This document provides an overview of key topics covered in Dr. Tabakian's Political Science 7 course on modern world governments. Some of the main topics discussed include: state interdependence and how domestic politics can be impacted by foreign policy; the development of international organizations and European integration; reasons why some countries do not embrace democracy; the evolution of Wilson's 14 Points into the United Nations; how military institutions have remained strong post-Cold War; the rise of human rights as a component of foreign policy; different types of conventional and unconventional forces; evolving military technologies including terrorism; weapons of mass destruction like nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons; and the geopolitical challenges of proliferation.

1. Dr. Tabakian’s Political Science 7
Modern World Governments – Spring 2013
Supplemental Power Point Material #11

2. LECTURE HIGHLIGHTS (1)
• State Interdependence
• Foreign Policy Impacts Domestic Politics
• International Organizations
• Towards European Integration
• Why Some Don’t Embrace Democracy
• From Wilson’s 14 Points to The United Nations
• Institutions Remain Strong Post-Cold War
• Human Rights As Foreign Policy
• Conventional Forces
• Types Of Forces
• Evolving Technologies
• Terrorism

3. LECTURE HIGHLIGHTS (2)
• Weapons Of Mass Destruction
• Nuclear Weapons
• Examples of Nuclear Weapons
• Ballistic Missiles & Other Delivery Systems
• Chemical & Biological Weapons
• Proliferation
• Nuclear Strategy & Arms Control
• Military Economies
• Control Of Military Forces
• Stabilization
• Instability

4. STATE INTERDEPENDENCY (1)
Societal interdependence addresses situations in which
events within one society affect events in another.
Government involvement in instigating these events does
not have to take place for this to occur. Transnational
relations helped to encourage interdependency between
states. Nation-states interdependent on one another
presented each with economic and political trade-offs
whereas gains in one may lead to the weakening of another.
Economic gains that may be derived from external sources
that are able to produce them more efficiently while only
retaining those industries that are efficient may allow a state
to achieve higher overall productivity. This comes at a price
when a state becomes so dependent on foreign sources of
goods that it affects how its foreign policy is conducted.

5. STATE INTERDEPENDENCY (2)
As a state becomes more interdependent on one another it
also serves to prevent it from acting overly aggressive
against those states that it has become dependent.
Interdependence reversed the low levels of political
optimism beginning in the 1970s that established linkages
between the West, Latin America, and Asia and culminated
with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

6. STATE INTERDEPENDENCY (3)
Simple interdependency is morphing into a complex
interdependence that was uniting economic and political interests of
states into one cohesive block. War among the advanced states
became unthinkable as interdependence made it ever more costly.
Interdependent world of liberal-democratic states can at some point
in time lead to world peace. Regardless of these economic forces,
security concerns as well as the drive for national honor can
overrule the costs associated with breaking linkages. Countries that
wish to attract foreign investments or accrue technological
innovations have to wear a “golden straitjacket”. This is a set of
policies that include balanced budgets, economic deregulation, free
trade, a stable currency and most importantly an overall
transparency so that people can predict the overall direction of a
country.

7. STATE INTERDEPENDENCY (4)
Societal and economic interdependence can interlink the
domestic policies of two nation-states. Take the example of
Canada and the United States. The high degree of societal
interdependence assures that Canada will be strongly affected
by American policies. The most powerful nation-state can
more affect the policies of another country interdependent on
its society as the US and Canada example shows.

8. STATE INTERDEPENDENCY (5)
Underlying most analyses of world politics and international
organization is the state-centric approach. This makes two
assumptions:
(1) Governments remain the most significant actors in world
politics.
(2) Governments are unified actors. Transgovernmental is a
reference to direct interactions between agencies
(government subunits) of different governments where
those agencies act relatively autonomously from central
governmental control.

9. FOREIGN POLICY IMPACTS
DOMESTIC POLITICS (1)
The quest continues for researchers to explain conflict and
integration in a fashion that allows for the political sciences to
understand how the relationship between the structure of the
international system and the patterns of foreign policy impacts
domestic politics and political structures of a given country’s
foreign policy. Understanding these international – domestic
linkages would further allow researchers to study decision-
making and bureaucratic process and how they affect foreign
policy behavior. Scholars have sought to explain how the
international system affects domestic political systems and
subsystems.

10. FOREIGN POLICY IMPACTS
DOMESTIC POLITICS (2)
Realists are prone to argue that the anarchic international
system affects domestic policies and those subservient
systems, as national survival requires the functions of the
nation-state to coordinate its policies. Neo-realists would
argue that it works both ways with the international system
affecting domestic policies and vice versa. National-interests
do not merely have to deal with survival, but also other
interests that may vary according to moral, economic or even
the quest for additional resources for consumption.

11. FOREIGN POLICY IMPACTS
DOMESTIC POLITICS (3)
Kenneth Waltz refers to globalization as a homogenization
process that equalizes prices, products, wages, wealth, rates
of interest and profit margins. It is a movement that can spark
resistance both within the United States as well as around the
world. This can come from religious fundamentalists, and
labor unions. Thomas Friedman would disagree with Tip
O’Neill’s assertion that “all politics are local”. Friedman would
say this was wrong, for all politics is now global in nature, “The
electronic herd turns the whole world into a parliamentary
system, in which every government lives under the fear of a
no-confidence vote from the herd”. It is interesting to point out
here that most economies remain local. In fact those countries
with the largest economies do most of their business
domestically.

12. TOWARDS EUROPEAN
INTEGRATION (1)
The European Union is a supranational organization of 27
European member states. With the goal of establishing
political and economic union, some member states—
particularly the United Kingdom—fear the establishment of a
pan-European “superstate.” As the European Union has
expanded from 15 members when it was created in 1995, to
27 members in 2007 (and with still more members on the
horizon), it addresses a greater number of policy areas and is
an increasingly important actor on the world stage.

13. TOWARDS EUROPEAN
INTEGRATION (2)
Discussions to develop a new European
Constitution began in 1994. While progress
was quickly made in some areas, in other
areas negotiations faltered. As of 2007, the
future of the new European Constitution is
uncertain. Already, twenty EU members
have ratified the Constitution, and several
others are in the process of ratifying the
document. However, to come into force, the
European Constitution has to be ratified by
all EU member states, and voters in France
and the Netherlands have already rejected
the Constitution in popular referenda.

14. WHY SOME DON’T EMBRACE
DEMOCRACY
Consolidated democracies possess capitalist economies with
less certain democracies making slow progress in this regard,
while authoritarian governments are most likely to shun from
economic reform. Various reasons exist why some countries
have failed to fully embrace liberal and free-market reforms. First,
the public may have different opinions about these reforms that
may or may not be equally shared by opposition forces. Second,
how the transition to liberal and free-market reforms are
undertaken can affect the decision of authoritarian elites to trade
in their political capital for economic gains. Third, the method of
the transition to capitalism can determine what side wins or
loses. Fourth, degrees of nationalism can determine whether
political leaders are able to hold their society together during the
tribulation transformation to democracy.

15. WILSON’S 14 POINTS TO THE UN (1)
World War I, or commonly referred to at that time as the Great
War, originated in Europe due to mounting militant nationalism
that had been escalating for decades. With the immediate
cause of the war being the assassination of Archduke
Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary by Gavrilo Princip, a 19-year old
Serbian nationalist, in Sarajevo on June 18, 1914. As the war
began to spread across Europe, President Woodrow Wilson
appeared before a joint session of Congress on April 2, 1917
to ask for a declaration of war against Germany.

16. WILSON’S 14 POINTS TO THE UN (2)
President Woodrow Wilson addressed the United States
Congress on January 8, 1918 to enunciate American war aims
construed in “The Fourteen Points”, with the last point
establishing “A general association of nations…affording
mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial
integrity to great and small states alike.” However, only the
world’s acceptance of all 14 points could the establishment of
a general association of nations be made. Woodrow Wilson’s
proclamation that America’s entrance into World War I was a
crusade to “make the world safe for democracy” would in turn
present an opportunity for his 14 points to construct and
maintain world peace.

17. WILSON’S 14 POINTS TO THE UN (3)
Wilson had borne witness to the frightfulness of war. Born in
Virginia in 1856, the son of a Presbyterian minister who during
the Civil War was a pastor in Augusta, Georgia, and during
Reconstruction a professor in the charred city of Columbia,
South Carolina. In time, Woodrow Wilson established a
philosophy based upon Communitarianism measured in part
through Idealism. Perhaps the last American President to
enter into office professing such beliefs, it had a profound
impact on those policies pursued by his Administration.

18. WILSON’S 14 POINTS TO THE UN (4)
The Communitarianism methodology of Woodrow Wilson
emanates throughout “The Fourteen Points”, through his
enunciation of secret dialogues among nation states, his
attempt to offer suggestions of reconciliation to those nation
states that continue to maintain disputes among neighbors, as
well as the call for a newly established world order consisting
of a general association of nations for purpose of affording
mutual guarantees. However, one may also witness the
underlying idealist methodology of Wilson, for “The Fourteen
Points” does not reflect human nature, or in this case the
relationships of nation states. Wilson’s proposition is based
upon his communitarianist-idealist theories on the good of
man, not the harsh realities of human nature.

19. WILSON’S 14 POINTS TO THE UN (5)
“The Fourteen Points” does not reflect the reality of the times
during which it was authored, for there still remained issues that
required nation states to address, whether militarily or
diplomatically. It can be argued quite effectively that “The Fourteen
Points” was the actual starting point of what is today the United
Nations. However, what Woodrow Wilson proposed is certainly not
the consortium of mutual goodwill and understanding among
nation states. Human nature remains prevalent, so we shall
continue to live in a world that harbors a consortium of nation
states bidding to achieve dominance among neighbors. As we
have yet to achieve a worldwide higher consciousness among
mankind that would allow unity among nation states, it is
understood that Woodrow Wilson’s philosophy was certainly
ahead of not only his time, but for generations to come.

20. INSTITUTIONS REMAIN STRONG
POST-COLD WAR
Neo-liberalism institutionalism accurately proclaimed that
NATO, the European Union and other institutions would not
disappear following the end of the Cold War as realists had
incorrectly assumed. Institutionalist research even drew on US
politics to understand why these organizations like NATO
continued to exist. One argument is that member states saw it
to be in their best interests to remain committed to institutions
which preserved level playing fields as well as serving as
guarantees to their security. Institutionalist thinking has even
launched research programs within International Political
Economy over the past 15 years that made students aware of
relationships existing between interests, power, and
institutions.

21. HUMAN RIGHTS AS FOREIGN POLICY
The rise of international law and the recognition of universal
human rights have in turn affected those processes available
for states to control. To sum up, it can be argued that we are
approaching a time when a world of regions maintain states
that remain sovereign, yet committed to universal principles
that in turn create new political arenas that maintain relations
between actors. Glocalization assists us with understanding
how this is taking place. The theory focuses on the
relationships among units that according to John Mearsheimer
“are transforming the identities, interests, and strategies of
actors through a combination of global and local processes
and are thus adding new political actors and processes to an
increasingly global politics.” Human rights has become a
fundamental principle of American Foreign Policy.

22. CONVENTIONAL FORCES (1)
• State leaders involved in a conflict can use various
kinds of leverage to reach a more favorable
outcome:
– Nonviolent levers – foreign aid, economic
sanctions, and personal diplomacy, etc.
– Violent levers – violent actions such as sending
out armies, suicide bombers, or missiles.
• Costly to the sender and receiver and tend to
be a last resort.
• Declining in use over time.

23. CONVENTIONAL FORCES (2)
• Most states, however, still devote vast
resources to military capabilities.
– Defending territories.
– Deter attack.
– Compel other states to behave certain
ways by threatening an attack.
– Humanitarian assistance for disasters.
– Surveillance of drug trafficking.
– Repression of political dissent.

24. CONVENTIONAL FORCES (3)
• Great powers continue to dominate the
makeup of world military forces.
• Military capabilities divide into three types:
– conventional forces.
– irregular forces.
– weapons of mass destruction.

25. TYPES OF FORCES (1)
• Most wars involve a struggle to control territory.
– The fundamental purpose of conventional forces
is to take, hold, or defend territory.
• Armies:
– Infantry: foot soldiers who use assault rifles and
other light weapons.
• Counter-insurgency:
– Includes programs to “win the hearts and minds”
of populations so they stop sheltering the
guerrillas.
– Guerrillas often use landmines, which continue to
harm populations even after the war is over.

26. TYPES OF FORCES (2)
• Navies:
– Adapted primarily to control passage through the
seas and to attack land near coastlines.
– Aircraft carries – instruments of power projections
• Air Forces:
– Strategic bombing of land or sea targets, close air
support, interception of other aircraft, reconnaissance,
and airlift.
• Logistics and intelligence:
– GPS.
– NSA.
– Budgets of U.S. intelligence agencies: $44 billion
(2005).

27. EVOLVING TECHNOLOGIES
• The resort to force in international conflicts now
has more profound costs and consequences
than in the past, causing massive destruction
and economic ruin.
• Military engagements now occur across greater
standoff distances between opposing forces.
– Missiles
• Electronic warfare.
• Stealth technology.

28. TERRORISM (1)
• Political violence that targets civilians
deliberately and indiscriminately.
– But one person’s freedom fighter is
another’s terrorist.
– Shadowy world of faceless enemies and
irregular tactics marked by extreme
brutality.

29. TERRORISM (2)
• Primary effect of terrorism is psychological:
– World Trade Center.
– Violation of norms of the international
system.
• State-sponsored terrorism:
– Use of terrorist groups by states.
– Libya example.
– North Korea, Iran, Syria, Sudan, and Cuba.

30. WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
• Comprise three general types: nuclear, chemical
and biological.
– Enormously lethal; no discrimination in whom
they kill.
• Serve different purposes than conventional
weapons:
– Deter attack by giving state leaders the
means to influence great pain against a
would-be conqueror or destroyer.
– Symbolic equalizer for middle powers
– For terrorists, their purpose is to kill a great
many people.

31. NUCLEAR WEAPONS
• Fission weapons:
– Two elements can be split or fissioned: uranium-235
and plutonium.
– Obstacle often is finding fissionable material
– Plutonium bomb is more difficult to build than a
uranium one.
• Fusion weapons:
– Extremely expensive and technically demanding.
– No splitting of atoms, but rather fusing two together to
make one larger one, releasing energy.
• Heat and radiation.
• Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP).
• Nuclear winter.

32. EXAMPLES OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS (1)
The United States possesses the most
advanced military hardware known to
man. Here is a sample of our
overwhelming nuclear firepower. All
footage of launches and warhead
detonations are made courtesy of The
United States Department of Energy.
This agency is responsible for
maintaining our nation’s nuclear
stockpile. Students will be asked the
following question following this video
presentation: “What prevents the
United States from utilizing its full
military capacity?

33. EXAMPLES OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS (2)
The Soviet Union holds title to the world’s largest
nuclear warhead detonation. “TSAR Bomba” was
the largest nuclear weapon ever constructed or
detonated. This three stage weapon was actually
a 100 megaton bomb design, but the uranium
fusion stage tamper of the tertiary (and possibly
the secondary) stage(s) was replaced by one(s)
made of lead. This reduced the yield by 50% by
eliminating the fast fissioning of the uranium
tamper by the fusion neutrons, and eliminated
97% of the fallout (1.5 megatons of fission,
instead of about 51.5 Mt), yet still proved the full
yield design. It was the "cleanest" weapon ever
tested with 97% of the energy coming from
fusion reactions. The drop area was over land at
the Mityushikha Bay test site, on the west coast
of Novaya Zemlya Island, above test field D-2,
near Cape Sukhoy Nos.

34. EXAMPLES OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS (3)
The United States Department Of
Defense and the Office of Civil
Defense commissioned “About
Fallout” to educate citizens about
the effects of fallout. This film was
produced in 1963, during the Cold
War. Students should keep in mind
that the film offers a very optimistic
view of nuclear warfare.

35. EXAMPLES OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS (5)
The United States Air Force,
Special Weapons Project
Agency commissioned “The
Medical Aspects Of Nuclear
Radiation” in 1950. The film
urges people to not have a
fatalistic view about nuclear
radiation. Students should
recognize the true message
behind this film” Nuclear war
may be inevitable. We can
survive nuclear war”.

36. BALLISTIC MISSILES & OTHER
DELIVERY SYSTEMS
• Delivery systems for getting nuclear weapons to
their targets are the basis of states’ nuclear
arsenals and strategies.
– Ballistic missiles.
– Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
– Short-range ballistic missiles.
– Cruise missiles.
– Missile Technology Control Regime:
• Industrialized states try to limit the flow of
missile-relevant technologies to states in
the global South.

37. CHEMICAL & BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS
• A chemical weapon releases chemicals that disable
and kill people.
– Range from tear gas to nerve gas.
– Indiscriminate about whom they kill.
– Use has been rare.
– Chemical Weapons Convention (1992).
• Biological weapons:
– Resemble chemical weapons, except they use
microorganisms or biologically derived toxins.
– Biological Weapons Convention (1972).

38. PROLIFERATION (1)
• The spread of weapons of mass
destruction into the hands of more actors.
• Two sides to the proliferation argument:
– Realists – not worried.
– Others put less faith in the rationality of
state leaders and are very concerned.
• Selling of technology with proliferation
potential.

39. PROLIFERATION (2)
• Arms races in regional conflicts and rivalries.
• Non-Proliferation Treaty (1968).
• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
– UN agency based in Vienna charged with
inspecting the nuclear power industry in
member states to prevent secret military
diversions of nuclear materials.

40. NUCLEAR STRATEGY & ARMS CONTROL
• Nuclear strategy refers to:
– decisions about how many nuclear weapons to
deploy.
– what delivery systems to put them on.
– what policies to adopt regarding the circumstances in
which they should be used.
• Deterrence:
– Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD).
• Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).
• Antiballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty (1972).
• Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties (SALT).
• Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

41. MILITARY ECONOMIES (1)
• Given the range of military capabilities available
to states (at various costs), how much and what
types should state leaders choose to acquire?
• Economics of military spending is not so
favorable.
– Long run: allocating economic resources for
military purposes deprives the rest of the
economy and reduces its growth.
– Tradeoff: increasing their available military
leverage and increasing their overall
economic health.

42. MILITARY ECONOMIES (2)
• Economic conversion.
• Arms imports by states in the global South:
– Make up more than half of all arms sales.
– Of all international arms exports, a third come
from the United States, with Russia and Britain
ranked next.
– Worldwide, these three countries and France
together account for three-quarters of
international arms sales.
– Globally, arms sales have declined in the post-
Cold War era.

43. CONTROL OF MILITARY FORCES (1)
• Coordination of many individuals performing
many different military functions in many
locations. This refers to controlling the military.
– Chain of command
– Value of military hierarchy
– Discipline
– Training
– Group solidarity
– Logistical support
– Role of accurate information

44. CONTROL OF MILITARY FORCES (2)
• Human error:
– Friendly fire.
• Military governments:
– Most common in poor countries, where the
military may be the only large modern
institution in the country.
– Coup d’etat is the seizure of political power by
domestic military forces – a change of political
power outside the state’s constitutional order.
• Outcome difficult to predict.
• Difficulty gaining popular legitimacy.
• Civilian-military relations.

45. CONTROL OF MILITARY FORCES (3)
• NATO forces operate under strong civilian
control.
• Covert operations.
• Role of private companies to provide
services to military.
• World order is evolving even as military
technologies do.

46. STABILIZATION
Sudden instability is the greatest threat to humanity for it
threatens to cause irreparable harm to the individual. One
may never consider harming another person in a state of
nature. Elimination of one’s sustenance throws the
individual into a state of war, because their survival is now
threatened. Nation-states consist of multiple spheres of
interest in turn consisting of individual units consisting of
people. As survival is the primary goal of man, so it is the
ultimate pursuit of nation-states. The primary concern is
that of stability. This philosophy has prevented a major war
from taking place over the last sixty years. Instability is the
primary cause of all conflict both within and between
nation-states.

47. INSTABILITY – A NIGHTMARE SCENARIO
Sudden instability results in the
potential destruction of a relationship.
Everyone has experienced the
negative effects of instability.
Relationships between loved ones is
just one of many examples. One
major cause of rampant instability is
the breakdown of communication
between spheres. This is a video
documentary titled “First Strike”. It
presents a nightmare scenario
resulting from souring relations
between the United States and the
Soviet Union.