Chapter One

1
Chapter One

• Exploring Twenty-First-Century
• World Politics

2
Important Aspects of World Politics

• global political system
• Cold War
• September 11, 2001--a transforming event?
• states in the international system
• anarchy in the international system
• cycles of world politics

3
How Perceptions Influence Images of Reality

• schematic reasoning information interpreted
  according to genetic scripts, metaphors, and
  stereotypical characters
• cognitive dissonance tendency to deny
  discrepancies between preexisting beliefs and new
  information
• constructivism mental maps inevitably shape
  attitudes about, and images of, world politics

4
Factors Influencing Perceptions in World Politics

• our psychological needs, drives, dispositions
• our views of international affairs
• images advanced by leaders and groups
• our images of world history
• opinions of close associates
• attitudes of respected pundits/policymakers
• our positions and roles

5
Ideology

• a set of core philosophical principles that a
  group of leaders and citizens collectively holds
  about politics, the interests of political
  actors, and the way people ought to ethically
  behave.
• Ideologies affect how adherents view and
  interpret world politics

6
The Role of Images in World Politics

• Soviet fear of foreign invasion
• American isolationism pre-1941
• mutual misperceptions fuel discord in world
  politics
• mirror images United States and Soviet Union
  during the Cold War
• images can change Vietnam War and utility of
  military force

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Map 1.1 Mercator Projection
M A P 1 . 1 Mercator Projection This Mercator
projection, named for the Flemish cartographer
Gerard Mercator, was popular in sixteenth-century
Europe and presents a classic Eurocentric view of
the world. It mapped the Earth without distorting
direction, making it useful for navigators.
However, distances were deceptive, placing Europe
at the center of the world and exaggerating the
continents importance relative to other
landmasses. Europe appears larger than South
America, which is twice Europes size, and
two-thirds of the map is used to represent the
northern half of the world and only one-third the
southern half. Because lines of longitude were
represented as parallel rather than convergent,
this projection also greatly exaggerates the size
of Greenland and Antarctica.
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Map 1.2 Peters Projection
M A P 1 . 2 Peters Projection In the Peters
projection, each landmass appears in correct
proportion in relation to all others, but it
distorts the shape and position of the earths
landmasses. In contrast with most geographic
representations, it draws attention to the
less-developed countries of the Global South,
where more than three-quarters of the worlds
population lives today.
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Map 1.3 Orthographic Projection
M A P 1 . 3 Orthographic Projection The
orthographic projection, centering on the
mid-Atlantic, conveys some sense of the curvature
of the Earth by using rounded edges. The sizes
and shapes of continents toward the outer edges
of the circle are distorted to give a sense of
spherical perspective.
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Levels of Analysis

• individual human characteristics--perceptions,
  images, knowledge, psychology
• state how states make decisions economic power
  military power domestic factors
• global interactions of states and nonstate
  actors at the international level that affect
  conflict and cooperation

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Important Concepts

• Global North wealthy industrialized countries,
  primarily in the Northern Hemisphere
• Global South less-developed countries, primarily
  in the Southern Hemisphere
• global agenda primary issues, problems, and
  controversies of world politics
• politics Who gets, what, when, how, and
  why?--Harold Lasswell

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Important Concepts, continued

• great powers and nonstate actors
• low politics global economic, social,
  demographic, and environmental issues
• high politics issues related to the military,
  security, and political relations of states
• state sovereignty states equal under
  international law a states government is
  highest authority within its borders

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Important Concepts, continued

• globalization integration of states through
  increasing contact, communication, and trade,
  creating a single global system that binds people
  together declining importance of boundaries and
  barriers
• interdependence the quality of life in one state
  is dependent upon conditions within other states
  and the activities of other states

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Important Concepts, continued

• United States as global hegemon
• geo-economics the relationship between geography
  and economic conditions
• geopolitics the relationship between geography
  and politics distributions of military power
• human rights political rights and civil
  liberties recognized as inalienable

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Important Concepts, continued

• limits-to-growth proposition Earth has a limited
  capacity to support life many will die if it is
  exceeded
• sustainable development management of resource
  use such that the long-term health and
  productivity of Earth is maintained
• gross national product the total monetary value
  of all goods and services

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Discussion

• In what ways can perception distort reality?
  Examples?
• What are important ideologies and how do they
  view world politics?
• Apply the levels of analysis to a recent event.

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Discussion, continued

• Apply Lasswells Who gets, what, when, how, and
  why? to explain one domestic event and one
  international event.
• How can environmental problems be simultaneously
  local and global?
• In what ways has globalization affected you?