Global Politics - UCSC Directory of individual web sitesrlipsch/migrated/Folder for...
Transcript of Global Politics - UCSC Directory of individual web sitesrlipsch/migrated/Folder for...
in the 21st Century
Global Politics
Consider the world news in today’s TheNew York Times
• Mideast Talks Teeter as the Settlement Freeze Expires
• Japan Asks China to Pay for Damages• NATO Carries Out Airstrikes Inside
Pakistan• Helicopter Attacks Militant Meeting in
Somalia• Chávez Allies Win Majority, but Foes
Make Gains• Delegates Arrive for N. Korea Meeting• China Imposes a Steep Tariff on U.S.
Poultry• Jewish Activists Set Sail From Cyprus
for Gaza, Aiming to Defy Israeli Blockade
• A Silent Attack, but Not a Subtle One• Asia-Pacific Universities Adding Islamic
Finance Courses
Global politics is people.
People evaluate, decide and act
Leon Trotsky said, “You might not be interested in war,
but war is interested in you.”
Wars have been continuous over time
Wars have become more deadly,
especially with the growing
availability of technological
means of destruction
War is also about politics(http://mapsofwar.com/ind/american-wars.html)
People generally have two objectives in life
Livelihood Meaning
Livelihood is based on economy, the making of things needed to sustain life, and the arrangements for making things
People extract & transform stuff, make things, acquire knowledge and skills, organize, work, buy and sell, trade, etc. as part of the economy.
This involves making political decisions.
But people also seek purpose and meaningin their lives, through faith, ideology, self-actualization, wealth, family, community—
and these also involve politics
The ways in which societies organize to achieve these two goals can be called political economy: institutional arrangements, rules & practices
Humans transform the material environment,
through technologies, ideas, practices
Sheer numbers of people, and high
levels of consumption in the North are stressing those environments
Internal combustion may be one of the most significant features of both politics and
environment over the past 100 years
Vehicles consume vast quantities of oil in moving people and stuff around, and the emit vast quantities of pollutants and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere—and there is no end in sight for automobility.
It might be added that internal combustion has also been central to global violence and
war, as both target and means of war
Humans transform the material environment,
through technologies, ideas, practices
Sheer numbers of people, and high
levels of consumption in the North are stressing those environments
People are the “ultimate resource”for solving problems
People are also the ultimate source of
“problems”
So, why war?
I. DefinitionsII. ObjectivesIII. What we knowIV. Causes
Strength lies not in defense but in attack."- Marquis de Acerba
"We make war that we may live in peace."- Aristotle
"The purpose of all war is peace."- Saint Augustine, 354-430
I have never advocated war except as a means of peace."- Ulysses S. Grant
A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for."- Rear Adm. Grace Murray HopperA riot is a spontaneous outburst. A war is subject to advance planning."- Richard M. Nixon
War is often justified on the basis of its opposite
What is war?•Socially-organized violence among two or more groups or societies or countries
•Collapse of social order within a society
• Hobbes: “By war is meant a state of affairs, which may exist even while its operations are not continued”
•Diderot: “a convulsive and violent disease of the body politic;”
•von Clausewitz, “war is the continuation of politics by other means’
•Foucault: “politics is the continuation of war by other means
• OED: “a conflict between opposing forces or principles.”
What are the objectives of war?
Material Resources• Natural (e.g., oil)• Economic (e.g., industry)• Post-industrial (e.g.,
technology, scientists)
Social struggles for power
• Control of states & its power resources
• Struggles among countries for dominance
• Conflicts between groups for control and survival
Identity, influence & meaning
• Cultural struggles (culture wars)
• Religious conflicts
• Ideological conflicts
Even economic development
A propensity toward wars as a “solution” is deeply-embedded in our beliefs, institutions
and practices (political economy)
How do we know what we know about war?
Normalization begins early Through media
Memorials, rituals, mourning Schools, churches, stores
Even language
War offers an illusion of power and control
But wars never follow the desired or imagined plan; they are difficult to subject to control
How does Chris Hedges account for war?
• Most explanations focus on livelihood: how war is liked to production
• Hedges sees war as filling a deep human need for purpose: ontology
• War becomes crusade• These can operate in the
individual, in groups, in the nation
• Eros & thanatos?
By contrast, Robert Kaplan sees the sources of war in geography (geopolitics)
• Geography is immutable• Human societies adapt to
geography to survive• Hence, their character is
determined by geography• This operates in 2 ways:
– In terms of behaviors in war– In terms of prosecuting war
• What is determined cannot be changed: geographic space is national destiny!
What if the (nation)-state is war?