Module 12: Course Summary

This final module has three goals. First, to briefly review the content of the course. Why do we study global politics? What are the theories and approaches to global politics? How do they see the world differently? What global issues do they prioritize? What policy responses extend from their respective analysis? What other tools offer insight into understanding and explaining global politics? Second, to reflect on what you should be able to do with the course content. What does a better understanding of the theories, approaches, and tools to global politics allow you to do? What does it mean to think about global politics critically? What is the utility in comparing and contrasting different theories, approaches, and tools to global politics? Third, to contemplate possible applications or next steps from this course. How can this course help you make sense of global politics? How can you continue your study of global politics? How can you get involved in global issues?

Here is a very brief overview of what we covered in each module of the course. This is not comprehensive, but it does provide a basis for undertaking a course review.

Global Politics

What is global politics?

Global politics is defined by questions of power and authority at the systemic level. It is rooted in the expansion of the European state system through imperialism and colonialism, which established an anarchical, state-based order.

Why do we study global politics?

The study of global politics is about identifying and addressing the increasing number of systemic issues that shape our lives. The field of global politics was founded in an attempt to abolish the horror of modern warfare, exemplified by the trenches and mechanization of World War One. Following World War Two, the quest for peace was joined by a quest for a stable international economic order. More recently, new issues have been put on the research agenda, including international development, global poverty, climate change, and transnational terrorism, to name just a few. However, beyond these specific global issues, we study global politics because the world is getting smaller and more complicated. What happens in Syria, Venezuela, China, the US, or the EU impacts our security, prosperity, and sense of being in the world. Addressing these issues requires a global approach – that is why we study global politics

 Status Quo Theories

Status quo theories of global politics do not question the essential nature of the system. They accept the premise that the world is anarchical and constituted by egoistic states pursuing their national interest as they see it.

Liberalism, as a theory of global politics, is rooted in an enlightenment ideal of progress. If we can invent the internet, put a man on the moon, and cure disease, surely we can overcome the scourge of modern war, global poverty, and climate change. Based on this argument, Liberalism argues cooperation in global politics is possible if we privilege individual rights, support democratization, create institutions to address global issues, foster interdependence through trade, and establish international law as an arbiter of global conflict.

Too long/Didn’t Read (TL/DR): rationality + freedom = progress

Realism as a theory of global politics is much more skeptical about the possibility of overcoming conflict and fostering cooperation. This is because Realists see an anarchical world, constituted by sovereign states seeking their national interest amongst other sovereign states. This privileging of groupism, egoism, and anarchy means conflict is an ever-present reality and that states must resort to self-help to achieve security. While there is some nuance in the best way to achieve security, all Realist analysis focuses on relative power.

TL/DR: State Behaviour = Non-Differentiated Units + Anarchy + Capabilities

Outside-the-Box Approaches

Outside-the-box approaches to global politics question that which status quo theories take for granted: rational self-interest, states, and sovereignty. Rather than seeing these defining features of contemporary global politics as a natural fact, outside-the-box approaches question why the system is constituted the way it is. They question the purposefulness behind the system and ask to whom it benefits and how. Ultimately, outside-the-box approaches suggest the system is not exogenous to global politics but very much a product of global politics.

Constructivism stands apart from most theories and approaches to global politics in that it does not take a particular stand on anything. Instead, it looks at the process of global politics. Constructivism argues the international system is a social construction, defined by intersubjective meaning generated through interaction. This can be conflictual, or it can be cooperative. Constructivism connects identity, interests, and practices to suggest that often actor behaviour is driven by a logic of appropriateness versus a logic of consequence.

TL/DR: Anarchy is what states make of it

Critical approaches cover a lot of different theories of global politics, including Marxist-derived theories, Femininism, Environmentalism, and Securitization Theory. Two things unite these approaches. First, that global politics must be understood as being situated in a broader context of social thought, situated contextually, historically, and within particular power relationships. Second, all Critical approaches to global politics are focused on emancipation, seeking to challenge structures of power and privilege.

TL/DR: Speak truth to power

Post-Structuralism is deeply skeptical of grand unifying theories (GUT) or the possibility of a singular truth. Instead, Post-Structuralism denaturalizes concepts like the state, sovereignty, democracy, or global capitalism in order to deconstruct the discursive practices that create and maintain them. In so doing, subjugated discourses are revealed that might offer a more equitable solution to global issues.

TL/DR: Discourse establishes and reproduces structures of power and privilege while subjugating alternative discourses

Levels of Analysis

The levels of analysis approach seeks to reduce the complexity of global politics by suggesting different questions that focus on different variables. There are three levels of analysis, each suggesting different types of questions to ask about a particular issue. There are systemic-level questions, for example, assessing the impact of anarchy on an issue. There are national-level questions, for example, assessing the impact of a particular form of government on an issue. There are individual-level questions, for example, assessing the impact of a specific state leader on an issue.

TL/DR: It may be useful to look at a global issue from different perspectives: the systemic, national, and individual levels

Anarchy and Security

In order to understand the mainstream narratives of global politics, it is essential to have a solid grasp of the concepts of anarchy and security. Anarchy refers to the absence of overarching authority in a given polity. Security refers to freedom from threat. However, in practice, these concepts are not so clear-cut. Our theories and approaches to global politics understand the implications of each concept differently. Anarchy can be a source of conflict, an absence of authority, or a discourse of coercion. Similarly, security can be about systemic security, state security, or human security. By combining the different understandings of anarchy and security, we can see different mechanisms at work in global politics that influence global order.

TL/DR: Anarchy and security are foundational concepts to the study of global politics, but their practical meaning is contested.

Just War Theory

War is a traditional tool of statecraft, albeit often one of last resort. It has been the subject of philosophical debate in almost every culture throughout history. War has played a definitive role in the study of global politics, with World War One motivating the discipline’s foundation. Contemporary debates on the legitimacy and means of warfare are rooted in the European tradition of Just War Theory. This introduces the concepts of Jus Ad Bellum (legitimate justification for going to war), Jus In Bello (legitimate conduct in war), and Just Post Bellum (legitimate expectations to address post-war destruction).

TL/DR: War is a foundational concept in global politics, and the contemporary laws of war are rooted in the European Just War Theory tradition.

Foreign Policy Analysis

Foreign policy is an intrinsic part of global politics, but foreign policy analysis (FPA) is a distinct field of inquiry. Foreign policy analysis sits between country-specific studies and systemic studies and asks why specific states have made specific foreign policy choices in specific contexts while also recognizing the system’s anarchical constraints. FPA focuses on human agency, or, in other words, decision-makers and decision-making. Who makes foreign policy decisions, and by what authority? What limitations or constraints, both domestic and external, do decision-makers face? What are the consequences, both intended and unintended, of these decisions? To what degree have decision-makers learned from previous decisions and the policy choices made by others?

TL/DR: Foreign policy analysis develops theories and approaches to global politics by studying what states and decisions makers actually do.

The Globalized World

One of the defining features of contemporary global politics is the growing interconnectedness of the international economic, political, and cultural orders – aka globalization. While globalization is a much-abused concept, it speaks to how we experience a shrinking world in terms of space and time. However, globalization as a process does not tell us what kind of world that will be. The first global age in the 19^th century is not the same as the second global age in the 20^th, and the question is, what will define the 21^st century? A useful framework to understand our globalized world, past, present and future, is to examine changes in the global markets, information and communication technology (ICT), and global power.

TL/DR: Globalization is a much-abused concept, but it does define the processes and interactions that shape our lived experiences.

International Political Economy

Global politics is often thought of in terms of a state-based world, focused on questions of high politics: the national interest, diplomacy, and security. However, IPE scholars argue that a focus on high politics misses many, if not most, of the mechanisms that shape global politics. IPE focuses on the intersection of politics and economics at the global level, asking questions of how ‘states’ and ‘markets’ constitute each other. To what degree do markets discipline states? Conversely, to what degree do states govern markets? It looks to the role of institutions at the intersection of global politics and economics, like Bretton Woods, increasingly powerful non-state actors, like MNCs, the impact of globalization. It asks questions of economic stability, economic development, and global poverty. Most importantly, IPE asks who controls what and to what end.

TL/DR: The nexus of politics and economics defines much of our globalized world – trade, (in)stability, and peace/conflict.

International Governmental Organizations

IGOs are not new. However, their prevalence and the influence they wield is unique to the second global age or the post-war world. Most IGOs are intergovernmental, where states create institutions to coordinate on specific issues. However, some IGOs have become more supranational and infringe on state sovereignty, most notably the EU and the WTO.  IGOs usually fulfill one of three roles: promote member state interests, facilitate solutions and monitor compliance, and/or bring together epistemic communities. Some hoped IGOs would replace the need for hegemonic powers or at least mitigate the costs of hegemonic decline. IGOs have made a significant impact on a wide range of issues. However, IGOs are increasingly faced with questions of efficacy and legitimacy based on the perceived gap between rhetoric and practice. The question is, what role that IGOs will play in global politics in the future? And do IGOs require the support of the Great Powers to be effective?

TL/DR: IGOs play an important role in the post-war international economic, political, and even social orders – the question is whether they can continue to do so as the consensus on these orders began to break down.

Global Civil Society

Global civil society constitutes a potential source of balance in global politics against the coercive power of states and MNCs’ economic power. Global civil society is perceived to be the ‘voice of the people’, especially in the form of INGOs and transnational social movements. Importantly, global civil society represents shifting societal mores and genuinely defines normative contestation. However, while global civil society is the most direct way to enact agency in global politics, it is also plagued with questions of representation, accountability, and transparency.

TL/DR: Global civil society is the most direct way for people to engage in global politics, but the onus is on them to ensure global civil society groups and initiatives are representative, accountable, and transparent.

So, you have finished the course material. What have you learned? What should you be able to do?

First and foremost, you should leave this course with an understanding of the complexity of global politics and hopefully a better appreciation for how it is constituted. You should have a good grasp of big picture issues like the form, function, and challenges of the international political, economic, and social orders. You should understand the history and evolution of global politics that brought us to where we are today. You should be able to critically analyze specific issues of global politics, whether that be conflict, environmental policy, global poverty, or transnational social movements. You should be able to use the levels of analysis approach, foreign policy analysis, and IPE to make sense of the world.

Second, you should be able to apply different theoretical approaches to global issues and global politics as a whole. This includes comparing and contrasting how these theories and approaches understand concept like power, states, sovereignty, and anarchy. It includes comparing and contrasting different theories and approaches to issues like war, humanitarian intervention, and international economic development in the majority world. By comparing and contrasting the different theories and approaches to global politics, you should have a more nuanced understanding of how we came to be where we are, the problems we are facing, and possible policy prescriptions to address them.

Finally, you should leave this course with a sense of the world and your place in it.

So what now? It is hoped that as you leave the class, you have a new (or renewed) interest in what is happening in the world. It is hoped that you continue to take the time to stay abreast of current affairs and perhaps get involved in issues that you may be passionate about. Beyond that, it depends on whether you want to pursue further studies in global politics. If you are, there are two options to consider.

If you are interested in pursuing a degree in global politics, you may want to consider the BA in International Studies. In the IS program, you will take classes that explore the different dimensions of global politics from the fields of Anthropology, Drama, English, Indigenous Studies, Philosophy, Political Studies, Psychology, and Religious Studies. For more information, go to International Studies – Admissions – University of Saskatchewan (usask.ca)

If you are interested in another major but are still intrigued by global politics, you may want to consider the global studies certificate. The GSC is a multidisciplinary certificate, including over 300 courses from more than ten colleges and schools. The GSC combines core classes, such as global issues and global citizenship, international aspects of your major, and your own personal international experiences. The goal is that students will learn actively, think broadly, act ethically, and engage respectfully. For more information, go to Global Studies Certificate – Department of Political Studies – Arts and Science – University of Saskatchewan (usask.ca)