1. Why is the world divided up into states?
Some definitional review: What are “nations,” “nation states,” “civilizations,” and globalizations?
What are states?:“A relatively small number of relatively large political units that are considered to be independent, recognizing no binding, higher political authority”
What is sovereignty and where did it come from? (two key ideas):
Domestic autonomy
Intl. recognition regardless of regime type
What about “popular sovereignty” and self-determination
Strong, weak, and stateless states: The US as an example

2. WHERE DID STATES COME FROM?
When did they become the norm?:
Some nation states have been around for a long time: Persia (Iran) and China
Mainland Europe: States developed mainly between 1400 and 1600, rising from semi-independent kingdoms, principalities, and duchies (Germany, for example, in the 1870s)
Why did modern states develop?
The commercial revolution (1200’s +); the state as a provider of public goods
States as collective security and instruments of public aggression: Gunpowder, standing armies (1400s)
Developments that made big states possible: The printing press, bureaucracy, taxes, and international shipping (15th C)
The invention and triumph of the nation state: France under Napoleon

3. WHY ARE STATES SO IMPORTANT TODAY?
Why is nationalism and popular sovereignty? so powerful today?
How did the state become the only unit that matters in intl. politics?
The evolution of diplomacy
Collective security arrangements: The League of Nations
Great Power arrangements: The UN and the Security Council

4. ARE INTL. ORGANIZATIONS OR SOMETHING ELSE GOING TO REPLACE THE STATE?
Intl. finance organizations are designed to prevent communism, mass poverty & war:
Bretton Woods (1947), the World Bank, the UN, the IMF, and GATT/WTO
Intl. security organizations:
The UN, the Security Council, and NATO
Intl. laws and norms are developing that guarantee protections for failed states and defeated even when states can’t provide them… But we’re also seeing R2P

5. IS GLOBALIZATION MAKING STATES LESS RELEVANT?
Thomas Friedman: “The world is flat,” meaning that space and intl. boundaries don’t matter much anymore
7 big areas of change that allow globalization: Interdependence, a new transportation infrastructure, miniaturization, the information revolution, the free flow of ideas, intl. corporations, & democratization
How has globalization impacted the developed and developing world so far? The win-win thesis: Comparative advantage, catch up opportunities, snowball effects, war, poverty
The race to the bottom thesis: Why can’t states do what they want (tax, spend, and protect their populations) anymore?
Are today’s problems too big for states? Crime, terrorism, proliferation, & the environment
What can we do about the proliferation of micro states, “stateless societies,” and groups that have almost state-like status? What are the advantages to staying “stateless”?