Week 2 - Lecture 3 - Regional dynamics and power relations Flashcards
Human security
Protecting vital freedoms. It means protecting people from critical and pervasive threats and situations, building on their strengths and aspirations. It also means creating systems that give people the building blocks of survival, dignity and livelihood.
Summary of Iran’s stance
- Supporter of Assad regime
- Funds Hezbollah
- Shia Islam (anti-IS)
- Regional rivalry with Saudi Arabia (Cold War of the Middel East)
Summary of Iraqs stance
- Power vacuum ⟶ rise of IS
- Former rivalry, current friendship with Syria (similar ideological roots)
- Religious population is much more mixed, but the majority is Shia
- Economic connections
- Limited regional power
Summary of Saudi Arabias stance
- Used to oppose Assad-regime
- Part of anti-IS coalition
- Majority of the population is Sunni Islam
- Funded (Islamist) rebel groups
- Careful rapprochement with US
- Regional rivalry with Iran (until 2023)
Summary of Turkeys stance
- Used to oppose Assad regime
- Part of anti-IS coalition
- Main concern with Kurdish population of Syria and Iraq
- Occupies territories in Northern Syria
Summary of Israels stance
- History of Arab-Israeli conflicts
- Support for anti-IS coalition, not a member perse
- Supported various opposition groups
- Occupies the Golan Heights
- Anti-Hezbollah operations form the current focal point of Israeli actions on the border
Summary of the United States’ stance
- Opposes the Assad regime
- Funds various opposition groups
- Part of anti-ISIS coalition
- Historical adversarial relationship with Iran
- “World Police”
- History of military intervention in the Middle East
Summary of the European Unions stance
- Opposes the Assad regime
- Funds various opposition groups
- Part of anti-ISIS coalition
- Differentiation between member states (based on domestic policies)
- Humanitarian motives: at least that’s how the EU likes to portray itself
Summary of Russia’s stance
- Supports Assad regime
- Tartarus naval base
- Active military intervention in Syria against opposition cells
- State military
- Private military and security companies (Wagner)
- Russia-Syria-Iran-Iraq Coalition
Realism
- States are main actors in international politics
- States relate to each other under the condition of anarchy: there is no higher power that keeps them in check
- States are motivated by power
- States are in competition with each other
Classical Realism
- Human nature is translated to international political action
- Constant state of insecurity
- Maximisation of power to prevent conflict/offset its effects
- Morality is not entirely absent
Structural- or Neorealism
- States seek to maximise power
- States are motivated by survival:
1. Exogenous (coming from the outside) and unchanged interest
2. Determined by the structure of anarchy - States are unitary, rational actors
Offensive realism
John Mearsheimer
- More power = more security
- More power = hegemony
- Hegemons are unlikely to be attacked
- Competitive, offensive, and expansionist policies
- Maximization of power
Defensive Realism
Kenneth Waltz
- More stability = more security
- Preserving the balance of power
- Unlimited maximisation of power: security dilemma
- Practice restraint
- Maximize security
Balance of power
When states maximise power, other states seek to match it
Bandwagoning
Forming alliances to counterbalance a hegemon
Unipolarity
A condition in which one state under the condition of international anarchy enjoys a preponderance of power and faces no competitor states.
Bipolarity
Bipolarity is a distribution of power in which two states have a preponderance of power.
Multipolarity
A distribution of power in which more than two states have similar amounts of power.
What was the polarity like during the Syrian Civil War?
Multipolarity
Liberalism
- International cooperation is possible
- Motivated by ideals
- States as primary actors, but also secondary actors (e.g. NGO’s, corporations, etc.)
- Foreign policy is determined by domestic politics
Perpetual peace
Immanual Kant
Republics are a peaceful form of government
Structural- or Neoliberalism
Robert Keohane
- ‘’Economic version’’ of liberalism
- Absolute gains rather than relative gains
- Reducing transaction costs: international cooperation
- Structure remains anarchical, but states (and other actors) work together to reduce the dangers of anarchy
Constructivism
Martha Finnemore
- Importance of intersubjective ideational structures (norms).
- Mutual constitution of agents and structures (the system influences how actors behave, but actors also have influence of what the international space looks like and create new norms/change norms)
- So we have (some) freedom to act, and even change the structures that currently exist
- Influence of identity on state’s interest
- Anarchy does not force states intro a particular course of action
‘’Logic of Consequences’’
Interest (survival) dictates behaviour
(Realism and liberalism)
‘’Logic of Appropriateness’’
Identify forms interest, which shapes behaviour
(Constructivism)
