[MUSIC] What is an international actor? The question was considered as trivial when states were the only actors of the international system. But we are now in a new world in which states are no more the unique actors, and even probably are not the dominant actors. We have to take into account non-state actors. The question could be, what is an actor? An actor is one who is acting on the international system. But also an actor is a expected to act on the international arena. We have to take into account what is expected on the international arena. Now many kinds of actors are expected on the international arena. I mean, of course, multinational corporations but also NGOs, but also transnational media, and also all of the individuals who are constituting the world. By now that's to say about 7 billion people around the world. All of us, we are international actors because we are consuming, because we are watching international TV, because we are traveling, because we are surfing on Internet and so on. So we have to understand what is at stake when we are acting as international actor on the arena. We are probably creating several billions of interactions on the international arena. And in social science it's very difficult to analyze and to understand all these new kinds of action which are not promoted by state but by individuals. That's why with these new kinds of actors, we have to take into account four levels of analysis. The first one would be an international civil society which is more and more taking place. That's to say all these exchanges which are initiated, those by individual actors but also by organized actors, but organized non-state actors. The second would be an international public space, if I take the word which has been coined by Jurgen Habermas, the famous German philosopher. That's to say more and more, there is a kind of international debate which takes place with an emerging international public opinion, with an emerging debate which is gathering all the kinds of actors playing in the international arena. The third level would be the criminalization of the international arena. The more actors are diversified, the more criminalization takes place as one of the major flows on the international relations. And there is a kind of interplaying between international political actors and mafia and all the criminal networks which are playing on this international arena. This interplaying is something probably new and more and more important. It is at stake now when we consider the main events on the political sphere of international relations. And the first one would be ethnicization of the world. If now states have no more the exclusivity of international at first, it means that identity entrepreneurs play a very important role on the international arena interplaying with the other actors and giving to the ethnic issue an important role in structuring the political debate, the international debate. So, ladies and gentleman, what does it mean, non-state actors? I would propose a definition. I rarely do that, but I think that this concept is so important now that we have to agree on a very clear definition. I would say that non-state actors are all kinds of actor who, deliberately or not, are active inside the international arena by overcoming or even ignoring nation-state sovereignty borderlines and would try to be free of any kinds of control and especially of political control. That's to say that we are facing a new dynamic in international arena. Why a new dynamic? Because these non-state actors are overcoming distance. That's to say that territory is less and less meaningful, is less and less constraining. And with the increasing mass communication, interplaying between non-state actors is more and more emancipated from the territorial support. And remember that territorial support was one of the main components of the traditional nation-state and is a clear condition of national sovereignty. So we have to put in perspective these two trends, in one hand this abolition of distance and territory, the second hand this new kind of interaction between these more and more numerous non-state actors. The second change is something very important. It's what Karl Deutsch coined as social mobilization. That's to say social mobilization is the process by which individuals get emancipated from the traditional communities. Urbanization, education, but also increasing influence of medias are creating the social mobilization. You understand that this social mobilization is more and more transnational as it is supported by international transnational medias and also by these new agents like NGOs. And the third consequence is probably a decreasing capacity of states. That’s why probably politics is now in crisis with this new order in which non-state actors have deprived state from its monopoly of legitimate violence. That's to say that there is a new kind of international violence which is no more legitimate violence but which is jeopardizing the international stability and the international peace. These are transnational actors. We'll say that these transnational actors have relations between each other. That's why we will coin this new concept of transnational relations. And you understand that transnational relations is different from international relations. That's why I would even suggest to move to intersocial relations, which is getting more and more important and which is marginalizing the concept of international and interstate relations. The second concept that has been coined especially by James Rosenau is the concept of transnational flow. That's to say when these relations is permanent, when it's reproducing itself, it means that there are flows, and these flows are shaping, structuring the New World Order much more than the interstate power competition. And at last, this transformation result in coining this very important concept of transnational network. Transnational network shed the light on the informal dimension of the transnational relations. What is a network? A network is the strength of weak ties. The formula has been coined by Mark Granovetter, the famous sociologist Granovetter, who has put the finger on something very important. That's to say we are now in a world in which weak ties, informal ties, are much more important than institutional and formal and visible ties. We can find many examples of this transnational nature of this invisible interactions between actors. The most famous would be, for instance, alumni of great universities. If you take into account, for example, the MIT network, you will observe that the main economic actors around the world are coming from MIT and they're interplaying. And they're still now interplaying and they're also socialized by the main culture, by the main training, by the main professors, and sometimes these professors are getting a new job in the economic affairs in the world. Of course, you won't find among these elite actors of African or even Latin American states. So these transnational networks are shaping, structuring, giving sense to this new world much more than the traditional power or the military power. Now you have two kinds of transnational actors. The first would be what I will call aggregated actors. That's to say individuals who are aggregated for creating a transnational flow as we defined it. For instance, investors but also migrants are considered as aggregated transnational actors. Not organized, but the social reality is resulting from their individual initiatives. And I will discriminate between these aggregated transnational actors and entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are then defined according to the Weberian vision as an organized group which is directed with very precise goals and with clear strategies. Among these entrepreneurs we can find, of course, multinational corporations but also NGOs, but also some religious actors. The Roman Catholic Church is an entrepreneur, according to the Weberian definition. But also we can consider that transnational medias are transnational entrepreneurs. So this is the global vision of transnational actors. Now we will move to the description of some of them. [MUSIC]
