Session 10

Question 1

What do we mean by “territoriality”?

Answer 1

i. As a “container of power”
ii. Sovereignty (emancipation = self-determination)
iii. Age of nation-states
iv. International relations = relations among states
- Charles Maier
- Territoriality = Control & exploitation of space

Question 2

Which international issues of the modern era had an inner “transnational dimension”?

Answer 2

i. Capital & finance
ii. Peace
iii. Peoples & Migration
iv. Health & Medicine

Question 3

Why was there a major change between the late 1960s and the early 1980s?

Answer 3

i. Technological breakthroughs (e.g. Communications):
- Networks & interaction more important than space
ii. Interdependence & erosion of state sovereignty
iii. Age of fracture: weakening of state institutions/legitimacy & centrality of the individual

Question 4

What were the possible examples of this transformation?

Answer 4

a. Nuclear Weapons (lecture 8)
b. Capitals & Finance (lecture 9)
c. Human Rights
d. Environment

Question 5

What are human rights?

Answer 5

a. Definition? Pliable term: Vagueness of broad umbrella
b. Teleology? [from 1789 to 1948 to the 1970s to today?]
i. UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
1. “rights inherent to all human beings”
2. “equally entitled… without discrimination”

Question 6

What was the relationship between human rights and the Cold War?

Answer 6

a. Different definitions of the two superpowers (Empire of liberty vs. Empire of Justice)
b. Contradictory effects: geopolitical & national security imperatives vs. Battle for hearts & minds (clash between different Cold Wars)
c. Domestic pressures & embarrassments (civil rights in the US; issue of emigration in the USSR)
d. International public opinion
e. Human rights/decolonization/self-determination
f. Modernization: collective destiny vs. rights of the individual (e.g. population control)