Periodos del Sistema Internacional - Relaciones internacionales

Hello, good morning, my name is Gabriela Meléndez, I am a member of the International Relations Team 4 and with the help of my partner Gerardo Martínez we will be explaining the study of history through different periods of time. The objective of this video is that we understand in a more visual and pleasant way what international relations are.

The international system is defined as the interaction between two or more different units where the nucleus develops in a general way based on politics, social, geographical and all these configure world affairs. We can say in a simpler way that it is the general scenario in which international relations occur at a given moment.

then there are the international relationships characterized mainly by change or continuity. We must take into account that relationships can be expressed in two concepts, the first a sui generis and the second a déjà vu. The sui generis is an event that is not repeated again, we can put as an example the colonization of Coca-Cola or the explosions of demography over time.

On the other hand, the Deja Vu is an event that was already foreseen, that was already known what was going to happen. For example, in the First World War, when it ended and Germany was defeated, it would look dissatisfied and seek revenge. Then the Second World War arose. Hello, good morning, my name is Gerardo Martínez, I am a member of the Rey team.

Let's start talking about the International Class 5 system As already mentioned before, this was characterized by a low degree of interdependence between the nation-states What do I mean by this? Because people knew very little about what was happening in the outside world, they only knew what was happening in the cities and in the villages As at that time the monarchy reigned too much, the monarchs depended on gold to finance their armies, which in turn were their symbols of power

The nation-states at that time were very well defined and self-sufficient economically speaking, since they did not depend on international trade in great measure. This is because technology was very primitive at that time and kept the regions of the world isolated from each other. The classical international system was represented by a European policy and in terms of power it was based more than anything on military capacity as already said before.

The wealth was distributed in a similar way between the various dominant countries of Europe, this is included in England, France, Austria, Sweden, Spain, etc. and there was in Europe an equilibrium of power, more than anything to prevent a state from trying hegemony, what do I mean by this? that a nation-state was more powerful than the others.

Next we will see the international system of transition, this is called so because it practically goes from one system to another, in addition to the fact that the characteristics of the first were adapted and other new ones were reaffirmed. This period marked its beginning with the French Revolution and lasted more than 100 years, so it has different central aspects that highlight it, some of them are the development of state nations, the emergence of ideologies and nationalist movements that coincide with liberal or bourgeois revolutions.

Napoleon took power and began a time of nationalism, not only in France but all over the world, which would continue until the beginning of the 20th century. This was based on a more fervent relationship between the government and the people. In turn, nationalist impulses led to the appearance of new nation-states around the world. In the year 1830 we reached the population of 1,000 million inhabitants all over the planet.

The Industrial Revolution also emerged, which not only distorted wealth, but also power bringing to the front not only France, but as new powers to Russia and the United States. In the process, communism and fascism became known as political ideologies, and years later, at the end of the Second World War, what we now know as the United Nations or UN.

After the First and Second World Wars, the non-state actors emerged, which more than anything are the international organizations, which by the end of this period, they reached a great growth around the world. These non-state actors were divided into two groups,

For a group we have the Intergovernmental Organizations or by their acronyms OIG that are by the governments. The governments establish these organizations as a response to problems that transcended the national borders and that seemed to claim for an institutional response. Such is the example of the UN or the OIT by its acronyms International Labour Organization.

On the other hand, we have the non-governmental organizations or NGOs, which are composed of private groups of individuals or entities that share the same interests as intergovernmental organizations. Thanks to the UN we have the concept of international law, which I will explain below.

International law defines the legal responsibilities of states in their relations with each other, in turn, as the treatment of individuals within the state borders. This covers some aspects such as human rights, international crime, migration, treatment of prisoners, the use of force, conduct during war, etc.

International law, in turn, as the UN motto, seeks peace, dignity and equality on a healthy planet. We will move on to the following international system after the Second World War, the so-called post-war system. It included the years of 1945 to 1989 and started with the two bombs launched by the United States to the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The characteristics of this system is that two states emerged as dominant powers: the United States and the Soviet Union, to which they were called superpowers, to distinguish them from states of the second line and those that were in lower positions. The United States was "the first among equals" and enjoyed a virtual hegemony over the economy of the world. In turn, a polarized system emerged. What does this mean? That public opinion was divided into two opposite extremes.

and two compact and organized blocs were developed around antagonistic ideologies. These are: the Western Bloc, which was led by the United States, together with capitalist democracies and economically developed ones, with the alliance of the countries of Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Western Europe.

On the other hand, we have the Eastern bloc, led by the Soviet Union, in which were relatively developed communist states economically, which included Eastern Europe and had the participation of communist China. Now we will see the fissures in the post-war system. There came a point when independent nations were being created both in Africa and Asia, but they rushed to enter the bloc of the United States, the capitalist, or that of the Soviet Union, the communist.

and adopted the position of being non-aligned. This so-called Third World, traced the limits of what superpowers could do. Biopolarity was gradually descending with the emergence of a Third World, consisting of less developed countries that tended not to take part in the conflict between West and East. The objective of the fight between the superpowers was to gain influence over the foreign policy of those Third World countries.

In the 50s and 60s, the proliferation of the new independent states of the Third World reflected a growing structure fragmentation of the two powers. By the 70s, power became more diffuse and alliances less solid, and until the late 80s, the trends culminated with the end of the Cold War and the post-war era, starting the contemporary era of international relations.

Before we start with the contemporary international system, we have to know two events that marked history in the 20th century. The first of all, the disintegration of the USSR or better known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This was made up of 15 republics, it was the rival of the United States in the Cold War and had a communist system.

It had the largest population in the world with 223 million people at that time, in addition to 10 different ethnic groups, in which the Russians, Ukrainians, Uzbeks stand out and was recognized in the world thanks to the leadership of Joseph Stalin.

The disintegration of the USSR began with the death of Konstantin Cherneko in 1985, to which Mikhail Gorbachev took possession. This character came with two important reforms for the Soviet Union, the first called the "Perestroika", this was based on the restructuring of the economy and he intended to be able to reactivate it again.

The term "perestroika" means "restructuring" and was what Gorbachev intended, that in addition to wanting to be able to turn the Soviet Union into a new economic power, he was trying to leave behind once and for all the Stalinist heritage. The main objective of this reform was to be able to get the Soviet economy out of the chaos in which it was assumed, introducing greater freedom of companies and letting the market act to correct the defects of the planification.

The second reform called "Gladnot" which meant openness or transparency, consisted in counteracting the censorship that there was in other times and that there was no repression for the people or the media. The factors that brought the weakening of the USSR started with the perestroika, which was a failure. This reform did not make the Soviet Union sink even more, therefore there was a rise in prices and a shortage of products.

The weakening of the Eastern Bloc was another point since they were not part of the USSR, they were their allies within the Eastern Group, they functioned as satellite countries since they were influenced by the communist system. There were too many restrictions on the part of the USSR on the issue of migration since they did not want a brain leak. They intended to prevent the professionals who inhabited enrich other countries, but it was clear that there were better opportunities on the western side.

Deflation grew thanks to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disappearance of the German Democratic Republic. There was an increase in ethnic conflicts and nationalist movements in various regions of the USSR. For example, it was reflected in the area of ​​the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which were annexed after the Second World War.

These states have driven strong processes of independence, such as Lithuania, which was the first republic that formally declared its independence and exit from the USSR in March 1990. Thanks to this boom in the Baltic countries, it only increased nationalist movements in other parts of the Soviet Union. Another factor was the power dispute between the USSR and the Soviet Republic of Russia.

by the process of decentralization driven by Gorbachev, the state sovereignty of Russia had been declared as an member of the Soviet Union, which led to the creation of a new position in the presidency, which was won by Yeltsin, who played an important role in the process of disintegration of the USSR. This led to the disagreement of the conservative sectors of the Communist Party, who lost power and influence within the structure of the Soviet Union.

At the beginning of the 90s, he never imagined that such a powerful bloc could fall, but on August 19, 1991, a coup d'état occurred by the conservative communist sector, while Gorbachev was on vacation in the Crimean peninsula, a power takeover was unleashed in Moscow, Yenedi Yanayev took place as provisional president and it was ordered that Tanquezil and Gerrito would be placed in the parliamentary seat.

People got out and tried to stop the military, there was a fear that a civil war would be unleashed. Boris Yeltsin took an important role in which he got on one of the tanks to be able to give a speech in which the population saw him as a mediator. The withdrawal of the military was ordered and Yeltsin brought Gorbachev back from Crimea and on August 21 he returned to Moscow. This brought an opinion in which Gorbachev saw himself as the leader who could not foresee or manage a crisis

and on the other hand Yeltsin saw himself as the governor who avoided a coup d'état and a major conflict. The intention of several republics to leave the USSR grew exponentially. A final blow to the disintegration was when Ukraine signed its independence with the support of 90% of the population. This implied that the rest of the republics would not hesitate to follow the same path and declarations of independence continued to take place.

Yeltsin, due to the last blow with the leader of Ukraine and Belarus, carried out on December 8, 1991, the signing of the Treaty of Belavezha, which officially declared the disintegration of the Soviet Union, which in the end ended up becoming one of those states that we see in the image. Next, my partner Gabriela will talk to us about the disintegration of Yugoslavia as a second event and will talk about the contemporary international system.

Contemporary International System: The disintegration of Yugoslavia Yugoslavia was created in 1918 at the end of the First World War. It arises from religious and ethnically diverse peoples. In fact, they had once inhabited Serbia. Yugoslavia was never a true nation. It was actually a poorly built state, as if it had been made to the race

which was mainly made up of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, all of them of Slavic descent. However, there were also Hungarians, Albanians, Turks, Gypsies, among other groups of nationalities. To better understand this, let's say that Yugoslavia was a fragmentary composition of territories and people,

that at the same time were united and divided by language, religion, culture, history and even the same political tradition. During the communist era, Yugoslavia was under the mandate of Tito, who managed to keep it united for a long time. Once this block falls, it is fragmented into several independent republics with mixed populations,

Yugoslavia is characterized by its ethnic conflicts, which were too many, and the most popular were between Serbs, Croats and Bosnians. With the death of Tito in 1980, the federation managed to maintain itself intact for one more decade, being the most culminating point in the Winter Olympics in 1984, which was held in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

And well, in the last years of the 80s and early 90s, some factors attacked this country. For example, the Baltic states such as Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, who had reaffirmed their right to self-determination in 1990.

managed to separate from the Soviet Union and achieved the recognition of their sovereignty by the international community and finally the disintegration of the Soviet Union, which produced the elimination of what for many Yugoslavs had been a common rival and therefore an element that agglutinated them. We can also put as an example the end of the Cold War and with it the tendency of the communist states that were in Eastern Europe and they sought to become market economies.

which produced serious economic dislocations in Yugoslavia. The distribution of wealth In this contemporary system there were not only levels of power but also of wealth, as it was characterized by a great gap between rich and developed countries with respect to poor countries and in the process of development. The world was composed of seven groups of countries,

In the first place we have the richest and most developed countries, then the industrialized countries. In the number 3 countries that have achieved some limited industrialization but still depend on agriculture. 4 the communist countries of Eastern Europe, very important. 5 the oil exporters that belonged to the OPEC. 6 countries that depend on the production and export of raw materials. And 7 the less developed countries.

Some additional complications: non-state actors. To begin with, non-state actors are those who are within the international system, who are not states. They are non-sovereign entities that exercise a significant power and influence, such as political, social, economic, and this at a national or international level. Some examples could be non-governmental organizations, multinational corporations, international media,

non-state actors, violent, armed groups, including terrorist groups, very important criminal organizations and even religious groups. To finish with this video, I will talk a little about diplomacy and the different types that exist in it.

But what diplomacy? It is the management of international relations through negotiation and interests between states, which is divided into these points: As a first point, we have bilateral diplomacy, which is based on links between only two states, its counterpart, the multilateral, between two or more actors of the system, whether states or organizations, to reach an agreement for the improvement of each actor.

As a point 2 we have direct diplomacy, it is done by means of representatives of states without intermediaries, while its counterpart, the indirect, by means of formal or diplomatic representatives. As a point 3 we have traditional diplomacy, this is based on federal governments with only executive, legislative and judicial powers.

As a fourth point we have parliamentary diplomacy, this is done by congresses and legislators, instead its counterpart, the para diplomacy, is where the federative entities establish links with other global actors. And as a fifth point we have citizen diplomacy, it is known for international activities, and its counterpart, public diplomacy, which is basically where a government establishes relations with the society of another country.

We hope this video has been helpful and the topics help you review for future occasions. From my partner Gabriela Meléndez and her server Gerardo, we thank you for finishing watching this video and any questions can be put in the comment box. Until next time.