LECTURE 23: Leaving the North Atlantic Flashcards
Recap –
The World is
Changing
- What sort of system are we
in/heading to?
– Unipolar, bi-polar, multi-
polar? - Who will set ‘rules’ for global
governance? - How are these rules going to be
set?
– Direct state-to-state?
– Existing or revamped
multilateralism?
– A world of regions? - Key question for course: What
does this mean in operational
terms?
Autonomy, viewed
from the North:
mainstream
theoretical ideal type
- Two central characteristics viewed
from North
– Territoriality, meaning control
over a landmass
– Exclusion of external actors
from domestic authority
structures - Implications and assumptions
– States are all equal actors in
international order
– International system is
anarchical in character
– All states have equal voice and
agency
Autonomy: Practical
Realities
“Kill the chicken, scare the
monkeys”
David Mulroney, former
Canadian
Ambassador to China on Beiing’s response to the Meng Wanzhou Huawei affair
* Practical challenge to
sovereign equality idea
* In practice, there is
hierarchy in global politics
* Formal equality of states a
legal fiction
– Embedded in UN
structure with P5 of
UNSC
* Non-state actors can
impinge on autonomy
– i.e., international
finance, MNCs,
terrorist/paramilitaries
Rethinking
Autonomy:
A Southern
Power’s View
- Hierarchy in global order tacitly accepted
– Doesn’t mean it is liked or formally
acknowledged - Focus shifts to management of restraints
– How does a Southern Power pursue its
foreign policy priorities free of great
power restraint?
– How operate in global system despite
shortage of power resources
(economic, military, ideational)?
– How work in a rules-based order that
may not reflect national priorities?
Redefining Autonomy
as Political, not Legal
Concept
Three basic characteristics:
1. Autonomy is a principle or
right that has often been
transgressed by the actions
of state and non-state
actors;
2. Seeking autonomy is a
central component of a
country’s national interest;
and
3. It is a condition that
permits states to articulate
themselves and attain
political goals in an independant manner
Four Stages
to Attaining
Autonomy
- formal status of sovereign statehood;
- material resources sufficient to have
and implement national project; - acceptance of the main power’s
policies in areas of strategic interest
in exchange for autonomy in areas of
importance domestically; and
* i.e. economic model choice,
democracy, human rights - breaking of dependence on centre
and actions of non-obedience.
- Autonomy and the
Multilateral Game
Three strategies for non-core
countries (can also apply to core countries)
Seek Autonomy through:
1. Distance
2. Participation
3. Diversification
- Autonomy Through Distance
- A policy of contesting the norms
and principles of important
international institutions; - A diplomacy that opposing the
liberalizing agenda of the great
powers; - Belief in autarchical development
based on domestic market growth;
and - Resistance to international regimes
interpreted as freezing world
power in favour of the status quo
- Autonomy
Through
Participation
- adherence to international regimes,
including those of liberal slant (i.e.,
WTO), without surrendering capacity
to manage foreign policy - Objective is to influence the
formulation of principles and rules in
these organizations
* influence global governance by being at the
table - Idea is its the most effective way to
achieve national objectives in a
multilateralized world
- Autonomy
Through
Diversification
- Reframe adherence to international
principles and norms by means of South-
South alliances - Aim is to reduce assymetries, increase
country’s bargaining capacity with respect
to larger, more powerful countries - Goal of advancing multipolarity, greater
equilibrium, over unipolarity - Still fits within normative bounds of liberal
order
