The Historical Context of Contemporary International Relations

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Chapter 2
The Historical Context of Contemporary
International Relations

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Contemporary International System

• Key concepts state, nation, sovereignty, power,
  international state system, balance of power
• Key historical moment 1648, Treaty of
  Westphalia, ending Thirty Years War emergence of
  modern state system
• Secular authority replaced religious authority
• Territorial integrity of states as legally equal
  and sovereign participants in international
  system
• Contemporary international system grounded in
  European-centered Western civilization (as Mingst
  points out, for better or worse, p. 15)
• Important not to overlook other civilizations and
  their impact on international system including
  India, China, Japan, S.E. Asia, Central and South
  America (Aztec, Maya, Inca), Africa (Mali,
  Ghana), among others

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Key Developments Pre-Westphalia

• Greek city-states (circa 400 B.C.)
• Classic power politics, diplomacy, economic
  relations, trade, and military conflict
  precursor of modern state system
• Roman Empire (50 B.C.-400 A.D.)
• Larger, centralized political system through
  imperial expansion empire united through law and
  language
• Middle Ages (400-1000)
• Disintegration of Roman Empire, emergence of
  feudalism in Europe and rise of Roman Catholic
  Church
• Emergence of three major civilizations Arabic,
  Byzantine, remains of Holy Roman Empire
• Late Middle Ages (1000-1600)
• Secular trends undermine decentralization of
  feudalism, universalism of Christianity in Europe
• Commercial activity expands, communications and
  technologies improve
• Emergence of transnational business community,
  revival of classicism, and European territorial
  expansion (principally due to new technologies
  and economic interests)

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Emergence Of Westphalian System

• Treaty of Westphalia (1648) ended Thirty Years
  War (1618-1648) in Europe
• Thirty Years War fought mainly in Germany
  initially conflict between Protestants and
  Catholics (in Holy Roman Empire) grew into
  larger conflict involving major European powers
• European states embraced notion of sovereignty
• States established national militaries
• Established core group of states that dominated
  world until beginning of 19th century

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Sovereignty

• Key theorist French philosopher Jean Bodin
  (1530-1596)
• absolute and perpetual power vested in a
  commonwealth
• distinguishing mark of the sovereign that he
  cannot in any way be subject to the commands of
  another, for it is he who makes law for the
  subject, abrogates law already made, and amends
  obsolete law
• Although absolute, not without limits leaders
  limited by
• Divine law or natural law (laws of God and
  nature)
• Type of regime, constitutional laws of the realm
• Covenants, contracts (with people within
  commonwealth), and treaties with other states
  (with no supreme arbiter in relations among
  states)
• Sovereignty authority of the state, based on
  recognition by other states and nonstate actors,
  to govern matters within its own borders that
  affect its people, economy, security, and form of
  government

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Key Effects of Westphalia

• Sovereignty
• Small states in central Europe attain sovereignty
  (demise of H.R.E.)
• Monarchs inherit religious authority over people
  (sovereign authority, exclusive rights within
  given territory)
• Territoriality, territorial state legitimized
• Right of states to choose religion, determine
  domestic policies free from external pressure
  with full jurisdiction right of noninterference
• State leaders establish permanent national
  militaries and centralize control producing
  ever-more powerful sovereign states with national
  armies
• Core group of states Austria, Russia, Prussia,
  England, France, United Provinces (Neth./Belgium)
  emerge as dominant players
• In west, capitalism emerges private enterprise,
  infrastructure, trade
• In east, feudalism remains, economic change
  stifled
• European politics marked by absolutist regimes,
  multiple rivalries, and shifting alliances

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19th Century Europe Key Principles

• American and French revolutions against
  absolutist rule, Enlightenment thinking and
  social contract theorists, usher in 19th century
• Absolute rule subject to limits imposed by man
• Locke political power rests with people
  monarch/leader/government derives legitimacy
  (moral and legal right to rule) from consent of
  governed
• Nationalism people share devotion and allegiance
  to nation based on shared characteristics, common
  religion, language, historical experience, etc.

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Developments in 19th Century Europe

• Concert of Europe (Napoleon defeated in 1815,
  Congress of Vienna), establishes period of
  relative peace
• Great powers meet periodically (Britain, Austria,
  Russia, and Prussia) to reach agreement on
  problems threatening peace among European states
• Initially aimed at containing France, achieve
  balance of power maintain territorial
  arrangements made at Congress of Vienna
  (1814-1815) kept relative peace for about 40
  years
• Major economic, technological, and political
  changes
• Populations and commerce grew
• Italy and Germany unified Holland split
  (Netherlands, Belgium) Greece, Moldavia, Romania
  achieved independence
• No wars among great powers. Why?

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Explaining 19th Century Peace

• European solidarity
• European elites united by fear of revolution from
  below
• Preoccupied by German and Italian unification
• European states engaged in territorial expansion,
  colonialism Gold, God, Glory (hence,
  competition exported to Africa and Asia)
• Congress of Berlin (1885) divided Africa
• European states controlled 4/5 of world (1914)
• Balance of power
• Out of fear for emergence of hegemon, states with
  relatively equal power formed alliances to
  counteract any potentially more powerful faction
• Breaks down when alliances solidify, two camps
  emerge Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria,
  Italy) and Dual Alliance (France and Russia)
  and conflict between allied states leads to World
  War I

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Key Developments in Interwar Years

• Three empires collapse leading to resurgent
  nationalisms
• Russia by revolution
• Austro-Hungarian Empire by dismemberment
  (Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, parts of
  Yugoslavia and Romania)
• Ottoman Empire by external wars, internal
  turmoil (Turkey)
• Germany dissatisfied with Treaty of Versailles
  (ending WWI) and reparations
• provides climate for rise of Hitler (who finds
  allies in Italy and Japan)
• League of Nations, IGO formed to promote
  diplomacy, economic liberalism, association and
  prevention of future wars did not have political
  weight, legal instruments, or legitimacy to
  fulfill mandate
• Unable to respond to widespread economic unrest
  or Japanese, Italian and German aggression
• Leads to formation of Axis (Germany, Italy,
  Japan) and Allied Powers (U.S.S.R., England,
  France, U.S.)

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Aftermath of WWII Cold War

• Atlantic Charter (U.S., G.B., U.S.S.R.) evolves
  into United Nations Axis powers defeated power
  redistributed, political borders altered
• Key outcomes of WWII
• Emergence of two superpowers U.S. and Soviet
  Union as primary actors (relative decline of
  Europe)
• Fundamental differences in national interests and
  ideology (capitalism vs. socialism) leads to 45
  years of high level tension, competition, and
  crises between the superpowers, but not direct
  military conflict
• Development of NATO and Warsaw Pact
• Gradual end of colonialism
• Cold War competition played out through
  third-parties, clients, proxies throughout the
  entire globe

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IMPORTANT EVENTS OF THE COLD WAR 1
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Cold War Series of Major Crises and Long Peace

• Berlin blockade (1949), Korean War (1950-53),
  Cuban missile crisis (1962), Vietnam War, proxy
  wars in Middle East, Africa, Asia, South/Central
  America
• Why long peace? absence of war between great
  powers? According to Gaddis
• Nuclear deterrence (mutually assured destruction,
  MAD)
• Parity of power (i.e., bipolarity) ? system
  stability
• U.S. economic hegemony ? paid for stability
• Economic liberalism transnationalized politics
  creating interests, coalitions across state
  borders
• Long historical cycles of war (every 100-150
  years) driven by uneven economic growth

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Post-Cold War World

• Change made in Soviet/Russian foreign policy,
  withdrawal from Afghanistan, Angola in late
  1980s glasnost and perestroika
• Explanations for change/breakup of Soviet Union
  Wests preparations for war, military strength,
  strong alliance system Western power and policy
  events within USSR economic, bureaucratic
  failureunclear, probably multiple factors
• Key developments in post-Cold War world (New
  World Order)
• Iraqi invades Kuwait (1990) multilateral
  response unites former Cold War adversaries
• Yugoslavia disintegrates into independent states
  civil war in Bosnia and Kosovo U.N. and NATO
  respond
• Widespread ethnic conflict arises in Central and
  Western Africa, Central Asia, Indian subcontinent
• Al Qaeda attack on 9/11, US war on terror US and
  coalition invades Afghanistan
• US invades, occupies Iraq
• Looking ahead unipolarity, multipolarity
  cooperation or conflict among great powers?

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Discussion Questions

• 1. Why was the Treaty of Westphalia important for
  international relations? What concepts and
  principles informed it? What changes did it set
  in motion? How might contemporary IR be different
  without the Treaty of Westphalia?
• 2. What are the most important reasons for the
  relative peace that characterized
  nineteenth-century Europe? Do you think any
  principles of nineteenth-century European
  politics are applicable to contemporary IR?
• 3. What started the Cold War, and how was it
  different from previous ones within the
  international system? What are its lasting
  effects on U.S.-Russian relations and IR more
  broadly?
• 4. John Lewis Gaddis and other scholars refer to
  the Cold War as the long peace. Do you agree
  with this characterization? Include in your
  response a discussion of Gaddiss assertions.
• 5. Did the end of the Cold War mark the beginning
  of a New World Order, or did it have little
  effect on IR? Draw on your knowledge of history
  and specific contemporary events to support your
  position.