Global Politics

Institutions

Regimes

Transnational Networks

Global Politics-Global Governance

• Challenges traditional distinctions: inside/outside, territorial/non-territorial

• Highlights richness and complexity of “the political” and the interconnections between actors

• Both Formal and Informal orgs. – States – Intergovernmental Organizations, international agencies,

supranational institutions (EU)– non-state actors: NGOs, MNCs– Transnational advocacy networks and social movements

• Not just political/security: other economic, social, ecological questions

• Pollution, human rights, drugs, terrorism

Why?

• Reflects:– Increasing global enmeshment– Rise of new organizations responding to:– Desire to deal with collective policy problems– Growing pressure of NGOs for new forms of

accountability

Internationalization

• Agreements and political activity between states• Increasingly focuses on ‘domestic’ or ‘welfare’

issues: jobs, ecologies, social security• International Governmental Orgs (IGOs)

– 1909: 37– 1996: 260

• Policy networks: department to department• High level summits: G8, EU, IMF, APEC,

MERCOSUR summits• 4000 annual conferences sponsored by IGOs

International Regime

• “Implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures around which actor expectations converge in a given issue area of international relations” (Krasner 1983)

• Regimes:– Provide framework of legal liability– Improve available information– Reduce transaction costs of cooperation– Inject predictability

• Very common: Range is wide: – Polar bear agreement, – Antarctica/outer space, – nuclear non-proliferation– Human rights, women’s rights, environmental issues

Impetus for the rise of global governance: Challenging Westphalia

• “Balance of Power” not sufficient to prevent extreme forms of violence against humanity

• Individuals and groups have become recognized as subjects of international law

• International law increasingly about economic, social, communication, environment; not just security and geopolitical matters

• International law emanates not just from consent of states, but from “will of the international community”dense patchwork of regulatory mechanisms and regimes

Transnationalization

• Relations and activities cutting across national territorial boundaries– production: MNCs– Banks and finance– International NGOs: 1951: 8321996: 5472

• Greenpeace• International Confederation of Trade Unions (ICTU)• Religious congresses• Social NGOs: Oxfam, Red Cross, Religious development orgs• Scientific orgs and standards

• Action at a distance• Zapatista Website

Transnational Networks

• Keck and Sikkink article• What is a Transnational Network?• Why and How have Transnational Advocacy

Networks Emerged?• The Boomerang Pattern• Strategies

– Information Politics– Symbolic Politics– Leverage Politics– Accountability Politics

UN System• Precursor: League of Nations (Treaty of

Versailles, 1919)• “The name "United Nations", coined by United States

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was first used in the "Declaration by United Nations" of 1 January 1942, during the Second World War, when representatives of 26 nations pledged their Governments to continue fighting together against the Axis Powers”

• 1944: Dunbarton Oaks agreement: US, UK, USSR, China

• 1945: San Francisco: UN Charter, 50 members signed

UN System

• Growth since 1945: http://www.un.org/Overview/growth.htm

• Non members with permanent observer status: Switzerland and Holy See (Vatican) http://www.un.org/Overview/missions.htm#nperm

• IGOs with observer status

• Participation of NGOs key

UN: Four basic purposes

• to maintain international peace and security,

• to develop friendly relations among nations,

• to cooperate in solving international problems and in promoting respect for human rights, and

• to be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations.

UN Principles

• World community: sovereign states; limited role for individuals and groups

• Colonized people have rights to self-determination• “Effective State Power” called into question: Force

(military/economic) less legitimate• International legal principles are adopted• Rights of individuals stand above power of states• Human rights, peace, social justice become priorities• Systematic inequalities are recognized: • “Common heritage of Mankind”: some resources are not

the property of states

UN Innovations

• International deliberative forum in which developing countries have +/- equal status

• Formal framework for decolonization• Governance of “international public goods”

– Air traffic control, telecom, postal service, contagious diseases, relief for refugees, environmental commons

• Vision of collective decision-making, supranational champion of human rights

The Human Rights Regime

• “The defense of human dignity knows no boundaries” (Emilio Mignone, Argentina)

• Components:– International Bill of Human Rights

• UN Declaration of Human Rights 1948• Convention on civil and political rights (US ratifies with

reservations: http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/usdocs/civilres.html

• Convention on economic, social and cultural rights• Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against

Women (CEDAW) (US not ratified)• Convention on the Rights of the Child

Human Rights Regime

• Comparable formal orgs within regions– European Commissioner for Human Rights and OSCE– Inter-American Committee on Human Rights– Africa: Banjul Charter

• NGOs– Amnesty International– 200 US NGOs– 200 UK and Europe– 100’s 1000’s in developing world

• Madres de Plaza de Mayo– http://www.madres.org/ingles/http://www.madres.org/ingles/index.

htmindex.htm

New Ordering Principle: Cosmopolitan Law

• Basic standards of global law that no state should be able to cross

• Delimit and curtail sovereignty of state• Legitimacy as a state requires upholding of

certain democratic principles, including human rights and other values upheld by “global community”

• Minority rights, War Crimes, Environmental Issues

Cosmopolitan Law

• Minority rights: • 1992 UN Declaration • OSCE “Early warning” and “Early action” protocols• Kurds• Rwanda

• Rules of warfare/war crimes/Crimes against humanity• Geneva Conventions (1864, 1929, 1949) and Hague Conventionsa :

Treatment of prisoners and protection of civilians• What counts as a war crime has changed: Rape• International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia-Milosovic• ICC?

Cosmopolitan Law

• Global Environmental Law– “Economic Zones”

• Continental shelf-200 miles from coast

– “Common Heritage of Mankind”• Convention on the Moon and other Celestial Bodies

• Convention on the Law of the Sea

– Montreal Protocol on CFCs

• Kyoto Protocol? On track or stalled?

Case for Global Governance?

• Political control is no longer assumed to be located within boundaries of single nation-state alone

• Distinctions between domestic and foreign affairs is vaguer “Boundary problem”– AIDS– Climate– Mad Cow Disease– Nuclear waste– Financial markets– Terrorism

Case for Global Governance?

• Sovereignty not completely subverted, just augumented; however it is no longer exclusive and indivisible

• “Overlapping communities of fate”