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Unit 1: Power, Sovereignty and International Relations

 

For this unit, you should be able to discuss the differing forms of power that the following actors use in the international system. You need to provide examples of these to support your discussion that show both success and limitations on the use of power by these actors. You should also try where possible to include differing theories to account for this behaviour and use the differing levels of analysis.

 

  • States

  • IGOs (The UN, IMF, WTO and the EU

  • NGOs (Choose from Human Rights and Environmental based organisations such as AI, HRW, Green Peace, WFF, Sea Shepard)

  • MNCs (Choose from extractive rent seekers such as Glencore, Shell, Rio Tinto and manufacturing based ones such as Apple and auto manufactures.

  • Groups that either seek to influence states or directly challenge their power. These include social movements such as Occupy; resistance groups such those involved in the Arab Spring; and finally, violent protest movements such as FARC or the LTTE.

  • The role of major political parties such as the USA’s republican and democrat parties, the CCP in China and the Labour and conservative parties in the UK have on Global Politics.

  • The role of informal groups such as the G20 and the World Economic Forum (WEF)

 

You also need to be able to discuss how actors interact in the international system by considering:

 

  • Global Governance that deals with issues that require multilateral cooperation and proposed solutions. These include climate change (Paris agreement), trade liberalisation and the various agreements such as Doha, responses to financial crisis such as the GFC by the EU and the IMF

  • Cooperation in the form of treaties such as the NPT, collective security through groupings such as NATO, strategic alliance that powerful states make in other regions such as China in Africa, economic cooperation such as multi and bilateral trade agreements

  • Lastly, the differing forms of conflict such as inter and intrastate war and terrorism

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Below are some additional resources and case studies to help you with this unit.

Unit 2: Human Rights

 

For this unit, you will need to be able to define what is meant by human rights and how they have evolved over time. You need to be able to incorporate the key ideas of liberty, inalienability, universality, equality and justice.

 

You should be familiar with the trajectory of human rights and know the key milestones that have been achieved from the ancient world to the contemporary. This includes the three generations of human rights. You should know what the important documents so that you don’t just fall back on the UDHR.

 

Be familiar with the mechanisms that uphold and enforce human rights. These include the mechanisms within treaties, concepts such as R2P, bodies such as the ICC and the various ad hock courts. Closely related to this is the bodies that are involved in monitoring human rights such as NGOs and IGOs.

 

We have also looked at the more contemporary claims on human rights such as gender, environmental, labour and indigenous land rights. Make sure you are familiar with these. Likewise, be familiar with the contemporary violations of human rights such as child soldiers, human trafficking, forced relocation and forced labour to name a few.

 

Lastly, we looked at a number of debates such universality verses cultural/collective rights; the merits of humanitarian intervention and the effectiveness of sanctions.

 

Below are some additional resources and case studies to help you with this unit.

UNIT 3: Development

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For this unit, you need to be able to consider what the differing means of defining and measuring development are. The orthodox measurement has been to focus on economic indicators such as GDP. In recent times the focus has moved from the economy to other areas such as political institutions, health, levels of education and the treatment of the environment. Measurements have moved away from economics and GDP to consider the Human Development Index (HDI), inclusive wealth indices, corruption indices etc.

 

You should be familiar with how the following factors either help promote or inhibit development

  • Political Factors

  • Economic Factors

  • Social Factors

  • Institutional Factors

  • Environmental Factors

 

Another area that unit focuses on are the differing pathways towards development. You should have a good understanding of the arguments associated with neoliberal economic theories versus state directed models of development. Associated with this are differing approaches that might focus on promoting an aspect of economic activity such as trade liberalisation, exports, commodities, tourism etc.

 

Finally, you should be familiar with the different debates surrounding development (this is where the Paper 2 questions are most likely to be drawn from). These include the impact that globalisation has had in terms of development (has it created greater levels of inequality, damaged the environment, has growth come at the expense of human rights etc.) You should also be aware of the debates surround which actors are best placed to deliver development. Should it be the role of states to provide development aid, or are MNC better placed to deliver FDI. What role should IGOs and NGOs have in terms of facilitating development,

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