The International System: Introduction
- Cecilie 🇩🇰
- 16. aug. 2016
- 1 min læsning
⭐️ Bipolart system: Two superpowers
⭐️ BRIC–countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China. There are great powers that are probably going to challenge the USA as a superpower.
⭐️ Mutlipolar system: Several somewhat equally strong superpowers
⭐️ Unipolar system: One superpower
The internationale system
The international system is fundamentally anarchic (there is no greater leadership).
The UN only has limited abilities to solve conflicts that involve great powers.
A country’s sovereignty is a norm in the international system.
States have different interests relating to foreign policy:
Power politics and safety politics
Economical and trade-related
Values, culture and ideological
States have different power resources:
Economic power
Military power
“Soft power”, i.e. culture, ideologi etc.
Historical development of the international system
The balance of power of the international system:
1918-1939 (the interwar period): Multipolar (numerous somewhat equally strong great powers); England, Germany, the Soviet Union, France, the USA and Japan.
1945 - 1989 (1991) (the Cold War): Bipolar: the USA og the Soviet Union.
1991 - present: Unipolar system; the USA as the only superpower.