MULTINATIONALISM
and the CHANGING
POLITICAL LANDSCAPE
Supranationalism
The efforts of three or more states to forge
associations for common advantage and
in pursuit of common goals
International sanctions
From League of Nations to United
Nations
The United Nations
Representation of countries has been more
universal than that of the League
The United Nations
Peacekeeping operations
– Internal conflicts
– Not always successful
– > 40,000 peacekeeping troops serve
– The UN peacekeeping function provides
major benefits to the international community
Unrepresented peoples
– UNPO
By 2002 had 51 members and 13 applicants
The Law of The Sea
UN Conference on the Law of the Sea
(UNCLOS), 1982
The Truman Proclamation
Widening maritime claims
The UNCLOS process
– Main provisions of the treaty:
The territorial sea—12 nautical miles
The exclusive economic zone (EEZ)—200 to 350 nautical miles
Median lines
– States on opposite coasts divide the waters separating
them
– The “High Seas”…
Regional Multinational Unions
The first multinational union
– Benelux—Netherlands, Belgium, and
Luxembourg
– The Marshall Plan
First-step of cooperation among European states
Toward a European Union
The Organization of the European Economic
Community (OEEC)
France proposed a union with six other states
called the European Coal and Steel Community
(ECSC)
The ECSC through negotiations and agreement
led to the formation of the Common Market (EEC)
Expansion created the European Community (EC)
In 1992, further expansion led to creation of the
European Union (EU)
Regional Multinational Unions
Toward a European Union
– The future of European Supranationalism
Difficult
The United Kingdom did not allow its citizens to vote
on membership in the EU
– Expansion
May cause strains
Progress toward supranational goals tends to be
cyclic and flourishes when economic times are good
Regional Multinational Unions
Supranationalism elsewhere
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NAFTA—the North American Free Trade Agreement
CARICOM
South America’s MERCOSUR
ECOWAS
Today, new groups are forming in almost all parts of
the world
FTAA—Free Trade Area of the Americas
Other forms of Supranationalism
– NATO
– Cultural unions
– Political unions
THE CHANGING GLOBAL
POLITICAL LANDSCAPE
A New World Order?
Balance of mutual opposition and nuclear
terror between two super powers no
longer determines destinies of states
(supposedly) Shaped by forces that
connect nations and states, like the EU
– Risks of nuclear war goes away
– Negotiation instead of confrontation
What happened?
Forces of Devolution
The counterforce to supranationalism
– Today, many states are afflicted by internal centrifugal
forces
– Time has failed to submerge regionalism in the United
Kingdom
Ethnonational forces
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Fundamental in promoting devolution
Devolutionary forces exist in Europe
Devolution elsewhere
Weakening many states today
Forces of Devolution
Economic forces
Spatial Influences
– Along margins of states
– Islands
– Gateway states
The Devolution of the USSR
The Devolution
of the Soviet Union
The Changing Russian periphery
– ~ 25 million Russians in former Soviet
Republics’ Rimland
Devolution of Russia
– Five additional “republics”
– Internal “republics”
– Rise of anti-Russian rebellion in Chechnya
– Vastness = less control
The State in the New World Order
The complexity in today’s world
Forces of change
– Globalization
– Notions of democracy
– The growing influence of religion
Some see the world in bipolar religious terms—
including terrorists
The State in the New World Order
A New World Order
– What factors affect its forming?
– Must include a consensus
Geopolitics in the Twenty-First Century?
Discussion Question
The United Nations has managed to control
and channel many conflicts that might
otherwise have had serious consequences.
One of these involved the world’s oceans
and seas: a United Nations Law of the Sea
now exists. One feature of UNCLOS is the
so-called EEZ.
– How has the EEZ functioned to expand as well
as inhibit states’ maritime activities?
– What has been the impact on marine resources?