What are different definitions of power (3)?
One is not better than the other; you can use them all
- As resource, capability: attribute, possession (GDP, number of tanks, size of population)
- As outcome, relationship: (applying power and creating certain outcome) about skills, strategies, perceptions. The ‘power’ of small states.
- ‘Institutional power’: to be able to define the rules of international institutions/organisations (USA).
- Power over opinion (Carr): power not only material but also immaterial; power of influences minds of others (sometimes with misinformation)
What are varieties of power (hard, soft, smart)
Distinction: Push versus pull; command and coercion versus attraction and co-optation
- Smart power: about combing sources of power and translating them into effective strategies
- Sources of soft power: culture, political and economic system, foreign policies (economy as pulling sovereignty as soft power; EU)
- Sources of hard power: (traditional) military, demographic, territorial, economic resources
What is power diffusion?
Power moving away from the national state, and it is real and perceived political, economic and social consequences:
- From national states to sub- and supra states and global institutions; Power leaking from state level to sub-state and also to supra-state (EU)
- From the state to the market
Consequences: rising levels of uncertainty (who is protecting us if not the state), powerlessness, alienation, free trade, global finance; challenge to the welfare state, populism, etc. (especially in the West) –> leads to populism
What is a power shift?
Shifting power relations or distribution of power between states/regions:
- From West to Rest
- Emerging BRIC countries
BRIC notion is idea that you had to invest in those countries to make good economic profits. These powers are the emerging powers
Do global power shifts mean the end of the powerful West?
Western share of the global economy will continue to shrink (from the North Atlantic Era back to Asia, or the return to ‘historical’ normality before mid-16th or early 19th century.
- Some claim this is wrong because the size of Asia/ India has always been larger than the West
- Asia is the centre of the world
- The end of Western ‘political’/ideological dominance (universalism) and the refusal to accept it (US military adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq)
How do we recognize emerging powers?
Two crucial factors in recognizing powers:
- Capabilities: economic, military and political power resources (regionally and globally) – i.e. future projections on the basis of current resources
- Ambitions: belief and ambition to play a more influential role in regional and world affairs and the ambition to contribute to a revised global order
What are differences between emerging powers?
- Economical: potential for growth. Some countries have reached their maximum amount of possible growth.
- Political: democracy, dictatorship, hybrid.
- Geopolitical: international legacy, emerging, returning, established powers, mutual relations.
Are the BRICS still a real thing, or more a catchy phrase?
Gerritsen: it is still a real thing, makes an actual difference (especially BRIC)
- But: the 4 countries are very different countries.
What are the differences between the BRIC countries?
- Economic differences: potential for growth
- Political differences: Democracy, dictatorship, hybrid,
- Geopolitical diversity: international legacy, international ambitions (UNSC), mutual relations (Russia vs. China, India vs. China)
BRIC countries will not build alliance because of their differences; BRICS not seen as institution that will change international relations
Conclusion: the whole (BRICS) is smaller than the sum of its parts (four separate parts)
What are the similarities between emerging powers and global (liberal) order?
Going against or with global liberal order?
Challenging the status quo or restructuring the global architecture:
- Going with – the rhetoric of the ‘responsible stakeholders’ in the (revised) ‘liberal international order’ (G-20) → going with global political order
- Going against – Russian federation as ‘stand-alone’ power, spoiler power (Ukraine, Syria); relations with ‘fragile’ or ‘rogue’ states; Russia and China in UNSC
- Going alone – Go it alone of combining efforts by ‘emerging’ and /or other powers (building own institutions)
- Challenging the global liberal liberal order from within – The Trump presidency and foreign relations
What are human rights and to what extent are they universal?
Distinction between civil and political rights (individual) and economic and social rights (collective).
- Both accepted by UN, so they are both universal.
- But does not say anything to extent of which governments respect these rights
What is humanitarian intervention, and what are the challenges?
Humanitarian intervention: intervention for the sake of defending human rights
- challenge: violates sovereignty
What different views are there when we look at the legitimacy of humanitarian intervention?
- Global politics as order (no war), or global politics as justice
- Definition of sovereignty: right or responsibility (government that represses its own people loses its features of sovereignty; responsibility to protect)
- thin line between political and humanitarian intervention
How is global politics today different to Post post Cold War era when looking at humanitarian intervention?
1990s: decline of sovereignty, emergence in intervention (universal values and traditions, decline of state sovereignty due to globalisation, integration, ICT)
2010: return to sovereignty and end of interventionism (re-emergence of great powers, decline of Western hegemony, return of sovereignty)
