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Contemporary World Politics (XII Class )

Political Theory And International Order (PCS) NCERT

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Chapter- 1

The Cold War Era

New International Economic Order (NIEO)

The New International Economic Order (NIEO) was a set of proposals put forward during the 1970's by some developing countries through the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to promote their interests by improving their terms of trade, increasing development assistance, developed-country tariff reductions, and other means.
It was meant to be a revision of the international economic system in favour of Third World countries, replacing the Bretton Woods system, which had benefited the leading states that had created it – especially the United States.
This order was demanded by the Non-Aligned Movement.

Non-Aligned Movement

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a group of states that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.
As of 2012, the movement has 120 members
It was established in 1961 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. An initiative of Yugoslav president Joseph Broz Tito and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru led to the first Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries. The term non-aligned movement appears first in the fifth conference in 1976, where participating countries are denoted as "members of the movement".
The purpose of the organization has been enumerated as to ensure "the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries" in their "struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics," by Fidel Castro in his Havana Declaration of 1979.
The countries of the Non-Aligned Movement represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations' members and contain 55% of the world population.
Membership is particularly concentrated in countries considered to be developing or part of the Third World, though the Non-Aligned Movement also has a number of developed nations.

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization also called the North Atlantic Alliance is an intergovernmental military alliance between 29 North American and European countries.
The organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949.
NATO constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party.
NATO’s Headquarters are located in Haren, Brussels, Belgium, while the headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons, Belgium.
Headquarters- Brussels, Belgium

Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)

The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was an international organization for collective defence in Southeast Asia created by the Southeast Asia Collective Defence Treaty, or Manila Pact, signed in September 1954 in Manila, Philippines.
The formal institution of SEATO was established on 19 February 1955 at a meeting of treaty partners in Bangkok, Thailand.
The organization's headquarters were also in Bangkok.

Central Treaty Organization (CENTO)

Central Treaty Organization (CENTO), formerly Middle East Treaty Organization, or Baghdad Pact Organization, mutual security organization dating from 1955 to 1979 and composed of Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom.
Until March 1959 the organization was known as the Middle East Treaty Organization, included Iraq, and had its headquarters in Baghdad.
Formed at the urging of Britain and the United States, the Central Treaty Organization was intended to counter the threat of Soviet expansion into vital Middle East oil-producing regions.
It was never very effective. Iraq withdrew from the alliance in 1959 after its anti-Soviet monarchy was overthrown.
That same year the United States became an associate member, the name of the organization was changed to CENTO, and its headquarters was moved to Ankara.
Following the fall of the shah in 1979, Iran withdrew, and CENTO was dissolved.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was established in 1964 as a permanent intergovernmental body.
UNCTAD is the part of the United Nations Secretariat dealing with trade, investment, and development issues.
The organization's goals are to: "maximize the trade, investment and development opportunities of developing countries and assist them in their efforts to integrate into the world economy on an equitable basis. UNCTAD was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1964 and it reports to the UN General Assembly and United Nations Economic and Social Council.
Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland
Founded: 1964

LIMITED TEST BAN TREATY (LTBT)

Banned nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water
Signed by the US, UK and USSR in Moscow on 5 August 1963.
Entered into force on 10 October 1963

NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY (NPT)

Allows only the nuclear weapon states to have nuclear weapons and stops others from acquiring them. For the purposes of the NPT, a nuclear weapon state is one which has manufactured and exploded a nuclear weapon or other nuclear explosive device prior to 1 January 1967.
So there are five nuclear weapon states: US, USSR (later Russia), Britain, France and China.
Signed in Washington, London, and Moscow on 1 July 1968
Entered into force on 5 March 1970
Extended indefinitely in 1995

STRATEGIC ARMS LIMITATION TALKS I (SALT-I)

The first round of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks began in November 1969. The Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and the US President Richard Nixon signed the following in Moscow on 26 May 1972 –
Treaty on the limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems (ABM Treaty); and
Interim Agreement on the limitation of strategic offensive arms.
Entered into force on 3 October 1972

STRATEGIC ARMS LIMITATION TALKS II (SALT-II)

The second round started in November 1972.
The US President Jimmy Carter and the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed the Treaty on the limitation of strategic offensive arms in Vienna on 18 June 1979.

STRATEGIC ARMS REDUCTION TREATY I (START-I)

Treaty signed by the USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev and the US President George Bush (Senior) on the reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms in Moscow on 31 July 1991.

STRATEGIC ARMS REDUCTION TREATY II (START-II)

Treaty signed by the Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the US President George Bush (Senior) on the reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms in Moscow on 3 January 1993.

Chapter 2

The End of Bipolarity

Warsaw Pact

The Warsaw Pact, formally known as the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defence treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland among the Soviet Union and seven Soviet satellite states of Central and Eastern Europe in May 1955, during the Cold War.
The Warsaw Pact was the military complement to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CoMEcon), the regional economic organization for the socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe.
The Warsaw Pact was created in reaction to the integration of West Germany into NATO in 1955 per the London and Paris Conferences of 1954, but it is also considered to have been motivated by Soviet desires to maintain control over military forces in Central and Eastern Europe.
Formation- 14 May 1955 in Warsaw, Poland
Dissolved- 1 July 1991
Headquarters- Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union

Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) formed when the former Soviet Union (now called Russia) totally dissolved in 1991.
At its conception it consisted of ten former Soviet Republics: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
Headquarters: Minsk, Belarus

United Nations Security Council (UNSC)

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), charged with the maintenance of international peace and security as well as accepting new members to the United Nations and approving any changes to its United Nations Charter.
Its powers include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of international sanctions, and the authorization of military action through Security Council resolutions; it is the only UN body with the authority to issue binding resolutions to member states.

Chapter 3

US Hegemony in World Politics

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of "189 countries working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world."
Formed in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference primarily by the ideas of Harry Dexter White and John Maynard Keynes, it came into formal existence in 1945 with 29 member countries and the goal of reconstructing the international payment system.
It now plays a central role in the management of balance of payments difficulties and international financial crises.
Countries contribute funds to a pool through a quota system from which countries experiencing balance of payments problems can borrow money
Formation- 27 December 1945

World Trade Organization (WTO)

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates international trade.
The WTO officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, signed by 124 nations on 15 April 1994, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948. It is the largest international economic organization in the world.
The WTO deals with regulation of trade in goods, services and intellectual property between participating countries by providing a framework for negotiating trade agreements and a dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participants' adherence to WTO agreements, which are signed by representatives of member governments and ratified by their parliaments.

Chapter- 4

Alternative Centres of Power

European Union (EU)

The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe.
The EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states in those matters, and only those matters, where members have agreed to act as one.
EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital within the internal market, enact legislation in justice and home affairs and maintain common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries and regional development.
For travel within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished.
A monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002 and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency.
The EU and European citizenship were established when the Maastricht Treaty came into force in 1993.
The EU traces its origins to the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community (EEC), established, respectively, by the 1951 Treaty of Paris and 1957 Treaty of Rome.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is a regional intergovernmental organization comprising ten Southeast Asian countries, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military, educational, and socio- cultural integration among its members and other Asian states.
It also regularly engages other states in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. Being a global powerhouse, the central union for cooperation in Asia-Pacific and one of the world's most prominent and influential organisations, ASEAN maintains a global network of alliances and dialogue partners.
It is involved in numerous international affairs, and hosts diplomatic missions throughout the world.
It is a major partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), developing cooperation model with the organisation for the peace, stability, development and sustainability of the Asian continent.
It also serves as an international role model in seeking harmony and strength among diversity and differences, as well as a leading figure in global economy, trade, diplomacy and politics.
ASEAN was preceded by an organization formed in 31 July 1961 called the Association of Southeast Asia (ASA), a group consisting of the Philippines, Federation of Malaya, and Thailand.
Its Vision 2020 has defined an outward-looking role for ASEAN in the international community. This builds on the existing ASEAN policy to encourage negotiation over conflicts in the region. Thus, ASEAN has mediated the end of the Cambodian conflict, the East Timor crisis, and meets annually to discuss East Asian cooperation.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 36 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade.
It is a forum of countries describing themselves as committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a platform to compare policy experiences, seeking answers to common problems, identify good practices and coordinate domestic and international policies of its members.
Most OECD members are high-income economies with a very high Human Development Index (HDI) and are regarded as developed countries.
As of 2017, the OECD member states collectively comprised 62.2% of global nominal GDP (US$49.6 trillion) and 42.8% of global GDP (Int$54.2 trillion) at purchasing power parity.[4] OECD is an official United Nations observer.
Headquarters- Paris, France

Chapter 5

Contemporary South Asia

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)

Founded: 8 December 1985, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Headquarters: Kathmandu, Nepal
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union of nations in South Asia.
Its member states include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
SAARC comprises 3% of the world's area, 21% of the world's population and 3.8% (US$2.9 trillion) of the global economy, as of 2015.
SAARC was founded in Dhaka on 8 December 1985.
Its secretariat is based in Kathmandu, Nepal. The organization promotes development of economic and regional integration.
It launched the South Asian Free Trade Area in 2006.
SAARC maintains permanent diplomatic relations at the United Nations as an observer and has developed links with multilateral entities, including the European Union.
SAARC members signed the South Asian Free Trade (SAFTA) agreement which promised the formation of a free trade zone for the whole of South Asia.
The Agreement was signed in 2004 and came into effect on 1 January 2006. SAFTA aims at lowering trade tariffs. But some of our neighbours fear that SAFTA is a way for India to ‘invade’ their markets and to influence their societies and politics through commercial ventures and a commercial presence in their countries.

Chapter 6

International Organisations

World Bank

The World Bank was created during the Second World War in 1944.
Its activities are focused on the developing countries.
It works for human development (education, health), agriculture and rural development (irrigation, rural services), environmental protection (pollution reduction, establishing and enforcing regulations), infrastructure (roads, urban regeneration, and electricity) and governance (anti-corruption, development of legal institutions).
It provides loans and grants to the member-countries. In this way, it exercises enormous influence on the economic policies of developing countries.
It is often criticised for setting the economic agenda of the poorer nations, attaching stringent conditions to its loans and forcing free market reforms.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was established in 1957.
It came into being to implement US President Dwight Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” proposal.
It seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to prevent its use for military purposes.
IAEA teams regularly inspect nuclear facilities all over the world to ensure that civilian reactors are not being used for military purposes.

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an NGO that campaigns for the protection of human rights all over the world.
It promotes respect for all the human rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It believes that human rights are interdependent and indivisible.
It prepares and publishes reports on human rights.
Governments are not always happy with these reports since a major focus of Amnesty is the misconduct of government authorities.
Nevertheless, these reports play an important role in research and advocacy on human rights.

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch is another international NGO involved in research and advocacy on human rights.
It is the largest international human rights organisation in the US.
It draws the global media’s attention to human rights abuses.
It helped in building international coalitions like the campaigns to ban landmines, to stop the use of child soldiers and to establish the International Criminal Court.

Chapter 7

Security in the Contemporary World

Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction was the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning the production of an entire category of weapons.
The Convention was the result of prolonged efforts by the international community to establish a new instrument that would supplement the 1925 Geneva Protocol.
The Geneva Protocol prohibits use but not possession or development of chemical and biological weapons.
Signed 10 April 1972
Location London, Moscow, and Washington, D.C.
Effective 26 March 1975

Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)

Drafted: 3 September 1992
Effective: 29 April 1997
Location: Paris and New York
The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is an arms control treaty that outlaws the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and their precursors.
The full name of the treaty is the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction and it is administered by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), an intergovernmental organization based in The Hague, The Netherlands.
The Chemical Weapons Convention prohibits the large-scale use, development, production, stockpiling and transfer of chemical weapons.

Anti-ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty

The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (1972—2002) was an arms control treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union on the limitation of the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems used in defending areas against ballistic missile-delivered nuclear weapons.
Under the terms of the treaty, each party was limited to two ABM complexes, each of which was to be limited to 100 anti-ballistic missiles.
Signed- 26 May 1972
Location- Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR
In June 2002 the United States withdrew from the treaty, leading to its termination.

Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START)

START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) was a bilateral treaty between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) on the reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms.
The treaty was signed on 31 July 1991 and entered into force on 5 December 1994
The START I treaty expired 5 December 2009. On 8 April 2010, the replacement New START treaty was signed in Prague by United States President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Following ratification by the U.S. Senate and the Federal Assembly of Russia, it went into force on 26 January 2011.
This Treaty was the first to provide tremendous reductions of American and Soviet/Russian strategic nuclear weapons.

Chapter 8

Environment and Natural Resources

Rio Summit

Earth Summit 1992 was the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), commonly known as the Rio Summit, Rio Conference.
It was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 June to 14 June 1992.

It was attended by 172 Governments. The outcome of this summit was the following documents:

Rio Declaration on Environment and Development
Agenda 21
Convention on Biological Diversity
Forest Principles
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Out of the above, the documents on Convention on Biological Diversity and UNFCC were set

Agenda 21

Agenda 21 is a non-binding action plan of the United Nations with regard to sustainable development.
It is a product of the Earth Summit (UN Conference on Environment and Development) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992.
It is an action agenda for the UN, other multilateral organizations, and individual governments around the world that can be executed at local, national, and global levels.
The “21” in Agenda 21 refers to the 21st Century.
Although it is also the area code for Greater Rio de Janeiro, plus Teresopolis and Mangaratiba in the countryside.
It has been affirmed and had a few modifications at subsequent UN conferences.

Montreal Protocol

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was designed to reduce the production and consumption of ozone depleting substances in order to reduce their abundance in the atmosphere, and thereby protect the earth’s fragile ozone Layer.
The original Montreal Protocol was agreed on 16 September 1987 and entered into force on 1 January 1989.
The Montreal Protocol includes a unique adjustment provision that enables the Parties to the Protocol to respond quickly to new scientific information and agree to accelerate the reductions required on chemicals already covered by the Protocol.

Antarctic Environmental Protocol

The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty was signed in Madrid on October 4, 1991 and entered into force in 1998. It designates Antarctica as a “natural reserve, devoted to peace and science” (Art. 2).
Article 3 of the Environment Protocol sets forth basic principles applicable to human activities in Antarctica and Article 7 prohibits all activities relating to Antarctic mineral resources, except for scientific research. Until 2048 the Protocol can only be modified by unanimous agreement of all Consultative Parties to the Antarctic Treaty.
In addition, the prohibition on mineral resource activities cannot be removed unless a binding legal regime on Antarctic mineral resource activities is in force

Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that (part one) global warming is occurring and (part two) it is extremely likely that human-made CO2 emissions have predominantly caused it.
The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005. There are currently 192 parties (Canada withdrew effective December 2012) to the Protocol.
The Kyoto Protocol implemented the objective of the UNFCCC to fight global warming by reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to “a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system” (Article 2).
The Protocol is based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities: it puts the obligation to reduce current emissions on developed countries on the basis that they are historically responsible for the current levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Negotiations were held in the framework of the yearly UNFCCC Climate Change Conferences on measures to be taken after the second commitment period ends in 2020.
This resulted in the 2015 adoption of the Paris Agreement, which is a separate instrument under the UNFCCC rather than an amendment of the Kyoto Protocol.
The main goal of the Kyoto Protocol is to control emissions of the main anthropogenic (human-emitted) greenhouse gases (GHGs) in ways that reflect underlying national differences in GHG emissions, wealth, and capacity to make the reductions.
The treaty follows the main principles agreed in the original 1992 UN Framework Convention
According to the treaty, in 2012, Annex I Parties who have ratified the treaty must have fulfilled their obligations of greenhouse gas emissions limitations established for the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period (2008–2012). These emissions limitation commitments are listed in Annex B of the Protocol.
The Kyoto Protocol’s first round commitments are the first detailed step taken within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The Protocol establishes a structure of rolling emission reduction commitment periods.
It set a timetable starting in 2006 for negotiations to establish emission reduction commitments for a second commitment period.
The first period emission reduction commitments expired on December 31, 2012.

Worldwide Wildlife Fund (WWF)

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961, working in the field of the wilderness preservation, and the reduction of human impact on the environment.
It was formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States.
The Living Planet Report is published every two years by WWF since 1998; it is based on a Living Planet Index and ecological footprint calculation.
WWF’s giant panda logo originated from a panda named Chii Chii that had been transferred from Beijing Zoo to London Zoo in 1958, three years before WWF became established.
The mission of WWF’s is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which human live in harmony with nature through the following ways:
Conserving the world’s biological diversity.
Ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable
Promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.

Chapter 9

Globalisation

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are officially known as Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

There are 17 Sustainable Development Goals, associated 169 targets and 304 indicators.

This included the following goals:

End poverty in all its forms everywhere
End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
Reduce inequality within and among countries
Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable developmen