GLOBAL STATES SYSTEM

This paper examines the nature of the global state system and its relevance to the role of international organizations. The current global state system refers to the complex set of interactions and relationships among sovereign nation-states which govern international relations, as that system has evolved historically. Until the post-World War II period, international organizations, the roots of which stretch back to the 19th century, played little role in international relations which were governed almost exclusively by the state system. A number of political, economic and technological factors led to the partial breakdown of the geopolitical underpinnings of the state system and a proliferation of international organizations of various kinds which today play an important if still subsidiary role in international relations, especially within and vis-a-vis the less developed or Third World.

The present state system corresponded with the rise of the nation state as the primary form of political organization in Europe. Beginning in the 14th and 15th century in Italy, "the complex horizontal structure of feudal society crystallized into a vertical pattern of territorial states, each with increasing authority inside geographic borders" (Watson, 1984, p. 14). Jacobson (1978) says that the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 "marked the beginning of the modern state system" (p. 13). Thro

. . .
e Navigation of the Rhine (1815), the European Commission for the Control of the Danube (1856) and the International Telegraph Union (1865). As the arms race among the great powers intensified, the first international organizations established to foster peace, such as the Court of Arbitration (1899) and the disarmament conferences of the early 1900s, were largely debating societies whose primarily served as fora for the exchange of information. The first serious attempt to use an international organization to achieve collective security was the League of Nations which failed because of a lack of consensus among the great powers regarding its charter and the nonparticipation in it of the United States and, until 1934, the Soviet Union. Factors Leading to the Rise of International Organizations The increased level of violence in the First and Second World Wars, including the development of weapons of mass destruction, led to the establishment of the United Nations in 1945. The United Nations was dominated for several decades by the major Western powers and had only a very limited role to play in modulating the Cold War. However, by 1978, Jacobson commented that "international organizations have become a prominent feature of the
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Third World, Cold War, War II, United Nations, European Western, Congress Vienna, INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, Somalia Bosnian, Europe Beginning, Watson Eds, international organizations, third world, international society, united nations, expansion international society, global system, expansion international, role international, jacobson 1978, clarendon press, bull watson, oxford clarendon press, watson eds expansion, international society pp, bull watson eds,
Approximate Word count = 1263
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

More Essays on GLOBAL STATES SYSTEM