Cooperation despite International Anarchy - Essay Example

Cooperation despite International Anarchy Task: Is cooperation possible under conditions of "International Anarchy" - discuss in light of realist and pluralist approaches to international relations. Order: 193932 Deadline: 2007-11-30 21:19 (REVISED) Style: MLA Language Style: English UK Pages: 10+5 Sources: 10 Writer ID: 6746 THE SPHERE OF ECONOMIC TIES OF THE WORLD PROTOCAL International cooperation under the condition of anarchy, either under the umbrella of the stately protocol or volunteering services from the peace seekers is only possible if strategic action plan retains an honest goal of international symbiosis. World peacekeeping forums argue that global conflict and disagreement are resolved through peaceful means rather than through coercion or war. Its most important aspect is that it recognizes that there are different types of political issues which need different types of institution to deal with them. The necessary consensus on rules and values should not unnecessarily limit different groups and individuals within society in their value decisions. According to the principle of realists' movement, everything that need not be regulated within the general framework should be left to decide for subordinate groups and, in turn, to individuals to guarantee them a maximum amount of freedom. Proponents of pluralism argue that this negotiation process is the best way to achieve the common good: since everyone can participate in power and decision-making and can claim part of the ownership of the results of exercising power "Black, Bob (1997). Anarchy after Leftism." There can also be widespread participation and a greater feeling of commitment from society members, and therefore better outcomes. By contrast, few members make an authoritarian or oligarchic society, where power is concentrated and decisions. This School of thought holds that while the international system is anarchical, order can be promoted through diplomacy, international law and society. This school thus gives credence to establishing intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations. The idea of international cooperation despite the unpredictable elements of anarchy can be viewed in the existence of the United Nations. Economic and Social Council, ECOSOC assists the General Assembly in promoting international economic and social cooperation and development "Basic Facts About The United Nations", By United Nations (2004) ISBN 9211009367." Since 1998, it directs to make decision of the key committees of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Their function includes information gathering, advising member nations, and making recommendations. International relations, in general focus the foreign affairs and global issues among states within the international system, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and multinational corporations (MNCs). It seeks to analyze as well as formulate the foreign policy of particular states. International Relation draws upon such diverse fields as economics, history, law, philosophy, geography, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and cultural studies. It involves a diverse range of issues, from globalization and its impacts on societies and state sovereignty to ecological sustainability, nuclear proliferation, nationalism, economic development, terrorism, organized crime, human security, and human rights. REALISM AS THE VEHICLE OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATIONS Realism chiefly denies that states seek to cooperate. Early realists such as E.H. Carr, Daniel Bernhard and Hans Morgenthau argued that states are self-interested, power-seeking rational actors, who seek to maximize their security and chances of survival. Realists previewed World War II as the vindication of their theory. They advocate that the current international system sustain by growing interdependence; the mutual responsibility and dependency on others. Globalization, in particular plays vital role with international economic interaction. The role of international institutions, and widespread acceptance of a number of operating principles in the international system, reinforces ideas of such interdependency. In the context of international relations encompasses a variety of theories and approaches, all of which share a belief that states are primarily motivated by the desire for military and economic power or security, rather than ideals or ethics. Sovereigns protect their own interests by threatening one another with military, economic, or political aggression. Power politics is essentially a way of understanding the world of international relations; nations compete for the world's resources and it is to a nation's advantage to be manifestly able to harm others. It prioritizes national self-interest over the interest of other nations or the international community. Techniques of power politics include, but are not limited to, conspicuous nuclear development, pre-emptive strike, blackmail, the massing of military units on a border, the imposition of tariffs or economic sanctions, bait and bleed and bloodletting, hard and soft balancing, buck passing, covert operations, and asymmetric warfare. Advocates of this school argue that Realism is not applicable to democratic states' relations with each another, as their studies claim that such states do not go to war with one another. However, Realists and proponents of other schools have critiqued both this claim and the studies which appear to support it, pointing out that its definitions of 'war' and 'democracy' must be tweaked in order to achieve the desired result. Some say the international system is anarchic. Hence, there is no authority above states capable of regulating their interactions; states must arrive at relations with other states on their own, rather than it being dictated to them by some higher controlling entity. However we can't disagree the existence of the world governments system. PLURALIST APPROACH OH INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS The political theory of pluralism holds political power in society, which does not lie with the electorate but is distributed between a wide numbers of groups. These groups may be trade unions, interest groups, business organizations, and any of a multitude of formal and informal coalitions. A 'pluralist democracy' in the preview of international ties describes a political system where there is more than one center of power. Democracies are by definition pluralists as democracies allow freedom of association "Legitimacy and Force, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, page 229." UN members have shown reluctance to achieve or enforce Security Council resolutions. Such failures stem from the UN's intergovernmental nature - in many respects it is an association of 192 member states who must reach consensus. There are notable serious security failures. Prime among them is the failure to prevent the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which resulted in the killings of nearly a million people, due to the refusal of Security Council members to approve any military action. Failure of UNSC Resolution 1291, to intervene during the Second Congo War, which claimed nearly five million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo is another live example of its shortcomings. The 1995 Srebrenica massacre for refugees that assigned 600 Dutch peacekeepers to protect it, failure to deliver food to starving people in Somalia, which was instead seized by local warlords, failure to implement provisions of United Nations Security Council Resolutions related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, failure to prevent Darfur genocide and the Iraq War in 2003 are remarkable instances. International Relations strive to formulate a distribution of power in which two states have the majority of economic, military, and cultural influence internationally or regionally. Often, spheres of influence would develop. For example, in the Cold War, most Western and democratic states would fall under the influence of the USA, while most Communist states would fall under the influence of the USSR. After this, the two powers will normally maneuver for the support of the unclaimed areas. One of the major implications of an international system with any number of poles, including a multipolar system, is that international decisions will often be made for strategic reasons to maintain a balance of power rather than out of ideological or historical reasons. The 'Concert of Europe,' a period from after the Napoleonic Wars to the Crimean War, was an example of peaceful multipolarity when the great powers of Europe assembled regularly to discuss international and domestic issues Those claiming that the world is multipolar fall into two main camps. A "superpower is something of the past" view holds that the USA and USSR in the Cold War were in fact superpowers, but argues that due to the complex economic interdependencies on the international scale and the creation of a global village, the concept of one or more states gaining enough power to claim superpower status is antiquated. The rival view is that even throughout the Cold War, neither the USA nor the USSR were superpowers, but were actually dependent on the smaller states in their "spheres of influence." In democratic politics, pluralism is a guiding principle which permits the peaceful coexistence of different interests, convictions and lifestyles. In this context, it has normative connotations absent from its use to denote a theoretical standpoint. Pluralism acknowledges the diversity of interests and considers it imperative that members of society accommodate their differences by engaging in good-faith negotiation "Hans J. Morgenthau, Scientific Man vs. Power Politics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1946." . HISTORIC DEMAND OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION The stated aims of the United Nations are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress and human rights issues. The United Nations was founded in 1945 to replace the League of Nations, in the hope that it would intervene in conflicts between nations and thereby avoid war. The UN is financed from assessed and voluntary contributions from member states. The 1945 UN Charter envisaged a system of regulation that would ensure the least diversion for armaments of the world's human and economic resources. The advent of nuclear weapons came only weeks after the signing of the Charter and provided immediate impetus to concepts of arms limitation and disarmament. In fact, the resolution of the first meeting of the General Assembly on 24 January 1946 was entitled 'The Establishment of a Commission to Deal with the Problems Raised by the Discovery of Atomic Energy'. It called upon the commission to make specific proposals for the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and of all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction United Nations, Divided World- "The UN's Roles in International Relations" edited by Adam Roberts and Benedict Kingsbury, Oxford University Press; 2nd edition (January 1, 1994); Pp 30-75." UN peacekeepers are sent to regions where armed conflict has recently ceased to enforce the terms of peace agreements and to discourage combatants from resuming hostilities. Since the UN does not maintain its own military, peacekeeping forces are the volunteering arm forces from the member states of the UN. POLITICAL THEORIES OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION Post left anarchy is a recent current in anarchist thought that promotes a critique of anarchism's relationship to traditional leftist. They seek to escape the confines of ideology in general. It has rapidly developed since the fall of the Soviet Union, which many view as the death of authoritarian leftist existence. Post leftists argue that anarchism has been weakened by its long attachment to contrary leftist movements and single-issue causes such as anti-war, anti-nuclear. It calls for a synthesis of anarchist thought and a specifically anti-authoritarian revolutionary movement outside of the authoritarian leftist milieu. It sometimes focuses on the individual rather than speaking in terms of class and in some cases shuns organizational tendencies in favor of attempts at absence of hierarchy. Similarly, Post Structuralism encompasses the intellectual developments of continental philosophers and critical theorists that wrote with tendencies of twentieth-century French philosophy. In direct contrast to structuralisms claims of an independent signifier, superior to the signified, post-structuralism views the signifier and signified as inseparable but not united. The idea for the UN was espoused in declarations signed at the wartime-allied conferences in Moscow, Cairo, and Tehran in 1943. From August to October 1944, representatives of France, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union met to elaborate the plans at the Dumbarton Oaks Estate in Washington, D.C. Those and later talks produced proposals outlining the purposes of the organization, its membership and organs, and arrangements to maintain international peace and security and international economic and social cooperation. The UN Conference on International Organizations began in San Francisco in 1945. In addition to the governments, a number of non-governmental organizations were invited to assist in drafting the charter. The 50 nations represented at the conference signed the Charter of the United Nations. Poland had not been represented at the conference, but a place had been reserved for it among the original signatories, and it added its name later. The UN came into existence on 24 October 1945, after the Charter had been ratified by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council-the Republic of China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States-and by a majority of the other 46 signatories. That these countries are the permanent members of the Security Council, and have veto power on any Security Council resolution, reflects that they are the main victors of World War II. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), located in The Hague, Netherlands, is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. Established in 1945 by the United Nations Charter, the Court began work in 1946 as the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice. The Statute of the International Court of Justice, similar to that of its predecessor, is the main constitutional document constituting and regulating the Court. The court has heard cases related to war crimes, illegal state interference and ethnic cleansing, among others, and continues to hear cases. Likewise the International Criminal Court, ICC, began operating in 2002 through international discussions initiated by the General Assembly. It is the first permanent international court charged with trying those who commit the most serious crimes under international law, including war crimes and genocide. The ICC is functionally independent of the UN in terms of personnel and financing, but some meetings of the ICC governing body, the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute, are held at the UN. "Think Again: The United Nations", Madeleine K. Albright, Foreign Policy, September/October, 2004." There is a 'relationship agreement' between the ICC and the UN that governs how the two institutions regard each other legally. A GLIMSES ON THE HUMANITARIAN SERVICES The UN Charter obliges all member nations to promote 'universal respect for, and observance of, human rights' and to take 'joint and separate action to that end. The UN and its agencies are central in upholding and implementing the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A case in point is support by the UN for countries in transition to democracy. In conjunction with other organizations, such as the Red Cross, the UN provides food, drinking water, shelter and other humanitarian services to populaces suffering from famine, displaced by war, or afflicted by other disasters. Major humanitarian arms of the UN are the World Food Programme helps feed more than 100 million people a year in 80 countries, the High Commissioner for Refugees with projects in over 116 countries, as well as peacekeeping projects in over 24 countries. The fate lies there when at times; UN relief workers have been subject to attacks. The International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA is an intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical cooperation in the field of nuclear technology. It seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for military purposes "Barry Buzan Regions and Powers 2003; Pp 239-300." The IAEA was set up as an autonomous organization in 29 July 1957. UNESCO, elaborately United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1945. Its stated purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science, and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and the human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the UN Charter. Unfortunately, the UN has been accused of ignoring the plight of people across the world, especially in parts of Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Current examples include the UN's inaction toward the Sudanese government in Darfur, the Chinese government's ethnic cleansing in Tibet, the forced repatriation of North Korean refugees and the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. CONCLUSION: A NEED OF THE HOUR International Relation aims to establish global peace and prosperity reducing the devils of misunderstanding and violence. International Relations from the phenomena itself marches towards world unity and cultural integration including curbing the horror of international issues such as global warming. Though contemporary human rights is considerably different than the type of rights envisioned under natural law, Francisco de Victoria, Hugo Grotius and John Locke offered the first accounts of universal entitlement to certain rights on the basis of common humanity. In the twentieth century, in addition to contemporary theories of liberal internationalism, Marxism has been a foundation of international relations. Free thought cadre of school is the right way to combat world terrorism and to resolve other serious political conflicts as the need of the hour. Realists' schools of thinkers believe that humankind is not inherently benevolent but rather self-centered and competitive. International relations which views human nature as selfish and confliction oriented profile unless given appropriate conditions under which to cooperate suggest we need a system to follow. "The Blackwell Dictionary of Political Science by F Bealey, 1999." Further, they believe that states are inherently aggressive and obsessed with security called defensive realism; and that territorial expansion is only constrained by opposing powers. This aggressive build-up, however, leads to a security dilemma where increasing one's own security can bring along greater instability as the opponents builds up its own arms. Thus, security is a zero-sum game where only relative gains can be made. While the US has a great deal of economic clout and has influenced the culture of many nations, their dependency on foreign investors and reliance on foreign trade have created a mutual economic dependency between developed and developing nations. According to those who believe the world is multipolar, this interdependency means the US can't be called a superpower as it isn't self-sufficient and relies on the global community to sustain its people's quality of life. These interdepencies also apply to diplomacy. Considering the complex state of world affairs and the military might of some developing nations, it has become increasingly difficult to engage in foreign policy if it is not supported by other nations. The diplomatic and economic factors that bind the global village together have created a state in which no nation or union can dominate the others. The most important value is that of mutual respect and tolerance, so that different groups can coexist and interact without anyone being forced to assimilate to anyone else's position in conflicts that will naturally arise out of diverging interests and positions. These conflicts can only be resolved durably by dialogue that leads to compromise and to mutual understanding. Substantially, international cooperation is possible despite anarchy in a global consensus. Thus, it implies the right for individuals to determine values and truths for themselves instead of being forced to follow the whole of society or, indeed, their own group lies in the designs of political strategies. REFERENCES Black, Bob (1997). Anarchy after Leftism. Birmingham: CAL Press, ISBN 9781890532000. Harrison, Paul; 20016; "Post-structuralist Theories"; pp122-135 in Aitken, S. and Valentine, G. ed; 2006; Approaches to Human Geography; Sage, London David, Wilton. United Nations. Etymologies & Word Origins: Letter U. Word Basic Facts About The United Nations", By United Nations (2004) ISBN 9211009367 Legitimacy and Force, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, page 229 Think Again: The United Nations", Madeleine K. Albright, Foreign Policy, September/October, 2004. United Nations, Divided World. "The UN's Roles in International Relations" edited by Adam Roberts and Benedict Kingsbury, Oxford University Press; 2nd edition (January 1, 1994), hardcover, 589 pages, ISBN 0-19-827926-4 The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations, edited by Thomas G. Weiss and Sam Daws, Oxford University Press, July 2007, hardcover, 896 pages, ISBN 9780199279517, ISBN 0199279519 Barry Buzan Regions and Powers 2003 The Blackwell Dictionary of Political Science by F Bealey, 1999 Hans J. Morgenthau, Scientific Man vs. Power Politics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1946. On legal pluralism and communities, see: Gad Barzilai, Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003. Read More