Cooperation and International Society

1
Cooperation and International Society
2
Cooperation

• Mid-level theories
• Williams et al. (2006) all states have a vested
  interest in some kind of cooperative structures
  in international relations (p. 255)
  
• Different ways of viewing those structures

3
Cooperation

• Are this weeks readings fundamentally realist or
  liberal?

4
International Law

• Coplin
• Mainstream view intl law as a constraint on
  state behavior
  
• Coplin argues
• International law is political reality
• socializing force communicating generally
  held ideas about/standards for state behavior

5
International Law

• Coplin
• Framework for analysis commonly held assumptions
  about the state system
  
• Security
• Power
• Minimal system of order among states
• Ways in which traditional or classical
  international law supports these assumptions

6
International Law

• Contemporary challenges to state system
• Transnational or supranational entities vs.
  geographic territory
  
• Questioning the validity of laws in other
  countries
  
• IGOs such as League of Nations or UN
• Human rights role of individual

7
Just War

• Just war
• Limits role of power, military struggle in
  traditional state system
  
• Moral
• Considerations by warriors
• What is right or natural
• Skeptical position that morality cannot or should
  not exist in war
  
• Historical
• Agreed upon rules for behavior existing (if not
  applied)
  
• Geneva Conventions, etc.

8
Just War

• Principles
• Just cause
• Declared by proper authority
• Possessing right intentions
• Reasonable chance of success
• Means proportional to end
• Discrimination legitimate targets
• Proportionality how much force is appropriate
• Bridges theoretical and applied ethics/morality

9
International Law

• aggression is illegal
• use of force is no longer an everyday tool of
  international power politics (Coplin, 2006, p.
  312)
  
• Nuremberg Trial / War crimes tribunals
• Genocide
• War Crimes (violations of laws of war)
• Crimes against humanity (inhumane acts against
  civilian populations during war or not
  persecution on political, racial, or religious
  grounds)

10
International Law

• Stiles Discussion questions (p. 180)
• Were the Nuremberg Trials really a legal
  undertaking or merely window dressing for what
  was essentially the spoils of victory?
  
• To what extent is the Nuremberg experience a
  precedent? In law? In morality? In social
  interaction?

11
International Regimes

• Keohane
• Harmony vs. cooperation
• Cooperation and conflict
• International regime
• Several definitions, one accepted
• sets of . . . Principles, norms, rules, and
  decision-making procedures around which actors
  expectations converge (p. 324)

12
International Regimes

• Keohane
• Formal vs. informal
• Issue-areas
• Facilitate cooperation/agreements
• Arrangements motivated by self-interest of
  states rather than an entity above states
  
• Solve common problems/pursue common interests
• Are international regimes realist or
  idealist/liberal?
  

13
Evolution of Cooperation

• Stable cooperation
• Reciprocity
• Shadow of the future
• Success, varied strategies
• Small cluster of actors
• Discrimination (between those who cooperate and
  those who dont)
  
• Need for central authority

14
Evolution of Cooperation

• What does Axelrods discussion fo cooperation add
  to your understanding of the international system?