The Contemporary Transformation of the International System
                                       Professor John Wilton
                                             Lecture 1
                                The States-system and its emergence



                                                                      Timetable

All lessons start at 13.35 and finish at 15.30. on Tuesdays in Room P22

30.09.08        Lecture 1

07.10.08              Lecture 2

14.10.08         READING AND SEMINAR PREPARATION WEEK (no lecture)

21.10.08              Workshop

28.10.08              NO LECTURE

04.11.08              Lecture 3

11.11.08              Lecture 4

18.11.08              Lecture 5 + Seminar 1

25.11.08              Lecture 6 + Seminar 2

02.12.08              Lecture 7 + Seminar 3

09.12.08              Seminar 4 and Seminar 5

 Wednesday 14 January 2009:     SUBMISSION OF ESSAY  - Essays to be submitted by email or the
Masaryk University Information System



                                             Lecture 1

How and why the ‘modern’ states-system of today emerged and developed



•                         Geographical and territorial processes

•                         Capitalist economic development, and the parallel development of
capitalist social relations

•                         Ideological and philosophical development

                                             Lecture 1

•                         Geographical and territorial processes

      - the identification and acceptance of    national and nation-state boundaries

         - based upon power relations and the          balance of power between states,
alongside ethnic and cultural identities



           -  The Peace of Westphalia of 1648 – origin      of ‘modern’ states-system in Europe

                                             Lecture 1

Westphalian states-system based on principles of:



•                         Sovereigns were not subject to any higher political authority +
Sovereigns independent and equal to every other Sovereign;

•                         The Sovereign Ruler decided the religion of his/her state;

•                         There should be a ‘Balance of Power’ between states – to prevent any one
state dominating (i.e. prevent hegemonic power)





                                             Lecture 1

B) Capitalist economic development, and the parallel development of capitalist social relations



- (uneven) development of a productive capitalist economy, and capitalist social relations,
transformed and expanded the European states-system

- the ‘political’ states-system assisted the development of the capitalist economic system across
Europe

      - AND, in turn, the capitalist economic system     assisted the development of the
‘political’ states-     system



                                             Lecture 1

C) Ideological and philosophical development



     - the emergence of liberalism as an ‘ideology’ and   the ‘Enlightenment’ as a philosophical
perspective



      - liberalism based upon:

           a) individual rights and liberties;

           b) universality and equality;

           c) the promotion of mutual gain through co-             operation, including
co-operation among            nations.



                                             Lecture 1

From the middle of 18^th century ‘liberal international order’ based upon 3 assumptions:



•                      that the basic actors in the international system are individuals and
private groups;

•                      that the actions and preferences of States represent the interests of some
of those individuals and groups;

•                      that State behaviour is determined by the interdependence of State
preferences across the international system.



                                             Lecture 1

-                       Towards end of 18^th century saw a fundamental re-assessment on the nature
of the European state, through ‘the Enlightenment’

-                       Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Paine argued that:

-                   society served the individual, and the function of government was to foster,
safeguard and promote the rights of the individual;

-                   rights were universal, and were not privileges held by individuals because they
were granted to them by Sovereigns and Rulers (challenged ‘Divine Right of Kings and Queens’)