1 Summary International Relations Class 01 ## EXAM RELEVANCE OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS(IR)(5:12 PM): - In mains, we expect almost 50 marks- two questions each of 10 and 15 marks, in General Studies paper 2. - In prelims, earlier we saw 2-3 questions, some years saw 8-10 questions too. - After 2022, we are seeing around 10 questions from IR in the prelims paper. - The questions are expected to also have a background in World Geography, but the context will be IR. - Earlier, at least one Essay question was based on International relations. - As per the last few years, essay topics are getting abstract, and we do not expect an International Relations-based essay topic for at least a couple of years. - IR is essential for Interviews, especially if the candidate has a higher preference for Indian Forest Services. - IR can also be useful for our ethics paper for certain questions and conditions. ## Important IR areas for Prelims : ## International Organisations: - Membership. - Headquarters. - At times, the venue and year of the first summit. - Important declarations ## Disputed territories: - Locations and the countries involved. - **For example-** Nagorno-Karabakh, Kherson, etc. ## Geopolitics with World Geography: - Location of regions like Maghreb, Levant, Donbas, etc. - Littoral stares of important water bodies like the Caspian Sea, Aral Sea, etc. - Locations of important mountain ranges. - Important reports published. ## The demand for the Exam: - Students must realize that demand for the exam, including IR is different from university exams, or other academic exams like NET. - We are more concerned with the analysis part, rather than factual events, primarily from the Indian point of view. - We have to be concerned with the effects of global events on India, regardless of the fact India is involved or not ( like the **Russia-Ukraine war**). ## SYLLABUS (5:30 PM): - India and its neighborhood. - Politics and policies of the developed and developing countries & their impact on India(only important events). - Bilateral/ Regional/ Multilateral groupings/agreements/treaties, etc of which India may or may not be a part and how it affects India. - International organizations - Structures and mandates. - Diaspora- NRI, Persons of Indian Origin( PIO), etc; questions can get very specific too- diaspora in South Asia, etc. ## Sources: - Class notes. - Handouts. - Vision IAS monthly current affairs magazine only as reference material and not as primary material). - Editorials. - Relevant explained section. - No book is recommended as such. ## Very important: - In no condition, we will be supposed to write more than 250 words on any topic, - We must never approach IR( or any other subject) with a research mentality, and go behind multiple sources. - Compilations of summaries of newspaper editorials are not a substitute, and students must go through newspaper editorials themselves. - Students are not supposed to make notes of all the IR editorials, and noting down only important and new points would be enough. ## Lecture Plan: - **Introductory:** - Terms and concepts of IR. - Indian Foreign Policy and Determinants - **India & its neighborhood:** - The policies followed by India. - Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other SAARC neighbors. - SAARC, BIMSTEC, etc. - **India & Indo Pacific:** - ASEAN. - India-Japan. - India -USA. - India-China. - **India & Eurasia:** - Central Asia, Russia. - India West Asia. - India- Africa. - India- Latin America. - India's nuclear doctrine, Multilateral Export Control Regimes like Wassenaar group, NSG, etc. - Some very important organizations as per current affairs- BRICS, G 20. ## Terms & Concepts of IR: - **Schools of IR:** - **I. Realism:** - Try to describe things as they are. - It is the most dominant school of IR since IR study has begun. - All other schools are regarded as footnotes/commentaries/reactions to the realistic school. - It considers "**Power "** to be the central theme of international relations. - It believes that all nations/nation-states are interested to secure their national interest. - The international domain is a domain of chaos and anarchy; this means that there is no sovereign at the international level. - National-level sovereignty means the supreme organization to take domestic decisions and engages in foreign relations, like the Central government. - In this absence of central sovereignty at the international level, there is no enforcement of the "Rule of Law". - There is hence the prevalence of **Matsyaraj** at the world level- Bigger fish consumes smaller fish. ## II. Idealism: - It is a utopian philosophy of "how things should be". - It helps in setting standards and hope. - It says that international relations are governed by cooperation on the basis of morality, rules, conventions, etc. - **For example- Non-Alignment Movement (NAM)** was not totally out of idealism but was very much driven by Indian national interests. - Idealism gives much focus on **Conventions-**unwritten rules practiced as per traditions and mutual understanding. ## III. LIBERALISM (6:00 PM): - Emerged as a response to realism., in the backdrop of World-Wars. - Liberalism does not totally deny some basic tenets of realism- chaos, national interests, etc., but is optimistic. - **League of Nations** can be considered the first global step taken under liberalism. - It held that larger **economic interdependence** diminishes the probability of going to war, regardless of the status of morality in the nations involved. - It believes that economic cooperation will reduce the propensity to go to war. **for example-**USA and China. - It believes that nation-states are rational and they will seek to reduce chaos at the international level. - It hopes to replicate the chaos-free model at the national level at the international level through the creation of **international bodies.** - It hopes that **people-to-people ties** will check misunderstandings and reduce the chances of war. ## Various means to achieve peace: - **Realist Suggestion: Balance of power:** - By not allowing any country to gain the preponderance of power. - It plays out mainly at a regional level. - It will need 3-5 similar strong powers. - They will try to maintain a balance of power among themselves. - And if any one country wants to accumulate more power, the others if need be will be willing. - Historically, Europe has seen a balance of power. - Presently, we are seeing a balance of power in West Asia- Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. ## Liberalist Perspectives: - **(1)Strengthening of International Organizations** ## (2) Diplomacy: - **Track I-**Government to government/State to State: - When official position holders meet their counterparts from other nations- Heads of state, bilateral meets, Ambassadors, etc. - **Track II-** Non-Government to non-government - It involves non-government officials like retired bureaucrats, heads of think tanks, and academicians. - **For example-** theNeemrana dialogue( India and Pakistan) - **Track III-** People-to-people interactions. - **For example-**Diaspora, Hollywood, Yoga, etc. - **Track 1.5:** - Government and non-government officials interact with their counterparts from other countries. - **For example-** Raisina's dialogue- is organized by the think thank **Observers Research Foundation( ORF)**in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs. - The participants include ministers, ex-ministers, bureaucrats, retired bureaucrats, policy experts, etc. - It is modeled on the lines of the **Shangrilla Dialogue(**an example of Track 1 diplomacy- Defence ministers and military heads of Asia Pacific). ## Public Diplomacy : - It is an idea where the official leadership of a country engages with the citizens of another country. - The purpose is to influence public opinion so that the people of the other country do not oppose their government's policies for the other country. - It is a new idea in the age of globalization due to the proliferation of democracy. - The government of India has established the **Division of Public Diplomacy,**under the Ministry of external affairs. - **For example-**the **Namaste Trump** program and the Indian embassy in the USA organize cultural programs in the USA for spreading awareness about Indian culture. ## Multi-Track diplomacy: - Multiple Tracks of diplomacy exist simultaneously. ## Back-Channel Diplomacy: - It is a type of diplomacy that happens away from the media glare. - It can be both Track I and Track II in nature. - This is required when leaders wish to reduce/avoid public pressure. ## Power: - It simply means the ability to influence the decisions of others, even against their wish. - Politics is essentially a contest for power. - The realist school(the most dominant) held that power is the central concern of all international politics. ## Types of power: - **I. Hard power:** - It is the power of coercion. - It is tangible in nature. - It comprises both military and economic power. ## II. Soft Power: - It means the power of attraction and is intangible in nature. - The concept was given by American thinker **Joseph Nye.** - Even before the coining of the term, soft power has been in use as long as countries have engaged with each other. - Important sources of soft power include- Culture, sports, mythology, and philosophies like Vedanta, Yoga, and alternative medicines( Ayurveda, Unani -Greece, acupuncture- China, etc). ## SMART POWER (6:30 PM): - The concept was again by the American thinker **Joseph Nye**. - He realized that neither hard nor soft power is sufficient on its own, and we need a proper mix of both under smart power. ## Relevance of Soft power: - The lack of Soft power is regarded as a reason behind the **disintegration of the USSR.** - No scholar had predicted such a major event. - The USA, despite being an expansionist and colonizer was able to accumulate substantial soft power. - The **White Man's Burden**and the American image of being a "land of opportunities" boosted American soft power. - We have seen a large economic and military rise in **China,** but it is yet to accumulate credible soft power. - **Shashi Tharoor-** India would have been a thumping superpower if power would have been calculated only as soft power. - Indian hard power when it spearheaded the **Non-Alignment Movement(NAM)** was negligible. - It was only the Indian soft power that helped India in the creation of a third front amidst the Cold War. - This third front was able to get the support of more nations than either of the two major power centers of the Cold War. ## WORLD ORDER (6:55 PM): - It refers to the overview of the global distribution of power. - It uses various models as: - **Unipolar order:**Only one superpower- USA post disintegration of USSR during the 1990s. - After the American actions post-9/11 bombing, the unipolar world order, along with USA's hegemony began to decline. - **Bipolar order:**Two superpowers in the world. - During the **Cold War,** countries were dived into two camps- one led by the USA( Capitalist) and the other led by the erstwhile USSR (communist). - **Multi-polar order:** - Multiple centers of power in the world, normally more than three powers. - Between the two world wars. ## Superpower: - A superpower is an all-powerful country whose power cannot be cumulatively balanced even by all other countries coming together. - A superpower can be balanced by another superpower only. - In the situation of unipolarity, the only option is to **bandwagon** with the superpower. - Bandwagon is a technical term in international politics where weaker powers just align with the stronger power to be safe/benefitted ## Nation v/s Nation state v/s State Nationv/s Civilisation State: - **Nation:** - A nation is more of an emotional concept. - The nation comprises a group of people sharing ethnolinguistic similarities and having a sense of belongingness - Group of people living together in a common area with a sense of belonging. ## Nation-State: - Nation-State is a legal concept of people with common cultural traits( religion, language, etc) under an organized state( sovereignty). - Its four constituents are- - Population Territory, Government, Sovereignty. - It is a group of people with commonality living in a territory that enjoys sovereignty. - India is more accurately understood as a nation-state. ## State- Nation: - Simply speaking, it can be considered as the constituents of a national state- like Gujarat, Maharashtra, etc. ## Civilization state: - A country that does not merely reflect a historic territory or an ethnolinguistic group, rather it represents a unique civilization. - **For example-** India, China, etc. - There is a school of thought that believes that India and China can peacefully coexist today, just as they did for thousands of years. ## Mercantilist state: - A state that practices mercantilism- Active government interference in international trade so as to secure a favorable balance of trade. - **For example-** All colonial states, present-day China. ## Actors in international politics: - Nation-states. - Non-state actors- MNCs, terrorist groups, NGOs, Think tanks, International organizations( EU, UNO, IMF, WTO, UNFCCC, etc). ## Foreign policy: - Foreign policy is a strategy or a planned course of Action aimed at achieving National Interest in International politics. - The Foreign policy of a country is determined by a set of factors referred to as **determinants of Foreign policy** ## The factors are : - Geography - Economy - Politics/Political Party Format. - History - Culture - Social Demography - World order ## GEOGRAPHY AS A DETERMINANT IN FOREIGN POLICY (7:30 PM): - **Napoleon**considered geography as a prime determinant of a country's foreign policy. - Geopolitics as a school studies the importance of geography in determining power politics among nation-states. - Prominent geopolitical scholar **Alfred Mahan**emphasized that those who control the Indian Ocean will rule the world. - India's strategic location at the center of the Asian arc extending from Aden to Tokyo makes India a gateway to Southeast Asia, Central, and West Asia. - India's strategic location at the head of the Indian Ocean, along with other factors makes India the net security provider in the Indian Ocean region. - ![](https://books.openedition.org/cei/docannexe/image/469/img-3.jpg) - It was because of India's such location that both the USA and the USSR initially competed to bring India within their sphere of influence during the Cold War. - However, India, which was ideologically closer to the liberal world, but in geographical proximity to the communist sphere, apart from other reasons adopted the policy of **Non-Alignment.** - Evenin the context of the Russia-Ukrainian war, India's neutral stand is because the war is an issue of European concern. - India's national interest lies in the containment of China's rise, therefore to achieve the said national interest or the mentioned national interest both the West and Russia are important. - West is important for the maritime balancing of China while  Russia is critical to its continental balancing - India's size in terms of its area and population makes it an important contender for UNSC permanent membership. - India's Act East policy and look west policy are geographically determined and also expressed in geographical terms. ## Culture as a determinant of Indian foreign policy: - There are a few civilizational states, and India is one of them. - India's worldview cannot be separated from the fact. - India's first prime minister who had been the primary architect of Indian foreign policy had commented that he is not developing any new foreign policy for India. - Rather he is merely "**rediscovering"** it from the past. - India's commitment to international peace is evident in **Article 51** of the Indian constitution. - India is a unique country to have such commitments embodied in the constitution itself. - It is borne out of the Indian civilizational values of **Vasushaiv Kutumbakam, Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinaha, etc.** - Instead of hard power, India preferred soft power for increasing its international influence. - Indian focus on non-violent soft power is rooted in Buddhist values. - **For example-** India hosts the Buddhist council, India builds Ramayana & Buddhist circuits, etc. - Interest in Indian mythology, Indian philosophy, alternative schools of medicine, Yoga, Bollywood, etc. are other sources of Indian soft power. - Despite the dominance of passive tradition in Indian foreign policy formulation traditionally, there exists a strong realist tradition. - **Kautilya**gave the **Mandal Siddhant-** immediate neighbor is a natural enemy and neighbor's neighbor is a natural friend due to sharing a common enemy. - This is most evidently seen in the relations between India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. - The present dominant political party in India lays greater emphasis on the realist tradition. - Civilizational states like India are not merely satisfied to pursue a foreign policy to achieve national interest alone. - Rather they seek to shape the world order according to their cultural values. - For instance, India carved out the third pole(NAM)  in international politics based on sovereign equality, and domestic non-interference. - This was done when the world was divided into two military camps led by the USA and USSR. ## The topics for the next class are determinants of International Relations, India-Pakistan relations, etc.