Functionalism
Functionalism is a theory in international relations that emphasizes the role of international organizations in managing conflicts between nation-states and fostering cooperation on shared issues. It emerged in the interwar period, influenced by ideas from figures like Woodrow Wilson, who advocated for collective efforts to maintain peace through frameworks that would allow nations to collaborate on scientific, social, and economic challenges. Functionalism posits that many issues faced by states cannot be adequately addressed by individual nations alone; instead, collaboration through supranational organizations, such as the United Nations, is essential.
This approach often regards the traditional nation-state as less relevant in addressing modern problems, advocating for an international structure that prioritizes collective action over national interests. Functionalism contrasts sharply with realism, which views international conflict as an inherent result of self-interested state behavior. Critics of functionalism argue that it may not adequately address the complex political realities and conflicts that exist among nations. Nonetheless, functionalists envision a progressive evolution towards a world community in which cooperative efforts can preempt conflicts, fostering peace and stability on a global scale.
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Functionalism
Functionalism is a theory of international relations that advocates the formation of international organizations imbued with sufficient authority to manage, mediate, or prevent conflicts among nation-states in order to preserve peace, while also providing frameworks within which those nations can work together toward their common goals in scientific, social, economic, and other areas. Some forms of functionalism treat the nation-state as an obsolete concept, others, simply as something to be reconceived in light of the importance of these international groups.
Functionalism's aims have philosophical origins in Immanuel Kant's calls for a global league that would work to ensure peace among nations and political origins in the aftermath of World War I, when politicians, political scientists, and diplomats throughout the West sought to end the ongoing cycle of wars among European powers.
Background
Functionalism developed in the West in the interwar period between the world wars. Key functionalist developments in this period, outside the realm of the theorists, include President Woodrow Wilson's "Fourteen Points" speech and the formation of the League of Nations. Wilson's speech was made to Congress on January 8, 1918, some nine months after the United States entered World War I, which would end in November 1918. Wilson had resisted entering the war for a number of reasons, including not only a lack of popular support among American voters but also his personal reluctance to engage the country in a struggle between European imperial powers without serving some broader aim.
The Fourteen Points speech, made at a point when the United States' entrance into the war could confidently be considered to have turned the tide in favor of its allies, outlined Wilson's aims for the war and the peace that would follow. Though addressed to Congress, it was a message for the elites of Europe as well, setting out a functionalist, or at least protofunctionalist, foreign policy that called for unshackling the West from its legacy of conflict and imperialism in favor of open agreements, self-determination, free trade, and a "general association of nations." One hundred and fifty advisers worked with Wilson on the underlying points of the speech, concurrent with their preparation for the peace conference that would follow the war's conclusion.
The general association of nations Wilson called for materialized in the form of the League of Nations, an idea first proposed by Kant in the late eighteenth century. Kant's vision called not for a world government in the mode of would-be world conquerors, but for an international organization whose members were the nations of the world, working to resolve conflicts without war. Prior to Wilson, President Theodore Roosevelt had promoted the idea under the name the League of Peace. Wilson used the occasion of the war, and a push within the British government toward a similar end, to make the League an official part of his foreign policy.
While it was established in 1920, and Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his involvement, opposition in the Senate prevented the United States from joining. The League had little role in resolving post-World War I disputes, but did much for refugees and the fight against sex trafficking and opium smuggling. In the end, it was unable to prevent the rise of Nazi Germany and the outbreak of World War II, and the League of Nations was officially disbanded in 1946 when the more robust United Nations was formed. Eventually, many agencies within the United Nations formed on a functionalist foundation, including the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Overview
Functionalism is an approach to international relations that considers states and organizations in terms of their functions and needs and which encourages cooperation among nation-states on the grounds that they experience common problems and seek common (and, in the functionalist view, mutually compatible) goals. Many forms of functionalism consider the nation-state as a political concept to be ultimately obsolete, or at least less powerful and less useful as a source of authority than supraterritorial authorities like international organizations, such as the United Nations, and mutually binding treaties.
According to theories of functionalism, many of the problems experienced within a nation-state are due to the fact that the nation-state itself is organizationally insufficient to address those problems. Only by nations working together, through a sharing of skills and resources, are these problems solved. In the simplest sense, it is similar to the logic underpinning federalism in the United States: the notion that it is better for a strong federal government to handle the lion's share of the work rather than for many small state governments to do so, and that organizing the work thusly is both more efficient and more equitable to the people in the states. However, the functionalist proposition is more complex because it deals with nation-states that have historically been in conflict, not former colonies already bound by common culture and purpose.
Functionalism is best understood as a contrast with realism, the dominant international relations theory of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Realism comes in several forms, but all of them view conflict among world powers not only as the inevitable consequence of the actors in international politics (nation-states) acting rationally to pursue their own self-interest. Within that broad definition, realists sharply disagree on which actions are rational, among other areas, but they are unified in their diametric opposition to the central proposition of functionalism, which deemphasizes the importance of the state, proposes a greater importance for the international organization and other forms of supraterritorial authority, and proposes cooperation as a method of skirting conflict. However, some critics argue that it is unlikely that all member states are capable of separating functional and political issues to accomplish the principles of functionalism. Additionally, many critics note that peace fosters cooperation between nations—the inverse of the functionalist view that functional cooperation creates peace.
Many functionalists take an evolutionary view: as the modern nation-state was a more civilized or sophisticated development than the feudal or authoritarian states that preceded it, so too is there a progression from the nation-state to a world community in which most authority is granted to international organizations and the underlying causes of conflict are addressed before they lead to war. Although not an inevitable aspect of functionalism, this view reflects the theory's origins in the progressive era and the general spirit of idealism that prevails in functionalism compared to what could be called cynical or pessimistic in realism.
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