Approaches to Global Politics Definitions

State - A state is the means of rule over a defined territory. Compromised of an executive, a bureaucracy, courts and other institutions. A state levies taxes and operates a military and police force. States distribute and re-distribute resources and wealth, so lobbyists, politicians and revolutionaries seek in their own way to influence or even control levers of state power. They expand and contract as military fortunes change. A country with established borders and an established government. 

Sovereignty - The principle of supreme and unquestionable authority, reflected in the claim by the state to be the sole author of the laws with in its territories. External (state) - the capacity of the state to act independently and autonomously on the world stage, implying legal equality and that territorial integrity and political independence are inviolable.Internal - the location of supreme power with in the state (e.g. UK - resides at Westminster Parliament)  

Nationalism - Devotion to the interests or culture of ones nation.  The belief that nations will benefit from acting independently rather than collectively, emphasizing national rather than international goals.Aspirations for national independence in a country under foreign domination.

Peace of Westphalia - A series of peace treaties signed between May and October 1648. Signed in Munster and Osnabruck, they bought an end to the Thirty Years War and the Eighty Years War. The treaties involved the Holy Roman Empire Princes, the House of Hapsburg, Spain, France, the Swedish Empire, the Dutch Republic and the sovereigns of the free imperial cities. The treaties stood as a precursor to later large international treaties and thereby the development of international law. It created a basis of national self-determination by redefining political boundaries as power was redistributed to the rulers of imperial states, and they could consequently decide their states religious worship, independent of emperor's opinions.  

State System - A pattern of relationships between and amongst states that establish a measure of order and predictability. State Centric - An approach to political analysis that takes the state to be the key global actor in the domestic realm and on the world stage. Mixed actor model - The theory that, while not ignoring the role of the states and national governments, international politics is shaped by a much broader range of interests and groups, such as NGOs and TNCs. 

The State of Nature - a society devoid of political authority and of formal (legal) checks on the individual. Hobbes described life in the state of nature as 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short'. 

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