Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Global politics refers to patterns of political relations and activities that stretch across state borders, and whose consequences are, potentially and/or actually, worldwide in scope. As such, global politics includes but is not limited to interstate relations, and is not explicable in terms of those approaches conventionally deployed by realist scholars of international relations (IR). The latter have routinely assumed the primacy of sovereign, bounded territorial states, which act in their own national interest in a sharply demarcated “external” political environment defined by zero-sum power equations. Many theorists argue that such views do not accurately reflect the new realities of what some have referred to as a post-Westphalian or post-international world. In this world, states allegedly have had their capacities eroded, the boundaries separating domestic and foreign policy are increasingly blurred, and the sources of political authority, legitimacy, and governance have multiplied beyond the territorial state. This has created a “democratic deficit” between the nominal sites of political participation (national states) and more remote global sources of political power and decision-making, in turn raising questions about contemporary forms of political community and citizenship. These shifting realities have been prompted by a number of developments encompassed by the term ... log in or subscribe to read full text