436 CHAPTER ElEvEn ■ TransnaTional issues
Transnational issues from Dif er ent
Theoretical Perspectives
The very core propositions of realist theory— the primacy of the state, the clear separa-
tion between domestic and international politics, and the emphasis on state security—
are made problematic by transnational issues. Issues of health and disease, the
environment, human rights, drug and human trafficking, transnational terrorism, and
international crime are prob lems that no single state can effectively address alone. These
issues have broken down the divide between the international and the domestic. They
may threaten state security, but have no traditional military solution, even for a great
power or superpower.
Responding to transnational issues, realists have generally adopted a nuanced argu-
ment consonant with realist precepts. Although most realists admit that other actors
have gained power relative to the state, they contend that state primacy is not in jeop-
ardy. Competitive centers of power at the local, transnational, or international level do
not necessarily or automatically lead to the erosion or elimination of state power. Most
significant, the fundamentals of state security are no less impor tant in this age of glo-
balization than they were in the past. What has changed is that the decreasing salience
of interstate and nuclear war as challenges to state and interstate security has forced a
broadening of security discourse to encompass numerous aspects of human security.
For humans to be secure, not only must state security be ensured, but economic secu-
rity, environmental security, human rights security, and health and well- being must
be secured as well. One form of security does not replace another; each augments the
rest. Thus, although transnational issues have forced realists to add qualifications to
their theory, they have preserved it and enhanced its theoretical usefulness.
Transnational issues can be more easily integrated into the liberal theoretical pic-
ture. After all, at the outset, liberals asserted the importance of individuals and the
possibility of both cooperative and conflictual interests. They introduced the notion
that many other issues may be as impor tant as physical security. They see power as a
multidimensional concept. Later versions of liberal thinking, such as neoliberal insti-
tutionalism, recognized the need for international institutions to facilitate state inter-
actions, to ensure transparency, and to add new issues to the international agenda.
Though not denying the importance of state security, they quickly embraced the notion
of other forms of security compatible with health, environmental, and human rights
issues.
Radicals have never been comfortable with the primacy of the state or the inter-
national system that the dominant co ali tion of states created. For them, a shift in power
away from the state and that international system is a desired transition. Marxists, for