The international politics of the postCold War period

1
The international politics of the post-Cold War
period
2
The end of the Cold War system

• The political, economic and social crisis of the
  Soviet bloc states
• The Eastern European revolutions of 1989
• The internal implosion and disintegration of the
  Soviet bloc
• The collapse of the USSR in December 1991
• The demise of the Cold War bipolar structure of
  international politics
• The end of the World Concert system
• The termination of a relatively stable period in
  international relations
• The collapse of the Cold War system and the
  emergence of a new international (dis) order?

3
The realist view of the post Cold War system

• The international system will go back to the
  future (J. Mearsheimer)
• Ultimate goals of state is to achieve power and
  hegemony
• Return to an anarchical international environment
  
• The gradual demise of international institutions,
  such as NATO and the EU
• The end of bloc security and the
  renationalisation of security and defence
  policies
• Increase in nuclear proliferation and WMD
• Intense security competition among states and
  potential for conflict and war

4
From Bipolarism, through unilateralism, to
multipolarism

• The unrivalled power of the U.S.
• Only left superpower will be tempted to fill the
  power vacuum left by the collapse of the USSR
• A unipolar drift in U.S. foreign policy
• No treaties, agreements, norms could constrain
  U.S. power
• Risk of U.S. overstretching itself
• Other states will feel threatened
• Increase search for nuclear deterrence
• Ascent of other powers that will try to tame U.S.
  might
• The gradual return to a multipolar system
• U.S., China, Franco-German led EU, Russia, Japan,
  India
• Persisting inadequacy of the UN
• Serious risk of instability and conflict

5
The liberal view of the post-Cold War system

• Collapse of the Soviet bloc as a success for
  Western liberal democracy and an opportunity for
  the world
• Liberal- democracies would spread across the
  globe
• The world could become a more secure and peaceful
  place
• An age of international peace and co-operation
  would emerge
• International institutions will shape and govern
  relations among states
• International institutions will have the capacity
  to constrain the major powers
• Globalisation and complex interdependence
• The idea of global governance
• The demise of realism and the state centric views
  of international relations
• The myth of the end of history

6
Liberalism, social-constructivism and the new
security debate in the 1990s

• The termination of traditional state centred
  security conceptions
• Their replacement by societal security
  conceptions
• Economic, social, environmental issues
• New threats of hunger, crime, disease,
  repression, environmental degradation
• Society will have to move from hard to soft
  security strategies
• Need for international c-operation for effective
  soft security strategies to be developed
• The ethical dimension of soft security
• Societies and will have to include an ethical
  dimension in their own security strategies
• Individual (liberal) and societal
  (social-constructivist) security concerns will
  replace the traditional concern for state or bloc
  security
• UN, EU, OSCE to promote liberal-democratic and
  ethical security strategies

7
The changing nature of national security

• National security no more to be defined
  exclusively in terms of sovereignty and
  territorial integrity
• As a result of the advance of globalisation
  states have lost the historical monopoly on the
  use of force and violence
• The emergence of powerful transnational non-state
  actors (Al-Qaeda, organised crime)
• The explosion of low level informal violence
• The breakdown of political legitimacy
• The implosion of failing or weak states (Somalia,
  Yugoslavia, post-war Iraq)
• The end of the traditional distinction between
  war, organised crime and massive violations of
  human rights
• Distinction of internal and external, war and
  peace, aggression and repression has become
  extremely thin
• National security can no longer be identified
  with defence of the national borders

8
The return of realism?

• Realism has also been vindicated by the events
  that have followed 9/11
• Great powers continue to worry about their
  survival and the control of their borders
• International politics is still influenced by
  power politics
• Nationalism remains a powerful political ideology
• Military power remains a key security instrument
• Nuclear proliferation continues to be a major
  issue (hard security)
• Retreat of human rights and ethical concerns
  after 9/11
• The practice of extraordinary renditions
• Great Powers overstretching and the realist
  criticism of the U.S. invasion of Iraq

9
Conclusions

• What are the key distinguishing elements of the
  current international system?
• Is realism dead and buried?
• Can current security threats be better understood
  through liberal and social-constructivist prisms?
• To which extent have ethical concerns been
  incorporated into the formulation of
  international policy decisions?
• How much power is enough for states, societies
  and individuals?
• Is it practical to build an international order
  modelled on Western values? Is it ethical?
• How will environmental concerns shape national
  security policies?
• Natural resources scarcity will increase conflict
  and violence or will it lead to increased
  international co-operation?