CHAPTER 2: THE
CENTRALITY OF THE STATE
Theory, Worldviews, and Human Rights

International relations theory describes, explains,
analyzes, and predicts world affairs.
 Theory
provides a framework for examining and
simplifying the complicated nature of international
relations by positing assumptions and propositions that
guide analysis.
 International relations theory, while more formal and
academic, approximate widely held worldviews about
which actors are important in international relations
and what processes determine, influence, or drive their
behavior.
Types of Theory

Realism: Centers on the exercise of power by states
against other states in the international system.

Many realists have a very pessimistic view of human nature,
believing that humans, at their essence, are violent, selfish,
aggressive, base, and vain. (Morgenthau, Politics Among Nature: The Struggle for Power
and Peace)
For them, international relations is characterized as
anarchy, defined as the absence of a higher authority in
international relations.
 For realists, the use of economic capabilities to help others is
more likely for self-interested reasons, even if it appears to
be for moral and humane reasons.
 A special conceptualization of power used by realists is
hegemonic power.

Realism cont’d

The role of international (universal) human rights and
humanitarian principles in the world of the realist is a
marginal one for several reasons.
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First, states are preoccupied with security internationally and
internally.
Second, attention to human rights can be seen a threat to state
security or government stability.
Third, even if states decide to pursue human rights through their
foreign policy, human rights often mask other, less “moral”
interests, or used to justify their interventionist policies.
Fourth, substantive change internationally and domestically rarely
happens nonviolently.
“Might” makes “right” and there is no such thing as a universal
good or sense of justice, save for what the powerful say it is.
Liberalism

Liberalism also has many variations but it is
fundamentally an economic theory that is very
suspicious of government, often seeing government
as a necessary evil.
 Liberals
argue that if selfish, competitive, yet maximally
free individuals are allowed operate within the context
of a market they will generate the goods and services
a society wants and needs at a price they are willing to
pay.
Liberalism cont’d.
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Two competing schools of liberal thought:
Neoclassical liberals see the role of the state to
promote free market values, but with very limited
government regulation of the market, unless it is to help
the supply (business) side of the economic equation.
Keynesian liberals see the state as an important force
for leveling the economic and political playing field and
for correcting for market excesses and imperfections.
These liberals are influenced by the writings of the
British economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)
who is widely considered the father of the modern
capitalist welfare state.
Liberalism cont’d.

Marxism: For those who hold a Marxian worldview,
the liberal embrace of capitalism is problematic.
The Marxian approach is also known as structuralism
because it characterizes and defines the central structural
feature of the international system as capitalism.
 Capitalism is inherently exploitative because a small group
of people (the owners/capitalists) benefit at the expense of
everyone else (the workers).
 The state is merely a reflection of the dominant class and is
used by that class to control the masses.

Imperialism

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Imperialism (colonialism) occurred when states,
controlled by capitalists, scrambled for captive
territories to serve as outlets for excess goods and
services that cannot be consumed at home.
Neoimperialism/neocolonialism: newly “independent”
states had formal sovereignty in that they were now
responsible for law and order, schools, health care, and
infrastructure, but their resources, markets and labor
where controlled by foreign multinational corporations,
backed by their powerful home countries.
Constructivism

Constructivism: Used by academics and analysts to
explain how the central theories, concepts, norms
and values in international relations are socially
constructed and change over time.
 The
social and political institutions in world politics are
constructed by human beings and human beings give
them importance or relegate them to the trash heap of
history.
Heads of State and Diplomacy

An active head of a state is usually a chief
executive (a prime minister or president) who makes
the big decisions regarding state policy, including
the diplomatic recognition of states and whether to
accept the credentials of representatives of foreign
governments.
 Have
a defining role in summit diplomacy, either as a
precursor to launch lower level negotiations by
subordinates or to provide a dramatic conclusion to
ongoing negotiations.
Summit Diplomacy cont’d

Several summits are noteworthy for their impact on
human rights:
The Helsinki Summit was the capstone to the signing of the
Helsinki Accords in 1975. The accords were a series of
high level agreements that led to a thaw in the Cold War
and put human rights on the international agenda.
 The Helsinki Accords also resulted in the creation of a
nongovernmental organization called Helsinki Watch to
monitor the human rights progress of the signatories,
particularly the Soviet Union. Helsinki Watch was the
precursor to one of the more important non-state actors
involved in human rights diplomacy, Human Rights Watch.

Summits cont’d
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Reagan-Gorbachev summits Geneva (1985) Reykjavik (1986)
Washington, D.C (1987) Moscow (1988): Mostly focused on arms control
and other security issues, but also on human rights.
The 1997 and 1998 summits between China President Jiang
Zemin and President Bill Clinton: President Clinton decided
to delink improvements in human rights in the US trade
negotiations with China over the renewal of Most Favored
Nation (MFN) status.

Under trade rules, MFN status states are not allowed to
discriminate among trading partners in terms of tariffs, duties
and quotas. States are also supposed to treat all trading
partners equally, hence if the US grants China MFN then China
has the same trading terms with the US as say, the United
Kingdom.
States and the Development of International
Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
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After the states of UN General Assembly adopted the
UDHR in 1948, they also adopted the Convention on the
Prevention and the Punishment of Genocide (1948).
States moved outside of the UN to redress the atrocities that
were committed during World War II, thereby greatly
expanding the scope of international humanitarian law (IHL).
In 1949, states codified the expectations regarding the
treatment of civilians in international conflict and in occupied
territories in four Geneva Conventions.

Common Article 3 extended the protection of civilians to internal
conflicts.
States and the Development of International Human
Rights and Humanitarian Law cont’d.
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States also created international law to address the
continuing human rights problems associated with
refugees and migrants after the World War II and
the onset of the Cold War.
1951 Convention Relating to the Status of
Refugees (and the 1967 Protocol) and the 1954
Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless
Persons and 1961 Convention on the Reduction
of Statelessness provide the legal framework for
the protection of refugees and stateless persons.
States and the Development of International Human
Rights and Humanitarian Law cont’d.

Even though important states, such as the US and
Russia, are not formal parties to many human rights
and humanitarian treaties (including optional
protocols), the principles enshrined in the law
(whether ratified or not) contribute to the
development of customary international law.
Discussion Questions
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What is worldview and how does worldview affect the
definition and implementation of human rights and
humanitarian principles?
Discuss how heads of state can engage human rights
and humanitarian diplomacy. Your answer should
include the role of summitry in general to the process,
and the Helsinki Accords/Summit in particular.
Discuss the role of states in diplomacy and the creation
of international law. Your answer should include how
the human rights and humanitarian principles have
evolved through state actions.