To explain how globalization rebuilt public policy and social behavior, we study the different political, economic, and social actors - public or private, individual or collective - and the exchanges and interactions between them that are remaking international relations. This course is inspired by a French sociological and historical approach to international relations. This course is also available in french version: www.coursera.org/learn/espace-mondial-fr/
The Growing Capacity of Non State Actors
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From the course by Sciences Po
Espace mondial, a French vision of Global studies
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From the lesson
World Actors
Nation-states are no more the only international actor. Many groups and 7 billions of individuals are now potential actors of our current international system.
Meet the Instructors
Bertrand BadieProfessor
Marie-Françoise DurandProfessor
What is an international actor?
The question was considered as trivial
when the states were the only actors
of the international system.
But we are now in a new world
in which states are no more the unique actors
and even probably are not dominant actors
we have to take into account non state actors.
The question could be:
What is an actor?
An actor is one who is acting
on the international system,
but also an actor is expected to act
on the international arena.
We have to take into account
what is expected on the international arena.
Now many kinds of actors are expected
on the international arena.
I mean of course multinational corporations,
but also NGOs, but also transnational medias,
and also all the individuals
who are constituting the world by now,
that’s to say about 7 billion people
around the world.
All of us we are international actors
because we are consuming,
because we are watching international TV,
because we are travelling,
because we are surfing on Internet and so on…
So we have to understand what is at stake
when we are acting as international actors
on the arena.
We are probably,
creating several billions of interactions
on the international arena,
and in social science it’s very difficult
to analysis and to understand
all these new kinds of actions
which are not promoted by states
but by individuals.
That’s why, with these new kinds of actors,
we have to take into account
four levels of analysis.
The first one would be
an international civil society
which is more and more taking place,
that’s to say all these exchanges
which are initiated both by individual actors
but also by organized actors,
but organized non state actors.
The second will be an international public space.
If I take the word
which has been coined by Jürgen Habermas,
the famous German philosopher.
That’s to say more and more
there is a kind of international debate
which takes place with an emerging
international public opinion
with an emerging debate
which is gathering all the kinds
of actors playing in the international arena.
The third level will be the criminalization
of the international arena.
The more actors are diversified
the more criminalization takes place
as one of the major flows
on the international relations.
And there is a kind of interplaying
between international political actors
and mafia and all the criminal networks
which are playing on this international arena.
This interplaying is something probably new
and more and more important,
it is at stake now when we consider
the main events on the political sphere
of international relations.
And the fourth one will be ethnicization of the world.
If now states have no more the exclusivity
of international affairs,
it means that identity entrepreneurs
play a very important role
on the international arena
interplaying with the other actors
and giving to the ethnic issue
an important role
in structuring the political debate,
the international debate.
So Ladies and Gentlemen,
what does it mean non state actors?
I will propose a definition, I rarely do that,
but I think that this concept is so important
now that you have to agree
on a very clear definition.
I will say that non state actors
are all kinds of actors
who deliberately or not
are active inside the international arena
by overcoming or even ignoring
nation state sovereignty, border lines,
and who try to be free of any kinds of control,
and especially of political control.
That’s to say that,
we are facing a new dynamic
in international arena.
Why a new dynamic?
Because these non state actors
are overcoming distance,
that’s to say that territory
is less and less meaningful,
is less and less constraining.
And with the increasing mass communication,
interplaying between non state actors
is more and more emancipated
from the territorial support,
and remember that territorial support
was one of the main components
of the traditional nation-state
and is a condition, a clear condition,
of national sovereignty.
So we have to put in perspective
these two trends, in one hand
this abolition of distance and territory,
in the second hand this new kind
of interaction between these
more and more numerous non state actors.
The second change is something very important,
it’s what Karl Deutsch coined
as “social mobilisation”.
That’s to say social mobilisation is the process
by which individuals get emancipated
from the traditional communities.
Urbanization, education
but also increasing influences of media
are creating this social mobilization.
You understand that this social mobilization
is more and more transnational
as it is supported by media,
international transnational medias
and also by these new agents like NGOs.
And the third consequence is probably
a decreasing capacity of states,
that’s why probably politics
is now in crisis with this new order
in which non state actors have deprived
states from its monopoly of legitimate violence.
That’s to say that there is a new kind
of international violence
which is no more a legitimate violence
but which is jeopardizing
the international stability
and the international peace.
These are transnational actors.
We will say that these transnational actors
have relations between each other,
that’s why we will coin this new concept
of transnational relations.
And you understand that transnational relation is
different from international relation.
That’s why I would even suggest
to move to inter social relation
which is getting more and more important
and which is marginalizing the concept
of international and interstate relations.
The second concept, that has been coined
and especially by James Rosenau,
is the concept of transnational flows.
That’s to say
when these relations are permanent,
when it’s reproducing itself,
it means that there are flows
and these flows are shaping, structuring
the new world order
much more than the interstate power competition.
And, at last, these transformations result
in coining this very important concept
of transnational network,
transnational network shed the light
on the informal dimension
of these transnational relations.
What is a network?
A network is the strengths of weak ties.
The formula has been coined by Mark Granovetter,
the famous sociologist Granovetter,
who has put the finger on something very important,
that’s to say we are now in a world
in which weak ties, informal ties,
are much more important than institutional,
and formal and visible ties.
We can find many examples
of these transnational networks,
of this invisible interactions between actors.
The most famous will be for instance
alumni of great universities.
If you take into account for example
the MIT network,
you will observe that the main economic actors
around the world are coming from MIT
and they were there interplaying
and they are still now interplaying.
And they are also socialised by the main culture,
by the main training, by the main professors,
and sometimes these professors
are getting a new job
in the economic affairs in the world.
Of course, you won’t find among this elite
actors of African or even Latin American states.
So, these transnational networks
are shaping, structuring, giving sense
to this new world much more than
the traditional powers or the military powers.
Now you have
two kinds of transnational actors.
The first would be what I will call
aggregated actors that to say individuals
who are aggregated for creating
a transnational flows as we defined it.
For instance, investors but also migrants
are considered as aggregated
transnational actors,
non-organized but the social reality
is resulting from their individual initiatives.
And I will discriminate between
these aggregated transnational actors
and entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs are then defined
according to the Weberian vision
as an organized group which is directed
with very precise goals and with a clear strategy.
Among these entrepreneurs we can find of course
multinational corporations but also NGOs
but also some religious actors.
The Roman Catholic Church is an entrepreneur
according to the Weberian definition,
but also we can consider that transnational media
are transnational entrepreneurs.
So this is the global vision
of transnational actors.
Now we will move
to the description of some of them.
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