To explain how globalization rebuilt public policy and social behavior, we study the different political, economic, and social actors - public or private, individual or collective - and the exchanges and interactions between them that are remaking international relations. This course is inspired by a French sociological and historical approach to international relations. This course is also available in french version: www.coursera.org/learn/espace-mondial-fr/
A French Approach?
Loading...
来自 Sciences Po 的课程
Espace mondial：法国视角下的国际研究
个评分
从本节课中
Introduction
The current global world implies a new approach of the international arena, breaking with classical theories.
与讲师见面
Bertrand BadieProfessor
Marie-Françoise DurandProfessor
[MUSIC]
In my previous lecture, I insisted on the French touch in approaching
Espace Mondial, in approaching global studies and globalization.
Of course, there is no French exception, but there is a French specificity.
This French specificity is probably the background of all this MOOC.
So my point will be,
you're to explain what is this French approach to international relations.
The French vision of international politics and of globalization.
Of course France contributed inventing the Westphalian world.
France was one of the main actors of the Westphalian peace,
one of the main authors of the Westphalian Treaties.
And that's to say that the world order,
which is generated by the Westphalian peace
was produced by France and by French actors,
and especially by the French King Louis XIV.
But if France was participating in the invention of this new order,
it's evolution is rather different from other countries.
Let's consider for a moment, the Westphalian model.
And consider one of the main thinkers of this Westphalian order,
the English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes.
The French vision of international relations
was strongly affected by this Hobbesian vision of the world.
You remember that the author Leviathan considered
that in a world of insecurity, the state, that's to say the sovereign,
the leviathan, is providing security in return for
a part of individual liberties,
which are abandoned by individuals, by citizens for being protected by the state.
But for this reason, the state must be sovereign.
And if the state is sovereign, that means that it's not committed to any
rules which would be enforced against its own willingness.
That's to say that in the classic vision of international relations,
states are sovereigns, and the international arena is made
of a competition among sovereign actors like Gladiators.
And the formula is given by Hobbes, who considered that
we can compare states with gladiators in the international arena.
But if the state has to be sovereign for
being efficient, the state must forceful use power.
And that's why international relations is made of power politics.
Power politics is covering the international system,
the international relations among actors.
Using powers means using war in this competition among states.
War is considered by Hobbes as the main
background of international relations, the normal relations among states.
And that's why peace is only considered as
a very provisional movement between two wars.
And not only war is something in normal, trivial, among states,
but war is considered as an important factor of state making.
And that's why the famous American sociologist and historian,
Charles Tilly pointed these relations between war making and state making.
War making, state making, power politics are the main
parameters of this Westphalian order, which is made of
the juxtaposition of sovereign states, of sovereign territorial units.
And this vision is quite different from another vision which was promoted during
the same century but 25 years before, by the famous Dutch lawyer Grotius.
And Grotius had a different vision of international relations,
in which war is no more central.
For Grotius, and remember that Grotius was
one of the main advisers of the Dutch East India Company,
peace is necessary for promoting trade.
And so, if we want to have a peaceful world,
we have first of all to be committed to an international law.
And this international law, is legitimate
because it's a natural law given by God to people.
But Grotius was not the winner.
Hobbes was the real winner of the competition.
And that's why we kept this Westphalian world during several centuries.
The Grotius vision came back at the end of the First World War with Woodrow Wilson.
And Woodrow Wilson tried to reinvest the Grotius vision of international relations
for giving priority to international law and international institution.
But Hobbes never left the arena.
That is power politics.
Now, the French vision of international relations was strongly amended.
And the French vision of international relations got critical
against this traditional vision of power politics
in international relations for several reasons.
For political reasons, and for intellectual reasons.
Political reasons,
these political reasons are connected to the French political experience.
And we have to take into account the fact that France
experienced defeat three times in one century.
In 1871, when France was defeated by Germany.
In 1914 when France was defeated for
second time by Germany.
And the true defeat is during the Colonial Wars.
In Dien Bien Phu 1954 when France was
defeated by a small army made of the Vietnam
resistance against colonization.
And in 1960-62 when France was
defeated at the political level by Algerians, and
Algeria got it's independence after so many years of resistance.
And this triple defeat,
which really triggered the trauma in the French collective
vision of it's own history and it's own future.
This trauma led to a new vision of
international relations, in which power politics was no more central.
There is no more this strong trust in power politics that we can find.
For instance, in the American history, as US was not
defeated as France was during its history.
The second point, the second political experience is coming from colonization.
That's to say, through colonization France got in
touch with new people, new cultures.
And so it took place a new approach to international relations,
which was much more anthropological and
less political, taking into account the diversity of cultures.
And that's why our approach to international relations is
made of anthropology, sociology, history.
And the third difference is Gaullism.
That's to say, General De Gaulle was convinced that
France was no more powerful, but
has to move to what he called grandeur.
If we are no more powerful, we have to promote our grandeur, our greatness.
That's to say another vision of international relations in which
influence, culture, soft power, are much more important than hard power.
Now, we have also to consider factors.
There is not a real school of political science of international relations
in France.
The political vision of international relations was not really promoted
among our academic people.
But there is a very long and old tradition of history of international relations.
That's why we will stress on the historical dimension of the global world
an important school of thought, of international law.
International law was partly created in France through many
famous lawyers like Georges Scelle who tried to promote
another vision of the international societies and international arena made,
as he said, of compenetration of different societies.
This law dimension has to be considered in this lecture, and
we will try to show how the new international norms are shaping and
transforming our international arena.
But overall,
the French vision of international relation is made of sociology.
Coming from our great French sociologist at the end of the 19th century,
Emile Durkheim played a very important role in promoting the concept of
solidarity.
Contrary to Max Weber, Durkheim didn't take into account power.
Power was not the central concept of his own theory.
But the main point of Durkheim was to say that
without solidarity there is a risk of collapsing.
Societies will collapse without a minimal degree of social integration.
Social integration,
solidarity are the two founding concepts of the Durkheimian sociology.
And so, many people, and especially some students of Durkheim,
like the French politician Léon Bourgeois or Aristide Briand, we were inspired by,
and influenced by Durkheim's threat that in the world
we have to pay attention to minimal international integration.
Without minimal integration, without minimal social integration of the world,
there is the same risk of collapse.
And the main point of this lecture will be to
point that the present international system is
fragile because it is not integrated enough.
And if there is this lack of integration, there is a risk of conflict.
The present conflicts are no more made of competition among states,
but are made of this lack of international social integration.
This lack of international social integration is defined
by some indexes, like the Human Development Index.
That's to say, for instance, lack of education,
or food insecurity, or else insecurity and so on.
But we can also find some symbolic factors.
That's to say for instance, the lack of respite and
humiliation which is playing such an important role in the transformation and
in the conflict realization of the international relations.
This is the sociological vision that we have to promote of
the present international order.
[MUSIC]
