Political Science 7 – International Relations - Power Point #12

Dr. Tabakian’s Political Science 7 Modern World Governments – Spring 2013

Supplemental Power Point Material #12

LECTURE HIGHLIGHTS (1)

• Washington’s Backyard Dominance

• North-South Capital Flows

• Foreign Debt Is A Political Issue

• American Use Of Trade As Weapon

• Transition To Democracy

• Democracy – Change From Within

• 5 Generalizations Of Democracy

• Roles Of International Organizations

• The United Nations

• The UN System

• Purpose Of The UN

• Structure Of The UN

LECTURE HIGHLIGHTS (2)

• International Law

• The World Court

• Law And Sovereignty: Laws of Diplomacy

• Just-War Doctrine

• Human Rights: Individuals Versus Sovereignty

• Human Rights Institutions

• War Crimes

• Evolution Of World Order

WASHINGTON’S BACKYARD DOMINANCE (1)

Colonialism instilled harsh lessons on Central America that

continued in form from the time independent states were

established in Latin America in the 1820’s. In preparation

for independence, or any other form of internal

revolutionary actions, local elites transferred political

power unto themselves outside control of external powers

stretching from areas like Madrid or Lisbon. Thus, the

channels of control instilled by the colonial period remnant

in social and economic lines of control remained intact.

Remaining prevalent towards the 21st Century, Latin

America remains in constant struggle to determine its own

destiny that has in a way been preordained through violent

colonial subjugation.


Another factor that remains pertinent are the indigenous

people who survived the conquest, recovering their

numbers and still living in nearly all of the regions where

they lived in the eighteenth century. They have also

expanded into new territories, establishing themselves in

urban and industrial societies. There remains segments,

including the indigenous people of Chiapas who are mostly

Mayan who are forced to engage in revolutionary tactics in

order to survive. A rebellion led by the Zapatista Liberation

Front on January 1, 1994 ignited in the state of Chiapas in

southern Mexico. The causes of their struggle are

comparable to a majority of the indigenous population as

well.


Forced to endure hard labor under conditions of servitude

for centuries, their issues to date are primarily the lack of

land available for ownership. It is this reality that forces

indigenous peoples like those in Chiapas to work in

despicable conditions for huge landowners. Seeking

continued financial support from international financial

institutions required Latin American countries to make

structural adjustments to their national economies. In

times, these loans became conditional on such

adjustments, requiring their governments to cut costs and

inflation by enacting fiscal reform, monetary restraint,

cutting back jobs and services in the public sector and

stopping government subsidies for basic goods or

petroleum.


Furthermore, wages were to be frozen in order to check

inflation, thus keeping wage costs at bay in the

increasingly important export industries. The end of the

Cold War brought about a swift disappearance of a strong

bipolar system to one dominated by Western Capitalism

and the United States. In short order, economic policy

recommendations was dominated by the orthodox

capitalist thinking advocated by the United States and her

ally the United Kingdom.


Neoliberalism marched into Central America, emphasizing

key concepts such as the radical reduction of the size of

government and its spending, fiscal and monetary reform,

the liberalization of commerce through the elimination of all

tariffs, allowing foreign investment, privatization and the

elimination of government subsidies for essential

consumer goods. Brought into being in order to prepare

the people for full integration into the global economy and

most importantly, free trading with the West, neoliberalism

further instilled radicalism among those whom revolutions

failed to uplift. This constant trend of rapid assault on Latin

America has not allowed any seedling of stability to take

root among its inhabitants.


Foreign influence, mostly from the United States is widely

acknowledged by Central America as an assault on their

right to determine what road to take in deciding their own

destiny. Centuries of colonization, Latin America’s 500 year

old tradition of rebellion and revolution has not been

terribly kind to its people. There are many factors that

together have ignited revolution and abrupt political

change. In time perhaps there will be a homegrown

ideology that will seek to qualm revolution, instead

preserving peace and promoting prosperity for all. Now

that the Cold War is over, perhaps the United States will in

time cease with the promotion of brutal juntas, instead

encouraging a true people’s revolution for life, liberty and

the pursuit of happiness.


The struggle now pertained to self-liberation, and liberation

from foreign powers. The inherited political and cultural

traditions asserted an authoritarian proclivity, ingraining

itself into the political culture of Latin America. During the

Cold War, the United States sought to preserve stability in

South America, thus often supporting dictatorial regimes in

order to thwart communist influence. Thus, the Cold War

and the Cuban embrace of socialism encouraged the

United States to suppress progressive political movements

during this period.


Encouraging military and civilian allies in Latin America to

think in terms of the national security state, the United

States sponsored counterinsurgency training for their

militaries at the School of the Americas in the Panama

Canal Zone and at U.S. military bases such as those found

at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The end of the Cold War

allowed the world to move out of the western phase as the

focal point moved to the interaction between the West and

non-Western civilizations. Most important was the

transition of non-Western civilizations from colonial targets

of acquisition to being able to join the West “as movers

and shapers of history”.


Samuel P. Huntington argues that the world was divided

unto the First, Second, and Third Worlds. This no longer

pertains, because we should now group countries

according to their culture and civilization. This contrasts to

how we grouped them in the past: according to their level

of economic or political system and level of economic

development.

FOREIGN DEBT IS A POLITICAL ISSUE (1)

Hans Morgenthau asserts that American foreign aid has

been haphazard at best. Its goals may contradict American

foreign policy goals for there has yet to be constructed a

reliable structure for dispersing aid and gauging the needs

of a recipient. There are no concrete standards for

determining a foreign aid policy. Standards need to be set

into place for policymakers to judge whether particular aid

programs will provide real assistance.


There are six types of foreign aid that all have in

common the transfer of money, goods and

services from one state to another.

1. Humanitarian

2. Subsistence

3. Military

4. Bribery

5. Prestige

6. Economic Development


There is a commonly held belief that the most developed

nations have a humane responsibility to assist

underdeveloped nations so that they too are able to invest

in economic development. Aid directed towards economic

development is one of the most legitimate forms of foreign

aid. One can argue that developed nations need to teach

needy states to fish instead of providing continued

sustenance.


A majority of analysts believe that the debt of the Third

World is too big for them to pay back in full. This means

that the debt is now a political issue for the United States

as well as other rich countries. Rich nation-states have to

come to terms with handling this issue for they will be the

ones who have to solve this predicament. Latin America

and other Third World countries are in big trouble for they

have yet to recover from the economic depression of the

1980s, a crisis of the same magnitude if not worse than the

1930s. This has implications for not only the Third World,

but also affects the United States for its interests are so

vast that they will be inflicted with an economic shockwave

that may destabilize its domestic and foreign policies.


Hans J. Morgenthau argues that some poor states are still

in a medieval stage of cultural development. The lack of a

comparable moral and intellectual revolution as what

helped the West achieve economic development may also

be a factor. This does not mean that these states will not

be able to achieve transformation in the future. One billion

people, or more than one-fifth of the world’s population

lives on less than one dollar a day. Western Europe and

the United States surpassed this standard two hundred

years ago.


There are wide ranges of development objectives that

determine the level of economic progress. We identify

seven:

1. Better Education

2. Improved Health And Nutrition

3. Cleaner Environment

4. Less Poverty

5. Equal Opportunity

6. Increased Individual Freedom

7. Prosperous Cultural Environment

AMERICAN USE OF TRADE AS A WEAPON

Trade has always been a tool for American foreign policy.

This policy pursuit became more so following the attacks of

September 11, 2001. Soon after the attacks, US Trade

Representative Robert Zoellick identifies trade expansion

as a tool to America’s fight against terrorism. Capitalism

depends on con-capitalist structures, namely militarism

and imperialism so that it can continue to expand markets

as well as its scope of subjugation.

TRANSITION TO A DEMOCRACY (1)

Many researchers attest that transitions from authoritarian

rule have begun with discord emerging from within military

governments and their relations with bourgeois allies. Most

disagreements have been found to be over economic

problems. The push for liberalization and democratization

would be pushed forward by a reemerging civil society that

may be calling for greater representation due to their

influences with capital development. Constant conflict

developed fissures with gaps developing between those

groups in control. These divisions allowed civil society to

surge into these free areas, enabling coalitions to form

between soft-liners in the state apparatus and those in the

democratic opposition.


Decentralization can also lead to the formation of new

positions of power that local elites staff for the benefit of

clientelistic networks. Two conditions for successful

democratization are:

1. Settled Borders

2. Popular Consensus Supporting Inclusive Definition Of

The Nation


Evidence has shown that nations having more

authoritarian or controlled economies are more prone to

failure than the American economy. Elites show favor

towards formal democracies for they do not see

subordinates as posing much of a threat as their

organizational power base is weak. It also helps that the

most powerful members of the economic elite support the

capitalist economic model. Subordinates living in formal

democracies are especially in favor of the current

economic model.


Theda Skocpol does not equate democratization as

political liberalism or democratic socialism, but rather as an

increase in popular participation in the national life of a

country. This in turn strengthens the core of national stated

ask directed by authoritarian political leaders. A struggle for

power takes place during a revolution where elites

compete for support from groups that had been previously

excluded. This is done by promising material or ideological

incentives. Popular participation is favored as it allows the

forging of organizations that can serve to suppress those

that are somewhat radical. Protracted international warfare

serves as a good rallying call that mobilizes citizen support

in support of a revolutionized regime.


Francis Fukuyama identifies two ways that we can account

for recent waves of democratization. He cites the first as

being economic with a strong correlation between

economic development and a stable democracy. The

second is ideology, which constitutes the most important

explanation for the recent wave of democratization. Most

of the countries that experienced democratic upheavals

had taken place in the past few generations from mostly

agricultural to modern industrial societies with high levels

of urbanization, labor mobility, education and other

pertaining factors.

DEMOCRACY – CHANGE FROM WITHIN (1)

Arguing that external environments encourage states to

become democratic cannot adequately explain why the

Soviet Union fell from superpower status into a consortium

of democratic republics. Threat assessments from within

Soviet society had changed whereas the external

environment did not change significantly. The only change

was from within the Soviet Union in terms of its ideology,

which in turn determines threat assessments. Ideology can

serve as a filter of sorts that helps determine whether a

people are dedicated to peaceful coexistence or war with

other peoples. Distributions of power in the international

system serve only as a second consideration, especially

how the international community reacts to a change in the

internal ideology of a state.


Environmental factors had no influence over the

dismantling of the Soviet empire with its disseverment of

territory, military power, economic resources and

geographical position. The reason for this occurrence is

that its integrating ideologies of Russian nationalism and

Marxism-Leninism have ceased credibility among its

citizens. National unity is still a necessary precondition for

democracy to take root in the former Soviet Union.

Dankwart Rustow has shown that democracy cannot

develop in regions where a common allegiance of beliefs

does not exist.


Francis Fukuyama argues that nationalisms may foster

conflict and instability, but can enter into a period of

maturity when national identities are better defined,

accepted and form a foundation for national unity.

Fukuyama argues that following Word War II that all

modern European nationalism has become “Turkified”

meaning that these nationalisms no longer declare as its

goal to extend its rule over other nations.

DEMOCRACY – CHANGE FROM WITHIN – INDIA (4)

With a long experience as a parliamentary democracy and one

of the world’s fastest growing economies, India’s middle class is

more than 500 million people strong. With professional skills

and employment to match, India’s new middle class is

transforming the country. New industries are springing up to

meet the demands of the Indian middle class, and companies

like Citibank, McDonald’s, and Motorola are increasingly

operating in India. In the 1970s, the Indian economy was widely

criticized for the high level of state intervention and regulation.

While state control of the market kept inflation and budget

deficits low, the “quota-permit-raj” strangled the private sector,

limiting investment and economic growth. The decision to

liberalize the economy in the early 1990s led to a rapid period of

economic growth.

DEMOCRACY – CHANGE FROM WITHIN – INDIA (5)

While a sizable portion of India’s

population continues to live in poverty—

especially in the countryside—a new

middle class has emerged. Multinational

corporations are investing in India,

establishing production facilities and

service sector jobs while simultaneously

producing goods for the new Indian

middle class. But for critics, the

emergence of the Indian middle class has

been accompanied by a breakdown in the

social order, replacing traditional values

with Western consumerism.

IndiasEconomicDevelopment.wmv

DEMOCRACY – CHANGE FROM WITHIN – KENYA (6)

With a gross domestic product per capita of approximately

$1200, an unemployment rate of more than 40 percent,

and almost half the population living below the poverty

line, Kenya is among the poorest countries in Africa.

Extensive government corruption led the World Bank to

suspend aid in 2006, and the International Monetary Fund

has delayed loan distributions to the government pending

successful reform. To what extent are Kenya’s current

problems the result of the country’s colonial experience?

To what extent are they the result of corruption and rent-

seeking behavior on the part of post-colonial leaders?

Such questions are at the heart of the North-South gap.

DEMOCRACY – CHANGE FROM WITHIN – KENYA (7)

Kenya achieved independence from the

British Empire in 1963. From 1963-1992,

Kenya was ruled as a de facto one-party

state. Since 1992, the country has

gradually liberalized and democratized.

Attempting to spur economic

development, the government has

borrowed extensively from the World Bank

and International Monetary Fund, and

public debt currently represents more than

half the country’s gross domestic product.

But corruption remains a major problem

for the government, and the economy has

grown relatively slowly since a nation-wide

drought began in 2000.

NorthSouthGapKenya.wmv

DEMOCRACY – 5 GENERALIZATIONS

Valerie Bruce states that there are five generalization inherent

in the comparative study of democratization that are pertinent

to new democracies as well as all democracies regardless of

when they had taken form. First, high levels of capital

development helps to maintain democracy. Second, political

leaders are needed to create and maintain democracies both

in good times or bad. Third, parliamentary rather than

presidential systems have been found to be more successful

in maintaining democracies. Fourth, issues pertaining to

national and state power structures have to be determined

early on for democracy to survive. Fifth, all democracies,

regardless of their age or fragility are never certain about the

future, but share a common adherence to procedures of

governance that should not change.

ROLES OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS (1)

• Most international conflicts are not settled by

military force.

– States generally refrain from taking maximum

short-term advantage of each other.

– States work together by following rules they

develop to govern their interactions.

– Institutions grow up around rules and states

tend to work through these institutions.


• International norms:

– Sovereignty and respect for treaties.

– However, adherence to norms may vary;

different expectations for normal.

– In times of change, when these norms and

habits may not suffice to solve international

dilemmas and resolve conflict, institutions

play a key role.


• International organizations (IOs):

– Include intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) such as the UN, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as the International Committee of the Red Cross.

– Growth of IOs.

– Global nature of some IOs.

– Regional IOs.

– Global IGOs.

– NGOs – more specialized in function than IGOs.

• Often religious groups are among the largest NGOs.

THE UNITED NATIONS

• State sovereignty creates a real need for such organizations on a practical level – why?

– because no central world government performs the function of coordinating actions of states for mutual benefit.

• State sovereignty also severely limits the power of the UN and other IOs.

• Reserve power to themselves.

THE UN SYSTEM

• UN is a relatively new institution, just over

60 years old.

• Newer is the prominent role it has played

in international security affairs since the

end of the Cold War.

PURPOSE OF THE UN

• Members are sovereign states who give consent to the UN to carry out its mission.

• UN Charter:

– Based on the principles that states are equal under international law.

– States have full sovereignty over their own affairs.

– States should have full independence and territorial integrity.

– States should carry out their international obligations.

– Also lays out the structure of the UN and how it operates.

STRUCTURE OF THE UN (1)

• UN General Assembly:

– Representatives of all states; coordinates a variety of development programs and other autonomous agencies through the Economic and Social Council.

• UN Security Council:

– Five great powers and 10 rotating member states make decisions about international peace and security.

– Dispatches peacekeeping forces to troubled spots.

• UN Secretariat:

– Takes care of the administration of the UN; led by the secretary-general.

STRUCTURE OF THE UN (2)

• World Court:

– Judicial arm of the UN.

• National delegations to the UN, headed by ambassadors from member states, work and meet together at the UN headquarters in NYC.

• Universality of membership:

– 192 members in 2007.

• Five great powers each have a veto over substantive decisions of the Security Council.

• Mechanism for collective security.

HISTORY OF THE UN

• Founded in 1945 in San Francisco by 51 states.

• Successor to the League of Nations.

• Tension with the U.S.

• Increases in membership in the 1950s and 1960s:

– Impact on voting patterns.

• Role during the Cold War.

• Role after the Cold War.

• Currently follows the principle of “three pillars”

– Security, economic development, and human rights.

THE SECURITY COUNCIL (1)

• Responsible for maintaining international peace

and security and for restoring peace when it

breaks down.

• Decisions binding on all UN member states.

• Has tremendous power to define the existence

and nature of a security threat, structure the

response to that threat, and enforce its decisions

through mandatory directives to UN members.

– 1,700 resolutions in six decades.


• Five permanent members:

– U.S., Britain, France, Russia, and China.

• Substantive Security Council resolutions

require 9 votes from among the 15

members, but a “no” vote from any

permanent member defeats the resolution.

– veto power.


• Council’s 10 nonpermanent members rotate onto the Council for 2-year terms.

– Elected (5 each year) by the General Assembly from a list prepared by informal regional caucuses.

– Chairperson rotates among the Council members monthly.

– Meets irregularly.

• Power limited in two major ways:

– Council’s decisions depend entirely on the interests of its member states.

– Although Security Council resolutions in theory bind all UN members, member states in practice often try to evade or soften their effect.


• Military Staff Committee:

– Formal mechanism for coordinating

multilateral military action in response to

aggression.

• Proposed changes to the Security Council

– Japan and Germany.

• Implications for balance.

PEACEKEEPING FORCES (1)

• Not mentioned in the UN Charter:

– Charter requires member states to place

military forces at the disposal of the UN;

anticipated to be used in response to

aggression (under collective security).

– Neutral forces:

• Problematic when one side is

identified as the aggressor (Bosnia).


• Peacekeeping missions

– Authority for these granted by the Security Council for a limited but renewable period of time

– Funds must be voted on by the General Assembly

• Recent missions

– Democratic Congo

– Darfur in Sudan

– Bosnia

– Liberia

– Ivory Coast

– Haiti

• Observing and peacekeeping

• Peacemaking


In 1991, the Somali Government collapsed

and the country fell under control of local

warlords. General Mohamed Farrah Aidid

took control of Mogadishu, the former

capital of Somalia, and maintained power by

controlling UN relief aid. The United Nations

tried unsuccessfully to intervene, and Aidid

maintained control of the region until his

death in 1996. The collapse of the Somali

State, the power wielded by Somali

warlords, and the failure of international

interventions in the country raise questions

about the use of force and the role of the

United Nations in the post-Cold War era.

These concepts are central to the study of

international relations today.

UNinterventionSomalia.wmv

THE SECRETARIAT

• The secretary-general of the UN is the closest thing to a “president of the world” that exists.

– Represents member states.

– Nominated by the Security Council.

• Secretariat is the executive branch of the UN:

– Administers UN policy and programs.

– Develops an international civil service of diplomats.

• Secretary-general:

– Visible figure who often serves as a mediator in international conflicts.

– Works to bring together the great-power consensus.

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

• 192 voting members meet every year, from late September to early January in plenary session.

• Convenes special sessions every few years on topics such as economic cooperation.

• Has the power to accredit national delegations as members of the UN.

• Main power lies in its control of finances for UN programs and operations, including peacekeeping.

• Economic and Social Council:

– Has 54 member states elected by the General Assembly for 3-year terms.

UN PROGRAMS

• Uses more than a dozen major programs to advance economic development and social stability in poor states of the global South.

• Each program has a staff, headquarters, and various operations in the field where it works with host governments in member states.

– UN Environment Program.

– UNICEF.

– Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

– UN Development Program.

– UN Conference on Trade and Development.

AUTONOMOUS AGENCIES

• UN General Assembly maintains formal ties with

about 20 autonomous international agencies not

under its control.

– Mostly specialized technical organizations

through which states collectively address

problems such as health care and labor

conditions.

– International Atomic Energy Agency.

– World Health Organization.

– Food and Agriculture Organization.

– International Labor Organization and others.

INTERNATIONAL LAW

• Derives not from the actions of a

legislative branch or other central

authority, but from tradition and

agreements signed by states.

• Differs in:

– Difficulty of enforcement, which depends

on reciprocity, collective action, and

international norms.

SOURCES OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

• Declarations of the UN General Assembly are not laws, and most do not bind members.

• Treaties and other written conventions signed by states are the most important source.

– Are binding on successor governments regardless of that government’s circumstances

• Custom is the second major source of international law.

• Great principles of law also serve as another source.

• Legal scholarship is a fourth source.

ENFORCEMENT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

• International law is much more difficult to enforce.

– Depends heavily on the reciprocity principle.

– States also follow international law because of

the general or long-term costs that could come

from disregarding international law.

– If a state breaks an international law, it may face

a collective response by a group of states, such

as sanctions.

– One great weakness: depends entirely on

national power.

THE WORLD COURT (1)

• Rudiments of a general world legal

framework found here.

• Only states can sue or be sued in the

World Court.

• Is a panel of 15 judges elected to 9-year

terms by a majority of both the Security

Council and the General Assembly.

THE WORLD COURT (2)

• Meets in The Hague, the Netherlands.

• Great weakness:

– States have not agreed in a comprehensive way to subject themselves to its jurisdiction or obey its decisions.

– Only a third have signed the optional clause in the treaty agreeing to give the Court jurisdiction in certain cases.

• Main use of the World Court now is to arbitrate issues of secondary importance between countries with friendly relations overall.

INTERNATIONAL CASES IN NATIONAL COURT (1)

• A party with a dispute that crosses national borders gains several advantages by pursuing the matter through the national courts of one of the relevant states.

– Judgments are enforceable.

– Individuals and companies can pursue legal complaints through national courts, whereas in most areas of international law, states must themselves bring suits on behalf of their citizens.

– There is often a choice of more than one state within which a case could legally be heard; one can pick the legal system most favorable to one’s case.

INTERNATIONAL CASES IN NATIONAL COURT (2)

• U.S. is a favorite jurisdiction within which to bring cases for two reasons:

– U.S. juries have a reputation for awarding bigger settlements.

– Because many people and governments do business in the U.S., it is often possible to collect damages awarded by a U.S. Court.

• Extradition.

• Immigration law.

LAW AND SOVEREIGNTY: LAWS OF DIPLOMACY (1)

• Bedrock of international law is respect for the rights of diplomats.

• Diplomatic recognition:

– Credentials.

• Diplomats have the right to occupy an embassy in the host country as though it were their own state’s territory.

• Diplomatic immunity:

– Espionage.

LAW AND SOVEREIGNTY: LAWS OF DIPLOMACY (2)

• Diplomatic pouches.

• Interests section.

– When two countries lack diplomatic relations,

they often do business through a third country

willing to represent a country’s interests

formally through its own embassy.

• Formal complaints.

• Terrorism – in this context the law of diplomacy

is repeatedly violated.

– Tempting targets for terrorists.

JUST-WAR DOCTRINE

• International law distinguishes just wars (wars that are legal) from wars of aggression (which are illegal).

• Today, legality of war is defined by the UN Charter, which outlaws aggression but allows “international police actions.”

– Strong international norm.

– States have a right to respond to aggression.

• This is the only allowable use of military force according to just-war doctrine.

• Just-war approach explicitly rules out war as an instrument to change another state’s government or policies, or ethnic and religious conflicts.

HUMAN RIGHTS: INDIVIDUALS VERSUS SOVEREIGNTY (1)

• The idea of human rights flies in the face

of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

• Consensus on the most important human

rights also lacking.

– Rights are universal versus relativism.


• Concept of human rights comes from at

least three sources:

– Religion.

– Political and legal philosophy.

– Theory of natural law and natural rights

(political revolutions brought theory to

practice).


• No globally agreed-upon definitions of the

essential human rights exist.

• Often divided into two broad categories:

– civil-political “negative rights” – free speech,

freedom of religion, equal protection under the

law, freedom from arbitrary imprisonment.

– economic-social “positive rights” – rights to

good living conditions, food, health care,

social security, and education.

HUMAN-RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS (1)

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

– Does not have the force of international law.

– Does set forth international norms.

– Since its adoption, the UN has opened 7 treaties for

state signature to further define protections of human

rights.

• Two important treaties: International Covenant on

Civil and Political Rights and the International

Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural

Rights.

• Convention Against Torture (CAT), 1987.

HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS (2)

• Convention on Rights of the Child (CRC),1990:

– Every country except Somalia and the U.S. has approved it.

• Role of IOs in protecting human rights.

• Today, NGOs play a key role in efforts to win basic political rights in authoritarian countries.

– Amnesty International.

WAR CRIMES (1)

• Large-scale abuses of human rights often

occur during war.

• International law is especially difficult to

enforce during war.

– But extensive norms of legal conduct in

war, as well as international treaties, are

widely followed.

– After war, losers can be punished for

violations of the laws of war.

WAR CRIMES (2)

• Crimes against humanity:

– Genocide.

– International Criminal Court (ICC).

• Universal jurisdiction.

– International Committee of the Red

Cross (ICRC).

• Lack of declaration of wars.

EVOLUTION OF WORLD ORDER

• The most powerful states, especially hegemons, have great influence on the rules and values that have become embedded over time in a body of international law.

– Free passage of the seas and the role of the powerful Dutch in 1600s.

– 20th century – powerful United States of America:

• World too large for any single state to police effectively.

• World goes along but tries to influence the rules themselves.

• New international norms:

– unsettled

Political Science 7 – International Relations - Power Point #12

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