- •The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations Edited by John Baylis and Steve Smith
- •Editor's Preface
- •Key Features of the Book
- •Contents
- •Detailed Contents
- •13. Diplomacy
- •14. The United Nations and International Organization
- •List of Figures
- •List of Boxes
- •List of Tables
- •About the Contributors
- •Introduction
- •From International Politics to World Politics
- •Theories of World Politics
- •Realism and World Politics
- •Liberalism and World Politics
- •World-System Theory and World Politics
- •The Three Theories and Globalization
- •Globalization and its Precursors
- •Globalization: Myth or Reality?
- •Chapter 1. The Globalization of World Politics
- •Reader's guide
- •Introduction: a Globalizing World
- •Globalization: a Definition
- •Aspects of Globalization
- •Historical Origins
- •Qualifications
- •Key Points
- •Globalization and the States-System
- •The Westphalian Order
- •The End of History
- •The End of Sovereignty
- •The Persistence of the State
- •Key Points
- •Post-Sovereign Governance
- •Substate Global Governance
- •Suprastate Global Governance
- •Marketized Global Governance
- •Global Social Movements
- •Key Points
- •The Challenge of Global Democracy
- •Globalization and the Democratic State
- •Global Governance Agencies and Democracy
- •Global Market Democracy?
- •Global Social Movements and Democracy
- •Key Points
- •Conclusion
- •Questions
- •Guide to further reading
- •Chapter 2. The Evolution of International Society
- •Reader's guide
- •Origins and Definitions
- •Key Points
- •Ancient Greece and Renaissance Italy
- •Key Points
- •European International Society
- •Key Points
- •The Globalization of International Society
- •Key Points
- •Problems of Global International Society
- •Key Points
- •Questions
- •Guide to further reading
- •Chapter 3. International history 1900-1945
- •Reader's guide
- •Introduction
- •The origins of World War One
- •Germany's bid for world power status
- •The 'Eastern Question'
- •Key points
- •Peace-making, 1919: the Versailles settlement Post-war problems
- •President Wilson's 'Fourteen Points'
- •Self-determination: the creation of new states
- •The future of Germany
- •'War guilt' and reparations
- •Key points
- •The global economic slump, 1929-1933
- •Key points
- •The origins of World War Two in Asia and the Pacific
- •Japan and the 'Meiji Restoration'
- •Japanese expansion in China
- •The Manchurian crisis and after
- •Key points
- •The path to war in Europe
- •The controversy over the origins of the Second World War
- •The rise of fascism and Nazism in Europe
- •From appeasement to war
- •Key points
- •Conclusion
- •Questions
- •Guide to further reading General
- •World War I and after
- •World War II
- •Chapter 4. International history 1945-1990
- •Introduction
- •End of empire
- •Key points
- •The cold war
- •1945-1953: Onset of the cold war
- •1953-1969: Conflict, confrontation, and compromise
- •1969-1979: The rise and fall of detente
- •1979-86: 'The second cold war'
- •The bomb
- •Conclusion
- •General
- •The cold war
- •The bomb
- •Decolonization
- •Richard Crockatt
- •Introduction
- •Key points
- •Internal factors: the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union Structural problems in the Soviet system
- •The collapse of the Soviet empire
- •Economic restructuring
- •Key points
- •The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe
- •The legacy of protest in Eastern Europe
- •Gorbachev and the end of the Brezhnev doctrine
- •Key points
- •External factors: relations with the United States Debate about us policy and the end of the cold war
- •Key points
- •The interaction between internal and external environments
- •Isolation of the communist system from the global capitalist system
- •Key points
- •Conclusion
- •Key points
- •Chapter 6. Realism
- •Introduction: the timeless wisdom of Realism
- •Reader's guide
- •Introduction: the timeless wisdom of Realism
- •Key points
- •One Realism, or many?
- •Key points
- •The essential Realism
- •Statism
- •Survival
- •Self-help
- •Key points
- •Conclusion: Realism and the globalization of world politics
- •Questions
- •Guide to further reading
- •Chapter 7. World-System Theory
- •Introduction
- •Reader's guide
- •Introduction
- •Key Points
- •The Origins of World-System Theory
- •Key Points
- •Wallerstein and World-System Theory
- •Key Points
- •The Modern World-System in Space and Time
- •Key Points
- •Politics in the Modern World-System: The Sources of Stability
- •States and the Interstate System
- •Core-States—Hegemonic Leadership and Military Force
- •Semi-peripheral States—Making the World Safe for Capitalism
- •Peripheral States—At home with the Comprador Class
- •Geoculture
- •Key Points
- •Crisis in the Modern World-System
- •The Economic Sources of Crisis
- •The Political Sources of Crisis
- •The Geocultural Sources of Crisis
- •The Crisis and the Future: Socialism or Barbarism?
- •Key Points
- •World-System Theory and Globalization
- •Key Points
- •Questions
- •A guide to further reading
- •Chapter 8. Liberalism
- •Introduction
- •Varieties of Liberalism
- •Reader's guide
- •Introduction
- •Key points
- •Varieties of Liberalism
- •Liberal internationalism
- •Idealism
- •Liberal institutionalism
- •Key points
- •Three liberal responses to globalization
- •Key points
- •Conclusion and postscript: the crisis of Liberalism
- •Questions
- •Guide to further reading
- •Chapter 9. New Approaches to International Theory
- •Reader's guide
- •Introduction
- •Key Points
- •Explanatory/Constitutive Theories and Foundational/Anti-Foundational Theories
- •Key Points
- •Rationalist Theories: The Neo-Realist/Neo-Liberal Debate
- •Key Points
- •Reflectivist Theories
- •Normative Theory
- •Key Points
- •Feminist Theory
- •Key Points
- •Critical Theory
- •Key Points
- •Historical Sociology
- •Key Points
- •Post-Modernism
- •Key Points
- •Bridging the Gap: Social Constructivism
- •Key Points
- •Conclusion
- •Questions
- •Guide to further reading
- •Chapter 10.International Security in the Post-Cold War Era
- •Introduction
- •What is meant by the concept of security?
- •The traditional approach to national security
- •The 'security dilemma'
- •The difficulties of co-operation between states
- •The problem of cheating
- •The problem of relative-gains
- •The opportunities for co-operation between states 'Contingent realism'
- •Key points
- •Mature anarchy
- •Key points
- •Liberal institutionalism
- •Key points
- •Democratic peace theory
- •Key points
- •Ideas of collective security
- •Key points
- •Alternative views on international and global security 'Social constructivist' theory
- •Key points
- •'Critical security' theorists and 'feminist' approaches
- •Key points
- •Post-modernist views
- •Key points
- •Globalist views of international security
- •Key points
- •The continuing tensions between national, international, and global security
- •Conclusions
- •Questions
- •Guide to further reading
- •Web links
- •Chapter 11. International Political Economy in an Age of Globalization
- •Reader's guide
- •Introduction: The Significance of ipe for Globalized International Relations
- •What is ipe? Terms, Labels, and Interpretations
- •Ipe and the issues of ir
- •Key Points
- •Words and Politics
- •Key Points
- •Thinking about ipe, ir, and Globalization States and the International Economy
- •The Core Question
- •What is 'International' and what is 'Global'
- •Key Points
- •What Kind of World have We made? 'International' or 'Global'?
- •Global Capital Flows
- •International Production and the Transnational Corporation
- •'Domestic' and 'International'
- •The Ideological Basis of the World Economy
- •Key Points
- •Conclusions: 'So what?'
- •Questions
- •Guide to further reading
- •Chapter 12. International Regimes
- •Introduction
- •Reader's guide
- •Introduction
- •Key Points
- •The Nature of Regimes
- •Conceptualizing Regimes
- •Defining Regimes
- •Classifying Regimes
- •Globalization and International Regimes
- •Security Regimes
- •Environmental Regimes
- •Communication Regimes
- •Economic Regimes
- •Key Points
- •Competing Theories: 1. The Liberal Institutional Approach
- •Impediments to Regime Formation
- •The Facilitation of Regime Formation
- •Competing Theories: 2. The Realist Approach
- •Power and Regimes
- •Regimes and Co-ordination
- •Key Points
- •Conclusion
- •Questions
- •Guide to further reading
Peripheral States—At home with the Comprador Class
Another source of stability within the world-system is the existence of a dominant, so-called comprador class within the developing world. A number of more radical theorists have claimed that the ruling elites in most, if not all, peripheral, and even some semi-peripheral states, behave in ways which advance the interests of the core within their own societies rather than in ways which might improve the lot of their compatriots. Core states and MNCs actively encourage this state of affairs and will often intervene, directly or indirectly, in order to support client regimes or to overthrow governments who threaten the position of the comprador class. One classic example of such behaviour was the overthrow of the left-wing Allende government in semi-peripheral Chile in 1973.
Critics have suggested that a de facto understanding exists between the core and the elites in the 'Third World' along the following lines. If Western business and political interests are protected then 'Third World' regimes will not be seriously taken to task no matter how oppressive or brutal their behaviour towards their own population. This would certainly explain why Western countries have colluded with so many odious regimes in the developing world. The nature of this understanding is succinctly, if rather crudely, summed up in a description proffered by one American president of a particularly loathsome Central American dictator: 'he may be a mean son-of-a-hitch. hut at least he's our son-of-a-bitch' (Booth and Walker 1993: 130).
The existence of a comprador class means that at least some of the tensions that would otherwise be generated by the inequalities of the modern world-system are neutralized, thus ensuring far greater stability in North-South relations than would otherwise be the case.
Geoculture
In his more recent writings Wallerstein has become increasingly preoccupied with 'geoculture'. Geoculture refers to the cultural framework of the 'modern world-system, with culture being viewed in the broadest terms to include values and thought; processes. Wallerstein describes geoculture as that part of the system which is 'hidden from view and therefore more difficult to assess, but the part without which the rest would not be nourished.' (1991b: 11) What he suggests is that the particular patterns of thought and behaviour—even language— inscribed in geoculture, are not only essential to ensure that the modern world-system functions effectively, but also provide much of its underlying legitimation. Thus, geoculture, along with states and the interstate system, has been an essential stabilizing factor in ensuring the thus-far successful reproduction of the dominant world order.
Wallerstein's depiction of the operation of geoculture concentrates on two aspects in particular: the first is the role of liberalism as the dominant ideology in the system; the second is the dominant knowledge system' which is termed 'scientism'. We will briefly examine both in turn.
Ideologies are incredibly powerful: people live and die for them. The existence of an ideology which leads people to believe in the prevailing order is ultimately a far more powerful and effective means of upholding that order than simple coercion. Wallerstein argues that for the past two hundred years the modern world-system has been sustained by a remarkably successful ideology which has convinced most people that the modern world-system provides the only rational, indeed, the only conceivable, way of organizing world society. That ideology is liberalism.
Liberalism has been the dominant ideology within the system to such an extent that other apparently" 'competing' ideologies such as conservatism and socialism have accepted its central tenets and have become, in effect, variations on a theme—conservative liberalism and socialist liberalism. For example, Wallerstein points to the broad Similarities between the literalism of American President Woodrow Wilson and the version of Marxism propagated by Lenin. Following the Enlightenment tradition of the eighteenth century, both firmly believed that humanity, acting rationally, could construct a better society based on secular principles. Both believed that this better society could and would embrace the whole of humankind: their ambitions were universal. Finally, both believed that the state provided the key mechanism for bringing about this 'new world order'. This later point is crucial for, as Wallerstein argues, 'Liberalism is the only ideology that permits the long-term reinforcement of the state structures, the strategic underpinning of a functioning capitalist world-economy.' This is because 'Conservatism and socialism [when not harnessed to liberalism] appeal beyond the state to a "society" which finds expression in other institutions' (1991b: 10). Liberal ideology has thus been crucial in buttressing the organization of the modern world-system into competing states.
The second geocultural pillar of the modern world-system has been provided by scientism. This is the term used by Wallerstein to describe the knowledge system that evolved within that system as society became secularized and knowledge was increasingly validated in terms of the instrumental manipulation of the material world. The spectacular success of the natural sciences in discovering what appeared to be universal laws, applicable across time and space, had very significant implications for production processes, and hence capital accumulation. It also led to the scientific model of knowledge being posited as the correct j approach for other disciplines including the social sciences.
The common thread between both these aspects of geoculture are provided by their universalizing impulses. Scientism is concerned with discovering universal laws and applying them for, ultimately, universal benefit. Liberalism attempts to apply universal principles to the organization and conduct of the state. The problem is that this universalist thrust implies within it a notion of equality which is in stark contrast to the massive inequalities inherent in the functioning of the world-system. This poses the dilemma of 'how to maintain/restore hierarchy without renouncing universalism, a necessary component of the geoculture' (Wallerstein 1996: 97). The answer is provided by racism and sexism, both of which Wallerstein regards as vital elements of geoculture. Their value to the system is that they supply the justifications for the unequal outcomes which occur within the world-system despite the stress on universalism. Whilst universalism implies that all are equal, racism and sexism justify why some are more equal than others.