Dispute Characterizations of International Relations

International relations revolve around world political affairs, territorial boundaries, and multinational associations. This area involves international organizations, nations and states, regimes, societies and the general population. International relations also comprises of the largest society including the world at large. The study of multinational affairs constitutes of unending competition between the realist, liberal, and radical behaviors. The different approaches create misunderstandings among individuals and groups as they present opposing views and ideas on how to handle international affairs. For example, the realist approach insists on the tendency to persevere disputes between nations while the liberalist approach states the different methods of how to ease the conflicts. On the other hand, the radicals approach explains how to alter the structure of multinational associations. There are several reasons that lead to international conflicts.

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To begin with, nations may have contrasting interests and capacities. Differing interests are among the main causes of disputes among states (Hummel, 2014). Nations may start a conflict as they may differ on their wants and concerns. Some of the wants include border disputes in which the nations may differ on where the borders existed. The nations may also have contrasting views and opinions about a certain topic that may create tensions between the two nations. Citizens of a country may have negative insights on another state(s) or individuals from that state(s), which may lead to the arising of conflicts among them. An example of negative insights includes the negativity created by the whites on the black people in which the whites saw the blacks as inferiors and considered them as slaves.

Another cause is a substantial adjustment in the balance of power among nations (Hummel, 2014). The introduction of new power balances that act outside the existing formalized organization of prospects. The structure of expectations is informal and dictates the rules of personal understanding between individuals and groups. These may lead to increased misunderstandings between the states government and international participants including leaders, humanitarians, and international investors. The new power balance may lead to the stirring up of conflict with other nations, as they would have opposed the structure of expectations. An example of the structure of expectations includes the UN Charter, which describes membership in the organization, the rights, and roles of the members and punishments for misconducts among others (Hummel, 2014).

Another cause of multistate conflicts is the competition over territories (Hummel, 2014). Some nations may start a conflict with another nation due to territorial similarities. Territorial conflicts occur when two nations claim they ownership over a certain territory. Such a conflict includes the war due started by nations that had similar interests in the Alsace and Lorraine territories, the Beagle channel among others. The two nation also have a will to war in order to defend their interests over the territories. The two conflicting nations that have confidence in its combat potentiality may declare war on each other. The nations may want to safeguard their pride. A states pride may inhibit it from surrendering or concede to avoid war. The main reason is that the nation may have great expectations that it will succeed in the war.

Another major cause of multistate conflicts is the existence of awareness about the other nation in conflict (Hummel, 2014). Awareness in this perspective is the one country possessing information on the defenses, security and offensive tactics of another nation. For this reason, the information may lead to the state creating strategies that may overdue the tactics of the other nation. This creates assurance that it will defeat the other nation. War capability also causes conflicts as the country has knowledge that it is capable of waging and continuing a war (Hummel, 2014). A nation may have enough troops, resources and funds that may enable it to start and persevere it through war hence has enough confidence that enables it to stir up conflicts with other nations. Other factors may intensify these causes of multistate conflicts leading to heightened conflicts between the disputing nations.

Numerous factors may intensify the causes of multistate conflicts. To start with, the societies may have cultural differences (Diehl, 1992). Differing cultures among societies create conflicts as one culture may have a custom that the other culture considers as a taboo leading to heightened conflicts. Another factor is the differences in power position (Diehl, 1992). Several nations may differ on which is more powerful and prestigious than the other leading to them conflicting over power and prominence. Some situations created by conflicting nations may create cognitive disequilibrium on the opposing nation leading to war between them (Diehl, 1992). The nation may respond aggressively and physically on the other state that created the complication. The existence of forced power in a certain state. This may lead to uprisings and interferences from other states with a differing opinion that may lead to war among them. These factors may aggravate the existence of conflicts among nations. Theorists created different approaches that help classify the state of international affairs and world politics.

The first approach is the realism approach, which had a huge display during the Cold War (Carlsnaes, Risse-Kappen and Simmons, 2013). The approach explains international relations as a power tussle between self-centered nations. The approach has a negative opinion on the reasons for eradicating disputes that would lead to war. The realism approach created several theories such as the offense-defense theory, which explained that when a nation had a better defense than offense, it would have no motives to declare war on another nation. This would create fear among the nations hence reduce the possibilities of any nation attacking another.

Another approach is liberalism tradition. This approach insisted that if states depended on each other economically, they would not wage conflicts since it would intimidate each others success (Carlsnaes et al., 2013). Another approach carried by liberalists was that democracy was a key that would bring world peace. They argued that states that incorporated democracy in their governments were more peaceful than those that were authoritative. This approach insisted on multinational collaboration other than the defense version dictated by the realism approach.

The final approach is the radical approach. The radical approach was an alternative to both the other approaches (Carlsnaes et al., 2013). Marxism was one of the theories created in this approach. The Marxism theory mentioned capitalism as the main cause of multinational disputes. It explained that capitalist nations waged war on each other in order to gain profits or even fight socialist states for their own gains. The Neomarxist theory explained that developed states exploited the less developed ones for more gains.

In conclusion, the presence of international conflicts gave rise to international relations. This is evident in that international relations started after the end of World War I by the formation of the League of Nations. Over the years, states waged war on each other creating the World War II and the Cold War. Hence, international conflicts characterize international relations through a theoretical approach as seen in the three approaches: Realism, Liberalism and the Radical approach.

References

Carlsnaes, W., Risse-Kappen, T., & Simmons, B. (2013). Handbook of international relations. London: SAGE Publications.

Diehl, P. (1992). What Are They Fighting For? The Importance of Issues in International Conflict Research. Journal Of Peace Research, 29(3), 333-344. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022343392029003008

Hummel, R. (2014). CAUSES AND CONDITIONS OF INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT AND WAR.Hawaii.edu. Retrieved 23 September 2016, from https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/WPP.CHAP16.HTM