c
Social Sciences: Level 3
DU301 A World of Whose Making? Politics, Economics, Technology and Culture in International Studies DU321 Making the International Viewpoints, Concepts and Models in International Politics and Economics
C o u r s e
G u i d e
Prepared for the course team by Simon Bromley
and William Brown
This publication forms part of the Open University courses DU301 A World of Whose Making? and DU321 Making the International. Details of these and other Open University courses can be obtained from the Course Information and Advice Centre, PO Box 724, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6ZS, United Kingdom: tel. +44 (0)1908 653231, email
[email protected] Alternatively, you may visit the Open University website at http://www.open.ac.uk where you can learn more about the wide range of courses and packs offered at all levels by The Open University. To purchase a selection of Open University course materials visit the webshop at www.ouw.co.uk, or contact Open University Worldwide, Michael Young Building, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, United Kingdom for a brochure: tel. +44 (0)1908 858785; fax +44 (0)1908 858787; email
[email protected] Cover image # Photodisc Europe Ltd. The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA First published 2004. Second edition 2005. Third edition 2006. Copyright # 2004, 2005, 2006 The Open University. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher or a licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd. Details of such licences (for reprographic reproduction) may be obtained from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd of 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Open University course materials may also be made available in electronic formats for use by students of the University. All rights, including copyright and related rights and database rights, in electronic course materials and their contents are owned by or licensed to The Open University, or otherwise used by The Open University as permitted by applicable law. In using electronic course materials and their contents you agree that your use will be solely for the purposes of following an Open University course of study or otherwise as licensed by The Open University or its assigns. Except as permitted above you undertake not to copy, store in any medium (including electronic storage or use in a website), distribute, transmit or re-transmit, broadcast, modify or show in public such electronic materials in whole or in part without the prior written consent of The Open University or in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Edited, designed and typeset by The Open University. Printed in the United Kingdom by Lithmark Limited. SUP 87457 8 3.1
Contents Course Guide for DU301
4
1
Introduction
4
2
The structure of the course
7
3
Aims and objectives
13
4
The Study Guides, IT Guide and study skills
15
5
Summary of the teaching materials
16
6
Assessment and tuition
17
Course Guide for DU321
19
1
Introduction
19
2
The structure of the course
20
3
Aims and objectives
24
4
The Study Guide, IT Guide and study skills
25
5
Summary of the teaching materials
25
6
Assessment and tuition
26
This Course Guide serves as a guide for both DU301 A World of Whose Making? and DU321 Making the International. The teaching materials and learning outcomes for DU321 are the same as those for the First Half of DU301. However, in order for this Course Guide to be as clear as possible, we have separated it into two parts: n Students doing DU301 should read pages 4 to 18. n Students doing DU321 should read pages 19 to 27.
DU301 A World of Whose Making?
Course Guide for DU301
1 Introduction Welcome to DU301 A World of Whose Making? Politics, Economics, Technology and Culture in International Studies. We really enjoyed making the course, we learned a lot from doing so, and we hope that you will find it enjoyable and stimulating to study. The term ‘international’ came into English usage only in the late eighteenth century to describe the interactions and relations between and among nations. At that time in Europe, popular nationalism was on the rise – that is, the demand that each ‘nation’ or people should have a state of its own – and so ‘international’ also came to mean relations between and among states. Nowadays, the state is the more or less universal form in which political life is organized, even if many peoples and nations do not have a state of their own. So the objects of study in International Studies (IS) are the interactions and relations between and among states and the peoples that comprise them, their economies, cultures and so on. These relations are complex, contested and changing rapidly, often in unforeseen ways. It is an exciting time to study them. We have tried to make DU301 an international course, in terms of both its content and its pedagogy. A key objective of the course is to expose you to and enable you to understand a diversity of standpoints and intellectual traditions. So we have sought material that is engaged and argumentative, both presenting a clear statement of widely shared conceptual frameworks and embodying a plurality of views on political, economic and cultural analysis. In conceptual terms, we have tried to produce a clear ladder of intellectual development in your understanding of both politics and economics in the First Half of DU301 and International Studies in the Second Half of DU301. But we have not tried to impose any one particular view of the international, and we have explicitly tried to recognize that who ‘we’ are is, precisely, one of the central questions at stake in contemporary international relations. In the course materials that you will study – both text and audio-visual – you will encounter a diversity of voices speaking about the international. DU301 is the core course at Level 3 for the degree of BA/BSc (Honours) International Studies, as well as contributing to the curricula of a number of other degree schemes. As we have just noted, it is a course that is organized into two halves. The First Half deals with key issues in contemporary debates about the international that arise from an extensive and growing economic 4
Course Guide for DU301
interdependence and the international political order. It aims to teach the core elements of International Political Economy (IPE), defining this as the economic and political analysis of central international processes and institutions. The teaching is written from a variety of perspectives and experiences from different parts of the world – from India, Mexico, Tanzania and the wider African experience, as well as from Europe and the USA. It involves the ordered, analytical development of key concepts and models from the disciplines of politics and economics. These disciplines are taught ‘in parallel’, by which we mean that each part of the First Half of the course contains some teaching of political concepts and some teaching of economic concepts. However, for each discipline the order of these concepts results in the logical and cumulative development of a ‘conceptual toolkit’ for analysing the international system. In the last part of the First Half of the course, we bring the two disciplines together where they share a conceptual approach. Our aim is that you will emerge confident in your ability to apply the tools of economic and political analysis to current international issues and that you will appreciate something of the diversity of the positions from which such issues are addressed across the world. The Second Half of DU301 focuses on the history and contemporary transformation of the international system as well as debates in the discipline of International Studies about the character of international order. It asks how international order can be understood, whether it is changing and, if so, in what ways and by whose agency. It does this, first, through a study of the politics of states and the states-system: how did the states-system arise, how does it operate, is it changing, and what is the role of the world’s most powerful state, the USA, in the contemporary international system? Second, it turns to questions of culture, rights and justice: what role does culture play in international politics, what are the tensions between the claims of culture and those for rights and justice, and is there an emerging international or global culture of human rights? Third, it considers technological change and its role in underpinning the uneven distribution of wealth and power, the nature of contemporary international inequality, and the role of networks (social and technological) in shaping new forms of agency in international politics. The Second Half of the course concludes by reviewing the different models and theoretical approaches that have been constructed to understand the international system as a whole. Our aim is that you will finish DU301 with both the historical perspective and the analytical tools to understand and debate contemporary questions of international affairs. The course also aims to teach some basic tools of data analysis using elementary descriptive statistics. This teaching is contained in four Interpreting Data Tutorials on the Interpreting Data CD-ROM. Study Guides 1 and 2 will give guidance as to the appropriate times to study these tutorials. 5
DU301 A World of Whose Making?
Table 1
DU301 at a glance
First Half The political economy of the contemporary international system, understood as the economic and political analysis of key international issues, taught from a variety of international standpoints
Part 1: Trade and states Part 2: Making state policy Part 3: Inequality and power Part 4: Autonomy, sovereignty and macroeconomic policy Part 5: International collective action
Course materials
Core text: Making the International Audio Programmes 5 (plus transcripts) Concept Mapper CD-ROM Interpreting Data CD-ROM Course Website Study Guide 1 IT Guide Course Calendar
Second Half Understanding international order in terms of states and the states-system, culture, rights and justice, technology, inequality and networks, and theories of world order, taught from a range of historical perspectives and a variety of theoretical traditions.
Part 1: States and the states-system Part 2: Culture, rights and justice Part 3: Technology, inequality and the network society Part 4: Models of international order
Course materials
Core text: Ordering the International Audio Programmes 6 (plus transcripts) Video Programmes Concept Mapper CD-ROM Interpreting Data CD-ROM Course Website Study Guide 2 IT Guide Course Calendar
A more detailed breakdown of the course follows in Section 2.
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Course Guide for DU301
2
The structure of the course
2.1
First Half
The core teaching of the First Half of DU301 is organized into five parts. These parts are designed to deliver on a number of key aims and can be ‘read’ in a number of different ways. 1
They will take you through a series of important issues in International Political Economy: the role of trade and states; the formation of the national interest and the determinants of economic growth; the impact of trade and investment liberalization on labour, as well as the inequality of power between states; the management of macroeconomic policy and the sovereignty and autonomy of the state; and international collective action.
2
The five parts come at these issues from diverse standpoints: trade and states from a developing country perspective; the national interest and economic growth from the experience of India since independence; liberalization, labour and inequality between states from Mexico; macroeconomic policy and sovereignty and autonomy from Africa; and international collective action from relations between the USA and the European Union.
3
The five parts also develop a clear ladder of conceptual ideas for each discipline. –
For politics, Part 1 starts with the idea of the state and the contrast in international politics between an anarchic system and a governed one, questioning the assumption that states’ interests are fixed around securing their survival against other states. Part 2 examines how the national interest is formed and looks at the diverse national and international influences involved. Part 3 returns to the international level and asks about what happens when states interact in pursuit of their interests and, in particular, how we understand the interaction between very unequal states. Part 4 looks at how a state’s position in the international system can have profound implications for its ability to realize sovereignty in the struggle to achieve autonomy in managing the macroeconomy. Finally, Part 5 concludes the First Half by looking at the prospects for and problems of states acting collectively to achieve benefits at the international level.
–
For economics, Part 1 starts with the idea of there being gains from international trade, the theory of comparative advantage, on which this idea is based, and the issue of the unequal distribution of those gains. Part 2 looks at how growth happens, at the role of investment 7
DU301 A World of Whose Making?
and at the effects of liberalization on growth. Part 3 asks about the internal impacts of international liberalization, particularly on labour. Part 4 moves to the macroeconomic level and assesses how the different parts of the national economy fit together. As for politics, the economics finishes in Part 5 by asking about collective action and the issue of international public goods. The core text is the course book Making the International. This has a brief introduction (Chapter 1) setting out the main themes, some comments on the economics and politics teaching to follow, and some discussion of why we pay attention to the positions from which our understanding and knowledge about the international are generated and interpreted. Audio Programme 1 discusses these course themes and includes some consideration of a theme common to economics and politics, that is, the issue of whether international interactions are anarchic or governed. Part 1 begins with Chapter 2, which examines the trade of developing countries and the economics and politics of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This introduces the main themes of the economics teaching of Part 1, the idea of the gains from trade, and argues that under the rules negotiated in the WTO these gains are distributed unequally, to the disadvantage of developing countries. Chapter 3 sets out the economic concepts and models in more detail, in particular the theory of comparative advantage. Next, Chapter 4 considers how inequalities in power between the member states of the WTO are translated into its decision making, and asks about the strategies that are available to developing countries to combat this. Chapter 5 considers the concepts and models of politics and international politics, specifically the model of international politics as an anarchical order, which help us to analyse these questions. You will also be directed to dip your toe for the first time into the Course Website and the Internet. Part 1 recognizes that countries are different: some are rich, others are poor; some are powerful, others are not. What makes states different, and what implications do differences in wealth and power have for the international interactions of states? These questions are pursued in Parts 2 and 3 respectively. Part 2 focuses on India. Its first chapter, Chapter 6, asks about how the international policy of the Indian state was formulated after India gained its independence from colonial rule. The chapter then examines a range of historical and cultural features of Indian politics after independence in order to explain how the definition of India’s international policies, especially its degree of openness to the world economy, began to change dramatically in the 1990s. In explaining the Indian story, the chapter sets out some general tools of political analysis that can be used to analyse the formation of international policies in other countries. Chapter 7 has a similar set of 8
Course Guide for DU301
ambitions: it aims to explain both the pattern of economic policy towards development in India and how and why it changed, and to teach some general concepts and models that can be used to understand the determinants of economic growth in capital accumulation and technological innovation. India is a very large country, and its moves toward a new foreign policy and economic liberalization were largely internally driven, albeit in the context of a changed international context. Part 3 looks at economic and political change in Mexico, a country whose political economy is massively influenced by its rich and powerful neighbour to the north – the USA. The economics teaching in this part considers the impact on the working population of moves towards freer trade and investment between Mexico and the USA. The story is one of a widespread impoverishment of significant sections of the population. Chapter 8 shows how to measure these changes and examines why the expected benefits from freer trade did not materialize, thereby adding to your understanding of who gains and who loses from trade. Audio Programme 2 takes stock of the economics teaching that you have met so far by exploring the linked themes of inequality and integration. Chapter 9 then asks why, if so many Mexicans lost out, the Mexican President Carlos Salinas proposed a free trade agreement with the USA. In order to answer this question, the chapter develops some models for thinking about the exercise of power between states. It distinguishes two types of power, shows how to model them, and considers their different implications for our thinking about the relations between states. In this part of the course you will also develop your skills in basic searching of the Internet. In addition, some of the conceptual issues that arise in the study of power have strong links to the concepts taught in Part 1. Audio Programme 2a then looks back over Parts 1 to 3 in order to discuss two contrasting views of the scope for cooperation among states and the differences between realist and liberal models of international order. In Part 4 we take a slightly different look at the impact of inequality between states by assessing the state’s ability to act effectively and manage the national economy. The chapters doing this are all written from an African perspective. The first, Chapter 10, provides an overview through an analysis of the sharp debates between African states and international aid donors about the capability of African states to manage development. The next two chapters both use the case of Tanzania to develop this analysis of the struggle for autonomy. Chapter 11 teaches the tools needed to study macroeconomic policy and examines the ways in which it can be managed. It looks at what happens internally when key aspects of this management are changed, sometimes at the behest of external actors. Chapter 12 then develops the idea of state autonomy and assesses the internal and external forces that have shaped Tanzania’s ability to exercise autonomy in policy making. Some of the 9
DU301 A World of Whose Making?
key issues in the Tanzanian case are explored in Audio Programme 3, which was recorded in Tanzania with some of the key players in Tanzania’s aid relationship. Part 5 brings politics and economics together in the analysis of international collective action. Its first chapter, Chapter 13, defines the nature of collective action problems using a range of international examples and then shows how game theory can be used to model these problems. The analysis of several games shows that there are different kinds of collective action problems. This game theory is then used in Chapter 14 to cast light on the failure of international collective action in relation to the Kyoto Protocol on the abatement of greenhouse gas emissions and, specifically, to examine the reasons for the withdrawal of the USA from the treaty. Making the International concludes with Chapter 15, which includes some observations from us about what we think are the key themes to have emerged from the book as a whole. As part of the wrapping up for this First Half of the course, Audio Programme 4 reviews the five parts and the key points of the economics and politics teaching. In addition, you will be encouraged to use the Concept Mapper to review and explore some of the conceptual links in this part of the course. The Concept Mapper is a tool designed to enable you to navigate your own way around the course concepts.
2.2
Second Half
The core text for the Second Half of DU301 is Ordering the International. This book begins with a discussion of the scope of the discipline of International Studies. Chapter 1 notes that there have been a variety of international systems in history and, in this context, notes some of the distinguishing features of the modern states-system. It sets out some broad parameters for organizing a study of ‘the international’, and shows how to identify changes in the character of a given international order. The rest of Ordering the International is divided into four parts, each of which seeks to address three general questions: Is it possible to analyse the international system as a whole? How can we best explain the pattern of international order? In what ways, and through what kinds of agency, is the contemporary international system changing? Audio Programme 5 discusses the scope of International Studies and introduces some of the main themes and issues that you will encounter in Parts 1 to 3 of the Second Half of the course. Part 1 examines the political dimension of the international system, specifically the modern states-system. It begins in Chapter 2 with a discussion of the origins of the modern states-system in Europe, and argues that the particular form of the state and geopolitics that is dominant in the 10
Course Guide for DU301
modern world was strongly shaped not only by a pre-existing multi-actor states-system but also by the development of capitalist forms of economic and political power. Written from a Marxist perspective, the chapter sets out a challenging view of the character of modern international politics. Chapter 3 then examines some of the issues arising from the global spread of the European states-system into the non-European world, first through empire and colonialism but then, after decolonization, through the universally recognized right to national self-determination. The chapter asks how far the rules and institutions of the ‘society’ of states are shared by all cultures and peoples, given their European and, in many cases, colonial origins. Chapter 4 examines one prominent thesis concerning the transformation of the statessystem: the idea that it is evolving towards a liberal international order in which relations between states are becoming more co-operative and less driven by questions of national power and the quest for independent military security. The central role of the USA in this liberal order is highlighted, as are the main criticisms that have been levelled against this benign view of international order. The last chapter in this part, Chapter 5, looks forward and considers the power of the USA in the international system and the role that power might play in extending a liberal (but perhaps also imperial) order in the future. The issue of the use of military force, and our perceptions of it, are challenged in the Video Programme War and the Media. This video seeks to highlight very different media portrayals of war and asks about some of the reasons behind this. In addition, this part will develop your ability to go beyond the course materials by providing you with an introduction to accessing and using online academic journals via the Course Website. Part 2 examines the roles of culture and rights, together with the quest for justice, in the international system. These issues, introducing contentious and strongly value-laden questions into the discussion of international politics, further develop the central concerns of Ordering the International. In particular, this part asks how the perspectives of culture, rights and justice enrich our understanding of the international system as a whole and how these issues help to drive that system. It also explores different forms of tension between cultural and rights-based claims. After tracing the historical origins of these concerns, the part goes on to look at how they are changing within the contemporary order. Part 2 commences with a discussion about its scope in Audio Programme 6. Then, in the first chapter, Chapter 6, the role of culture and identity in the states-system and its intersection with the international are considered. The chapter argues that issues of culture and cultural difference provide a highly charged focus of identity in international discussion and action. The chapter also shows that all nation states regard the preservation of culture as integral to their social and political identity and survival. 11
DU301 A World of Whose Making?
Chapter 7 takes up the role of human rights in international politics and looks at the tension between the belief in universal rights and the parallel belief in the inviolability of particular cultures. The language of rights and justice is a potent way of articulating political disputes and of negotiating rival claims. The problem is that the invocation of rights as abstract principles can erode cultural differences and so raises the potential for a serious head-on clash. This potential for conflict is discussed in the Video Programme Gender, Rights and Culture, in Audio Programme 7, and in Chapter 8, which looks at the politics of rights in the Islamic Middle East. The Video Programme Gender, Rights and Culture looks at three case studies involving different forms of tension between culture and rights for women – the post-Taliban situation in Afghanistan, ‘sweatshop’ workers in Cambodia, and Muslim schoolgirls in France. Audio Programme 7 examines the setting up and working of the International Criminal Court, and asks whether it offers a viable challenge to state immunity and whether it can provide a successful form of retributive international justice. Chapter 8, on Islam in the Middle East, warns against the assumption that Islam (or any other culture for that matter) is monolithic. It also turns the focus around. Instead of looking at the impact of culture on international relations, the author reminds us that international developments have a reciprocal effect on politics and rights-based agendas. The concluding chapter of Part 2, Chapter 9, picks up the theme of cultural homogeneity and examines the provenance of particular cultural claims. It asks whether the language of rights is itself cultural and, finally, whether the contemporary world is developing a global moral culture of its own. Part 3 casts a sceptical eye over the thesis that international relations are being radically transformed by the emergence of a global network society. Chapter 10 begins with a discussion of technological change and the idea that patterns of growth in the international economy are linked to long waves of technological innovation. The changing pattern of technological leadership is also associated with the uneven distribution of wealth and power between states. Chapter 11 takes a closer look at contemporary international inequalities, examining their origins and the controversy over whether the world is becoming more or less equal. It also addresses the question of whether network forms of organization in the international economy are likely to have a significant impact on these historical patterns of inequality. Chapter 12 then turns to the nature of social networks as a form of political agency. Using case-study material on campaigns about debt relief and international labour activity, it asks whether network forms of organization, operating in a global civil society, are displacing the territorial power of the nation state, and whether network forms of activity constitute an important kind of agency in international politics. Finally, Chapter 13 concludes Part 3 with a consideration of three different kinds of actors – private financial institutions, protest groups and the military – and asks how they relate to
12
Course Guide for DU301
network forms of organization as well as to the world of states. Audio Programme 8 discusses the role that information and communication technologies might play in overcoming global inequalities. There will also be scope in this part of the course to do some extended web searching, and you will be guided in the techniques necessary for this as well as being shown how to evaluate electronic sources. Parts 1 to 3 address similar general questions about the international system, the basis of international order, and the forces for continuity and change. Furthermore, along the way a number of theoretical perspectives for thinking about these questions are introduced. Part 4 seeks to bring these questions and perspectives together, and to review and consolidate the knowledge and understanding you have already acquired. The first chapter, Chapter 14, draws out and makes explicit the key models of world order from the discipline of International Studies: realism, liberalism, constructivism and Marxism. It does this by reviewing the theories and concepts used in the previous parts and showing how different theories of world order might be presented. The different readings of the history of the international system implied by these different models are also discussed. Chapter 15 then takes a critical look at these models and adopts a standpoint from ‘outside’, looking at the challenges to such theoretical constructions posed by, among others, feminist and post-colonial writings. Part 4 concludes the book by returning to the question of the transformation of international order and assesses how useful different perspectives are in charting the nature of the contemporary international order. These theoretical debates are reviewed in Audio Programme 9. Finally, you will be encouraged to develop your skills by going outside of the course materials and preparing for your final assessment with another web activity on the Course Website. In addition, and in preparation for this assessment, Audio Programme 10 contains some advice about completing the Course Essay.
3
Aims and objectives
Sections 2 and 3 have summarized the course content and the purpose of the teaching in some detail, and it may be a bit hard to take it in all in one go. So here we list the main aims and objectives for the course. The course aims for DU301 are to provide you with:
n
A knowledge and understanding of some basic elements of the
conceptual apparatus of economics and politics as applied to the international arena.
13
DU301 A World of Whose Making?
n
A knowledge and understanding of some common organizing ideas that the two disciplines hold in common and the connections and differences between the disciplines.
n
An awareness that there is a set of shared international conceptual debates in politics and economics, and that different areas of the world bring to those concepts and theories distinct historical traditions, local perspectives and diverse interests.
n
An ability to apply the concepts and theories of economics and politics to develop a concrete knowledge and understanding of international issues.
n
An ability to search for information using the Internet and the World Wide Web.
n
A knowledge and understanding of three central aspects of the international system: –
states and the states-system
–
culture, rights and justice
–
technology, inequality and networks.
n
An understanding of the importance of a historical perspective in making sense of the contemporary international system.
n
An awareness of the range of agencies involved in shaping the future of the international system.
n
A knowledge and understanding of the central debates in International Studies about the nature of international order and the analysis of change and transformation.
n
An ability to investigate and seek answers, independently of the course materials.
n
An ability to interpret, use and present elementary descriptive statistics.
Therefore, by the end of the course, you should be able to:
14
1
Demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of the disciplines of economics and politics as applied to the analysis of international issues.
2
Demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of the conceptualization and explanation of international order as both anarchic and governed.
3
Analyse selected issues of international policy using tools drawn from both disciplines.
Course Guide for DU301
4
Understand and evaluate a range of different positions and perspectives that are used to make sense of the international system.
5
Demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of: –
the states-system and its role in relation to questions of international
security and governance
–
the contested nature of debates about the role of culture, rights and
justice in international affairs
–
the role of technology, inequality and networks in structuring
international interactions and relations.
6
Demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of the role of historical study in informing contemporary debates about the balance of continuity and transformation in the international system.
7
Analyse the different agencies of change in the international system.
8
Analyse and evaluate the central theoretical perspectives used in International Studies to conceptualize and explain the character of order in the international system.
9
Investigate questions in International Studies.
10 Access, evaluate and use a range of relevant material from outside of the course materials, including material from the Internet and online academic sources. 11 Undertake independent work using sources from outside of the course materials. 12 Demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of elementary descriptive statistics.
4
The Study Guides, IT Guide and study skills
Study Guide 1 accompanies the First Half of DU301 and Study Guide 2 accompanies the Second Half of DU301. These guides are designed to help you order your study of the different course materials on a week by week basis and you should use them in conjunction with the Study Calendar. We have made strenuous efforts to put nearly all our text-based teaching into the course texts described above, Making the International and Ordering the International, so the Study Guides are primarily to identify the key teaching in those texts, to draw your attention to the mix of other materials you need to study alongside them, and to provide some guidance as to how to prepare for the course assessment. The Study Guides also include additional notes on 15
DU301 A World of Whose Making?
learning from the audio and video materials. This is a Level 3 course and we
assume that you are already competent independent learners, but we have also
provided guidance for the Course Essay, as this may be a form of assessment
that you have not encountered before.
The Study Guides contain:
n
advice on when to study what on a week by week basis
n
guidance on the key teaching in the texts
n
the learning outcomes for each part of the course
n
teaching notes for the audio-visual material
n
advice about when to use the Concept Mapper, the Interpreting Data Tutorials and the Course Website
n
advice on the Course Essay.
There is also an IT Guide, which contains information about accessing the course’s electronic resources.
5 Summary of the teaching materials First Half of DU301 n
Core text: Making the International.
n
Audio Programmes 5. 1: Trade and States: Anarchic Models and Questions of Governance. 2: Economic Integration, Wages and Inequality. 2a: Cooperation, Anarchy and Interdependence. 3: Aid Donors and Sovereign States: The Struggle for Policy Autonomy in Tanzania. 4: Politics, Economics and the International.
n
Concept Mapper.
n
Interpreting Data CD-ROM.
n
Course Website (a range of course resources including recommended websites for each of the parts of the course and some web activities plus
transcripts of the course audios).
Web Activity 1: Logging on and accessing websites.
Web Activity 2: Basic searching of the web for International Studies.
16
Course Guide for DU301
n
Study Guide 1.
n
IT Guide.
n
Course Calendar.
Second Half of DU301 n
Core text: Ordering the International.
n
Audio Programmes 6. 5: Shaping International Order. 6: Culture, Rights and Justice: An Introduction. 7: International Justice and the International Criminal Court. 8: Can ICTs Overcome Inequality? 9: Models of International Order. 10: The Course Essay.
n
Video programmes. War and the Media: Television News
Gender, Rights and Culture: Contesting Women’s Rights
n
Concept Mapper.
n
Interpreting Data CD-ROM.
n
Course Website (a range of course resources including recommended
websites for each of the parts of the course and some web activities).
Web Activity 3: Accessing online academia and OU Library resources.
Web Activity 4: Investigating culture and rights.
Web Activity 5: Extended searching techniques.
Web Activity 6: Using online resources for your Course Essay.
n
Study Guide 2.
n
IT Guide.
n
Course Calendar.
17
DU301 A World of Whose Making?
6 Assessment and tuition The assessment strategy for DU301 is based on six TMA submissions (7 TMA equivalents) and a Course Essay (4000 words) as the examinable component. TMAs 01, 02, 04, 05 and 06 are all single-weighted; TMA 03 is doubleweighted. Apart from TMA 03, substitution is available. Guidance on how to complete the TMAs is given in the student notes in the Assignment Booklet, and guidance on how to prepare for and complete the Course Essay is given in Study Guide 2. The Course Essay requires you to use the core theories of International Studies to integrate and analyse the course materials, as well as to search outside the course materials, in a controlled manner, to find relevant additional material. Work done on TMAs 04, 05 and 06 will help you to prepare you for the Course Essay.
Finally ... This course was produced during a time of great change in the international system. There were global protests about aspects of the international economy – trade and developing country debt, for example – and there were the attacks on the USA of 11 September 2001 and the subsequent USA-led wars against Afghanistan and Iraq. The latter raised questions about the USA’s imperial role in the world as the sole superpower. There were significant advances in economic and technological integration alongside continuing debates and conflict over global inequalities and the exclusion of the powerless from international decision making. There were notable failures of the international community to act collectively, as in the withdrawal of the USA from the Kyoto Protocol designed to reduce global warming. There were also debates about how far ‘Western’ values make sense for the rest of the world. These are just a handful of the many, often unexpected, developments in international affairs that took place while this course was being produced. We cannot predict the future, and events are likely to develop in ways that we have not foreseen. In response to this, we have tried to make the course robust in the sense that we aim to teach concepts and frameworks of analysis that are durable, and which can be applied to a range of different issues far beyond the particular material you are about to study. Indeed, perhaps our key aim has been to produce a course that equips you with the skills and confidence to analyse new events for yourself. We would welcome any feedback from you as to how far we have succeeded. Now turn to Study Guide 1 to find out what to do next.
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Course Guide for DU321
Course Guide for DU321
1
Introduction
Welcome to DU321 Making the International: Viewpoints, Concepts and Models in International Politics and Economics. We really enjoyed making the course, we learned a lot from doing so, and we hope that you will find it enjoyable and stimulating to study. The term ‘international’ came into English usage only in the late eighteenth century to describe the interactions and relations between and among nations. At that time in Europe, popular nationalism was on the rise – that is, the demand that each ‘nation’ or people should have a state of its own – and so ‘international’ also came to mean relations between and among states. Nowadays, the state is the more or less universal form in which political life is organized, even if many peoples and nations do not have a state of their own. This course aims to study the interactions and relations between and among states and the peoples that comprise them, focusing on their economic and political affairs. These relations are complex, contested and changing rapidly, often in unforeseen ways. It is an exciting time to study them. We have tried to make DU321 an international course, in terms of both its content and its pedagogy. A key objective of the course is to expose you to and enable you to understand a diversity of standpoints and intellectual traditions. So we have sought material that is engaged and argumentative, both presenting a clear statement of widely shared conceptual frameworks and embodying a plurality of views on political and economic analysis. In conceptual terms, we have tried to produce a clear ladder of intellectual development in your understanding of both politics and economics as applied to the analysis of key international issues. But we have not tried to impose any one particular view of the international, and we have explicitly tried to recognize that who ‘we’ are is, precisely, one of the central questions at stake in contemporary international relations. In the course materials that you will study – both text and audio-visual – you will encounter a diversity of voices speaking about the international. DU321 deals with key issues in contemporary debates about the international that arise from an extensive and growing economic interdependence and the international political order. It aims to teach the core elements of International Political Economy (IPE), defining this as the economic and political analysis of central international processes and institutions. The teaching is written from a variety of perspectives and experiences from 19
DU321 Making the International
different parts of the world – from India, Mexico, Tanzania and the wider African experience, as well as from Europe and the USA. It involves the ordered, analytical development of key concepts and models from the disciplines of politics and economics. These disciplines are taught ‘in parallel’, by which we mean that each part of course contains some teaching of political concepts and some teaching of economic concepts. However, for each discipline the order of these concepts results in the logical and cumulative development of a ‘conceptual toolkit’ for analysing the international system. In the last part of the course, we bring the two disciplines together where they share a conceptual approach. Our aim is that you will emerge confident in your ability to apply the tools of economic and political analysis to current international issues and that you will appreciate something of the diversity of the positions from which such issues are addressed across the world. The course also aims to teach some basic tools of data analysis using elementary descriptive statistics. This teaching is contained in four Interpreting Data Tutorials on the Interpreting Data CD-ROM. The Study Guide will give guidance as to the appropriate times to study these tutorials. Table 2
DU321 at a glance
The political economy of the contemporary international system, understood as the economic and political analysis of key international issues, taught from a variety of international standpoints
Part 1: Trade and states Part 2: Making state policy Part 3: Inequality and power Part 4: Autonomy, sovereignty and macroeconomic policy Part 5: International collective action
Course materials
Core text: Making the International Audio Programmes 6 (plus transcripts) Concept Mapper CD-ROM Interpreting Data CD-ROM Course Website Study Guide IT Guide Course Calendar
A more detailed breakdown of the course follows in Section 2.
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Course Guide for DU321
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The structure of the course
The core teaching of DU321 is organized into five parts. These parts are designed to deliver on a number of key aims and can be ‘read’ in a number of different ways. 1
They will take you through a series of important issues in International Political Economy: the role of trade and states; the formation of the national interest and the determinants of economic growth; the impact of trade and investment liberalization on labour, as well as the inequality of power between states; the management of macroeconomic policy and the sovereignty and autonomy of the state; and international collective action.
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The five parts come at these issues from diverse standpoints: trade and states from a developing country perspective; the national interest and economic growth from the experience of India since independence; liberalization, labour and inequality between states from Mexico; macroeconomic policy and sovereignty and autonomy from Africa; and international collective action from relations between the USA and the European Union.
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The five parts also develop a clear ladder of conceptual ideas for each discipline. –
For politics, Part 1 starts with the idea of the state and the contrast in international politics between an anarchic system and a governed one, questioning the assumption that states’ interests are fixed around securing their survival against other states. Part 2 examines how the national interest is formed and looks at the diverse national and international influences involved. Part 3 returns to the international level and asks about what happens when states interact in pursuit of their interests and, in particular, how we understand the interaction between very unequal states. Part 4 looks at how a state’s position in the international system can have profound implications for its ability to realize sovereignty in the struggle to achieve autonomy in managing the macroeconomy. Finally, Part 5 concludes the course by looking at the prospects for and problems of states acting collectively to achieve benefits at the international level.
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For economics, Part 1 starts with the idea of there being gains from international trade, the theory of comparative advantage, on which this idea is based, and the issue of the unequal distribution of those gains. Part 2 looks at how growth happens, at the role of investment and at the effects of liberalization on growth. Part 3 asks about the internal impacts of international liberalization, particularly on 21
DU321 Making the International
labour. Part 4 moves to the macroeconomic level and assesses how the different parts of the national economy fit together. As for politics, the economics finishes in Part 5 by asking about collective action and the issue of international public goods. The core text is the course book Making the International. This has a brief introduction (Chapter 1) setting out the main themes, some comments on the economics and politics teaching to follow, and some discussion of why we pay attention to the positions from which our understanding and knowledge about the international are generated and interpreted. Audio Programme 1 discusses these course themes and includes some consideration of a theme common to economics and politics, that is, the issue of whether international interactions are anarchic or governed. Part 1 begins with Chapter 2, which examines the trade of developing countries and the economics and politics of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This introduces the main themes of the economics teaching of Part 1, the idea of the gains from trade, and argues that under the rules negotiated in the WTO these gains are distributed unequally, to the disadvantage of developing countries. Chapter 3 sets out the economic concepts and models in more detail, in particular the theory of comparative advantage. Next, Chapter 4 considers how inequalities in power between the member states of the WTO are translated into its decision making, and asks about the strategies that are available to developing countries to combat this. Chapter 5 considers the concepts and models of politics and international politics, specifically the model of international politics as an anarchical order, which help us to analyse these questions. You will also be directed to dip your toe for the first time into the Course Website and the Internet. Part 1 recognizes that countries are different: some are rich, others are poor; some are powerful, others are not. What makes states different, and what implications do differences in wealth and power have for the international interactions of states? These questions are pursued in Parts 2 and 3 respectively. Part 2 focuses on India. Its first chapter, Chapter 6, asks about how the international policy of the Indian state was formulated after India gained its independence from colonial rule. The chapter then examines a range of historical and cultural features of Indian politics after independence in order to explain how the definition of India’s international policies, especially its degree of openness to the world economy, began to change dramatically in the 1990s. In explaining the Indian story, the chapter sets out some general tools of political analysis that can be used to analyse the formation of international policies in other countries. Chapter 7 has a similar set of ambitions: it aims to explain both the pattern of economic policy towards development in India and how and why it changed, and to teach some 22
Course Guide for DU321
general concepts and models that can be used to understand the determinants of economic growth in capital accumulation and technological innovation. India is a very large country, and its moves toward a new foreign policy and economic liberalization were largely internally driven, albeit in the context of a changed international context. Part 3 looks at economic and political change in Mexico, a country whose political economy is massively influenced by its rich and powerful neighbour to the north – the USA. The economics teaching in this part considers the impact on the working population of moves towards freer trade and investment between Mexico and the USA. The story is one of a widespread impoverishment of significant sections of the population. Chapter 8 shows how to measure these changes and examines why the expected benefits from freer trade did not materialize, thereby adding to your understanding of who gains and who loses from trade. Audio Programme 2 takes stock of the economics teaching that you have met so far by exploring the linked themes of inequality and integration. Chapter 9 then asks why, if so many Mexicans lost out, the Mexican President Carlos Salinas proposed a free trade agreement with the USA. In order to answer this question, the chapter develops some models for thinking about the exercise of power between states. It distinguishes two types of power, shows how to model them, and considers their different implications for our thinking about the relations between states. In this part of the course you will also develop your skills in basic searching of the Internet. In addition, some of the conceptual issues that arise in the study of power have strong links to the concepts taught in Part 1. Audio Programme 2a then looks back over Parts 1 to 3 in order to discuss two contrasting views of the scope for cooperation among states and the differences between realist and liberal models of international order. In Part 4 we take a slightly different look at the impact of inequality between states by assessing the state’s ability to act effectively and manage the national economy. The chapters doing this are all written from an African perspective. The first, Chapter 10, provides an overview through an analysis of the sharp debates between African states and international aid donors about the capability of African states to manage development. The next two chapters both use the case of Tanzania to develop this analysis of the struggle for autonomy. Chapter 11 teaches the tools needed to study macroeconomic policy and examines the ways in which it can be managed. It looks at what happens internally when key aspects of this management are changed, sometimes at the behest of external actors. Chapter 12 then develops the idea of state autonomy and assesses the internal and external forces that have shaped Tanzania’s ability to exercise autonomy in policy making. Some of the key issues in the Tanzanian case are explored in Audio Programme 3, which was recorded in Tanzania with some of the key players in Tanzania’s aid relationship. 23
DU321 Making the International
Part 5 brings politics and economics together in the analysis of international collective action. Its first chapter, Chapter 13, defines the nature of collective action problems using a range of international examples and then shows how game theory can be used to model these problems. The analysis of several games shows that there are different kinds of collective action problems. This game theory is then used in Chapter 14 to cast light on the failure of international collective action in relation to the Kyoto Protocol on the abatement of greenhouse gas emissions and, specifically, to examine the reasons for the withdrawal of the USA from the treaty. Making the International concludes with Chapter 15, which includes some observations from us about what we think are the key themes to have emerged from the book as a whole. As part of the wrapping up for the course, Audio Programme 4 reviews the five parts and the key points of the economics and politics teaching. In addition, you will be encouraged to use the Concept Mapper to review and explore some of the conceptual links across the course. The Concept Mapper is a tool designed to enable you to navigate your own way around the course concepts. Audio Programme 5 discusses the format of the exam and offers some advice about your revision.
3 Aims and objectives Section 2 has summarized the course content and the purpose of the teaching in some detail, and it may be a bit hard to take it in all in one go. So here we list the main aims and objectives for the course. The course aims for DU321 are to provide you with:
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A knowledge and understanding of some basic elements of the conceptual apparatus of economics and politics as applied to the international arena.
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A knowledge and understanding of some common organizing ideas that the two disciplines hold in common and the connections and differences between the disciplines.
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An awareness that there is a set of shared international conceptual debates in politics and economics, and that different areas of the world bring to those concepts and theories distinct historical traditions, local perspectives and diverse interests.
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An ability to apply the concepts and theories of economics and politics to develop a concrete knowledge and understanding of international issues.
Course Guide for DU321
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An ability to search for information using the Internet and the World Wide Web.
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An ability to interpret, use and present elementary descriptive statistics.
Therefore, by the end of the course, you should be able to: 1
Demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of the disciplines of economics and politics as applied to the analysis of international issues.
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Demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of the conceptualization and explanation of international order as both anarchic and governed.
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Analyse selected issues of international policy using tools drawn from both disciplines.
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Understand and evaluate a range of different positions and perspectives that are used to make sense of the international system.
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Access, evaluate and use relevant material from outside of the course materials.
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Demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of elementary descriptive statistics.
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The Study Guide, IT Guide and study skills
The Study Guide, which accompanies DU321, is designed to help you order your study of the course materials on a week by week basis and you should use it in conjunction with the Study Calendar. We have made strenuous efforts to put nearly all our text-based teaching into the course text, Making the International, so the Study Guide is primarily to identify the key teaching in the text, to draw your attention to the mix of other materials you need to study alongside it, and to provide some guidance as to how to prepare for the course assessment. The Study Guide also includes additional notes on learning from the audio materials. This is a Level 3 course and we assume that you are already competent independent learners, but we have also provided some guidance for the exam. The Study Guide contains: n
advice on when to study what on a week by week basis
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guidance on the key teaching in the text
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the learning outcomes for each part of the course
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teaching notes for the audio programmes
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DU321 Making the International
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advice about when to use the Concept Mapper, the Interpreting Data Tutorials and the Course Website
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advice on the exam.
There is also an IT Guide, which contains information about accessing the courses electronic resources.
5 Summary of the teaching materials n
Core text: Making the International.
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Audio Programmes 6. 1: Trade and States: Anarchic Models and Questions of Governance. 2: Economic Integration, Wages and Inequality. 2a: Cooperation, Anarchy and Interdependence. 3: Aid Donors and Sovereign States: The Struggle for Policy Autonomy in Tanzania. 4: Politics, Economics and the International. 5: DU321 Revision and Exam Preparation.
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Concept Mapper.
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Interpreting Data CD-ROM.
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Course Website (a range of course resources including recommended websites for each of the parts of the course and some web activities plus
transcripts of the course audios).
Web Activity 1: Logging on and accessing websites.
Web Activity 2: Basic searching of the web for International Political
Economy.
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Study Guide.
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IT Guide.
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Course Calendar.
Course Guide for DU321
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Assessment and tuition
The assessment strategy for DU321 is based on three TMA submissions (4.5 TMA equivalents) and an end of course exam (three hours) as the examinable component. TMAs 01, 02 and 03 are all equally weighted 1.5, and the substitution of one assignment will be allowed. Guidance on how to complete the TMAs is given in the student notes in the Assignment Booklet, and guidance on how to prepare for and complete the end of course exam is given in the Study Guide. A Specimen Exam Paper (SEP) is also provided at the end of the Study Guide.
Finally ... This course was produced during a time of great change in the international system. There were global protests about aspects of the international economy – trade and developing country debt, for example – and there were the attacks on the USA of 11 September 2001 and the subsequent USA-led wars against Afghanistan and Iraq. The latter raised questions about the USA’s imperial role in the world as the sole superpower. There were significant advances in economic and technological integration alongside continuing debates and conflict over global inequalities and the exclusion of the powerless from international decision making. There were notable failures of the international community to act collectively, as in the withdrawal of the USA from the Kyoto Protocol designed to reduce global warming. There were also debates about how far ‘Western’ values make sense for the rest of the world. These are just a handful of the many, often unexpected, developments in international affairs that took place while this course was being produced. We cannot predict the future, and events are likely to develop in ways that we have not foreseen. In response to this, we have tried to make the course robust in the sense that we aim to teach concepts and frameworks of analysis that are durable, and which can be applied to a range of different issues far beyond the particular material you are about to study. Indeed, perhaps our key aim has been to produce a course that equips you with the skills and confidence to analyse new events for yourself. We would welcome any feedback from you as to how far we have succeeded. Now turn to the Study Guide to find out what to do next.
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