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Chapter 13 — International Politics and the Global Community Study Chapter
Summary This chapter moves from domestic politics
to the world of international relations. It focuses primarily on the patterns
of nation-state behavior since World War II and raises questions as to how well
equipped the international system is to further cooperation between states,
foster humane accommodation, and advance the peaceful resolution of conflict. Is
the international system prepared to maximize security, liberty, justice, and
welfare in the global community? The post-World War II era of
international politics can be divided into two periods. The first, the cold
war, ran from roughly 1947 to 1989 and was characterized by a bipolar distribution of power between the United States and the Soviet Union. It
was a period of great tension between the two superpowers, and this tense
relationship had enormous impact on defining the world political system. The
second period, which we are still in, is what might be called the post-cold war
period. It began in 1990 with the collapse of the communist world. This period,
dominated by the power of the United States, poses a number of significant
challenges to the international community including (1) an economically
struggling Russian Republic, (2) the emergence of a militant Islamic
fundamentalism, (3) the survival of a flood of new democracies that emerged
with the end of the cold war, (4) the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction, particularly nuclear, (5) the emergence of numerous internal and
interstate conflicts the origins of which trace to long-standing ethnic,
tribal, and religious resentments, (6) the globalization of the international economic system, and finally, (7) the rise in
terrorism. A number of patterns of behavior are
manifest in the international system: balance of power, as practiced in various forms throughout history, including the cold war;
domination, a clear example being the German and Japanese imperial conquest
prior to and during World War II; and multilateralism, represented globally by
the United Nations and in the phenomenon known as globalization, and
represented regionally by organizations such as the European Union. Other forms of behavior include neutrality, nonalignment,
and isolation. Finally, the international system is
increasingly influenced by the behavior of nonstate actors such as multinational corporations, terrorist groups, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Chapter
Objectives After reading this chapter, you should...
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