NATIONAL SCHOOL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONDepartment of International Relations and European Integration

Masters Degree Program: Security and DiplomacyTheory of International Relations- World Politics -

Professor Vasile Secre, Ph.D.SNSPABucharest, 2010

III. The Nation-State: National Interest and National Security

1. The main realist and neorealist assumptions on how IR work:The state-centric assumption: the nation-state is the most important actorThe unitary rational-actor assumption: the nation-state behavior is based on the rational pursuit of self-interest (the national interest)The anarchy assumption: no supra-national authority; sovereignty and non intervention are major boundary conditions; the nation-state has the monopoly of the legitimate use of violence; the offensive capacity of states and the security dilemma

2. The role of the nation-state as the fundamental political unit of current IR has been seriously questionedThe impact of globalization: new challenges and new actorsThe right of peoples to self-determination and political fragmentation; ethnic boundaries never coincide with political onesThe replacement of westphalian sovereignty: the sovereignty as responsibility and the right to interventionThe failed state: the threat of anarchy and human values under threatMilitary technology and terrorism

3. Still: IR are dominated by the nation-state and its foreign policyThe foreign policy of the nation-state as a public policy: the role of the governmentWhat kind of public goods? Sovereignty and national identity: protection, support and securityThe foreign policy as a political process: the government and the political pluralism; the need for public supportThe starting point of foreign policy: the national interestThe instruments and resources of foreign policy: power and influence

4. The National Interest:Definition: fundamental conditions for the independent and sovereign existence of a community and its nation-stateSurvival and independence; material and status conditions; protection and supportThe National Interest and power status: the imperial dimensionThe National Interest and the hegemonic structure of the international system (the power ratio)The National Interest and the membership in the EU and NATO

5. The National Security as a critical dimension of the sovereign independence of the nation-state The anarchy assumption: the security dilemma as a fundamental dimensionThe state-centric approach versus human security approach: how to operationalize the new perspective; collective or individual security?From the military definition of security to a multi-level/dimension approach: B. Buzan et al. (1998)Sustainable security and cooperative securityWhat kind of threats to security: domestic and external risks and threats; from military to systemic risks; diffuse and opaque risksSecurity and violence (the use of force): the lethal dimension of foreign policy

6. The National Security: reality and perceptionSecurity and insecurity: vulnerabilities and risks; capabilities and intentions = threatsSecurity and perception: cognitive structures, concepts and imagesSecurity and securitization: security issues are made security issues by acts of securitization (Buzan et al., 1998); the raison dtat factor: the starting point of a special policy, with special rules and prescriptionsNew security risks and challenges, transcending national borders and capabilities: the preemptive approach and the international dimensionSecurity and the RMA

7. National Security and the Euro-Atlantic integrationThe EU as a political entity and the autonomy of the EU member states foreign policy: the semi-failure of European political unificationThe ineffectiveness of the EU decision-making mechanism and the emergence of the EU-3 (Germany, France, Great Britain): in some cases they play as national driven realistsThe Euro-Atlantic frontier and the Euro-Atlantic security and defence policyThe shifting of the US priorities