ROLE OF STATE IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

WHAT ARE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS?


IR - is a discipline between disciplines in the arena of social science. It generally straddles the following disciplines:

• Political science (the foreign affairs component);
• Economics (the international aspects);
• History (wars and diplomacy);
• Law (international Law);
• Culture, etc.


It extracts and compiles the international elements and attempts to develop a common discipline but its theory and method is embedded in the social sciences at large.


Simply put it covers three sorts of interactions:


• Regarding the operation of the international system
• Non-state or transnational actors (non –governmental)
• Relations between states


ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: -

In the modern international political system, states and nations have been related in three distinct ways: -

Coherent State, Multinational State, Multi State


All of these patterns of state have a major role to play in the international community. Although state is the chief actor in the global community, the role of different types of organization such as Multinational Co-operations (MNC), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), International Governmental Organizations (IGOs), also play a vital role in International Relations.


An important element in International Relations is the State. The major theories have as its basis the issue of relations between states and the pivot thus is located on the state and that is based on the Westphalia State model where the major pillar of the model (sovereignty) is being eroded with global integration.


WHAT IS STATE?

A state is a political community with people, territory and a sovereign government. It can also be defined as a legal and political concept referring to a well-defined territory controlled by a government and inhabited by a permanent population. State is the main actor in the International Relations. It is the pattern of political life in which people are separately organized into sovereign states that interact with one another, in varying degrees and varying ways.

Although the term often refers broadly to all institutions of government or rule—ancient and modern—the modern state system bears a number of characteristics that were first consolidated in western Europe, beginning in earnest in the 15th century.

In the late 20th century, the globalization of the world economy, the mobility of people and capital, and the rise of many international institutions all combined to circumscribe the freedom of action of states. However, the state remains the basic political unit of the world, as it has been since the 16th century. The state is therefore considered the most central concept in the study of politics, and its definition is the subject of intense scholarly debate. Political sociologists in the tradition of both Karl Marx and Max Weber usually favor a broad definition that draws attention to the role of coercive apparatus.

Since the late 19th century, the entirety of the world's inhabitable land has been parceled up into states; earlier, quite large land areas had been either unclaimed or uninhabited, or inhabited by nomadic peoples who were not organized as states. Currently more than 200 states comprise the international community, with the vast majority of them represented in the United Nations.



For more than 300 years (i.e. after the Treaty OF Westphalia, 1648) nation state has remained the dominant political actor in world politics. No other institution has greater authority over people other than state. In the late 20th century the globalization of the world economy, the mobility of people and capital, and the rise of many international institutions have also influenced the international relations and have minimized the role of state.



However states embedded in an international system face internal and external security dilemmas. Recently the notion of “International Community” has been developed to refer to a group of state who have established well define rules, procedures, and institutions. For the conduct of their relations, therefore the foundation has been laid for international law, diplomacy, formal regimes and organizations. The state influences international relations in different aspects.