Various International Relations Topics

A1. Realists argue that because the world system is characterized by anarchy (i.e., the absence of a supranational power that can coerce states' behavior) the collective security arrangements of international institutions are destined to fail. Even when states are joined in cooperative efforts such as the United Nations, realists argue, each state's primary concern remains its own security as a sovereign nation. The mistrust among states is endemic and no arrangements that look to the greater good of all nations can hope to have any great effect. No individual state, they claim, will set aside this concern for long -- even when an international organization is operating toward a greater good that will, in the end, serve individual states' interests because it will serve everyone's interests.

What Carr and other realists failed to recognize was that Wilson and others who favored the League of Nations and other such arrangements were responding to imminent changes in the world system. Speed of communications and transportation were improving rapidly and broader options were developing in terms of the export and import of goods. Security of markets and sources of raw materials had, as the British Empire had demonstrated, become of enormous importance to manufacturing nations. Those who favored collective approaches to security foresaw the importance of cooperation in a world that was increasingly interdependent in ecological, economic, and security terms.

Related Essays

International Law Commission of the UN .... such as the law on diplomatic relations, on the law of treaties and various conventions on .... The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague called the .... (3601 14 )

Public Relations Campaign for Huffman Trucking .... Various markets, suppliers, customers and stakeholders on the .... and policies in the international marketplace while .... the effect diversity has on public relations. .... (1765 7 )

Government Security .... governmentrelated security measures of various kinds has .... surrounding such subsidiary topics as document .... general state of international relations, upon whether .... (5450 22 )

Organization-Environment Relations .... upon effects of competitive relations of firms .... while researchers have proposed various explanations of .... Connecticut) Dissertation Abstracts International, 52(3-A .... (4853 19 )

Turkey and European Community Membership .... a single entity in international economic relations is often .... Common EC responses to international political crises .... are embodied in the various treaties creating .... (5101 20 )

uld not afford. In the 1980s the enormous debts accumulated by Mexico and most developing nations could not be repaid and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank would only make new loans to finance interest payments if Mexico (and others) followed the IMF's set of 'austerity' measures and raised currency for repayment by means of exports. Crops for livestock and crops for export became the focus of the agricultural sector and there was even less food available for the poor than there had been prior to the improvements in productivity. In addition, the austerity measures led to increased unemployment which led to increased hunger. The hunger problem was to be solved in two ways: through imports of supposedly inexpensive grains and through food aid programs. But the former approach made the people dependent on imports (for which prices could change) and kept people from making advances in agriculture that would allow them to feed themselves. The aid measures were temporary and also did nothing to aid the people in producing their own food once aid was withdrawn. The industrialized nations (and their financial institutions) emphasize the free market as the basis of all economic interactions and markets respond

Category: Foreign - V