Who other than the governments of state, do you consider to be significant actors in the contemporary international system?

There are many actors in the modern international system ranging from major international political organisations such as the UN and NATO to less sizable, yet in their own way no less important, institutions such as Greenpeace and other pressure groups. In this essay I hope to identify the political groups that have played a part in recent global politics and then evaluate any potential claim to being a ‘significant actor’.

United Nations

After the treaty of Versailles in the aftermath of the First World War an organisation called the League of Nations was established. This was a largely ineffectual organisation that had the intentions of preventing major world conflict occurring again. It stood by powerless in the pre-Second World War years when it allowed Germany to pursue its expansionist aims, leading to the start of the first total war.

In the final days of the Second World War at the San Francisco conference the United Nations was established in the hope of preventing another major world conflict between members by connecting them in almost a ‘world government’. It acts on a ‘multi-layered system of governance sometimes working with states, sometimes alongside them, and sometimes apart form them.’ (Baylis & Smith, 1997).

The central system is comprised of four sections, the Security Council, the economic and social council, the general assembly of representatives of member states and the secretariat under the Secretary General. Although it has become the closest thing to a world government that we have at the present time the UN’s power is limited by its membership in so far as it can only act when its members want it to. This is most limiting when permanent members take conflicting positions over issues. Such limitations rendered the UN powerless during the cold war as the US and USSR took opposite sides and resulted in the UN being unable to take any decisive action. This also poses a threat in the post cold war period. Although the UN has acted on certain threats to international peace and security i.e. Iraq and Yugoslavia, it may find it harder to do so when a more influential nation pushes the moral boundaries.

In the aftermath of the events of September 11th America has, fuelled by public anger and need for retribution, declared war on terrorism. It could be considered to be acting in an aggressive and dangerous manner and with the biggest nuclear arsenal on earth, somewhat hypocritical when declaring its intentions to rid the world of Saddam Hussein because of the threat he and Iraq pose to world peace. Some might argue that America’s global economic power has pressurised other nations into following them and created a bias within the UN’s membership, removing their impartiality.

Despite these potential problems, during the 20th century ...

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Despite these potential problems, during the 20th century the UN has established a moral stronghold in the global political community and become the leading organisation for the creation of international law. The respect for its moral guidelines has been notable on several occasions, two such examples of which are the UK’s nervous wait for UN approval of its actions in the Falklands in 1982 and the US not following fleeing troops into Iraq during the Gulf war for fear of breaking UN guidelines.

It is undoubted that the UN is therefore a major political actor in the contemporary international system.

European Union

The European Union is made of five different sections, the European commission, the council of ministers, the European council, the European parliament and the European court of justice. All these combined are the result of the political integration that is leading to what Winston Churchill called the ‘United States of Europe’ in 1946. The Union was bought about by a number of influential factors including protection against soviet expansionism, the need for German integration in post-war Europe to prevent the ‘German problem’ from causing another major war and so that it could help rebuild a broken Europe, the emergence of Keynesian economics and free market capitalism of the late 20th century and the belief that the sovereign nation-state had to be superseded by supranationalism in order to preserve peace.

With these reasons backing the progressive movement towards an integrated Europe the growth of the EU over the last few decades has been unprecedented and it is now without doubt the most advanced ‘experiment in regional integration’. (Heywood, 2002).

The level of economic, political and now with the introduction of the single European currency, monetary union that is present within the EU results in one of the, if not the, most important bodies in the international system. The laws passed in the European Court of Justice override any laws in the member countries and the ECB (European Central Bank) makes decisions regarding interest rates that directly affect every member state of the single currency. Both of these elements show that unlike the UN, the EU can act independently of its member states, demonstrating greater decision-making power due to the lack of constrictions in place. The greater assertiveness on the world stage, embodied by the creation of a European rapid reaction force, is even threatening to ‘lead to a realignment in its relations with other major powers’ (Heywood, 2002) on the world stage.

NATO

NATO or the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is an intergovernmental body that was formed in April 1949 when eleven European countries joined with the US to create a military alliance. The North Atlantic Treaty basically states that if any of the member countries who at this present time are Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, UK and the US are attacked then all of the members would respond to the attack together. NATO was initially put together to guard against Soviet Russia entering into Europe and when west Germany joined in 1955 it prompted the Warsaw pact, a similar organisation for the east of Europe, which was disbanded in 1991. Since the end of the cold war NATO has needed to redefine itself as it had completed its original purpose. It has carried out operations all over the world as a peacekeeping force including in Yugoslavia in the late 1990’s and has changed into the nearest current equivalent of a world police force.

Media

The media plays a crucial role in the modern world. The introduction of the Internet has resulted in the creation of a global community where information regarding regional events is immediately available all over the globe, as they happen. This development in communication capabilities has not only resulted in greater knowledge availability but has also given the media a more powerful role than ever before.

The power that some media businesses or ‘moguls’ now have means that no government can afford to ignore them, as they are instrumental in influencing the public. For example, it has been contested that Rupert Murdoch’s news corporation played a key role in influencing the British public in the 1997 general elections, which resulted in Tony Blair’s labour government winning by a landslide majority.

Although it can be argued that the media have no direct political power and that they don’t have any military might, through the influence they wield they can manipulate the public and society to their own ends. In a broadly democratic world, this provides them with extreme power, as governments have to listen to what the people want if they are to stay in power and make policy changes that they want to. For these reasons the media is without doubt a significant external factor in the international system.

Corporations

Global corporations have become more and more influential in the present day. Sometimes known as McDonaldisation, the process of cultural globalisation through international corporate giants such as McDonalds, Coca-Cola and Marlboro lead to the creation of a universal culture where social differences around the world are intermixed and sometimes lost. The information revolution has played a key part in this McDonaldisation, defined by Heywood as ‘The process whereby global commodities and commercial and marketing practices associated with the fast-food industry have come to dominate more and more economic sectors.’

The size of such supranational corporations means that their budgets for advertising are now so vast that it is a stigma not to wear a branded clothing item in modern western society. Again, although they don’t wield any direct power over governments or transnational organisations, they control the mass public in a not dissimilar way to the media, thus influencing indirectly governments and consequently international organisations derived thereof.

Pressure Groups

Pressure groups, also known as interest groups can be defined as ‘An organised group of individuals, firms or organisations with shared interests or attitudes, which articulate demands on the political authorities.’ (Byrne, 2002). There are two types of these, protectional and promotional. These groups are often dismissed as a nuisance but serve many important roles in society.

In the case of promotional groups they serve to promote an idea to people and the political authorities in the hope that they can influence policy and implement changes. An example of such a group would be Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth. These groups generally don’t ally themselves with any political parties for fear of being shunned by the others and therefore can attempt to influence far more people. They tend to be quite influential with the previous examples having millions of members worldwide and playing large parts in bringing about important issues that governments would choose to ignore. They also provide governments with a means with which to test prospective ideas or policy changes.

Protectionist groups have much more power compared with promotional groups however. Protectionist groups, one’s that represent their members i.e. trade unions, generally have powerful sanctions that they can implement to directly influence the mood of the public or to get themselves noticed, as is currently being demonstrated by the fire fighters strike. Because these groups normally represent valued sections of society their influence is large and can result in a shift in public opinion, which is more often than not followed by government action. While these groups are more powerful than promotional groups, they don’t tend to represent international membership though. Because of this they cannot really be considered a significant factor in the current international system.