Fernando Martin Lopez

ACTIVITY

DEFINITIONS

Objectives:

Analysis of key concepts.

Activity:

The students must define, explain and provide practical examples of these concepts:

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES:

We can define international studies as the university degree which focuses on the major issues that affect the international society, whether they are geostrategic, political or economic. An example of an international studies could be our own degree in international relations.

FOREIGN POLICY:

Foreign policy is the range of strategies that a nation adopts in their relations with another states or international organizations in order to achieve their national interest. An example of foreign policy would be the sanctions that the US has imposed to Russia due to the crisis in Ukraine.

INTERNACIONAL POLICY:

Range of policies carried by a group of countries or supra-national organizations in their relations with another countries or organizations. An example could be the EU custom union to products from outside.

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INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS:

International relations is a branch of political science that focuses on the relation among states, Non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations and to explain the behaviour of them. An example of a theory of international relations is realism, which analyses the relations based on the anarchy of the international system.

Different issues related with the international sphere from a broad perspective

INTERNATIONAL LAW:

International law is the field of the legal system that focuses on the relations between states, which are the main subjects of this law. International law can be divided between public international law (which focuses on the relation between states), Private international law (which focuses on deciding which jurisdiction is applied in the cases in where there are various) and supranational law (which regulates the conflicts between the national law and a supranational legal system). An example of international law is the Vienna convention on the law of treaties.

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY

We can understand international society as a set of sovereign states that conscious of their common interest form a common set of rules and common institutions to work within. An example could be the post- cold war society, which relied in common institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank.

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION

Organization in where supra national NGO and states are the main members. The two main types of international organization are international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) which are composed of NGOs that operate in an international range, and intergovernmental organizations that are made up mainly of sovereign states. An example of an international organization could be the OECD

Association of state created by an international agreement, with a permanent structure and in charge of achieving a common interest. They have a legal personality

COUNCIL OF EUROPE

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International organization focused on unifying standards of human rights and legal issues within European countries. Their main organs are the committee of ministers, the parliamentary Assembly and the commissioner for human rights.

COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Part of the EU institutions. One of the chambers of the EU bicameral system, it represents the executive power of the European states. It controls the budget (together with the Parliament) and enact policies on the intergovernmental areas of the EU such as the foreign policy.

EUROPEAN COUNCIL

Institution of the EU composed by the head of government of the member states, the president of the own council and the president of the European Commission. Although it doesn’t have any formal power, they decide the political agenda that will be discussed in the chambers and they have been the main promoters of the EU integration

STRASBOURG COURT

International court established by the European Convention of Human rights it judges applications that accuse a state of violating human rights concerning political and civil rights reflected in the Convention and its protocols. It is formed by the members of the council of Europe

LUXEMBOURG COURT

Highest court in the EU regarding European law. Their work is to interpret EU law and ensure the equal application among all the members. It is normally composed by 28 judges, one per member state.

THE HAGUE COURT

Judicial branch of the UN. Their main function is to judge legal disputes among states and to provide advice on legal questions submitted by international agencies and the UN.

Everyone must write a paper (individual work) and send it to:

ricardo.rodriguez@uem.es before 4/16/2015.

Fernando Martin Lopez