Quick questions on The key global actors in contemporary global politics: VCE Politics

A state is a political and legal entity with a defined territory, a permanent population, a government and the capacity to enter relations with other states. States remain the primary actors because they hold sovereignty: supreme authority within their borders and legal equality with other states.

IGOs are bodies created by states through treaty to pursue shared goals. Members are states.

TNCs are private firms that own or control production in more than one country.

This broad category captures actors that are neither states nor created by states, including non-government organisations (NGOs), terrorist organisations and armed groups.

States still dominate because they hold sovereignty and the broadest instruments of power, but the other actors increasingly constrain and challenge them. A useful exam move is to rank actors by the type of power they wield and to show how they interact: a TNC lobbies a state, an NGO pressures an IGO, a terrorist group provokes a military coalition.

Identify the four key global actors in contemporary global politics. [4 marks]

Explain the aims, roles and power of intergovernmental organisations, using one example. [6 marks]

Analyse the extent to which states remain the most powerful global actors. [10 marks]