LESSON NOTE FOR SOS 322 YEAR 2022

 

SOS 322 Nigeria External Relations (2 Credits) C

The course focuses on the principles of International relations and Nigeria’s foreign policy. At the end of the course, students should be able to appraise the role of Nigeria in the international community.

- The concept of Internal Relation

- Nigerian foreign policies (Principles and Policies)

- Nigeria and ECOWAS (Formation, functioning and problems)

- Man in International Community

THE ABOVE TOPICS TO BE HANDLED BY MRS. OGENYI

 

- World Tension: Causes and solutions (games, conferences and membership etc)

- Nigeria in the Commonwealth

- Nigeria in OPEC

- Nigeria in the UNO (contribution) benefit and problems)

- Nigeria in Africa Union (AU)

 

THE ABOVE TOPICS TO BE HANDLED BY JAMES PAUL UGWUIDENYI

 

The concept of International Relations

International relations is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the interaction of the actors in international politics, including states and non-state actors, such as the United Nations (UN), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and Amnesty International. One of the key features of the international system is that it is a state of anarchy - each state in the system is sovereign and does not have to answer to a higher authority.

International relations has to do with the study of such things as foreign policy, international conflict and negotiation, war, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, international trade and economics, and international development, among other subjects. International relations' is a broad scope that requires an interdisciplinary approach, drawing upon the fields of economics, law, political science, sociology, game theory, and also psychology.

Sovereignty is one of the most important and popular concepts in contemporary international relations. The concept has been subjected to a lot of interpretations (misinterpretations) a good example is that some of the ills in the contemporary international system both at the domestic and interstate levels are blamed on sovereignty. Sovereignty as a concept in both domestic and international politics dates back several centuries. The genesis of it could be traced to the 16th century Frenchman philosopher Jean Bodin, who in 1576 published the groundbreaking treatise that was known as the six Books. Bodin tried to make an input in what is systematic presentation of what sovereignty means in both national and external politics. The two broad notions of sovereignty were distinguished by Bodin as domestic and external sovereignty which has been upheld as constant till date.

 

 

Domestic or Internal Sovereignty

Domestic Sovereignty according to Bodin in Ojo and Amadu (2002 p29) simply means “the absolute authority and perpetual power of a state over its citizens and subjects unrestrained by law”. This definition was given at the time as an insight into the domestic politics of Bodins time and at that time state has unlimited coercive authority over its citizens and subjects. That time was also when the Europe feudal monarchs legitimized absolute powers only enjoyed by them. The Pope as at that time was both the spiritual as well as temporal leader of the Holy Roman Empire. Prior to its logical meaning as at that time Bodin’s notion of sovereignty made no room for the right of the citizens to challenge their rulers. Quite well indeed, the citizens were mere objects and not subjects of their leaders who where answerable only to God, the Supreme Being for their actions. In a nutshell Bodin’s definition gave legitimacy to atrocities of 16 century monarchs against their subjects (Ojo and Amadu, 2002).

Domestic sovereignty according to Fawcett, it is a mere “power and authority of a state over all persons, things and territory within its reach”.

External sovereignty

This is used synonymously with independence, which is only a status symbol in international politics. External sovereignty in this context is all about “independence” as a status which states used to gain membership in international intergovernmental organizations such as Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS), European Union (EU), United Nations (UN) etc., for instance, Gambia that are small in terms of population of less than half a million, and the United States of America (USA) that are large in population that is close to three hundred million people, are considered to be equal for the purpose of external sovereignty since they are both independent state the idea is in theory not bound by any higher constitutional arrangements outside their own territories. At the United Nations General Assembly, the USA and the Gambia have one equal vote each.

It is a belief that external sovereignty does not mean that a state is free to do what it likes in the international system, or within its territory

Historical overview of International Organization (The League of Nations)

The League of Nations was the first permanent early international Organization that lasted for some years. The first meeting of the League of Nations was held in 1920 at Geneva in Switzerland. It was created by the Versailles and other peace treaties ending World War I. The upbraided nationalism that had inflamed Europe in the early 20th century was widely seen as a major cause of World War I. The horrendous losses in the War convinced many Europeans that there must never be another war.

 The League of Nations proposed by the 28th US president (1856 - 1924) Woodrow Wilson who served in office from 1913 to 1921 and lead America through World War 1(1914 - 1918) was seen as a way of preventing war in the future through a system of collective security. The League was a culmination of other political thinkers who had late the intellectual background; men like the duke de Sully and Immanuel Kant. The League failed in the face of Fascism (a RIGHT WING political system in which people’s lives were completely controlled by the state and no political opposition is allowed to air their views on it was used in Germany and Italy in the 1930s and 40s). Its successor was the United Nations (UN)

Original Members of the League of Nations - January 10, 1920 Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, el Salvador, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Netherlands, New Zealand Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Persia, Peru Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Siam, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, United Kingdom, Uruguay Venezuela, Yugoslavia (40 members).

Successes of the League of Nations

The League settled various cases that were tabled before them as thus:

v  First they quickly proved its value by settling the Swedish-Finnish dispute over the Å land Islands (1920–21),

v  guaranteeing the security of Albania (1921),

v  rescuing Austria from economic disaster,

v  settling the division of Upper Silesia (1922),

v  and preventing the outbreak of war in the Balkans between Greece and Bulgaria (1925). In addition,

v  the League extended considerable aid to refugees; it helped to suppress white slave and opium traffic;

v   it did pioneering work in surveys of health; it extended financial aid to the needy states; and it furthered international cooperation in labour relations and many other fields.

Failures of the League of Nations

The problem of bringing its political influence to bear, especially on the great powers, soon made itself felt.

v  This was when their failures started by Poland refusing  to abide by the League decision in the Vilnius dispute, and the League was forced to stand by powerlessly in the face of the French occupation of the Ruhr (1923) and Italy's occupation of Kérkira (1923).

v   Failure to take action over the Japanese invasion of Manchuria (1931) was a blow to the League's prestige, especially when followed by Japan's withdrawal from the League (1933).

v  Another serious failure was the inability of the League to stop the Chaco War (1932–35) between Bolivia and Paraguay. In 1935 the League completed its successful 15-year administration of the Saar territory by conducting a plebiscite under the supervision of an international military force.

v   But even this success was not sufficient to offset the failure of the Disarmament Conference that lead to the, Germany's withdrawal from the League (1933),

v  and Italy's successful attack on Ethiopia in defiance of the League's economic sanctions (1935).

v   In 1936, Adolf Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland and denounced the Treaty of Versailles; in 1938 he seized Austria.

v  The league was faced by threats to international peace from all sides; the Spanish civil war,

v  Japan's resumption of war against China (1937),

v  and finally the appeasement of Hitler at Munich (1938) and finally the League collapsed. German’s claims on Danzig, where the League commissioner had been reduced to impotence, led to the outbreak of World War II.

 

The last important act of the League came in Dec., 1939, when it expelled the USSR for its attack on Finland. In 1940 the League secretariat in Geneva was reduced to a skeleton staff; some of the technical services were removed to the United States and Canada. The allied International Labor Organization continued to function and eventually became affiliated with the United Nations. In 1946 the League dissolved itself, and its services and real estate (notably the Palais des Nations in Geneva) were transferred to the United Nations. The League's chief success lay in providing the first pattern of permanent international organization, a pattern on which much of the United Nations was modeled. Its failures were due as much to the indifference of the great powers, which preferred to reserve important matters for their own decisions, as to weaknesses of the organization.

Role of international Organizations

There are limitations of their mem­bers and in re­la­tion to their ge­o­graph­i­cal spheres of ac­tiv­ities (e.g. Organization of Amer­i­can States) or strive for global par­tic­i­pa­tion (e.g. In­ter­na­tional Tele­graph Union). They can de­vote them­selves to a spe­cific field of ac­tion (e.g. OPEC) or ad­dress a broad range of top­ics (e.g. United Na­tions).International Governmental Organization is characterized by reg­u­lar gen­eral As­sem­blies and ple­nary ses­sions, a per­ma­nent sec­re­tariat and an iden­ti­fi­able head­quar­ters. IGOs are usu­ally headed by lead­ers whose ti­tles can vary con­sid­er­ably (Sec­re­tary-Gen­eral of the United Na­tions, Di­rec­tor-Gen­eral of the World Health Organization, Pres­i­dent of the World Bank, Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor of the In­ter­na­tional Mon­e­tary Fund, etc.). It is of great im­por­tance that the as­signed rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the mem­ber states and es­pe­cially the staff of the per­ma­nent sec­re­tariat of an IGO are ex­clu­sively com­mit­ted to the in­ter­ests of the mem­ber states.

Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) are more than in­stru­ments of co-op­er­at­ing na­tion states; they de­velop their own in­sti­tu­tional logic and pro­ce­dures and pur­sue their own in­ter­ests in re­gard to their organizational goal. The term "in­ter­na­tional organization", how­ever, goes be­yond the var­i­ous forms of in­ter­gov­ern­men­tal co­op­er­a­tion and also des­ig­nates pri­vate organizational forms of transna­tional groups and as­so­ci­a­tions. In some cases, INGOs are fore­run­ners of IGOs, for ex­am­ple the In­ter­na­tional As­so­ci­a­tion of the Legal Pro­tec­tion of Labour, whose ac­tiv­i­ties were the basis for the ILO, founded in 1919. Above all, how­ever, INGOs are never com­pletely free from gov­ern­mental in­flu­ence. They have to pur­sue their ac­tiv­i­ties within the scope of a le­git­i­mate legal gov­ern­men­tal frame­work and are in many cases ac­tive in areas (health, pro­tec­tion of the en­vi­ron­ment, etc.) that are ul­ti­mately leg­is­lated by the state alone.

They differ in function, of membership and membership criteria. They have various goals and scopes, often outlined in the treaty or charter. Some IGOs developed to fulfill a need for a neutral forum for debate or negotiation to resolve disputes. Others developed to carry out mutual interests with unified aims to preserve peace through conflict resolution and better international relations, promote international cooperation on matters such as environmental protection, to promote human rights, to promote social development (education, health care), to render human they, in­ter­na­tional com­mu­ni­ca­tions, sci­en­tific co­op­er­a­tion, labour organizations, eco­nomic co­op­er­a­tion, the in­ter­na­tional food regime, Internal aid, and the economic development, as­sist­ing refugees and dis­placed per­sons as well as is­sues of in­ter­na­tional law. Some are more general in scope like the United Nations while others may have subject-specific missions (such as Interpol or the International Organization for Standardization and other standards organizations).

Expansion and growth

Presently there are more than 6,743 International Governmental Organizations (IGOs) worldwide, and this number continues to rise daily. The increase is attributed to globalization, which increases and encourages the cooperation among and within states. Globalization has provided easier means for International Governmental Organizational (IGO) growth, as a result of increased international relations. As they continued to expand it was observed that they went extra mile to grow economically, politically, militarily, as well as on the domestic level.

 Economically, IGOs benefit material and non-material resources for economic growth. International Governmental Organizations also provide more political stability among the state that was concerned. Meanwhile Military alliances were formed by establishing common standards in order to ensure security of the members to ward off outside threats. With the formation of IGOs it has encouraged autocratic states to develop into democracies in order to form an effective and internal government.

 Participation and involvement

Several reasons may ginger states to become a member of International Governmental Organization (IGOs) likewise other reasons may disqualify them to become a member. These reasons are stated below.

Reasons for membership participation

1. Economic rewards: In the case of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), many different countries receive economic benefits from membership in the free trade agreement. For example, Mexican companies are given better access to U.S. markets due to their membership.
2. Political influence: Smaller countries, such as Portugal and the Netherlands, who do not carry much political clout on the international stage, are given a substantial increase in influence through membership in IGOs, such as the European Union. Also for countries with more influence such as France and Germany they are beneficial as the nation increases influence in the smaller countries' internal affairs and expanding other nations dependence on themselves, so to preserve allegiance
3. Security: Membership in an IGO such as NATO gives security benefits to member countries. This provides an avenue where political differences can be resolved.
4. To improve on the survival of democracy: It has been noted that member countries experience a greater degree of democracy and those democracies

 

Nigerian foreign policies (Principles and Policies)

What is foreign policy?

There is no generally agreed decision on the definition of foreign Policy, even though different scholars have attempted to define foreign policy according to their understanding.  In the word of Presthus (1975) Policy is defined as a definite course or method of action selected from among alternatives and in the light of given conditions to guide and usually determine present and future (Obi, 2006).

Policy according to Calvert (1986) is “a continuous process of decisions and their implementation taking place within the organizational structure of a state”. All policy must involve a conscious choice between or among alternatives. The word policy is usually goal oriented and are meant in solving problems.

Foreign Policy according to Modelski (1962) is the system of activities evolved by communities for changing the behavior of other states and for adjusting their own activities to the international environment (Obi, 2006). Another scholar known as Holsti, defined foreign Policy as “the actions of a state towards the external environment and the conditions usually domestic under which these actions are formulated” based on this, foreign policy cannot be formulated in a vacuum, it must has a root or base from the needs of the populace residing in a particular environment.

Northgdge conceptualizes foreign Policy simply as “interplay between the outside and the inside”, while Charles Lerche and Abdul A. maintains that “the foreign policy of a state usually refers to the general principles by which a state governs its reaction to the environment”. According to Millar T. B. “foreign policy is presumably something less than the sum of all policies which have an effect upon a national government’s relations with other national governments.” More so, Joeseph F. views foreign policy as “consisting of decisions and actions which involve to some appreciable extent relations between one state and another.” He further defines foreign policy as a “dynamic process of interaction between the changing domestic demands and support and the changing external circumstances (Anifowese & Enemuo 1999).

Public Policy: The decision to pursue these purposes is political. So is the choice of a means for achieving them. Several alternatives to direct governmental provision of services exist. Government could rely heavily on private resources and incentives to serve their purposes.

Foreign policy means the policy of nurturing and promoting one's national interest while interacting with other countries. Every country decides on the framework of its foreign policy and according to its principles, it takes decisions about how and what kind of transactions it would carry out with other nations.

A nation’s foreign policy is derived with the nation’s perception of its national interest from various perspectives. Therefore foreign policy may be conceptualized as a sort of purposive action that guides and characterize the conducts of sovereign nations in the international system. Foreign policy consists of principles, objectives as well as strategies employed by sovereign states, which guide and characterize their external conducts. Furthermore, it is a the method and strategy adopted by a state in its relationship with other states in the pursuit of its national interest (Asadu, 2014 p. 260).

The Nigerian foreign policy objectives are embedded in the 1999 constitution section 19 which states that the foreign policy objectives shall be:

(a)    promotion and protection of the national interest;

(b)    promotion of African integration and support for African unity;

(c)    promotion of international co-operation for the consolidation of universal peace and respect among all nations and elimination of discrimination in all its manifestations;

(d)   respect for international law and treaty obligations as well as the seeking of settlement of international disputes by negotiation, mediation, arbitration and adjudication; and

(e)    promotion of a just world economic order.

The 3 core beliefs in International Politics:

(1)   State-centrism:  States are the most important actors in world politics.

 

(2)   Internal characteristics of states have important effects on state behavior.  E.g. internal arrangements will impact on the behavior of states.  Democracies work differently than dictatorships.  There are good and bad states:  Good- engage in cooperative foreign policies; Bad – start wars with neighbors; have a tendency to use force to achieve their objectives.

 

(3)   Power considerations vary among states.  Power calculations do not impact the behavior of good states.

The Value of International Relations in a Globalized Society

Although international relations have taken on a new significance because of our increasingly interconnected world, it is certainly not a new concept. Historically, the establishment of treaties between nations served as the earliest form of international relations.

The study and practice of international relations in today’s world is valuable for many reasons:

• International relations promote successful trade policies between nations.
• International relations encourage travel related to business, tourism, and immigration, providing people with opportunities to enhance their lives.
• International relations allows nations to cooperate with one another, pool resources, and share information as a way to face global issues that go beyond any particular country or region. Contemporary global issues include pandemics, terrorism, and the environment.
• International relations advances human culture through cultural exchanges, diplomacy and policy development.

ECOWAS

The economic Community of West African States was established by the Treaty of Lagos signed by fifteen West African Heads of State and Government in May 28 1975. The treaty of Lagos was initially limited to economic cooperation but emerging political events led to its revision and expansion of scope of cooperation in 1993. Cabo Verde joined in 1976 and Mauritania decided to withdraw in 2000 to join the Arab Maghreb Union. The vision of ECOWAS is to its revision and expansion of scope of cooperation and integration, leading to the establishment of an Economic Union in West Africa in order to raise the living standards of its peoples, to maintain and enhance economic stability, foster relations among member States as well as contribute to the progress and development of the African Continent. The Revised Treaty of ECOWAS states the objectives as follows:

§  the harmonization and co-ordination of national policies and the promotion of integration programmes, projects and activities, particularly in food, agriculture and natural resources, industry, transport and communications, energy, trade, money and finance, taxation, economic reform policies, human resources, education, information, culture, science, technology, services, health, tourism, legal matters;

 

§  the harmonization and co-ordination of policies for the protection of the environment;

 

§  the promotion of the establishment of joint production enterprises;

 

§  the establishment of a common market;

 

§  the establishment of an economic union through the adoption of common policies in the economic, financial, social and cultural sectors, and the creation of monetary union.

 

§  The promotion of joint ventures by private sector enterprises and other economic operators, in particular through the adoption of a regional agreement on cross border investments;

 

§  The adoption of measures for the integration of the private sectors, particularly the creation of an enabling environment to promote small and medium scale enterprises;

 

§  The establishment of an enabling legal environment;

 

§  The harmonization of national investment codes leading to the adoption of a single community investment code;

 

§  The harmonization of standards and measures;

 

§  The promotion of balanced development of the region, paying attention to the special problems of each member state particularly those of landlocked and small island member States;

 

§  The encouragement and strengthening of relations and the promotion of the flow of information particularly among rural populations, women and youth organizations and socio-professional organizations such as associations of the media, business men and women, workers, and trade unions;

 

§  The adoption of a community population policy which takes into account the need for a balance between demographic factors and socio-economic development.

 

§  Any other activity that member states may decide to undertake jointly with a view to attaining community objectives.

 

§  The organizational structure of ECOWAS consists of the following institutions and specialized agencies:

 

Institutions:

§  The Authority of Heads of State and Government;

§  The Council of Ministers;

§  The Community Parliament;

§  The Economic and Social Council;

§  The Community of Court of Justice;

§  The ECOWAS Commission;

§  The ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID);

§  The West African Health Organization

§  The inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA).

 

Specialized Agencies:

§  West African Monetary Agency (WAMA)

 

§  Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (RAAF)

 

§  ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERERA)

 

§  ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Efficiency (ECREEE)

 

§  The West African Power Pool (WAPP) ECOWAS BROWN CARD

 

§  ECOWAS Gender Development  Centre (EGDC)

 

§  ECOWAS Youth and Sports Development Centre (EYSDC)

 

§  West African Monetary Institute (WAMI)

 

§  ECOWAS infrastructure Projects Preparation and Development Unit (PPDU)

 

§  The member States of ECOWAS are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. https://www.uneca.org/oria/pages/ecowas-economic-community-west-african-states

 

MAN IN INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

International community is nothing else rather than international organizations being played and managed by man. Man is the major factor in an international community playing the role as an actor. To be precise man must create a peaceful environment for their progress. The international community is a vague phrase used in geopolitics and international relations to refer to a broad group of people and governments of the world. It does not literally refer to all nations or states in the world.

The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining

i.                    international peace and security,

ii.                  developing friendly relations among nations and

iii.                 promoting social progress,

iv.                 better living standards and

v.                   human rights.

 

When a community (men) come together to address the biggest global challenges it is known as International Community Development. A community is a group of people who share resources like roads, water and money. Community can also be just one type of group, a continent, country, city, or even colleagues working at the same company.

 

Nowadays, we can communicate, trade and travel across international borders more easily than ever before. The world has become so connected by modern technology, that countries and continents are now economically, socially and politically interdependent. The international community development strategies stresses on:

Ø  understanding how the global community functions

Ø  finding solutions to international problems by working as global community

Ø  As sustainable community, solves its challenges with solutions that can impact on the wellbeing or other communities or even ecosystems.

Ø  by impacting on the health of people, plants or animals in the community

Ø  projects managed by community leaders and members are encouraged by the local ownership of development efforts, leading to sustainable projects with long term growth.

 

International development can be attracted by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). They are a global blueprint for community development activities geared toward helping international communities.

The rhetorical phrase “International Community is widely used to refer to relations involving a broad group of governments and people around the world. It suggests the existence of common ground/views towards matters involving human beings. 

The word “International Community” continues to gain ground in the West and by pundits mainly to imply that the broader world is engaged, in agreement or given a chance to be a part this mythical group which manipulates us into a false sense of connection and detracts us from the real global challenges facing all of humanity.

There are certain legitimate examples of the International Community at work from such actions as peacekeeping to human rights to disarmament, seeming to support the work of respected, humanitarian organizations. It is legitimate to criticize the term “International Community” due to its’ many obvious failures: lack of proper education, health care and access to basic human needs, waging unjust wars, forced migrations of millions around the world, and allowing over three billion human beings to live at below $2 or less a day.

 International Community Concerns for Citizens

Ø  Despite the fact that all human beings in the world are portrayed as though we are all its equal consumers are influenced by the same tides of political, social and technological changes, in reality it is the viewpoint, desires, benefits, profits and aspirations of a handful of the powerful so called International Community that impact so many aspects of our lives of the world’s peoples, especially its’ refugees.

Ø  They impact on major policies like wars, occasional peace initiatives, economy, geopolitical influences, etc.  It is also a handful of nations such as US, Russia, China, UK, Germany, France, Japan, Canada, India and Brazil who lead this “International Community” as they profit from their exploits.

Ø  It is actually the moral obligation and collective actions of all spectator nations to realize the immediate and long term challenges by their citizens not to be victimized by decision of an affluent handful. 

Ø  They focus on basic human values and priorities in health care,

Ø  environmental issues,

Ø  more democratic political systems without the taint of money,

Ø   and a strong commitment to peace which should become the new norm for all nations by improving standards of living and

Ø  Creating opportunities within true spirit of solidarity and common human needs. 

We can say that everything that happens to the human race happens in its settlements, that is the place the person is residing and although the task of considering everything on a global basis may seem an impossible one, we may argue that people, felt more and more strongly as people reflect more rationally on their ways of life, that most human activities are profoundly inter- connected. if we take food or population or science and technology or women's status or whatever other vital issue out of the context in which they are actually experienced and we may need from time to time to correct our vision by fitting them back into the continuum of daily life which is where their real impact is experienced. This is to say that our real impact of our daily life comes from experience.

International community can help in various ways such as:

i.         By removing policy distortions in developed countries that harm the investment climates in developing countries

ii.      by providing more and more effective assistance to the design and implementation of investment climate improvements, and better leveraging support provided directly to firms and transactions  

iii.    By tackling the substantial knowledge agenda to help policymakers broaden and accelerate investment climate improvements.