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SAARC Audio-Visual Exchange Programme.

Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa.

(a) Ethiopia-Eritrea (2006-08) mission. 

(b) South Sudan (2013-14) mission.

The objectives of UN are incorporated in Article 1 of the UN Charter. They are: 

(a) To maintain international peace and security’. 

(b) To develop friendly relations among the nations. 

(c) To seek co-operation in solving international economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems. 

(d) To co-operate in promoting respect for human rights. 

(e) To maintain freedom for all without discrimination on the basis of race, sex, languages or religion.

Origin of BRICS: BRICS is an association of five major emerging economies viz., Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The BRICS members are either developing or newly industrialized are distinguished by their large, fast growing economies and significant influence on regional and global affairs.

India-BRICS summit level meeting: The leaders of Russia, India and China held the first summit in St. Petersburg on July 17^th, 2006. The Foreign Ministers met in New York on September 2006, beginning a series of high level meetings. Foreign Ministers who had talks in October 2007 decided to formalize collaboration in a number of areas and to appoint their supervisors. They signed for agricultural development, the prevention of natural calamities and elimination of their aftermath and promotion of healthcare.

The full-fledged diplomatic meeting was held in its first summit at Yekaterinburg, Russia on 16^th June 2009 to focus on the means of improving the global economic situation and reforming financial institutions. The 4^th summit held on 9^th April 2012 in New Delhi of India.

The BRICS Forum, an independent international organization encouraging commercial, political and cultural cooperation between the BRICS nations, was formed in 2011. In March 2013, during the 5^th summit, the member countries agreed to create a global financial institution which they intended to rival the western-dominated IMF.

They planned to finalize the arrangements for the new International Development Bank. Prime Minister of India participated in the 6^th summit and decided with the BRICS leaders to establish BRICS development Bank at Shanghai in China. Mr. K.V. Kamath of Karnataka became the first Chairman of the Bank.

The jurisdiction of National Power is population, territory and military preparedness, national character, economic and political power.

The treaty of West Phalia was signed in 1648.

The action of the state in relation to other states is called National Interest.

India is committed to assist the UN by providing military troops for the maintenance of international peace and security to the UNPKF. India has deputed more than one lakh troops to participate in plenty of Peace Keeping Missions since 1950. 

Eg: Korea( 1950-54). Middle East (1956-57), Congo (1960-64),Somalia (1993-94), Afghanistan) 1993). Haiti (1993). Angola (1989-1999), Ethiopia-Eritrea (2006-08), Lebanon) 1998), Ivory Coasta (2004). South Sudan (2013-14).

The high standards of performance maintained consistently by the Indian troops and policemen deployed on UN Missions under challenging circumstances have won them high regard worldwide.

On 14^th August 1941, President Roosevelt of the USA and Prime Minister Winston Churchill of England signed a Charter. It contained eight main principles. One of them provided for solution of problems through peaceful discussions. This Charter came to be called the Atlantic Charter and was the first step in the origin of the UNO. It was formally inaugurated on 24^th October 1945 after the failure of the League of Nations. It is a permanent organization for the collaboration of all independent and sovereign states.

The UNO is the practical expression of the movement of internationalism. It has been entrusted with heavy responsibilities for the maintenance of international peace and security. The United Nations Charter was signed by 51 countries including India. The UN Charter consists of 19 Chapters, 111 Articles and its headquarters is situated in New York of USA. There are six official languages namely Chinese. English, French, Russian, Spanish and Arabic recognized by the UN.

Power blocks are divided on the basis of ideological principles. Ex. USA accepted democratic principles and Soviet Russia follows communist principles.

The treaty of Utrecht was signed in 1713.

During 1960s and 70s the tendency towards regional arrangements become much more despite many hurdles. The emergence of Bangladesh with the help of India and the Simla Agreement of 1972 between India and Pakistan became turning point towards the regional cooperation.

India played a leading role in the formation of the SAARC to preserve peace and stability in the Asian region. President of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman discussed the issue of regional cooperation with the Indian Prime Minister. The first meeting of Foreign Minister in New Delhi held on 1^st and 2^nd August 1983. The then Prime Minister of India Smt.Indira Gandhi described South Asia as troubled region and said I am glad we are making a beginning, we have our political differences, but economic cooperation will give a strong impetus to closer friendship and greater stability in South Asia. She said, with unity we can hope to move ahead future freedom, peace and prosperity. She also warned that we should be ever vigilant against the attempt of external powers influencing our functioning.

Like wise India’s efforts to establish SAARC was a milestone and enormous efforts have been made for the regional organization. As a result of the untiring efforts of India. SAARC came into force on December 1985 with the member countries of Bangladesh. Maldives, Nepal. Pakistan, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. In 2010, Afghanistan became the 8^th member of the SAARC. Its headquarters situated at Kathmandu of Nepal.

President of USA Woodrow Wilson was the architect of League of Nations.

To protect the world from the destruction of war and restoration of peace.

The United Nations was came into existence on 24th October 1945.

The League of Nations was came into existence in 1920.

The League of Nations: To protect the world from the destruction of war and restoration of peace, the League of Nations came into existence. It was founded on the heritage of ideas and experience of the world leaders. The league was a real organization with a legal entity, organs and agencies of its own.

President Woodrow Wilson was the architect of this organization. It had three organs:

(a) Assembly 

(b) Council 

(c) International Secretariat.

It was an organized association of world states for the purpose of international co-operation, settlement of disputes and prevention of future wars. Its covenant provided a number of agencies for the promotion of health, education and economic development as means to cement international co-operation and good will and thereby preventing wars.

The concept of Balance of Power refers to relative power position of states as actors in international relations. It is an approximate equal distribution of power.

(a) To solve the international disputes through mutual dialogues. 

(b) To protect the world from the destruction of war.

Ziaur Rahman is called as the founder of SAARC.

The important reason for the establishment of UN was maintenance of international peace and security.

The United Nations came into existence on 24^th October 1945 at New’York of America.

English and Spanish are the two official languages of UN.

The headquarter of the SAARC is situated in Katmandu of Nepal.

The headquarters of the UN is situated in New York of USA.

(a) The UN is based on the sovereign equality of all its members. 

(b) They shall settle international disputes by peaceful means

Article 2 of the UN charter deals with the basic principles of UN.

There are 19 chapters and 111 Articles in UN charter.

The concepts of International Relations are as follows :

(a) State Sovereignty: It is the obligation of sovereign states to respect the sovereignty of other states. No state can dictate others and all states are equal in matters of status, dignity and honour. Based on dependence and interdependence among states, the}’ are gaining and loosing sovereignty.

(b) National Power: It is the sum of total of the strength and capabilities of state harnessed and applied to the advancement of its national interests and the attainment of its national objectives. It encompasses population, territory, military preparedness, national character, economic and political power.

(c) National Interest: National interest is the action of the state in relation to other states. It refers to the aspirations of the state. The determinants of national interest are qualities of personalities and ideals of decision makers.

(d) Power Blocks: With the beginning of the Cold war. two power blocks emerged, i.e. USA and USSR. USA believes in the spread of democracy whereas the USSR sought the spread . of communism. It paves the way for the creation of power blocks on the basis of ideology in the world.

(e) Polarity : In International Relations, polarities refers to the arrangement of power within the international system. The concept arose from bipolarity during the cold war between the two super powers. The disintegration of the USSR has led to unipolarity with the USA as the super power. After 2010 China emerged as a major power in the multipolar world.

(f) Balance of Power: The concept of Balance of Power refers to relative power position of states in International Relations. It is an approximately equal distribution of power and inseparable part of the pow er politics.

Polarity is the distribution of powers within the international system. It describes the nature of powers at any given time. Three types of polarities are in the world politics. It is dependent on the distribution of power and influence of states in a region. 

They are: 

(a) Uniolarity: Uniolarity in international politics is concentration of power in which one state exercises most of the cultural, economic and military influence. In the uniolar system, a great power exercises supremacy with no competition. Unipolarity existed in the post cold war period. The US is the only country in the early 2151 century that possesses the ability to project military power on a global scale in the aftermath of the collapse of USSR in 1991, 

(b) Bipolarity: Bipolarity is the distribution of powers in which two powers have the majority of economic, military and cultural influence at the global level. To gain superiority, both the powers struggle. During the peak of the cold war, both US and-USSR were in bipolar world politics. This system can extend to a larger system by means of alliances or organizations. 

(c) Multipolarity: Multipolarity is a distribution of power in which more than two nation states are in the fray almost equal in military, cultural and economic spheres. Multipolar systems are more stable than bipolar systems as great powers can gain power through alliances.

The term ‘international’ was used for the first time by Jeremy Bentham.

51 member countries including India signed the UN charter originally.

The International Court of Justice is situated in ‘The Hague’.

It substitutes internationalism to narrow nationalism which delimits the boundaries of states.

A dynamic discipline which tries to explain political activities across the state boundaries is called international relations.

There are 5 permanent members in the UN Security Council.

Meaning: International Relations is a dynamic discipline which tries to explain political activities across the state boundaries. Its transition is followed by developments in international system. It was practiced in ancient Greece. Egypt. China and India. They evolved a set of code of conduct of these relations which were based on morality. The 17^th century’ marked the beginning of the international relations.

The improvements in the field of transport and communication and the industrial revolution brought states closer and contributed to the development of international relations. It is concerned with all the exchange transactions, contracts flow of information and the resulting behavioral response between and among separate organized societies. It encompass many different activities such as a social, economic, religious and others.

Definitions: According to Palmer and Perkins, ‘The study of international relations is not a science with which we solve problems of international life. At its best it is an objective and systematic approach to those problems”.

In view of Ola Joseph. ‘International relations are the study of all forms of interactions that exist between members of separate entities or nations within the international system”.

Importance of International relations: 

(a) The study of International Relation enables us to understand the basic policies and principles which contribute to the international sphere. 

(b) It provides concrete solutions for international problems by means of dialogues, bilateral, multilateral, mutual co-operations and the like. 

(c) It substitutes internationalism to narrow nationalism which delimits the boundaries of states. 

(d) It avoids the war military actions or alliances and international conflicts. 

(e) It considers the acceptance of the principles of collective security and disarmament, world peace and progress. 

(f) It creates global feeling among the citizens of the world and promotes universal brotherhood.

To express the regional identity and shape collective action within the region by the regional countries, the Regional Organizations have started.

This is like an executive body of the UNO. Articles 28 to 32 of the UN Charter deal with the composition of the Security Council. It consists of five permanent members and ten non-permanent members. The permanent members of the Security Council are USA, UK, Russia, France and China. The non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly for a term of two years. The decisions of the Security Council are taken on the basis of affirmative votes of nine members, with substantive matters requiring the assent of all the permanent members.

The permanent members enjoy the power of ‘Veto’. The Security Council is in permanent session and emergency sessions may take place whenever necessary. The primary responsibility of the Security Council is the maintenance of international peace and security. It can recommend peaceful methods of settlement of disputes.

Regional organizations are the important and effective new scene for political and economic interaction in the world. Regionalism is a common sense of identity and purpose. It is combined with the creation and implementation of institutions that express a particular identity and shape collective action within the region. It is a formal association of sovereign states of particular region.

The end of cold war paved the way for regional organizations on the basis of regionalism. The UN charter stressed the role of regional organizations to maintain the international peace and security. These organizations represent groups of states sharing geographical, political, economic and socio-cultural interests. Ex.

The UNO came into existence when the Atlantic Charter was signed by the US President and the British Prime Minister. Formally it was started on 24^th October 1945. It is the practical expression of the movement of internationalism and described as an ‘International Organization’. 

The UN composed of six principle organs and the organizational structure may be described as follows:

(a) The General Assembly: It is the paramount and main organ of the UN. It is composed of all the members of the UN. Although each country can send five representatives with single vote, important matters are decided by 2/3^rd a majority by this world legislative body. It performs deliberative, supervisory, financial elective and constituent functions through its several committees. Annual session is usually convened in September and further sessions are held as per requirement. There is also provision for special sessions and emergency sessions. 

(b) Security Council: It is often described as the world executive body. It is the most powerful organ of the UNO. -It consists of 15 members. 5 of them are permanent members while the other 10 are non-permanent members for a term of 2 years. Permanent members have ’Veto Power’. It is entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining international peace and security. It also recommends the person to be appointed as Secretary General to the General Assembly.

(c) The International Court of Justice: It is the judicial organ of the UN. It was set up to settle the International disputes in accordance with International law. Its headquarters is situated in ‘The Hague’. It consists of 15 judges belongs to different member countries. Their term of office is 9 years and enjoy diplomatic privileges.

(d) The UN Secretariat: The Secretariat was established to carry on the administrative functions of the UN. It consists of international staff headed by the Secretary General. He is the Chief Administrative Officer of the UN and appointed by the General assembly on the recommendations of Security Council for a term of 5 years. The Secretariat performs all those functions which are entrusted to it by the various organs of the UN.

(e) The Economic and Social Council: It was established to achieve coopeation in solving international issues of economic, social, cultural and humanitarian character. It consists 54 members elected by the General Assembly for a period of 3 years. It meets at least thrice a year.

(f) Trusteeship Council: It was set up to handle and administer ‘Trust territories’. But this Council was suspended on 1^st November 1994.

Major areas of cooperation of India and the UN: 

(a) The UN Peace Keeping Force: Independent India viewed its membership of the United Nations a guarantee for maintaining international peace and security. The UN membership has also served as an opportunity for leadership in world affairs. India stood at the forefront during the UN’s tumultuous years of struggle against colonialism, apartheid, global disarmament and creation of more equitable international economic order India is undertaking sincere steps to find ways to adopt these challenges.

An integral part of such efforts is collective action and adoption of multilateral approaches in resolving transnational issues under the auspices of the United Nations Since 1954, India took a leading part in securing political sanctions against the racialist regime of South Africa. In 1965, it supported the UN sponsored economic boycott of Rhodesia. It gave full support to the Angolan liberation movement and to the cause of Independence of Namibia.

(b) Environment: India is among the top 12 mega centers of the world in terms of its genetic diversity. It has a wide range of geoclimatic conditions. India has consistently played an important role in the evolution of an international consensus to tackle major global environmental issues.

It was an active participant in the process leading up to and culminating in the convening of the United Nations Conference on Environment and development in Stock Holm in 1972 and Rio de Janeiro in 1992. These summits discussed about Global Warming and Green House effect.

(c) Human Rights: the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10th December 1948. It was proclaimed as a common standard of achievement for all people of all nations. India is a signatory to the six core human rights covenants and also the two Optional Protocols to the Convention of the Rights of the Child.

5 representatives can participate in UN General Assembly from each member country.

The Secretary General of UN is appointed by General Assembly on the recommendations of Security Council. His term is 5 years.

(a) SAARC summit held at Bangalore in 1986. 

(b) SAARC summit held at New Delhi in 1995 and 2007.

The first SAARC summit was held at Dhaka of Bangladesh.

ASEAN was established on 8^th August 1967.

There are 10 members in the ASEAN.

The first India-ASEAN annual summit was held in 2002.