Tutorial 1 Causes of Global Conflicts

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Tutorial 1 Causes of Global Conflicts

• Readings
• Questions Answers

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P.M.H.Bell, The World since 1945 An
International History pp 531 - 547

• Ch 24
• Motivation Why do states and peoples act as they
  do?

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1) What are some of the causes of conflicts
stated by PMH Bell in this chapter?

• National interest
• Internal politics pressure
• Economic advantage
• Prestige
• Ideologies
• Nationalism
• Religion
• Historical baggage

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2) National interest usually refer to security?
What are the 3 components in the safety of the
state? Are they of equal importance? Why?

• Security the safety of the state, including its
  independence, its territory and the lives of its
  people.
• No, in war, lives are sacrificed to secure
  independence, and in extreme circumstances
  countries will surrender territory or even
  independence rather than incur unacceptable loss
  of life.

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3) Give examples of how countries which put its
citizens lives above loss of independence
territory. Do you think that should be the way a
government should respond in a serious conflict?
Explain your answer.

• Egs. Denmark in 1940 surrendered to Germany
• Baltic states Latvia, Estonia Lithuania
  accepted Soviet annexation.

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4) What could stop American presidents from
pursuing their national interest?

• Constraints applied by Congress, the mass media
  and public opinion.
• 5) What did President Truman use to get
• support from the US Congress to
• implement the Truman Doctrine with
• regard to aid to Turkey Greece in
• 1947?
• Whipped up anti-communist sentiments.

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5) Did President Johnson have problem rallying
the masses for the Vietnam War? Why?

• No, very strong anti-communist feelings, cannot
  be accused of being soft on communism as cant
  afford to be the man who lost South Vietnam.

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6) What may cause a government to sacrifice
national interest in its foreign policy? Give egs

• Internal politics pressures / political
  manipulation
• President Johnson of the US had been determined
  not to lose South Vietnam to the communists in
  the 1960s, allowing the effect of the domino
  phenomenon to continue. However, domestic
  opinion was that the war cost too many lives and
  resources, pressuring the United States of
  America to withdraw from the war.
• As a result, the national interest became a
  matter of pacifying opposition at home rather
  than to pursue its foreign policy of containing
  the spread of communism at that time.

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7) How can internal pressure be a cause for
international conflict?

• People had the ability to influence governments
  to forgo their current interests and rather pick
  up an interest that the people think is
  important. In such circumstances, national
  interest might indeed become what some important
  people or group think it is rather than what is
  actually best for the country.
• If a state becomes forced to pursue a misled
  national interest, it might lead to clashes of
  national interests that may be avoided,
  unnecessarily causing international conflicts.

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8) Give two e.gs of the demands of domestic
pressure on governments in politics?

• To save the life of a national condemned by
  foreign court.
• To impose arm embargo on dangerous government to
  secure overthrow of an evil regime e.g. the
  apartheid regime in South Africa.

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9) What ideology caused many global conflicts
between 1920s and 1980s? Why?

• Marxism-Leninism /communism
• Soviet Union claimed that ideology was its raison
  detre and that it was created to fulfill a
  mission spread communism which conflicted with
  liberal democracy capitalism spearheaded by
  America.
• Resulted in a clash of two superpowers leading to
  the cold war.
• Early 1980s 22 states in Asia, Africa Europe
  comprising a third of the worlds population were
  attracted to communism.

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10) What is a state? Political entity, with a
government and a territory defined by specific
frontiers11) What is a nation?group of people
conscious of its own identity.12) Why is
nationalism a more important cause compared to
ideology in global conflicts?Has the strongest
emotional appeal appeals to the heart, commands
emotional commitment capable of long endurance as
well as fierce outbursts. Its appeal is
widespread because it is protean. (very
changeable readily taking on different shapes
and forms) Ideology is usually intellectual
cerebral
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• 10) What is a state?
• Political entity, with a government and a
  territory defined by specific frontiers
• 11) What is a nation?
• group of people conscious of its own identity.
• 12) Why is nationalism a more important cause
  compared to ideology in global conflicts?
• Has the strongest emotional appeal appeals to
  the heart, commands emotional commitment capable
  of long endurance as well as fierce outbursts.
  Its appeal is widespread because it is protean.
  (very changeable readily taking on different
  shapes and forms)
• Ideology is usually intellectual cerebral

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13) How was nationalism manifested during and
after the Cold War?

• Polish nationalism Poland vanished from the map
  from 1795 to 1918 1939 to 1945 and spend over
  40 years under Soviet domination before surfacing
  again.
• Eastern Europe removed themselves from Soviet
  Unions iron grip.
• 2000 the Chechens fought 2 wars to get
  independence but still under Russia
• Sri Lanka Sinhalese versus Tamil separatists
• 1960s Cyprus Enosis (Union with Greece)

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14) How is economic advantage a cause of conflict
between nations?

• to maintain or increase wealth or escape from
  poverty.
• setting up tariffs to protect home industries and
  agriculture, by securing control of raw materials
  or be attempts of poor countries to attract aid
  or to cancel their debts.
• 1960 Western Europe could buy oil from the
  Soviet Union more cheaply than elsewhere, but was
  dissuaded by the USA from doing so. Why?
• To persuade them not to become too dependent on
  imports from the enemy in the Cold War,
  increase soviet revenues.
• 1980s Europeans bought natural gas from Siberia
  despite American arguments.

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15) How did Singtels buying of Thailand
Indonesias telecom company bring Singapore into
conflict with Thailand Indonesia? 16)What had
caused the Thai Indonesia public to react that
way?

• 17) Think of other egs where economic
• interests come into conflict with
• domestic pressure, prestige and forces
• of nationalism.

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18) Why is prestige not a worthy cause for a
state to come into conflict with another country?

• Unmeasurable
• Done at the expense of providing social services
  at home.
• egs Poor African states must have their own
  national airline countries bid to stage the
  Olympic Games
• 19) Give an eg of prestige which is not
  antagonistic.
• Cultural diplomacy to promote ones language,
  literature and art.

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20) What is a latent force of conflict in the
21st century? Why

• Religion
• Founding of Pakistan - successful demand by
  Jinnah to partition British India along religious
  line and set up of a Muslim state)
• Intra-religious division Majority of Muslims -
  90 are Sunnis versus
• Shiites mostly in Iran, Pakistan India
•  emergence of Islamic fundamentalists
• 1979 Iranian revolution founding of Islamic
  Republic by Ayatollah Khomeni who supported the
  Hezbollah (the Party of God) Hamas (Islamic
  Resistance Movement) fundamental Muslims
• Islamic Fundamentalism - issued fatwa (Islamic
  religious ruling) to kill Salman Rushdie for
  his novel The Satanic Verses.
• Islamic terrorists who die as a result of
  carrying out fatwa can achieve status of martyr

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P.M.H.Bell, The World since 1945 An
International History pp 552 - 565

• The World since the Cold War New Order and Old
  Chaos

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21) What was the most serious conflict which
occurred in the Balkans with the end of the Cold
War?

• Breakup of Yugoslavia (1989) which produced wars
  massacres lasting for 8 years.
• Many-sided conflict
• - Slovenia (Serbs orthodox Christians)
• - Croatia (Catholics with a large no of Serbs
• - Bosnia (Presence of Serbs, large Albanian
  Muslim population)
• 22) What was/were the cause/s?
• nationalism religion

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23) Explain the term Ethnic Cleansing.

• driving out alien peoples to establish areas of
  homogenous population
• 24) How was this manifested in the
• conflict among Serbia, Croatia Bosnia?
• Creation of Greater Serbia Greater Croatia
• Serbs drove out Croats Croats expelled Serbs
  in Bosnia getting rid of the Muslims

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25) What are Basque separatists?

• The radical movement of Basque separatists
  (leftist political party) was organized in 1959
  when the group known as Basque Fatherland and
  Freedom (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna-ETA) broke away
  from the much larger Basque Nationalist Party
  (Partido Nacionalista Vasco--PNV).
• The ETA adopted a policy of armed struggle in
  1968 creating a terrorist separatist group
  operating in the Basque regions of Spain and
  France.

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26) What is a parallel of the Gulf war when Iraq
invaded Kuwait in 1990-1991 in history?

• The German annexation of Austria in 1938
• 27) How did the international community
• show that it was not willing to repeat the
• 1938 mistake?
• United States with 27 other countries
• launched an offensive against Iraq.

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28) State and explain a positive and a negative
impact with the defeat of Iraq?

• Positive eg of collective security the
  international community had come into its own.
• Negative public opinion in several Arab
  countries was for Iraq revulsion against the
  West.

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29) Give egs of conflicts in Africa Asia.

• Africa
• - Somalia a failed state (1991 -?)
• Rwanda (1993-2000) Movie Hotel in Rwanda The
  true-life story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel
  manager who housed over a thousand Tutsi refugees
  during their struggle against the Hutu militia in
  Rwanda.
• Congo (Former Zaire) (1998)
• Sierra Leone (1999 2000)
• Asia little open warfare 3 dangerous crisis
• India-Pakistan over Kashmir
• China-Taiwan
• - North South Korean (pp 562)

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30) Give instances of international cooperation
in the 1990s under the aegis of the United
Nations.

• a) 1992 Earth Summit Rhio de Janeiro
  (environmental ecological problems)
• b) 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in
  Vienna
• c) 1994 World Conference on Population and
  Development at Cairo (Catholics Muslims found
  common ground against secular states)
• d) 1995 - World Summit at Copenhagen on Social
  Development
• e) 1995 World Conference in Beijing on the
  position of women

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31) How beneficial are these world conferences to
the progress of mankind?

• Produced mountains of paper but little by way of
  results.
• Revealed profound division between secular and
  religious countries between rich and poor
  states, which took widely different views on the
  role and rights of women.

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32) Is the United Nations, the guardian of a
world order, effective? So should the UN cease
functioning?

• Between 1991 1995 More than 20 peace-keeping
  operations were undertaken
• A number ended in humiliation eg. 1994
  withdrew from Rwanda without achieving peace
• Somalia 2 UN operations failed.
• Even so, the UN was taking a more active role
  than at any previous time in its history
• Improvement in Sino-Soviet ties (pp 562 563)

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33) What are the challenges facing the world
today? (pp 564)

• USA total unwillingness to accept casualties
  desire to create a global economy working on
  American lines limited by the generally
  inward-looking nature of American society.
• Hesitates between the reality of being the only
  superpower and a reluctance to intervene if the
  costs are high.
• Division between the industrialized and developed
  North and mainly poor South.
• Unrestrained immigration
• Terrorism
• Militant Islam

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34) Why cant the study of international history
be an exact science?

• The mixed motives behind actions of government
  people, reasons of state and national interests
  can often be calculated and predicted.
• However, movements inspired by ideas, beliefs and
  emotions cannot.

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35) Can Singapore be like Switzerland, sheltered
by its traditional neutrality policy, immune from
any external threat? How can she protect herself
just to settle for relative security?

• Ensure military strength
• Alliances
• Neutrality