Empires and The Modern International System

According to the article, Empires and the Modern International System, Austrian system, also known as Vienna System was one of the bidding systems which is highly conventional in the contract bridge game. The game was devised by Paul Stern, an Austrian player in 1935[footnoteRef:1]. The Austrian system applied the Robertson count to analyze bridge hands. The features of the Austria system were not its technique of hand evaluation, though it’s bidding structure. New world order is the term has been used to make reference to the new period of history indicating a change in the balance of power world political thought.

Despite the fact that this term is interpreted differently, it is related to the ideological view of world governance only in the perspective of collective efforts to understand, identify, or address global problems that are beyond the individual nation’s capacity to find a solution. [1: ] According to the article, growing out of post- world War II tensions involving the two nations, the cold war conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States of America that occurred during the second half of the 20th century led to increased tensions , mutual suspensions and many international occurrences that led the world’s superpowers to destructions[footnoteRef:2] [2: ]

According to this article, scholars did not come into agreement over the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, which led to an end of the political conflict that arose from the political Reformations[footnoteRef:3] Although the question that is being ignored is why did the introduction of new forms of political heterodoxy during the period of reformations led to violent activities and almost destroyed the old political order? [3: ] The article attempt to evaluate the value that the concept of empire adds to the international relations study. The second objective is to find the effective way to study contemporaries’ empires, to know the factors to classify as empires. Whether people considering of empires should focus on the mission, imperial structure, and purpose. The third aim is to find ways of recognizing patterns of competition and cooperation among empires.

The article also focuses whether the contemporary manifestations of this empire exist in the absence of major conflict.

THESIS STATEMENT

The article attempts to argue that China, United States of America, European Union and Russia walk, look and talk like empires[footnoteRef:4]. Nevertheless, this article has not impressed people working in the field of international relations. For some people, the concept of Westphalian state the remains a major unit of analysis. Other people find it impressive to use the terms like hegemony and great powers. [4: ]

EFFECTIVENESS OF THE FACTS AND DATA

The article come up with a model of the power system ideal balance by applying the fundamental concept that a stable balance system indicates that there is no coalition or predominant actor. It is demonstrated that the primary motivation for involvement in a power system is a security in a universe where each country fears that they made up being on the losing side.

SUGGESTIONS

Under certain conditions of accurate information, such a power system would be stable only when the standard equality of power could be maintained, even by proper alignments with neutral nations when necessary. Under uncertainty conditions, the practical aim will be stable deterrence which means trying to acquire power superior against the opponent. In both the circumstances, a stable balance may be achieved only under certain conditions. The successful operation will be the same to the ‘balance holder’ case.

Reference

Zielonka, Jan. “Empires and the modern international system.”В GeopoliticsВ 17, no. 3 (2012): 502-525.

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