LESSON 3: A HISTORY OF GLOBAL “Not all states are nations.

Not all
POLITICS nations are states.”
Creating an International Order
 What is the difference between
NATION and STATE?
 The world is composed of many
countries or states, all of them having
 STATE
different forms of government.
- In layman’s term, state refers to a
 Some scholars of politics are
country and its government (ex.
interested in individual states and
The government of Philippines).
examine the internal politics of the
- A state has four attributes.
countries.
1. It exercises authority over a
 Other scholars are more interested in
specific population, called its
the interactions between states rather
citizens.
than their internal politics. These
2. It governs a specific territory.
scholars look at trade deals between
3. A state has a structure of
states.
government that crafts various
rules that people (society) follow.
4. Fourth and the most crucial, the
 THE ATTRIBUTES OF TODAY’S
state has sovereignty over its
GLOBAL SYSTEM
territory.
World politics has four key
attributes: - Sovereignty - refers to internal
and external authority.
1. There are countries or states that
are independent and govern  Internally - no individuals or
themselves groups can operate in a given
2. These countries interact with each national territory by ignoring the
other through diplomacy. state.
3. There are international
organizations, like the United  Externally - sovereignty means
Nations (UN), that facilitate these that a state’s policies and
interactions. procedures are independent of the
4. Beyond simply facilitating meetings interventions of other states.
between states, international
organizations also take on lives of  NATION
their own. - According to Benedict Anderson, is
an “imagined community”.
 WHAT ARE THE ORIGINS OF THIS - It is limited because it does not go
SYSTEM? beyond a given “official boundary”
and because rights and
 The nation-state is a relatively responsibilities are mainly the
modern phenomenon in human privilege and concern of the citizens
history, and people did not always of that nation.
organize themselves as countries. - Most nations strive to become
 The nation-state is composed of states.
two non-interchangeable terms.
 - Nation-builders can only feel a challenged the power of kings,
sense of fulfillment when that nobility and religion in Europe.
national ideal assumes an - The Napoleonic Wars lasted form
organizational form whose authority 1803-1815 with Napoleon and his
and power are recognized and armies marching all over much of
accepted by “the people”. Europe.
- In every country, they conquered,
the French implemented the
- Nation and State are closely related Napoleonic Code that:
because it is nationalism that  forbade birth privileges,
facilitates state information.  encourage freedom or religion, and
- In the modern and contemporary ◦
era, it has been the nationalist  promoted meritocracy in
movements that have allowed for government service.
the creation of nation states. - Anglo and Prussian armies finally
- States become independent and defeated Napoleon in the Battle of
sovereign because of nationalist Waterloo in 1815, ending the
sentiment that clamors for this latter’s mission to spread his liberal
independence. code across Europe.
- Sovereignty is, thus, one of the - The Concert of Europe was an
fundamental principles of modern alliance of “great powers”-
state politics. (United Kingdom, Austria,
Russia, and Prussia) that sought
 THE INTERSTATE SYSTEM to restore the world of monarchical,
- The origins of the present-day hereditary, and religious privileges
concept of sovereignty can be of the time before the French
traced back to the Treaty of revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.
Westphalia. - It was an alliance that sought to
- After a brutal religious war restore the sovereignty of states.
between Catholics and - Under this Metternich system
Protestants, the Holy Roman (named after the Austrian diplomat,
Empire, Spain and the Dutch, Klemens von Metternich, who was
France, Sweden, Republic designed the system’s main architect), the
a system that would avert wars in concerts power and authority lasted
the future by recognizing that the from 1815 to 1914, at the dawn of
treaty signers exercise complete World War I
control over their domestic affairs - Until now, states are considered
and swear not to meddle in each sovereign, and Napoleonic attempts
other’s affair. to violently impose systems of
- The Westphalian system provided government in other countries are
stability for the nations of Europe, frowned upon.
until its first challenge by Napoleon - Moreover, like the Concert system,
Bonaparte. “great powers” still hold significant
- Bonaparte believed in spreading the influence over world politics.
principles of the French Revolution
(liberty, equality, and fraternity)  INTERNATIONALISM
to the rest of Europe and thus
- The Westphalian and Concert - He believed in a Republican
systems divided the world into government (without kings, queens,
separate, sovereign entities. and hereditary succession) and
- Since the existence of this proposed a system of free nations
interstate system, there have been that cooperated with each other to
attempts to transcend it. create an international system.
- The desire for greater cooperation - Mazzini was a nationalist
and until among states and peoples internationalist, who believes that
called Internationalism. free, unified nation-states should be
- Internationalism comes in different the basis of global cooperation.
forms, but the principle may be
divided into two broad categories:
1. Liberal internationalism - Woodrow Wilson is the United
2. Socialist internationalism States president (1913-1921).
- He became one of the 20th
- The first major thinker of liberal century’s most prominent
internationalism was the late 18th internationalist.
century German philosopher - Wilson saw nationalism, he
Immanuel Kant. forwarded the principles of self-
- Kant likened states in a global determination- the belief that the
system to people living in a given world’s nations had a right to a free
territory. and sovereign government.
- In short, Kant imagined a form of - He became the most notable
global government. advocate for the creation of the
League of Nations.
- Writing in the late 18th century, - At the end of World War I in 1918,
British philosopher, Jeremy he pushed to transform the League
Bentham. into a venue for conciliation and
- He coined the word “international” arbitration to prevent another war.
in 1780 - Wilson was awarded the Novel
- He advocated the creation of Peace Prize in 1919.
“international law”.
- Bentham believed that objective - The league came into being that
global legislators should aim to same year.
propose legislation that would - Ironically and unfortunately for
create “the greatest happiness of all Wilson, the United States was not
nations taken together” able to join the organization due to
strong opposition from the Senate.
- The first thinker to reconcile - The league was also unable to
nationalism with liberal hinder another war from breaking
internationalism was the 19th out.
century Italian patriot Giuseppe - It was practically helpless to
Mazzini. prevent the onset and
- Mazzini was both an advocate of the intensification of World war II.
unification of the various Italian- - On one side of the war were the
speaking mini-states and a major Axis Powers- Hitler’s Germany,
critic of the Metternich system. Mussolini’s Italy, and Hirohito’s
 Japan- who were ultra-nationalist
that had an instinctive disdain for - Friedrich Engels was the co-
internationalism and preferred to author of Karl Marx.
violently impose their dominance - He believed that in a socialist
over other nations. revolution seeking to overthrow the
- It was in the midst of his war state and alter the economy, the
between the Axis Powers and the proletariat “had no nation”.
Allied Powers (composed of the - They opposed nationalism because
United States, United Kingdom, they believed it prevented the
France, Holland, and Belgium) unification of the world’s worker.
that internationalism would be
eclipsed.
- Marx died 1883, but his followers
 MOST POPULAR INTERNATIONAL soon sought to make his vision
ORGANIZATIONS concrete by establishing their
international organization.
 World Health Organization - The Socialist International (SI) was a
 International Labour union of Europe socialist and labor
Organization parties established in Paris in 1889.
- The SI collapsed during the World
War I as the member parties
- Karl Marx was a German socialist refused or were unable to join the
philosopher. internationalist efforts to fight for
- He was also an internationalist but the war.
differed from the former because he - As the SI collapsed, a more radical
did not believe in nationalism. version emerged
- He believed that any true form of
internationalism should deliberately
reject nationalism, which rooted - In the so called Russian Revolution
people in domestic concerns of 1917, Czar Nicholas II was
instead of global ones. overthrown and replaced by a
- Instead, he placed a premium on revolutionary government led by
economic equality; he did not divide the Bolshevik Party and its leader,
the world into countries but into Vladimir Lenin.
classes - This new state was called the Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics, or
 THE TWO CLASSES (by Karl Marx) USSR.
- The Bolshevik did not believe in
Capitalist Class
 obtaining power for the working
- Referred to the owners of the class through elections.
factories, companies, and other - They exhorted the revolutionary
“means of production” “vanguard” parties to lead the
 Proletariat Class revolution across the world, using
- Included those who did not own the methods of terror if necessary.
means of production, but instead, - Lenin established the Communist
worked for the capitalist. International (Comintern) in 1919.
- This Comintern served as the
central body for directing
Communist parties all over the
world.
- This International was not only more
radical than the Socialist
International, it was also less
democratic because it followed
closely the top-down governance of
the Bolsheviks.

- A problem arouse during World War

II when the Soviet Union joined the
Allied Powers in 1941.
- United States and United Kingdom
wondered if the Soviet Union was
trying to promote revolutions in
their backyards.
- To appease his allies, Lenin’s
successor, Joseph Stalin, dissolved
the Comintern in 1943.
- Stalin re-established the Comintern
as the Communist Information
Bureau (Cominform).
- The Cominform like the Comintern
before it helped direct the various
communist parties that had taken
power in Eastern Europe.
- The SI manage to re-establish itself
in 1951, but its influence remained
primarily confined to Europe, and
has never been considered a major
player in international relations to
this very day.