National Interest of State - Essay Example

?National Interest of National interest of a is always dependent upon the nature of its relations with its neighboring countries as well as its allies. The plan of the paper is to understand the concept of national interest and then equate it with the relation with its allies and other countries on which it is dependent. This paper shall analyze the way in which a state relies upon the interest to execute its policies. It shall divide the policies of the nation into Internal and External Policy and try to bring about a comparison between the two. The paper shall also gather data which shall emphasize on the reason as to why the policy of a state matters from the point of external influences as much as it matters from the point of internal influences. The paper shall look at the various aspects which are imperative in the creation of national and foreign policy. Since the policies framed at the national level are maligned in the structure of foreign policy, it is crucial to understand the growing relation between the two of these policies. “The main reason why the notion of national interest is given such enormous, indeed decisive, weight in explaining the foreign policy behavior of any country, including India, is because of the widespread belief that the Realism paradigm, even in its crudest form, accurately describes and explains the essential character and functioning of the world order.” The paper shall analyze the disparity, if any, between realism and national interest. This will help the reader understand where the distinction lies between the independence of the policies as well as the dependency on reality for a nation to frame its policies. Current affairs take a major toll in shaping the policy of any state and therefore it is imperative to gain an understanding of the same. Introduction: A state is an actor in international politics which is dependent on other nations. A state does not have a specific way of running the country as the focus of the nation keeps on changing and shifting from time to time. This is so because the external politics of the world also keeps on changing and this influences the current state of the nation at any given point of time. A state has many diverse interests to cater to and this hugely influences the national interest of the state. Lets us define national interest: “A broad term for any matter of public concern that is addressed by a government in law or policy.” National interest of any state is the matter which concerns the government of the State with respect to its functioning internally and externally. Every country strives to fulfill everything in the notion of achieving its national interest, and it comes as the most fundamental and important aspect in the governance of any country. Therefore, it is crucial to understand that international treaties, deals, partnerships as well as relations are made and broken on the basis of country’s national interest. If the State is indulging in an act and it is not satisfying its national interest then it would not go ahead with such an act. Having established national interest as the most important factor in the actions of any state, we shall now move on to understanding how national interest is governed on a national and international level with respect to Nation-State. “According to this paradigm the world is basically an inter-state system where states are the primary, unitary and rational actors. Moreover, the state is perceived in a cartographic and not sociological sense, i.e. as a 'national-territorial totality' encompassing that whole space marked on any map as the country in question.” Understanding from the above statement, a State is always inter-related with different nation states. This defeats the idea of total independence, which is true in this context to the extent that States are always dependent on each other to perform actions pertaining to their national interests. Looking from a geo-political angle, it is the relations between the states which influence the world politics. In other words, the external policy of a nation state is heavily linked towards the creation of a world order where all the States act in their respective roles. Moving on from the order of the world, it is now crucial to understand which nation shape the world order, since all the States do not enjoy equality in shaping the order of the world. As obvious, the strongest nations in the context of world politics define the nature of world politics, which has a trickle-down effect upon the internal policy of a State. “given the uneven distribution of power it is, of course, the strongest states that determine this character which can then either be unipolar, bipolar or multipolar where the latter term only means a very few more than two states. It follows that it is the foreign policies of the most powerful states and of the aspiring major powers that become the key determinant of global politics. “ So the strongest nations underline the external policy of countries. However, those nations which do not have enough bargaining power still emerge victorius in their negotiations with the rest of the countries. This is because they frame and execute policies within the parameters of their existing bargaining power, and do not go beyond that until they perceive it as possible to achieve it. Slowly by time and exercising more influence on the world by providing education, having an impact in trade, having an impact in politics or arms, petrol etc. It is through such economic and social factors that Nation States are able to exercise control at the geo-political level with respect to other countries and demand their rights accordingly. (Indianexpress.com) Realism: Realism plays a huge role in underlining and executing the national interest of the State. Following is the definition of realism: “An inclination toward literal truth and pragmatism. The representation in art or literature of objects, actions, or social conditions as they actually are, without idealization or presentation in abstract form.” (Tni.org) Realism plays the most important role in shaping the national interest of a nation. It is through realism that states identify and understand the true nature of the world and execute their policies. Kenneth Woltz has stated that realism plays the role of a steering with respect to national interest. A country has certain ideas and agendas to follow and to accomplish. However, many a times it has been seen and noted that it has not been pragmatic in its approach and therefore due to going overboard with its interests it has faltered at the international level. Realism helps a State to keep track of its interest in the most possible fashion. It helps the country to understand where it lies in terms of its bargaining power and how should it go about in demanding its rights and other demands which are pertinent to its national interest. Realism allows the nation to be grounded and rooted to its policies in the most basic fashion. It also allows equilibrium to settle in the world politics which is crucial in creating a policy for all the States where everyone could be deemed to be happy and satisfied. “Kenneth Waltz who provides the most elegant, parsimonious and internally coherent theorization of Realism has used a Rational Choice approach derived from the homo economicus assumptions of neoclassical economics (widely perceived as the most scientific of the social sciences) to claim that just as one does not require a theory of the firm to provide a theory of the market and how it reaches equilibrium, similarly one can and must abstract away from the internal character of states to have a proper theory of the international system.” (Foreignaffairs.com) The above mentioned statement explains the nature of equilibrium with respect to world politics and the underlining national interest of different States. There always has to be equilibrium maintained between the nation states. This equilibrium comes with the help of understanding the role which the nation states play as actors of international politics. As long as everyone is performing upto his part and being true to its identity, then achieving its national interest does not prove to be difficult since the national interests of the State comes through the act of performing one’s task in geo-politics. If a nation is not supporting its role in the mainstream politics then it shall have conflicts with international policies, whereby the stronger nations would impose a penalty on the State, and in order to avoid the same the States would have to shift its national ideology as well as national interest. Therefore, it is pertinent to understand that a national interest of the State can never be looked from an objective point of view. It is also crucial to define what angle one is using to evaluate the national interest of the State, and it is proven that whatever angle one may use, from the State’s point of view the national interest is always subjective subject to the changing needs and social structure of the world. Conclusion: National Interest of a State can never be objective in nature. Every nation strives to achieve its goals in the long run, but the goals of every State are ever changing according to the needs of the people as well as the changing circumstances of world politics. These two reasons are enough to emphasize the fact that national interest of the State change with time. Every nation has to adapt to its surroundings and work with what is has got. This can only happen if the nation is flexible and adaptable to the changing circumstances of the world. Through times we have seen that some countries have yielded power while some have gained power in the context of geo-politics. This happens due to the changing nature of every nation’s contribution to the world and its influence, both present and future. At this time USA is the strongest nation politically, but India and China shall be the ones to beat in the next few years due to their population as well as the influence they have on the economy being the fastest growing economies in the world. To conclude, it would be fair to say that the national interest of the State is modified every now and then by countries after calculating the state of the world as well as its internal practices. The concept of realism is very crucial to the entire practice of advocacy of national interest and in order to achieve high bargaining power with other nations, countries strive to influence the world at a larger level. Some are doing so at the moment, some used to do it in the past and in the future the fastest growing economies shall dictate the world politics which shall again shape and modify their national interests. References Foreignaffairs.com (2008) Rethinking the National Interest | Foreign Affairs. [online] Available at: http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/64445/condoleezza-rice/rethinking-the-national-interest [Accessed: 15 Apr 2012]. Indianexpress.com (2012) National Interest: The states strike back - Indian Express. [online] Available at: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/national-interest-the-states-strike-back/927692/ [Accessed: 15 Apr 2012]. Legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com (1969) National interest legal definition of National interest. National interest synonyms by the Free Online Law Dictionary.. [online] Available at: http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/National+interest [Accessed: 15 Apr 2012]. Nationalinterest.org (2012) Failed States | The National Interest. [online] Available at: http://nationalinterest.org/topic/security/failed-states [Accessed: 15 Apr 2012]. Tni.org (2006) Transnational Institute | National Interest - A Flawed Notion. [online] Available at: http://www.tni.org/archives/archives_vanaik_nationalinterest [Accessed: 15 Apr 2012]. Read More