GS101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Baby Steps, Hegemony, International Criminal Court
Document Summary
Dystopia: unhappy, conflict-torn future, which marks regression from where we are today. One way to transcend these sharp dualisms and to make it more likely that the optimist can and will prevail, is to create an effective world gov. Currently, we do not have a world gov. Un is a voluntary association of different nations, not a gov. We have some aspects of global governance the un does serve some useful global functions, esp. in connection with technical, specialist, and operational issues like trade and health. We might think global gov. options on a continuum, from the loosest, least governed model, to the most tightly and highly governed: international anarchy. Anarchy: no rules; total non-governance, everyone for themselves. This is the historical norm, dominating until the international system/birth of international law around 1650: international association. Marks the first attempt to create rule-bound and predictable foreign affairs.
