Examine the changing nature on international politics
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International relations, world politics, transnational relations, global society. This sphere of diplomacy and war, treaties and alliances, aid and trade, migration and tourists. This arena of empires, international organizations, states, nations, governments, groups and individuals. This greatest human theater. What is its essence?
First, international relations compose our largest society.1 Since the Age of Colonization in the eighteenth century, international relations have encompassed the globe. There is or are now:
a worldwide system of communication regulated by international organizations (such as the Universal Postal Union, International Telecommunication Union, and Intergovernmental Copyright Committee), involving mail, telegrams, radio, television, newspapers, periodicals, and books;a global transportation system involving international shipping lines, and especially, the airlines regulated by the International Civil Aviation Organization;an extensive worldwide trade and division of labor, with states and multinational corporations specializing in extractive industries, forestry, fishing, food crops, or manufacturing;international social norms that frame the variety of interaction among states and international groups, some of which have the status of international law;a stratification system recognized by all and dividing states into those with wealth, power or prestige, and those without;2a culture, of which the dominant language is English, with norms emphasizing the sovereignty, independence and equality of states, and valuing truth,4 education and knowledge, development, and government intervention, regulation, and planning5; and opposing genocide, military aggression, colonialism, and racism.
International society is riven and, in Simmel's (1955) useful expression, "sewn together" by cross-cutting conflicts.6 In my terms, this society is a moving complex of overlapping and nested structures and situations of conflict, power balancing, balances of powers, and structures of expectations. The keynote is change, alteration, transformation, and the mechanism and manifestation of this is conflict behavior.
As do all societies, international society has two faces. One is of conflict, change, a struggle and dialectic of power. The other is equilibrium, societal norms and structures which at any one point in time appear to describe society. Indeed, without a process or conflict view of international society, the normal state of affairs is stability, of functions maintaining the system and adjusting individuals to it. Indeed, within this snapshot view international conflict appears deviant, an aberration of the system. Consensus and equilibrium rather than conflict would be the defining characteristics of the society.
First, international relations compose our largest society.1 Since the Age of Colonization in the eighteenth century, international relations have encompassed the globe. There is or are now:
a worldwide system of communication regulated by international organizations (such as the Universal Postal Union, International Telecommunication Union, and Intergovernmental Copyright Committee), involving mail, telegrams, radio, television, newspapers, periodicals, and books;a global transportation system involving international shipping lines, and especially, the airlines regulated by the International Civil Aviation Organization;an extensive worldwide trade and division of labor, with states and multinational corporations specializing in extractive industries, forestry, fishing, food crops, or manufacturing;international social norms that frame the variety of interaction among states and international groups, some of which have the status of international law;a stratification system recognized by all and dividing states into those with wealth, power or prestige, and those without;2a culture, of which the dominant language is English, with norms emphasizing the sovereignty, independence and equality of states, and valuing truth,4 education and knowledge, development, and government intervention, regulation, and planning5; and opposing genocide, military aggression, colonialism, and racism.
International society is riven and, in Simmel's (1955) useful expression, "sewn together" by cross-cutting conflicts.6 In my terms, this society is a moving complex of overlapping and nested structures and situations of conflict, power balancing, balances of powers, and structures of expectations. The keynote is change, alteration, transformation, and the mechanism and manifestation of this is conflict behavior.
As do all societies, international society has two faces. One is of conflict, change, a struggle and dialectic of power. The other is equilibrium, societal norms and structures which at any one point in time appear to describe society. Indeed, without a process or conflict view of international society, the normal state of affairs is stability, of functions maintaining the system and adjusting individuals to it. Indeed, within this snapshot view international conflict appears deviant, an aberration of the system. Consensus and equilibrium rather than conflict would be the defining characteristics of the society.
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