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| Credits: Springer Link |
The blog here is from my assignment of Indian Institute of Governance & Leadership
Abstract:
The literature suggests that any developing nation in this interconnected world must look forward to framing policies which suites its own national interest. The study argues that if national interest is safe then only a country has the resources, political will to take up global responsibility. The not so easy relationship between national interest & global responsibility has been argued with case study of India. This study tries to answer the question based on the economic structure, social structure, historical structure, political structure, legal structure of the country mentioned as a case study. The study applies a realist view along with a post colonialism view of international affairs to make the debate clearer. The study found out that nations usually prioritise national affairs over global responsibility.
1: Introduction
The study is aimed at analysing the national interest from a dynamic & a pragmatic point of view. The study is based on secondary research based from different sources like research papers, books, news articles to name a few.
The author has also tried to establish a strong relation between how changing national interest has led to significant changes in the global responsibilities that countries wish to take up. Since, any policymaker would consider the economic security & territorial integrity as the most sacred parts of national interest hence the examples in the paper have been linked to it. The author has also taken an earnest effort to show examples of countries which have at multiple stages opted for national interest over global responsibility in changing scenarios. The author with the help of various research papers has come to the well informed conclusion that a country must choose national interest over global responsibility for its own safety, security & since global responsibility is determined heavily by national interest concerns it has to be considered while framing the policy for a country.
2. Objectives of the research study:
A. Understanding the concepts of national interest & global responsibility in
depth,
B. Understanding how national interest impacts global responsibility of a
country.
C. How national interests are chosen over global responsibility most of the
times
D. Why policymakers usually adopt the issue of national interest over global
responsibility in international relations.
Explaination:
National interest is a key concept in international affairs which helps in foreign policy formulation. The historical background of idea of ‘national interest’ goes back to when the advancement of the modern state framework took place. It was and remains a significant component to portray the basic justification for conduct of states & statesmen in a compromising global condition.(Introduction to International Relations & Diplomacy 87).
National interest doesn’t change but global responsibility does change routinely as power balance changes. The term, “Interest” comes from Latin, signifying it concerns it has any kind of effect to, and it is significant with reference to some individual or a thing. One logical definition portrays it as the general & continuous end for which a country acts & lives for. Every statesman lives for their national interest, whenever a summit at any bilateral or multilateral level happens it is represented by a person irrespective of their global responsibility. (Introduction to International Relations & Diplomacy 87)
National Interest is also one where one country places their interest first & then uses its leverage in different international forums. National Interest demonstrates the goals of the state. It may be used polemically in political contention, to clarify depend or reprimand. National Interest also refers to the issues for which a nation is willing to go to war. (Introduction to InternationalRelations & Diplomacy 87)
National interest usually varies from nation to nation that influence their national policies & their outlook towards international relations which directly changes their global responsibility. (Sumanth Bhattacharya, Impact of national interest & global responsibility on international order)
National interest is also sometimes directly proportional to the school of thought the country wants to keep as its priority, for example the democrats in USA system are argued to have an outlook which is more liberal in nature which makes them to keep the ideology of liberalism respecting human rights at the forefront.(Brittanica)
Though national interest is made up of different components but there are certain things which are accepted by all schools of thought within national interest except for Marxism. (Introduction to International relations & diplomacy 36).
Further information between global responsibility, national security has been expounded in the
fourth section. Some aspects explained here. Section 3 primarily deals with how & why national interest is given importance over the global responsibility of a nation. The thought of maintaining territorial integrity, sovereignty is of extreme importance in all schools of thought ranging from realism, liberalism to English school and any other school of thought, the only difference point in these schools of thought is how much importance should be given to issues ofterritorial integrity, sovereignty, fighting fundamentalism while framing the international relation policy of a nation be given over other issues, for example: a realist will argue that the national interest is supreme, a liberalist will argue that first importance should be given to human values over territorial integrity, fighting fundamentalism but the person will say both are important.
The respecting of sovereignty & existence of a country is considered at least on the face value by nations as it’s acts as a deterrent which can help to prevent war though there can be territorial disputes, hence we see most of the countries recognising the existence of each other (keeping aside the role of intelligence agencies, specific lobbies, violent proxy actors propped up by enemy countries in this issue who pose a threat to security apparatus of the concerned nation).
Similarly, every country also recognises the right of one country to have military & a proper security apparatus however the relation between the 2 nations may be. (Sood, The Unending Game)
Despite the changes in world order, there are some components of national interest which never change which again depends on the internal as well the historical issues of a country which nations never want to leave. For example:Majority of Indian policy makers view RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) as something which infringes on national sovereignty as it led to the disappearance of Indian industries which led to India’s colonialisation. The RCEP was being viewed as an issue which was finishing off the manufacturing base of multiple industries which made India to withdraw from the agreement. The withdrawal of India from RCEP was accepted by persons across political ideologies &the common people at large with the Minister of commerce & trade Shri.Piyush Goyal stating that India’s RCEP decision was not last minute & it was imperative for India to leave the agreement for securing the economic interests.(Shukla, India’s trade protectionism & low productivity vicious cycle, Ideas for India, Research articles)
This national interest which is itself based on multiple issues determines the global responsibility of a country which is directly proportional to the stance of varying degrees of national interest given importance more specifically territorial integrity is adopted by policymakers.
National interest goes hand in hand with global responsibility of a country and both are important for the development of trade, maintenance of peace &; security, recognising sovereignty of each other. (Sumanth Bhattacharya, Impact of national interest & global responsibility on international order)
The term Global responsibility is a frequently used term when it comes to the international relations. Global responsibility of a country when spoken is applicable to individualistic nations.
The global responsibility of states is usually the core issue of the international relations which has given rise to different schools of thought such as feminism, green theory and is extremely dynamic in nature as social science issues,societal issues keep on changing from time to time.
Global responsibility in terms of international law is the duty to respond in case of violation of laws. (Baripedia). Global responsibility of a nation is directly proportional to the national issues concerned. For example: The building of Buddha Circuit in Uttar Pradesh is directly proportional to the rise of Buddhism in North east India, Bihar which serves as an electoral votebank for multiple political parties, this has led to people from different parts of world coming & visiting the circuit which has changed India’s position of global Buddhism very significantly.
Global responsibility also means the nation states tries to follow a set of responsibilities which has been set up in the world by either moral values or some shared values which are cherished by world. The liberalists in the international relations believe that it’s the duty of the nation to stay & fulfil some of their responsibilities towards the globe. The global responsibility of nations in the liberalist world view also includes the utmost respect towards human rights, climate issues, feminism among many other agendas which cannot be maintained within a geographical boundary. Hence the adoption of agendas like Climate change in the COP-26 summit is the arrival of green theory on the world stage as it has virtually made it a compulsion for nation states to save environment and keep it as a prominent topic of discussion while formulating international relations framework. (Introduction to InternationalRelations & Diplomacy 87,88,40,50: United nations website).
The best example when states showed their global responsibility from an realist scholar view point was behind the formation of the United Nations Committee of fighting terrorism, which was also based on global responsibility to maintain peace in world. However this arrangement was based looking into the realist
Another point of view who wanted to keep an international enforcement agency which agrees to the common point of maintaining peace & action against terrorism is taken accordingly hence pushing states to adopt some aspects which fight terrorism in an uniform manner which depends upon states.(UN Geneva convention)
However, if the opinion of a few select scholars mainly from the English school of thinking is to be considered there cannot be fixed set of values which can be achieved upon as the international “system” is always in a constant state of change & anarchy where one cannot come at a genuine conclusion. The identification and solutions to global problems is at the forefront of International Relations and Diplomacy theory, the common problems of humanity give different versions of global responsibility and which responsibility should be prioritized is also a question as well as a bone of contention among scholars which will ultimately lead to a different definition of global responsibilities, hence what is a global responsibility is always contentious and a hotly debated topic. (Introduction to International Relations & Diplomacy 22,23,24,2526,33,40,44,45,46,47,48,50,87,88,93).
Therefore since there is no single definition of global responsibility of a nation & when it is varying from country to country it depends on what is the nation’s national interest first which will impact its global responsibility in a multi-dimensional way. Similarly in the world as of now there has been no sacred elements of global responsibility defined for a country. For example: A feminist will define global responsibility of a nation as one which takes women rights into the top account in an international relations perspective, a realist will bat for national security as the first point of an international relations policy. (Introduction to International Relations & Diplomacy 87,88,40,50)
However, given the diversity of global challenges the world faces its extremely pragmatic to conclude that there will be a set of definition that will apply to global responsibility, also in the current time where the world is increasingly polarised between ideologies there is no single component of global responsibility that a country will accept willingly or unwillingly. Hence there is no set of defined global responsibility in world order that one has to follow which makes states to follow their own version of global responsibility which comes out of their national interest.
Hence global responsibility of a country is that issue which is extremely debatable between nations. How a country views its global responsibility largely from the lens of their nation circumstances which frames as states believe if their nation is not existent then how can it fulfill its global responsibility, hence there is always national interest which is given importance global responsibility & subsequently its attitude towards world at large. For example: India’s inability to convert the short term gain achieved in the India Sri Lanka Accord was also an indicator on which issues did Indian policymakers make big mistakes whose impact was seen in the future on India’s responsibility towards Sri Lanka in 1990’s & the early 2000’s. This also determined India’s policy towards the island nation which further impacted its global responsibility. (Stuenkel, India: the next superpower?: Indias nationalinterests and diplomatic activism: towards global leadership?,LSE online.)
4. Examples
(a)India banned the export of rice varieties except for Basmati rice in the months which was done with effect from 9 September 2022 which was done to control the rates of food inflation & WPI (Wholesale Price Index) which is necessary for the maintaining economic security. This also means that there will be a food shortage esp. of rice in countries of middle east hence we have seen how India has adopted national interest of economic security over global responsibility. (Mishra,Livemint)
(b) India gave a strong rebuttal to the USA led human rights panels on its biased reports on Jammu Kashmir. This led to a confrontation between the Government of India & some politicians of USA who said India has abandoned its duty towards human rights. As an Indian first, many Indian social media users gave strong worded replies & called out their hypocrisy on various platforms. This also means when there is an issue related to territorial integrity & people not having any locus standi comment then the political parties unite against such a person.
(c) When USA threw & detained 100’s of accused terrorists from Afghanistan into Guantanamo Bay, it was accused of committing serious human rights violation & when the UN team wanted to investigate the same they were not allowed in as it was viewed as interference into another country’s internal affairs. (Frankfurter, ACLU)
5.Research methodology used:
The research paper is titled as “National Interest vs Global responsibility: what should a country choose”. The objective of the paper is to understand 2 things, which are understanding how national interest impacts global responsibility & why in the world currently the nations are likely to follow their national interest while framing policy of international relations. The research methodology adopted by the researcher is secondary data. Ontology method has been used. The data has been collected from various sources from research papers, journals, newspapers like the Hindu & new Indian to further make the debate more comprehensive. The data analysis was done using the concept of phenomenology & linking the data which is taught in economics. The data pertaining is analysed using econometrics & qualitative economics study.
6. Conclusion:
The conclusion that we can infer from the entire literature is 3 fold one is, national interest determines the international relation policy & global responsibility, diplomatic policy which defines the global responsibility, two nations have historically adopted national interest over global responsibility & have not shied away to prefer national interest over global responsibility in multiple cases, third a nation should adopt national interest over global responsibility.Hence a country while framing international relations policy framework should undoubtedly adopt national interest over global responsibility.
7. References:
(Introduction to International Relations & Diplomacy : Concepts)
(Krotz)
(Markelu)
(Masters)
(Bhattacharya)
(Mishra)
(‘We too have views about Human Rights issues in the United States’: How
Dr S Jaishankar hit back on USA’s criticism of India)
(Sood)
(Jaishankar)
(Stunekel)
(Shukla)
(UNO )
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