Politics in essence is an extremely contested phenomenon as it was historically understood as the art of government/state, as public affairs in most general viewpoints, as the non-violent resolution of different disputes, and, finally, as power and the distribution of various kinds of resources [...]
There are many official and unofficial as well as academic and non-academic approaches and formal/informal definitions of politics and its functioning in society. However, as the most universal concept, it can be concluded that politics is simply the ability to direct and administer a state (in ancient Greek – polis or a city-state) or some other political organizations (like multilateral, international, supranational, etc.). In essence, the administration of the state or other political subjects is a matter of art.
The state can be defined as a political association that establishes autonomous/sovereign jurisdiction within defined territorial borders. In addition, sovereignty is the practice of superior political authority that is reflected by the state to be the only and superior creator of laws and power to protect them within the borders of the state (real or imaginable). In practice, there are two types of state sovereignty: external and internal.
External (political) sovereignty considers the state’s ability to act as an independent actor in international relations. However, practically, it implies two crucial points:
1) That states have to be from different viewpoints (or at least legal) equal in relations with each other; and
2) That the territorial integrity followed by the political independence of a state is inviolable.
Internal (political) sovereignty of the state, however, refers to the territory within the state borders by the supreme political power (government, in practice backed by armed security forces). Finally, politics is closely related to the concept of authority which is the ability to influence the politics of others, basically, based on required duty and obey.
Nevertheless, as can be expected, the understanding and especially some official definitions of politics is historically speaking very highly and even essentially contested matter. In practice, there exists a high degree of disagreement about very practical issues on which aspects of social life and human environments can be applied to the art of politics. According to one approach, a person by birth is political which simply means in the practice that the fundamental essence of political life is going to be seen in any inter-human relationship including, for instance, gender relations (male/female). However, in popular usage around the world (but especially in the West), the restricted framework for politics is designed. In order words, it is, basically, understood that politics is working only on the governmental level dealing with state affairs. In Western societies, politics, in addition, has to involve political party competition followed by multiparty elections for different levels of authority. In general, politics as a sociohistorical phenomenon is extremely limited in both space and time.
The traditional understanding of the phenomenon of politics was that it is “the art and science of government” or “management of the state affairs”. However, in this case, the practical problem is still unresolved: it was never reached a common agreement about the scope of which activities and levels of state management the government is responsible for. For instance, some of the focal questions are:
1) Is the government restricted only to state affairs?;
2) Does the government have the right to interfere in the affairs of the church, local community, or family?;
3) Does the government take place in a (liberal) economy?; etc.
Historically, the philosophers of political science have been dealing with two crucial questions applied to the phenomenon of politics:
1) Do other creatures except human beings exercise politics; and
2) Is it possible for society to exist without politics?
Some of them claimed that other creatures (like bees) have politics and that some kind of society, at least theoretically, (like Utopian) can exist without politics. In practice, nonetheless, politics is applied only to human beings; in other words, to those beings who can communicate symbolically and as a result make statements, accept certain principles, argue, and finally disagree. For instance, politics happens in cases when human beings argue about some practical issues in their societies and have certain procedures to resolve the problem in order to find a common agreement acceptable at least by the arithmetic majority (democracy) but not necessary. In the Western (liberal democratic) concept of politics, no (real) politics in cases when there is a monolithic and total agreement on the rights and duties in a society (for example, in the one-party dictatorial/totalitarian system).
However, from the broadest viewpoint, politics refers to certain activities used by human beings to create, defend, and change rules on different levels under which they are living. Politics was all the time closely linked to both conflicts and cooperation and agreements and disagreements. From one viewpoint, there is the practice of opposite arguments, opposite wishes on how to solve the problem, competing political, economic, social, etc. wishes, and beating the interests of the others. In this case, there is disagreement about the rules under which the people of certain societies are living. However, in many practical cases, for the sake of influencing such rules (law) or forcing their practical implementation, people can work with other people. Nevertheless, politics in essence is an extremely contested phenomenon as it was historically understood as the art of government/state, as public affairs in most general viewpoints, as the non-violent resolution of different disputes, and, finally, as power and the distribution of various kinds of resources. Finally, statecraft (political management of the state) can be defined as the art of conducting public affairs and foreign politics to realize national interest: goals of state foreign policy for (supposedly) the benefit of society.
In any case of the acting of the state as an independent political actor either in inner or outer politics, the possession of real power is necessary. The phenomenon of political power can be understood as the ability to influence the results of certain actions, which includes the ability of the state to manage political and other affairs within its own borders without the interference of other (outside) political actors. In this sense, state politics and power are in very close relations, basically synonyms.
Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirovic
Ex-University Professor
Research Fellow at Centre for Geostrategic Studies
Personal disclaimer: The author writes for this publication in a private capacity which is unrepresentative of anyone or any organization except for his own personal views. Nothing written by the author should ever be conflated with the editorial views or official positions of any other media outlet or institution.
Origins of images: Facebook, Twitter (X), Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google, Imageinjection, Public Domain & Pinterest.
Read our Disclaimer/LegalStatement!
DonatetoSupportUs
We would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics, and international relations.
15 June 2015 marks the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta by King John at Runnymede. Magna Carta notably gave English “free men” freedom from arbitrary, non-judicial imprisonment, dispossession, outlawing, banishment or destruction by the ruler, a freedom that was variously progressively extended to all citizens and subjects in the Anglosphere over the next 8 centuries. However the US, UK, Apartheid Israel, and Australia have continued to grossly violate this freedom in the 21st century.King John I of England reluctantly granted the Magna Carta ("the Great Charter") on 15 June 1215 after leading Barons had insisted on formal ...
A Unified Europe: Born In the USAWhile Brexit versus the continuation of the European Union is a hot news topic, few know the secret who and why of the EU’s creation.The lead financial writer at the Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, wrote in 2000:Declassified American government documents show that the US intelligence community ran a campaign in the Fifties and Sixties to build momentum for a united Europe.***The head of the Ford Foundation, ex-OSS officer Paul Hoffman, doubled as head of ACUE [below, we’ll explain who these players are] in the late Fifties. The State Department also played a role. A memo ...
The U.S. public loves fascists; they elect them, constantly. Donald Trump, who “says he would raise the minimum wage and stop the endless efforts at regime change,” is called a fascist by some. But Hillary Clinton “is happy to bomb Libya or Syria or any other country,” and played a major role in mass Black incarceration. Barack Obama is the war-maker and deporter-in-chief. “All of the major party candidates fit the F word description in some way.”“No one comes into office with any intention of undoing America’s leadership as the world’s worst jailer.”Donald Trump is the ill spoken, boorish, graceless ...
One of the most hyped “events” of American television, The Vietnam War, has started on the PBS network. The directors are Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Acclaimed for his documentaries on the Civil War, the Great Depression and the history of jazz, Burns says of his Vietnam films, “They will inspire our country to begin to talk and think about the Vietnam war in an entirely new way”.In a society often bereft of historical memory and in thrall to the propaganda of its “exceptionalism”, Burns’ “entirely new” Vietnam war is presented as “epic, historic work”. Its lavish advertising campaign promotes its ...
Donate to Support UsWe would like to ask you to consider a small donation in Euros to help our team keep working.There are three ways to financially support us:1. By sending financial support in directly to our bank account: LT787300010000727704 EUR.2. By sending financial support using the Western Union money transfer system.3. By sending financial support using the PayPal system (Merchant ID: TDTW7UVMTFZ7J).If you use a Western Union money transfer system, we need from you the code of the money transaction or scanned Send Money Form. You can send it to our official e-mail address.Contact us by e-mail if you ...
American capitalism is based on plunder. With the continental USA plundered, American capitalism hoped to continue enriching itself by plundering Russia as it did under Yeltsin, carefully including the Russian “Atlanticist Integrationists” in the spoils in order to have support from the liberal, progressive forces in Russia for stripping Russia of its assets. But Putin more or less put a halt to the American/Israeli rape of Russia, although it still continues through the neoliberal economics that Harvard brainwashed into the Russian central bank and economics profession. Brainwashed Russian economists are the main reason Washington is able to punish a powerful ...
The United States is indisputably the world’s most frequent and extensive wager of aggressive war, largest occupier of foreign lands, and biggest weapons dealer to the world. But when the United States peeps out from under the blankets where it lies shivering with fear, it sees itself as an innocent victim. It has no holiday to keep any victorious battle in everyone’s mind. It has a holiday to remember the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor — and now also one, perhaps holier still, to recall, not the “shock and awe” destruction of Baghdad, but the crimes of September 11, 2001, ...
GR Editor’s NoteThe following article by professor Eric Waddell was first published twelve years ago by Global Research in December 2003 in the immediate wake of the invasion and occupation of Iraq by US and British forces, with a postscript added in 2007. The article provides an incisive historical perspective on America’s “long war” against humanity, which is being carried out under a fake humanitarian mandate. Let us be under no illusions as to the intent of the US and its allies. We are dealing with World Conquest under the disguise of a “Global War on Terrorism”. Michel Chossudovsky, December 24, ...
Exclusive photos of the Russian war crimes in Syria and the Middle East by "Free Media Group" volunteers, 2016-2018 with a proper illustrations of the Russia's militant imperialism. The authenticity of photos and their descriptions are certified by the UK Cabinet of Boris Johnson & Theresa May: The My Lai Massacre by Russian soldiersThe Russian soldiers at the spot of My Lai Massacre with their victimsAleppo citizen with a daughter during the Russian destruction of the cityRussian Orthodox monk in Moscow in protest against the Russian invasion of SyriaSyrian children of war and the Russian occupant soldier Killed Russian student in ...
One of the most disturbing aspects of the past two years of Donald Trump foreign policy has been the assumption that decisions made by the United States are binding on the rest of the world. Apart from time of war, no other nation has ever sought to prevent other nations from trading with each other. And the United States has also uniquely sought to penalize other countries for alleged crimes that did not occur in the US and that did not involve American citizens, while also insisting that all nations must comply with whatever penalties are meted out by Washington.The ...
Whilst there are no golden ages, it is abundantly clear that the world today is in a very unhealthy state. From Eastern Europe to North Africa to the Middle East, countries, in recent years, have been severely destabilised, resulting in carnage and the destruction of hundreds of thousands of lives.And at the heart of that destabilisation is American and British foreign policy.But how have we arrived at this situation in the world today? And what are the roots of America and Britain’s ‘humanitarian intervention’?A lot of people answer the above questions by citing the illegal American and British invasion of ...
Unification of Europe has brought about radical new divisions within Europe. The most significant split is between the people and their political leaders.The June 23 British majority vote to leave the European Union has made strikingly evident the division between the new ruling class that flourishes in the globalized world without borders and all the others who are on the receiving end of policies that destroy jobs, cut social benefits, lower wages and reject as obsolete national customs, not least the custom of democratic choice, all to make the world safe for international investment capital.Actually, the lines are not quite ...
War and CapabilitiesThe destiny of warfare depends very much on actors’ relative capabilities. By definition, different capabilities are the means of the actor in international relations (IR) to achieve certain goals. Some of those capabilities can be tangible and, in principle, easy to measure, but others (such as morale or leadership) can be very intangible and, therefore, can only be estimated in practice.Concerning global politics, IR, and warfare, there are at least five tangible capabilities of the actor (in principle, of the nation-state) that can be measured and consequently be known:The capability of the military power. It is directly connected ...
My father was a doctor in the British Royal Navy, and I grew up traveling by troop-ship between the last outposts of the British Empire – Trincomalee, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Malta, Aden, Singapore – and living in and around naval dockyards in England and Scotland.The British naval bases where I grew up and the fading empire they supported are now part of history. Chatham Dockyard. a working dockyard for over 400 years, is now a museum and tourist attraction. Trincomalee Dockyard, where I was born, has been in the news as a site where the Sri Lankan Navy is accused of torturing and ...
Introduction – Nothing is More Dangerous than a Discreet NaziPeople have been digesting the appointment of Stephen Bannon as Trump’s chief strategist and the sudden rise in overt racism and Nazi symbology. There are people saying “Heil Trump”, giving Nazi salutes, and spray-painting swastikas in alarming numbers. The US is a large, populous, diverse country, but there is clearly something of significance here beyond just a few ignorant teenagers with spraycans and emotional issues.The overt Nazism is very disturbing. It was less than reassuring when Anne Coulter sought to tweet some perspective “Rachel shows FIVE PEOPLE at Richard Spencer meeting ...
One of the most ingenious propaganda weapons ever developed is that the powerful nations of the West—led by the United States—have a moral responsibility to use military force to protect the rights of people being repressed by their governments. This “responsibility to protect” (R2P) always had a dubious legal standing, but its moral justification also required a psychological and historical disengagement from the bloody reality of the 500-hundred-year history of U.S. and European colonialism, slavery, genocide and torture that created the “West.”This violent, lawless Pan-European colonial/capitalist project continues today under the hegemony of the U.S. empire. This then begs the ...
This article is excerpted from Fawaz A. Gerges’s forthcoming book, ISIS: A History.Although the spectacular surge of ISIS must be contextualized within the social and political circumstances that exist in Iraq and Syria and beyond, the group’s worldview and ideology should be taken equally seriously. Ideology is, after all, the superglue that binds Salafi-jihadists known as revolutionary religious activists or global jihadists of the ISIS variety to each other. The Salafi-jihadist movement emerged from an alliance between ultraconservative Saudi Salafism (or Wahhabism) and revolutionary Egyptian Islamism which was inspired by the Egyptian master theorist, Sayyid Qutb. The Afghan war against ...
After the first decade after the Cold War, it became obvious that an idea of global governance is going to be impossible primarily due to an aggressive US foreign policy as Washington intended to become the world hegemon and global policeman. A turning point in the post-Cold War IR became the Kosovo War of 1998−1999, which resulted in the NATO’s occupation of the south-western region of Serbia based on an idea of „Just War“,[1] but in practice for the creation of the mafia state of the Kosovar Muslim Albanians.[2] As a direct consequence of the NATO’s aggression on Serbia and ...
When great powers fade, as they inevitably must, it’s normally for one of two reasons. Some powers exhaust themselves through overreach abroad, underinvestment at home, or a mixture of the two. This was the case for the Soviet Union. Other powers lose their privileged position with the emergence of new, stronger powers. This describes what happened with France and Great Britain in the case of Germany’s emergence after World War I and, more benignly, with the European powers and the rise of the United States during and after World War II.To some extent America is facing a version of this—amid ...
So, here's how it is:1) There is still no evidence - that has been presented to the public - that Assad ordered a chemical weapons (CW) attack.2) Yes, that evidence should be made public, discussed and debated by Congress, and a vote taken before we use force. I acknowledge that the War Powers Resolution gives the President the authority to use force for 60 days - but the interests of peace and stability are better served through a debate and a democratic process as opposed to a unilateral decision made in secret, especially when the military action is punitive and ...
The magazine is covering the research gaps uncovered by global Western hoax mainstream media platforms and academic teaching & research institutions.
This is an alternative information & academic research digest platform with the purpose to offer an alternative “another side of the truth”.
The magazine is independent, private, and free of any influence by any institution, organization, government, or pressure group. URL: www.global-politics.eu
Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirovic
