Discuss about the Difference Between International And Domestic Politics.
The first argument in response to understand the difference between international and domestic politics is that in case of the domestic politics there are a number of actors inside the state who are able to influence the environment of the state. However, in case of international scenario only the sovereign nation states are considered to be main actors (Stevenson 1991).
The intensity of force can be deviated from domestic to international arena. In the international situation there are of course wars and violence but the aggression and coerciveness is more matured than its nature in the national sphere. In the international relations role of power is more frequent and the political conflict and overpower is manifested by disputes and disagreements.
The notion of governance is also shifted in concept while using it in the international politics. In the domestic politics there is always a government of any kind associated with an opposition. This structure of domestic politics cannot be seen in international spectrum where there is a one or a number of leading countries instead of government.
Nationalism and imperial conflict played a fascinating part in the First World War. During that time Europe was a hub of rising empire like Austrians, Prussians, British and the French. In that context, every power was interested to impose its nationalism upon others. This kind of intense idea of nationalism was turned into a militant nature which in return caused the World War I (Strachan 2004). Imperialism and strategic alliances further intensified the situation. The Moroccan crisis and Bosnian conflict further facilitated the stage for a war. Morocco was a British colony which was gifted to the French in 1904 (Lafore 1965). Meanwhile, Germany declared her support for Moroccan independence. Furthermore, the tension in the Balkan Peninsula and Bosnian conflict heightened the possibility of a war. Austro-Hungary allied forces took the control over Serbian part in 1908 from the Turks. Serbia was cried out demanding that province (Joll 2006). Once, Austria occupied the province Russia evoked in support of Serbia and deployed force against Austria. In return, Germany aided Austria militarily. This growing tension created a hostile situation where a War became inevitable.
The idea of realism plays significant role in formulating the First World War. According to the view of realism in international politics, the primary role of the states is to increase their individual power in compare to other states. In addition to this, to maintain its omnipotence each state is highly depended upon their military supremacy. In his book Prince in 1513 famous Italian philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli had proposed the same perception and advocated that violence and use of military power is the most useful tool for a ruler and he should follow it (Fromkin 2004).
Subsequently, this idea of realism was also manifested in the course of First World War. In fact, before the coming of the War the entire political situation of Europe was so ravaged that it gave birth to the evil of nationalism. The radical nationalist feelings in terms of militancy had spread over the entire European continent that concepts like tolerance or mercy became faded. The occurrence of the First World War was also a sheer example of realism.
The definitions of Communism and Fascism are apparently different in comparison but the idea and the share of power have a close affinity. In practice, the leadership quality of both the concept remains the same. Dictatorship was the fundamental basis in Communism and Fascism. In Communism or the then Bolshevism dictatorship was germinated by the proletariat class where as in case of Fascism power is vested on an individual leader. Besides this, Communism puts believe in the state occupation in everything from individual life to property. In other words, it can be stated that state on behalf of the people is considered to be the owner of everything. In contrast to this, Fascism advocates the same idea of state ownership. It can also be argued that in practice both Bolshevism and Fascism in Europe ushered violence and atrocities across the continent which perturbs the very nature of peace and solidarity (Snyder 2010).
In response to this it can be argued that the political condition in Europe during the First World War and at the end of the war was not stable at all. In the process of restoring stability the allied powers imposed a series of unjustified conditions on Germany and Italy as a result of that intense nationalism became an important tool for retrieving their lost heritage (Bell 2007).
The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 was the root cause behind the emergence of German National Socialism (Overy 2008). After the end of the First World War the defeated nations like Germany was forced to signed the infamous treaty of Versailles. The conditions were so robust and fatal that it literally gave a death blow to any future resurrection of Germany. The German economy became demolished and the allied powers had succeeded to curb the military power to far extent. These attitudes of the rest of Europe against Germany made the Germans furious and in order to revive their past glory, a need of national sentiment became pragmatic for the German populace.
In that scenario the German Socialist Party infamously known as the Nazi Party came into prominence. It was not that there was no existence of socialism in German politics erstwhile but the German Socialist Party was incapable to come to power. The rise of Hitler as a political leader, his vision of Lebensraum, powerful speeches influenced the German psyche so extreme that people stated envisage a world dominated by the Germans in the name of Aryan supremacy (Rich 1973).
The big powers were never the members of League of Nations. Powers like USA and Russia always kept them aloof from League of Nations. Their imperialistic attitude towards the world made the situation more hostile for the League of Nations to get success (Buruma 2013).
The power gap in conducting a peace program across the worlds led to the attempts of League of Nations in vain. In fact, the League of Nations was predominantly controlled by Britain and France. Therefore, it was obvious that the League became a puppet of allied countries and perceived no power to fulfil the interest of the rests (Calvocoressi ,Wint, and Pritchard 1989).
It is argued by some scholars that there was a lack of understanding of the activity of different organs in the League. There was no clear demarcation between the role of the Council and the Assembly inside League. It caused a series of confusion while exercising their powers (Gilbert 2004).
Absence of the significance of peace among the big powers made it more critical for the League to procure the policy of solitude. It became burdensome for the League to maintain peace across the world alone. As a result of that another World War ravaged the globe within a short span of 20 years (Taylor 1996).
During the Second World War, imperialism still existed in its literary forms in Japan. At that time, Japan was considered to be the rising sun of Asia, the mightiest of all. However, the fall of Germany in May, 1945 it became easy for the allied powers to deal with Japan alone (Keylor 2008). US and Britain were more curious to get entangled with Japan. The purpose behind this attitude of the big powers was considered to be an act of imperialist aggression. A lust for territorial expansion led US to attack Japan and after the end of the Japanese surrender dropping nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki knocked the last nail into the coffin. Besides this, in the European context the shared domination of Britain and France was also faced a fatal blow by the emerging Russia and US interference. The geopolitical situation in Europe which was primarily vested into the hand between Britain and France was replaced by the newly developed relationship between USSR and USA.
After the end of the Second World War, Soviet Union enjoyed an enormous power in Eastern Europe. Warsaw Pact made it easier for USSR to bring the small territories of Eastern Europe under her canopy. In that process, countries like Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia did a pact with Russia by which they were entitled to protect the interest of Russia (Gaddis 1987). At that time, most of the Eastern European countries witnessed a rise of communist political discourse inside their territory. This was actually manifested by Soviet Union in order to get access to turn those countries into its own fold. In fact, the strategic geographical location of Russia kept her aloof from the Western Europe where Britain and France dominated the politics. After the end of the war, no such measure had been taken out to restrain the emerging threat of USSR.
Military aggression by Soviet Russia was prevalent before and during the Second World War. However, in the post-World War scenario the Soviet occupation in the Eastern part of Europe heightened a lot out of apprehensions by Britain and France. In the aftermath of the Second World War there was a huge outbreak in Hungary against Soviet occupation into the country and the Russian politburo moved to crush the revolution. Occupying Czechoslovakia in 1968 was another example of the Communist imperialism (Brown 2009). Furthermore, the Russian involvement in Afghanistan in 1970s and in Vietnam during 1960s paved the way for a new imperialist formation called as neo-Stalinism (Calvorcessi 2008).
The liberal approach of Mikhail Gorbachev in the name of Glasnost and Perestroika gave a new dimension to the attitude of Soviet Union. Perestroika was meant for beginning of a new world under hybrid communist-capitalist system like modern China and the Glasnost provided freedom to Russian citizens. These two fundamental changes had shaken the edifice of Communism in Russia (Lundestad 2010)
The global tension of Cold War was further facilitated the collapse of Soviet Union. Immense political pressure from the Capitalist countries and financial blockade by the US government did not left other alternatives to Russia (Keylor 2008).
The growing nationalist movements in Eastern Europe fostered the decline of Soviet Union as well. The year 1989 witnessed a series of movement spread out the entire Soviet regime and the central power was not so strong to combat with these emerging outbreaks (Dockrill 2005). As a result Communism in Russia had collapsed with all its belongings.
At the end of the 20th century with the fall of Berlin Wall in 1990s the geopolitical situation in Europe was also entered into a new political framework where the bipolarism had turned into unipolarism with America predominantly exercised her power (Kagan 2009). The introduction of European Union helped to integrate west and east of Europe and also ended the division of Germany. The 1990s scenario of Europe was quite promising and less war ridden that foster development and prosperity around the continent (Keylor 2008). In fact, implementing a liberal approach towards the rest of the world created a global appreciation of Europe which helped the continent to set up a better future prospect.
According to the thesis of acclaimed US scholar Samuel Huntington the conflict between Al-Qaeda and US was a clash between civilisation, a crusade more than economic and political underpinnings. However, this theory is a restricted view point with the idea of cultural conflicts. The relation between Bin- Laden and the US government is not a result of 9/11 rather it was started during the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan. Empirical evidences proved that the US intelligence CIA had a close connection with the Afghanistani mujahids during 1970 (Goh 2013). In fact, financial and logistics aids to the militants in Afghanistan was a state policy of US till 9/11 (Wang 2012). Therefore, it cannot be asserted that the fight between US and Islamic militancy was based on religious cause rather it was an act of trusts and disbeliefs which in return caused 9/11.
The military interference of US government is still remained as a state policy even after the end of the Cold War. The recent development of US military in eastern Asia can be a good example of that (Blum 2013). The military deployment in Iraq and Syria was not conducted to overthrow the military regime in those countries; rather it was an act of neo-imperialism which is also known as oil imperialism. Both the countries are enriched by its natural resources of petroleum and US wants to capture those Petroleum mines in the name of installing democracy over dictatorship (Cox and Stokes 2012). In fact, interference of CIA in rest of the world hampers the notion of sovereignty also.
In present times, US is considered to be the mightiest military force in the world. It is not only that the country has possessed most number of nuclear weapon but also America invests maximum amount of expenses in military infrastructure. The professionalism and strategic position makes the position of US military so firm that it outnumbers any of the military power of the world (Preble 2009) However, rate of success is not good enough. For example, the military involvement of US armed forces in Afghanistan was so fatal that some scholars compared it with the disastrous occupation of US in Vietnam (Zartmann 2009). In fact, in the name of peace keepers the US military fails to earn respects in different countries.
After the 9/11 incident, the entire world felt empathy for America. It became a hub of retaliation across the globe to stand beside US and fight for peace. It supposed to be US leadership to utilize this sentiment to set a moral image but instead of this the country did a mistake by intervening in Iraq. It was reported that civilian casualties had been increased indiscriminately due to US invasion and changed the global perception about US systematically (Hook 2010). In fact, the new threat of ISIS is an outcome of US military intervention in Middle East and as a result of that America creates a hostile situation in that region (Ballard, John, Lamm David, and Wood 2010).
In the last 20 years China is facing a steady growth in economic exposure. The reason behind this continuous booming is partially based on the modernisation that communism had imposed on China (Shambaugh 2013). There are a number of times in the Chinese history that the country is rendering modification and modernisation (Fenby 2008). It can be argued that Mao’s idealism was best fitted into the steady progress of China. Later on the hybrid theory of capitalism and socialism made it beneficial for the country to get prosper (Macfarquhar 2011). However, lack of government willingness and challenges like corruption and unsustainable environment withheld the progress of China and it will continue in future as well.
The cry for democracy and fundamental rights was the key points demonstrating the student movement in Tiananmen Square in 1989 (Silbey 2011). The state police and military bulldozed the outbreak with fierce repression. The democratic overtone subsequently lost its permanence in the country and as a result of that still now the citizens have less fundamental rights. It is detrimental to the cause of development in the country in a rightful way and also obstructed the natural growth of China (Shirk 2008). The preservation of Communism or socialism in China is just the policy of the party leaders who do not want to lose their powers by any means.
Disparity in income is one of the biggest challenges that China is facing nowadays. It is true that the Chinese economy is booming steadfastly but the problem lies within it. Lack of employment opportunities and static living standards make the Country fragile and poor in economic condition (Becker 2000).
Environmental issues are another threat regarding China’s sustainability. Polluted air, toxic waterways cause global warming and water shortages across the country. Lack of government initiatives further supply impetus for environmental degradation (Fairbank and Goldman 2006).
China is considered to be one of the highly corrupted countries according to the recent international corruption index. The political leaders from top to bottom are succumbed into the trend of corruption and do not want to make any solution (MacGregor 2010).
References
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