Chapter 15 Comparative
International Relations
This (that is the LAST!) Week
A Grand Experiment (on the Edge of
Failure?)
• What is the EU?
▫ Post-war cooperation
▫ A regional bloc
▫ Working together for the whole, or for one’s own
benefit?
• The continuing economic crisis
▫ Future of Greece and other struggling economies
▫ The Euro
Key Concepts
• International Relations: The study of relations between
countries and between actors in the international system
• Foreign Policy: The Set of policies toward foreign nations
made by a national government
• International security: The study of issues of war and
peace between nations and global security and conflict more
broadly
• International Political Economy: How economic
relations between countries affect politics and how political
relationships impact the economy
Globalization
• Increasing interactions between people, results in
greater exchanges economically and socially
• Permeability of borders
▫ Human and economic capital
▫ So, not just goods, but service too
▫ Global nature of labour and manufacturing
• Outsourcing and offshoring
▫ In Western nations considered a significant problem
▫ In developing states a sign of economic development
Globalization 2
• Globalizing nature of the economy means more
interdependence among states
▫ Potential lack of economic/food security?
• Globalization is dependent upon the concept of
comparative advantage
▫ Specialization and efficiency
Globalization 3
• Threats to the state:
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Less control over the economy
Loss of industries
Loss of jobs (and the rise of the service sector)
Environmental damage (regulation and int’l trade)
• Protectionism
▫ Taxes or tariff barriers
International Institutions (and an
unintended consequence of
multilateralism)
• The rise of multilateralism
• Sites of multilateral cooperation:
▫ The United Nations
 The WHO, UNICEF, UNHCR
▫ The International Monetary Fund, World Bank
 The Washington Consensus
▫ NAFTA
▫ The EU (and the Schengen Area)
 So, is the EU ultimately working?
• Emergent national identities
Immigration in a Global World
• Movement of people tends to be away from places
with limited economic opportunity to places with
more economic opportunity
• Can be contentious – Mexico and the US; France
and Northern Africa; Germany and Turkey
• How much assimilation should states seek to
achieve?
▫ Only the most basic liberal values or complete
integration?
▫ Multiculturalism
Immigration in a Global World 2
• Tendencies towards stereotyping
▫ London’s Muslim population
▫ The US post-9/11
▫ Radicalization
• The contradictory rise of nativism
▫ The Temporary Worker Program
• The rise of Brain Drain
▫ Migrant workers
▫ Remittances
Environmental Sustainability and
Security
• Local sustainability (and pollution) and global
sustainability (and climate change)
▫ GHG emissions
▫ The Ozone hole and global action
• Externalities and paying for unintended
consequences
New Security Opportunities and
Threats
• The Rise of Transnational networks
▫ Anti-globalization
▫ Environmentalism
• The Rise of Non-State actors
▫ Al Qaeda
▫ Anonymous
▫ Global drug cartels
• The bipolar world and MAD
• Terrorism and relative interpretations of justice
The Realist Approach of International
Relations
• Does not consider domestic issues, rather states are
single rational actors
• Actors in a global anarchy
▫ Defensive realism
 Peace is possible
▫ Offensive realism
 Maximization of power
• Prefer a bipolar world with a balance of power
• Game theory
Prisoner’s Dilemma
Stag Hunt
Chicken
Liberalism
• Interested in domestic politics in international
relations
▫ Foreign policy can be influenced by political
advantage, as well as international relationships
• What happens when states work together?
▫ Positive sum games
• Incentives to work together when states have similar
interests
• Democratic peace
Constructivism
• International and local norms and values matter
▫ States aren’t necessarily aggressive all the time
▫ In certain contexts state relationships could range
from competitive to cooperative
• History matters, relationships matter
• Still believe an anarchy, but do so with a mind
that it needn’t only be a world dominated by
power
Marxism
• Global class system
• Examines who gains and who loses in global systems
▫ Economic power
▫ Military power
▫ Cultural power
• Violence is a consequence of capitalism, as the
capitalists try to keep advantage and accumulate
more