Global Politics
World Politics, otherwise known as world political science, refers to the field that studies the interactions of forces that shape global politics and the economic and cultural patterns of the world. In the center of this complex field are the many processes of global political globalization in reference to issues of global power. It is in this context that scholars have sought explanations for the emergence of international cooperation, inter-regional competition, and the current concentration of power in the hands of a global elite. Furthermore, it has been found that even within the halls of academe, the intricacies of world politics have been dissected to the point where theories and predictions about future world scenarios are routinely made.
In recent decades, the study of world politics has undergone a new turn in light of the theories ofvisionary global political scientists. With such theorists as political scientists Albert Einstein, Leo Tolstoy, and others came a revolutionary understanding of world politics. In the years since, such theories have grown to form the basis of international relations theory, which studies how actors in world politics interact with one another and shape the course of international relations. Such interactions are studied through models of global politics, international relations, and world institutions. A number of popular works have emerged as influential interpretations of world politics. Among these are:
The World as a Space: A Philosophy of International Relations by Samuel P. Huntington and Max Weinreich offers an alternative to the traditional account of international relations. In this text, Huntington and Weinreich explain how the expansion of human beings into space is a product of two different socio-economic developmental histories – the early colonizers and the early dispossessed. In addition, this book maintains that political theory is incomplete without a proper account of the history of world politics. This text continues to be an influential model of world politics as well as one that provides an important alternative to the deductive and empirical approach to understanding international relations.
Towards a Philosophy of Globalization: The Struggle for Global Dominance by Jane F. order and Peterpace Dovski is an outstanding primer on global politics. These two books argue that the post-cold war era has created profound changes in the organization of world politics. They maintain that while national borders do not provide state-side isolation, they do result in political fragmentation. The book thus develops its argument from within national boundaries, drawing upon various theories regarding how international organizations form the root of global politics. The book goes on to develop its critique of the emerging international order based on the fact that international organizations are increasingly based on ethnicity and national quotas.
Towards a Philosophy of Globalization and Its Consequences by J. Peter Fricker and R. Andrew Hansen is another significant contribution to the development of world politics. In this study, these two scholars lay out how the expansion of the system of globally coordinated economic policies, technological change, and political liberalization have altered the character of global governance. They then go on to describe three broad tendencies, namely, the post-cold war globalization, the democratic globalization, and the neo-liberal globalization, which they believe have had major consequences on world politics. They also describe the key trends and issues that they believe lie ahead for globalization.
Towards a Philosophy of World Politics, edited by Mark Zucherberg and Yifang Yang, is one of the most comprehensive works on world politics. The editors describe many issues and themes draw on various theories in the field and interpret and analyze many historical cases. This highly readable volume provides a comprehensive assessment of world politics and the ways in which national and international organizations interact with one another. The editors have done an excellent job of organizing and developing the enormous body of literature on world politics and thus present a rich selection of texts that offer fresh insights on the problems, issues, and choices that face humanity in this period of dramatic change.
