Chapter 11Chapter 11Some Understandings of

InternationalismSome Understandings of

Internationalism

Stephen Lewis✦ ...We came out of Rwanda asking

ourselves how it was possible that the world was inert in the face of a hideous genocide that everyone knew was taking place. It is my contention that years from now, historians will ask how it was possible that the world allowed AIDS to throttle and eviscerate a continent...

✦ United Nations Press Briefing

Current Dilemmas

✦ Continuing with this line of thinking...

✦ People are being displaced and wiped out through government initiatives around our world.

✦ Do these actions require world involvement or are they local issues?

Understandings of Internationalism

✦ A Larger Community

✦ Hegemonic Internationalism

✦ Revolutionary Internationalism

✦ Liberal Internationalism

Pinky and the Brain

✦ World Domination video

Hegemonic Internationalism

✦ Hegemony - means exerting a dominating influence over other groups or societies

✦ Colonialism

✦ Imperialism

✦ Even today, many people believe that international security and prosperity are best achieved when certain nation-states assert a leading role

Shaping the Modern World

✦ hegemonic internationalism has

✦ reflected in language and culture

✦ international communication - prevalence of English

✦ colonization - also played a major part

Hegemonic Control

✦ Are you subject to hegemony?

✦ In what ways are you made to think that “the way things are is the way they ought to be”?

✦ Can you think of possible examples?

Just a thought...

The way I see itIsn't necessarily

The way you see itOr the way it is

Or the way it ought to beWhat's more important

It's that we're allLooking for it

And a way to see itDesi Di Nardo

and another...

So what?✦ In what ways are YOU being

influenced to do...

✦ think

✦ act

✦ believe

✦ live

Revolutionary Internationalism

✦ History extending back to the American and French Revolutions

✦ recent times: Ernesto “Che” Guevara

✦ Ayatollah Khomeini

✦ Created political and economic alliances as well as modern nation-states, war and - indirectly - the threat of nuclear war

Investing in the Model

✦ Time Management

✦ Why do we learn to organize and run our lives efficiently?

✦ Become workers in an economy that needs our labour to re-create itself

Why does education exist?

Here is an example of buying into the model...

Are there any legitimate arguments against mass schooling?

Education✦ The single best investment you can make

in your life but how do YOU exactly define a GOOD education?

✦ Think about it - it is harder to answer than you probably assume

✦ there are many factors that go into how teachers decide to teach certain information and this scares many people

Believing in Revolution

✦ A revolution (“a turn around”) is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that take place in a relatively short period of time

✦ Complete change from one constitution to another

✦ Modification of an existing constitution

Liberal Internationalism

✦ At its core the optimistic belief that, through greater interaction and co-operation between peoples, a common purpose will evolve

✦ Primarily to create wealth and peace, and it often is assumed that one would lead to the other

✦ Politically - creations of organizations (UN - 1945)

✦ Economically - regional trading blocs

Humanitarian Efforts

✦ Actions by nation-states and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to improve the welfare of people in poorer countries

✦ Responsibility vs. Sustainability

✦ Funding/Implementation Issues

Economic Issues

✦ General assumption that interaction and co-operation is on equal terms and is mutually beneficial

✦ Critique - is that robust economies have an advantage

✦ Donor-Country values - imposed on recipient countries

Does aid work?

✦ Article from “Dead Aid” by Dambisa Moyo

✦ Does our world need to ‘give’ less and instead ‘offer’ opportunities for economic development?

Social Responsibility

Man versus Machine

✦ Are we convinced that individuals need to make major changes in our lives?

✦ Lights

✦ Recycling

✦ Automobiles

✦ Versus - an structural problem that forces us to believe that small changes actually create sustainable progress?

Motivation behind Internationalism

✦ Self-Determination

✦ Humanitarianism

✦ Global Citizenship

✦ Peacekeeping and Peacemaking

✦ Peace and Security

✦ Economic Stability

Self-Determination✦ The ability and desire of a nation to fulfill its

people’s economic, social, cultural and political needs so that the nation can continue to exist and grow

✦ 1980, World Council of Indigenous Peoples

✦ seeks to ensure fair and just treatment, united voice, for over 370 million people worldwide

Humanitarianism✦ Belief in our common humanity

✦ The idea of moral imperative - the right thing to do

✦ much of humanitarian action relates to assisting other nations with long-term economic and social development rather than short-term crises

Global Citizenship

✦ To what extent do we have responsibilities to others around our globe?

Peacekeeping✦ Peacekeeping - is preventing further conflict between

parties

✦ Monitor the implementation of the ceasefire

✦ Oversee the resolution of the conflict

✦ Promoting security

✦ disarming opponents & training local police forces

✦ repatriating refugees & delivery of humanitarian relief

✦ supporting elections & strengthening rule of law

http://www2.ucdsb.on.ca/athens/doors/Maps.jpg

Peace and Security✦ Security alliance organizations aim to provide member nations with

greater ability to maintain secure borders

✦ Greatest security threats of 21st century

✦ continued poverty & environmental degradation

✦ terrorism

✦ civil war

✦ conflict between states

✦ proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs)

✦ organized crime

Motivation against Internationalism

✦ Political Stability

✦ Isolationism

✦ International Involvement in the Iraq War

✦ Rwanda Revisited: The Role of the International Community

American Isolationism

✦ Isolationism - a foreign policy in which a nation-state chooses not to become involved in the affairs of other nations, either militarily or through trade

✦ historical reluctance to become involved in European conflicts

✦ commerce, shipping and the growth of international trade encouraged US engagement internationally

Involvement in Iraq✦ 11 September 2001 - assaults on the

WTC and Pentagon were unprecedented attacks on American soil

✦ punish and deter further terrorism - attack Afghanistan (harbouring Al Qaeda fighters)

✦ November 2002 - broadened its “war on terror” to include Iraq

Canada’s Position✦ We argued that a multilateral approach

through the United Nations was key to enhancing the international legitimacy of military action and would make it easier after the war was over

✦ PM Jean Chretien, 8 April 2003

✦ Do you agree with PM Jean Chretien’s statement?

Rwanda Revisited:✦ Had the UN Security Council

acknowledged that what was happening was genocide, it would have been legally obliged to act

✦ France, Belgium, USA declined to intervene

✦ UN Assistance Mission to Rwanda [UNAMIR] was not given a mandate to intervene or use force

Where does this all lead?

✦ Global Interaction:

Assignment

✦ The Motives for International Involvement

✦ First Part Today