[MUSIC] What is an international actor? The question was considered as trivial when the states were the only actors of the international system. But we are now in a new world in which states are no more the unique actors and even probably are not the dominant actors. We have to take into account non-state actors. The question could be, what is an actor? An actor is one acting on the international system. But also an actor is expected to act on the international arena. We have to take into account what is expected on the international arena? Now, Many kinds of actors are expected on the international arena, I mean of course, multinational cooperation but also entails, but also translational medias and also all the individuals who are constituting the world by now, that's to say about 7 billion people around the world. All of us we are international actors. Because we are consuming, because we are watching international TVs, because we are travelling, because we are surfing the internet and so on. So we have to understand what is at stake when we are acting as international actor on the arena. We are probably creating several billions of interactions on the international arena. And in social science it's very difficult to analyse and to understand all these new kinds of action, which are not promoted by states but by individuals. That's why was this new kinds of factors, we have to take into account four levels of analysis. The first one would be an international civil society which is more and more taking place, that's to say, all these exchanges which are initiated both by actors, but also by organized actors, but organized non state actors. The second would be an international public space. If I take the word which has been coined by Jürgen Habermas, the famous German philosopher. That's to say more and more, there is a kind of international debate which takes place with an emerging international public opinion, with an emerging debate which is gathering all the kinds of actors playing in the international arena. The total of all would be the criminalization of the international arena. The more actors are diversified the more criminalization takes place as one of the major flows on the international relations. And there is a kind of inter-playing between international political actors and mafia and other criminal networks which are playing on this international arena. This inter-playing is something probably new and more and more important. It is at stake now when we consider the main events on the particular sphere of international relations. And the fourth one would be ethnicization of the world. If now states I've no more the exclusivity of international efforts, it means that identity entrepreneurs play a very important role on the international arena, interplaying with the other actors and giving to the ethnic issue an important role in structuring the political debate, the international debate. So, ladies and gentlemen, what does it mean, non-state actors? I would propose a definition. I rarely do that, but I think that this concept is so important now that we have to agree on a very clear definition. I would say that non-state actors are all kinds of actor would, deliberately or not, are active inside the international arena by overcoming or even ignoring nation state sovereignty, border lines and would try to be free of any kinds of control, and especially of political control. That's to say, that we are facing a new dynamic, in international arena. Why a new dynamic? Because these non-state actors are overcoming distance. That's to say that territory is less and less meaningful, is less and less constraining. And with the increasing mass communication, inter-playing between non-state actors is more and more emancipated from the territorial support. And remember that territorial support was one of the main components of the traditional nation state and is a condition, a clear condition of national sovereignty. So we have to put in perspective these two trends in one hand. This abolition of distance and territory, to second end this new kind of interaction between this more and more numerous non-state actors. The second change is something very important. It's what Karl Deutsch coined as social mobilization. That's to say social mobilization, the process by which individuals get emancipated from the traditional communities. Urbanization, education, but also increasing influence of medias are creating this social mobilization. You understand that this social mobilization is more and more transnational as it is supported by medias, international transnational medias and also by these new agents like NGOs. And the third consequence is probably a decreasing capacity of states. That's why probably politics is now in crisis with these new order in which non-state actors have deprived states from its monopoly of legitimate violence. That's to say that there is a new kind of international violence which is no more a legitimate violence but which is jeopardizing the international stability and international peace. These are transnational actors. We would say that these transnational actors have relations between each other. That's why we will coin this new concept of translational relations. And you understand that translational relations is different from international relation. That's why I would even suggest to move to intersocial relations which is getting more and more important. And which is marginalizing the concept of international and interstate relations. The second concept has been coined and specially by James Rosenau and the concept of transnational flow. That's to say when these relations is permanent, when its reproducing itself it means that there are flows. And these flows are shaping, structuring the new world order, much more than the inter state power competition. And these transformations result in coining this very important concept of transnational network. Transnational network shed their light on the unformal dimension of these transnational relations. What is a network? A network is the strengths of weak ties. The formula has been coined by Mark Granovetter, the famous sociologist Granovetter who has put the finger on something very important. That's to say, we are now in a world in which weak ties, informal ties are much more important than institutional and formal and visible ties. We can find many examples of these transnational networks, of these invisible interactions between actors. The most famous would be, for instance, alumni of great universities. If you take into account, for example, the MIT network, you will observe that the main economic actors around the world are coming from MIT, and they were there inter-playing, and they are still now inter-playing. And they're also socialized by the main culture, by the main training, by the main professors, and sometimes these professors are getting a new job in the economic affairs in the world. Of course, you won't find among this elite actors of African or Latin, even Latin American states. So, these transnational networks are shaping, structuring, giving sense to this new world. Much more than the traditional power, or the military power. Now you have two kinds of transnational actors. The first would be what I will, called aggregated actors. That's to say individual who are aggregated for creating a transnational flow as we defined it. For instance investors, but also migrants are considered as aggregated. Transnational actors. Non-organized but the social reality is resulting from their individual initiative. And I will discriminate between disaggregated transnational actors and entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are then defined according to the vision as an organized group which is directed with very precise goals and ways are clear strategies. Among these entrepreneurs we can find of course, multinational cooperation, but also NGOs, but also some religious actors. The Roman Catholic Church is an entrepreneur according to the Vitalian definitions. But also we can consider that transnational medias. Transnational entrepreneurs. So, this is the global vision of transnational actors, now we will move to the description of some of them. [MUSIC]
