Power
Power refers to the production of intended effects within the context of a given phenomenon. For instance, when a government declares war against an invading power, it would be seeking to defend the nation (intended effect) since it has the authority to do so for the sake of the citizens (context). Hence, when one has power, he or she would have the ability to make a palpable difference to the current state of the world.
Accordingly, control is difficult to identify because its manifestation relies on relationships between people, groups, and States. Still on the example given above, the government whose territory is facing an invasion was probably dormant regarding militant action; hence, the enemy sought to take advantage of the situation. Now, once the threat makes itself known, the power of the administrative body will materialize as it unleashes all it has to thwart the threat: soldiers, weapons, and calling on allies. By that logic, power becomes identifiable because of a relationship emerges between the would-be victims and the enemy faction.
In the views of Stephen Lukes, the three dimension of authority revolve around an entity’s level of influence. The first aspect focuses on a nations’ capacity to prevail in case of an open conflict, such as a war. Whether or not a State can defend its people and interests directly highlights its authority within the borders. Such power extends to the second and third dimensions that call for a focus on a government’s control of an agenda outside the boundaries of the country and its potential to shape the view of the world. A perfect illustration of the given assertions is evident in the case of the United States’ support for consumerism and the tactics that followed sought to contain consumerism. The agenda was sustaining consumerism and as per the demands of the third dimension, the American government, and its allies influenced the entire globe.
About the sources of power, Michael Mann conveniently divides them into four channels: economic, military, politics, and ideology. Commercial sources entail the use of monetary resources to control a region. When a government has the power to control the expenditure of the country, it is exercising economic power and at the same time, the richer a country is, the more palpable its influence in the global arena. Hence, a powerful and sustainable economy affects the power of an administration before its people and the other nations. The same also applies in the case of the military as a source power. With a strong enough troop, a country can exert its influence on another nation either by coercion or as an ally. Now, at the foundations of the military power is the political channel that relies on the body that is in authority. For instance, presidential elections in the United States places either a Democrat or a Republican candidate in office, depending on who wins the elections, only one of the political Parties will be able to push for its agenda. By that logic, power becomes a concept that strictly stems from politics. About ideology, the same government would have power over its citizens when it operates within the confines of their preferences. For instance, the federal government exercises its powers as per the terms of the Constitution because that has proven most acceptable for the American public; thus, the consideration of ideologies constitutes skills for an authoritative figure.
Joseph Nye’s perceptions divide the mentioned forms of power into two categories: soft and hard power. In the case of soft power, a government uses the preferences of its people to determine the course of action when dealing with a particular problem. Thus, concepts that include cultural norms, values, and education to empower civilians and have them work towards the advantage of the authorities by cementing their relationship with the governed. After all, as mentioned before, power requires connections to materialize. Next is the hard power that calls for the use of direct and indirect force to subdue people. Direct force includes threats of military force to instill fear, and the indirect form encompasses inducements such as bribery and the freezing of bank accounts. Notably, an auxiliary hard power revolves around the economy and is perhaps the most efficient just because it targets the livelihoods of the target populace.
Global Order since the Cold War
The fall of the Berlin Wall was the landmark event that symbolized the end of the Cold War. Since the wall acted as a barrier between the pro-consumerism West Berlin and the pro-communism East Berlin, its removal paved the way for the expansion of consumerism from the West to the East regions of the city.
The significance of the end of the Cold War was in the fact that the capitalist democracy that the United States had a chance to spread, even in Communism territories. Apparently, the United States model encompassed democracy and for that reason, its expanse meant the world would have democratic peace. After all, if all nations followed in the footsteps of the Americans, they would all become subject to democracy, and as long as countries embraced the same system, there was little to no chance of conflict.
Apparently, the 1990s have been described as America’s golden age.
The mounting disorders during the 1990s revolved around State breakdowns and ethnic conflicts that were impossible to curb as citizens turned against each other. Accordingly, the rise of the Taliban group, the Rwandan Genocide, and the end of the Somali Civil War that only gave rise to the Al-Shabaab make up three perfect examples of the mounting disorder.
In Samuel Huntington’s assertions, the mounting disorders were a “third wave” of democratic engagement in which, culture was at the center of ongoing conflicts with a particular emphasis on religion. Apparently, territorial expansions were first as countries clashed over lands and colonies. The second wave entailed ideologies and had come to an end after the United States won the Cold War and contained the spread of communism.
Still, while the mounting disorders remained confined to the countries in which they emerged, they somehow manageable. Now, the situation changed as the mounting complications brought the conflicts to the United States. On September 11, 2001, the Al-Qaeda terrorist group launched terrorist attacks on American soil; thus marking the climax of the mounting disorders.
In response, the United States deployed its troops to the Middle East with the aim of curbing Islamic extremists and preventing any more terrorist attacks in the future. The phrase used to describe the Americans’ response was “Islam’s bloody borders” as it explained the need to have the American Army interfere with the affairs of the Middle Eastern countries.
Finally, “imperial overstretch” is the phrase used to describe the shift in global power since the beginning of the century.
International Organizations
The main reason the League of Nations failed stemmed from the fact that the United States refused to join. Consequently, at the commencement of the Second World War, there was nothing that the organization could do to stop Germany; after all, by then the Americans were a force to be reckoned with and any support from them in international matters was crucial.
The objectives of the United Nations are also the five cores tasks of the organization. Consequently, the first charge entails the promotion of peace and security in the world with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights being the foundation on which peacekeeping efforts stand. Subsequently, economic and social issues are also part of the United Nations concerns because the only means through which the life of every individual will have the quality it deserves is through the elimination of problems at the societal level and they mostly include the economy and social disparities. Notably, leaders of member countries have to ensure their States address any issues voiced by their citizens. Now, the same task spills and merges with the third purpose of the United Nations, which carries out Humanitarian tasks. In other words, where a counter fails to deal with its problems, it becomes the organizations’ responsibility to step; most of the times a representative officiates meetings to determine the core cause of a given problem before reaching an answer with the country leaders. Next is the question of development where the United Nations promotes the advancement of member countries to ensure stability and self-reliance from the State to societal levels. For instance, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of the United Nations allocates loans to nations seeking developmental aid. All the mentioned tasks go on to exist within three main aims of the United Nations:
The United Nations tries to maintain global peace and security via all possible means, including war where diplomacy fails. Additionally, there is a need to develop relations between countries and such connections stem from equal rights for all and self-determination in the citizens’ part without which all efforts by the United Nations become null and void. In other words, for the second objective of the organization to be effective, targeted populations have to react accordingly and provide the avenue for building bridges between diverse societies and individuals. The last goal entails solving international problems such as those that came with the third wave of democratic involvement where culture and communities pose the biggest threat to world peace.
The three most important components of the United Nations are the Security Council, which operates as a global executive, the General Assembly that has delegates from the Member States acting as the organization’s Parliament, and the Economic and Social Council whose responsibility entails supervising other organizational bodies on matters involving the States.
The Global Western State referred to the regulation of European allies as a method of containing the spread of communism by the Soviet Union. With the creation date falling in the 1940s, the State was responsible for the emergence of the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and that of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1945. The members include the countries that make up the group of seven: France, the United States, Japan, Italy, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom. All seven gave a united front against the antics of the Soviet government. For instance, in the first years of the Cold War, when the Soviet Union blockaded West Berlin, some of the mentioned nations launched operations as part of the Berlin airlift of between 1948 and 1949. It was the first minor victory for the consumerists.
