GLOBAL
INTERSTATE
SYSTEM Week 5
I GLOBAL INTERSTATE SYSTEM
It is the whole system of human interactions. The
modern world-system is structured politically as an
interstate system – a system of competing and
allying states. Political Scientists commonly call this
the international system, and it is the focus of the
field of International Relations.
ORIGIN OF THE INTERSTATE SYSTEM
The origins of the present-day concept of sovereignty can be traced back to the
Treaty of Westphalia which was set of agreements signed in 1648 to end the
Thirty Years’ War between the major continental powers of Europe. After a brutal
religious war between Catholics and Protestants, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain,
France Sweden and the Dutch Republic designed a system that would avert wars
in the future by recognizing that the treaty signers exercise complete control over
their domestic affairs and swear not to meddle in each other’s affairs
Westphalian System provided stability for the nations of Europe
• Napoleon Bonaparte believed in
spreading the principles of the French
Revolution –liberty, equality and
fraternity to the rest of Europe and thus
challenged the power of kings, nobility
and religion in Europe
• Napoleonic War – 1803-1815
(Anglo-Prussian armies defeated
Napoleon in the Battle of
Weterloo)
• Napoleonic Code- forbade birth
privileges, encouraged freedom or
religion and promoted meritocracy in
government service
• Klemens von Matternich- was the architect of
the Concert of Europe
• Concert of Europe- lasted from 1815-1914 at the
dawn of World War I
• To prevent another war and to keep
their systems of privilege, the royal
powers created the Concert of Europe –
a new system that in effect restored the
Westphalian System
• Concert of Europe –an alliance of “the
great power” –the United Kingdom,
Austria, Prussia that sought to restore
monarchial, hereditary and religious
privileges of the time before the French
Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars
Klemens Matternich
• Westphalian sovereignty, or state sovereignty- is a principle in
international law that each state has exclusive sovereignty over its
territory. The principle underlies the modern international system of
sovereign states and is enshrined in the United Nations Charter,
which states that "nothing ... shall authorize the United Nations to
intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic
jurisdiction of any state.
• According to the idea, every state, no matter how large or small, has
an equal right to sovereignty.
WHAT ARE THE
PRINCIPLES OF
GLOBAL INTERSTATE
SYSTEM?
THE PRINCIPLES OF GLOBAL INTERSTATE SYSTEM?
The Principles of Global interstate System:
• Country states are sovereign in governance and law,
but they make economic and legislative compromises
for mutual benefit with other sovereign jurisdictions.
It takes diplomacy and international treaties to
cultivate the most viable business environments for
global cooperation.
The following are some of the principles that govern the global interstate
systems.
1. Nationalism
All countries are sovereign of each other and can exert internal authority
autonomously. Constitutions govern most nations.
2. Internationalism
International treaties shall form part of the laws that govern citizens of
member states. Diplomats negotiate national interests and decide to enter
International Treaties that advance national goals. Therefore, the sovereign
nation compromises by integrating the rules of treaties into local laws.
3. Diplomatic Congresses over War
The global, interstate system acknowledges that war is detrimental to all
participants, and it is a competition that doesn't reward any winners.
Therefore, countries agree to avert all-out wars even as they continue to
disagree. Diplomats are tasked with keeping the peace, so armies don't have
to fight.
4. Economic Corporation
The global, interstate system encourages international corporations in
research and development. Economic corporation is the reason why
exchange rates exist for almost all currencies in the world that are
recognized by sovereign governments.
An interaction of states that wanted to
collaborate to establish intergovernmental
organization (organizations facilitated by the
governments)
An IGO is an organization composed primarily of
sovereign states, or of other intergovernmental
organizations. IGOs are established by treaty or other
agreement that acts as a charter creating the group.
Examples include the United Nations, the World
Bank, or the European Union.
N
NA
Not all states are nations and
not all nations are states
WHAT IS A
STATE?
• A STATE is a compulsory
political organization with
a centralized government
that maintains the
legitimate use of force
within a territory
A state has 4 attributes
1. It exercises authority over a specific
population called citizens
2. It governs a specific territory
3. It has a structure that craft various rules
that society follow
4. It has sovereignty over its territory
( *refers to internal and external authority)
WHAT S A NATION?
• A nation emphasizes the
organic ties that hold groups
of people together and inspire
a sense of loyalty of
belonging.
CHARACTERISTICS of a
NATION
• ETHNICITY
• LANGUAGE
• RELIGION
• CULTURE
A nation is an “imagined community”
Benedict Anderson
Imagine does not mean that the nation is made up.
Rather, the nation allows one to feel a connection with a
community of people even if he/she will never meet all of
them in his lifetime. When you cheer for a Filipino
athlete in the Olympics, it is not because you personally
know that athlete, rather you imagine your connection
as both members of the same Filipino community
STATELESS NATIONS?
• Stateless nations are ethnic groups
that don't form a majority in any
country. They often faced
discrimination ranging from denial of
citizenship to dispossession of their
homelands. Examples include Kurds
(Kurdistan), Palestinians (Palestine),
and Yoruba.
• The Kurds are one of the indigenous peoples of
the Mesopotamian plains and the highlands in
what are now south-eastern Turkey, north-eastern
Syria, northern Iraq, north-western Iran and south-
western Armenia.
• The Kurds had their own region in Iran until the
war against the Ottoman Empire when their land
was overthrown and divided By modern Turkey,
Syria and Iran which took place over 45 years ago
• Today, they form a distinctive community, united
through race, culture and language, even though
they have no standard dialect. They also adhere to
a number of different religions and creeds,
although the majority are Sunni Muslims.
• In the early 20th Century, many Kurds
began to consider the creation of a
homeland - generally referred to as
"Kurdistan". After World War One and the
defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the
victorious Western allies made provision for
a Kurdish state in the 1920 Treaty of Sevres.
• Such hopes were dashed three years later,
however, when the Treaty of Lausanne,
which set the boundaries of modern Turkey,
made no provision for a Kurdish state and
left Kurds with minority status in their
respective countries. Over the next 80 years,
any move by Kurds to set up an independent
state was brutally quashed
• Scotland is a nation by the traditional meaning of the word; they are
a cultural unit with a shared national identity. They have their own
flag, their own national anthem, their own languages and dialects,
their own traditional dress, music, literature, national sports teams
and the like.
• Until 1707 the Kingdom of Scotland was a sovereign State; it was
a unified, independent political entity recognized by other
sovereign States. With the Act of Union 1707 Scotland ceased to
be a State and became a constituent part of the unitary State of the
UK. They did however retain many of the trappings of Statehood,
including a distinct legal system and honors system.
• A sizeable portion of the population of Scotland would like to
make their nation a sovereign State again. As of the 2014
independence referendum, this amounts to approximately 45% of
the Scottish population. As this is not a majority, Scotland for the
time being remains a nation in Union with the English, Welsh,
(Northern) Irish and Cornish nations in the State of the UK,
though through a process known as devolution, it can make many
of its own decisions through the Scottish Parliament, which gives
it a degree of autonomy.
WHAT IS A
NATION-STATE?
A nation-state is a political unit where the state and
nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than
"country", since a country does not need to have a
predominant ethnic group
INSTITUTION THAT GOVERN
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
United States President FRANKLIN
ROOSEVELT coined the name united nations
that was used in the declaration of United
Nation on 1 of January 1942. UN means allies
to fight against the Axis Powers in the Second
World War II. Only 26 nation’s representatives
pledge their governments to:
1. Each government 2. Each Government
pledges its full resources, pledges itself to
military or economic, cooperate with the
against those members Governments signatory
of the tripartite pact and hereto and not to make
its adherents with which a separate armistice or
such government is at peace with the enemies
war.
4 MAIN PURPOSES OF THE
UNITED NATIONS
1. To keep peace 3. To help nations work
throughout the together to improve the lives of
poor people, to conquer
world; hunger, disease and illiteracy,
2. To develop and to encourage respect for
friendly relations each other’s rights and
freedoms;
among nations;
4. To be a center for
harmonizing the actions of
nations to achieve these goals
INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
• • - World Bank
• • - International Monetary Fund
• • - Asian Development Bank
• • - African Development Bank
THE WORLD
SYSTEM
II. THE WORLD-SYSTEM
A world-system is a socioeconomic system, under systems theory,
that encompasses part or all of the globe, detailing the aggregate
structural result of the sum of the interactions between polities.
(Polity-an identifiable political entity – a group of people with a collective identity, who
are organized by some form of institutionalized social relations, and have a capacity to
mobilize resources)
World-systems are defined by the existence of a division of labor.
Modern world-system- has a multi-state political
structure (the interstate system) and therefore its
division of labor is international division of labor.
• World Systems Theory posits that there is a world economic system
in which some countries benefit while others are exploited.
Key Points
• Immanuel Wallerstein developed World Systems Theory and its
three-level hierarchy: core, periphery, and semi-periphery.
• Core countries are dominant capitalist countries that exploit
peripheral countries for labor and raw materials.
• Peripheral countries are dependent on core countries for capital and
have underdeveloped industry.
• Semi-peripheral countries share characteristics of both core and
peripheral countries.
Key Terms
• peripheral: Peripheral countries are
dependent on core countries for capital
and have underdeveloped industry.
• core: dominant capitalist countries
which exploit the peripheral countries
for labor and raw materials.
• semi-peripheral: Countries that share
characteristics of both core and
periphery countries.
• According to Wallerstein, the world economic system is divided into a hierarchy
of three types of countries: core, semi-peripheral, and peripheral. Core countries
(e.g., U.S., Japan, Germany) are dominant, capitalist countries characterized by
high levels of industrialization and urbanization.
• Core countries are capital intensive, have high wages and high technology
production patterns and lower amounts of labor exploitation and coercion.
• Peripheral countries (e.g., most African countries and low- income countries in
South America) are dependent on core countries for capital and are less
industrialized and urbanized. Peripheral countries are usually agrarian, have low
literacy rates and lack consistent Internet access.
• Semi-peripheral countries (e.g., South Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, Brazil, India,
Nigeria, South Africa) are less developed than core nations but more developed
than peripheral nations. They are the buffer between core and peripheral
countries.
