International Relations Theories, Arab Spring - Essay Example

?Introduction International relations theories study international relations form a theoretical perspective with the aim of providing conceptual framework through which the relationship between different countries can be analysed. There are several theories, which have been used as a pair of sunglasses to see and analyse international relations in wider perspective, and they include idealism, realism, Marxism, rationalism among others. The aim of this study is to view Arab springs under the lens of realism and liberalism in order to have good grasp of the real situation in Arab countries and their relationship with the outside worlds. The Middle East is of great importance to the global stability due to its vast oil wealth and gas deposits and thus the world looks at it with a lot of interest. The peace and stability in the Middle East is also of vital importance to the stability and peace of the world hence it cannot be left in isolation. The west in particular is looking with a lot of interest due to the high stakes involved and they are not taking any chances with matters of peace. The irony is that dictators who are not willing to leave state offices with any form of democracy head most of the counties in the Arab region. Most of the theories have been applied with the view of explaining the unfolding of events in the Arab world so that people can fully understand what is happening in the Arab world. Most of the scholars have developed interest to research on the real causes and the magnitude of the Arab springs since it attracted a lot of interest globally and many people are still baffled. Arab springs There has been an array of mass protest especially in the Middle East and parts of North Africa in search of democracy a condition referred to Arab springs. This has left the power holders and activist across the globe wondering the direction these mass protests would take due to its enormous magnitude and fast speed with which it is spreading. The remaining autocratic countries are left wondering the if these effects would one day come to haunt them and thus citizens always keeps their eyes on television with hope of better future. The basic problems stirring the Arab springs are the same in as much as the countries are different giving a stern warning to dictators that the clock is ticking (Dodge, 2012). Rise of Arab springs saw a process of deep political change in countries where authoritarianism was so immense that it was difficult to challenge due to its continuous persistence. These Arab countries have seen a wave of demonstrations both violent and non-violent in their attempt to make their voices be heard in in their less democratic countries. These has seen great rules like removed out of power forcefully, other resigning and others fighting endless battles with demonstrators in their attempt to cling to power. Countries, which have seen direct impact of Arab springs, include Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Syria among others. These events which began in Tunisia then to Egypt and Libya eventually spread to most of the Arab countries shook the political, economic and intellectual foundations of the middle east and the effects is still felt today. Due to the magnitude of the tremors caused by these springs, no one is certain when this unrest will end or weather a bigger wave of unrest may erupt in other places in the world. According to Al-Turk and Byman (2011), Arab spring was long in in the making as such could not be avoided due to lack of democracy and lack of political transparency. These unrest were instigated by political problems, economic problems, diplomatic problems, social problems and judicial problems thus making them very violent. The stagnation of Arab economies is believed to be the beginning of the endless unrest since most of the citizens were dissatisfied by the way most of their government operate. By the time most countries were evolving from agrarian revolution to industrial economies, most of the Arab states continue to rely on their vast oil reserves as the major source of income. These authoritarian governments ran most of these oil resources with leaders just helping their cronies and majority of the citizens languishing in poverty. The education system in Arab countries was also not good either hence hindered you minds from thinking tactically and this had e negative effect to the economy. While there are a number of schools and universities in the Arab world, most of them lacked efficient curriculum to pass knowledge of modern information age. This led to little human capital and relatively few entrepreneurs leading to over reliance to oil and gas resources, which are equally poorly managed since they largely, benefit regimes and their cronies (Baruchello, 2004). With dwindling economic fortunes, the Middle East has been democratic desert with very few countries showing some elements of democracy, which was equally imperfect. The change in the Arab world was inevitable due to socioeconomic development in the authoritarian states, which were portraying little elements of change. The demographic change in Arab countries cannot be delinked from the Arab springs together with other factors that play a major role in the Middle East development. Between the years 1970 to 2010, the population in the Middle East nearly tripled and this caused a train in natural resources and this made a whopping 41% to live below the poverty index. The employment opportunities in most of the Arab countries are very low, the highest in the world, making the cost of living to be very high in those Middle East countries. The role of the social media in the Middle East is also believed to be one of the factors that initiated the Arab springs witch consequently led to the fall of most states and weakening of several others. The digital media, which include Facebook, twitter, YouTube and text messages made people to share information faster and wider than before making people more aware, more bonded together and hence more ready for revolution. These communication channels enabled people to share their resentments and thus organize themselves to fight ruthless battles with the authoritarian rulers in a more organized manner. This is supported by the fact that there already existed strong criticism of the government in the blogs way back before the uprising and such criticism draw attention from time to time until the outbreak of the uprising. Every day through the social media, the people of the Middle East could watch the luxurious lives of most of their leaders amid continuous poverty they face and this makes them angrier day by day. Through the social media, they could also compare themselves with the kind of lifestyle other people face especially in the west thus justifying their uprising against these governments. Realism Realism is the oldest and most prominent theoretical paradigm in international relations addressing world politics with emphasis on security affairs and its role is of great significance to the society. Political realism believes that objective laws, which should be followed in order to achieve a modest system of governance, in general govern politics, like society. The operation of these laws are always superior to the people and therefore men will only challenge them at their own risk and this is the first principle or realism according to Morgenthau. Since realism believes in objectivity of laws of politics, it also believes in the possibility of developing a rational theory that is in consistent with majority view hence avoids conflicts between individuals and the state. The laws of politics have their roots in human nature and the humans have never changed since these laws were incorporated in the world and it is very hard to change them since they exist naturally. In realism, the theory consist of ascertaining facts and giving them meaning through reason thus their effects directly touch on both international and foreign policy. This is the reason why most statesmen are acting from a foreseeable consequences of their acts therefore it is possible to determine their objectives after such acts are been done. It set politics as an autonomous sphere of action and understanding hence without this theory, international or domestic politics would be difficult to understand or distinguish between political and non-political acts. Foreign policy is characterized by futile and deceptive motives since most of these motives are distorted frequently beyond recognition and this makes them very complicated. This theory also assumes that a statesman acts in the interest of power and this enables a person to predict the action of a states man in the past, present and future with a lot of ease. The good objectives of a statesman cannot give conclusions that his foreign strategies will be ethically good or politically succeed therefore judging somebody’s motive cannot help predict the chances of success. Therefore, this implies that a statesman can be motivated by the desire to improve the world but makes it worse and in attempt to achieve one goal, he may get something very different. This is evident in Neville Chamberlain whose politics of appeasement were driven by good motives aimed at achieving peace and yet his policies made the Second World War inevitable resulting to death of millions of people. The same can also be said about Winston Churchill whose motives were directed narrowly to national development yet his policies brought many international conflicts (Morgenthau, 2012). Good motives give assurance against deliberately bad policies, which can have negative effects to the people in a particular state. The contingent elements of personality, prejudice, and subjective preference, and of all the weaknesses of intellect and will which flesh is their moves, which are in most cases strange, the conduct of the Indochina War by the United States suggests that possibility. It is a question worth looking into whether modern psychology and psychiatry have provided us with the conceptual tools, which would enable us to construct, as it were, a counter-theory of irrational politics, a kind of pathology of international politics (Dodge, 2012) Applying realism in Arab spring Some scholars believe that the Arab springs are inspired by the west in their attempt to gain their own selfish interest in the oil rich Arab world so that they can have a say in the management of those oil fields. This belief is supported by the attack on Libya by some western countries including France who sent their troops directly to help the rebel fighters to ouster their president. America is also believed to have done its part in the Arab spring though not directly but through some indirect means. This they argue that is motivated by French selfish interest in the region under the guise of promoting democracy in the Arab region and removal of dictator. Since realism is concerned with the application of rules which are determined by the society, it highly applicable in the Arab spring. The necessities needed by the people should be adequate to an extent that they lack it because they will demand of it to be provided, as it should be. Most of the Arab states had a lot of gas and oil deposits hence they lacked the will to provide good quality services to the people, which necessitated intellectual thinking consequently leading to the overthrow of the government. Most of the leaders in the Middle East are guided by selfish interest instead of working for their people who often languish in poverty as from them and their cronies enjoy lavish lifestyles. Most of these leaders rose to power through military coup hence are not willing to promote democracy and thus mercilessly destroying opposition. This selfishness of leaders leads to dissatisfaction of their leadership, which is believed to have fuelled the uprising with the main aim of promoting democracy and good leadership. Liberalism In liberalism, the states are embedded in domestic and international civil society and this impact many constraints in their actions that may cause many distractions due to several forces at play. Liberalism has an advantage over realism in that it can predict progressive historical change and substantive content of policy and this can provide more empirical testing of liberal and realist hypothesis against one another (Maffettone, 2010). Liberalism is a theory, which is largely practiced in the west due to its significance to their economy and social wellbeing of the citizens. It gives a country peace since liberalism leads to a lot of understanding, which is vital for the stability of a country against its neighbours (Tate, 2000). Applying liberalism in Arab spring The liberal thinking has largely contributed to the political turmoil witnessed in the Middle East states due to the nature of the civil societies in those countries. Most counties in the Middle East have formed groups and civil societies designed for collective bargaining in order to air t their views. These groups have realised that the government do no operate as expected therefore in their continuous attempts to air their views; their views are often heard. The government refusal to act on the needs of the civil society is believed to be the cause of anger whereby most of the citizens took to the street in an effort to show the government their superiority. The government is initially believed to have undermined the nature and force of the people due to their strong trust in the military. It is later evident that a strong uprising from the people cannot be counteracted by the military alone and this seen when most of these government fall despite military back up. The freedom of communication embed in the social media sites provide a good platform for sharing information across different groups and this leads to a well organised group which is hard to be confronted by the government (Tickner, 2012). Critique of realism insights Realism is concerned with masculine worldview, which is less influential in the context of the current economic and social set up which is highly complicated. Realism as a theory of international relations is based on the fear of the unknown thus leads to stagnation of human kind instead of development. Man is not very individualistic and selfish as portrayed by realistic thoughts as such thought can just lead to negative relations between individuals and states. Such ideas leads to fear for one another and lack of trust between individuals and this leads to a lot of instability both politically, economically and socially (Dyzenhaus, 1996). The fear of one another due to realistic thoughts leads to pilling of weapons of mass destruction, which in turn leads to war between nations. Realistic thoughts doesn’t take into account of human the cooperation of human nature and this is the main cause of conflicts between nations and thus should be avoided. Due to realistic thoughts, the important state actors like EU, UN and other international organizations, which are important for the success of a country. When important state actors are ignored, decisions can be made by individual states, which have a negative bearing on other states (Tahmasebi, 2010). The idea that men and women think differently is highly questionable especially on the matters of international concern with some arguing that thinking is largely detected. In realism, interest is highly determined by power to infuse order to the society and this has negative effects on the politic of the day that may result to instabilities (Assoulin, 2009). The pluralist conception of human nature in wider global perspective combined with the self-interest is harmful to the smooth existence of most of the democratically elected states if left unchecked (Skorupski, 2005). Critique of liberalism insights Liberalism is largely based on social justice and as such, most people would often rise to demand their rights economic, social and political even in circumstances such rights might not be availed. The members of the civil society and other privately constituted groups should be checked while they are controlling their private interest so that they do not cause a lot of mayhem in the country (William, 2008). The relationship between liberals and the state is always not that good and thus is likely to promote selfish vested interest. The understanding between the government and the liberals tricky to maintain in permanent state hence it is characterised with a lot of mistrust. Liberalism is full of conservative views, which are not health to the development of most countries (Ingrid, 2004; Baruchello, 2004). Liberals are also individualistic in ethics approach making view that therefore is viewed as demanding a lot of self-sacrifice, which may not be available to most of the democracies. The demands by liberals are always so many that it is often difficult to fulfil so this brings a lot of unease in the management of the political system. Such demands are not always met and this may lead to a lot of political unrest in the country (Beck and Huser, 2012; Schiff, 2010). Better method based on their weakness The better theory is realism because its weaknesses are not as great as that of liberalism in the face of international politics and thus is quite applicable in the Arab uprising. In realism, it is concerned with ascertaining facts, which are often difficult to ascertain if such a principle it most appropriate for the economically weak middle east. The concept of interest defined through power may not have much negative effects to individual groups and this is better than in the case of realism. In realism, the intentions of the political leaders are not easy to recognise, but this has little effect on the population since most of them are less concerned with the motives of the state actors. References Al-Turk, A and Byman, D.L. 2011. The Arab Awakening: America and the Transformation of the Middle East. Washington, D.C: Brookings Institution Press. Assoulin, K. (2009). Liberalism as a lifestyle: Interpreting Rorty's way of approaching liberalism. Philosophy & Social Criticism, March 2009; vol. 35, 3: pp. 339-355. Baruchello, G. (2004). Cesare Beccaria and the Cruelty of Liberalism: An essay on liberalism of fear and its limits. 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