1. 21 st Century World Politics Continuity or Change?

2. Is the 21 st Century “Frightening”?  Kegley and Wittkopf suggest that people today see the world as frightening.  What has changed?  Can we change the way the world operates or will it be “business as usual?”  Can we learn from the past?

3. Post Cold War—A New Dichotomy?  Kegley and Wittkopf suggest that a new dichotomy might be “terrorists and those who resist them”  Or is it “Capitalists (Westernists/globalists) and those who oppose them”?

4. Qualifications for a New IR System  Is there a unit change (who is the major actor—the state, regions/unified states, or global institutions)?  What are the foreign policy goals (territory or economic gains—or is it all just power)?  How does the unit achieve its goals (conventional weapons, economic sticks and carrots, or WMD)?

5. Past International Relationships  Based on anarchy—states have sovereignty and there are no institutions that provide a rule of law over states in the international system.  States must look out for themselves and protect their national interests, usually through the acquisition and use of power.

6. Past International Relationships  Major differences between those who have power and those who don’t (often seen as the “rich” nations and the “poor” nations or 1 st World and 3 rd World).  States with power have the ability to get those states with less or little power to do what the powerful states want, or accede to their desires.

7. Has this changed since the end of the Cold War? If there is no dichotomous relationship, what is the global world like?

8. Learning from the past: Images  Images of other countries develop from past events.  We create “schemas” of countries in order to facilitate information processing.  Each person has his/her own “world view” or image based on his/her own unique history.  Images are difficult to change.

9. Images  Often based on “in-group” and “out- group” psychology.  Enemy, ally, dependent, colonial, imperialist, rogue, etc.  People within different, basically equal states with opposing ideologies often hold mirror images of each other.

10. Towards Peace  We must change images we hold of each other.  Cognitive dissonance –We ignore information that disrupts our view of the world. –Change usually only occurs once there is an abundance of information that contradicts the held image (often an intense event with an emotional component).

11. Levels of Analysis  International System –Interaction between actors –Global influences  State –Institutions/bureaucracies, government branches, social movements, media, etc.  Individual –Psychological aspects of individuals who make policy decisions

12. Definitions  Politics: the exercise of power; the interaction between actors in getting others to do what they might not otherwise have done  International Politics: strategy or action for obtaining power (military, economics, prestige)  International Relations: the relationships between and among states/groups/individuals resulting from policy decisions, actor influences, and global situations

13. Globalization  The increased contact between states, often due to the spread of economic and social development, and the increased need for cooperation between states on global matters, is creating an economic, political, and social system that unifies states into a one-world system.

14. Discussion Questions  What are some global issues that can be better addressed by several or all states than by just one? –Why? –Hindrances?  What has been the role of computers in the globalization process?  What conflicts occur due to globalization?  Is globalization just a fancy name for Westernization revisited?