IR 402 –
ANALYSIS OF
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
______
LECTURE NOTES
Historical Evolution of IOs:
Peace of Westphalia 1648
Congress of Vienna 1814 – 1815:
1.
Codification of diplomacy
2.
Meeting at fixed intervals
Hague Conferences: 1899 and 1907:
1.
Discussions of the establishment of a COURT
2.
Disarmament
Emergence of INTERNATIONAL
ORGANIZATIONS; Stepping Stones
Hague Conferences of 1899 & 1907
End of the First World War (1919)
Interwar years (1919 – 1939)
Establishment of “League of Nations”
1920
Evolution of “Idealism”
Wilson’s 14 Principles
Hague Conferences (1899 &
1907)
In the Hague Conferences, the European states pledged to establish an international mechanism to settle
disputes among nations
In order to achieve this end; the Hague Conferences had come to the conclusion that there should be an
international TRIBUNAL to solve the problmes among states!
This was the first step in the foundation of International Court; like Permanent Court of International Justice in 1920 which has been replaced by the International
Court of Justice in 1945 under the UN System.
For that purpose the headquarter of ICJ is located at Hague/ the Netherlands today!!!
End of the WWI and establishment of League of Nations
After the end of the WWI, the victorious powers decided to set up an
international organization to avoid any other world war and to maintain peace &
security at international level.
In order to cope with this situation, the League of Nations was established which was the first political IGO ever
established.
FOUNDATION OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
Cornerstones of the League:
1.
Collective Security
2.
Promotion of international
cooperation, peace & security
3.
Form of relations among states to be
OPEN, LAWFUL, JUST and PEACEABLE.
Continue...
Mandate Commission
Organs & Bodies of the League:
1.
Assembly
2.
Council
3.
Court – Permanent Court of
International Justice
Covenant of the League:
Article 8: recommending the reduction of armaments and the limitation of the private manufacture of armaments
Article 10: Members of the League undertook ‘to respect and preserve as
against external aggression to the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all members of the League’
Articles from 12 to 16: Outlined how states should conduct their relations in SETTLING
disputes among themselves
Continue...
Article 14: Stresses on ARBITRATION, CONCILIATION & MEDIATION ==
Establishment of PCIJ
Article 18: New treaties were to be registered with and published by the League’s
Secretariat
Articles 22 & 23: League members needed to
“undertake to secure the just treatment of
the inhabitants of territories under their
control”
Examples:
Britain was a Mandatory Power
Ruling Palestine, Jordan & Iraq
France was ruling Syria & Lebanon as
mandates
Failure of the League:
Why?
Italian occupation of Ethiopia
Soviet Union invasion of Finland
Problems with the Membership
Soviet Union was expelled from the
League in 1939
Post – 1945 Era:
Cold War Politics – BIPOLARITY
Two Super Powers
Alliances: NATO vs WARSAW Pact
“Iron Curtain”: Division in Western Europe
Establishment of the United Nations
(UN)
Post – 1945 era:
Bretton Woods Conference:
1.
Establishment of Bretton Woods Institutions: IMF, WB and GATT IMF: International Monetary Fund
WB: World Bank, IBRD: Inter. Bank for Reconstruction & Development
GATT: General Agreements on Tariffs &
Trade (WTO today)
Other IOs established after 1945:
Non-Alligned Movement
Bandung Conference in Indonesia Yugoslavia, Egypt & India
OECD: Organization of Economic Cooperation for Development
Council of Europe
ECSC: European Coal & Steel Community
EEC: European Economic Community
IOs: First IOs have ever established
Rhine River Commission 1804
International Telegraphic Union (ITU)
Universal Postal Union (UPU)
League of Nations
THE UNITED
NATIONS: THE COLLECTİVE
SECURİTY SYSTEM
The United Nations aims,
according to article 1 of the UN Charter,
To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of
the peace, and to bring about by peaceful
means, and in conformity with the principles
of justice and international law, adjustment
or settlement of international disputes or
situations which might lead to a breach of
the peace.
Chapter VII in the UN Charter
The legal-constitutional basis of the UN’s collective security ambitions was to be found in Chapter VII of the Charter which dealt with ‘Action with Respect to
Threats to the Peace, Breaches of
the Peace, and Acts of Aggression’
Articles 39, 40, 41, 42 &
43...
The military options were dealt with in article 42 which empowered the Security Council to take
such action as necessary ‘to restore international peace and security’ using the ‘air, sea or land
forces of Members of the United Nations’.
It is at this point that the similarities between the collective security concepts of the League and
the United Nations begin to disappear. The
divergence became even more obvious in article 43.
This outlined the nature and extent of members’
commitments.
These made not only acceptance of, but
active participation in, military measures a legal obligation on all Charter signatories when the Security Council should require it.
On its call, UN members would be required to provide forces and facilities to enforce decisions against aggressor states.
These forces were to be provided under the terms of prior agreements, but such
arrangements would be essentially technical and could not be a means of evading
participation.
CASE: NATO EXPANSİON
Theorizing NATO Enlargment from realist,
Liberal, Marxist & Feminist Approaches
NATO Expansion
Since the end of the Cold War, NATO
members have explored a variety of plans to expand NATO eastward.
1997 Madrid Summit extend
invitations to Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic
2002 Prague Summit NATO invited Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Bulgaria,
Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania to join the
alliance, bringing its formal membership to
26 states.
Is NATO Expansion a Good Idea?
REALISTS:
Realists opposed NATO expansion for 4 reasons.
1.
The raison d’etre for NATO no longer
exists! Thus expansion serves only to facilitate NATO’s inevitable decline.
States form alliances in response to a common
enemy or threat. The usefullness of an alliance declines when the common enemy or threat no longer exists.
According to Mearsheimer; “The absence of a
major war in Europe was the result of the
bipolar balance of power between the US
and the USSR, not NATO”.
2. Viewed from American realists; the expansion of NATO stretches US
security commitments so far that
they are not credible.
THE EUROPEAN UNİON
Institutions
Key Points
Deepening & Widening Policies of the EU
Treaty of Maastricht*
EU enlargement
EU institutions: Parliament, Commission, Council of Ministers
EU membership criteria – the Copenhagen Criteria
EU’s external relations
EU Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is elected by the citizens of the European Union to represent their interests. Its origins go back to the 1950s and the founding
treaties, and since 1979 its members
have been directly elected by the people
they represent.
Elections are held every five years, and every EU citizen is entitled to vote, and to stand as a candidate, wherever they live in the EU.
The latest elections were in June 2009.
Parliament thus expresses the democratic will of the Union's citizens (more than 490 million people), and represents their interests in
discussions with the other EU institutions.
The present parliament has 736 members
from all 27 EU countries.
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs)
MEPs do not sit in national blocks, but in seven Europe-wide political groups.
Between them, they represent all views on European integration, from the
strongly pro-federalist to the openly Eurosceptic.
Jerzy Buzek was elected President of the
EP on the 14th of July 2009 and will hold
that post for two and a half years (until
January 2012).
Number of seats per political group
Some Political groups:
Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats)
Group of the Progressive Alliance of
Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament
Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
Confederal Group of the European United
Left - Nordic Green Left
Location
The European Parliament has three places of work: Brussels (Belgium), Luxembourg and Strasbourg (France).
Luxembourg is home to the administrative offices (the ‘General Secretariat’).
Meetings of the whole Parliament, known as ‘plenary sessions’, take place in
Strasbourg and sometimes in Brussels.
Committee meetings are also held in
Brussels.
The Council of the EU/ Council of
Ministers
The Council is the EU's main decision- making body.
Like the European Parliament, the Council was set up by the founding treaties in the 1950s.
It represents the member states, and its meetings are attended by one minister from each of the EU’s national
governments.
Which ministers attend which meeting depends on what subjects are on the agenda.
If, for example, the Council is to discuss environmental issues, the meeting will
be attended by the Environment Minister from each EU country and it will be
known as the ‘Environment Council’.
The EU’s relations with the rest of the world are dealt with by the ‘General
Affairs and External Relations Council’.
But this Council configuration also has
wider responsibility for general policy
issues, so its meetings are attended by
whichever Minister or State Secretary
each government chooses.
Council’s Tasks
The Council has six key responsibilities:
To pass European laws – jointly with the European Parliament in many policy
areas.
To co-ordinate the broad economic policies of the member states.
To conclude international agreements
between the EU and other countries or
international organisations.
To approve the EU’s budget, jointly with the European Parliament.
To develop the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), based on
guidelines set by the European Council.
To co-ordinate co-operation between the national courts and police forces in
criminal matters.
Decision-making in the Europ ean Union
Much EU legislation is adopted jointly by the Council and Parliament.
As a rule, the Council only acts on a
proposal from the Commission, and the Commission normally has responsibility for ensuring that EU legislation, once
adopted, is correctly applied.
Its Tasks
Concluding international agreements
Each year the Council ‘concludes’ (i.e. officially signs) a number of agreements between the European Union and non-EU countries, as well as with international organisations.
These agreements may cover broad areas
such as trade, co-operation and development or they may deal with specific subjects such as textiles, fisheries, science and technology,
transport etc.
Approving the EU budget
The EU’s annual budget is decided jointly by the Council and the European
Parliament.
Common Foreign and Security Policy
The member states of the EU are
working to develop a Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).
But foreign policy, security and defence are matters over which the individual
national governments retain
independent control.
They have not pooled their national
sovereignty in these areas, so Parliament and the European Commission play only a limited role here.
However, the EU countries have much to gain by working together on these
issues, and the Council is the main forum in which this ‘inter-governmental co-
operation’ takes place.
To enable it to respond more effectively to international crises, the European Union has created a ‘Rapid Reaction Force’.
This is not a European army: the personnel remain members of their national armed forces and under national command, and their role is limited to carrying out
humanitarian, rescue, peacekeeping and
other crisis management tasks.
EU’S EXTERNAL RELATIONS CASES OF SOUTH EAST
EUROPE &
TURKISH CYPRIOT COMMUNITY
Enlargement Policy
The EU: Enlargement Policy towards the Balkans
For half a century, the European Union has pursued ever-deeper integration while
taking in new members. Most of the time, the two processes took place in parallel.
A growing membership has been part of the development of European integration right from the start.
Today's EU, with 27 Member States and a population of close to 500 million people, is much safer, more prosperous, stronger and more influential than the original European
Economic Community of 50 years ago, with its 6 members and population of less than 200
million.
Now, the EU, a community of values based on peace and freedom,
democracy and the rule of law, as well as tolerance and solidarity is the world's largest economic zone.
The wider internal market and new
economic opportunities have increased Europeans' prosperity and
competitiveness.
South East Europe
The governments of the EU Member States, coming together in the European Council,
have agreed to extend the EU perspective to countries in South East Europe - Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo under UN
Security Council Resolution 1244 and Turkey.
Membership will only happen when the
necessary requirements are met.
CANDIDATE COUNTRIES
Formally accepted candidates
Iceland ?
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Montenegro
Turkey
CROATIA
Croatia has been a candidate country for EU membership since June 2004. It was the second country to sign a Stabilisation and
Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU on 29 October 2001. This agreement entered into force on 1 February 2005.
On 3 October 2005 the Council decided to
open accession negotiations with Croatia. On 12 February 2008 the Council adopted the new Accession Partnership for the country.
The status in the accession negotiations is that
there are 30 provisionally closed chapters and
negotiations have been opened in 33 chapters.
FYR of MACEDONIA
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was granted candidate country status for EU
membership in 2005. On 18 February 2008 the Council adopted the Accession Partnership for the country, thus updating the previous European
Partnership of January 2006.
A visa facilitation agreement and readmission agreement with the EU has been in force since 1 January 2008. On 15 July the European Commission proposed to grant visa liberalisation to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the countrywas signed on 9 April 2001 and
entered into force on 1 April 2004. An Interim
Agreement, covering trade and trade-related aspects, entered into force in June 2001.
ICELAND
Iceland is a country with deep democratic roots and a tradition of good
governance, high social and environmental standards and historically close ties with
many other European countries.
Iceland already enjoys a high degree of integration with the EU through its
membership of the European Economic Area
(EEA) since 1994, as well as the Schengen
area, which allows its citizens to travel and
work freely throughout the EU.
Through the EEA, Iceland already participates in the single market and contributes financially towards social and economic cohesion in Europe.
A significant proportion of the EU's laws are
applied in Iceland today. Iceland also participates, albeit with no voting rights, in a number of EU
agencies and programmes, covering areas
including enterprise, environment, education and research.
Iceland has been a member of The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) since 1970 and has a
bilateral Free Trade Agreement with the EEC since 1972.
Two thirds (2/ 3) of Iceland's foreign trade is
with EU Member States.
Iceland is also a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Hit severely by the 2008 financial crisis and economic downturn, Iceland underwent an
economic recession,
following the collapse of its banking system and the devaluation of the national currency.
Nevertheless, the country's economic base remains
strong and the prospect of EU membership is expected to have a stabilising effect on the Icelandic economy.
Already, the economy has been gradually making headway out of the crisis, with some encouraging signs of stabilisation and the IMF stabilisation
programme on track.
MONTENEGRO
Montenegro is a candidate country for membership to the EU. Its European perspective was reaffirmed by the Council in June 2006 after the recognition of the country's independence by EU member states.
Montenegro has profited from EU autonomous trade measures since 2000.
As from 1 January 2008 access of Montenegrin
products to the EU was expanded and EU exports to Montenegro have been granted trade preferences following the entry into force of the Interim
Agreement. In 2009, notwithstanding the negative impact of the international crisis, integration with the EU remained high.
The main source of export revenues are tourism and metal industry. The EU is the main trading
partner of the country...
The Balkans: South East
European Cooperation Process
The South East European Cooperation Process (SEECP)
which was born in 1996, in the aftermath of the wars in the former Yugoslavia.
Countries in the SEECP
Candidates and potential candidates:
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,
Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey
EU countries in the region:
Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Slovenia
Moldova
TURKEY
Turkey is a candidate country for EU membership
following the Helsinki European Council of December 1999. Accession negotiations[started in October
2005 with the analytical examination of the EU
legislation (the so-called screening process). Since then the EU closed provisionally one chapter and opened negotiations on 12 chapters.
On 18 February 2008 the Council adopted a revised Accession Partnership with Turkey.
Turkey has had a long association with the project of European integration. The European Economic
Community (EEC) signed in 1963 the Ankara Association Agreement for the progressive
establishment of a customs union. The Ankara Association was supplemented by an Additional Protocol signed in November 1970.
Due to the Turkish failure to apply to Cyprus the Additional Protocol to the Ankara Agreement
the Council decided in December 2006 that
eight relevant chapters will not be opened and no chapter will be provisionally closed until
Turkey has fulfilled its commitment.
The eight chapters are: Free Movement of
Goods, Right of Establishment and Freedom to Provide Services, Financial Services, Agriculture and Rural Development, Fisheries, Transport
Policy, Customs Union and External Relations.
Source: europa.eu
Potential Candidates
Albania
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Kosovo under UN Security Council Resolution 1244
Serbia
Source: europa.eu
Turkish Cypriot community
Cyprus joined the EU on 1 May 2004 as a divided island. Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots need urgently to find a solution to the Cyprus problem and thus to end a conflict on European soil that is now more than 40 years old.
The EU fully supports the renewed negotiations
between the leaders of the two communities, Dervis Eroglu and Demetrios Christofias, under the
auspices of the UN, to reach a comprehensive
settlement leading to the re-unification of the island.
The EU will accommodate a Cyprus settlement
provided that it allows Cyprus to play its full role as a Member State and that it respects the basic
principles upon which the EU is founded –
democracy, the rule of law and human rights.
The whole of the island is in the EU. However, in the northern part of the island, in the areas in
which the Government of Cyprus does not exercise effective control, EU legislation is suspended in line with Protocol 10 of the Accession Treaty 2003.
The situation will change once a Cyprus settlement enters into force and it will then be possible for EU rules to apply over the whole of the island.
However, the suspension does not affect the
personal rights of Turkish Cypriots as EU citizens.
They are citizens of a Member State, the Republic of Cyprus, even though they may live in the
northern part of Cyprus, the areas not under
government control.
The two parts of the island remain divided by the "Green Line" that separates the
government-controlled areas from the rest of the island.
The Council approved the Green Line
Regulation (Council Regulation No 866/2004) on 29 April 2004 to deal with the movement of persons and goods across the line.
While many people move across the Green Line every day, trade across the line remains limited, amounting to approximately €
600.000 per month. Source: europa.eu
On 27 February 2006 the EU approved an aid regulation for the benefit of the
Turkish Cypriot community aimed at putting an end to the isolation of this community and helping prepare for the reunification of the island
2€259 million was voted in 2006 for this programme which is to be implemented by the
Commission (DG Enlargement) over five
years ...
DG Enlargement:
The main aims are
1.) social and economic development;
2.) infrastructure, in particular energy and transport, environment, telecommunications and water supply;
3.) reconciliation, confidence building measures, and support to civil society;
4.) bringing the Turkish Cypriot community closer to the Union, through information on the EU, and contacts between Turkish Cypriots and other EU citizens;
5.) helping the Turkish Cypriot community to be ready to implement EU rules (acquis communautaire) in case of a comprehensive settlement.
Over 99 percent of the € 259 million Aid Programme for the Turkish Cypriot
community has been contracted by the Commission before the deadline of 18 December 2009.
A total of 880 contracts, most of them grants, have been signed. Most of the
contracts will be completed by the end of 2011.
Source: europa.eu
Role of the European Commission
The European Commission has several specific responsibilities reflecting the unique diplomatic, political and legal situation in Cyprus. These are in addition to the normal role of the
Commission with regard to any Member State.
The Commission stands ready to provide any
support to the negotiations aimed at reaching a comprehensive settlement that the two sides might request.
The Commission will follow the development of the process closely, and set up the
arrangements necessary to ensure that the
Commission can respond swiftly as and when
required.
The Commission implements directly the aid programme decided by Member States to
help the Turkish Cypriots prepare for reunification.
The Commission reports regularly on the
implementation of the Green Line regulation.
To meet these responsibilities, the
Directorate-General for Enlargement within
the Commission set up the Task Force for the
Turkish Cypriot community.
A CASE STUDY:
MİDDLE EAST
DEMOCRATIZATION
Democratization – Political
Liberalization in MENA region
There is a requirement to distinguish 2 terms!
Key Points:
Literature Review on democracy in the Middle East
Arab Spring – roots and consequences
Case studies from the MENA region
Differentiation of the themes Rex Brynen ...
Political Liberalization stands for
“the expansion of public through the recognition and protection of cvil and political liberties”
Democratization “entails an
expansion of political participation ...to
provide citizens with a degree of real and
meaningful collective control over public
policy”
Is there an Arab exception?
Ta’addudiyya (multipartyism)
Bianchi cosmetic democratization argument that refers to “corporatist – associative model in which political
exchange takes place between political and economic groups at the top ..
Without involving the base”.
Impact of Orientalism
As Simon Bromely (1997) notes the conventional view that: “democracies are strangers to the Middle East ... the limited post-independence experiments with democratic politics did not survive, the rise of nationalist forces seeking
modernization and independence, were thwarted by monarchical rule and oil
wealth”. ( p. 329 in Beverley Milton-Edwards
– our textbook )
Exceptionalism
The culturalist (on the basis of Muslim political culture) arguments then lead to a concept of exceptionalism.
“The idea of an Arab or Islamic
exceptionalism has thus re-emerged among both western proponents of universal democracy and established
orientalists, and this in turn has encouraged a great many local
apologists of cultural authenticity in their rejection of western models of
government” (Salamé, 1994)
For Simon Bromely
“the relative absence of democracy in the Middle East has little to do with the
region’s Islamic culture and much to do with its particular pattern of state
formation”
Important themes shaping democracy debate in the Middle East
1.
The critique of the Arab/ Islamic
civilization is uniquely exceptional!
2.
Theoretical dimesions of liberalization – democratization
3.
Economic liberalization
4.
Civil society
5.
Islam – clash of civilizations
6.
Israel
Four VARIABLES
1.
Political Culture
2.
Political Economy
3.
Civil society
4.
International Context
Islam and democracy
Nazih Ayubi “I would argue myself that Islamic culture contains elements that may be both congenial and
uncogenial to democracy, depending on the particular society and on the
historical conjuncture”.
For Esposito & Piscatori
“whether the word democracy is used or not, almost all Muslims today react to it as one of the universal conditions of the modern world. To this extent it has
become part of Muslim political thought
and discourse”.
Fred Halliday:
“If there are in a range of Islamic
countries evident barriers to democracy, this has to do with certain other social
and political features that their societies
share”
Al-Nahda & IAF
Formation of al-Nahda in Tunisia (1980s) and IAF in Jordan (1992) evidence of liberalization of Islamic thinking on
issues of plurality, democracy, partisan
politics and elections (Martin Kramer)
Martin Kramer
“Islamic fundamentalists only embrace democracy in an instrumentalist and short-term fashion as a strategy for Islamic statehood which is both
authoritarian and anti-democratic”
Democracy he writes “diversity,
accomodation – the fundamnetalists
have repudiated them all”.
NAZIH AYUBI says ...
“most fundamnetalist groupings act as a counter-democratic force; whereas some
of the factors that explain the delay of democratization in the Middle East are purely economic or technological, rather
than religious or cultural, there is little doubt that the refusal by ruling elites to
allow an element of participation for
Islamic movements is an added casuse for the slow pace of democratization in many
Muslim societies”.
Cases
Israel
Jordan
Algeria
CASE STUDY A
REGİON: MİDDLE EAST İN WORLD AFFAİRS
Analyzing Middle East as a
REGION
From the article written by Fawaz A. Gerges ...
In Orientalism; Edward Said offers a
criticism of Orientalism Middle Eastern studies as practised in the West.
The book Orientalism is a criticism of “a Western style for dominating,
restructuring, and having authority over
the Orient”.
The ORIENT
Study of the Orient has been closely connected with the interests of the
dominant colonial-minded imperialist
powers; Britain & France; the USA since the end of the WWII.
For Said; the interest of the imperalist powers in the ME was both POLITICAL &
CULTURAL !
Linkage between “power” and
“knowledge” !
So the relationship between the Orient and the Occident is a relationship of
POWER, of DOMINATION and of varying degrees of a COMPLEX HEGEMONY.
For Brynen; “the Middle East is still
represented, rather than being allowed
to represent itself” ...
Definition and delineation of the Middle East
How we can define the Middle East?
Where Middle East starts and ends?
Or is there a Middle East?
Definitions of the region vary depending
on the analysts’ research design.
Middle East as an abstraction ..
Middle East for Gerges; is an artifical 19th century abstraction, a strategic concept imposed from without by the British
authorities.
It is ironic that the term Middle East has been spread to scholarly circles in the
Middle East itself.
However as Gerges indicates; the
definition is not merely academic! It ıs
also political and ideological ...
Matar and Dessouki
For them; the term Middle East is a political concept in its origin and usage that reflects the strategic
interests of the great powers.
For Matar & Dessouki the concept
Middle East fails to capture regional
dynamics and processes.
For Gerges ...
“ ... the obsession with the foreign
relations of the Great Powers – mainly those of the US and the SU (until the end
of the Cold War) –
leads to a narrowing of focus and to a minimizing of regional processes which as often as not take a higher priority over international issues in the
eyes of Middle East leaders”.
Thus ...
The relationship between the REGION
and the GREAT POWERS is hierarchical !!
More systemic analysis of the Middle
East is required.
Middle East as a subsystem !
Including peculiar mixture of domestic, regional, and international politics
Adding other forces and variables which might explain the dynamics of int
relations of the region better!
The main problem appears to be that the Middle East, despite how important it is perceived to be to world politics, is
neglected or ignored by Western scholars as a source for theory
development; and that too many IR
scholars appear to view the region as too
unique, or as not fitting very well into IR
approaches.
Stuyding ME studies through IR theory
Is the Middle East unique?
Or; the Middle East is unique to the extent that any region of the world is unique!!
it is not true that the Middle East is completely ignored in IR scholarship
Stephen M. Walt’s neorealist The Origins of Alliances and Michael Barnett’s
constructivist Dialogues in Arab Politics
Fred Halliday adopts a historical- sociological framework;
Raymond Hinnebusch and Anoushiravan
Ehteshami construct a “neorealist” scaffold (though they also incorporate several
other conceptual elements), and
Hinnebusch later expands on this by creating a multi-theoretical
explanation based on historical sociology, structuralism,
constructivism, and neorealism
“American syllabus on the IR of the Middle East available on the Internet
indicates that these sources dominate such courses and their reading lists, with less
emphasis on theoretical, methodological, and—from these—empirical questions and debate, including little if any interest in
broader questions of epistemology.”
Thus the focus seems to be less
International Relations and more simple
description.
International Relations
of the Middle East, edited by Louise Fawcett
A critique ..
First, the book is organized not according to specific IR approaches or models, but rather specific issues and themes.
Second, there is a tendency in the teaching of this area to list extant IR
theories or models, and then argue that they are inadequate for explaining
regional politics
Systemic-Materialist Approaches
Applying systemic models begins with defining a “system”. Standard understandings would
focus on the system as the stage on which actors engage with each other in their international
interactions.
Since there can be many levels of system (for example, global, regional, and so on), opening up the discussion to the nature of the Middle Eastern system brings in different IR concepts while
highlighting their relevance for how we think
about the region. (p. 17)
Example ... Gregory Gause ..
Gause, for example, makes a good case that North African states might be
secondary to such conversations
because they are not integrated closely into the regular set of
international issues the rest of the region engages in, such as the Arab- Israeli conflict and transnational
Arabism or Islamism...
Systemic approaches may also lead to
prioritize the “state” as the premier
institution and the one to which theories much point— but that in the case of the Middle East itself, it is non-state actors
who often influence domestic and regional politics more.
Into this discussion can be inserted
consideration of external powers, such as
the United States, Russia, Europe, China,
India, or others.
Colonialism and Postcolonialism
as way of thinking about the Middle East that conditions and shapes specific actions.
Such analysis begins with Edward Said’s Orientalism.
According to Said, the “Orient” is a European invention designed as an approach toward the region.
As Europe defined the Middle East in terms appropriate to its own perceptions,
scholarship of the Orient became
inextricably linked to European— and
Western—policy toward the region.
Said & Orientalism ...
If the West viewed the East in specific negative terms (as backward, primitive, etc.), Said argued, then the task of European policy toward the East became easier.
For example, as a way of thinking, Orientalism facilitated Western occupation of the Middle East and prevented self-government for its peoples.
If the Middle East was viewed as weak, irrational, and cowardly then it stood to reason that the
West should rule over the region, depriving it of
the right to sovereign statehood that the Western
powers insisted on for themselves.
In the case of the Middle East, the region is
classified more as an appendage of the great powers than anything else, because these
powers control what happens in the area for their own benefit.
In addition to leading to deep ideational
negatives such as stereotypes, prejudice, racism, and Islamophobia, it also contributes to an under- development of the region itself.
By this understanding, then, blame for the
region’s problems clearly lies with those outside
the region.
Domestic Politics
Do Israel and Iraq engage in war with
their neighbors because of something
internal to them, or are there other,
common, factors that matter?
REGIME SECURITY
A very fruitful area to study the intersection
between theory, perception, and practice under this paradigm is regime security.
In Steven David’s words, “[i]t is the leadership of the state and not the state itself that is the proper unity of analysis for understanding … foreign policy.”
When applied to the Middle East, the concept is
normally applied to the Arab states. By focusing
on the regimes themselves, we can understand
how the state will act; and in this way we can also
understand how state behavior might be changed.
The state and regime
Under this conceptualization, the difference between state and regime is negligible.
The construction of state institutions
(bureaucracies, militaries, parties, and domestic security services) is often done by regimes in power to help maintain themselves in power.
Narrowly-based regimes insert into the top
positions of these institutions officials who are tied to the regime through family, tribe, ethnicity, or
religion.
Thus, state institutions serve the needs of the
regime, so that the two become indistinguishable.
This melding of state and regime is a
direct result of the illegitimacy inherent
in both!
Example Michael HUDSON
Michael Hudson’s argument—that Arab regimes, lacking the institutionalized
nature and long historical acceptance of Western states, do not have internal or external legitimacy, making them
precarious and insecure —remains
pertinent to any discussion of Arab
states in the Middle East today
Nazih AYUBI
Nazih Ayubi has argued that such conditions have forced the Arab regimes to general legitimacy in one of two ways:
by promoting nationalism populism, radicalism, and revolution, or by relying on kin-based relations and financial capital.
These internal conditions have had considerable impact on foreign policy, particularly toward Israel as
well as toward each other, often leading to an exaggeration of conflict and aggression.
Thus, understanding the genesis of these foreign policies through the application of theory not only provides a better understanding of them, but also how to deal with and
perhaps mitigate them.
Identity ...
A final paradigm useful for teaching how to apply IR theory to the Middle East is found in a focus on culture and identity of specific actors.
This is a constructivist understanding of international relations: constructivism
emphasizes the social nature of world
politics, in that actor interactions are based not on an objective reality but rather how the actors themselves interpret that reality and, through their relations with each other, promote these
different interpretations!
Identity acts as a blueprint for action by
shaping actors’ perceptions of who they
are and how they should behave within
such a context,and, from there, regional
interactions.
Example
As one study argued—written by a simultaneously Middle East scholar and IR theorist—Israel long saw itself as a
“good” state, moral and just.
During the 1980s, though, it began to act in ways that contradicted this self-perception, particularly the 1982 invasion of Lebanon and the first intifada. In both Israel acted harshly against others, violently enough that many Israelis began to ask themselves how they could treat
others this way.
Israeli self-perceptions were threatened and called into question, prompting behavior to reassert the prior self- perceptions by changing policy toward the
Palestinians (that is, engaging in the peace process and eventually the Oslo Accords).
This paradigm demonstrates; the nature of specific actor identities, and how it
shapes domestic politics and from there foreign policy...
the prominence of the Likud and Labor parties, representative
as they are of two opposite ideas on the
Israeli political spectrum
IR 401/ IR 402 ANALYSIS OF IR
HOW TO PREPARE A PRESENTATION FOR
CHOOSE A TOPIC
Please choose a topic in IR; an
international issue/ conflict/ question happening in world politics
The topic should be related with IR and
needs to be a CURRENT issue.
Examples:
Crisis in Syria
Clashes at East Jerusalem (al-Aqsa Mosque)
Catalonian Parliamentary elections and quest for independence
Euro-zone & economic crisis in Greece
ISIS and insurgence of radical Islamist actors
US-Iranian relations today
US-Russian rivalry over the Middle East
How to prepare!
Step 1
Formulate a research objective, before start writing your presentation;
Give a short INTRODUCTION to the audience in the beginning of your
presentation, which addresses your main objective in presentating the paper;
Using Power point is optional, not
compulsory
Step 2
Give a short historical background of the topic/ conflict to the audience
And tell them what the CONFLICT is about!!
Who are the main ACTORS/ PARTIES to the dispute or the issue
What is their position (s) regarding the
issue/ conflict?
Step 3
What is exactly the conflict/ issue is about TODAY?
The impact of the conflict?
Please tell the audience the role and
positions of the actors (states or non-
state actors)
Given that you have found an
international issue to address; please explain the followings:
a.
What are the domestic dynamics;
b.
Regional (at inter-state level);
c.
International dimensions of the
conflict?
LEVEL of ANALYSIS
WHICH LEVEL of ANALYSIS explains your topic best?
-
Individual
-
Domestic
-
Regional or
-
Global ?
Some Notes
Presentations will last for 15 mins;
Using power point is optional;
Please do not memorize;
Please try your best to do PRESENTATION rather than reading from the notes!!!
Your presentation will be concluded by
Questions & Answers
ALL PRESENTATIONS will be held after the MID-TERM EXAMS
