ULUSLARARASI İLİŞKİLER TEORİLERİ I - Deneme Sınavı - 18

A final premise of the English School, which is worth mentioning again, is rejection of presentism. The English School has an historical approach not just in the sense that the phenomena is something historical and must be understood in its historical process.

International society has been the core concept of the English School from very early on as it was one of the concepts discussed within the British Committee. English School argues that international relations constitute a society just like individual national societies.

Wight’s triple conceptualization of international thought in terms of three Rs, namely Realism (associated with Machiavelli and Hobbes), Rationalism (associated with Grotius) and Revolutionism (associated with Kant), actually corresponded with the international system, international society and world society.

The distinctions of the English School from the other schools and its merits are: a) ontological and epistemological pluralism, b) its historical approach repudiating both determinism and presentism, c) the significance given to values and cultural and civilizational identities.

Cosmopolitanism is the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single global community.

Empirical theories intensify on the real reasons of relations between statesmen and foreign policy.

The scholars that base their arguments on relativism refuse cosmopolitanism. In other words, they do not accept the universality of some values. Universal law, natural law, universal peace, universal morality, universal human rights are not accepted by them.

The background of this cosmopolitan viewpoint rests on the idea of common law in Roman Empire. According to this approach, values transcend the societies, and it is not possible to attribute them to one society.

Social contract theory depends on the assumption that the individuals might voluntarily bind themselves to the certain principles.

For utilitarianism, the social and individual interests overlap. And as he works for the happiness for himself, he works for the happiness of other people.

Jus ad bellum refers to the conditions under which States may resort to war or to the use of armed force in general.

Self-determination is the right of the people of a particular place to choose the form of government they will have.

Pacta Sunt Servanda:

A principle of international law that treaties and other international engagements are bin- ding upon the nations that accede to them, and obligations accepted under such engagements must be performed, or reparations made in the event of a breach.

Perpetual peace approach of Kant and European federation idea of J. J. Rousseau were interesting examples for normative studies

From the beginning of the 19th century to the First World War, the rapid expansion of colonialism and the Industrial Revolution occurred as a result of other major technological improvements in communications, transportation, and manufacturing processes. The European states needed raw materials found in colonies, hence international trade expanded, so did international investment. This way, capital especially moved from Europe to North America in search for higher profits. Throughout the 19th century, it, in a way, became necessary for European industrialized nations to expand their markets globally in order to sell products that they could not sell domestically in their countries. Besides, businessmen and bankers had excess capital to invest, and foreign investments offered the incentive of greater profits, despite the risks. The need for cheap labor and a steady supply of raw materials necessitated that the industrial nations maintain firm control over these unexplored areas. Only by directly controlling these regions, which meant setting up colonies under their direct control, could the industrial economy work without any serious problem (www. tamaqua.k12.pa.us).

The era of colonialism brought about serious consequences, changing both Western society and its colonies. Through it, Western countries managed to establish a global economy in which the transfer of goods, money, and technology needed to be regulated in an orderly way to ensure a continuous flow of natural resources and cheap labor for the industrialized world. Yet colonialism adversely affected the colonies. Under foreign rule, local economies could not find a chance to grow. Imported goods wiped out local ones. This way, powers held back the colonies from developing industries. Colonialism also led to a cultural clash. By the start of the 20th century, Western nations had control over most of the globe. Europeans were convinced that they had superior cultures and forced the people to accept the Western way of life. The pressures to Westernize led the colonial people to reevaluate their traditions. But the good thing was Western countries introduced modern medicine that stressed the use of vaccines and more sanitary hygiene, helping to save lives and increase life expectancy.

As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is A. The argument in the option I “Under foreign rule, local economies could not find a chance to grow. Imported goods wiped out local ones.” and in the option II “Colonialism led to a cultural clash. The pressures to Westernize led the colonial people to reevaluate their traditions.” can be used by the one who has been planning to underline the drawbacks of colonialism, so the correct answer is A. The argument in the option III underlines the good side of that period. The arguments in the options  IV and V express the reasons in favor of colonists for the rise of colonialism.

Economic nationalism, as another major approach to IPE, refers, in a generic sense, to an ideology that favors state interventionism in the economic sphere. The nationalists also believe that closing off an economy to external influences can be beneficial to growth and economic progress. Thus, economic nationalism can be defined as a mixture of trade protectionism and economic planning, with an aim to preserve national interests in the context of world markets.

The main theorists of economic nationalism are Alexander Hamilton (1780-1804), the first United States Secretary of the Treasury, who wrote The Report on the Subject of Manufactures (1791) and Friedrich List (1789-1846), a Prussian economist, who wrote The National System of Political Economy (1841). According to them, the simple formula is that industrial power equals national power and national power equals independence (Hamilton, 2001; List, 1991).

The rise of economic nationalism in recent history occurred particularly in the first part of the 20th century and it was essentially a response to the economic crises, nationalist movements, and enlarged states. In this respect, economic nationalism emerged as a criticism of economic liberalism as well. It is argued that states compete economically. This is very different from liberalism. The liberals believe that companies compete economically, but states do not. However, the nationalists see companies as elements of state power. So from this point of view, while Ford and McDonald’s, for example, contribute to United States power, Honda and Fuji contribute to Japanese power. The nationalists also believe that free trade only benefits the wealthiest, most advanced nations. In headto-head competition, the advanced or “mature” industries can easily defeat the less advanced or “infant” industries.

As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is C. The arguments in the option III “Closing off an economy to external influences can be beneficial to growth and economic progress.”, in the option IV “The simple formula is that industrial power equals national power and national power equals independence.” and in the option V “In headto-head competition, the advanced or “mature” industries can easily defeat the less advanced or “infant” industries.” can be used by a debater who advocates economic nationalism. The arguments in the option I “Political leaders should allow trade among nations to expand and keep government intervention in that trade down to a minimum.” and  “The government should be out of foreign trade, as well as domestic economy, as much as possible.” are the arguments in favor of economic liberalism.

The liberal approach can perhaps be best summarized by the writings of Adam Smith (17231790), a famous English economist. Smith argues that the key to national wealth, and therefore national power, is economic growth. The key to economic growth is free trade, the free flow of goods, services and investment across borders. Hence, political leaders should allow trade among nations to expand and keep government intervention in that trade down to a minimum. This means that imports and exports should flourish with as little restriction as possible (Smith, 2003).

As also undertsood from the information given the arguments in the option III and in the option IV are the arguments of economic liberalism approach and can be evaluated as the ones which do not not conflict with the arguments of economic nationalism by the one who advocates economic nationalism, so the correct answer is D.

The ones in the option I “Free trade only benefits the wealthiest, most advanced nations.” and in the option II “The simple formula is that industrial power equals national power and national power equals independence.” are the arguments of economic nationalism.

Economic structuralism, on the other hand, is concerned with the international division of labor created by the capitalist system. It sees that the division of labor is unfair, creating categories of rich and poor people, as well as rich and poor nations, at the macro level. Within the structuralist approach, there are actually two sub-approaches: the Marxist approach, which rejects capitalism completely, and the dependency approach, which aims to reform it. Particularly Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) created a great amount of literature outlining a theoretical critique of capitalism. The best place to look for details would be Marx and Engels’ The Communist Manifesto (1848) or Marx’s The Capital (1867).

As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is D. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels can be said to be the main theorists of economic structualism approach. Adam Smith and David Ricardo formulated economic liberalism approach. Alexander Hamilton and Friedrich List can be said to be main theorists of economic nationalism.

In the late 19^th century, the gold standard system was first adopted by the economically-developed nations, under the leadership of the Great Britain, the hegemonic power at that time. The gold standard was a monetary system where a country’s currency or paper money had a value directly linked to gold. With the gold standard, countries agreed to convert paper money into a fixed amount of gold. A country that used the gold standard set a fixed price for gold and bought and sold gold at that price. That fixed price was used to determine the value of the national currency (Bryan, 2010). Until the First World War, most countries in Europe were on the gold standard. Yet with the war, the system collapsed, because of the declining power of Great Britain and of the terrible economic conditions during and after the war. Even though there were some efforts to return to the safety of the gold standard in the second part of the 1920s, this did not last long due to the stock market crash, or the Great Depression, in late 1929. Therefore, the interwar period was basically an era characterized by financial instability and low level of international trade, with no vivid economically hegemonic power. The Great Depression, the worst economic crisis in the history of the industrialized World, began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. Then the Second World War erupted in late 1939, lasting about six years. Towards the end of the war, a stable finance and monetary system was aimed to be established by the Western countries fighting against Nazi Germany under the leadership of the United States. To that end, delegates from 44 countries met in the United States, in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire in July 1944. The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was held from July 1-22, 1944. The main goals were to ensure a foreign exchange rate system, prevent competitive devaluation, encourage international trade, and eventually promote economic growth.

With the intention of realizing these goals, the Bretton Woods Agreement was signed on July 22, 1948, whereby the so-called Bretton Woods system came into being.

In 1958, the Bretton Woods system became fully functional, as national currencies became convertible. In order to convert currencies, countries settled their international balances in dollars, while United States dollars were fully convertible to gold. As also understood from the information given, the correct chronological order of the events in the options is “I, II, III, IV, V”, so the correct answer is A.

The Bretton Woods system was eventually dissolved between 1968 and 1973. The overvaluation of the United States dollar led to concerns among the members of the system over the exchange rates and their tie to the price of gold. In August 1971, President Richard Nixon announced the “temporary” suspension of the dollar’s convertibility into gold. While the dollar had struggled throughout most of the 1960s within the parity established at Bretton Woods, this crisis marked the breakdown of the system. A later attempt to revive the fixed exchange rates failed and by March 1973, major currencies began to float against each other.

Even though the Bretton Woods monetary system itself collapsed this way, the so-called Bretton Woods institutions, which were set up along with the Bretton Woods Agreement, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), now the World Trade Organization (WTO), have survived, still directing international trade and finance to a great extent. As also understood from the information given, the crrect answer is E.