World regions in the system of modern international relations Lecture 2 Osinina Daria DDOsinina@fa.ru
Course structure 8 thematic blocks Topic 1. Theoretical aspects of the study of international relations Topic 2. Post-Soviet space in the system of modern international relations Topic 3. European Union in the system of modern international relations Topic 4. The Middle East in the system of modern international relations Topic 5. Asia and Africa in the system of modern international relations Topic 6. North America and Latin Caribbean America in the system of modern international relations Topic 7. The Arctic in the system of modern international relations Topic 8. Globalization and regionalization in international relations
My recommendations Following them help us to ensure a productive and respectful learning environment. Punctuality is expected to avoid disrupting the class and to show respect for both the teacher and fellow students. Please arrive on time for lectures. In the event that you are late, please enter the classroom quietly and take an available seat to minimize disruption. During the lecture, please refrain from engaging in side conversations to allow everyone to focus on the lesson. If you have any questions or comments, please raise your hand and wait to be called on. 2. We won't have classic lectures where I talk for an hour and a half and you just listen. All the lectures will be in an interactive format, the material will be divided into blocks and after each block there will be some form of activity. This is done to make our course interesting and useful for you. I want to discuss the real politics with you. 3. We always come with a good mood. If you don't understand or do not do something, we will sort it out in class. The main thing is that you come, we will solve all the questions in class.
For a news poll, I suggest the following publics & channels: Коммерсант: https://vk.com/kommersant_ru Ведомости: https://vk.com/vedomosti РБК: https://vk.com/rbc ИНОСМИ: https://vk.com/inosmi Российская газета: https://vk.com/rgru ТАСС: https://vk.com/tassagency Газета.ру : https://vk.com/gazeta Telegram channels: Analytics: 1. https://t.me/AlekseyMukhin 2. https://t.me/infranews 3. https://t.me/dashimbayev 4. https://t.me/politjoystic 5. https://t.me/gevorgmirzaian 6. https://t.me/genshab 7. https://t.me/vyshinkv Express news summary: 1. https://t.me/breakingmash 2. https://t.me/russica2 3. https://t.me/sputniklive 4. https://t.me/rusbrief Political and economic bloc: 1. https://t.me/kommersant 2. https://t.me/banksta 3. https://t.me/papagaz 4. https://t.me/ricenoodles 5. https://t.me/lngchannel 6. https://t.me/gazmyaso Regional studies Post-Soviet space 1. https://t.me/sputniklive China : 1. https://t.me/shuohuaxia 2. https://t.me/maslovasia 3. https://t.me/agabuev Iran: https://t.me/Irna_ru https://t.me/Abbasdjuma India https://t.me/India_in_telegram Arabic Africa 1. https://t.me/arabicafrica
Revision Lecture 1 Systems of International Relations
Tordesillas system Westphalian system The Vienna System The Versailles-Washington system The Yalta-Potsdam system Period of actual work 1494 – 1618 1618 – 1648 Thirty Years' War in Europe on the territory of the Holy Roman Empire 1648 – 1803 1803 – 1815 Napoleonic Wars 1815 – 1914 1914 – 1918 World War I actually until the Crimean War of 1853 1919 – 1941 1941 – 1945 World War II 1945 – 1991 / н.вр. December 8, 1991 signing of the Belovezhsky Agreement and the collapse of the USSR The main players Spain and Portugal The Habsburg bloc (Austria and Spain) and anti-Habsburg coalition (Holland, Denmark, Russia, France and Sweden) “European Concert” (Austria, Great Britain, Prussia and Russia + later France) Crimean War of 1853 - Austria, Great Britain, Prussia and France VS. Russia Great Britain, USA and France A coalition of Great Britain and the United States against revisionist forces (those whose interests were not taken into account by the existing system) the USSR and the USA Formation of capitalist and socialist blocs Balance of power in the world Bipolar system Bipolar system Aspiration for a bipolar world Aspiration for a bipolar world Bipolar system The basis for the formation of a new system Spain through “marriage diplomacy” managed to seriously expand its borders in Europe and beyond + Spain conquered Portugal in 1581 = Habsburg Empire and Trends towards a unipolar world France's hegemonic ambitions and the formation of a new political landscape - France's attempt to revise the "balance of power" required the formation of an anti-French alliance Revolutions in Europe in the 1840s weakened it. On the contrary, Russia politically and economically strengthened and developed : Central Asia + Malopolskie province of Poland + Erivan and Nakhichevan khanates + territories of the Black Sea and the Arctic became the part of the Russian Empire At the initiative of Great Britain and the United States, the Soviet Union, China and Germany were excluded from the system of international relations. At the same time, Britain and France were dividing territories in the Middle East (oil-bearing areas) Germany's hegemonic ambitions coupled with the desire of Great Britain and the United States to send military forces against the Soviet Union, thus "removing" the two players from the world arena
Tordesillas system Westphalian system The Vienna System The Versailles-Washington system The Yalta-Potsdam system Key Features - Spain and Portugal were able to become centers of the international system due to military power, Navy ( period of great geographical discovery ), papal support, Internal political stability, dynastic marriages, political instability in other European states (external conjuncture). - The established system, which did not take into account the interests of other European players, required serious transformation. The legitimizing factor was the support of religious institutions. - Expansion of territories outside Europe (formation of colonies and the emergence of metropolises). A new order in Europe based on the concept of state sovereignty (not a union of nobles or landowners) and priority of nation-states. State’s monopoly to use force on its own territory = the new state-centered model of the world. The basic idea is to weaken the nobility and strengthen the central government. Was the result of the first modern diplomatic congress. The congress participants adopted a rejection of the principle of historical justification of law. That is, a new political landscape is being fixed!!! Value paradigm shifted in international relations! It was necessary to unite the Christians as Turkey and Persia were strengthening. The gradual prioritization of secular authority over religious authority State equalization ( equalizing the status of kings and emperors ). The emergence of hierarchy within the state, with the monarch at the top of the power hierarchy. - Emergence of the concept of “great power”. So, the new international order established at the Congress of Vienna was a new balance of major powers NB!!! the previous system equalized the states, as after the rise of Spain the system was sharpened to weaken the players and equalize the situation; now a new round of development - the emergence of a group of states making decisions. Formation of the world hierarchy. Eurocentricity. Multilateral diplomacy (network of ambassadors to all “great powers”). Limitations on the capabilities of an individual country ; The 19th century is the century of Russia according to British sources, because only Russia was able to increase its territories within the same continent !!!! New territories were entered on the rights of equality with others (not a colonial type of expansion). - The first system dominated by non-continental Europe : consolidation of the leadership of Great Britain, the USA and France in the new system. - Changing political landscape (collapse of empires and emergence of new states - expanding the circle of political players and the field for new redistribution). Creation of the League of Nations - the official mechanism for division the world through a system of mandates. - Discrimination of the position of the defeated states and Soviet Russia (their exclusion from the system of international relations). - The system became worldwide. The institutional expression of the increased dependence of various states was the creation and existence of the UN. - The responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security was entrusted to the Security Council, which was authorized to act on behalf of all UN members. - The growing role of TNCs. - The unstoppable process of decolonization began to grow. - Tacit mutual recognition by the superpowers of their spheres of influence. - The nuclear factor played an important role = had a stabilizing effect on the entire system. - Dollar dominance on the world arena
Lecture 2 World financial centers
Throughout its history, capitalism has sought to limit rather than initiate competitive processes in order to ensure a high rate of return on capital. The world centers of capital accumulation (WCCA): Genoa (Venice), Holland, Great Britain the USA They provided themselves with comfortable business conditions and thus regulated the rate of return. Today, the old center of capital accumulation represented by the USA is rapidly losing its positions against the background of rapid strengthening of the alternative center represented by China. There are all the signs of geopolitical inversion (GIP), i.e. the change of the old center of capital for a new one. Relationship between the state and capital Arrighi : Capitalism is a combination of state and capital. F. Brodel : Capitalism triumphs only when it becomes a state itself. Since the state is a form of power/authority, we see the main thesis: the capitalist system is an effective interaction between capital and power, often leading to their full synthesis and identification. However, in order for this synthesis to take place, 2 fundamental conditions are necessary: M. Weber's condition, which consists of competition between states to attract capital. J. Arrighi's condition, which consists in the presence of the WCCA, which concentrates capitalist power in the entire world system. The conjunction of power and capital is of great importance because it forms centers of power that distribute benefits and costs among participants in the global market economy.
N. Machiavelli: power presupposes a combination of coercion and consent. Capitalism as a mode of government has always been based on a balance of power by which capitalist states are able to reduce their costs in absolute and relative terms comparing with their competitors. coercion (принуждение) means the use or threat of force imposing their own “rules of the game” and economic mechanisms on countries that are not members of the WCCA or competing with them ( US and PRC trade wars ) consent (согласие) means moral guidance (a) in the form of setting a higher standard of living for residents in the WCCA area, (b) higher profitability of the center's residents (+personal sanctions) (c) better institutions of consensus building between different groups of influence, and often a higher culture.
The Genoese model of financial capitalism peaked around 1560. The Dutch triumph, formed by the 1740s. In the 1870s, the baton was passed to the British system In the 1970s. - American. At the same time, each successive WCCA, compared to the previous one, had (1) a larger territory and population, (2) more diverse resources, and (3) most importantly, a more extensive network of power and capital accumulation ( creation of a system of institutions ). Genoese colonies - trading posts of Genoa (on the shores and islands of the Mediterranean, Black and Azov seas): The system of "colonies" of northern Italian trading republics In the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Genoa also possessed a Central American colony (concession) in Panama. The Crusades ( XI—XV ), whose transport was organized by Genoa and its powerful rivals Pisa and Venice, contributed greatly to this. Historical Background: Genoa In 1252, Genoa and Florence began minting an almost identical gold coin, the genovino. In 1284, gold coins appeared in Venice. At that time, the only supplier of gold to both Europeans and Arabs was the west of Africa. Control of north Africa (trade route + gold): The increased need for gold for the mints prompted the Genoese to establish their fortresses on the West African coast. In 1162, the Genoese established fortifications on the African coast at Sala ( Morocco ), southwest of the Strait of Gibraltar. New World: From about 1520, the Genoese, as junior allies of the Spanish Empire, were granted the concession of the port of Panama, the first permanent European settlement on the Pacific coast of the Americas after its discovery. The port was the starting point for Spanish expeditions to Peru and a transshipment point for exporting gold and silver mined in South America to Spain. Holland United East India Company (1602 - 1798) - conducted trade (including tea, copper, silver, textiles, cotton, silk, ceramics, spices, and opium) with Japan, China, Ceylon, and Indonesia; monopolized trade with these Pacific and Indian Ocean countries. Dutch West India Company (1621 - 1791) - taking advantage of the weakening of the Portuguese colonial empire, the Dutch managed to seize the northern part of Brazil, as well as Surinam and a number of islands of the West Indies. The main Dutch factor in North America was New Amsterdam. On the coast of Africa, they managed to seize a number of Portuguese territories and establish new forts.
For many years, trade between Europe and Asia was one-sided - Chinese and Indian goods were exchanged for European gold and silver. Thus, the trade balance of European countries with the East was negative and caused tension in the "currency" markets. At that time, Europeans had nothing to offer in exchange for Asian spices, tea, silk, etc. This structural imbalance in European trade prompted European rulers and business circles to search for means to restore purchasing power. The solution to this problem was to establish direct control over trade with the East and over new trade channels with America. Example: Before the discovery of Vasco da Gama, the Indian subcontinent was characterized by a remarkable freedom of trade by our standards. For example, merchants from all cities and countries arrived at the port of Calicut in southwestern India. At Calicut, any ship, wherever it came from and wherever it was going, could expect equal treatment with others without fear of any complications. Safety and lawfulness were so firmly established in the city that merchants from different countries unloaded large shipments of goods and sent them to the markets and bazaars without concern for checking accounts or guarding the goods (Heyerdahl). However, the arrival of Vasco da Gama in these parts led to the closing of ancient Asian routes by the Portuguese blockade of all ports on the west coast of India. After Vasco de Gama, an era of European monopoly of trade in the waters of the East begins. Strict control over the prices and costs of this trade made it possible to regulate the rate of profit in the direction of its fantastic artificial overestimation. To illustrate, we will point out that shareholders of the East India Company of England in the XVII century received fabulous dividends of 300-400% per annum, which went down only after 150 years. After the Portuguese, feats of monopolization were demonstrated by the Dutch. Thus, the ports of Java, whose pepper became a Dutch monopoly, were closed to other foreigners. A similar strategy was used by the Dutch WCCA, when the entire economy worked as a giant warehouse: purchased foreign goods were stockpiled and awaited rising (often specially provoked) prices. Sometimes the growth of demand and prices on the eve of another war gave fabulous profitability of trade operations ( Arrighi ). The surplus capital accumulated by the Dutch from the Baltic trade was utilized by purchasing agrarian land and investing in agriculture ( Arrighi ). Thus, low-profitable industries were forced to develop, only to prevent the profitability of the already developed privileged sectors of the economy from decreasing.
The stage of territorialism represents extensive exploration of the world with an emphasis on exploiting of scale, while the stage of capitalization implies intensive exploitation of the existing economic space. In the first case ( territorialism), control over territory and population is the goa l, and control over mobile capital is the means to strengthen the state ; In the second case ( capitalization ), there is an inversion of ends and means, when control over mobile capital becomes a goal and control over territory and population becomes a means. At the stage of territorialism = the phase of material expansion, the real sector of the economy develops - industry, trade, construction, etc.; at the stage of capitalization = the phase of financial expansion, the financial sector of the economy begins to dominate - banks, insurance and investment companies, etc. ( Arrighi, 2006, P.134). In other words, the process of organizing space is replaced by the process of organizing capital. EXTERNAL TERRITORIALISM is aimed at developing the world outside the WCCA; INTERNAL TERRITORIALISM is aimed at developing the internal market within the borders of the leading state. The dynamics of the WCCA shows a strict alternation of external and internal territorialism: Genoa (Venice) was a city-state that controlled vast sea and land trade routes; Holland, with its historical name (Republic of the United Provinces of the Netherlands), consolidated its lands and on this basis built world economic hegemony; Britain, being the United Kingdom and thus having undergone internal unification, is again moving to direct control of vast areas beyond its borders, becoming an empire; The USA, in strict accordance with its name, is again oriented towards the unification of internal territories and the formation on this basis of a gigantic internal market with new competitive advantages. *МЦНК – мировые центры накопления капитала
In parallel, Arrighi distinguishes between cosmopolitan (imperial) and national (corporate) capitalization. Cosmopolitan (imperial) capitalization is characteristic of extensive regimes of accumulation (Genoese and British); National (corporate) capitalization is characteristic of intensive ones (Dutch and American). Cosmopolitan regimes were responsible for the geographical expansion of the world-economy, VS. national regimes were responsible for its geographical consolidation.
The Bretton Woods Agreement was the result of a conference held in the summer of 1944 at the American mountain resort of Bretton Woods. 44 countries attended the conference. At the same meeting, the countries established the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (now part of the World Bank ) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - that is, the entire architecture of the modern financial system. The gold-device standard is a system of fixing exchange rates adopted under the Bretton Woods agreement. The system obliges the U.S. to peg the dollar to gold, and other countries to peg the dollar. The end of the First World War was a turning point for the world economy. The ratio of gold reserves and money supply in the world changed noticeably, as a result of which inflation raged on the planet. In this situation, the leaders and economists of the leading states decided to reinforce the real value of banknotes not with gold, but with the devises of other states, which were subsequently to be exchanged for precious metal. The decision came into force in 1922 at the Genoa Conference. At the beginning of the formation of the world economy as such, it was a question of 100% gold backing of the national currency of the majority of states. Over time, the role of the precious metal was gradually reduced to an abstract concept, and the functions of the world's main reserve currency were performed in turn, first by the British pound, and later by the American dollar.
The official financial and economic reason : After the uncertainty of the interwar period, there was a need not only for stability but also for flexibility, which the classical gold standard could not provide. The Bretton Woods system fixed the dollar exchange rate against gold ($35/ounce), while other currencies were given a stable but adjustable exchange rate against the U.S. dollar. Under the Bretton Woods system, only central banks enjoyed the privilege of exchange ; under the classical gold standard, the U.S. could exchange gold for private dollar bills. The closing of the gold window in 1971 ended this agreement; central banks could hold U.S. currency as they saw fit. However, the U.S. was no longer going to convert those dollars into gold when asked to do so. Eventually, on August 15, 1971, the reserve currency country turned its back on the gold-device standard as well. The U.S. stopped converting its currency into gold at foreign central banks.
Before August 15, 1971, an imbalance prevailed. Speculators became increasingly convinced of the devaluation of the US dollar and accordingly opened long positions in gold, German marks and yen. The US asked Germany and Japan to raise the (fixed) value of their currencies against the US dollar. In addition, the authorities imposed capital controls to stop the flow of dollar investments into Eur ope. ( The flow of dollars went into the reserves of the European central bank. Under the rules of the gold-device standard, these dollars could be converted into U.S. gold.) Germany and Japan refused to revalue their currencies, and the US refused to devalue the dollar against gold, arguing that the dollar/gold was the core of the entire system. The result was Nixon's announcement - the US refused to exchange dollars for gold ( in fact, it had refused to do so since the late 1960s after France converted most of its dollar reserves into gold ). And the US imposed a 10% import duty on all goods coming into the country (basically to cause the necessary currency revaluation abroad). Since 1976 the Jamaican Monetary System - the modern monetary system!
The system of international relations can be characterized in terms of geopolitics. Then we are talking about geopolitical balance - how power is distributed in space - this is the essence of the geopolitical system! Global geopolitical systems: antagonistic ( division of the world into opposite subsystems - macroregions : binary, like West vs. East, or tennar, as in the world-system model) concentric ( identifying the geographic center of gravity of force - Heartland, Rimland, Middle Region) = discussed as part of the course Political Geography polar (identification of dominant centers of power: unipolar, bipolar and multipolar) civilizational (analysis of the distribution of power between stable historical and cultural areas) regional (analysis of the distribution of power between macro- and meso-regions, identified on a geographical basis) = the essence of our discipline World regions in the system of modern international relations
The Tordessilian system of international relations was cemented and approved by the Pope in terms of values. That is, religion was the dominant factor. What antagonistic systems existed during this period? Westphalian system of international relations was built on the concept of nation-states. There is ground for the formation of national strategies and concepts. The Viennese system of international relations was built and functioned during a period of growth in ideology and ideological movements (the ideas of Karl Marx, revolutions in Europe, etc.). At this moment, I. Kant gives an alternative understanding of the essence of the state. The political ideology of liberalism is being formed.
Т. Hobbes actually formed the approaches that are common place for realists today: If at the level of individual states the war of all against all has been overcome (through the creation of states, the emergence of a sovereign and what is called the social contract), then at the level of international relations this has not happened. Here the state of war of all against all persists, and this state is permanent. VS What can stop the war of all against all according to T. Hobbes? Fear of death The desire to prosper. On the basis of this idea, I. Kant begins to build an alternative tradition related to liberalism It is inherent in human nature to strive for selfishness, to achieve one's interests, including through forceful methods, but it is also inherent in human nature to strive to live long and live well. We live in an age of hedonism and consumerism - these values stem from the liberal model of the state
Pax Romana Pax Ottomana Pax Hispanica Pax Britanica Pax Sovietica Pax Americana Pax Sinica I. Okunev identifies several types of great powers: consistent and inconsistent; emerging and growing (from regional powers); revisionist But in fact, all great powers can be characterized in the above categories only in relation to the current system of international relations!!!
Thank you for your attention!
