The Globalization
of World politics
 Introduction
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From international politics to
world politics
international relations vs. international
politics
 international politics  world politics 
global politics
 nation states vs. nation states + NGOs +
more…
 political issues vs. political, economic and
more…

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Theories of world politics
Why did Al Qaeda attack the US?
 Why did George W. Bush attack on
Saddam Hussein’s Iraq?
 Theories application = sunglasses with
different colored lenses.
 A theory is some kind of simplifying device
that allows you to decide which facts
matter and which do not.

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Realism and world politics
Idealism vs. Realism
 Dominant realism and its main rivals –
Liberalism, Marxism and Constructivism
 Main actors  states
 Framework  inter-state relations
 Human nature  selfish
 International nature  anarchy
 Sovereignty, power, national interests

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Continues…
Mechanism  balance of power
(diplomacy)
 World politics is a self-help system
 Neo-realism: Kenneth Waltz, 1979. “the
importance of the structure of the
international political system.”
 The Cold War (bipolarity)  multipolarity

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Liberalism and world politics
Idealism tradition
 Many variants of liberalism (pluralism,
transnationalism, integration…)
 Human being are perfectible
 Democracy is necessary
 Transnational actors in issue-areas of
world politics
 State as a set of bureaucracies each with
its own interests (vs. national interests)

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Continues…
Possibilities for cooperation among states
 The picture of world politics  a complex
system of bargaining
 National interests are much more than
military terms (economic, technological..)
 Order in world politics  laws, norms,
international regimes & rules. (vs. BOP)
 Interdependence (vs. sovereignty)

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Marxist theories and world politics
Also known as structuralism or worldsystem theory
 World capitalist economy
 Classes are the most important actors of
world politics
 States, MNCs, IOs represent the dominant
class interest in the world economic
system

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Continues…
World politics as the setting in which class
conflicts are played out
 Order in world politics has been in
economic rather than in military terms
 Division of the world: core, semi-periphery,
periphery
 The most important feature of world
politics is the degree of economic
autonomy

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Constructivism
Optimistic account
 Human agency has a much greater
potential role in world politics (we make
and re-make the social world)
 Anarchy (self-help international system) is
what states make of it.
 World politics as something that we can
change (vs. neo-realism)

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The fours and globalization
For Realists:
 1. globalization does not transcend the
international political system of states .
(Territory, sovereignty, balance of power)
2. it does not render obsolete the struggle
for political power between states.

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Continues…
For Liberals:
 1. states are no longer such central actors
as they once were. (numerous actors of
differing importance according to the
issues-area concerned)
2. increased interconnectedness between
societies, and as result the world looks
more like a cobweb of relations.

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Continues…
For Marxist:
 1. globalization is nothing particularly new,
and is only the latest stage in the
development of international capitalism
2. it further deepens the existing divide
between the core, the semi-periphery, and
the periphery.

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Continues…
For Constructivist:
 1. constructivists think that we can mould
globalization in a variety of ways.
2. it offer very real changes to create
cross-national social movements aided by
modern technological forms of
communication such as the Internet.
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Globalization and its precursors
Globalization: the process of increasing
interconnectedness between societies
such the events in one part of the world
more and more have effects on peoples
and societies far away.
 Extensively, intensively, deeply, speeding
up; the world seems to be ‘shrinking’

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Continues…
There have been several precursors to
globalization:
 1. theory of modernization (Modelski 1972;
Morse 1976)
 2. industrialization  economic growth
(Walt Rostow 1960)
 3. economic interdependence (Cooper
1968; Nye 1971)

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Continues…
4. global village (McLuhan 1964)
 5. world society (state system  nonstate actors) (Burton 1972)
 6. world order models project (WOMP)
(Mendlovitz 1975; Falk 1975)
 7. international society (Hedley Bull 1977)
 8. end of history (Fukuyama 1992)
 9. liberal peace theory (Bruce Russett
1993; Michael Doyle 1983)

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Globalization: myth or reality?
Arguments in favor of globalization:
 1. The pace of economic transformation
is so great;
 2. Communication have revolutionized the
way we deal with the rest of world.
 3. There is now a global culture.
 4. The world is becoming more
homogeneous.

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Continues…

The opposites:
1. Globalization is a myth. (Hirst & Thompson)
(1). the present internationalized economy is not
unique in history.
(2). genuinely transnational companies are
relatively rare.
(3). there is no shift of finance and capital from
the developed to underdeveloped worlds.
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Continues…
(4). the world-economy is not global.
(three blocs – Europe, north America,
and Japan)
(5). three blocs could regulate global
economic markets and forces.
2. Globalization is very uneven in its
effects. (Western theories, WWW)
3. Globalization may well be simply the latest
stage of Western imperialism
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Continues…
4. Globalization are technologies that
automatically benefit the richest
economies in the world.
5. Not all globalized forces are necessarily
‘good’ ones. (WWW anarchy)
6. Global governance – to whom are the
transnational social movements responsible
and democratically accountable?
7. Paradox at the heart of globalization thesis
(Western value vs. Asian Tigers’ values)
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Stand for or against globalization?
Is globalization a new phenomenon in
world politics?
 Which theory discussed above best
explains globalization?
 Is globalization a positive or a negative
development?
 Is globalization merely the latest stage of
capitalist development?

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Continues…
Does globalization make the state obsolete?
 Does globalization make the world more or
less democratic?
 Is globalization merely Western imperialism
in a new guise?
 Does globalization make war less likely?

Lesson of 9/11…
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