The fragmentation and consolidation of international systems

1997 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart J. Kaufman

The world today, Benjamin Barber points out, is “falling precipitantly apart and coming reluctantly together at the very same moment.” While states from Canada to India are threatened with breakup due to fractious nationalist impulses of their peoples, the power of technology and markets is forcing ever-tighter economic integration worldwide. From a common-sense perspective, these two impulses are among the most important processes in contemporary world politics. Yet, there has been remarkably little attention paid to developing a theory of the international system that examines the effects of both. Hegemonic stability theory considers economic integration but not nationalism; the few studies of nationalism as a systemic force play down the effects of economic integration; and neorealism, the most widely accepted theory of the international system, has no room to address either trend. The field is, partly as a result, a cacaphony of voices largely talking past one another.

2005 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franck Petiteville

Since the late eighties, the new regionalism is the most important wave of regionalism ever experienced in the world: every continent is now involved in one or several regional integration processes. This article aims at assessing the real impact of these processes on the international System. The method consists of comparing and building typologies of the main regional integration processes which have been created out of Europe, according to four criteria: the sense of the integration, the quality of political cooperation between the member states, the degree of economic integration, and the degree of institutional and political integration. The outcome of the analysis is that, except from Europe, integration is rarely scheduled to go deep or has a real chance to go deep in the short term. Hence the ability of the new regionalism to shape the international system deeply remains quite limited.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 424-445
Author(s):  
Vladislav S. Soluianov

The author regards multipolarity as a question open for discussion, the variety of answers to which contribute not only to the comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon, but also to the perception of processes taking place in the world politics. The content of the multipolarity concept is revealed through the perspectives of realism, neorealism, civilizational approach, regional approach, liberalism, and constructivism. From the realism perspective, multipolarity can be considered as an objective reflection of the world development. The foundation of multipolarity consists in the growth of economic, military, and political potential of non-Western powers and the weakening of the US position as a global leader. Neorealism views multipolarity as a property of the international system which affects the behavior of states. The civilizational approach focuses on identifying civilizations as new actors and centers of power on the world stage. The regional approach highlights the importance of the increasing regionalization processes and creation of regional integration systems, which contribute to the formation of multipolarity in the context of the rise of regional powers and weakening of the USs world position. Liberalism seeks to assess the impact of multipolarity on the stability and security of the international system. Along with the predictable attitude to multipolarity as a threat to peace and security, there is another more optimistic point of view. Constructivism regards multipolarity as a foreign policy discourse and a project of several states, primarily Russia. The results allow to see multipolarity from different perspectives and develop a more comprehensive and objective understanding of this phenomenon.


2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
DARIUSZ ELIGIUSZ STASZCZAK

This paper analyses reasons of the instability of the world monetary system. The author considers this problem from historical and contemporary perspectives. According to presented point of view banknotes and electronic money which replaced gold and silver coins in popular circulation are the most important reason of the instability. There are also proven positive and negative consequences of money instability. Reforms of the world monetary system need agreement within the global collective hegemony of state-powers and transnational corporations.


Author(s):  
Зеленева ◽  
I. Zeleneva

In the conditions of accruing civilization crisis a need of reforming of modern international system, global leadership and global management is becoming apparent. The ascending giant countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and the Republic of South Africa), becoming the new geopolitical centers of the world, became a new force in world politics. The author believes that BRICS as global association of regional powers is capable to reform the global management system.


1985 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan Snidal

Hegemonic stability theory has been advanced as an explanation of successful cooperation in the international system. The basis of this “hegemonic cooperation” is the leadership of the hegemonic state; its appeal rests on attractive implications about distribution. However, two distinct strands of the theory (“coercive” and “benevolent”) must be distinguished. These strands have different conceptions of hegemony and the role of hegemonic leaders and so have different implications. Both require us to assume that the underlying international issues are public goods and that the international system does not allow for collective action. The former assumption limits the theory's range of application while the likely failure of the latter means that the theory may be wrong even within this more limited range. Simple formal models demonstrate a conclusion completely at odds with hegemonic stability theory: the decline of a hegemonic power may actually lead to an outcome both collectively superior and distributively preferable than when the hegemon was at the apogee of its power. Thus hegemonic stability is, in fact, only a special case of international cooperation. Understanding cooperation in general requires less restrictive assumptions.


2019 ◽  
Vol II (I) ◽  
pp. 15-23
Author(s):  
Fozia ◽  
Abida Yousaf ◽  
Imran Ashraf

Foreign policy is one of the key tools to maintain the affairs of international relations. Foreign policy of a state is mainly shaped by domestic environment and international system. This study highlights the impacts of international structure on the foreign policy behaviour of Pakistan since 1947. During cold war period, the bi-polar world order mainly shaped the foreign policy of Pakistan. After independence, the economic, political and security challenges pushed Pakistan towards western bloc to protect its interests. Being an ally of west, Pakistan supported USA to contain the spread of communism. With the collapse of Soviet Union, the world order was shifted from bi-polarity to uni-polarity. Consequently, American supremacy shaped the world politics as a sole super power. With the start of 21st century, the incident of 9/11 and in response American invasion of Afghanistan again made Pakistani an ally of USA on their Global War on terror. Pakistan has faced serious consequences as an ally of USA. However, with the emergence of multi-polar world order, now Pakistan has opportunity to balance its relations with global powers like China, Russia and USA on the basis of mutual benefits, equality and equity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12(48) (4) ◽  
pp. 69-85
Author(s):  
Alla Kyrydon ◽  
Sergiy Troyan

Conceptual approaches to understanding the current stage of the evolution of international relations were put in place during the destruction of the bipolar world of the Cold War and the formation of new foundations of the world and international order. The distinctiveness of this process is that the collapse of the postwar system took place in peaceful conditions. Most often, two terms are used to describe the interconnectedness and interdependence of world politics after the fall of the Iron Curtain: the post-bipolar (post-westphalian) international system or international relations after the end of the Cold War. Two terms, post-bipolar international system and international relations after the end of the Cold War, have common features, which usually allows them to be used as synonyms and makes them the most popular when choosing a common comprehensive definition for the modern international relations. The collapse of the Soviet bloc and the global bipolar system put on the agenda issues that cannot be resolved within the traditional terms “poles,” “balance of power,” “configuration of the balance of power” etc. The world has entered a period of uncertainty and growing risks. the global international system is experiencing profound shocks associated with the transformation of its structure, changes in its interaction with the environment, which accordingly affects its regional and peripheral dimensions. In modern post-bipolar relations of shaky equilibrium, there is an obvious focus on the transformation of the world international order into a “post-American world” with the critical dynamics of relations between old and new actors at the global level. The question of the further evolution of the entire system of international relations in the post-bipolar world and the tendency of its transformation from a confrontational to a system of cooperation remains open.


Author(s):  
I. N. Timofeev

The problems of the world order is often seen through the interaction of the leading centers of power. Nevertheless there is another approach, locating actorhood in the state, which forms the world order. State acts in international affairs, it has the right of legitimate violence, it also has the ability to concentrate the economic and human resources. Obviously, the nature of the state as part of the international system has an effect on the system itself, defining its key parameters. From that point of view, some questions arise: what happens to the state? What is the effect of its transformation on the contemporary world order? Why the state is changing? What hierarchy of states exists in the contemporary world order? The author proceed from the following theses. First, the nation state is no longer a universal formula of nation building. However, there is no balance between two key foundations of a legitimate order - fairness and efficiency. Second, the current world order is a mosaic of fundamentally different states. Each state is trying to find a formula for the combination of a fairness and efficiency. These formulas do not always coincide with each other, and it underlays the stability in international relations. Third, a small group of major powers still play the key role in the world order. The issue of sovereignty of many countries remains open. World order, as well as a state, is characterized by imbalance between equity and efficiency. The awaited harmony of these two principles may be spoofed again the triumph of efficiency oover justice -maintenance of order through the balance of power and a rigid hierarchy.


2019 ◽  
pp. 111-118
Author(s):  
George Zviadadze

After transformation of unipolarity and reformatting world order system, a question been forwarded on how new system is to be founded on. As it is known classical international relations system developed since Westphalia Agreement of 1648 has been composed mainly by the state as key actors of international politics. The system has been developed two type of regimes: soft bipolarity and balance of power interchanged in several period of time consequently. One of the characteristic features of globalization is a fundamental change of the international system and world order. It differs from the world of post-Cold War period with the stance of different actors of international relations on each other as well as with the forms of sharing power and that of interconnections. In that context there were four phases of the international relations systems: the system of Westphalia, the system of Vienna, the system of Versailles, the system of Yalta-Potsdam and later international relations were transformed into bipolarity one. Since demolishing classical Cold War order and entering into new epoch of anarchic scenario, the states as key actors of the system have been diminishing in favour of so-called “nonstate actors”. However, in the international system of the 21st century, the nationstate still has particular functions. It represents the dominant element of the world politics which can influence the behaviour of the population and non-state actors.


2018 ◽  
pp. 68-76
Author(s):  
Maxim Rozumny

The article is devoted to the strategy of the Russian Federation’s leadership to restore the status of the empire. The prerequisites for such a solution are the economic specialization of the Russian Federation in the system of world economy, the archaic social structure, monopolized power and resources in the hands of the ruling corporation, inertia of the post-Soviet mentality and psychology. The restored imperial model does not include the role of political (civilian) nation as a subject of power, but, on the contrary, it includes a military-administrative apparatus for internal ез пеко and external expansion, and also it needs for loyality of the masses. Faced to the inevitable crisis of this archaic system of domination, Putin made an outright bet on aggression, dynamics, instincts, selfishness, and thus created an alternative to a trend of Westernization’s globalization. Russia’s new subjectivity is formed on the basis of aggressive foreign policy, based on internal consolidation and increased using media for propaganda. An attempt to restore the former status of a superpower stems from the imperial essence of Russian statehood. It is based on the logic of its historical development, objective characteristics of its socio-economic, political, cultural and ideological life. The new Russian leader has become only an instrument of self-reproduction of the imperial mechanism and restoring the traditional identity of Russia, to which the political class and the population of the country returned after unsuccessful attempt of modernization. Imperial identity requires a permanent mobilization, concentration of all forces on the solution of «historical» tasks. External aggression is an indicator of the ability of the imperial organism. Therefore, the majority of Russians actively supported the imperial revanchist course of their leaders. The Russian expansion in the first stages did not meet the considerable resistance of the world community, in particular, by the consolidated West. A number of prerequisites existed in world politics has led to this rezulte. The lack of leadership in the modern world has led to an increasing selfishness of major geopolitical players and to the neglecting of international law by them in their intensive competition for resources and priorities. These factors have led to increased conflict and loss of control of the global system as a whole. If the world returns to the scenario of guided globalization, if the role of international law, international organizations and security structures grows up, if the demonopolization of markets (first of all, energy market) and the liberalization of political regimes becomes true, then Putin’s rate will be a loser. If world chaos in international systems grows, aggression increases, and the trade and industrial cooperation are limited by governments, then a militarized, based on the raw rent Russian empire can get a new historical chance.


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