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• Most recent events that considered to be a critical turning points in International Relations
• Critical turning points

  • 9/11 terrorist attack
  • Tearing down of Berlin Wall on 1989 that divided Germany into East and West
• Modern State System


  The pattern of political life in which people are separately organized into sovereign states that interact with one another in varying degrees and ways
• Elements of Modern State System

  • Sovereignty - the right of self-government and pursuit of national interests through independent foreign policy
  • Territorial Integrity - state's territorial boundaries shall be honored, and it shall be free from external control
  • Legal equality - all state, irrespective of their size, population, military capability, economic resources, etc, they are equal members of international community
• Modern State System has been around for about 400 years
• The year the 30 years' war ended with the Peace of Westphalia, marking the beginning of the Modern State System


  1648
• The Modern State System do not just appear overnight, it was a slow gradual process driven by economic, military, and religious developments that weaken the feudal Europe and replaced it with a new way of organizing European politics
• Medieval Europe


  • Castle was the center of the many small kingdoms
  • Each unit was ruled by some member of the nobility, who ran them as a personal property, they did not enjoy formal independence but rather were connected to one another in a complicated, chaotic, and confusing patters of obligations
  • Political power was not centralized
  • Central governments and rulers were usually weak
  • The pattern politics in medieval Europe was an overlapping multiple feudal authorities, and reciprocal allegiances
• Holy Roman Empire


  • Brought some political unity to medieval Europe under the authority of the Pope and the holy roman empire
  • The basis for unity was Europe's common Catholic identity
  • The Holy Roman Empire had both religious and secular leaders (Pope and Holy Roman Emperor), which was not clear where the authority began and ended
  • The empire itself was very weak in entity which nobles and religious figures enjoyed independence from the emperor
• 3 Major Developments that Transform Europe

  • Commercial Revolution
  • Gun Powder Revolution (14th Century)
  • The Protestant Reformation
• Commercial Revolution


  Began in the 13th and 14th centuries, Europe's slow emergence from the stagnation that had prevailed after the fall of Rome years earlier, part of which was the revival of commerce and growth of new commercial class whose livelihood lay in trade
• Europe was unable to provide many prerequisites of commerce, such as weak law enforcement, terrible infrastructure, deteriorated marketplace, and unreliable system of measurement and currency
• Realization of commercial class

  They need a larger kingdom and increased power in local nobility, the commercial class provided the resources in the form of tax and in return, rulers provided roads, markets, law enforcement, and reliable currency for trade
• The economic imperatives of trade and commerce contributed to the emergence of larger political unity with more effective central governments
• Gun Powder Revolution


  Weapons of feudal age: sword, spears, archer on crossbows, military problem: attackers could do little on thick walls, this warfare starts to change with the introduction of gunpowder from China, gunpowder and weapons such as guns altered the military equation
• Protestant Reformation


  Until 1517, Christianity was synonymous with Catholicism, the rise of Protestantism had a profound effect on European societies and politics, Martin Luther challenged the authority of the Catholic church, marked the emergence of Christian alternative to Catholicism that spread throughout central and northern Europe
• Protestant areas located within the catholic Holy Roman Empire, Protestant sought freedom from the authority of the pope and catholic rules, resulting to series of wars known as 30 years war (1618-1648)
• After 30 years war, not much of Europe's sense of common Christianity survives
• Peace of Westphalia


  Ended the 30 Years War, which solved the religious questions by granting the rules the right to exercise authority over his/her territory
• The three revolutions (Commercial, Gun Powder, Protestant) combined to alter the nature of European societies, states, and the International Relations, the 1st two revolution helped usher larger political entities, Protestant reformation and the 30 years war led to the nation of sovereignty creating the Modern State System
• Age of Absolutism and Limited War (1648-1789)


  The period between the Peace of Westphalia and the French Revolution was uneventful, no major continent-wide wars or political revolutions, wars tended to be modest affairs with small professional armies fighting limited wars with limited objectives and limited casualties and destruction
• Absolutist Monarchism


  The political order prevailing in almost all Europe before French Revolution in which the monarchs claimed authority under the doctrine of the divine right of kings, which help that their legitimacy was derived from God and not from people whom they ruled
• People who lived in France during this period were not in any meaningful sense of "citizen" of France; they were "subjects" of the monarchs
• Nationalism did not exist; there was no connection between people and rulers, wars during this period were not conflicts between involving entire nation; they were conflicts among royal families
• The absence of nationalism helped keep wars limited, the major issues leading to war were territorial disputes, economic and commercial interests, and questions of dynastic succession, wars were not waged over ideology because monarchs adhere to same principles regarding how societies should be ruled
• A final reason why wars did not erupt into destructive affairs was the shifting pattern of allegiances and alliances, throughout this period, there were 5 to 6 major powers in Europe that were successful in preventing any one power from dominating Europe
• Absolutism did have its advantage
• Age of Revolution


  The American Revolution of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1789 signaled the introduction of a new idea that unravel the political order of European societies, the core idea of Revolution was Popular Sovereignty - the political principle that government must derive their legitimacy from the people over whom they rule, it challenges the principle of divine rights of kings
• The French Revolution did not start as a revolution but a resistance against King Louis XVI's attempts to raise taxes, the resistance rapidly increased to a revolt against the monarchy, resulting in the overthrow of King Louis XVI in 1792 and establishment of French Republic
• The French revolution became a threat to the entire system of absolutist monarchy, the monarchs had an interest in crushing the revolt and restoring the French monarchy
• Levée en masse


  The mobilization of all able-bodied French males to defend the French Republic, the citizen army of the French Republic successfully defended the revolution against foreign enemies
• Napoleon Bonaparte


  An ambitious revolutionary general known for his brilliance and arrogance, exploited the domestic struggle of the Republic, crowned himself as Emperor but maintained that his right to rule was derived from the french people, claiming nearly absolute power while also insisting that his rule derived legitimacy from the people, became the first dictator in Europe
• The Napoleonic Wars (1802-1815) was a conquest started by Napoleon that bring Europe into another 13 years war, Napoleon's forces swept across Europe until France controlled most of the continent, his invasion of Russia proved to be a fatal mistake, his way of death is mysterious, a series of military victory of France ended with the final failure at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815
• The French Revolution marked the beginning of modern nationalism, after the Napoleonic Wars, the victorious monarchs of Europe formed the Concert of Europe, a system in which the monarchs of Europe tried to restore the International order after the death of Napoleon in 1815
• Multinational state


  A single state or government ruling over people of many distinct ethnic identities
• Nationalism had a different impact depending on the particular ethnic or political configuration, in the case of Austrian-Hungarian empire, nationalism was a disintegrative force, while in Germany, nationalism proved opposite effect where it led to creation of larger and powerful political entities
• 3 aspects of the Industrial Revolution critical in the evolution of International Relations

  • The industrial revolution changed European societies in ways that reinforced many developments associated with nationalism, particularly the erosion of monarchial rule
  • The wealth, weapons and technology created in Industrial Revolution widened the gap between Europe and non-western world
  • Industrial Revolution allowed for the production of very cheap commodities in vast quantities, not just clothes and canned goods but also guns, ammunitions and military uniforms
• The division of Europe into rival alliances guaranteed that a war involving anyone would eventually involved anyone, one of the most volatile conflict was between Austria-Hungary and Serbia
• The two armed camps in Europe

  • Triple Alliance made up of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy
  • Triple Entente made up of France, Russia, and Great Britain
• World War I / First Total War / The War to End All Wars


  Single battles resulted to more than 500,000 casualties, enthusiasm of nationalism brought men to the battlefield, factories of Industrial Revolution supplied endless guns, bullets, canons, and artillery shells, governments mobilized entire populations and seized control of industry, war bonds were sold, prices and wages were controlled, consumer goods were rationed, new taxes were imposed, women worked in the factories