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International Organizations/Mexican Revolution
Term Paper ID:31811
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Essay Subject:
Two parts Discusses the viability of international organizations and the causes and importance of ...... More...
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10 Pages / 2250 Words
6 sources, 21 Citations,
APA Format
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Paper Abstract:
Discusses the viability of international organizations; and the causes and importance of the Mexican Revolution. How the Revolution changes the relationship between church and state. Empowerment of once excluded political groups.
Paper Introduction:
International Organizations and Disparities of Power It has been argued that political arrangements of all kinds and atboth the national and international levels are constrained by the relativepower of different participants The United Nations Security Councilacknowledged this by giving a veto to the world\'s first five nuclearweapons states the United States Soviet Union France Great Britain andChina Bennett Oliver This essay will consider the question ofhow in a general sense disparities of power have affected internationalorganizations including the United Nations UN and
Text of the Paper:
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To succeed, however, they require long-term commitments ofcooperation which theoretically emerge from the sense of mutual dependencythat most states possess. International Organizations and Disparities of Power It has been argued that political arrangements of all kinds and atboth the national and international levels are constrained by the relativepower of different participants. It would be equally absurd to assume that newcomer andrelatively poor partner Turkey will have as much sway and influence in theEuropean Union as Germany or France. The UN, as any student of history knows, replaced the League ofNations which Rubenstein (1989) said was never an effective peacekeepingorganization. Journal of the Southwest, 45(4), 671-7 8. Thus, as this essay demonstrates, the Mexican Revolution appears tohave been the definitive event in Mexico's history as an autonomouscountry. According to Camp (2 3), onlyMadero offered specific political principles. Nevertheless, despite theirdrawbacks and failures, international and regional organizations continueto attract members. In international relations, powerdoes differentiate between the capacity of countries to influence or shapeevents. Land was redistributed tothousands of rural villages to be held in common for legal residents whoobtained use rights and not legal title. Madero advocated three important political ideas: no re-election, electoral reform leading to effective suffrage and revision ofthe Constitution of 1857. While recognizing that regional and truly international organizationsconfer both privileges and obligations upon their members, Bennett andOliver (2 2) also recognize that groups such as the League of Nations andthe United Nations are invariably composed of individual countries withsharp differences and many disparities. The largest UN peacekeeping operationtook place in the early 195 s to repel North Korea's invasion of the south. Thus, as Bennettand Oliver (2 2) have noted, the development of internationalorganizations is very much the artifact of self-interest and the hope orthe belief that an international organization will have the power to fosterunity and reduce conflict to a degree that an individual state could not. Saga. Although members can vote to establish a peacekeeping forceand request states to contribute soldiers who will function under the aegisof a UN-appointed commander, any one of the five permanent members of theSecurity Council (China, France, the United States, Russia, and GreatBritain) can veto the operation. K. Some are wealthy, militaristicallypowerful, possessed of a broad economic infrastructure and multipleresources. The Cultural Landscape. Among themost important causes of the revolution identified by Camp (2 3) areforeign economic penetration, class struggle, land ownership inequities,economic depression, local autonomy, the clash between modernity andtradition, the breakdown of the Porfirian system, the weakness of thetransition process, the lack of opportunity for upward political and socialmobility, and the aging of the leadership. (2 3). Member states have the power to participate or not in the efforts ofthe organization to which they belong; they can contribute to militarypeace-keeping operations (or not), and they can provide funding to groupssuch as the UN humanitarian relief organs (or not) (Bennett & Oliver,2 2). Stephen Morris (2 3) has notedthat the culture of corruption existing in Mexico prior to the revolutionwas not in fact eliminated during the revolution and continues to this day. Other leaders, including Madero and Huerta, served very briefterms of less than four years, suggesting the extreme fluctuationsoccurring in Mexican politics during the revolutionary era. While the advantages of membership seem to faroutweigh the disadvantages, and the "one nation, one vote" ideology of mostgroups promises true equality among members, it is also true thatinternational organizations like the UN have not lived up to their earlypromise. Orthodox liberals like Madero also believed thateducation was the key to a modern Mexico. Others are technologically primitive, lacking in a militaryapparatus of any significance, and dependent upon foreign investment forany and all economic development. Boutros Ghali (1999), former Secretary General of the UnitedNations, has himself charged that after the demise of the bipolar worldwith the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States often elected toact unilaterally rather than through the mechanisms available to it andother countries in the UN. Additionally, both weaker and stronger statessee international organizations as capable of lending them legitimacy whilesimultaneously protecting their resources from others. New York: Oxford University Press.Morris, S.D. If corruption is seemingly endemic in Mexican politics, so is ongoingconflict between different groups within Mexican society (Camp, 2 3).Contemporary political culture is an artifact of the revolution anddemonstrates that social violence and reform continue to go hand in handin Mexican life. The revolution had an extraordinary influence on many of the men whofought it and attempted to lead it. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.Boutros-Ghali, B. The UN is also criticized by its members and analysts for its failureto put an end to conflicts - either permanently as in the case of theMiddle East or quickly as in the case of the Balkans (Bennett & Oliver,2 2). The breakup of large land holdings is another and vital economic andsocial product of revolutionary ideology. There are other criticisms articulated by Boutros Ghali (1999) thatsuggest that international organizations such as the UN are only aseffective as their members will allow them to be. International Organizations. More than one milliondied during the decade in which the revolution touched all social classes.Though it did not impact all locales with the same intensity, therevolution is seen by Camp (2 3, p. Madero, opposed Diaz and while products ofan upper class and virtually aristocratic elite, these two leaders tendedto opposed major structural change while calling for equal opportunity forall (Camp, 2 3). Despite this fact, countries continue to seek membership in groupssuch as the United Nations as part of a search for legitimacy, the abilityto influence events to some degree, the peaceful settlement of disputes,collective security, access to technology and financial assistance, and thesearch for justice under the law (Bennett & Oliver, 2 2). Economic development has always requiredstable international relations to protect trading partners and sources ofraw materials. (1989). Columbus, OH: Merrill. Other countriesmake minimal contributions to the activities of the organization or othersthat function on a regional or larger basis) and yet demand that theirneeds be met and their views respected by the organization - even when itcomes to meet requirements for participation in funding and grant programs(Bennett & Oliver, 2 2). (2 3). States have also found that they must work together tosurvive threats from hostile countries (Rubenstein, 1989). (2 3). Conversely, the United States has, throughvarious administrations, found the UN hopelessly mired in debate, unwillingto recognize that sanctions have a limited effect on the behavior ofnations and otherwise less competent in resolving international conflictsthan is desirable. At the same time, if the major contribution thatinternational organizations "can make to world affairs is to aid inbreaking down barriers that divide the peoples of the world, the progressto date in eliminating those barriers often seems discouraging (Bennett &Oliver, 2 2, p. The legacy of the revolution in terms of the construction of the newpolitical system is also of significance. Some members fund organizations such asthe World Bank and the International Monetary Fund while others aretypically the recipients of those funds (Bennett & Oliver, 2 2). ReferencesBennett, A. Until 1992, these provisionsremained unchanged in the constitution and included removing religion fromprimary schools, taking away the right of the Church to own real estate,and secularizing certain religious activities while restricting theclergy's potential political actions (Camp, 2 3). With 188 nation-states now represented in the United Nations itwould be foolish to assume that there are 188 equal partners in either theagenda-setting or decision-making processes at this organization (Bennett &Oliver, 2 2). Bennett and Oliver (2 2) believe that internationalorganizations provide services and channels for intervention that areindispensable to or at least valuable for maintaining an orderlyinternational system. Interdependence is a fact of life among members of the globalcommunity - and a fact of life that is becoming more and more inescapabledue to technological innovations and the decline of trade barriers - butmany countries seem to be unwilling to recognize that interdependencerequires them to cooperate with one another and with internationalorganizations and agencies even when cooperation may be less preferablethan the alternative. In theory, all members of a particular international organizationsuch as the United Nations or its predecessor, the League of Nations, orregional cooperative groups such as the Warsaw Pact and the North AtlanticTreaty Organization (NATO) or the European Union (EU) have equal powerwithin the organization (Rubenstein, 1989). The revolutionlasted, on and off, from 191 to 192 (Camp, 2 3). This was astrue when the ancient Spartans created the Peloponnesian League as it waswhen Woodrow Wilson called upon the world to create the League of Nationsafter World War I (Cartledge, 2 3). (2 2). The multi-state organizations that have been created over time havenot rivaled, threatened, or superceded the sovereignty of individualstates. Powerful and weak nation-states, according to Bennett and Oliver(2 2), seem to share a similar characteristic: they are equally concernedwith vested and at times parochial interests to the exclusion of otherissues. New York: Random House.Cartledge, P. 44 )." Criticisms of groups like the UN - and there aremany criticisms, emanating from both the left and the right, and from thefirst and the Third Worlds - underscore the fact that such organizationsare only as effective in meeting grand and often highly difficult goals andobjectives as their member states are willing to let them be. Corruption and Mexican political culture. L., & Oliver, J. Question 2 The Mexican Revolution has been described as a landmark in thepolitical development of Mexico in the twentieth century. Further, member states can vote to implement sanctions against acountry and then go behind the scenes to avoid those sanctions; France andGermany clearly took this route in the years during which Iraq was beingsubjected to economic sanctions by the UN because of its refusal to permitUN officials to inspect its weapons development program. New York: Overlook Press.Rubenstein, J.M. The revolution empowered political groups that were once excludedand today serves as a source of national pride. Today, the UN is frequently criticized for failing to keepworld peace. Politics in Mexico. In reality, this is seldom thecase. The revolution gave greater emphasis to asense of constitutionalism that continues to shape Mexican politics today(Camp, 2 3). The United Nations Security Councilacknowledged this by giving a veto to the world's first five nuclearweapons states (the United States, Soviet Union, France, Great Britain, andChina) (Bennett & Oliver, 2 2). The appeal ofinternational or regional organizations is underscored by the fact thateach year more and more countries attempt to create the conditionsnecessary for entry into the EU or the World Trade Organization (WTO).Membership in the WTO is recognized as enhancing the trade status andsituation of member nations and therefore promotes economic development onthe domestic level (Bennett & Oliver, 2 2). Despite the fact thatthese organizations do not seem to be fully able to meet their own statedgoals and objectives, autonomous nation-states continue to pursuemembership. 4 ) as bringing "together theresidents of villages and cities to a degree never achieved before orsince." The causes of the revolution are seen by Camp (2 3) as numerous androoted in the failures of the porfiriato, or the group formed aroundPorfirio Diaz, himself a reformer who was a moderate liberal. Other peacekeeping operations in the Balkans, Somalia, Lebanon, Cyprus,and in other parts of Africa have enjoyed varying degrees of success. Two of the important leaders of the revolution, including GeneralAlvaro Obregon and Francisco I. The revolution also introduced anew attitude toward labor, permitting legal strikes and recognizing theright to collective bargaining. Many of the revolutionarieseyed the Church with distrust and therefore reinstituted restrictiveprovisions advocated by earlier liberals. The UN is clearly the most important international organizationtoday. This essay will consider the question ofhow in a general sense, disparities of power have affected internationalorganizations, including the United Nations (UN), and while in light ofthese disparities and their effects, a variety of internationalorganizations continue to flourish. Regional as well as international organizations have typicallydeveloped out of the recognition that few states have historically beenable to go it alone in the world. The Spartans. Unvanquished: A U.S.-U.N. Membership in such organizations is voluntary and cannot be compelled(Bennett & Oliver, 2 2). When General Alvaro Obregon tried toamend the constitution to allow him to run for a second term after a fouryear hiatus, he was elected and then assassinated before he could takeoffice. Economic associations such as the EU are seemingly far moreeffective in meeting goals and objectives - perhaps because suchorganizations are based on real economic interdependency and shared goalsand objectives that cause political considerations to become lesscompelling than they might otherwise be. ReferencesCamp, R.A. (1999). Camp (2 3) notes that the revolution ushered in a dramatic change inthe relationship between church and state.
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