Global Governance: Political & Economic Flashcards
What events took place in Ukraine in 2014?
In February 2014, Russian “Spetznaz” arrived in Crimea to annex it from Ukraine. They blockaded the International airport, took over the regional parliament buildings and secured several military bases.
In March 2014, a referendum was held in Crimea to ask the population if they wished to remain a part of Ukraine or become part of Russia (96% voted to become Russia).
What is the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) primary responsibility?
UN’s supreme decision-making body on matters of international peace and security, able to issue binding resolutions with the full force of international law.
What role did the UN play in Ukraine during 2014?
UNSC attempted to pass a resolution condemning the referendum as illegal, invalid and illegitimate, noting that the presence of Russian troops meant the vote was not free or fair. Russia vetoed the resolution.
UNGA (with no veto powers) passed the resolution by an 89 majority (100 in favour to 11 against). But, this resolution is not legally binding. in international law.
What is meant by ‘governance’ within an individual state?
Where a state is managed effectively, resources are distributed fairly and challenges are met with decisive solutions.
What activities does ‘governance’ include?
- Government is easy to identify: has a leader in the form of president or PM.
- The Government have to follow clear rules which limit their power (in the form of a constitution).
- If they’re elected from the population they can claim legitimacy.
- The Government are able to make laws the population must follow which are policed.
- The Government proposes policies to manage the state effectively, e.g. welfare.
Why have states increasingly seen the need for Global Governance?
Challenges states face can only be resolved by states working together.
What examples of challenges do states face?
- Global financial crisis.
- International terrorism.
- Climate change.
- World poverty.
- Global human rights abuses.
- Violent conflict.
What are the key difficulties with creating effective Global Governance?
- States are principal actors: States make or break global initiatives. Nothing can be agreed upon if states agree to take action (they are the building blocks of unified action).
- International law is largely untraceable: International law is optional and requires states to actively sign up in order for the law to cover them. States can withdraw from signed treaties too.
- Lack of international enforcement: There are few means of international enforcement that can hold states to account and force them to change their behaviour if they break the law.
What challenges do ROGUE states, FAILED states and POWERFUL states pose for Global Governance?
- Rogue states: These states, particularly those who have illegitimate government (e.g. North Korea), often have no desire to be part of, and thus influenced by, any system of global governance.
- Failed states: These states are not in control of their internal governance (e.g. Somalia). Rarely effective participants in global governance, as they cannot hold authority over their own populations. Insurgent groups, such as IS in Syria and Iraq, often take over regions within failed states, meaning the government does not exercise full control over all of its territory.
- Powerful states: These states pick and choose which global agreements they’re part of and simply ignore international pressure, such as Russia’s actions in Ukraine and the USA’s refusal to sign climate change agreements (e.g. the Kyoto agreement).
In the absence of an authoritative world government, where do states work within?
States work within global institutions or Intergovernmental Organisations (IGOS) and negotiate treaties between 2 or more states so that they can reach agreements on issues of shared importance.
Summarise the types of Global Governance and why they are arguably needed.
- Political global governance: When states come together to make decisions on matters, they are doing so within political institutions. Environmental, judicial and economic global governance are subsets of political global governance. Role the UN and the UNSC.
- Economic global governance: Needed to regulate and manage an increasingly interconnected global economy. A number of key financial IGOs, such as IMF and the WTO, has been established to help rich and poor states.
- Human rights global governance: Since the UN Universal Declaration of HRs (UDHR) was agreed in 1946, human rights are thought of as universal. Global governance has attempted to agree on global HRs laws and established the ICC to hold states and others abusing HRs to account. Aim of this is to prevent states hiding behind national sovereignty and avoiding punishment. Key institutions are ICC and ICJ.
- Environmental global governance: Global warming increasingly urgent matter. Global conferences and agreements attempted to take action to reduce the harmful effects that states have on the global commons. Global action is driven through international summits, such as Copenhagen and Paris summits of 2009 and 2015. States sometimes sign international agreements, such as Paris Accords, when they commit to taking joint action.
What examples exist of political global governance?
- IGOs (e.g. UN or NATO): Organisations, such as the UN, provide a permanent and formal rules-based framework in which states can negotiate and agree upon their decisions.
- International treaties (e.g. the North Atlantic Treaty and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)): A means of creating international law more flexibility on specific issues, whether within or independent of IGOs, and between 2 states (bilateral treaties) or more states (multilateral treaties).
- Ad hoc meetings (e.g. 2015 Paris Summit): States can meet in informal meetings and undertake negotiations and agreements on a more ad hoc basis.
What are the pros and cons of IGOs?
Pros:
- Permanent forum for debate and negotiation, In which long term projects can be pursued.
- An authoritative and legitimate actor in global politics.
- Goof for smaller countries, if all countries have an equal voice.
- Membership itself can be dependent on states becoming part of key agreements.
Cons:
- Can become gridlocked, particularly if they have no clear powers and are out-muscled by more powerful states.
- Effectiveness is dependent on the collective determination of an IGOs member states. If this collectively becomes weak, the IGO becomes weak.
- States are likely to find ways of limiting the IGO’s power if they feel it threatens state sovereignty.
What are the pros and cons of international treaties?
Pros:
- Allows like minded states to create binding international law on any issue in which they have a common interest.
- States can be more flexible and responsive than by working with IGOs.
Cons:
- States can choose not to sign and ratify treaties, meaning that they are not covered by them (e.g. key states that have acquired nuclear weapons either did not sign or withdrew from the NPT).
- Even when states have signed their treaties, their cooperation largely remains a choice and there is little means of forcing states to comply with treaty obligations.
What are the pros and cons of ad hoc meetings?
Pros:
- Allow states to respond very quickly to crises and form agendas with maximum freedom (e.g. the London G20 Summit, 2009, quickly developed an agenda designed to tackle the global financial crisis).
Cons:
- Sometimes seen as less legitimate, or even illegal in international law (e.g. US-led invasion into Iraq 2003).
- Decisions or agreements are not binding in international law, therefore less enforceable.
- States are at liberty to make their own independent choices and protect their sovereignty making blockages more likely.
