Liberal alternatives
International Security in the Modern World
Masaryk University in Brno
1-2 July 2012
Věra Stojarová
Collective security
•collective security
•CS is based on an idea that states can
constructively cooperate together in order to gain
peace, while this cooperation is based on the
existence of legal norms and international
institutions
Liberal alternatives
Collective security
•The idea of collective security was after WWI
embodied in the League of Nations
•The aim of the LN was the prevention of the
conflict, creation of coalition
Collective security
•Even at the beginning of 1920s it was clear that
CS does not function
•Cold war - the basic prerequisite vanished – the
concensus on common aims and values - The
American and Soviet vision of the world system
was contradictory
Liberal alternatives
Liberal alternatives after the
WWII – new incentives
•Decolonisation
•The increase of complex mutual interdependency
•The increase of power of international institutions
•the unability of the realists to explain the deepening of
european integration and the relations in the euroatlantic region
•increase of the power of the non-state actors
•The main turning point for the conceptualisation of
security was the Caribbean crisis which confirmed the
ability of mutual destruction between USSR and USA as
well as the unwillingness to do so.
Liberal alternatives
The theory of complex mutual
interdependency and neo-liberal
institutionalism
•The fathers: Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye
•On one hand accepting the realistic
presupposition of the anarchical international
system
•On the other hand they claim that the important
thing about the international system is not only
the division of power, but mutual interdependency
and existence of international institutions as well
Liberal alternatives
The theory of complex mutual
interdependency
•The actors and the themes of the IR are due to
the modern technologies, business and
information flows so interconnected and so
interdependend that the use of the armed power
is not and can not be the way for solving conflicts
•The military security ceased to be the priority of
the foreign policies and the hierarchy of sources
of threats and power ceased to exist as well.
The theory of complex mutual
interdependency
•The security is no more the military matter
•Security has character of collective security
which we can apply on the economical as well as
military relations between states
•There is no reason why we should avoid mutual
interdependency, because MI does not mean
higher vulnerability of the states
Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye
•Claim that the international security relations are
more influenced by the firms, supranational
corporations and NGOs.
•The development of the transnational relations
and non-state actors weakens the dominant
position of the states which changes the
character of the international relations
Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye
•Because the economical sources of power are
accessible for more players (mainly non-state
ones) than the military power, the danger for the
state looses its military character and gains the
economical character
•“The nonstate actors work as the engine and
gear of the threats over the state borders”
Summary of Robert Keohane and
Joseph Nye
•The presupposition that the economical threats and
mutual interdependency can have comparable impact
on the existence of the states as military/political
threats
•The main referent object remained state
•Military sphere lost the primacy
•The source of the military threats remain the state
•The source of the economical threats are the huge
transnational relations, non-state actors, instability of
the markets, world financial crisis or the lack of the
strategic materials
Liberal alternatives
Seminar:Try to find pros and cons
of UN
• PROs
• CONs
Seminar - UN
•What do you think about Security Council
resolutions?
•How do you perceive the UN - as the guarantee
of the world peace or expensive theathre?
•Do you think these 5 states should have more
powers than the others? Shall fairness or realism
play higher role?
•Is it possible to manage over 200 states?
Seminar
•Group n. 1: Design decision making process and
the main bodies in the United Nations according
to the principle “justice for all”.
•Group n. 2: Design decision making process and
the main bodies in the UN according to the
principle “working, efficient and not getting
blocked”.
•Group n. 1: Try to persuade the other group and
find pros why to pursue humanitarian intervention
in Syria.
•Group n. 2:Find cons against the humanitarian
intervention in Syria.