area. To study IR is to become a generalist.
It is to find a way of engaging with a hugely complex, but fascinating and politically urgent, aspect of our lives. Politics and IR share this multidisciplinarity. Those aspects of our world that we describe as political form the framework within which we live. International politics impacts on you from the price you pay for your shopping, to the laws your government is allowed to impose.
It encompasses the management of the long-term ecological, political and financial effects of the world economy and the short-term effects T HE NATURE OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 3 1 of poverty, starvation and disease. It confronts the refugee crises that 2 follow natural and human-made disaster, manages the conduct of 3 war, and attempts to coordinate the prosecution of international law. 4 If you switch on the television or pick up a newspaper, you will see 5 international politics everywhere. 6 The way to begin to get a grip on this wide-ranging and 722 challenging subject is not to become an expert in every aspect of 8 world politics.
This might be an ideal solution but it is simply not 9 a realistic goal. Rather, you need to find a way to ‘cope’ with 10 complexity and multidisciplinarity. This is what IR, as an academic 1 discipline, and you, as a student of IR, must try to achieve. IR, at 2 its most basic level, is a matter of orientation.
It attempts to manage 3 the deeply complex nature of world politics by breaking it down in 4 to understandable chunks and helpful general theories. The key is 5 to find ways of describing and analysing world politics that can both 6 acknowledge the vast array of causal and determining factors yet 7 give us the critical leverage we need. We need to be able to see the 822 ‘shape’ of the subject to enable us to understand the general principles 9 that inform the technicalities of international economics, law and 20 politics. This is not to suggest that IR is in any way a second order 1222 discipline.
Indeed, if you want to understand the world economy or 2 public international law then a study of the general nature of IR is 3 essential. IR is the background upon which the many dramas of world 4 politics are played out. Neither is it to suggest that IR is not complex 5 in itself. You will need to master a whole range of historical and 6 conceptual skills.
Learning to understand the historical development 7 of ‘the state’, ‘the international system’, ‘a globalized economy’ etc.