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Week 1

States, nations, countries and


international order
IR- 3 Issue Areas
1. relations between states
2. non-state or transnational relations across
frontiers
3. operations of the international system as a
whole

• Fred Halliday
• Collective actors- groups of individuals with
enough centralized decision-making ability to:
• 1. reproduce their groups over time
• 2. be treated as individuals for the purpose of
analysis
States
• States- political and administrative
organizations that govern territories and
populations
• Skocpol-defines states as a set of
“administrative, policing and military
organizations headed and more or less well-
coordinated by an executive authority”
• Refer to diagram p.11
Sovereignty
• State’s ability:
• To exercise control over the peoples and
territories it claims to rule
• Defend itself against interference by other states
and foreign actors
• So 2 priorities:
• 1. maintain order within the state- police and
bureaucracy
• 2. maintain independence- diplomats and military
4 criteria for Sovereignty
1. Govern over a permanent population
2. Govern over a defined territory
3. Govt. capable of exercising authority over
people and territory
4. Receive recognition from other states and
engage in diplomacy with them
e.g. Islamic State (IS)- not recognised by other
states (and so its sovereignty is not recognised)
and is therefore vulnerable to attack.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04axDDRVy_o

• this video link gives a good summary about the


Rohingya crisis. It demonstrates the plight of stateless
nations. This group does not have a state dedicated
too their protection, and are left vulnerable to attack
by government forces (in this case the Myanmar govt.)
The large-scale ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in
Myanmar since 2017 has been made possible by the
Rohingya's exclusion from the civic national identity
of Myanmar which denies the citizenship on the basis
of their ethnic and religious identity.
Nation
• A nation is a group of individuals who think of
themselves as linked by a shared identity.
• Shared identity can be based on: language,
culture, religion to citizenship
• Nations- do not possess sovereignty
• Nations are often associated with states which
use nationalism to create a sense of unity
amongst their population
• When states use nationalism to unify a state’s
population it can lead to the creation of a nation-
state
Nations and States
• All states and even nation-states:
• Can include groups who do not share the state’s dominant identity
• Cultural and linguistic minorities e.g. France- Basques and Bretons
consider themselves distinct from the main French nation
• Also consider multinational states e.g. Canada (e.g. Pakistani-Canadian
and French-Canadian so “Canadian” is the civic identity while “Pakistani”
or “French” is an ethnic identity)
• Human ability to identify with two or more national groups at the same
time
• Civic nationalism- civic nations tend to be united by their population’s
shared loyalty towards the state (e.g. the Canadian state)
• Civic identity based on citizenship (e.g. you have Canadian citizenship)
• Ethnic nationalism- nations united by the population’s shared loyalty to a
single ethnic, religious or linguistic group
• Nations can exist within or outside states or
be transnational actors (cross the over one or
more international borders) e.g. Kurdistan
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZB9Hqo
HaaU
• Sub-state actors- exist within a single state’s
jurisdiction E.g. The indigenous First Nations
of Canada
• Is a minority a nation?
• what happens when a nation within a
multinational state decides that it wants to
govern itself
• National self-determination
• Can lead to the collapse of multinational
states
• Lead to birth of new states
Countries
• Country- Geographical space; refers to the lines and
symbols on a map that represents borders, geographical
features, natural resources and ecosystems
• State-refers to govt.
• Nation- group of people with a shared identity
• So:
• A country can refer to the geographical space/ territory
ruled by a state i.e. the territory over which a state claims
jurisdiction.
• A country can also refer to the geographical space/ territory
inhabited by a nation
*jurisdiction- the official power to make legal decisions and judgements.
• A number of states claim authority over nations
and countries that fall outside their “official”
international borders
• E.g. Israel administers territories and populations
beyond its internationally recognized borders.
• A number of states claim authority over nations
and countries that they do not effectively rule or
govern over.
• E.g. govt of Somalia only effectively controls a
some of its territory and populations
• Why do countries matter?
• Actors’ goals and influence are often a
product of concrete material factors.
• Importance of geography to IR
• Geopolitics- politics, especially international
relations, as influenced by geographical
factors (land mass and natural resources).
• E.g. US and China
Other Factors that Determine Power
• Population
• Economic development
• Technological innovation
• Quality of education
• Role of women in society
• Political stability
• Neighbourhood:
• E.g. Poland surrounded by powerful and hostile states so
carved up btw. Late 18th-mid 20th centuries- “security
poor”
• E.g. USA- weak states in North and South and oceans to the
East and West so “security rich”
International society
• International society- community of international
actors whose relationships are structured by a
shared set of practices and principles
• Influence actors’ behaviour-> established code of
conduct
• Codes of conduct systemized in “formal” treaties
• Treaties vary- sometimes endure (e.g. The
Charter of the United Nations in international
law) and sometimes become “dead letters”
(abandoned or never enforced)
International Order
• Function of international society to create international
order.
• No global govt.
• Every state is sovereign i.e. final legal authority over its
own affairs
• Hence, no international body has the legal right to
override its decisions
• Because no global govt. -> modern international order
is defined by anarchy
• Anarchy- a condition in which there is no central
authority with the power to compel obedience
• Anarchy- doesn’t refer to chaos here
• There is a system of global governance- a loose
framework of treaties, agreements and regimes that
shape actors’ behaviour on the international stage
• E.g. human rights, diplomatic immunity (which
protects diplomats from prosecution in foreign courts),
rules like the Geneva Convention, proper handling of
prisoners of war to rules surrounding the transmission
of data across the internet
• States and non-state actors rely on historical examples
as well as treaties and agreements to guide their
conduct
• International order can be both predictable and anarchic
• No global judicial system to enforce
• Most members follow the rules most of the time (e.g. Israel
is known to have nuclear weapons, but does not declare
that it does so officially and no sanctions are put against
Israel.)

• Punishments for breaking rules include limited diplomatic


and economic relations, sanctions, all-out war.
• E.g. sanctions on North Korea for testing nuclear weapons

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