1. Global Crises Flashcards
Global Crises
A crisis?
A Crisis refers to a moment of crucial decision in the context of immense danger, in which one or more actors perceive an imminent threat to their vital interests and have very short time to react to the threat. Crises in the 21st century refer to a range of issues which cross state boundaries and threaten the security and interests of the wider global political community. These are commonly referred to as third agenda issues and because they affect a number of states at any one time, and require the joint action of the global community and international cooperation to be resolved.
Global Crises
Crisis Diplomacy?
Crisis Diplomacy refers to the negotiations between actors in the global political arena in response to a crisis, most commonly concerning conflicts and natural disasters, but also economic and health crises.
Specifically, diplomacy refers to the entire process in which states conduct their foreign relations with one another. Means for states to cooperate and by which they resolve conflicts without force.
Global Crises
International Cooperation ?
International Cooperation refers to when global actors work together to achieve common ideals and goals. It involves the interaction various nations in the pursuit of a common goal or interest, or bilateral or multilateral resolution in the case of a crisis.
Global Crises
Crises?
• War/Relations:
Crises dramatically heighten the probability of war as they suddenly transform the normal relations that exist between states and it is from this that the term crisis diplomacy evolved.
• 3rdAgendaIssues:
Third Agenda issues conceive security in wider terms than the traditional realist notion of border security and require more proactive action on behalf of the states affected to manage and resolve them.
• Globalisation:
Globalisation has exacerbated the threat of global crises, while at the same time providing the mechanisms to resolve them.
• Global Governance/International law:
In the contemporary global political arena, such precarious situations are less likely given the power and influence of the power and influence of institutions of global governance and the body of international law that now exists to manage relations between states and indeed conflicts, but this is not to say that the global political community does not face threats to its vital interests.
Effectiveness of Responses to Crises INTRO?
In evaluating the effectiveness of responses and solutions to global crises, it becomes apparent that there is a gap between the aspirations of the international community to resolve crises and their actual ability to do so.
Effectiveness of Responses to Crises
Factors Obstructing Effective Responses?
Effective responses to crises are obstructed by a range of factors, such as: Self Interest A Lack of Funding A Lack of Resources A lack of Concrete Political Action
Effectiveness of Responses to Crises
Factors Obstructing Effective Responses
i) Self Interest?
The International community is hampered by the competing interests of states that seek to protect their sovereignty and achieve their own national interests, over the shared interests of the wider international community.
Effectiveness of Responses to Crises
Factors Obstructing Effective Responses
ii) A Lack of Funding
The lack of funding received by Institutions of Global Governance, such as the U.N and its humanitarian bodies, can make responding effectively to crises difficult, especially when responses to large crises require significant sums of money to coordinate and manage, such as peacekeeping forces and humanitarian assistance/intervention.
Individual states and regional groupings may also be hamstrung for cash in times of global economic volatility (as we have seen since the GFC hit in 2008), and so humanitarian proportions of GDP get cut, including donations to major crises.
In relation to responding to inter-intra-state conflicts, this means that the UN must rely on donations and contributions from member states in order to effectively fund peacekeeping forces, military intervention or humanitarian assistance to those affected.
In relation to terrorism, the UN as well as individual states may not have the will to fund collective and united schemes combatting global terrorism, and so global terrorist movements have an ability to coordinate themselves and manage their activities.
Effectiveness of Responses to Crises
Factors Obstructing Effective Responses
iii) A Lack of Resources
The lack of resources available at the U.N to respond to crises, such as the absence of a standing army, means that it must become reliant on contributions from member-states in order to send in peacekeeping forces, or initiate military intervention.
Military intervention of course costs the main propagators significantly, so there is a disincentive for individual states to undertake this form of response.
Effectiveness of Responses to Crises
Factors Obstructing Effective Responses
iv) A lack of Concrete Political Action
Sometimes, politics gets in the way of the international community’s ability to successfully and effectively respond to crises, such as conflicts and terrorism.
In relation to the resolution of conflicts, the various alliances existing on the international stage may mean for one state that responding or becoming involved could potentially risk an escalation of the conflict or even prompt the beginning of a new conflict, as other states enter into the conflict to defend their allies against common enemies. —Additionally, the structure of the UN Security Council has seen the global political community unable to respond to crises as states with VETO power have used this ability to promote their own national interests and alliances above the global interest and the will of the global community.
In relation to terrorism, states allied to certain ideological movements may allow these radical groups to function by funding them and providing them with harboured territory.
—- Furthermore, there may be a lack of commitment by the Middle East to work in tandem with the West in cracking down on typically Islamic fundamentalist terrorist groups.
