Actors in World Politcs book summary and lecture notes.
International, global, transnational
The world has become global:
1. Dimensions of globalizaton
a. People
i. Are on the move
ii. More and more people want to move to a diferent country (opportunites
etc.)
iii. While we think that everybody wants to come to the west, but the majority
of the migraton today is happening from southern to southern countries.
iv. Refugees
b. Capital
i. Trade globalizaton
ii. Money and fnancial fows
iii. Increasingly we have transnatonal cooperaton that do business in other
countries as well.
iv. What is also growing is trade
v. Afer the second world war in partcular (Breton woods conference) the
world leaders have come together and realized that one of the reasons that there
has been an increasing natonalism is because states had closed their borders.
Afer this they decided to do the opposite.
b. Politcs
i. When there is an atack in New York, it suddenly becomes a global event.
ii. Islam State has become a global issue
iii. Global protest
iv. Hackers are also global
d. Culture
i. Culture is global is as well
ii. When blockbusters are designed in Hollywood, china is in the mind of the producers,
this way the Chinese audience has a way to relate
2. Globalizaton as a series of processes
a. Deterritorialisaton = the process through which geographical territory becomes less
of a constraint on social interactons.
b. Interdependence = the process through which "security and force mater less and
countries are connected by multple social and politcal relatonships" ( eohane and Nye)
i. Dark side of interdependence: War in Congo 1998-2003, Congo owns 80% of
the supply of olten, but because of the lack of central control, rebel groups
started fghtng for it. In these years there was a brutal war were 4 million people
died. The war also destroyed natural habitat, displaced populatons and damaged
natural parks within the country
b. Time - space compression = The set of processes that cause the relatve distances
between places to contract, efectvely making such places grow 'closer'. (David Harvey)
i. The Moore law = he predicted that chip performance would double every 18
months.
,How can we make sense of globalizatonn
1. The internatonal approach (Mearsheimer): realism
a. The world is divided in domestc internatonal
b. States are the main actors of IR
c. Other actors exist but they are negligible
2. The globalist approach (Friedman)
a. World divides are fatened
b. Undiferentated investment surface
c. Decreased relevance of states (at the surface of the economy)
2. Transnatonal Critiue
a. A problem of analytcal purchase (explanatory power of a theory), we cannot ignore
anymore that:
i. Relatons develop between states and non - state actors
ii. States adapt to globalizaton: transgovernmentalism (Slaughter Chapter 6)
b. A problem of conceptualizaton: an either or concepton
Directons for a transnatonal approach (will be further explained later on)
1. The territorial trap (Agnew)
a. States do not have exclusive power over territory
b. Domestc and foreign realms are not separate
c. Boundaries of the state are not the boundaries of society
2. Sovereignty as relatonal = a government is never entrely in control of territory
a. Rule existed in other forms (city-state)
b. Territorial states is a recent inventon
c. No strict division of domestc internatonal
d. Transnatonal elite networks transgovernmentalism
2. Spatality as networked = government isn't eiually in control through the entre state
a. Unifed territorial control as a history
b. Efectve territorial sovereignty is a myth
c. Power operates much more through networks
d. Transnatonal social felds
2. Identty as multple and hybrid = see it as mixing of diferent interactons
a. Natonalism is historically determined
b. Identtes have never entrely ft territorial borders
c. Globalizaton has reinforced the discrepancy
d. Hybridity, rather than homogeneity
,Chapter 2
Authors:
eohane
o Born during the war 1941
o PHD Harvard
o Teaching at Princeton
Nye
o Born 1937
o PhD Harvard
o Teaching at Harvard
The context:
Realism dominates internatonal relatons (invented in the 50s)
o Focus on states, security, neglect for economic issues
The authors say that the above is problematc
The text is trying to fgure out what the efect of transnatonal actors and fows is that we see and
what the implicatons and challenges are. Afer this they start describing the types of transformatons
= global interactons: communicaton, transportaton, fnance, travel.
Notes of text:
5 research iueston
1. What seems to be the net efect of transnatonal relatons on the abilites of governments to
deal with their environmentsn (to what extent have governments sufered from loss of
control as a result from transnatonal relatons)
2. What are the implicatons of transnatonal relatons for the study of world politcsn
3. What are the efects of transnatonal relatons on the allocaton of value and specifcally on
asymmetries or ineiualites between statesn (who benefts, who loses, and how) = ineiuality
4. What are the implicatons of transnatonal relatons for United States foreign policyn
5. What challenges do transnatonal relatons raise for internatonal organizatons as
conventonally defnedn
Global interactons = movement of informaton, money, physical objects, people, or other tangible or
intangible items across state boundaries.
1. Communicaton (info)
2. Transportaton (objects)
3. Finance (money)
4. Travel (people)
Inter-state interacton = interactons initated and sustained by governments of naton states.
Transnatonal interactons = the movement of tangible or intangible items across state boundaries
when at least one actor is not an agent of a government or an IGO.
, Paradigm of interstate politcs a state centric interacton patern:
Transnatonal interactons and interstate politcs
Purely domestc organizatons can partcipate in transnatonal interactons
Transnational relations
→ Include the actvites of transnatonal organisatons, except within their home states, even
when some of their actvites may not directly involve movements across state boundaries and may
not, therefore, be transnatonal interactons as defned on page 1.
International, global, transnational
The world has become global:
1. Dimensions of globalizaton
a. People
i. Are on the move
ii. More and more people want to move to a diferent country (opportunites
etc.)
iii. While we think that everybody wants to come to the west, but the majority
of the migraton today is happening from southern to southern countries.
iv. Refugees
b. Capital
i. Trade globalizaton
ii. Money and fnancial fows
iii. Increasingly we have transnatonal cooperaton that do business in other
countries as well.
iv. What is also growing is trade
v. Afer the second world war in partcular (Breton woods conference) the
world leaders have come together and realized that one of the reasons that there
has been an increasing natonalism is because states had closed their borders.
Afer this they decided to do the opposite.
b. Politcs
i. When there is an atack in New York, it suddenly becomes a global event.
ii. Islam State has become a global issue
iii. Global protest
iv. Hackers are also global
d. Culture
i. Culture is global is as well
ii. When blockbusters are designed in Hollywood, china is in the mind of the producers,
this way the Chinese audience has a way to relate
2. Globalizaton as a series of processes
a. Deterritorialisaton = the process through which geographical territory becomes less
of a constraint on social interactons.
b. Interdependence = the process through which "security and force mater less and
countries are connected by multple social and politcal relatonships" ( eohane and Nye)
i. Dark side of interdependence: War in Congo 1998-2003, Congo owns 80% of
the supply of olten, but because of the lack of central control, rebel groups
started fghtng for it. In these years there was a brutal war were 4 million people
died. The war also destroyed natural habitat, displaced populatons and damaged
natural parks within the country
b. Time - space compression = The set of processes that cause the relatve distances
between places to contract, efectvely making such places grow 'closer'. (David Harvey)
i. The Moore law = he predicted that chip performance would double every 18
months.
,How can we make sense of globalizatonn
1. The internatonal approach (Mearsheimer): realism
a. The world is divided in domestc internatonal
b. States are the main actors of IR
c. Other actors exist but they are negligible
2. The globalist approach (Friedman)
a. World divides are fatened
b. Undiferentated investment surface
c. Decreased relevance of states (at the surface of the economy)
2. Transnatonal Critiue
a. A problem of analytcal purchase (explanatory power of a theory), we cannot ignore
anymore that:
i. Relatons develop between states and non - state actors
ii. States adapt to globalizaton: transgovernmentalism (Slaughter Chapter 6)
b. A problem of conceptualizaton: an either or concepton
Directons for a transnatonal approach (will be further explained later on)
1. The territorial trap (Agnew)
a. States do not have exclusive power over territory
b. Domestc and foreign realms are not separate
c. Boundaries of the state are not the boundaries of society
2. Sovereignty as relatonal = a government is never entrely in control of territory
a. Rule existed in other forms (city-state)
b. Territorial states is a recent inventon
c. No strict division of domestc internatonal
d. Transnatonal elite networks transgovernmentalism
2. Spatality as networked = government isn't eiually in control through the entre state
a. Unifed territorial control as a history
b. Efectve territorial sovereignty is a myth
c. Power operates much more through networks
d. Transnatonal social felds
2. Identty as multple and hybrid = see it as mixing of diferent interactons
a. Natonalism is historically determined
b. Identtes have never entrely ft territorial borders
c. Globalizaton has reinforced the discrepancy
d. Hybridity, rather than homogeneity
,Chapter 2
Authors:
eohane
o Born during the war 1941
o PHD Harvard
o Teaching at Princeton
Nye
o Born 1937
o PhD Harvard
o Teaching at Harvard
The context:
Realism dominates internatonal relatons (invented in the 50s)
o Focus on states, security, neglect for economic issues
The authors say that the above is problematc
The text is trying to fgure out what the efect of transnatonal actors and fows is that we see and
what the implicatons and challenges are. Afer this they start describing the types of transformatons
= global interactons: communicaton, transportaton, fnance, travel.
Notes of text:
5 research iueston
1. What seems to be the net efect of transnatonal relatons on the abilites of governments to
deal with their environmentsn (to what extent have governments sufered from loss of
control as a result from transnatonal relatons)
2. What are the implicatons of transnatonal relatons for the study of world politcsn
3. What are the efects of transnatonal relatons on the allocaton of value and specifcally on
asymmetries or ineiualites between statesn (who benefts, who loses, and how) = ineiuality
4. What are the implicatons of transnatonal relatons for United States foreign policyn
5. What challenges do transnatonal relatons raise for internatonal organizatons as
conventonally defnedn
Global interactons = movement of informaton, money, physical objects, people, or other tangible or
intangible items across state boundaries.
1. Communicaton (info)
2. Transportaton (objects)
3. Finance (money)
4. Travel (people)
Inter-state interacton = interactons initated and sustained by governments of naton states.
Transnatonal interactons = the movement of tangible or intangible items across state boundaries
when at least one actor is not an agent of a government or an IGO.
, Paradigm of interstate politcs a state centric interacton patern:
Transnatonal interactons and interstate politcs
Purely domestc organizatons can partcipate in transnatonal interactons
Transnational relations
→ Include the actvites of transnatonal organisatons, except within their home states, even
when some of their actvites may not directly involve movements across state boundaries and may
not, therefore, be transnatonal interactons as defned on page 1.
