Formative Essay: Essay Plan
This essay aims at investigating whether the growth of international organisations during the second half of 20th century has influenced the conduct of international relations. To achieve this aim, the essay begins by discussing the emergence of the discipline of international relations followed by the emergence of international organisations. It argues that the First World War left the world torn into parts. Many people died, with others being left destitute. Consequently, at the dawn of 1950s, the most powerful nations found it important to have a body that would keep various nations on the check to ensure that conflicts arising from perceptions of power capabilities were mitigated to prevent escalation of conflicts into another war. This institution was called the League of Nations. Through its main mandate of ensuring global peace, the League of Nations principally operated to enhance good international relations between various countries across the world.
One of the principal concerns of international relations was the need to foster the growth of the spirit of nationalism while ensuring the need to protect national territorial integrity, which did not result in global conflicts, since some nations sought to maintain their power to control other nations in the world. As Kirchner and Dominquez (2011) assert, while advancing the concerns of international relations, harnessing different perspectives of nationalism held by people coming from different nations was a critical concern of the League of Nations, a concept embraced by international organisations in the second half of 20th century in the effort to foster long lasting peace in the international arena.
In the discussion of nationalism as one of the key concerns in the conduct of international relations explored by international organisations over the 20th century, the term nationalism refers to the strong political ideology or creed identifying certain groups of persons to particular nations. The concept can be explored from two different theatrical paradigms: primordialist and modernist. Ozkirimli (2010) reveals how the primordialist paradigm “describes nationalism as a reflection of the ancient and perceived evolutionary tendency of human beings to organise into distinct groups based on affinity of birth.”
In this perspective, a nation is described by geographical boundaries engulfing a group of people coming from single or multi-ethnic backgrounds. Such people believe that they were born and brought up within the region. They have the sovereign rights to protect the territorial integrity of their regions of birth. Where such integrity is broken, different nations engage in war. The wars underline the relevance of advancement of international relations discourses to ensure that wars between states do not occur reminiscent of the First and the Second World War. According to Gold, international organisations such as the UN have been operating in the second half of 20th century to ensure that different nations respect the territorial integrity of other nations.
In the section on the emergence of international organisations, the essay considers international organisations important in advancing the perspectives of international relations in the second half of 20th century. The purpose of existence of international organisations is to push for the development agenda in different nations in the effort to ensure collective development of global states. The organisations emerged after the end of the First World War following the creation of the League of Nations. The chief mandate of the League of Nations was to ensure peaceful coexistence of different nations in the effort to prevent the emergence of other World Wars. In this extent, the chief goal of the League of Nations was to enhance international relations.
When this league failed to achieve its mandates, following the occurrence of the Second World War, Carpenter (2007) reveals how the UN adopted its primary roles. Subsequently, in the second half of 20th century, more agencies affiliated to the UN have been created. Their primary functions have been to provide relief to suffering communities, enhance environmental protection, foster community development, and to engage in social developments in which nations are not willing to invest. All these efforts help in curtailing the development of conflicts among different societies that may escalate into wars or other forms of human suffering. This claim suggests that the perspectives of international relations drive the operations of global organisations operating from the second half of 20th century and in the 21st century. The assertion guides the essay in investigating whether the growth of international organisations in the second half of 20th century has influenced the conduct of international relations.
After the discussion of the emergence of the discipline of international relations and the emergence of international organisations, the essay shifts to the discussion and analysis of the manner in which international organisations operate to enhance the conduct of international relations, from second half of 20th century until the beginning of the 21st century, as developed by theories of international relations. The essay finds the concept of power an important aspect of enhancing peaceful coexistence of different nations. Hence, the international organisations operate to ensure that specific nations and not others retain power so that it does not get out of hand to cause global conflicts. This line of reasoning is deployed to explain why world super powers conduct military raids on nations believed as having the capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction together with the wrong use of power that is gained through the wealth acquired from sales of national resources such as oil.
In the effort to comply with the conduct of international relations, international organisations moved with speed in 1950s to provide humanitarian aid during various military interventions on nations that fail to comply with the international peace accord. This suggests that international organisations serve the purpose of protecting the rights of people by ensuring that any decision arrived at through international conferences does not translate into unnecessary suffering of innocent civilians. In fact, the essay holds that while nations endeavour to engage in military confrontation as an attempt to ensure that their powers are not eroded from them, the cornerstone of international relations is to ensure innocent people do not suffer in a manner reminiscent of the First and Second World Wars.
However, the essay also considers major criticism of international organisations in enhancing exploration of policies that favour the powerful nations in the second half of 20th century. For instance, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) disproportionately allocate the powers of voting and hence passing of crucial policies between various member States. This strategy is a manifestation of the concept of power in the conduct of international relations explored by international organisations throughout second half of 20th century. The voting powers of nations are allocated depending on the capital contributions of different member states and the amount of power and control that a given nation has on global platforms.
Summative Essay: Knowledge of the Relevant Literature
Emergence of the Discipline of International Relations
International relations mean collective interactions existing between international communities. As Nau reveals, these communities include nations, individuals, and even states. International organisations push the development agenda in different nations. As a discipline of study, Martin and Simmons present the subject of international relations as “a branch of political science involving the study of foreign affairs and global issues among states within the international system, including the roles of states, intergovernmental organisations, nongovernmental organisations, and multinational corporations.” These organisations, or rather global organisations, are important in the studies of international relations since they push the development agenda, enact, and implement policies that ensure international understanding between different states.
In addition to political science, the discourses of international relations borrow from a myriad of other disciplines such as anthropology, geography, economics, cultural studies, and sociology among others. Knowledge developed in these fields of study is deployed to address various issues related to international relations. Vaubel mentions some of them including “globalisation and its impacts on societies and state sovereignty to ecological sustainability, nuclear proliferation, nationalism, economic development, terrorism, organised crime, human security, and human rights.” In this sense, the goal of international relations is to ensure collective development of societies across the globe. This goal reveals why the discourses of international relations are controlled by international organisations to ensure and/or avail aid to poor nations, which are unable to meet key development agenda akin to their low living standards and poverty.
Two main theoretical paradigms help in advancing the discourses of international relations. These are post-positivist and positivist. According to Roskin and Berry, the positivists’ theories attempt to look into the manner in which the relations between nations are shaped from the basis of analysing the effects of material forces in shaping the animosity between nations. Natural science methodologies are used to realise this endeavour. The main features of the positivists include the evaluation of the mechanisms of state interactions, power balance, and even how military sizes of different nations help some nations in exercising supremacy over other nations. Post positivist paradigm argues that a social science world is impossible to study from a value-free and objective approach. In this extent, Mingst and Arreguín-Toft confirm how the post-positivists nullify the perception and idea that liberalist ideologies such as rational choice theory exhaustively explain the international relations. The implication of this argument is that scientific methodologies are inadequate and/or cannot be used altogether to provide an explanation of the social world. Therefore, international relations science is impossible.
Amid the opposing views of the two approaches of the study of international relations, the two theoretical paradigms are instrumental in the discussion of the relationships between nations and the manner of shaping their relationships. From the positivists’ approach, while attempting to analyse international relations discourses, a causal explanation of how, why, and who exercises power in a nation is crucial. This answer is offered by the positivist paradigm through its sub–theoretical facets such as neo-realism. For the accomplishment of this goal, it is important to develop a clear understanding of the constitutive interrogatives such as the constituent of power, its meaning, mechanisms of its production, and even how it is experienced. These aspects are the main subjects of the post-positivist theoretical paradigm approach to international relations.
Emergence of International Organisations
After the World War 1, the main focus of nations engaging in the war was to enhance international peace through the establishment of the League of Nations. This was the first IO (international organisation), which was a by-product of the Paris conference, which brought the First World War to a halt. According to Atack, Its primary goal was to “prevent wars through collective security and disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration.” The organisation was also charged with other tasks such as taking charge of labour conditions, treatment of various native inhabitants of different nations in humane and just ways, addressing issues of human trafficking, trafficking of arms, enhancing global health, and protecting the rights of minorities among other tasks.
The World Bank, which is one of the international organisations, defines an international organisation as a “private organisation that pursues activities to relieve suffering, promote the interests of the poor, protect the environment, provide basic social services, or undertake community development.” International nongovernmental organisations also pursue similar goals with NGOs while establishing specific outposts with the mandates of handling different issues that are limited to the concerns of particular nations. In this paper, the term international organisation also embraces intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) such as the United Nations.
Although the League of Nations registered incredible success in the early 1920s, it proved incapable of delivering on its mandates when it was unable to prevent the aggressions of Axis powers during the early 1930s. Italy, Spain Germany, and Japan withdrew from the pact. When the Second World War took place, it was clear that the League of Nations could not prevent the occurrence of World Wars in the future, with 1950s being not spared. It also failed in other mandates. For instance, it failed to address the issues of child labour, the provision of adequate humane working conditions, and children and women trafficking. Hence, the League of Nations could no longer exist. It was disbanded and replaced by the United Nations (UN) in 1945. The UN also inherited various organisations that were developed by the League of Nations.
The first task allocated to the UN was the provision of emergency assistance to millions of people affected by the Second World War. In particular, the UN was to provide food to the starving children while also offering housing via the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Several specialised agencies within the UN assumed these responsibilities later. These organisations include FAO (Food and Agricultural Organisation), WHO (World Health Organisation), and the UNESCO (The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation). The UNESCO changed in 1951 to the UN high commission for refugees. The failures of the League of Nations to address the rights of children led to the creation of the UNICEF (The United Nations Children’s Fund) in 1946.
In pushing for the global development agenda, other international organisation such as the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also exist. The two organisations were established in 1944 to help in shaping the financial together with the economic order. However, Blake reveals, “their roles and modalities have been updated to serve the interest of people who benefit from neoliberalism.” The main goal of establishment of the WB was to loan money to the western nations that were involved in war in the effort of aiding them in rebuilding their post war nations. However, in subsequent years, WB shifted its attention of lending money to nations that are located in the developing world. According to Milner, the IMF was formed to “regulate currency exchange rates to facilitate orderly international trade to be a lender of last resort when a member country experiences balance of payment difficulties and/or is unable to borrow money from other sources.” Both WB and IMF were established in such a manner that their operations would be neutral. Unfortunately, their practices serve the vested interests of the western nations. For instance, in both institutions, the powers of voting for different nations are not determined by the population sizes of the member states.
The voting powers are functions of political powers that nations reflect on global platforms and the amounts of capital contributions. The G7 nations play the most significant roles in policy development. The US, Japan, France, Great Britain, and Germany have one director. 19 other directors are elected from about 150 member states. The tradition for the appointment of the MD for WB is essentially to fix an American figure while that of the IMF is to fix a European figure. In case of IMF, the G7 voting power is 46 percent. The aim of international relation is to advocate for political, economic, and social equity. With the dominance of the most powerful nations in the management and setting of policies in the international organisations, the question that emerges is whether the growth of international organisations in the 20th century has altered the conduct of international relations.
International Relations, Globalisation, and International Organisations
In the process of development of international organisations in the course of the second half of 20th century, globalisation has been the key mechanism of enhancing international relations. According to Stiglitz (2002) and Pease (2012), international community subscribes to the varying cultures and other ideological differences (Stiglitz 2002; Pease 2012). International relations entail harnessing the differences of the international community to reduce the likelihood of the occurrence of conflicts. This assignment is accomplished through political and diplomatic missions to discuss the needs of different nations in changing international interaction environments. International organisations develop and address these concerns. For instance, according to Adsera and Boix, the UN conventions are held to address the needs of different nations and/or to address issues of global concerns in matters of international relations. One of the diplomatic efforts of the UN is assembling peace talks and treaties in the event of occurrence of differences between one or more nations. This entails an effort to settle differences in opinions, which lead to war. In fact, this role is the main pillar on which international relations is anchored.
Putting in place mechanisms of addressing conflicts and areas of disagreements between nations is an attempt of prescribing common and standard ways of resolution of conflicts across the globe. In this extent, global organisations engage in the development of global cultures in a process of globalisation in the bid to enhance international relations. International organisations provide social needs such as education in the bid to eradicate poverty. They also help in increasing the production capability of nations through the creation worldwide technologies. Through enhancement of international relations (the manner in which people, nations, and with organisations interrelate), global organisations are able to move a production culture from one nation to another. This claim suggests a correlation between the functions of global organisations, globalisation, and international relations developed over the second half of 20th century. From the above arguments, globalisation is a function of global organisations. The main purpose of globalisation is to foster integration of all people across the world. This purpose coincides with the purpose of international relations.
Common values and norms binding persons living in different states shape their nationality. Through globalisation, international organisations attempt to replace these norms with international norms and values guiding the processes of interaction of different nations. Possibilities exist that international understanding and harmony between different nations are impaired in case the values and norms characteristic of people living within a specific nation are breached or violated by another nation. In this context, the underlying principle for driving international relations is seeking mechanisms of acting ethically towards other nations by respecting their values, beliefs, and cultural hegemonies while attempting to articulate these values and beliefs with accepted international standards. “By considering ethics, Post-positivist theories of IR explicitly promote a normative approach to IR” as Roskin and Berry reveal. This suggests that IR discourses remain dependent on the perspectives of nationalism for them to attain the principal functions for which they are intended. The IR discourses require international organisations to propagate the strategies of integration of the differences existing amongst different groups of people inhabiting the world.
Concept of Nationalism and its Relationship with the Conduct of International Relations
Possession of strong ideologies of nationalism creates a perception that people must protect what is theirs and resist any external force attempting to alter the status quo. This creates possibilities of conflicts when external actors attempt to alter or deprive people of their national pride. While the conduct of international relations is rested on the platforms of protection of people’s rights to utilise their resources in productive ways, which are beneficial to a given nation, international organisations provide the mechanisms including financial resources to help nations exploit their resources in full.
Belonging to a geographical region possessing specific resource endowments gives people the pride of collective ownership of the resources. However, several conflicts, especially in the Middle East, have been related to the foreign nations’ interest to deploy their power to control the manner in which nations owning the resources control and use them. Easterly observes that a major criticism is that the war to topple leadership regimes in oil-rich nations are aimed at shifting the power of control of the oil resources from their owners to the powerful nations of the world in the name of ending dictatorship. Surprisingly, during 1950s, international originations had been moving with speed upon declaration of military interventions to enhance compliance to human right in such nations to avail humanitarian aid. Unfortunately, the regimes oppose any intervention to change the manner of administration of their resources as an effort to protect their national pride. This raises the question of whether adherence to the spirit of nationalism established within a given nation resort to hiking war risks
Scholars in the discipline of international relations have attempted to provide a response to the above interrogative from different approaches. Schrock-Jacobson laments, “Many scholars assume that nationalism is inherently aggressive without systematically exploring the relationship between nationalism and interstate war initiation.” The scholar further continues to argue that nationalist persuasions through nationalist campaigns form fertile grounds for the production of mechanisms that can encourage conflict. In this regard, nationalist campaigns subvert the endeavours of the international relations to enhance mutual international understanding between nations for peaceful coexistence of international communities. It does this by provoking ‘national enemies’ together with foreign allies, including international organisations that generate some strategic assumptions justifying war on a given nation. For instance, several wars that have been declared on the Islamic nations including Iran by the west and its allies have been predominantly instigated by continued perception of nationalism insisting on the needs of enacting their independency through empowering themselves militarily with weapons of mass destruction.
Exploration of weapons of mass destruction is viewed by many nations as a disguised attempt to disregard the international peace treaty advocated for by the UN. Since this attempt is triggered by the need to protect the territorial integrity of a given nation from foreign superpowers, in the attempt to protect nationalist ideologies, which are opposed the international community, the argument that nationalism is a significant force in defining international relations holds substance. In fact, when national enemies are provoked, “domestic interest groups that favour war permit the suppression of opposition groups while promoting “nationalist bidding wars.” Ross and Zhu observe that when this happens, nationalism incredibly hikes the chances of initiation of war between two or more nations.
A phenomenon, which occurred in the course of the second half of 20th century that perhaps best exemplifies the above situation, is the Iraq and Iran war. The two nations fought over supremacy of their nations instigated by the nationalistic interest to control the Gulf region. Such individualistic interests undermine interdependence of nations as a fundamental principle on which the international relations discourse is rested. In fact, Kirchner and Dominquez argue, “the current international system is characterised by growing interdependence, mutual responsibility, and dependency on others.” Given that positive international relations are dependent on the nature of nationalist ideology adopted by people in a given nation and that international political and economic interactions are essential for enhancing the interdependency of national concerns advanced by international organisations in the second half off 20th century, international cooperation remains a nightmare without harmonisation of nationalism and international relations. As a tool for enhancing interactivity of different people, Walter and Sen argue that globalisation also becomes difficult.
Interpretation of nationalism from the perspectives of power and influence by international bodies experienced in the second half of 20th century is a significant force shaping international relations. Without appreciation of the elements that define people’s nationalism, it becomes enormously hard to prescribe a means of integration of different norms and values for people from different nations. As discussed before, these norms and values classify people as belonging to a particular nation. Hence, they are central to the perceptions of nationalism. Breaching of these norms and values amounts to animosity between nations, which international relations endeavour to prevent. Consequently, the body of international relations cannot stand by its own without the force of nationalism and the growing control exerted by international organisations. A case example in which nations perceive themselves as being susceptible to threats due to foreign circumstances, which deteriorate the factors, which define and influence people’s perceptions of nationalist capability, best explain this position. These factors include the capability of diplomatic influences, economic influence, political, and military influence. From the last half of 20th century, international organisations have been involved in the development of policies for exercise of these influences in the effort to foster international relations.
Critical Analysis
One of the important theories of analysing international relations is the classical realism. The theory holds that all nations are in a constant struggle to gain power. The theory suggests, “The power struggles and rivalries are not a function of the nature of states, but a function of the nature of the international system.” This means that various nations behave in the manner they do in an international system to ensure that their power is protected to enhance peace within their borders. Thus, every nation ensures that potential threats across its borders are mitigated. In fact, this outcome is the goal of international relations, which is realised by putting in place sanctions to nations, which pose threats to other nations. To ensure that the nations posing threats to the international peace become ineffective in their plans, over the second half of 20th century, international organisations including the World Bank limit, or even totally cancel funding programs.
Through such a strategy, international organisations limit the power of nations. However, through such limitations, rivalry may emerge between nations. Interpretation of the interplay between international relations and conduct of international organisations this way explains the influence possessed by the US and the EU nations in control of the production of weapons of mass destruction such as in the cases of North Korea. This suggests that for international peace to prevail in the process of growth of international organisations over the second half of 20th century, the primary conduct of international relations has been to ensure that power remains with certain nations.
International relations aim at fostering international understanding between various states or countries in the effort to curtail conflicts that may escalate into global war. Since the formation of the first international organisation, the League of Nations, followed by its replacement with the UN and subsequent emergence of various agencies that are allied to the UN, in the second half of 20th century, the goals of international organisations has been to help in the provision of relief and aid to people in situations where such needs are denied to them by the respective nations. In doing this, international organisations handle the challenges that may create animosity between different communities of different social classes within a nation. In places where war had been experienced, international organisations, especially the UN through its different agencies, come in handy to help in peace together with cease fire negotiations. They aid in the provision of basic necessities in the effort to help in the reconstruction of war prone countries.
International organisations are established by the most powerful nations in the world. In the process of growth of international organisations over the second half 20th century, the same nations take proactive roles in the establishment and management of the international organisations. For instance, as argued before, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are essentially controlled by the G7 nations since they have the largest voting power over other nations. According to Haugen and Boutros, The wealth of nations is also important in determining the decision-making threshold in other international organisations apart from the IMF and World Bank. This implies that the decisions made by international organisations are functions of the power possessed by the given nations forming part of the organisational membership.
Evaluation
The concept of power is important in the operations of all international organisations. The UN comprises 192 member states, which have equal voices in the organisation. The organisation enacted the universal declaration of human rights in 1948. The declaration established the rights of all people in the world. This formed the fundamentals of international human rights law. Recently, it enacted the millennium development goals with the main intention of putting in place mechanisms of poverty eradication and equality by 2015. These achievements of the UN are important in fostering international understanding as encapsulated in the international relations theoretical paradigms advanced over the second half of 20th century. However, the organisation faces some criticisms akin to its mode of operation.
The main question posed by the global political analysts is whether the operations of the UN are based on its influence from nations such as the US and those belonging to the EU. For instance, the organisation did nothing to curtail the occurrence of the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Gold argues that one of the likely reasons for failure of the UN to intervene in preventing the deaths of 800, 000 people were because “it was not in the strategic interest of the USA or France as two of the permanent members of the UN Security Council.” Although this claim is inappropriate in making generalisations on the influence of powerful nations in the work of international organisations such as the UN in enhancing international relations, it sounds imperative to argue that power has effects in the operations of international organisations and their roles in enhancing international relations.
Conclusion
Right from the onset of the second half of 20th century, international organisations have been crucial in alleviating poverty, suffering, enhancing environmental protection, and pushing for development agenda together with ensuring that peace prevails across the globe. The essay revealed that the need to enhance good international relations led to the emergence of the first international organisation: the League of Nations. Subsequent international organisations such as the UN, the WB, the IMF, and the World Labour Organisation among others have also been created to address issues that may result in animosity between communities and even nations. This means that their operations are structured such that they explore the conducts of international relations initially developed through the League of Nations. Their operations also developed during 20th century so that they could address the prevalent issues that led to the collapsing of the League of Nations. However, a question remains on the capacity of international organisations such as the UN to mitigate conflicts and/or enhance good international relations in the 21st century considering the emerging international conflicts such as the war in Afghanistan, Iraq, and currently the roaming war in Syria. These wars only present America and the EU as common enemies to other world powers.
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