![]() ![]() And major powers in the developing world-such as India, Indonesia, South Africa, and Brazil-are choosing a nonaligned path. A more aggressive Russia maintains the largest nuclear weapons stockpile on Earth. Europe is an economic and regulatory superpower in its own right. To be sure, the United States is still the world’s leading power, according to nearly all objective measures, but China has risen to occupy a strong second-place position in military and economic might. The major driving forces of international politics, according to IR theory, suggest that the new Cold War among the United States, China, and Russia is unlikely to be peaceful. Unfortunately, nearly all of these pacifying forces appear to be unraveling before our eyes. Over the years, however, strengthening human rights norms and taboos against the use of weapons of mass destruction placed guardrails on international conflict. In the past, piracy, slavery, torture, and wars of aggression were common practices. Why quarrel when business is good and everyone is getting rich? Finally, according to this theory, democracies are less likely to fight and more likely to cooperate, and the major waves of democratization around the world over the past 70 years have made the globe a more peaceful place.Īt the same time, constructivist scholars explained how new ideas, norms, and identities have transformed international politics in a more positive direction. Moreover, economic globalization made armed conflict too costly. The dense set of international institutions and agreements (the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, etc.) established after World War II-and expanded and depended on since the end of the Cold War-provided forums for major powers to work out their differences peacefully. Meanwhile, liberal theorists argued that a triumvirate of causal variables (institutions, interdependence, and democracy) facilitated cooperation and mitigated conflict. ![]() ![]() They also held that nuclear weapons raised the cost of conflict and made war among the major powers unthinkable. Realist IR theories focus on power, and for decades, they maintained that the bipolar world of the Cold War and the unipolar post-Cold War world dominated by the United States were relatively simple systems not prone to wars of miscalculation. If their professors are attuned to the ways the world has changed in recent years, they will be teaching them that the major theories of international relations warn that great-power conflict is coming.įor decades, international relations theory provided reasons for optimism-that the major powers could enjoy mostly cooperative relations and resolve their differences short of armed conflict. This week, thousands of university students around the world will begin their introduction to international relations courses for the first time. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |