World Politics

Author(s):  
Thomas G. Weiss ◽  
Sam Daws

This article discusses world politics and international relations, with a primary focus on the United Nations Organization. It enumerates the four most relevant changes within the United Nations (UN), namely: the emergence of a single ‘hyper-power’, the emergence of threats, the reformulation of state sovereignty, and the increasing role of nonstate actors. It evaluates the efforts of the UN at problem-solving, discusses the concepts of global governance and US hegemony, and enumerates three analytical problems.

Author(s):  
Thomas G. Weiss ◽  
Sam Daws

This chapter makes the case for greater analytical precision and historical reflection about the balance between change and continuity within the United Nations since its founding in 1945. The most pertinent changes fall under four headings: the emergence of new threats and new technological opportunities; the increasing role of non-state actors; the reformulation of state sovereignty; and the emergence of a multipolar world. This chapter examines the nature and role of each of these in today’s international system and urges readers to keep in mind three distinct analytical problems: defining the nature of change; determining the meaning of success and failure; and tracking the ups-and-downs in world politics. It also introduces the forty-four chapters that follow in The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations.


Author(s):  
John Breuilly

This chapter examines the role of nationalism and national self-determination (NSD) in shaping the major institution of modern international relations: the nation-state. It considers different types of nationalism and how they vary from one another, whether the commonly accepted sequence of nation > nationalism > nation-state is actually the reverse of the normal historical sequence, and whether the principle of NSD is compatible with that of state sovereignty. The chapter also explores the contribution of nationalism to the globalization of world politics and the changing meanings of NSD since 1918. Four case studies of nationalism are presented: Kurdistan, Germany, India, and Yugoslavia. There is also an Opposing Opinions box that asks whether the principle of NSD threatens stable international relations.


Author(s):  
John Breuilly

This chapter examines the role of nationalism and national self-determination (NSD) in shaping the major institution of modern international relations: the nation-state. It considers different types of nationalism and how they vary from one another, whether the commonly accepted sequence of nation > nationalism > nation-state is actually the reverse of the normal historical sequence, and whether the principle of NSD is incompatible with that of state sovereignty. The chapter also explores the contribution of nationalism to the globalization of world politics and the changing meanings of NSD since 1918. Four case studies of nationalism are presented, in Kurdistan, Germany, India, and Yugoslavia. There is also an Opposing Opinions box that asks whether the principle of NSD threatens stable international relations.


Author(s):  
Susan Park

This chapter examines the role that international organizations play in world politics. It explains what international organizations are, whether we need international organizations in international relations, and what constraints and opportunities exist for international organizations to achieve their mandates. The chapter also considers the reasons why states create international organizations and how we can analyse the behaviour of such organizations. Two case studies are presented: the first is about the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the G77, and the second is about the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the interests of money-centre banks. There is also an Opposing Opinions box that asks whether international organizations suffer from a ‘democratic deficit’.


1995 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Cunliffe

Recent events in international relations have raised the prospect of the United Nations organization attempting to provide a much more positive role in world affairs. This is also true for the constituent parts of the United Nations, in particular the United Nations High Commission for Refugees whose responsibilities have grown in recent years as the world's refugee population has multiplied and changed in character. The paper analyses the general development of the UNHCR from its establishment in 1951 and assesses its contemporary role as an actor in a post-Cold War environment. The claims of both critics and supporters of the UNHCR are considered on the light of the contemporary, political and financial pressures facing the organization. The paper also considers the character of UNHCR policy and durable solutions to the problem of a rising refugee population. The general analysis is illustrated by the changing role of the UNHCR in dealing with the arrival of the Vietnamese Boat People into Hong Kong from 1979.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura McAlpine

This MRP seeks to illustrate why and how states circumstantially employ their sovereignty in regards to international forced migration. My thesis is, that states, dependent on their degree of sovereignty, are negligent in their capacity to accommodate refugees. In pursuing this thesis, I examine state sovereignty from the International Relations framework and conceptualize sovereignty as a derivative of the state. Furthermore, I situate ‘the state’ with political realism; and align its opposing paradigm, political idealism, with the United Nations. Using qualitative measurements of state sovereignty, I find that although states have signed international agreements that hold them accountable to facilitate in the resettlement of refugees when international conflict ensues, states claim that because refugees threaten security, as well as the economic, political, social integrity of the state, they cannot and will not accept them. Key words: sovereignty, the state, refugees, International Relations, the United Nations


Author(s):  
Nicole Scicluna

This chapter evaluates global governance and how it relates to international law. It addresses the role of international organizations in processes of global governance, charting their rise from the nineteenth century onwards. Two international organizations exemplify semi-legalized governance beyond the state: the United Nations and the European Union. Sovereign states, of course, continue to play a central role in the institutions, processes, and mechanisms of global governance. The chapter then explores the extent to which a state’s power, influence, and legitimacy are affected by factors such as its domestic political arrangements and its adherence to the liberal, Western values that underpin the postwar order. It also assesses whether the proliferation of legalized and semi-legalized global governance regimes amounts to a constitutionalization of international relations.


10.12737/3457 ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 5-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Олег Тиунов ◽  
Olyeg Tiunov

In the article have defined of the role of the principle of the sovereign equality of the states in the system of the principles of international law. The contemporary of the signs of the sovereign equality became aparent the grand total of the development of the international law. Its substance development was under the influence of the different history formations. The Charter of the United Nations there is the basic document of the contemporaneity in which has sealed the principle of the sovereign equality of the states as the part of the system of the principals the modern international law. The legal signs of the sovereignty appears on the supreme sovereignty within the limits of the state, and they must be independence of the state in the international relations. The basic principles of international law there are interdependence. They must be conform to the context each other.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document