Introduction to International Relations

“Pluralists argue that international activity is not just a matter of the behaviour of states but of other actors too. Further, but logically separate, they argue that states are not quite as security and power conscious as the realists make out. For example, economic issues are issues in their own right”

Philosopher king, idea according to which the best form of government is that in which philosophers rule. The ideal of a philosopher king was born in Plato’s dialogue Republic as part of the vision of a just city. It was influential in the Roman Empire and was revived in European political thought in the age of absolutist monarchs. It has also been more loosely influential in modern political movements claiming an infallible ruling elite. Unless . . . philosophers become kings in the cities or those whom we now call kings and rulers philosophize truly and adequately and there is a conjunction of political power and philosophy . . . there can be no cessation of evils . . . for cities nor, I think, for the human race. In the Islamic world, the medieval philosopher Abu Naṣr al-Farabi had championed the notion of a religiously devout philosopher king. More than 1,000 years later the notion of such a figure acting as the interpreter of law inspired the Ayatollah Khomeini and the revolutionary state that he shaped in Iran.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) is best known for his political thought, and deservedly so. His vision of the world is strikingly original and still relevant to contemporary politics. His main concern is the problem of social and political order: how human beings can live together in peace and avoid the danger and fear of civil conflict. He poses stark alternatives: we should give our obedience to an unaccountable sovereign (a person or group empowered to decide every social and political issue). Otherwise what awaits us is a “state of nature” that closely resembles civil war – a situation of universal insecurity, where all have reason to fear violent death and where rewarding human cooperation is all but impossible.

The extent of European imperialism in the Old World climbed steadily in the modern age, peaking ca. 1900. At this point, firm European domination had spread across most of the Old World, the only major exceptions being Turkey (the Ottoman Empire), Persia, and Japan. At its peak, the British Empire became the largest empire the world has ever known, at nearly a quarter of the Earth’s land area. The Russian Empire became history’s third-largest empire, behind the British and Mongol Empires.
In the nineteenth century, the European empires experienced three major changes: the Latin American Wars of Independence, the expansion of European territory in Asia, and the Scramble for Africa. Most of the Spanish Empire was lost in the Latin American Wars of Independence (ca. 1810-30), sparked by Napoleon’s occupation of Spain, which (briefly) replaced the reigning Spanish king with Napoleon’s brother. This destabilized the politics of Latin America, where support for independence movements had already grown to dangerous proportions, especially after the success of the American Revolution (the first successful colonial revolution). The Wars of Independence gave rise to the modern nations of Latin America. (Brazil’s independence from Portugal, though achieved in the same period, was obtained peacefully.) Mexico became the primary power of Mesoamerica, while Brazil emerged as the chief power of South America. The United States, however, remained the overwhelmingly dominant power of the New World.