International Politics: Power and Purpose in Global Affairs

International Politics: Power and Purpose in Global Affairs
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International Politics: Power and Purpose in Global Affairs
This discussion is a summary of chapters 1-4 of this book by D’Anieri, (2021).
Chapter 1 Problems and Questions in International Politics
The book is about the themes of power and purpose. The purpose is the aims and goals of political actions taken by various actors (states, bureaucracies, NGOs, individuals). Power refers to the ability to influence someone’s actions. The types of power include coercion, institutional, soft, structural, and collaborative power. Political science revolves around theories that the study of international politics tries to evaluate in broad terms.
Explanatory theory serves the purposes of explanation, prediction, and prescription, whereas normative theory seeks to establish the purpose of political action. The methodology is a branch of political science that studies how best to prove or disapprove political theories (hypothesis). To evaluate theories, levels of analysis are used to identify the units of state, sub-state, system, and individual that the analysis focuses on. To explain political behavior, a theory focuses on these units.
Chapter 2 The Historical Evolution of International Politics
The sovereign state system, which spread around the world through colonialism and contained several sovereign states by the end of the 1970s, led to the emergence of the international system. International politics was birthed in the 5th century BCE in ancient Greek when Athens and Sparta, two city-states, went into war. After the fall of the Greek cities, the Roman Empire and the feudal system (consisting of kings, lesser nobles, Roman Catholic church) emerged before the coming of the Western European sovereign states, whose principles were established by the Westphalia Treaty signed in 1648.
Most of the world’s territorial boundaries were under monarchies until the emergence of the Western European sovereign states in the early 19th century, driven by imperialistic and nationalistic interests. World War 1, fought in 1914-18 between the Triple Alliance and Triple Entente, officially end...