Some Notes and Reflections about the Institutional Context to Study the Westphalian Dilemma

Abstract

The current society of global challenges and opportunities is projected as a dynamic reality that will bring even greater challenges, on the shoulders of information and communication technologies. The complexity involved has overflowed the traditional institutional framework – centered around the Westphalian state. Many strategies have been proposed and there is a growing supra-state institutionality. All this requires a deeper understanding so that humanity can better face global threats. The observation of nation-states is subject to the paradox of observing them diminished, on the one hand, while pointing them out as obstacles to coordinated global action. Institutions of an international or global character also endure the paradoxical gaze of wishing them to be more effective while fearing for their lack of democratic roots. These paradoxes are also dilemmas between trusting the politics to centralized global institutions or to nation-states. Proposing to examine the absorption of the complexity of the current world, in terms of Ashby's law, looking at the roles of institutions and organizational systems in times when networks make the edges of organizations less solid, in general, opens a vast field of study to look at the current way humanity is handling complexity and possible alternatives. This work, just the beginning of research on the subject that demands greater efforts and resources to achieve its purpose of influencing the formulation of policies, is a journey through institutional aspects that aims to contribute with further reflections beyond the institutions.

Keywords:

• Control dilemma
• management of complexity
• nation-state paradox
• the society of global challenges and opportunities

Notes

1 Cited by Steve Rayner. Jack Beale Memorial Lecture on Global Environment. ANSW Sydney, Australia, July 2006 http://eureka.sbs.ox.ac.uk/93/1/Steve%20Rayner%2C%20Jack%20Beale%20Lecture%20Wicked%20Problems.pdf

2 See below the statements from UNCITRAL, ICC, UNCTAD, ICSID, WIPO, WTO, NAFTA.

3 “¿Serán precisamente las nuevas relaciones económicas las que tengan que ofrecer la plataforma más eficaz para una auténtica comunidad internacional?” (206)

4 This paper uses the concept of nation-state as a signifier of the characteristics of contemporary states, without prejudice to the fact that today most of them are multiethnic, many are multinational, and many combine both conditions. Usually, a state is seen as an independent political entity with clear geographic boundaries. Nation –on the other hand- is seen as a large body of people united by common origin, history, culture, ethnicity, or language. The main difference between state and nation is that state is a political and legal entity whereas nation is a socio-cultural entity.

5 Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM).

6 Treaty of Westphalia: "That there shall be a Christian and Universal Peace, and a perpetual, true, and sincere Amity, between […] all and each […]. That this Peace and Amity be observed and cultivated with such a Sincerity and Zeal, that each Party shall endeavour to procure the Benefit, Honour and Advantage of the other […]”. (Title I).

7 It must be remembered that international law, in every way, is characterized by a significant weight of soft law.

8 Max Sorensen clearly states that anarchy prevailed in the primitive law of nations, that is, the absence of an international order superior to states. Sorensen, Max. Manual de derecho internacional público, decimosegunda reimpresión de la versión castellana, México, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2011, p. 683.

9 Treaty of Westphalia: […] "the Commerce and Transportation shall be free to the Inhabitants on both sides of the Rhine, and the adjacent Provinces. Above all, the Navigation of the Rhine be free […] And it shall not be permitted to impose upon the Rhine new and unwonted Tolls, Customs, Taxes, Imposts, and other like Exactions […] (title LXXXIX).

10 About this relational topic could be useful to see what Espejo points out in reference to global institutions such as the International Energy Agency (IEA), that “… have a different organisational challenge. Their parts are more focused on creating and regulating policy issues than on implementing them, aspect that is left to the nation-states. The IEA is aiming at reducing CO2 emissions worldwide and therefore success in its policies may require structural recursion within nation-states, that is controlling emissions at all levels within and therefore they may expect collaborative processes among the varied institutional resources necessary for policy success”.

11 “Ella relaciona la descomposición del Estado-nación en toda Europa, desde inicios de los años veinte, con el resurgimiento, en el plano internacional, del antisemitismo. Hoy, tras la guerra, explica Hannah, las potencias se han convertido en mundiales y la política se ha globalizado. El antisemitismo tiene por delante un bello provenir…” (215).