A World of Whosy making? Study Guide 2

DU301 A World of Whose Making?

Politics, Economics, Technology and Culture in International Studies

Study Guide 2

Prepared for the course team by Bob Kelly, William Brown and Eileen Potterton

(This Title Page is only for the e-text version of DU301 Study Guide 2 for on-screen, audible e-readability)

This publication forms part of an Open University course DU301 A World of Whose Making? Politics, Economics, Technology and Culture in International Studies. Details of this 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 retransmit, 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 81104 7 3.1

Contents 1

Introduction

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2

Week by week guide to the course

6

Part 1: States and the states-system

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Week 17

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Week 18

9

Week 19

13

Week 20

14

Week 21

14

Part 2: Culture, rights and justice

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Week 22

15

Week 23

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Week 24

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Week 25

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Part 3: Technology, inequality and the network society

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Week 26

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Week 27

32

Week 28

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Week 29

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Part 4: Models of international order

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Week 30

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Week 31

35

3

41

The Course Essay

Week 32

41

Preparing for the Course Essay

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Study Guide 2

1

Introduction

Welcome to the Second Half of DU301, which moves the focus from the analysis of international processes of economic and political interaction to general questions and issues of international order. We shall be looking at questions of the origins and character of the states-system; issues of culture, rights and justice at the international level; aspects of technology and international inequality, as well as the role of social networks; and at general models of international order and its transformation. This Study Guide aims to: n

introduce you to the main course materials

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help you to plan and organize your work on the various components of the course

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enable you to monitor your progress in meeting the key learning objectives for each part of the course

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help you to prepare for the Course Essay.

As with Study Guide 1, it is organized on a week-by-week basis and should be used in conjunction with your Course Calendar. At the beginning of each week’s section you will find a list of the various study components for the week and an indication of how to allocate your study time. Please note that the timings provided are for guidance only and are not exact. Again, for the most part this Study Guide will not introduce any new material or additional study activities. All the study activities are contained in the main text – Ordering the International: History, Change and Transformation. Instead it provides advice on when you should study specific chapters and identifies the key points to focus on. At the beginning of each part of the course, we shall indicate the key elements from the First Half of the course that you may need to draw on. At the end of each part, we shall also list the key learning outcomes for that part, to act as a checklist for you as to what you should have gained from it. There are additional notes for the audio visual components of the course to help you maximize the benefits you can derive from them, and we indicate when you should access the Course Website. Directions for accessing this are contained in Study Guide 1. A particularly important part of the course is the Concept Mapper on the CD-ROM. You have already seen how to use this tool (see Study Guide 1), so in this half of the course we suggest that you use it as and when you think it will be useful. It may be of particular value when you come to produce your Course Essay.

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DU301 A World of Whose Making?

As you approach your study of Ordering the International, you will find it useful to look at the Course Essay guidance and the Course Essay questions and begin to collect relevant information to help you tackle it. One useful technique is to build up a file of potentially relevant information from your web searches, TMA preparation, newspaper reading and so on, perhaps noting page numbers or sections of audio material from the course content itself. By doing this as you progress through the course you will reduce the last-minute burden of work.

2 Week by week guide to the course Part 1: States and the states-system In this part of the course you will be drawing on a number of concepts and issues that were raised in Making the International. These include competing views on the nature of the international system that are raised in Audio Programme 1 and then developed in more detail in Chapter 5. Particularly significant is the outline of the realist model put forward by Kenneth Waltz. Questions about the nature of state preferences and the shaping of the national interest were introduced in Chapter 6; sovereignty was introduced in Chapter 5 and further discussed in Chapters 10 and 12; and Chapter 9 discussed the notion of interdependence and its relation to questions of power. The dilemmas of collective action among states were discussed in Chapters 13 and 14. It will also be helpful to recall the economic arguments about the gains from specialization and trade on markets (Chapter 3) and the role of capital accumulation and technological change in promoting growth (Chapter 7).

Week 17 In this week you will study: n

Chapter 1: ‘The subject and scope of International Studies’ (4 hours)

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Chapter 2: ‘The origins and evolution of the European states-system’ (8 hours)

n

Audio Programme 5: Shaping International Order (2 hours)

Chapter 1: ‘The subject and scope of International Studies’ This chapter provides an introduction to the book Ordering the International: History, Change and Transformation. As you will see, Ordering the International shifts our focus from processes in the international system to international order as a whole. The chapter introduces the three framing questions for the Second Half of the course and sketches how they will be tackled in the book. 6

Study Guide 2

It offers a definition of the subject matter of International Studies as well as a framework which can be used to identify sectors and elements of international systems and their relation to one another. The shift of emphasis may seem quite new to you but the questions posed here, and the framework that is introduced, will begin to mean more to you as you study the following chapters. Indeed, you might find it rewarding to refer back to this chapter as you go along, and especially as you begin to study Part 4.

Chapter 2: ‘The origins and evolution of the European states-system’ Chapter 2 raises important questions about the origins of the modern state and the states-system as a basis for assessing the contemporary international system and patterns of international relations. It takes a critical stance in relation to the predominant realist analysis, which focuses on the distribution of power between states, arguing instead that different ways of organizing the social property relations in society provide the clues to explaining different patterns of geopolitical competition and co-operation. The author develops an innovative Marxist approach that stresses the importance of forms of property and class relations in explaining political change, focusing on historical economic patterns that are generally ignored by realist writers. Try to note the logic of Teschke’s argument without getting too immersed in the historical and geographical details – these are necessary for him to produce his critique of realism but are not essential details for you to absorb. Do ensure that you understand the key features of feudalism, absolutism and capitalism as explained in the chapter, and Teschke’s view of the way the transition from one set of social property relations to another has affected the development of the state and the patterns of geopolitics.

Audio Programme 5: Shaping International Order (Please note that transcripts of all the course audios are available from the Course Website, Course Resources section.) The key aim of this discussion programme is to introduce the Second Half of DU301 and, in particular, some of the key themes of Ordering the International. It covers the core argument of Chapter 1 of Ordering the International and then considers how each of Parts 1, 2 and 3 of the book will take forward your study of ‘the international’. Two hours of study time have been allocated to listening to the programme and the activities associated with it.

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DU301 A World of Whose Making?

The participants The discussion is chaired by William Brown (co-chair of DU301), with Simon Bromley (chair of DU301) and Jef Huysmans (a member of the course team). Before listening to the programme To get the most out of this programme, first read Chapter 1 of Ordering the International and the short introductions to Parts 1, 2 and 3. Then make a note of the main ideas of Chapter 1 and the key themes highlighted in the short introductions. Detail is not important at this stage, just try to get the main points and themes down in note form. While listening to the programme Listen to the programme twice, first all the way through, not taking any notes, just to get an overall feel for the contents. On the second listening, compare the discussion with your notes and stop/start the programme as necessary to amend your notes. After listening to the programme Your notes and the programme discussion are unlikely to coincide precisely. Don’t worry about this. The programme does not aim to be comprehensive but rather to highlight some key issues. Some things to look out for include: n

The discussion of the nature of geopolitics and the object of study in International Studies – what Chapter 1 calls the ‘problematic of the international’.

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The framework for analysing international systems based on different sectors of the international (the political, the socio-cultural and the economic and technological).

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The elements of an international system.

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The main themes of each of Parts 1, 2 and 3.

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Some of the connections made between the various parts.

You will undoubtedly discover other issues for yourself as you study this material later in the course.

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Study Guide 2

Week 18 In this week you will study: n

Chapter 3: ‘Universalism and difference in international society’ (8 hours)

n

Web Activity 3 (2 hours)

n

Video Programme: War and the Media: Television News (3 hours)

Chapter 3: ‘Universalism and difference in international society’ This chapter begins with the events of 11 September 2001 in the USA and world reactions to them to raise questions about the possible existence of an international community based on shared values and institutions. It also examines the extent to which values originating in Europe are capable of being globally accepted. It discusses a range of questions that bear on two contrasting stories about the legitimating ideas of the modern international system: a liberal theory of an increasingly cosmopolitan world and an ideology of Western values based on inequalities of power. In this chapter you should focus on the questions raised in Section 1.1 by Simon Bromley and follow them through the discussion in the remainder of the chapter. Note in particular the ideas of the English School, the significance of the differences between regulative and constitutive rules, the discussion of the nature and origins of international law, and the impact of European expansion on the wider world.

Web Activity 3 This activity introduces you to the online academic journals held by the Open University Library and shows you how to search for journal articles. Go to the Course Website. Click on the ‘Web Activities’ icon, then click on Web Activity 3 and follow the on-screen instructions.

DVD Programme: War and the Media: Television News Please note that, because of its subject matter, this programme contains scenes and images that some viewers may find disturbing. Many people around the world gain their knowledge of international events and opinions remotely. And television news is among the most important media through which we ‘experience’ international events. However, the way in which events – particularly dramatic, violent and (fortunately for most of us) distant conflicts – are reported can fundamentally shape our perceptions of those events. This programme explores the ways in which Western TV news corporations cover stories about war. In it we compare two 9

DU301 A World of Whose Making?

wars – the 1991 Gulf War, and the civil conflict in the west African state of Sierra Leone which lasted for much of the 1990s. In particular, we compare the different ways in which these conflicts were reported to Western audiences. Wars are fought for different reasons, across different scales, and in different ways. As a form of politics, wars require justifying to those directly involved as well as to those states and groups that have only an indirect interest or who may at some future time become involved. The way any particular war is portrayed can therefore have direct political effects. The protagonists in a conflict may wish to have it (and the deeper causes it represents) portrayed as legitimate, just and worthy of support. However, important agents in constructing this portrayal of a conflict are the increasingly globalized media corporations. The relationship between the states or groups in conflict, the corporations and their representations of wars is complex and involves a number of processes. First, TV companies desperate to ‘sell’ good stories rely on the information released by states and can become, inadvertently or deliberately, vehicles for partisan accounts or even outright propaganda. Second, journalists and editors deploy certain conventions of language and image that support particular interpretations and may skew the issue in the viewers’ minds. Third, because of the dangers of war and the general lack of deep, local knowledge on the part of foreign journalists, the reports may be superficial and give no real sense of the reasons behind the wars. These issues were uppermost in our minds as we made this programme on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Then, the causes of that war, the way it was to be fought and the likely consequences of it were central to the political debates that raged across the international stage. But what we knew of the war once it had started was heavily shaped by what news corporations showed us. By looking back at two earlier conflicts, we hope that we can draw out some important issues about how the TV news media shapes our understanding of international order and disorder. Selection of footage We wanted these two wars to emphasize the very different ways that conflict was reported and the different types of interventions that occurred. As the programme demonstrates, the level of coverage is huge if wars are seen to be strategically important for the West and involve ‘our’ troops, as in the Gulf War of 1991. By contrast the Sierra Leone war was not seen as particularly important, which meant it was much harder to find news footage of it or reporters who had been there.

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Study Guide 2

Once we had decided on which wars to cover we selected the interviewees for various reasons. First, we wanted people who had been to the countries concerned during the conflicts and who could tell us about how they felt the reporting was conducted. Second, we wanted the decision makers in the major UK newsrooms to tell us how they determined what was newsworthy and how they organized their news teams. Finally, we wanted to hear from independent analysts, for whom media watching is a profession. The footage was selected in a number of ways. As our story is as much about what is not shown as it is about what is shown, we had to be careful about finding footage and images. Given that this is a BBC production we had the best access to the BBC archive, which admittedly presents one view of the conflicts. However, we wanted to show what we did not see on mainstream TV, so we also obtained material from documentaries and some stills photographs. The participants The principal participants you will see are:

n

Professor Greg Philo of the Glasgow Media Group, University of

Glasgow.

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Dr Sarah Oates of the Glasgow Media Group, University of Glasgow.

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Adrian Wells, Sky News.

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Sorious Samura, independent documentary Cry Freetown.

filmmaker

and

director

of

the

A number of other journalists are interviewed. The producer of the programme was Kirsten Adkins and the academic consultant from the course team was Dr Giles Mohan of The Open University. Before watching the programme War has been described by Clausewitz as ‘nothing but a continuation of politics with the admixture of other means’ and it provides a clear way of viewing the dynamics of the international system. The 1991 Gulf War apparently represented an orderly approach to resolving political tensions, with a period of negotiation giving rise to a UN Resolution. However, the war in Sierra Leone, as it was reported, lacked these features. In fact, it was presented as the antithesis of order and liberal values, being little more than a series of skirmishes over control of diamond fields. So these two wars offered very contrasting portrayals of Clausewitz’ axiom. While we could discuss the complex histories of both conflicts and the reasons behind the different interventions by various armies in this 11

DU301 A World of Whose Making?

programme, we want to focus on something more specific. How do we, the ‘Western’ audience, arrive at such contrasting interpretations of war – and what role does the global media play in shaping these images? We are not out to condemn the media, but to look at how their agendas reflect political concerns and what effect this has on public opinion. This is to some extent a circular process insofar as the media do not operate in a void and project or ‘sell’ the stories that the audience, or market, wants to hear. Hence there are subtle and complex processes linking the states involved, the global media corporations, the journalists and the audiences. Before you watch the programme make a note of what you know about the Gulf War in 1991 and the civil war in Sierra Leone in the late 1990s. n

Who were the protagonists?

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What were the reasons for fighting?

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What methods of warfare were used?

Then make a note of how you know what you know. It may be that you know little about one conflict and more about the other, or a lot or a little about both. And your knowledge may have come from various sources. While watching the programme First, a warning. Wars are violent affairs, whether you use ‘smart bombs’ or machetes. Sometimes legitimizing military intervention may mean that only certain ‘truths’ make it onto our TV screens, so as to make the war appear clean and clinical. To validate this point means showing you those ‘truths’ that did not make it onto our screens and this can be quite disturbing. We appreciate that it may be shocking but please persevere and think critically about all the images you see. Now watch the programme all the way through to get a sense of the overall subject matter and issues raised. Then watch it a second time, and this time stop the disk to:

12

1

Add to and amend your notes on each of the conflicts.

2

Note how the reporting of each of the conflicts was explained by those involved. What did reporters claim were the reasons each was covered in the way that it was?

Study Guide 2

After watching the programme 1

Look at your notes of the conflicts and think about the portrayals in the news media. In what ways did the news media influence your image of each of the conflicts?

2

We want you to view critically the news coverage you see. However, you should also view this programme critically as well. In particular, the term ‘we’ is used a great deal – in both the programme narration, the interviews and, indeed, in these notes. Think about who ‘we’ are in this case. Do you belong to that ‘we’? How might your viewpoint change if you watched from a different standpoint than the one assumed by the programme, by many of its participants and by the principal voice in these notes?

3

In Chapters 4 and 5 of Ordering the International, which you now go on to study, the idea of a US-led ‘liberal international order’ is discussed. Claims that such an order exists encompass, among other things, the idea that relations among states can be peaceful, co-operative and governed by rules. While studying those chapters, think back to this programme and consider in what ways your view of such claims are influenced by what you know of international conflicts as portrayed in the news media.

Week 19 In this week you will study: n

Chapter 4: ‘A liberal international order?’ (8 hours)

n

Chapter 5: ‘American power and the future of international order’ (6 hours)

Chapter 4: ‘A liberal international order?’ This chapter critically explores one powerful thesis about the character and transformation of contemporary international order, discussing both the sources and nature of the liberal order. It begins by introducing a number of statements reflecting the liberal view of the world and its optimistic vision of the possibility of a ‘free’ world in which individuals and countries can live side by side and prosper in harmony. It then identifies the historical background of liberalism, examines the relationship between US international policies and liberalism, and draws out some key distinctions between this approach and a realist analysis. It concludes by examining the possibility of a future liberal international order in the aftermath of the decline of the Soviet Union.

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DU301 A World of Whose Making?

Chapter 5: ‘American power and the future of international order’ This chapter uses the example of the international role of the United States in an era of uncertainty following the US-led war against Iraq (2003) to examine critically the universal pretensions of the liberal world order. It discusses some of the ways in which the role of the USA may be interpreted in terms of influencing the development of the international system, particularly in the light of US views about its role. The chapter points to the significance of the US model for other areas of the world, raising questions about whether and in what sense the USA can be regarded as an imperial power. It identifies possible challenges to the liberal capitalist order, and concludes with some thoughts about what strategies the USA might adopt to maintain it.

Week 20 Consolidation week The provision of a consolidation week is designed to allow you to take a breather from the steady introduction of new material. If you have fallen behind with your course work, here is an opportunity to catch up. It is important, however, to take some time to take stock of the material you have already studied. Think back over this material and, without looking at or listening to it again, jot down the key issues that have been raised, points of contention and so on. This will help you to maintain an overview of the material and it should be valuable for consolidating your understanding in preparation for the Course Essay.

Learning outcomes for Part 1 At the end of Part 1 you should be able to demonstrate a knowledge and

understanding of:

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The idea of the problematic of the international as the object of study for

International Studies.

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The importance of a historical perspective for studying the contemporary international system.

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The development of the modern states-system.

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A Marxist view of the historical specificity of the modern states-system.

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The idea of an international society based on common rules and institutions and the main criticisms of this concept.

Study Guide 2 n

Interpretations of a liberal international order and the role of the USA within it.

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The expansion of the boundaries of, and the challenges to, the liberal capitalist order.

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The complex nature and role of US power in the contemporary international system.

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The issues raised by the portrayal of contemporary warfare on TV news.

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The skills needed to access academic journal articles online.

Week 21 n

TMA 04. See the Assignment Booklet for details of TMA 04.

Part 2: Culture, rights and justice In Part 2 you will again be drawing on a number of concepts and issues that are raised in Making the International. Issues of ‘nation’ and ‘nationalism’ and their relationship to the ‘state’ and ‘national interest’ figure in several places, particularly Chapter 6 which also discusses the role of identity in the formation of the national interest. The realist analysis of the international system (Chapter 5) and ideas of interdependence (Chapter 9) are also reference points. The relationship of internationally codified universal human rights to the claims of sovereign states is discussed, and sovereignty was introduced in Chapter 5. Underlying many of the questions raised in Making the International are debates about growing economic interdependence through trade and investment as well as forms of international governance, that is, aspects of globalization. The cultural aspects of globalization are explicitly addressed in this part of the course.

Week 22 In this week you will study: n

Chapter 6: ‘Culture, identity and international relations’ (8 hours)

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Audio Programme 6: Culture, Rights and Justice: An Introduction (2 hours)

n

Web Activity 4 (2 hours)

Chapter 6: ‘Culture, identity and international relations’ This chapter discusses the different meanings of ‘culture’ and their significance in international relations. It shows how culture helps to create a 15

DU301 A World of Whose Making?

sense of ‘collective identity’ that helps communities make sense of the world they inhabit. States then claim legitimacy on the basis that they are the representatives and guardians of the culture(s) located within their boundaries. The concepts of ‘nation’ and ‘nationalism’ are then interrogated and their impact on international order and conflict examined. The chapter then raises questions about the interaction of potentially competing cultures, and introduces constructivist theories about the significance of ideas and identities in shaping the international system. It traces the relationship between culture and the international system since the seventeenth century, arguing that realist and liberal analyses are insufficiently attentive to the role that culture has in influencing political leaders.

Audio Programme 6: Culture, Rights and Justice: An Introduction (Please note that transcripts of all the course audios are available from the Course Website, Course Resources section.) This is a round-table discussion between the authors of the four chapters in Part 2 of Ordering the International about culture, rights and justice, the politics of Islam, and the future direction of the relation between rights and culture in international politics. Each of the four participants explains the principal issues they were trying to convey in their chapter and answers questions posed by the other authors. The discussion was a challenging exercise for the participants. It called on them to emphasize their main points and to examine the connections between the components of Part 2 of Ordering the International. The discussion provides an introduction to the main concerns, namely the relevance of the idea of ‘culture’ to discussions about international politics, the growing importance of the ideas of ‘rights’ and ‘justice’ in discussions about international relations, as well as humanitarian and military interventions. It also helps to show how the web activity (on culture and rights, comparing different countries), the video programme (on gendered clashes between cultural values and the principle of rights) and the second audio programme (on international justice) relate to this part of the course. The discussion is also an opportunity for the authors to make some links between the chapters. We hope that the programme will provide a way in to the material for you. Two hours of study time have been allocated to listening to this programme and doing the activities associated with it. The programme lasts about 30 minutes.

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Study Guide 2

The participants The participants are Raia Prokhovnik, Jef Huysmans and Robert Garson, who are all members of the DU301 course team, and Professor Sami Zubaida from Birkbeck College, University of London. Before listening to the programme The programme provides an overview of the issues that are raised in the chapters. You might find it helpful to tackle the materials on culture first. This will enable you to understand the meaning of culture in the context of International Studies before coming to the material on rights and justice. Thus you should read the introduction to Part 2, on the Australian national flag, and Chapter 6 first. Then play the programme through in its entirety and try to get a rough idea of how culture is linked to concepts of rights and justice. Do not try and grapple with the nuances of the points being made. These will emerge later. At this stage you simply need to get a flavour of the overall argument about the importance of these ideas, and how they link with each other and are at times in conflict. It can often help to relate an argument to your personal experience. So think of an aspect of your own culture that you believe is fundamental to your political identity or way of life – perhaps your national flag, dress, food, sense of history or membership of a political party. It should be so important that you would risk some kind of conflict (not necessarily violent!) to protect it. Now write down who or what groups might contest it and the grounds on which they would take issue with you. While listening to the programme The discussion consists of individual reflections on some key questions. After an initial introduction by Robert Garson, Jef Huysmans briefly outlines the argument of this part of Ordering the International and highlights what is distinctive about it. Then Robert Garson summarizes his argument about why culture is important in international politics. Raia Prokhovnik sets out some of the basic points to be made about the ideas of ‘rights’ and ‘justice’. She then talks about the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the key document for the discussion of rights in the international context. Sami Zubaida then explains how politics in the Islamic Middle East illuminate the interaction of culture and rights in international politics, and Jef Huysmans considers whether we are moving towards a global culture based on rights.

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DU301 A World of Whose Making?

The discussion then moves on to questions for the participants. Robert Garson explores the limits to the impact and role of culture in international politics. Raia Prokhovnik outlines the positive and negative impacts of the UN Declaration, and reflects upon whether these rights are universal, as seen in the contrasting ‘communitarian’ and ‘cosmopolitan’ positions. Next, Sami Zubaida responds to questions about Islam as a political ideology. Jef Huysmans discusses whether the Western-derived notion of rights, as used in international politics, should be seen as a form of imperialism, and Sami Zubaida examines whether Islam has less appeal outside the Islamic world than the Western idea of rights has. Listen to each of the presenters, stopping the programme at the end of the description of each chapter and each author’s responses to the questions posed. Each time, make a short list of two or three of the main points made. These points are likely to include simple definitions of what we mean by culture, rights and justice in the international context. We also suggest you summarize in a couple of lines why each speaker thinks that these features are important to international life and how they actually operate. After listening to the programme The programme should prepare you for the rest of Part 2 of Ordering the International. Make time to listen to the programme again at the end of this part and use it as a consolidation exercise, reminding yourself of the main points the authors made.

Web Activity 4 This activity encourages you to look at different websites to explore issues raised in this part of the course. Go to the Course Website. Click on the ‘Web Activities’ icon, then click on Web Activity 4 and follow the on-screen instructions.

Week 23 In this week you will study:

18

n

Chapter 7: ‘Rights and justice in international relations’ (8 hours)

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Audio Programme 7: International Justice and the International Criminal Court (2 hours)

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DVD Programme: Gender, Rights and Culture: Contesting Women’s Rights (3 hours)

Study Guide 2

Chapter 7: ‘Rights and justice in international relations’ This chapter analyses the growth of a rights discourse in the international system in the twentieth century and beyond. It discusses the notion of universal human rights and the ongoing evolution of rights and justice claims. It points to key debates about modern individual rights. How are rights grounded? Do legal, civil and political rights need to be underpinned by social and economic rights to be effective? Can groups rather than individuals have rights? How far can or should claims to rights go? A key question raised by the chapter is: Do human rights provide a justification for international intervention to override national sovereignty? It also indicates significant consequences should such an argument be accepted. It concludes by reviewing a range of different interpretations of the internationally recognized notions of rights and justice.

Audio Programme 7: International Justice and the International Criminal Court (Please note that transcripts of all the course audios are available from the Course Website, Course Resources section.) This is a documentary on the International Criminal Court and International Justice. The two presenters introduce and discuss issues related to the institutionalization of international retributive justice in the international system. They use debates about the creation of the International Criminal Court to introduce different views on international retributive justice. Their presentation and discussion of the main points are illustrated and introduced by means of comments and questions from political participants, commentators and journalists on the International Criminal Court. The documentary provides a case study of one of the more far-reaching attempts to pursue the international institutionalization of justice and rights. As such it raises a host of issues that relate to other areas of the course. One which is focused on in the programme is the confrontation between communitarian and cosmopolitan approaches to international justice. This debate is discussed in Chapter 7 ‘Rights and justice in international relations’. It also raises important issues about the institutionalization of a global rights culture, which is the subject of Chapter 9 ‘Culture, rights and justice in a globalizing world.’ Finally, it raises issues of universalism and difference in the international system, which were discussed in Chapter 3. The documentary is therefore an opportunity to make links between these two chapters and between Parts 1 and 2 of Ordering the International. Two hours of study time have been allocated to listening to this audio and the activities associated with it. The audio itself lasts about 40 minutes.

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DU301 A World of Whose Making?

List of participants The two presenters are Jef Huysmans and Raia Prokhovnik. Both are members of the DU301 Course Team. In the audio you will also hear prominent political figures, journalists, activists and commentators. Their names and positions are usually introduced before you hear them speaking. What to do before you listen The audio develops a specific issue that is introduced in Chapter 7: the institutionalization of international retributive justice. It also illustrates differences between communitarian and cosmopolitan approaches to international rights and justice. These two approaches are explained in Chapter 7. The audio documentary seeks to further clarify these two approaches by showing, through a case study of the ICC, how they inform conflicting views on international justice and rights. Therefore, before you listen to the audio, make sure you have read Chapter 7. This will enable you to better understand both the question of international retributive justice and the difference between communitarian and cosmopolitan approaches to international justice and rights in the case of the ICC. The audio documentary will help you to recognize how the issues explained in Chapter 7 work out in a concrete political contest. You have also done some preliminary research into the ICC in Web Activity 4. You will find it useful to review your notes from the Activity now. What to do when you are listening The documentary consists of four parts. The first part gives background information about the ICC, including the concept of international retributive justice and international crime. The second part looks at the aims of the ICC. The third part discusses the political significance of the ICC. More specifically it looks at the degree to which the ICC can be politically independent and the question of whether international criminal retribution can justify breaching the principle of state immunity. The final part looks at whose justice the ICC represents. More specifically it deals with the question of whether the ICC is representative of the international community and whether a global imposition of a particular judicial culture can be justified. When you have finished listening to each of the parts write down the key elements you would use in answering the following questions. Refer also to your notes from Web Activity 4 to add to the points made in the programme.

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Study Guide 2 n

Part 1: What is the International Criminal Court? What is an international crime?

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Part 2: What are the main aims of the ICC?

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Part 3: Why is the creation of an independent International Criminal Court a hotly contested issue in international relations?

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Part 4: Whose justice does the Court institutionalize? In other words, which states does the Court represent and whose judicial culture does it institutionalize internationally?

What to do after listening With the material from Web Activity 4, Chapter 7, and this audio you can now build up a case study of this far-reaching attempt to institutionalize a system of international retributive justice. You can now spend a little time considering the debates that this issue raises. The following three questions are intended as prompts for you to consider different aspects of this case. 1

As the audio programme makes clear, one way of considering the ICC is in terms of the debate between communitarianism and cosmopolitanism. To check if you have understood the main differences between these two approaches, try to first play the role of a communitarian criticizing the creation of the ICC. How would you argue against the establishment of the ICC as a communitarian? Then try to defend the ICC from a cosmopolitan point of view. How would you support the creation of the ICC against a communitarian onslaught? When creating your case try to limit yourself to three or four points.

2

The audio also makes clear that a considerable part of the debate about the ICC revolves around the objections of the United States. Using material from the Web Activity and the audio, make sure you understand what the United States’ objections are. Do you think that the US position clearly falls into a communitarian position, a cosmopolitan position, or something different? There is no agreed answer to this, but think about whether the US is objecting to the idea of universal values or to the way in which the ICC seeks to institutionalize those values.

3

Finally, the audio concludes with a consideration of whether the ICC represents a genuine internationally-shared view of justice, or a reflection of the culture of justice of the most powerful states, imposed on others. This issue clearly echoes the debates about universalism and difference raised in Chapter 3 of Ordering the International and it might be useful to revisit some of those arguments in the light of this case. Think about what your take on the ICC is. Is it an example of the imposition of the 21

DU301 A World of Whose Making?

values of the powerful, in which case how come the US is so opposed? Or is it, as Jef Huysmans contends in the conclusion to the audio, the outcome of contending visions of international order in which the most powerful state did not get its way but which was acceptable enough for some 90+ states to sign up? In the light of this, might you reconsider how easily the ICC fits into the cosmopolitan-communitarian debate?

DVD Programme: Gender, Rights and Culture: Contesting Women’s Rights This is a documentary and studio discussion exploring three very different examples of conflicts between rights and culture for women. The programme considers one important but often hidden dimension of international relations – its gendered aspect. It asks how women in particular negotiate tensions between cultural values and the principle of rights in different contexts, where issues of women’s inequality become political. The examples used are the role of women in an Afghanistan ruled by the Taliban; women sweatshop workers in Cambodia; and Muslim schoolgirls in France asserting their right to wear religious headscarves in school. In the case of Afghanistan, the clash is with dominant cultural norms that favour men. The Cambodian case highlights the extra burden of discrimination that women face. The French example indicates that claims for women’s rights occur in the West as well as in developing countries. We hope that you will find the three case studies interesting, and that you will be able to see how culture and rights clash in various ways. We also hope that the gendered dimension of women’s experience will open up for you the idea that differently positioned groups of people are sometimes treated unfairly. This material can also enable you to think about whether women are likely to have a greater impact on international politics in the future. More broadly, these case studies illustrate the big debates raised in this part of the course. For instance, this part is concerned with the idea of the clash of cultures versus the making of a universal/global culture. It also deals with the notion of rights as a Western imposition disguised as universal norms versus rights as politically empowering discourses in international politics. Three hours of study time have been allotted to active watching of this programme and activities associated with it. The programme lasts just over 30 minutes. The participants Raia Prokhovnik introduces the three case studies, and chairs the studio discussion with Zargona Rasa, a freelance journalist and activist on women’s issues; Haleh Afshar, Professor of Politics and Women’s Studies at the University of York; David Chandler at the University of Westminster’s Centre 22

Study Guide 2

for the Study of Democracy; and Kate Raworth, a specialist on gender and policy at Oxfam. Zargona Rasa is the lead specialist for the Afghani women case study. Kate Raworth opens the discussion on women sweatshop workers in Cambodia. Haleh Afshar is an expert on the case study on Muslim schoolgirls in France. David Chandler brings to the discussion of all the case studies an expertise in international politics and international human rights. Before watching the programme Before watching the programme you will have read the introduction to Part 2, on the Australian flag, read the chapter on culture by Robert Garson, listened to the introductory audio programme for the part, and read the chapter on rights and justice by Raia Prokhovnik. The key elements of preparation for the DVD programme are the introductory audio programme and the chapter on rights and justice. While watching the programme The programme takes each case study in turn, following documentary footage with a studio discussion of the issues raised. First of all, watch the DVD right through to get a sense of the interactions between gender, culture and rights that are being presented. Then watch the DVD again, stopping after each case study to note the main points that arise. All the case studies deal with rights, culture and power asymmetries. Note any similarities and differences you can see between the three case studies. Which panellist’s answers did you find the most convincing and why? Make a note of the points where you agree or disagree with the speakers. More broadly, bear in mind the extent to which these case studies show us a world order that is culturally defined and/or ordered by rights and conflicts over rights. Think of some examples in the programme that support different positions in the debates about these issues. After watching the programme Now make some notes about the particular relationship between cultural values and the principle of rights that is demonstrated in each case study. In each, a conflict between rights and culture and the lower status of women is being described. Which case study did you think best illustrated the gendered dimension of clashes between rights and culture?

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DU301 A World of Whose Making?

Think about what the best way forward might be in each of the dilemmas presented in the case studies. In each case, what is needed – access to cultural goods, or broader social and economic rights, or political rights to participate and dissent, or all of these? What is the best way of giving women a voice – setting up international rights advocates who can argue their case on the world stage (the top-down approach), or listening more carefully to the demands of grassroots groups of women (the bottom-up solution)? More broadly, do you agree with the view that the largely hidden gendered dimensions of international politics (as evidenced by these case studies) are an important defining feature of the current world order? With the first case study, how effective would international universal human rights be in addressing women’s subordinate position in Afghani society? What would be involved in implementing their equal rights? How relevant is the Western conception of rights for Afghani women who value their Muslim religion? In the second example, does the way forward for women sweatshop workers in Cambodia who face an extra burden of discrimination depend on multinational companies, on legislation by the Cambodian government, or on women forming unions to fight for better pay and working conditions? In the third case study, to what extent does the campaign by Muslim schoolgirls in France confront our own cultural blindspots in the West? The case study challenges our tendency to think that human rights issues belong to other parts of the world. The case study also confronts the dominant view that women’s liberation enables them to have the same treatment as men, according to Western norms of abstract and universal, gender-neutral rights.

Week 24 In this week you will study: n

Chapter 8: ‘Culture, international politics and Islam: debating continuity and change’ (8 hours)

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Chapter 9: ‘Culture, rights and justice in a globalizing world’ (6 hours)

Chapter 8: ‘Culture, international politics and Islam: debating continuity and change’ This chapter brings together a consideration of cultural differences and universal rights in the context of a discussion of the ‘West’ and ‘Islam’. It begins by identifying the rise of Islam as a political ideology towards the end of the twentieth century, showing how some writers have interpreted it as a fundamental challenge to Western concepts of democracy, citizenship, individualism and rights. 24

Study Guide 2

Sami Zubaida points out that contests over rights have been a part of the history of Christianity as well as of Islam, and that there has been great diversity within each, thereby dispelling the idea of a simple clash of competing civilizations. He stresses that Islam is not a unified force, showing how different interpretations reflect different social and political contexts. He points out that, notwithstanding important debates about Islam and human rights, the key issue is the ways in which rights become relevant to people’s actual social and political situations.

Chapter 9: ‘Culture, rights and justice in a globalizing world’ This chapter explores the question of globalization and whether it is producing convergence or divergence among cultures and in notions of rights and justice. In particular, Jef Huysmans asks about the relationship between the global propagation of rights and values and local and regional cultural traditions. He rejects the views that it is simply one culture imposing itself on others or that there is a clash of cultural systems. Rather, he sees that tensions between global rights and local cultures are negotiated in contests between members of a cultural tradition, reflecting his view that culture should not simply be regarded as ‘shared values’ but rather as a contest of values between people who claim they belong to the same cultural tradition. The impact of this is that the language of rights provides a means by which people within any local culture seek to improve their conditions or legitimize their position.

Learning outcomes for Part 2 At the end of Part 2 you should be able to demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of: n

The contested meanings of culture and their significance for analysing international politics and modern states.

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Constructivist interpretations of the workings of the international system.

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The contested nature of ‘rights’ and ‘justice’ and issues surrounding the ways these ideas and the practices associated with them operate in the international arena.

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The importance of setting the study of civilizations and religions in their historical, social and political contexts.

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Debates over the relationship between religion, culture and human rights.

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The idea of a global culture of human rights and the impact of this on the legitimacy of political struggles.

Week 25 n

TMA 05. See the Assignment Booklet for details of TMA 05. 25

DU301 A World of Whose Making?

Part 3: Technology, inequality and the network society In Part 3 we return to some of the questions about the economy and economic growth that were raised in Making the International. Chapter 3 of Making the International discussed the theory of comparative advantage and the concept of the terms of trade, which are both important in understanding the opportunities for and obstacles to economic growth. Chapter 7 was directly concerned with the role of capital accumulation and technological change in promoting economic growth. Chapter 8 raised questions about international income inequalities and their significance. Chapter 10 examined external constraints and pressures on development, and Chapter 11 discussed the constraints and dilemmas of making economic policy in small, developing countries with unfavourable patterns of integration – through trade and investment – into the international economy.

Week 26 In this week you will study:

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Chapter 10: ‘Technology, investment and economic growth’ (8 hours)

n

Audio Programme 8: Can ICTs Overcome Inequality? (2 hours)

Chapter 10: ‘Technology, investment and economic growth’ This chapter examines the relationship between technology and economic growth. It explores the role of technological change in the history of industrial capitalism and considers the reasons some countries are better able to appropriate technologies than others. The chapter argues that technological development has to be understood in relation to the organizational and institutional context in which it takes place and the different incentives and constraints established by markets, networks and hierarchies. Suma Athreye and Roberto Simonetti stress the important role that the emergence of ICTs had in the growth of the East Asian economies in the late twentieth century, situating this against a background context of the role of machinery and steam technology in eighteenth-century England and the transformation of heavy industry in the USA in the late nineteenth century. The chapter examines the link between new technologies and the systems of innovation that support their development and diffusion. It also considers the rise and decline of particular countries in the world economy, analyses the way in which developing countries may acquire the technological competencies to catch up with richer economies, and studies the ways in which globalization is affecting the production and exploitation of new technologies. 26

Study Guide 2

Audio Programme 8: Can ICTs Overcome Inequality? (Please note that transcripts of all the course audios are available from the Course Website, Course Resources section.) The aim of this programme is to allow you to consider some of the linkages between technology and inequality, particularly the potential that ICTs have to tackle underdevelopment. The programme is a documentary involving interviews with academics and practitioners, with a narrative by Giles Mohan of the DU301 course team. The audio was produced by Helen Yanacopulos and Giles Mohan of the course team with technical assistance from The Open University’s Learning & Teaching Solutions unit. The programme acts as the bridge between the chapters on technology (Chapter 10) and inequality (Chapter 11) and that on networks (Chapter 12). In studying this programme we expect that you will come to: n

Understand the linkages, both positive and negative, between technology and inequality.

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Examine the potential for new technologies to overcome inequality at and across a range of scales.

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Appreciate the social, technological, economic and political factors that constrain this potential.

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Consider alternatives rooted in a ‘rights-based’ approach.

The participants The recordings were made at separate times with: n

Professor Robin Mansell, who is the Dixons Chair in New Media and the Internet at the London School of Economics. Robin’s research focuses on the social, economic and technical issues arising from new technologies, especially in the computer and telecommunication industries. She examines the integration of new technologies into society, the interaction between engineering design and the structure of markets, and the sources of regulatory effectiveness and failure.

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Tori Holmes of OneWorld, which oversees the Open Knowledge Network (OKN) project. OneWorld is an online civil society network, supporting people’s media to help build a more just global society. The OKN seeks to increase access to the Internet for poorer communities around the world in order that people can find useful local content that is relevant to their lives.

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Chukwu-Emeka Chikezie, who is from the African Foundation for Development (AFFORD). AFFORD’s mission is to engage Africans and 27

DU301 A World of Whose Making?

their organizations in the diaspora directly with organizations involved in the processes of development on the continent; and to develop the skills and abilities of African peoples in ways that will contribute to Africa’s development and enhance Africa’s contribution to global development. Before listening to the programme Before you listen to this programme we suggest that you review the main points on technology raised in Chapter 10 by Roberto Simonetti. Then make a few notes for yourself on the following questions. Don’t worry if you don’t know the ‘answer’ to these questions – they are initial thoughts only: n

What are the linkages, both positive and negative, between technology and inequality?

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What potential exists for new technologies to overcome inequality at local, national and international scales?

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What social, technological, economic and political factors condition and constrain this potential?

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What alternative approaches exist, and how viable are they?

While listening to the programme Now listen to the programme once, all the way through, to get an overall idea of it’s content, themes and issues. Then we suggest you listen a second time, pausing to reflect on your initial thoughts to the above questions and adding to and amending your notes. After listening to the programme Now you should have a good idea of some of the key issues debated in the programme, we suggest that you work through the following activities. Note that these will probably mean going back to listen to some specific aspects of the programme as necessary.

1 The constraints on ‘magic bullet’ policies In the opening sections of the programme both Robin Mansell and Tori Holmes talk about the ‘mainstream’ approaches to ICTs, which are ‘technologically agnostic’ and believe in the diffusion of technology to the benefit of all. However, the ensuing section examines some social, economic and political constraints to the realization of these visions. Make notes listing the main constraints. 28

Study Guide 2

Discussion We found the following constraints. n

Social Education and know-how is relatively poor. Gender and age divisions affect access to technology and other physical and human resources. Information per se is not enough, because much is irrelevant.

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Technological The hardware and software are lacking. Electricity and phone lines are lacking.

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Economic Differences in wealth between individuals affect their ability to be educated and technologically literate. Inequalities within and between countries affect the ability to access technology.

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Political National governments may lack will, capacity or funds to promote ICTs. International political processes are biased against less developed countries. Political decisions take place outside the formal arenas. Information is only useful when it allows communication, which is the basis for negotiations.

The key point to note is that, while social scientists break up the world into these categories, in reality they are hard to separate out. For example, gender divisions (social) may result in the silencing of women’s views (political), which means they do not have policies that serve their productive needs (economic).

2

ICTs in your life

These conditions and constraints operate at all scales from the individual to the international. They are also not confined to people from the less developed world. The use (or non-use) of all technology is affected by its social, economic and political contexts, so that all of us are to some extent conditioned in what we can or cannot do. Look back at the list of conditions and constraints from 1, above, and think about whether you have experienced any of them in your home or work life. 29

DU301 A World of Whose Making?

Discussion Clearly everybody’s experiences are different so it is difficult to provide a generic discussion of this question. Here are our thoughts from our own experience. While we are well educated we still need to keep up with the technology. New software and more powerful computers continually emerge, and considerable time and effort is required even to keep partially abreast of these developments. And we are all too aware that the World Wide Web provides so much information that it can be a daunting activity to find the material that is relevant. While our PCs at work are of a reasonably high quality our home machines are old and sluggish, which affects their utility. We also have to pay for the line rental and connection time so that there are economic constraints on their use. Much of the politics of ICTs does affect us, but we are rarely in an obvious position to affect things. Even at a local level in our work we have certain policies about what we can and cannot do and the university makes central decisions about what systems we use. You will undoubtedly have different experiences, but the point is that technology is never free of its social, economic and political contexts. These operate from the local, the national and the international; and often in ways we are not even aware of. So, while ICTs promise a great deal, the actual potential is never evenly distributed.

3 Comparing and contrasting approaches to ICT policy Compare and contrast the ‘mainstream’ approaches to ICT policy and the ‘rights-based’ approach suggested towards the end of the programme? What are the implications of each for actions within the international system? Discussion First, let us look at the two approaches in turn. It was Robin Mansell who mainly articulated these two positions so we have copied the transcript of these sections from the audio. First, the mainstream approach: Information and communication technologies and especially digital ones, are seen as something that if you invest in it, put new telephone lines into villages, put PCs into kiosks, something magical will happen. Suddenly without doing very much else communities will come together and begin to empower themselves and begin to address social and economic issues which are really problematic, often problems of governments, politics and ICTs somehow do become the answer to problems that cannot possibly be fixed in that way ... Generally speaking the donor organization’s view is that ICT is a matter of diffusion that what we have to do is invest in the Internet access 30

Study Guide 2

points and at the start you will have very few people hooked up but gradually as you get the benefit coming from interconnection of multiple points the ICT application will spread through the community, through the country on a fairly linear diffusion curve and that you will gradually get the benefits. Now, contrast this with Professor Mansell’s vision of a rights-based approach. It is essentially about the rights and entitlements that people have in order to enjoy freedoms in their lives. Freedoms meaning being able to make choices about how they live their lives in circumstances where they may have all sorts of factors working against them which boil down to poverty. And I said to myself well if we really do expect ICTs and digital technologies to in some circumstances to be empowering and to enable people to gain access to digital information and then turn that information into useful knowledge in their everyday lives, we have to think about capabilities and we need to think about the rights that people have to acquire those capabilities ... The question then comes how do you know which capabilities and who should pay for enabling people to become, to take action to become, to take up their entitlement ... Professor Amartya Sen argues that that is a matter for social consensus and constructive dialogue and that it will change in different circumstances depending upon people’s starting point and how they are based in the community ... then taking into account what is available in terms of the ICT environment one could reach a decision as to what the highest investment priorities are and then the multistake holder partnerships could kick in to begin to invest in those priorities. The first view is ‘technologically agnostic’ in that if technology is made available, benefits will eventually flow as people become empowered. However, it became clear that this is highly optimistic and ignores all those conditions and constraints we have just discussed. By contrast, the rightsbased approach situates the technology policy within wider considerations about increasing capabilities. These capabilities are not simply about skills, but the economic, political and social structures that shape peoples’ ability to participate in a range of activities that affect their development. The next issue is what are the implications of the rights-based approach and is it more viable than other approaches. Professor Mansell raised three concerns – financing, engaging with the process, and ensuring the appropriateness of the technology. These are all important, but given other discussions we have seen in the course so far how viable is this approach? What social, economic, and political structures need to be engaged with and changed to expand the capabilities and freedoms of the poor? Again, the answers to this are varied and depend on your own political standpoint. In Chapters 12 and 13, which deal with networks, we look at the role of civil society networks and other ‘drivers’ within the international system.

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DU301 A World of Whose Making?

Week 27 In this week you will study:

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Chapter 11: ‘Global inequality, economic globalization and technological

change’ (8 hours)

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Web Activity 5 (3 hours)

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Review Interpreting Data Tutorial 3

Chapter 11: ‘Global inequality, economic globalization and technological change’ The chapter situates contemporary international inequalities in access to wealth and technology in an historical perspective, examining why some regions of the world have seen living standards rise much faster than others. It begins with a focus on the so-called ‘digital divide’ between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ at the international level, illustrated by the pattern of Internet usage and rates of growth of it. Grahame Thompson highlights both the significance and the problems of defining and measuring international income inequalities, debating the relative merits of the alternative concepts and methods for doing so. He notes that international inequality is a complex phenomenon and there is no single measure that captures all aspects of it. He then examines the role of trade, investment, migration and technological change as factors that influence patterns of income inequality within and between countries. Finally, he asks whether network forms of organization in international trade and investment are likely to have a significant impact on the existing patterns of economic inequality. Given that in this week you are returning to issues of inequality and ways of measuring inequality, you will find it useful to refresh your memory about some of the issues relating to data on distributions dealt with in Tutorial 3 of the Interpreting Data CD-ROM. Take a little time to remind yourself of the main points covered.

Web Activity 5 This activity is designed to take further your web searching skills developed in Activities 1 and 2. In particular, it shows you how to go about evaluating different web sites and the quality of the material they contain. As such it contains some essential work in preparation for the Course Essay. Go to the Course Website. Click on the ‘Web Activities’ icon, then click on Web Activity 5 and follow the on-screen instructions.

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Study Guide 2

Week 28 In this week you will study: n

Chapter 12: ‘The global network society and transnational networks of dissent’ (8 hours)

n

Chapter 13: ‘Technologies, agency and the shape of the future’ (6 hours)

Chapter 12: ‘The global network society and transnational networks of dissent’ This chapter considers the role of technologies in facilitating different forms of international interaction. It uses the case of ICT and networked forms of social and political activity, looking at whether and in what ways the nature of international interaction is changing. It argues that technological advances in ICTs have contributed to the development of what Yanacopulos and Mohan call ‘transnational networks of dissent’. The significance of this is the stress on the role of non-state actors in the international system, such as trade unions and human rights groups, both of which have been relatively neglected in the study of international politics. Yanacopulos and Mohan conclude, however, that while such transnational networks are important and may be complicating patterns of international relations, they are not displacing the states-system which still retains great significance.

Chapter 13: ‘Technologies, agency and the shape of the future’ The chapter focuses on three specific and important actors in the international political economy which are each composed of some form of network, are dependent on forms of ICT technology, and have a role in perpetuating or challenging patterns of inequality: private financial institutions, social movements, and the military. The authors argue that all three are either innovating or using technology in ways that challenge relationships between states and global forces; they work both within national structures and by forming new networks inside and outside state boundaries.

Week 29 n

TMA 06. See the Assignment Booklet for details of TMA 06.

Learning outcomes for Part 3 At the end of Part 3 you should be able to demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of: 33

DU301 A World of Whose Making? n

The significance of new technology to development and change in the structures of the international system.

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The relationship between technology and economic growth and patterns of international inequality.

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Debates about the level and trends in international income inequality.

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The role of networks in systems of innovation.

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The extent of development of a ‘global network society’.

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The role of specific transnational networks and their use of ICT in shaping international society.

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The skills necessary to perform a basic evaluation of the usefulness of different websites.

Part 4:

Models of international order

In Part 4 we return to the three framing questions raised in Chapter 1: n

Is it possible to analyse the international system as a whole?

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How can we best characterize, understand and explain the processes of international interaction and the kinds of order and disorder with which they are associated?

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Is the contemporary international system changing and, if so, by whose agency?

Parts 1 to 3 have, in several different ways addressed aspects of these questions in relation to different sectors of international order. The task in Part 4 is to try and draw out some of the broad themes of those discussions to see what answers can be offered when talking about international order as a whole. To do this we look at some of the major models of international order – realism, liberalism, constructivism and Marxism – in Chapter 14, and then some of the contending theories about the contemporary transformation of international order in Chapter 15. As well as drawing heavily on the chapters in Ordering the International that you have studied, aspects of Making the International are also relevant here. In particular, realism was first introduced and discussed in Chapter 5. In addition, liberal ideas about the national interest were discussed in Chapter 6 of Making the International by Sudipta Kaviraj, and the tools for understanding and specifying different kinds of interdependence were used in Chapter 9 by Rafael Sanchez. Finally, some general ideas about the usefulness of models in analysing the international were discussed in Chapter 3 by Maureen Mackintosh and especially in Chapter 15, the 34

Study Guide 2

conclusion to Making the International. And when considering the relations between states and the states-system, on the one hand, and the economic and technological aspects of the international system, on the other, Chapters 3, 7, 8 and 11 of Making the International are all relevant. You will recall that in Chapter 1 of Ordering the International you were introduced to three framing questions for the book as a whole, a definition of the subject matter of International Studies and a framework that could be used to define different international systems and to represent different attempts to characterize the modern international system. We strongly suggest that as you study Part 4 you revisit that discussion in the light of what is being discussed here and in the light of what you have already read in Parts 1–3.

Week 30 In this week you will study:

n

Chapter 14: ‘Characterizing international order’ (8 hours)

Chapter 14: ‘Characterizing international order’ This chapter begins with some general comments on the usefulness of models of international order and identifies some of the ways in which they can be assessed and compared. It then goes through each of four mainstream models of international order: realism, liberalism, constructivism and Marxism. You have come across aspects of all of these already and the chapter is careful to identify the key chapters from Parts 1 to 3 where the core ideas of each have been raised. The purpose of the chapter is to draw the key elements of these general models together and concludes by discussing some of the key contrasts between them.

Week 31 In this week you will study:

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Chapter 15: ‘Transforming international order?’ (8 hours)

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Audio Programme 9: Models of International Order (2 hours)

Chapter 15: ‘Transforming international order?’ This chapter focuses more fully on the third framing question raised in Chapter 1: Is the contemporary international system changing and, if so, by whose agency? It begins to answer this question by looking at the way in which liberalism offers a theory of transformation (whereas, by contrast, realism is concerned with the changing balance of power within an international system). However, as a theory that self-consciously aims not 35

DU301 A World of Whose Making?

only to analyse but also to change international order, liberalism is part of a wider tradition of social and political theory serving a critical purpose. The chapter discusses what is meant by the term ‘critical theory’ and looks at two other claimants to this title, which you have come across in the earlier chapters: post-colonialism and feminism. The chapter also argues that Marxism is also a critical theory before considering two other theories of contemporary transformation: the clash of civilizations thesis and the arguments about the rise of a global network society. Much of this chapter is extending the discussion of ideas you are already familiar with such as liberalism, marxism and globalization. However, the discussion of critical theory is rather new, and perhaps not so straightforward. As an aid to your study of the chapter, the following points outline the main lines of discussion in Sections 2 and 3 of Chapter 15:

36

n

Having discussed the issue of transformation in relation to realism and liberalism, the chapter introduces Kant’s liberal theory of transformation (Section 2.1). Kant’s proposals for a perpetual peace are both a critical theory and a universal theory. The chapter takes each idea in turn.

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Critical theory is understood as social theory that aims to transform society: ‘a theory that is aware of its place in history and in a particular culture, is engaged in dialogue with other similarly located theories, and is oriented towards showing how, and by what means, the existing state of affairs might be transformed’.

n

Section 2.2 argues that Kant’s theory is critical in the sense that it proposes that relations of might can be transformed into relations of right among different collectivities of people. (In this discussion the chapter also notes that realism, too, can be seen as a critical theory, although it tends to be associated with a more conservative view of the world which will always be divided into particular, potentially hostile camps.)

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However, Kant’s view also rested on a universal claim: that relations of might could be transformed because there are universal principles of reason through which ‘apparently fundamental differences, say of morality and religion, are encompassed in a framework of cosmopolitan right’. But Kant also argued that reason was best understood as a set of ideals rather than something that guaranteed agreement.

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Section 3 goes on to consider this question of universalism more closely. Later critics – especially post-colonial critics and feminists – have challenged the idea that any critical theory can legitimately claim to be universal. The issue of the ‘universality’ of a viewpoint or way of living is especially important in International Studies because we live in a world characterized by both a multiplicity of voices and unavoidable shared interaction.

Study Guide 2

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The chapter argues that rather than claiming that liberalism is universal it might be more accurate to interpret it as a normative proposal – namely, that liberal arrangements should be universalized – and an empirical claim – that the liberal tradition can in fact be universalized.

n

Section 3.4 then introduces two different senses in which a viewpoint may be said to be universalistic. The first is often called foundationalism and is the idea that ‘there are bare facts about human nature (including human reason) and its place in the world that provide the basis for agreement among individuals about questions of truth, beauty and what is considered to be right or good’. The second, which has been called justificatory universalism, is the notion that ‘there is a normative content to human reason encompassing ‘‘impartiality, objectivity, intersubjective verification of results, arguments and data, consistency of belief, and selfreflexivity’’’.

n

This section concludes that even if foundationalism could be satisfactorily defended, it seems too abstract and general to ground agreement about how to organize politics both nationally and internationally. Justificatory universalism is closer to Kant’s idea that reason has a normative content that provides an ideal of how dialogue between free citizens should be conducted. If different viewpoints cannot disengage from one another, and if they seek to avoid conflict, they have no option but to try to follow these ideals.

Audio Programme 9: Models of International Order (Please note that transcripts of all the course audios are available from the Course Website, Course Resources section.) This programme consists of a discussion between course team members about the use of the models and theories discussed in Part 4 of the course. This is an important task in the light of the Course Essay, which asks you to use some of the models and theories from Part 4 in your answer. Here we try to give you an idea of some of the ways in which these ideas can be used by focusing on their application to the analysis of a particular issue. We have chosen to focus on the US-led war against Iraq in 2003. Through this, we try to highlight the different perspectives that can be gained on this issue by analysing it using different models of international order. Our key aims in this programme are to review some of the main differences and comparisons between different models of international order and theories of transformation, and to consider how models may be used to build a rounded analysis of a concrete issue.

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DU301 A World of Whose Making?

To this end, the programme begins with a general consideration of models, their usefulness and some of their limitations. The participants then discuss how realist, liberal, constructivist and Marxist approaches can be brought to bear to provide different narratives about, and explanations of, the conflict. The discussion then broadens out to consider some other issues, such as civilizational conflict and networks and technology, and how they might add to, or change, the analysis of the US-led war against Iraq. The participants The participants in this programme are all members of the course team: William Brown (who chairs the discussion), Simon Bromley and Jef Huysmans. Before listening to the programme You will probably find it most useful to listen to this programme after you have finished your study of Chapters 14 and 15 of Ordering the International. Try to do two further things before listening: 1

Re-read Section 6 of Chapter 15 of Making the International: ‘Models as metaphors’.

2

Make a few short notes (or refer to notes you have already made) about the main claims of each of the following, drawing on your study of Chapters 14 and 15 of Ordering the International: Realism.

Liberalism.

Constructivism.

Marxism.

The ‘clash of civilisations’ thesis.

The ‘global network society’ thesis.

Globalization theory.

While listening to the programme We suggest that, first, you listen to the programme all the way through to get an overall idea of its content and structure. If you find that aspects of the discussion raise points that are unclear to you it might be worth revisiting the relevant sections of Ordering the International. Then listen to the programme again, stopping as necessary to make notes in answer to the following questions. 38

Study Guide 2

1

Note down some of the strengths and weaknesses of models mentioned by Simon Bromley in the early part of the programme.

2

Identify the main contrasts between the four main models of international order by completing Table 1.

Table 1 Model of international order

What factor does the model identify as the key to explaining the US-led war against Iraq?

Realism

US national security issues in an anarchic international environment

Liberalism Constructivism Marxism 3

What does a focus on either civilizations, networks or technologies add to the analysis of this particular issue? The discussion in the programme also mentions different ways in which we should be cautious about using civilizations and technology as explanatory variables in this instance. What are they?

4

The programme concludes with advice that we need to be balanced – that we should be aware of how different models can be combined to build a rounded analysis but also that we should be aware of how different starting points carry implications for the story we can then tell about a particular issue. Note down what combination of models and theories you think would be useful in producing a perceptive and interesting analysis of the US-led war against Iraq.

After listening to the programme As mentioned above, one of our main aims in making this programme was to provide an aid for your preparation for the Course Essay. We wanted to try and give you an idea of the ways in which models of international order and theories of transformation could be used in building your analysis of particular issues. To build on some of the ideas put forward in this audio try the following exercise in using models of international order.

39

DU301 A World of Whose Making?

1

Go to the Course Essay questions in your Assignment Booklet. Read the questions that have been set and select one question.

2

Ask yourself which of the models of international order and theories of transformation might be most useful and interesting in answering the question.

3

Then, as we did at the beginning of the programme, ask ‘what kind of story would the model you have chosen tell in answer to the question you have selected?’

4

Once you have done this, ask yourself: How convincing is this story? What else do you know about this issue from your study of Parts 1–3 that is not accounted for by this model? Are there key issues that it cannot explain easily?

5

Take a second model and repeat this process for the same question, but also make a note of the key contrasts it presents with the story told by the first model.

6

Finally, think about whether the two can be combined in any way to provide a better overall answer, or alternatively, whether the contrasts reveal a debate between competing understandings of international order?

You can repeat this exercise for other Course Essay options and using other models. While doing this exercise bear in mind the following key bits of advice in the audio:

40

n

Think about how different models provide different starting points for analysis and what that might imply for the answer you can build to the question posed. Think about which approaches you think will be most interesting and useful.

n

Treat models as ‘orienting devices’: as a place to start building an analysis, not as a substitute for it. How will you move from your starting point on to other lines of argument?

n

Don’t be overly constrained by models – they are not straight jackets but tools to be used. What combinations of models and theories might you draw on to answer a particular question?

Study Guide 2

Learning outcomes for Part 4 At the end of Part 4 you should be able to demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of: n

The relevance of questions about international order and the ways in which these can be addressed.

n

The key features of realist, liberal, constructivist and Marxist models of international order.

n

An ability to compare and contrast these models and evaluate their merits.

n

A range of theories of the transformation of international order and the competing explanations they offer for the agents and processes of change.

n

The ways in which theory can serve a critical purpose in International Studies.

3

The Course Essay

You are now on the last lap of DU301 and will complete the course by submitting the Course Essay. This section of this Study Guide will take you through the steps needed to prepare for writing the Course Essay. The Course Essay is the examinable component of DU301 and is therefore a very important part of your study. It takes the form of an essay of approximately 4000 words, which must be word processed or typed (please use a clear 12 point font). The details of this year’s questions are contained in the Assignment Booklet and you should read that now. This week’s work is all designed towards your preparation for completing the essay.

Week 32 In this week you will study: n

‘Preparing for the Course Essay’ (in this Study Guide)

n

Web Activity 6

n

Audio 10: The Course Essay

n

Concept Mapper

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DU301 A World of Whose Making?

Preparing for the Course Essay 1 What is the Course Essay? The Course Essay is an extremely important element of your study. It is the examinable component and thus accounts for 50 per cent of your overall grade for the course. It is designed to consolidate and develop further the skills and knowledge you have gained so far and to develop your ability to undertake some independent work, which is in itself an important transferable skill. As such, you may well be thinking that the Course Essay is rather daunting – it is a longer piece of work than you have done so far on this course, it demands that you are able to organize significant elements of your work yourself, and there is a lot riding on it. Don’t despair! This section of the Study Guide will carefully take you through the key steps in undertaking this task. And the exercise of doing a longer, more in-depth and partially independent piece of work is both an exciting and a rewarding challenge. Also, while we set specific Course Essay questions, they still leave scope for you to develop your answers in your own way, to frame your essay answer in a particular way and to investigate in more depth aspects of the course that have particularly sparked your interest. We therefore hope that you will approach the Course Essay with positive feelings as well as any trepidation you may have.

2 What we are looking for: content, scope, skills and sources As you will see from the Assignment Booklet, we offer three Course Essay options for you to choose from. These each clearly relate, in terms of their subject matter and issues, to either Part 1, Part 2 or Part 3 of Ordering the International. That is, there will be a question relating to states and the statessystem; one to culture, rights and justice; and one to technology, inequality and the network society. However, the Course Essay is designed to assess the course as a whole, so as well as addressing the core subject matter raised by the question, and providing a coherent analytical answer to it, there are a series of other aspects you must address. Three aspects in particular you must note: 1

You have to use the models of international order and theories of transformation taught in Part 4 of the course in your essay.

2

You have to show that you can use and apply in a relevant and appropriate way key concepts and theories from the course as a whole, including the First Half of the course.

3

You must make relevant use of some sources from outside of the course materials.

These features will be key discriminating factors in marking the Course Essay. Let us take each of them in turn to explain what is required. 42

Study Guide 2

1

Using models of international order and theories of transformation from Part 4

This is a very important part of your Course Essay. The models of international order and theories of transformation are raised explicitly in Part 4 of the course and discussed in terms of how they offer answers to the three framing questions of Ordering the International. However, it is also pointed out in Chapters 14 and 15 that central parts of all of them have been raised in the other parts of Ordering the International and in the course more generally. Precisely how you make use of these approaches will vary depending above all on the question set. You should read the student notes for each question carefully as these will give some question-specific guidance. A question might invite (implicitly if not explicitly) a critical examination of one model or theory in the course but you might use the insights of another to question its assumptions and conclusions. Or you might be able to use a comparison of two approaches in order to shed light on a particular issue or debate. It is important to note that markers will be looking for you to be able to show both an understanding of (some of) the different models of international order and theories of transformation and an ability to apply those models and use them in building an analytical answer. Simply describing different models without using them to answer the question doesn’t go far enough. Further advice on using models and assessing different approaches can be found in Chapter 14 (you might also find it useful to re-read the section ‘Models as metaphors’ in Chapter 15 of Making the International). In particular you should refer again to Audio 9 and the accompanying notes in this Study Guide, and read ‘Step 2: Thinking through the question’ below. 2

Using concepts and theories from the course as a whole

Similar comments apply also to the use of concepts and theories from the course as a whole. Questions focused on Parts 1 to 3 of Ordering the International will obviously invite the use of the concepts and theories that are introduced in the relevant chapters, but you must also think about other concepts and theories raised elsewhere. In particular, in this Study Guide we have highlighted for each part the main concepts and theories from Making the International which are relevant. This should be a first port of call. Remember that you are being assessed on your application of conceptual learning to a new subject area. Most of the concepts in Making the International are raised in the context of a particular substantive discussion – for example, terms of trade are discussed in relation to the WTO and power in relation to Mexico. The Course Essay asks you to use concepts from Making the International but to apply them in relation to a different subject matter. Again, specific hints and advice can be found in the student notes for each essay question. You will need to make sure that you have a good grasp of the meaning of a particular concept or theory but also show that you can use them in a way that is relevant to answering the question at hand. 43

DU301 A World of Whose Making?

3

Making relevant use of non-course sources

The last key requirement of the Course Essay with which you may not be familiar from other TMAs is that you must use sources from outside of the course materials. You will have been through a number of activities designed to show you how to access such material in Web Activities 1 to 5 and Web Activity 6, below, builds on the others. The main sources these make available to you are the Internet and the online library resources, especially the online academic journals. There may of course be other sources – other books you have read, newspaper cuttings and the like which you can also use. To access online sources you will need to pull together the web searching skills you have gained in the course (Web Activities 1, 2, 4 and 5) and the skills in accessing the online journals (Web Activity 3). However, the actual output from these activities (articles, web site evaluations and the material you have printed out from the web already) may also be directly relevant, depending on your choice of Course Essay question, and you are encouraged to make use of the material you already have. This material is not considered to be part of the course materials, so it can count towards your sources from outside the course. Assessment of this aspect of your Course Essay will be based on the added value that the sources you have chosen bring to your Course Essay and the relevance of its use in answering the question. You are expected to use two academic journal articles and three documents you have downloaded from the Internet or an equivalent amount of noncourse material (newspaper articles and so on). We strongly advise you not to try to go much beyond this amount as you probably will have neither the study time nor the word-space to make use of more than this while also doing justice to the course materials. A summary of what script markers will be looking for Key requirements: n

Developing a coherent essay with a focused, analytical argument.

n

Using, applying and evaluating models of international order and theories of transformation.

n

Using and applying concepts and theories.

n

Drawing on a range of the course materials.

n

Relevant use of sources from outside of the course materials.

Other important requirements:

44

n

Introduction: setting out plans and clarifying scope.

n

Conclusion: drawing ideas and argument together.

Study Guide 2

n

References: properly cited and listed.

n

Length (within 10 per cent of the word limit).

3

The steps to completing your Course Essay

The above are the essential ‘mechanics’ of completing the essay and you should make absolutely sure that you meet the requirements involved. However, rather more difficult than those are the steps you need to go through in thinking about, researching and writing the Course Essay. For some of you, this will be longest piece of work you will have undertaken. While everyone has a different way of working, the various steps itemized below are an attempt to break down this task into manageable parts. Step 1: Selecting a topic and planning your timetable Choosing between essay questions is obviously a matter of personal preference and it is only possible to offer some broad guidance here. You might find it useful to consider the following points. First, you will spend more time working on this project than on any other single part of the course. So, obviously, make sure your chosen question is something that will hold your interest and keep you stimulated. Think about your study of the second half of the course – which were the issues that really grabbed your interest and which you wanted to look at more closely? What were the analytical issues and problems that held your attention? Secondly, think about the particular focus of the questions and consider which you feel you can do a good piece of work on. For instance you might be particularly interested in the subject matter of two of the questions but think you have a real grasp of the analytical and conceptual dimensions raised by one of them. Remember, you want to do yourself justice in this project. Finally, think about the wider material you need to draw into your answer, in particular the concepts from other parts of the course, including Making the International; and the models of international order and theories of transformation from Part 4. Do you have a clearer idea of how to do this for one question more than others?

Activity If you haven’t done so already, do this now! Read the Assignment Booklet and the student notes for each Course Essay option. Think carefully about the essay you most want to do and make your choice.

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DU301 A World of Whose Making?

Step 2: Thinking through the question In choosing your question you will have given some thought to this already. However, it might be useful to list some things to bear in mind in starting to get to grips with the question you have chosen. Perhaps the key thing is to clarify in your own mind what the question is asking you to do and to think carefully about the different interpretations of it which may be possible. First, think about the scope of the question – how does it delineate a subject matter of study? The Course Essay questions will relate mainly to one of the three parts of Ordering the International and this obviously gives you a major signal as to the scope. However, much ground is covered in all three parts, so think about whether the question is focussing on one aspect rather than another, or one area of debate and contention rather than another. You also need to think about what the ‘command’ or ‘process’ words are in the question. Command words are things like ‘critically assess’, ‘compare and contrast’ and ‘discuss’. Note what the command words of the essay question are. Think about what they imply for your answer. Command words direct you to think and write about the subject matter of the question in a particular way. They also give you a strong steer in terms of how you will structure your answer (see below). The Course Essay also demands that you draw on concepts and theories from the course as whole. Give some thought as to which of these are particularly relevant to your answer. As noted already, markers will also be looking for you to be able to show an understanding of (some of) the different models of international order and theories of transformation and an ability to apply those models and theories and use them in building an analytical answer. As this is an important and tricky aspect of thinking through the question, allow us to suggest one way to approach it. Consider the following two approaches to using models in course essay answers (based on real essays): Approach 1 The essay begins with a short introduction then proceeds to outline the central claims of, say, three models of international order. This ‘survey of models’ may or may not be a fairly accurate summary, but little reference is made to the essay question under consideration. That is, we are told broadly what each model says, but this isn’t applied to the particular question being asked. Once this survey is completed, the essay then goes back to the subject matter of the question but discusses it with little or no mention of the models for most of the rest of the essay, except perhaps some superficial comments in the conclusion. 46

Study Guide 2

Approach 2 The essay begins by noting that a certain model would be a useful way of exploring the question posed. The main claims of the model concerned are covered in some way and the implications of this model – the kind of story it would tell in relation to the question being addressed – are central to the discussion. Then the essay might go on to take up the issues which are raised by this discussion. In this, one or more other models, or theories of transformation, might be brought in to further the analysis and debate. In the process a rounded and theoretically-informed answer to the question is developed. The conclusion can then draw together the main points. There are of course many other good ways to frame an answer, but these two illustrate a key point. While the first approach is more common in essays we have seen, the second approach will deliver a much better answer. The key reason is that while the first approach does show to markers that the student has an understanding of the models of international order (if the survey is done reasonably well), it doesn’t show an ability to apply models and use them in building analysis; discussion of models, such as it is, is more or less detached from the answer. The second approach shows an understanding of and the application and use of models. It is worth noting that the second approach is rather easier to do if you have a clear overall argument in answer to the question. It is your argument that then drives the essay and models are used as ways to further this analysis. So remember, you need to show that you have a good understanding of some of the different models of international order and theories of transformation but also that you are comfortable applying and using these models and theories in an analytical discussion. Bear in mind some of the comments on the usefulness of models of international order, and assessing different approaches, raised in Chapter 14 (you might also find it useful to re-read the section ‘Models as metaphors’ in Chapter 15 of Making the International). In particular you should refer again to Audio 9 and the accompanying notes in this Study Guide.

Activity Take your chosen question and, having noted the scope of the question and the command words it uses, begin to note down a preliminary list of ideas. In the first instance do this as a ‘brainstorm’ casting your mind back over the course as a whole. Then go through your notes, flick through Making the International and Ordering the International (for instance, reading the part introductions), re-read TMA answers which are particularly relevant to the question, and look back over the Study Guide notes. Among other things, note the subject matter, the key analytical debates and substantive arguments and the central concepts at use and at issue in 47

DU301 A World of Whose Making?

these debates. Give some particular attention to how you will use models of international order and theories of transformation in your answer. Remember this is just a first stab so write down all ideas which seem to be relevant now, you will refine this later. You might also want to note down your ‘instinctive’ answer to the question – what is your initial reaction to it? (Remember to keep this under review at all times.)

Step 3: Identifying and assembling your sources Now you can begin to start firming up your answer to the question. Note that the next three steps (steps 3, 4 and 5) will not necessarily proceed in this neat order. That is, while you need to do all three, you will find that you have to review and revise as you go along – you may find that in planning your structure you realise you need to add or remove items from your list of sources; or that when it comes to writing your first draft you want to amend your essay structure. So, we suggest that you keep these three steps in mind, but be flexible! In thinking about the scope of the essay you will have naturally already begun to identify key sources for your essay. The first and most obvious are the main chapters in Ordering the International that the essay relates to. However, also consider the sub-sections from other chapters which have relevant material in them. This will apply especially to chapters from Making the International. Here, the specific subject matter of the chapters – India or Mexico, say – will not be to the foreground in your Course Essay question, although the key conceptual teaching in those chapters may well be. Identify which of these are particularly relevant to your answer and where they are discussed. In addition, you need to think about the audio-visual material that might be of use to your essay – does a particular programme discuss an example or case which you want to use in your essay, or focus on a particular debate which is central to your question? Obviously identifying sources is a very big task and given the range of sources, you need to be selective. Think about which are the most useful and interesting. Identify those chapters or sections of chapters which it would be useful to re-read now. Remember that you must keep a focus on the question you have to answer. This is unlikely to be identical to the questions that were explicitly addressed in the chapters of Ordering the International. So consider how you are going to use the sources you identify in a way which is relevant to answering your question. Ability to apply your learning to a given question is one of the main things the essay assesses so make sure that you are clear in your own mind what the relevance of the material you select is to the question you are answering. Finally, although 4000 words may seem like a lot, it soon gets used up. We are not expecting you to demonstrate extensive 48

Study Guide 2

and detailed knowledge of particular examples and case studies, or to relate long and detailed histories in your answers, so choose examples which are relevant to illustrating a particular analytical point you are making. The other main task in identifying sources is to gather the material from outside of the course which you will use. As noted above, part of the requirement of the Course Essay is that you make use of sources from outside of the course materials. This will not only allow you to draw from wider material in answering the question but also shows that you can undertake some independent research in response to a set assignment. The online activities which you have already done will have provided you with some material from online sources (mainly the web and the online journals provided by the OU Library). Think about whether you can use any of this material in your answer. In addition, see Web Activity 6 which is geared towards searching for and identifying the sources you will use in your essay.

Activity 1

Now make your initial review of course materials and list the main chapters, sections, or audio-visual material you might use for your essay. Note that, as discussed above, you will undoubtedly review these as you make progress in writing and planning.

2

Go to Web Activity 6 (see below) as part of your work on gathering sources. (This can be done now, or when you have finished reading through this section of the Study Guide.) At the end of this exercise make a note of at least two journal articles you will use for your essay and three documents from web sites, or an equivalent amount of non-course material from other sources, that you will use.

Step 4: Planning the structure of your essay Given the length of the Course Essay we strongly advise that you divide up your essay into identifiable sections organized in some logical way. In longer essays like this it is not only easier for you as a writer to get side-tracked (however clearly you set it out in your introduction) but also for the reader to lose the thread of what you are saying. Section headings are a way of dividing up the different steps in your answer to a question and serve to flag up the key elements of your argument. They also provide an opportunity, at the beginning and end of sections, for you to pause, sum up where you have got to in your answer and move on. Have a look at how chapters in Making the International and Ordering the International are divided up to get an idea of how section headings can be used.

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DU301 A World of Whose Making?

What you use as section headings will largely be determined by the argument you wish to put forward. Essays should have an introduction, which will set out your understanding of the question and how you are going to answer it, and a conclusion, drawing the main elements of your argument together and summarizing your answer to the question. However, what comes in between requires careful thought. Your review of course materials may have led you to firm up or to revise your initial thoughts on what your answer to the question is. In constructing the plan of your answer you need to think about the different elements of your argument and the best order in which to deal with them.

Activity Make an initial plan for your essay, noting the main section headings you will use to structure your answer. Remember that a plan is just that – it is not the final piece of work, doesn’t have to be perfect and is not marked. Indeed, it is very likely that you will change your plans as you go along. Give it your best shot now, and revise as necessary as you proceed.

After completing these activities you are now in a position to send in your mandatory contact paper to your tutor (see the Assignment Booklet for details). Remember this paper must contain your chosen essay title, your preliminary draft of your essay plan, your list of course materials you will draw on, and the non-course sources you will use. This must be sent to your tutor by the cut-off date specified in the Assignment Booklet. Step 5: Writing and reviewing You now need to get down to the actual drafting of your essay. How you go about this is a very personal thing – some people find that they need everything planned and in order before starting, others that the essay takes shape and evolves as you go along. You should do what you are most comfortable with and what you have found successful in the past. You might begin by elaborating your essay plan, section by section, developing ‘miniplans’ for each section. Or you might start drafting the actual text straight away. Either way, you are likely to find that essays, particularly of this length, require two or three drafts with fine-tuning, and re-drafting of particular bits along the way. Remember that once you start writing you are almost bound to find that you will want to revise your essay plan and the sources which you use. You will need to go back and re-read sections. You may find that you need to do some extra searching for sources from outside of the course materials, though we

50

Study Guide 2

strongly advise that you keep the time spent doing this strictly limited (once you have completed Web Activity 6). However you work, make sure that you leave time to re-read what you have written, asking yourself as you do: Is it clear how I am answering the question? Do I keep a focus on the question throughout? Are examples and evidence used in a relevant way to support analytical points being made? Am I applying concepts and models accurately and in a way that enhances my analysis of the subject matter at hand? Don’t be afraid to revise and rewrite parts which are weak. You must also keep an eye on the overall length of the essay as you write and amend it as necessary. If you are going overlength go back and revise what you have written and make sure that the most important parts of your plan are covered and that you haven’t wasted a lot of words over-elaborating on parts which are tangential to your answer. Step 6: Checking through, presentation and submission Finally, make sure you leave time to check through your essay for presentational problems. In particular, note the following: n

Your essay has to be word processed or typed so whether you write longhand and then type it up, or type it from the start, allow time to do this and look out for spelling and grammatical errors (please use a clear 12 point font). Double spacing is not necessary for the Course Essay.

n

Check that it is of the appropriate length and state the results of your word count at the end of the essay.

n

Check that you have referenced properly. Note that this means you have to cite your sources (including both course books and other course materials) in the essay itself and include a full list of the sources you have used in a bibliography at the end of the essay. Essays will be marked down for inadequate or inaccurate referencing. If you are unsure about how to reference, see the Assignment Booklet for further details on referencing, or contact your tutor for further advice. You may also find it useful to consult ‘How to reference’. Copies of this are available on the Course Website, Course resources section.

n

Make sure that there are no issues of plagiarism raised by your writing (see the Writing in your own Words leaflet also available from the Course Website).

n

And make sure that you have included the title of the essay on page 1 and your name and PI number on every page.

Details for submission of your essay are given in the Assignment Booklet and in the booklet Information for Students Submitting Examinable Work which will 51

DU301 A World of Whose Making?

be sent to you. But make absolutely sure that you submit the essay in good time and get proof of posting. Step 7: What happens after submission? On your part, you can heave a sigh of relief and hopefully a feeling of achievement and satisfaction at completing this major project. You should give yourself a pat on the back. The essay itself will be marked by script markers appointed by the course (and not by your tutor), just as is done for exam scripts on other courses. However, a copy will be sent to your tutor for him or her to verify that the work is your own. This is an essential procedure that the University applies to examined work that is submitted by students. It is possible that the DU301 Award Board might contact you in the unlikely event that there is any query about your submission. This is why you must keep a file of the non-course sources you have used and a copy of your essay.

4 A Course Essay checklist You might find it useful to refer to this checklist to make sure that you have met all the necessary requirements for submission of the Course Essay. Table 2

Course Essay checklist

Have I ...? Made contact with my tutor by the agreed date and supplied him

or her with the necessary materials?

Checked the presentation of the essay?

Word processed/typed it?

Put my name and PI number on each page?

Provided full and proper citations and references?

Checked and stated the word length?

Provided the required number of copies and kept one for myself?

Attached form ET3?

Kept a file of all the non-course materials I have used as sources

for the essay?

Sent the essay to the correct person on time?

Addressed and stamped the acknowledgement postcard?

52

Tick when complete

Study Guide 2

Web Activity 6 We presume that you now have completed Steps 1 and 2 above and are engaged in Step 3, gathering together material for the essay. As discussed, the Course Essay requires you to use sources from outside of the course materials. Web Activity 6 is organized around you doing some more work on obtaining non-course materials. Indeed, there are some six hours of study time allocated to this activity, so by completing it you should have made some serious in-roads into accessing the additional material you will use for your Course Essay. Now go to the Course Web site and follow the instructions for Web Activity 6.

Audio 10: The Course Essay (Please note that transcripts of all the course audios are available from the Course Website, Course Resources section.) This audio aims to clarify the requirements for the production and submission of the Course Essay. It takes the form of a discussion between two members of the course team: Bob Kelly and Will Brown, the course team cochair. It provides important advice on the procedures involved and comments on the various sources of material and their particular importance. It stresses that a lot of the important work for this endeavour has already been done and it offers realistic suggestions for how much more is required. Two hours have been allocated to listening to this audio material and the activities associated with it. Before listening to the programme Before listening to this programme, look at the selection of questions on offer and have some ideas about which option you will select. Jot down the reasons for your selection, and list some of the sources that spring to mind as relevant for answering the question. The key reason for doing this is that it will give you a more coherent background from which to listen to the advice and suggestions given. It will enable you to make a more informed decision about whether your choice of question and your approach to it are actually the most appropriate and realistic options. While listening to the programme To gain the most from the programme listen to it twice. First, let it play right through to get an overall impression of what is being said. Don’t take any notes at this point, but be thinking about the similarities and differences 53

DU301 A World of Whose Making?

between what is being suggested and what you had previously noted down. Then play the programme a second time, stopping to note advice or comments that you think are particularly significant. After listening to the programme The key issue now is to be clear about the procedures, the timetable, and the question. Check the printed advice in the relevant course documents – in the other parts of this Study Guide, the Assignment Booklet, and the advice from the University in the booklet entitled Information for Students Submitting Examinable Work – to ensure that everything is clear. If you have any questions or details you wish to clarify, contact your tutor. Please note that the number of copies of your essay that you are required to submit is three, not two as mentioned in the audio.

Concept Mapper We have allocated around two hours of study time in this week to using the Concept Mapper on the CD-ROM. You have already seen how to use this in the First Half of the course (look again at the three tutorials if you need to refresh your memory), and we hope you will have made some use of it during the Second Half as well. We suggest that you spend some time using the Concept Mapper here, as you might find it useful as a tool for integrating various aspects of the course. For example, you might want to look at the ways in which the different concepts and theories in the course as a whole link to each other; or examine how the models of international order from Part 4 of Ordering the International link to other parts of the course; or think in more depth about some of the debates that arise around all of these issues.

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