Global Politics

• Sovereignty


  Absolute and unlimited power and authority
• Nation state


  Autonomous political community held together by citizenship and nationality
• Non-state actors


  Participants in international relations with significant power and influence, which are not states
• Globalisation


  Emergence of a complex web of interconnectedness in many forms
• Economic globalisation


  Growing economic integration and interdependence of economies through intensified cross-border movement of goods, services, technologies and capital
• Political globalisation


  Growing importance of international organisations
• Cultural globalisation


  Growing transmission of ideas, meanings and values around the world
• Homogenisation and monoculture


  Coming together of global cultures and development of a single, homogeneous culture without diversity or dissension
• Interconnectedness


  Mutual reliance of two or more groups
• World government


  Idea of a common political authority with legislative and executive power over states
• Global governance


  Broad and complex process of decision making at a global level
• Non-governmental organisations (NGOs)


  Any non-profit, voluntary citizens' group organised on a local, national or international level – e.g. Christian Aid. NGOs perform a variety of service and humanitarian functions, bring citizens' concerns to governments, advocate and monitor policies and encourage political participation through provision of information
• Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP)


  Conditional loans provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to countries that experienced economic crises
• The United Nations Organisation created in 1945, following the Second World War, to promote international co-operation and to prevent another such conflict
• Security Council


  The United Nations' most powerful body, with primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security
• NATO


  North Atlantic Treaty Organisation – military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in 1949
• International Monetary Fund (IMF)

  International organisation working to foster global monetary co-operation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world
• World Bank


  International organisation that offers concessional loans and grants to the world's poorest developing countries in order to reduce poverty
• World Trade Organization (WTO)


  Organisation that regulates international trade
• G7(8) Organisation


  Group of Seven states/Eight states
• G20 Organisation


  Group of Twenty states
• North-South divide


  Global socio-economic and political divide
• Dependency theory


  Emphasises structural imbalances within capitalism that impose dependency on poorer states
• International law


  Law that governs states and other international actors
• International Court of Justice (ICJ)

  Principal judicial organ of the United Nations
• International Criminal Court (ICC)


  Organisation that prosecutes individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes
• International tribunals


  Organisations set up to prosecute individuals in specific states for the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes
• Human rights


  Rights that people are entitled to by virtue of being human
• Universal human rights


  Rights that apply to people of all societies regardless of cultural or other differences
• Humanitarian intervention


  Military intervention carried out in pursuit of humanitarian rather than other objectives
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)


  An international environmental treaty negotiated at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

  UN body set up as an internationally accepted authority on climate change
• Global commons


  Areas and resources that are un-owned and consequently beyond national jurisdiction
• Tragedy of the commons


  Situation within a shared-resource system where individual users acting independently and rationally according to their own self interest behave contrary to the common good of all users by depleting that resource
• Sustainability


  The capacity to endure
• Sustainable development


  Development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
• Hard power


  The use of military and economic means to influence the behaviour or interests of other political bodies
• Soft power


  The ability to attract and co-opt and to shape the preferences of others through appeal and attraction
• Great power


  State that is recognised as having the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale
• Superpower


  State with a dominant position in international relations, pre-eminent among great powers, and characterised by its unparalleled ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale