Framing Global Politics
The inclusion of “stakeholders” alongside “actors” suggests that, in many cases, political issues affect individuals and groups that may not possess the agency or means to act—i.e. exercise power—in a particular situation. As such, they might not be analysed as “actors” per se. Nevertheless, all affected stakeholders should be considered when studying political issues.
When addressing political issues, the structure and dynamics of political systems should be considered, and how these regulate the interactions and possible courses of action of political actors. Similar types of actors in diverse contexts or systems may have drastically different power and legitimacy. For example, private companies in North America and Asia might be perceived differently, as might organized civil society in Latin America and in Europe.
Particular rules, norms and institutions that regulate interactions between political actors are also considered because they ultimately shape or limit possible approaches to political issues; or may in some cases be the source of these.
Institutions encompass formalized organizations or agencies and also any social structures of rules and norms that shape—and constrain—individual and collective behaviour.
Adapted from IBDP Global Politics Guide, p. 35
Stakeholders & Actors: States
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 4-5 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
Stakeholders & Actors:
Democracy, Autocracy, and Anocracy
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 6-7 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
"In June 2017, 35 researchers and activists from 20 countries joined TNI staff in Amsterdam to examine the new wave of authoritarian politics spreading worldwide and how movements committed to social and ecological justice might best challenge it. This report highlights some of the core themes and debates that emerged."
"THE YEAR 2022 started from a situation, where liberal democracy was threatened all over the world. The year continued with the attack on democratic Ukraine by the authoritarian Russian Federation. For democracy, the situation is worrying. The international and independent Freedom House organization measures the global state of democracy in their yearly Democracy Index. The last edition, called Democracy under Siege, showed how democracy has declined for the fifteenth year in a row. Some countries, such as Hungary, lost their status as a democracy altogether. Others, like the United States, experienced a considerable weakening of their democracy".
"Earlier this week, I took a couple of colleagues to the Gandhi Ashram while we were in Ahmedabad.
It wasn’t meant to be a profound moment. It was their first time in the city, and the ashram felt like the right place to take them—quiet, grounded, almost understated. Walk through. Read a few inscriptions. Absorb some history. Move on.
I’ve been to the ashram many times over the years. Enough that I thought I knew what to expect. Enough that I didn’t imagine I’d stop at any one display for very long.
But this time, I did."
"What remarkable puzzles politics provides. Every day’s headlines shock and surprise us. Daily we hear of frauds, chicanery, and double-dealing by corporate executives, new lies, thefts, cruelties and even murders perpetrated by governments. We cannot help but wonder what flaws of culture, religion, upbringing, or historical circumstance explain the rise of these malevolent despots, greedy Wall Street bankers, and unctuous oil barons. Is it true, as Shakespeare’s Cassius said, that the fault lies not in the stars but in ourselves? Or, more particularly, in those who lead us? Most of us are content to believe that. And yet the truth is far different."
Case Study: Iran
The corresponding reading can be found on page 7 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
Stakeholders & Actors:
Sub-National & Local Governments
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 7-9 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
Stakeholders & Actors:
Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs)
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 9-11 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
Stakeholders & Actors: Organized Civil Society
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 12-13 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
Stakeholders & Actors: Private Actors
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 14-16 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
Stakeholders & Actors: Social Movements
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 16-19 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
Stakeholders & Actors: Resistance Movements
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 19-22 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
This report is one of a series of stress test scenarios that have been developed by the Centre for Risk Studies to explore management processes for dealing with an extreme shock. It is not a prediction.
This study provides a framework to understand social unrest, and the political instability that can result. It describes a hypothetical scenario of an extreme episode of social unrest that businesses can use as stress test scenario to explore their own ability to manage through a crisis of this type.
Case Study: Sudan
IT IS PERHAPS FITTING that one of the greatest stories of the power of nonviolent resistance came out of a country notorious for decades of horrific state-sanctioned violence. Or that women would take such impressive leadership in a country known for its particularly misogynistic laws. Or that there could be such unity in a country long divided by religion, ethnicity, and region. Or that there could emerge an impressive level of participation by a population systematically disempowered through decades of dictatorship. The scenes of millions of Sudanese out on the streets during waves of protests over an eight-month period in 2018- 2019 demonstrate a triumph not just of the human spirit, but of some of the most brilliant strategic thinking by any social movement in history.
Stakeholders & Actors: Political Ideologies
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 19-22 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
"Do people make a rational choice to be liberal or conservative? Do their mothers raise them that way? Is it a matter of genetics?"
"What do we mean by “authoritarian personality”? We usually see a clear difference between the individual who wants to rule, control, or restrain others and the individual who tends to submit, obey, or to be humiliated. To use a somewhat friendlier term, we might talk of the leader and his followers. As natural as the difference between the ruling and the ruled might — in many ways — be, we also have to admit that these two types, or as we can also say, these two forms of authoritarian personality are actually tightly bound together."
"Liberalism and conservatism are associated with qualitatively different psychological concerns, notably those linked to morality, shows a new study that explores how political ideology and moral values are connected to motivated social cognition. The findings, which appear in the journal PLOS ONE, offer deeper psychological insights into the nature of political division in the United States."
Interest and Pressure Groups
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 23-24 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
Is Lobbying Killing Democracy?
As a group, you will present testimony arguing that lobbying is not killing democracy. This will be done via a prewritten speech where you outline your points.
After your speech, you will be questioned upon what you said. It is your job to defend your argument.
Political Leaders
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 24-25 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
Styles of Leadership
The corresponding reading can be found on page ? of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
Stakeholders & Actors: Political Parties
The corresponding reading can be found on page 25 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
Women in Politics
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 28-29 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
Traditional Media
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 28-29 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
Media in the Technological World
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 30-33 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
"On 26 January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered provisional measures in the case brought by South Africa against Israel, determining the plausibility of genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Among other measures, the court ordered Israel to take all steps possible within its power to prevent and punish direct and public incitement to commit genocide, an inchoate and punishable crime in itself under the Genocide Convention, the first human rights treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly way back in 1948."
"Research shows that teenage students ages 13 to 18 are more distrustful of the news than previous generations, a skepticism that is impacting what they consume and their ability to discern fact from fiction."
"Katz & Levine: 3 ways teachers can encourage students to talk through uncomfortable differences, think, listen and connect with ideas and one another."
"A new study published in PNAS Nexus provides evidence that political expression on social media may be shaped not just by ideology, but also by the perceived audience. The researchers examined language use on Reddit and found that right-leaning users tend to moralize political views more when surrounded by ideological allies. Left-leaning users, by comparison, expressed moralized political views to a similar degree regardless of whether they were among their own or in politically mixed spaces. These findings suggest that social media polarization may depend not only on what people believe, but on where and to whom they are speaking."
The video to the right was published by the New York Times on May 12th, 2016 with the intent of showing how much damage the Islamic Republic of Iran inflicted upon American bases at the start of the war. There has been rampant misinformation from both sides of this war leading many confused about what has actually happened. This video uses open source information to break through the confusion and demonstrate truth.
Open Source Media in Action
Agency Theory
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 32-33 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
"Agency theory explains the relationship between agents and principals. A principal relies on an agent to execute certain business or financial transactions on their behalf and to represent their interests without regard for self-interest. Common principal-agent relationships include shareholders and management, financial planners and clients, financial advisors and clients, and lessees and lessors."
Social Facts
The corresponding reading can be found on page 33 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
Approaches to Issues
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 33-34 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
Legal Frameworks, Norms, and Institutions
The corresponding reading can be found on page 35 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
“Futures for Diplomacy: Integrative Diplomacy in the 21st Century” examines how diplomacy is being transformed by globalization, digital communication, the growing influence of non-state actors, and increasingly complex international problems. The authors argue that traditional state-centered diplomacy is no longer sufficient and propose the concept of“integrative diplomacy,” in which diplomats act as connectors and coordinators among governments, international organizations, businesses, civil society groups, and the public. The report analyzes changes in diplomatic contexts, rules and norms, communication methods, and the roles of diplomatic actors, concluding that foreign ministries must adapt their structures, skills, and practices to remain effective and relevant in the 21st century.
Traditional and Popular Sovereignty
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 44-45 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
"This is an introduction to the political views of Thomas Hobbes, which are often deemed paradoxical. On the one hand, Hobbes is a stern defender of political absolutism. The Hobbesian doctrine of sovereignty dictates complete monopoly of power within a given territory and over all institutions of civilian or ecclesiastical authority. On the other hand, Hobbes insists on the fundamental equality of human beings. He maintains that the state is a contract between individuals, that the sovereign owes his authority to the will of those he governs and is obliged to protect the interests of the governed by assuring civil peace and security. These ideas have been interpreted by some as indicative of liberal opposition to absolutism."
"The word ‘sovereignty’ provides a forceful example of the social power of language as an organic instrument playing a leading role in the continuous and continuing process of creating and transforming human reality. The paper examines a pivotal episode in the history of the word ‘sovereignty’ — its formal introduction in the 16th century by Jean Bodin in his Six Livres de la Republique. It focuses on the social effects ‘sovereignty’ has had on the shared consciousness of humanity, including that of the international community. The proposed metalogical inquiry adopts a method that draws from the hermeneutic school of historical knowledge. The argument is that Bodin used ‘sovereignty’ for the purpose of attributing to the ruler (the French king) supreme power in the hierarchical organisational structure of society. This idea of a pyramid of authority is found in different elements of the discourse in Six Livres de la Republique, which is examined in the immediate context of Bodin’s personal background as well as the extended social, political and intellectual context of 16th century France. The conclusion shows that Bodin’s work was the first seminal step in the development of contemporary ideas of ‘internal sovereignty’ and ‘external sovereignty’. It is thus part of the history of the true power that the word at hand has exercised in framing the international state system and hence the international legal system."
Sovereignty and Responsibility
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 46-47 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
"The Responsibility to Protect – known as R2P – is an international norm that seeks to ensure that the international community never again fails to halt the mass atrocity crimes of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. The concept emerged in response to the failure of the international community to adequately respond to mass atrocities committed in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s. The International Committee on Intervention and State Sovereignty developed the concept of R2P during 2001.
The Responsibility to Protect was unanimously adopted in 2005 at the UN World Summit, the largest gathering of Heads of State and Government in history. It is articulated in paragraphs 138 and 139 of the World Summit Outcome Document".
Case Study: Myanmar
Since 2017, Myanmar’s military, known as the Tatmadaw, has carried out mass killings, sexual violence, and forced displacement against the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority in the country’s Rakhine State. The UN and human rights organizations have described these actions as crimes against humanity and possibly genocide. Over 700,000 Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh, where they live in overcrowded refugee camps with limited access to food, medical care, and education.
The Myanmar government denies wrongdoing, claiming its military operations were necessary to combat insurgents. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is investigating the case, and several countries have imposed economic sanctions on Myanmar’s military leaders. However, no direct military intervention has occurred, and the Rohingya crisis remains unresolved.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has debated whether to invoke the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle, which holds that the international community must act when a state is unwilling or unable to protect its own people from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, or crimes against humanity. However, some UNSC members oppose intervention, citing Myanmar’s sovereignty and geopolitical concerns.
Sources of Sovereignty
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 47-48 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
"Sovereignty, though its meanings have varied across history, also has a core meaning, supreme authority within a territory. It is a modern notion of political authority. Historical variants can be understood along three dimensions — the holder of sovereignty, the absoluteness of sovereignty, and the internal and external dimensions of sovereignty. The state is the political institution in which sovereignty is embodied. An assemblage of states forms a sovereign states system.
The history of sovereignty can be understood through two broad movements, manifested in both practical institutions and political thought. The first is the development of a system of sovereign states, culminating at the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Contemporaneously, sovereignty became prominent in political thought through the writings of Machiavelli, Luther, Bodin, and Hobbes. The second movement is the circumscription of the sovereign state, which began in practice after World War II and has since continued through European integration and the growth and strengthening of laws and practices to protect human rights. The most prominent corresponding political thought occurs in the writings of critics of sovereignty like Bertrand de Jouvenel and Jacques Maritain."
Challenges to Sovereignty
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 48-49 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
"The process of globalization undoubtedly contributes to the change and reduction of the scope of state sovereign powers. The list of threats to state sovereignty often includes global financial flows, multinational corporations, global media empires, and the Internet etc. At the same time (note that this point is debated surprisingly little and occasionally), since the end of World War II, increasingly more states have been willingly and consciously limiting their sovereign rights. And what is extremely important, many countries quite often give away some of their sovereign powers voluntarily. In the article, it is argued that the factor of voluntariness in reducing one's own authority is, no doubt, the most important in understanding the future of the state.
There are several reasons for such voluntariness and ‘altruism’, including the fact that such a restriction becomes profitable, as in return the countries expect to gain quite real advantages especially as members of regional and interregional unions. The transformation of sovereignty proceeds somehow almost in all countries. However, it is more characteristic of Western countries."
Legitimacy
The corresponding reading can be found on page 50 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
"The analysis of social contracts helps the understanding of: (i) why some societal groups are socially, politically or economically better off than others, (ii) why some revolt and demand a new social contract and, thus, (iii) why a country descends into violent conflict. In addition, the concept shows how foreign interventions and international co-operation may affect state–society relations by strengthening the position of the state or of specific societal groups. It illustrates that state fragility, displacement and migration can arise from social contracts becoming less inclusive."
Citizen Participation
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 51-52 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
"Sherry Arnstein, writing in 1969 about citizen involvement in planning processes in the United States, described a “ladder of citizen participation” that showed participation ranging from high to low. The ladder is a guide to seeing who has power when important decisions are being made. It has survived for so long because people continue to confront processes that refuse to consider anything beyond the bottom rungs."
Challenges to Legitimacy
The corresponding reading can be found on page 53 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
"Different forms of political change from putsch to revolution are described and ‘coloured revolutions’ are analysed as revolutionary coups d’etat. Conditions promoting and retarding the success of such movements are discussed and cases of ‘decremental relative deprivation’ are discovered which predisposed the public to insurgency. Conditions for success involved a united and organized opposition with an alternative ideology and political policy. Counter-elites when in power neither carry out revolutions nor promote democratic development. An unintended consequence of democracy promotion is that autocratic regimes learn to counteract it and in so doing weaken genuine civil society associations."
Task: Legitimacy and N0n-State Actors
You are going to analyze different non-state actors (e.g., NGOs, terrorist organizations, multinational corporations, advocacy groups) and evaluate their legitimacy.
Step 1: Pick a non-state actor.
Step 2: Now that you have picked an organization, you will need to write a case brief defending their legitimacy. All instructions for this can be found in the document below. Be sure to provide in-text citations for all your claims.
Step 3: Now you are going to respond to a brief written by one of your peers. After reading their brief, you will need to write a case brief opposing the legitimacy of their organization. All instructions for this can be found in the document below. Be sure to provide in-text citations for all your claims.
Sources of Legitimacy
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 54-55 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
Legitimation Processes, Loss of Legitimacy
The corresponding reading can be found on page 56 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
Global Governance and International Law
The corresponding reading can be found on page 57 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
"Western scholars and policymakers used to think of economic interdependence as an unalloyed good; in recent years, however, it has been viewed as something that could be weaponized. Fears of malevolent interdependence can be self-fulfilling—if policymakers continue to view globalization as a threat, then the collective policy responses will increase the likelihood of great power conflict."
"The intensification of global economic interdependence has accelerated the spread of financial crises among nations. Our goal is to identify and categorize the primary channels through which economic interdependence drives financial contagion between countries. To achieve this, we conducted a theoretical review that integrates existing literature on financial and commercial transmission mechanisms."
Power and Interdependence
"We live in an era of interdependence. This vague phrase expresses a poorly understood but widespread feeling that the very nature of world politics is changing. The power of nations-that age-old touchstone of analysts and statesmen-has become more elusive: "calculations of power are even more delicate and deceptive than in previous ages."¹ Henry Kissinger, though deeply rooted in the classical tradition, has stated that "the traditional agenda of international affairs-the balance among major powers, the security of nations-no longer defines our perils or our possibilities.... Now we are entering a new era. Old international patterns are crumbling; old slogans are uninstructive; old solutions are unavailing. The world has become interdependent in economics, in communications, in human aspirations."
The United Nations
The corresponding reading can be found on page 58-65 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
IGOs, Non-State Actors in Global Governance
The corresponding reading can be found on page 65-67 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
"Future historians (if there are any) will wonder why, in the mid-2020s, humans poured unprecedented resources into preparing to fight each other, while neglecting collective action against obvious planetary threats. If there is to be any hope of survival, a new mindset must take hold."
"International relations analysis is crucial to many stakeholders including policy makers, executives in international companies or social scientists. Generally, recent events between two countries define the international relations between them. We explore the possibilities of predicting future tendency of international relations by analyzing historical events between countries."
Theoretical Perspectives
The corresponding reading can be found on pages 68-71 of Mooij, C., Dhesi, E., & Nusseibeh, A. (2024). Global politics course companion. Oxford Resources for IB Diploma Programme.
"In the discipline of international relations there are contending general theories or theoretical perspectives. Realism, also known as political realism, is a view of international politics that stresses its competitive and conflictual side. It is usually contrasted with idealism or liberalism, which tends to emphasize cooperation. Realists consider the principal actors in the international arena to be states, which are concerned with their own security, act in pursuit of their own national interests, and struggle for power. The negative side of the realists’ emphasis on power and self-interest is often their skepticism regarding the relevance of ethical norms to relations among states. National politics is the realm of authority and law, whereas international politics, they sometimes claim, is a sphere without justice, characterized by active or potential conflict among states, where ethical standards do not apply."