The future of international relations

Zakaria’s “The Rise of Illiberal Democracy” and Kaplan’s “The Coming Anarchy”

During the class discussion of these two articles, Prof. Isakov asked us what we thought the future of international relations would look like. Will it be a clash of civilizations? A struggle between liberal democracies and “democracies gone wrong”? Or pure anarchy as the fight for limited resources erodes governmental legitimacy?

What I have long failed to understand about politics and academia is the desperate and consistent need to find one answer. Students and politicians often limit themselves to the defense of a single and isolated theory. This, of course, makes sense on certain levels. A student must narrow her research to one thesis for the sake of time, resources and insanity. Modern politicians must (arguably) polarize themselves in order to stand apart from competitors. However, in the context of many discussions–including our class’ attempt to anticipate future international relations–it makes more sense to weigh the strengths and weaknesses of various theories and combine them to create a better understood reality.

Zakaria, Kaplan, and even Huntington (with whom I never thought I’d agree, but that’s a different story) each present us with different insights into the present and future of international relations. Even as their arguments stand alone, they interconnect. The weaknesses of one theory is replaced by the strengths of another, and so on.

It is important to consider the reality of illiberal democracies, as presented by Zakaria; it is also important to understand that democracy has different manifestations, and that even free-market capitalism mixed with free elections means the absence of civil and/or human rights for many in the developing world. Neither should we ignore the severity of climate change and the increasing shortage of natural resources. Climate change and resource scarcity will first affect the poorest areas of the world (devastating tsunamis in southeast Asia, mudslides in Central and South America, droughts many parts of Africa), putting further tension on already strained cultural borders.

My favorite high school English teacher once said during a fit of literary passion, “It all interrelates.”

While that concept may threaten our academic sanity or our ability to tackle individual problems, it is also the most important concept to keep within our peripheral vision while discussing topics as pressing as the evolution of international relations. The state of democracy, the health of the environment, and the relationships between cultures are too intertwined to pretend otherwise.