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Global Politics Unit 3 & 4 > Unit 3 AOS 1: Global Actors > Flashcards

Unit 3 AOS 1: Global Actors Flashcards

1
Q

What are International Organisations (IGOs)?

A
  • they are global actors
  • facilitate universal action
  • independent from states
  • e.g UN, ICC, WTO, IMF
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2
Q

What do IGOs do?

A
  • Establish and facilitate relations between states
  • Enable discussions that follow established processes and protocols
  • Maintain a legal standing on the world stage
  • Foster a capacity of action
  • Challenge state sovereignty: through global governance
  • IGOs have certain rights and obligations to its members
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3
Q

What do IGOs look like?

A
  • Made up of member states - by joining they grant authority to the IGO and agree to follow protocols - this is what the USA has issues with…..
  • Physical buildings
  • Schedules of meetings
  • Conferences
  • Plenary bodies
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4
Q

Can IGOs can states limit their power?

A

YES - They can treat them as resources rather than solutions. If powerful states see no advantages in the agreements decided upon by the IGO, the IGO can be rendered powerless
BUT - IGOs are still powerful since the states act differently towards IGOs actions than they would with individual states

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5
Q

What is the International Monetray Fund?

A

The International Monetary Fund is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries.

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6
Q

What are some facts about the IMF?

A
  • IGO
  • Created to ensure the stability of the international monetary system
  • Founded as part of the Bretton Woods agreement
  • Major global actor - provides framework for global economic cooperation
  • Monitors exchange rates
  • Washington DC headquarters
  • Works alongside the World Bank ( who give loans for capital projects)
  • North Korea,Liechtenstein, Andorra, Cuba, Monaco - all not members of IMF
  • Kosovo is also part of the IMF (but not the UN - partially recognised state - it is confusing)
  • Last member to join Nauru in 2016
  • Promotes international money cooperation
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7
Q

What are the aims of the IMF?

A
  • Promote international monetary cooperation
  • Exchange rate stability
  • Facilitate the balanced growth and expansion of international trade
  • Establish a multilateral system of payments
  • Make resources available to members experiencing payment difficulties
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8
Q

What does IMF actually do?

A
  • Keeps track of the global economy and the economy of its member states. They look out for risks to economic stability and advises on needed policy adjustments eg. Vietnam
  • Provides loans (short-medium term) - funded by member contributions. This can help them stabilize their currencies, continue to pay for import etc. Eg. Ireland
  • Works with governments to modernise economic policies and organisations and train people - in turn this helps strengthen economies, promote growth and create jobs eg. Columbia
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9
Q

What is the quotas of the IMF?

A
  • They are based broadly on the relative size of the member in relation to the world economy
  • Each member’s quota determines its maximum financial commitment to the IMF
  • It also determines its voting power
  • It impacts its access to IMF financing should it need it
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10
Q

What is the voting like in the IMF?

A
  • Important decisions require a special majority - 85% of votes
  • USA holds 17% of voting rights which means they can VETO at the IMF and is the only single state able to do so
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11
Q

What are the three main functions of the IMF?

A
  • Surveillance
  • Technical Assistance
  • Lending
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12
Q

How does the IMF get/exercise power?

A
  • Via loans - IMF makes those who need loans make reforms. If they don’t make reforms, they withhold the funds. These reforms challenge a state’s sovereignty.

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH THESE?????
- States can only use funds for the purposes of which they were lent
- Interest is applied to loans (0% to low income states)
- IMF has great economic power - direct threat to economic sovereignty of states
- The power of the IMF resides in its ability to dictate economic policy agendas to the member states that seek assistance from the IMF. Known as the ‘lender of last resort’, the IMF is an option that most states would prefer to avoid using.
- ‘Conditional loans’: limits on public spending, pressure for the privatisation of state-owned assets, the expedited implementation of trade liberalisation measures (cutting tariffs and/or subsidies), lowering budget deficits, increased taxation and greater oversight of the operation of government departments.

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13
Q

What are criticism of the IMF?

A
  • Conditions placed on loans are too intrusive and compromise economic and political sovereignty of states
  • Policies are passed down to states without any consideration to the fact that states have distinctive characteristics “blanket approach” - for some states, these conditions are difficult to carry out or are counter-productive resulting in more problems like food shortages. It should not be “one size fits all approach”
  • Lack of sequencing of policies, imposed all at once eg. privatisation of utilities happens quickly without proper planning - often leads to unemployment - vicious cycle
  • Lack of public scrutiny, lack of connection to real ground day to day in affected countries
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14
Q

What is the International Criminal Court?

A
  • Based on a multilateral treaty (Rome Statute)
  • Unlike the others we have studied, this IGO is young - took effect 2002
  • Cannot look retrospectively - limitation here
  • Cooperates with the UN but is independent from them
  • Court of last resort : doesn’t replace national jurisdictions
  • Compliments state judicial systems
  • Only investigates and prosecutes when state is unable or unwilling
  • Applies discretion in choosing cases: cannot handle all breeches of Int. law - Limitation??
  • Tries PEOPLE
  • ICC has jurisdiction in the territory of state parties and in other states if crimes are committed by nationals of state parties.
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15
Q

How does the ICC make arrests happen?

A

ICC needs cooperation from states. These states are the ones that make arrests, transfer people to the detention centre in The Hague, freeze suspects assets and enforce sentences as all of these things come under their jurisdiction.

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16
Q

What are the aims of the ICC?

A
  • Ensure the worst perpetrators are held accountable for their crimes
  • Serve as a court of last resort - they can investigate, prosecute and punish : perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes
  • Assist national judiciaries in investigating and prosecuting the worst perpetrators. This allows the states to be the first to investigate and prosecute
  • Help promote international peace and security - acting as a deterrent for would be perpetrators
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17
Q

What strategies are used in the ICC to achieve these aims?

A
  • Have states sign on/ratify to follow its rules
  • Relies on cooperation from states to arrest
  • Investigates cases
  • Uses the international community to pressure other states to cooperate
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18
Q

What is the role of the ICC?

A
  • Deter would be criminals
  • Offer rehabilitation to those who are found guilty
  • Give a voice and justice to victims (can participate in proceedings and request reparations - $$$)
  • To provide legal representation
  • Offers measures of witness protection
  • Educating the world
  • Upholding international law
  • Enforcing retribution
  • Moral authority
  • Defining international justice
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19
Q

What are the three bodies of the ICC?

A
  • Assembly of state parties : state party reps, makes decisions on various issues, elects judges, prosecutors and deputy prosecutors
  • The Court - 4 organs: Presidency (overall admin), Judicial divisions (18 judges, 3 divisions), Office of the Prosecutor (independent - conducts the investigations and brings cases before the court), Registry (admin, protection, outreach, maintains court records)
  • Trust fund for victims: reparations for victims and families of victims of crimes within the jurisdiction of the court
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20
Q

What are the issues of the ICC?

A
  • One of the roadblocks to the ICC potentially achieving its aims is that there is no mechanism for enforcement. - As a result, the ICC needs to rely on states for this - to pressure those who are non-compliant.
  • They hope international pressure and rep. damage will be enough to make compliancy happen but this is not the case.
  • State dissatisfaction - Burundi, Gambia, South Africa have all wanted out at one time or another
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21
Q

What are criticism of the ICC?

A
  • State dissatisfaction - Burundi, Gambia, South Africa have all wanted out at one time or another
  • Major Asian powers - India and Indonesia not part of ICC - critical to long-term success
  • Court far too removed from victims
  • Deferral process for 12 months at a time means process towards peace and reconciliation is stagnated despite the ICC’s desires to be fair and follow due process
  • Budgetary constraints - impacts investigations. Funded primarily from member states. Additional funding is provided by voluntary government contributions, international organisations, individuals, corporations, and other entities
22
Q

What is a non-state actor?

A
  • An Organisation that has a significant political influence without being associated with only one state.
  • They have sufficient power to wield political influence but transcend state boundaries
  • Don’t belong to one state
23
Q

What are the aims of non-state actors?

A
  • Vary
  • All seek political change or pursue political objectives
24
Q

What are the aims of Amnesty International (AI)?

A

a) to promote, defend and protect the human rights of all people as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and subsequent United Nations conventions and declarations based on the UDHR
(b) to encourage, and raise awareness, that every human being possesses rights based on their humanity and that respect for human rights improves people’s lives;
(c) to end grave abuses of the human rights of individuals, for example prisoners of conscience, and groups of people experiencing: injustice; poverty; discrimination; torture; cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment; executions; and the indiscriminate killing of civilians;
(d) to help those fleeing persecution and conflict and to defend people from violence from state and non-state actors.

25
Q

How does Amnesty International (AI) achieve its aims?

A
  • conduct investigations and publish well-founded, evidence-based research on human rights issues
  • monitoring and publicising violations and abuses of human rights
  • providing education on human rights
  • supporting, directly or indirectly, individuals and their families whose human rights have been breached
  • protecting, directly or indirectly, those who are at risk of human rights violations
  • working in partnership with other organizations and individuals
  • Promoting public support for, and advocacy of human rights
  • informing public opinion to encourage individuals, non-state actors, and governmental and other entities to protect, promote and defend human rights
  • holding to account individuals, governments and non-state actors for violations of human rights
  • providing expertise and technical advice to government and others on human rights issues
  • promoting a culture of respect for all human rights
  • promoting economic, social and cultural rights as a means of alleviating poverty, which is a grave violation of human rights
  • seeking to eliminate infringements of human rights
26
Q

What is Amnesty International?

A

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organisation says it has more than ten million members and supporters around the world.

27
Q

What is the base?

A

The Base is a neo-Nazi accelerationist paramilitary group and training network, formed in 2018 by Rinaldo Nazzaro. It is active in the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and Europe. The Base.

28
Q

What are the aims of the Base?

A

Start a race war
Finish what Hitler started
Establish a white ethnic, state

29
Q

What are the roles of the base?

A

Training camps
Terrorist attacks
vandilaised a synagoge (15-23 December 2019)
Create cells

30
Q

what is the power of the base?

A

Failed terrorist attacks
Global reach
Power of fear
Outreach to other groups and individuals
E.g the Christchurch shooter

31
Q

What is TNC?

A
  • A company whose operations and investments extend beyond the boundaries of the state in which it is registered and can also be referred to as a multinational.
  • Has branches out of its home country
  • Globalisation has resulted in a dramatic rise of TNCs in the past 30 years
  • Technology and communication - allows for global scale operations
  • TNCs - amongst the world’s biggest economic organisations
32
Q

What are the aims of TNCs?

A
  • Maximise Profits
  • Minimise restrictions on their business activities by other global actors
33
Q

What are the roles of TNCs?

A
  • Provide goods and services across the globe
  • Employ significant numbers of employees in developed and developing states
  • To import and export - huge contribution to trade
34
Q

what are the powers of TNCs?

A
  • Increased in line with the increase in the number of influential companies
  • Power - comes with the ECONOMIC POWER they command
  • TNCs dominate industries where markets are concentrated in very few companies
35
Q

What do TNCs do?

A
  • Produce goods and services for developed and developing states
  • Promote new technologies
  • Introduce innovations across state borders
  • Produce products cheaply - they then pass these savings onto consumers
  • Improve technical skills and human resources
  • Provide isolated and developing countries an opportunity to be part of the global economy - drivers of progress
  • Can improve the standards of a state by encouraging free enterprise
  • Creates jobs and raises wages in poorer states which means more disposable income which in turn impacts the local economy positively
36
Q

What are the positive of TNCs?

A
  • TNCs are able to benefit from cheap labour as developing countries usually do not any form of national minimums wage
  • Cheaper Labour means the product costs are kept to a minimum and therefor the product can be brought by consumers a smaller costs
  • If costs are low, profit should remain high which can they be used to reinvest into product innovation and new technology
  • creation of jobs for people in poorer states. Income is stable and more reliable than farming and can improve their education and skills.
  • TNCs may invest in infrastructure such as new roads - which helps locals as well as the TNCs
37
Q

What are the negatives of TNCs?

A
  • No guarantee all states will prosper by having TNCs in them
  • Companies invest LESS in developing states than they do in developing economies
  • Pay lower wages and seek low cost labour. Poor working conditions
  • Discourage local enterprise because their low prices actually take up space in the market that would have been for local businesses
  • Often lays off workers in home state because factories in other states are cheaper
  • Use developing states to tax evade
  • Abuse weaker laws in developing states
  • Abuse natural resources of developing states
  • Employ government officials, engage in bribery - wield lots of Political power eg. Nigeria and Shell
  • Threaten to abandon production in a state - TNC hold ultimate power (economic) eg. Angola and Chevron
  • Health and safety concerns - eg. Rana Plaza collapse- Bangladesh in 2013
  • When a large TNC suffers economically, it impacts upon the state economy eg. Samsung in South Korea
38
Q

Who was more power TNCs or states? Pros

A
  • No IGOs regulate the actions of TNCs (unlike states) which makes them powerful
  • TNCs encourage free trade and this lessens government restrictions placed by the state
  • TNCs deregulate trade which in a sense erases national boundaries
39
Q

Who was more powerful TNCs or the states? Negs

A
  • TNCs have no defined territory
  • They have no military power
  • States can control TNCs via legislation and court jurisdiction although this can be difficult
40
Q

What are the aims of apple?

A
  • The aim of Apple, is the same as all TNCs to maximise profits and return dividends to shareholders where applicable.
  • This aim is often prioritised above adherence to international human rights standards, obligations to citizens or global perception
  • In turn, this means they have a degree of freedom and power in a way states do not have, as they are more carefully scrutinised when they do not uphold the above point.
41
Q

What is the role of apple?

A
  • As is the role of most TNC’s - to provide Foreign Direct Investment - so when a TNC produces goods and services in developed or developing states. So think about how many places components of Apple iPhones are produced
  • It also acts as a moderniser of world economy. It promotes new technologies, generates employment, introduces innovations that go beyond a state’s borders
42
Q

What is the power of apple?

A
  • Economic and Political power - both mainly due to its ability to invest and divest in states (FDI). States are worried Apple would pull out of any agreements with their states in terms of the economic impact it would leave so as such, they are more inclined to turn “a blind eye” to any conduct that is less than above board
  • FDI stimulates local economies, states often provide TNCs like Apple with economic or political incentives so they keep on producing there. They want the TNC to retain their investment in their state, creating jobs etc. This means a state can fall at the mercy of a TNC, threatening a state’s ability to make independent economic decisions regarding their own economy
43
Q

What are the limitations to apple’s power?

A
  • Technically, states can control the power of a TNC - they can do this through taxes, tariffs and regulation. -
  • However, they rarely do so, or at least a reluctant to do so as the economic power a TNC generates often furthers a state’s own economic interests
  • NGOs can attempt to hold TNCs accountable for their actions. In theory this means that they could limit their power, but again, this in reality doesn’t hold a lot of weight.
44
Q

What is the United Nations?

A

The United Nations is a IGO that he United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights.

45
Q

What are the aims of the UN?

A
  • To keep peace throughout the world
  • to develop friendly relationships among nations
  • to foster international co-operation in the solving economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems
  • to promote human rights and fundamental freedom for the people of the world
46
Q

What is the role of the UN?

A
  • the UN discusses and debates international crises
  • the Un deploys peacekeepers around the world
  • to create and enforce international law
  • to solve international crises
47
Q

What are The aims of states?

A
  • to protect and maintain security
  • to protect boarders
  • achieve national interest
48
Q

what are the roles of states?

A

states defend their borders
- states trade with other actors
-States organise international cooperation

49
Q

what are the powers of a state?

A
  • military power
  • Diplomatic power
  • economic power
  • cultural power
  • political power
50
Q

What are the powers of the UN

A
  • veto power
  • resolutions aren’t binding
  • Has changed a lot sine 1945
51
Q

what are the roles of the Amnesty Internal?

A
  • lobbying governments
  • getting petitions
  • provide information on abuses on human. rights

Global Politics Unit 3 & 4 (5 decks)

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