CHAPTER 2: THE CENTRALITY OF THE STATE

Theory, Worldviews, and Human Rights

International relations theory describes, explains, analyzes, and predicts world affairs. Theory provides a framework for examining and

simplifying the complicated nature of international relations by positing assumptions and propositions that guide analysis.

International relations theory, while more formal and academic, approximate widely held worldviews about which actors are important in international relations and what processes determine, influence, or drive their behavior.

Types of Theory

Realism: Centers on the exercise of power by states against other states in the international system. Many realists have a very pessimistic view of human

nature, believing that humans, at their essence, are violent, selfish, aggressive, base, and vain. (Morgenthau, Politics Among Nature: The Struggle for Power and Peace)

For them, international relations is characterized as anarchy, defined as the absence of a higher authority in international relations.

For realists, the use of economic capabilities to help others is more likely for self-interested reasons, even if it appears to be for moral and humane reasons.

A special conceptualization of power used by realists is hegemonic power.

Realism cont’d

The role of international (universal) human rights and humanitarian principles in the world of the realist is a marginal one for several reasons. First, states are preoccupied with security internationally and

internally. Second, attention to human rights can be seen a threat to

state security or government stability. Third, even if states decide to pursue human rights through

their foreign policy, human rights often mask other, less “moral” interests, or used to justify their interventionist policies.

Fourth, substantive change internationally and domestically rarely happens nonviolently.

“Might” makes “right” and there is no such thing as a universal good or sense of justice, save for what the powerful say it is.

Liberalism

Liberalism also has many variations but it is fundamentally an economic theory that is very suspicious of government, often seeing government as a necessary evil. Liberals argue that if selfish, competitive,

yet maximally free individuals are allowed operate within the context of a market they will generate the goods and services a society wants and needs at a price they are willing to pay.

Liberalism cont’d.

Two competing schools of liberal thought: Neoclassical liberals see the role of the state to

promote free market values, but with very limited government regulation of the market, unless it is to help the supply (business) side of the economic equation.

Keynesian liberals see the state as an important force for leveling the economic and political playing field and for correcting for market excesses and imperfections. These liberals are influenced by the writings of the British economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) who is widely considered the father of the modern capitalist welfare state.

Liberalism cont’d.

Marxism: For those who hold a Marxian worldview, the liberal embrace of capitalism is problematic. The Marxian approach is also known as

structuralism because it characterizes and defines the central structural feature of the international system as capitalism.

Capitalism is inherently exploitative because a small group of people (the owners/capitalists) benefit at the expense of everyone else (the workers).

The state is merely a reflection of the dominant class and is used by that class to control the masses.

Imperialism

Imperialism (colonialism) occurred when states, controlled by capitalists, scrambled for captive territories to serve as outlets for excess goods and services that cannot be consumed at home.

Neoimperialism/neocolonialism: newly “independent” states had formal sovereignty in that they were now responsible for law and order, schools, health care, and infrastructure, but their resources, markets and labor where controlled by foreign multinational corporations, backed by their powerful home countries.

Constructivism

Constructivism: Used by academics and analysts to explain how the central theories, concepts, norms and values in international relations are socially constructed and change over time. The social and political institutions in world

politics are constructed by human beings and human beings give them importance or relegate them to the trash heap of history.

Heads of State and Diplomacy

An active head of a state is usually a chief executive (a prime minister or president) who makes the big decisions regarding state policy, including the diplomatic recognition of states and whether to accept the credentials of representatives of foreign governments. Have a defining role in summit

diplomacy, either as a precursor to launch lower level negotiations by subordinates or to provide a dramatic conclusion to ongoing negotiations.

Summit Diplomacy cont’d

Several summits are noteworthy for their impact on human rights: The Helsinki Summit was the capstone to the signing

of the Helsinki Accords in 1975. The accords were a series of high level agreements that led to a thaw in the Cold War and put human rights on the international agenda.

The Helsinki Accords also resulted in the creation of a nongovernmental organization called Helsinki Watch to monitor the human rights progress of the signatories, particularly the Soviet Union. Helsinki Watch was the precursor to one of the more important non-state actors involved in human rights diplomacy, Human Rights Watch.

Summits cont’d

Reagan-Gorbachev summits Geneva (1985) Reykjavik (1986)

Washington, D.C (1987) Moscow (1988): Mostly focused on arms control and other security issues, but also on human rights.

The 1997 and 1998 summits between China President Jiang Zemin and President Bill Clinton: President Clinton decided to delink improvements in human rights in the US trade negotiations with China over the renewal of Most Favored Nation (MFN) status. Under trade rules, MFN status states are not allowed to

discriminate among trading partners in terms of tariffs, duties and quotas. States are also supposed to treat all trading partners equally, hence if the US grants China MFN then China has the same trading terms with the US as say, the United Kingdom.

States and the Development of International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

After the states of UN General Assembly adopted the UDHR in 1948, they also adopted the Convention on the Prevention and the Punishment of Genocide (1948).

States moved outside of the UN to redress the atrocities that were committed during World War II, thereby greatly expanding the scope of international humanitarian law (IHL).

In 1949, states codified the expectations regarding the treatment of civilians in international conflict and in occupied territories in four Geneva Conventions. Common Article 3 extended the protection of civilians to

internal conflicts.

States and the Development of International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law cont’d.

States also created international law to address the continuing human rights problems associated with refugees and migrants after the World War II and the onset of the Cold War.

1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (and the 1967 Protocol) and the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness provide the legal framework for the protection of refugees and stateless persons.

States and the Development of International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law cont’d.

Even though important states, such as the US and Russia, are not formal parties to many human rights and humanitarian treaties (including optional protocols), the principles enshrined in the law (whether ratified or not) contribute to the development of customary international law.

Discussion Questions

What is worldview and how does worldview affect the definition and implementation of human rights and humanitarian principles?

Discuss how heads of state can engage human rights and humanitarian diplomacy. Your answer should include the role of summitry in general to the process, and the Helsinki Accords/Summit in particular.

Discuss the role of states in diplomacy and the creation of international law. Your answer should include how the human rights and humanitarian principles have evolved through state actions.