Power and Sovereignty

• Federal States - a government which is usually in the capital city, which has central power over some policy e.g. foreign policy
• Unitary State - one centre of authority with no sub-national units (e.g. UK)
• Fragile States - the state's internal sovereignty and power is weak and can be democratic or undemocratic
• Failed States - states that have lost their ability to govern effectively within its own territory
• Authoritarian States - there is no democracy, the government hasn't been elected and cannot be challenged
• Power - the ability to induce change through influence and control over others.
• Hard Power - the use of military force or economic influence in order to establish control
• Soft Power - the use of a country's attractive aspects in order to influence another nation- state's population
• Balance of Power - all states try to ensure survival by preventing a single state from considering excessive military or economic power
• Hegemony - when one state dominates international relations
• Globalisation - the process by which countries become more interconnected as a result of increased trade, investment, migration and communication
• Classical Realism - presumption that longing for power and influence in an innate human desire
• Structural Realism - Nation-states pursue power due to the structure of the international system, assumes that all states operate in an anarchic system
• Offensive Structural Realism - is rational for states to pursue as much power as possible
• Defensive Realism - the pursuit to absolute hegemony is irrational
• Anarchy - no central authority governing all countries
• Liberalism - emphasis on interdependence between states and proposes that states aren't the only important actors in global politics
• Interdependence - idea that states and their fortunes are connected to each other an d that what happens in one state can have effects on another state
• Multilateralism - the idea of multiple countries collaborating with each other working towards resolving a global issue
• Unilateralism - one country working in solitude on a particular issue
• GDP - measures the size of domestic output
• GDP per capita - measures size of economy in proportion to the total population
• Structural Power - when states influence the political ideas, structure and framework of global politics - promoting a model of politics they favour
• Relational Power - when a state has a relationship with another state and uses this relationship to influence the other state to change its behaviour
• Unipolar - when one state is more powerful than all
• Multipolar - when power is distributed amongst all states
• Bipolar - when power is available majorly only between 2 states
• Sovereignty - characterises the state's independence, its control over its territory and its ability to govern itself

  Factors:

  • permanent population
  • defined territory and borders
  • effective government
  • the capacity and legitimacy to enter relations with other states
• Social Contact Theory - people tend to join groups and establish governments naturally, trade a portion of their freedom for law and order to ensure collective security and relative peace
• State - an organised political entity with a permanent population, a well defined territory and a government
• Nation - a group of people who feel a common identity due to a shared language, culture and history
• Nation-State = a specific geographic area containing a sovereign policy, whose population identifies with policy
• Nationalism - loyalty towards one's nation or country
• Popular Sovereignty - government is geared by the people, power comes from the people and therefore people need to have a say in governance
• Democracy - a system of government by which the population elects a leader to represent them
• Intergovernmental Organisations - responsible for maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations, achieving international cooperation and being a centre for harmonizing actions of nations
• Operational NGOs - mobilise financial resources, materials, volunteers to bring about a difference at a local, national or international level e.g. MSF
• Advocacy NGOs - campaign and activism based NGOs and operate to expand political and social awareness in a society and help increase the states authority's accountability within state borders e.g. Ammnest International
• Social Movements - a loosely organised initiative by a group of people to attain conclusive results for a particular case e.g. Sunflower Movement, Black Lives Matter
• Violent Protest - an organised initiative portraying collective disproval towards a socio-political reform which oftentimes devolves into the use of violent force and aggression by state and non-state actions