Now, the problem is
to consider how these non-state actors are playing on the international arena,
how do they interplay?
And the new international game is quite
different from the traditional international game.
In the traditional international game,
states were the only authorized player,
the only legitimate player.
And in the traditional international system,
the principle of the action was saved by sovereignty and power.
That's to say, nation states were playing as sovereign actors in
a clear vision of optimizing their own power and achieving their national interests.
With the new international arena,
the situation is quite different because when we have different kinds of actors,
we have different kinds of strategy, and of course,
the sovereignty principle is no more the shaping principle of the international arena.
The international arena is from now
committed to different kinds of strategy which are interplaying.
For the observer, but especially for the actors,
the previsibility of this situation is very difficult.
That's why we have to take into account two new orientations.
The main principle of non-state actors is autonomy,
as I mentioned in my previous lecture.
That's to say, the non-state actors has in mind to protect its own autonomy.
And the certain principle he has in mind is
to control a new kind of cooperation with the other actors.
Autonomy is a crucial point of the new international relations.
If you take into account some non-state actors like local actors, towns, counties,
regions inside the state,
those local actors are promoting their own autonomy on the international arena,
and so, their emancipation from the control of the sovereign nation state.
This has been pointed by Brian Hocking,
when he was looking at the strategy displayed by local actors in Australia.
But we can find many other examples,
and I mentioned in my last lecture,
the case of NGOs for women.
The main purpose was to protect
their own autonomy when playing on the international arena.
Corporation is something very important and
this corporation has to be considered at an horizontal point of view,
that's to you say between transnational actors,
but also in a vertical point of view among nation states,
that's to say negotiation,
cooperation between the state and its society as Robert Putnam
pointed out about the famous as two level game in international relations,
a level among nation states and a level between nation state,
each nation state and their own society.
That's why now, we're facing
a new world in the which domestic and international are mixed.
We are in an intermestic world.
But, we have to go further.
We have to try to understand how these different kinds of actors are interplaying.
In the traditional world order,
there was a unique case of actor,
a unique kind of actor which was the nation state.
Nation state had the monopoly of international relations and
international relations were relatively simple to understand,
as they were made of a competition between similar actors,
and especially during the 19th century or the 20th century,
when these nation states were very close to each other belonging to the same culture,
and to the same level of economic development.
Now, nation states are diversified,
but nation states have to compete with to other kinds of actors,
identity entrepreneurs and transnational entrepreneurs.
So, three kinds of different actors are competing and
interplaying in our present international arena: nation state,
transnational entrepreneurs, and identity entrepreneurs.
We know what nation state does mean and how to define it.
We know that nation states are based on
the citizen commitment and promoting a political representation.
Now, if we move to the second angle of our triangle, transnational entrepreneurs.
We consider transnational entrepreneurs as inclusive entrepreneurs,
mobilizing individuals coming from everywhere around
the world in a kind of global market.
These transnational entrepreneurs that we took into account in the previous lecture,
these transnational entrepreneurs are including multinational corporation,
but also NGOs, but also transnational medias for example.
And now, if we move to the third angle of our triangle, identity entrepreneurs.
Identity entrepreneurs have to be
discriminated from transnational entrepreneurs as they are exclusive.
That's to say they're appealing to a special part of the world.
That's to say those who are sharing the same identity.
This identity is close to the others.
And the appeal of the identity entrepreneur is based on community.
That's to say religious community,
that's to say linguistic community, ethnic community.
And so, we can differentiate,
we can discriminate between
those identity entrepreneurs who are based on primary allegiance,
and transnational entrepreneurs who are based on utilitarian allegiance.
These three angles are really the expression
of these three kinds of competing actors on the international arena.
They have not the same identity.
They don't have the same identity.
They don't have the same allegiance.
They don't use the same kinds of mobilization instruments.
They don't have the same strategies.
They don't have the same values.
They don't have the same goals.
Now, the main point of the present international enigma is how to combine,
how to combine these different kinds of identities,
these different kinds of values,
these different kinds of goals,
these different kinds of instruments,
these different kinds of process.
The anarchy of the present international arena is mainly resulting from
this combination of different kinds of
logic which didn't exist in the traditional world order.
And precisely, if we take this triangle into account,
we can obviously observe that there is
a permanent tension inside this triangle.
The three angles are in tension with each other.
That's to say, nation states are in tension with
transnational actors because transnational actors are challenging the borderlines,
transnational actors are challenging the state sovereignty.
And this is the common tension between
an actor coming from the market and an actor coming from political community.
But there is the same tension between nation states and identity entrepreneurs,
because identity entrepreneurs challenge the citizen commitment.
They consider that their first allegiance,
their prior allegiance of an individual is not to the nation state,
but to its own community,
religious community, ethnic community, linguistic community.
And the identity entrepreneur considers as a traitor those one who
are committed to their nation state before being committed to their community,
to their Gemeinschaft, as the German sociologist would have said.
Now, there is also
a tension between identity entrepreneurs and transnational entrepreneurs,
because there is a tension, a common tension,
a trivial tension between market and community,
between Gesellschaft and Gemeinschaft.
So, this tension is expressing the main dynamic of our present international arena.
But in the meantime,
if they are in a permanent tensions, these angles,
these kinds of actors are condemned to
co-exist and even to cooperate for a very simple reason,
none of them is able now to rule without taking into account the two others.
That's to say the present international dynamics is
depending on the ability of these actors to cooperate to make transaction.
And the real present dynamic in international relations is how to
combine identity dynamics with state nation dynamics,
how to combine state nation principles with transnational entrepreneurs principles.
It is in the midst of these three kinds of actors,
three kinds of strategy and principles,
that we can find the new international order.
If these actors are able to co-exist and more,
to cooperate, we are proceeding in a peaceful way.
If they are not able to find a common denominator and common interest,
we are not in a conflicted situation.
But you see, that this new kind of conflict
is no more the result of a competition among states,
but of a tension between states,
transnational actors and identity entrepreneurs.
