IB Diploma Programme Global Politics – Core topic – Framing global politics: stakeholders, actors and systems Revision Notes

These revision notes cover the core prescribed topic “Framing global politics” (also titled “Systems and interactions in global politics”) in IB Diploma Programme Global Politics. It follows the IB Diploma Programme Global politics guide (first assessment 2026, published February 2024), the course examined from the May 2026 session onwards. The guide lists three items of prescribed content here – stakeholders and actors; systems (structures and dynamics); legal frameworks, norms and institutions – and all three are common to SL and HL.

For full explanations and a worked case, read the study guide. Then test yourself with the practice questions. Course links: Global Politics hub, printable checklist.

Core definitions

• Actor – an individual or group with the agency and means to exercise power on an issue.
• Stakeholder – anyone affected by an issue, whether or not they can act on it. Every actor involved is a stakeholder; not every stakeholder is an actor.
• Political system – a set of actors plus the rules and patterns that govern their interaction, at any scale.
• Structure – the stable arrangement of a system: where authority sits, how decisions are made, how power is distributed.
• Dynamics – how interactions within a system change over time.
• Legal framework – a body of binding rules (treaties, customary international law, constitutions, statutes).
• Norm – a shared expectation of appropriate behaviour, written into law or not.
• Institution – (1) a formal organisation or agency; (2) a social structure of rules and norms that shapes and constrains behaviour.

The actor types – recall table

The guide lists every type below. Learn the row, and have one contemporary example of your own for each.

Actor type	What it is	Typical sources of influence	Example
States	Sovereign units with population, territory, government	Law-making, force, money, treaty-making, IGO membership	Any of the 193 UN member states
Subnational and local governments	Regions, provinces, federal units, cities	Local law, services, own international networks	Scottish Parliament (devolved, 1999); C40 Cities
IGOs	Organisations whose members are states	Pooled resources, rule-setting, legitimacy	UN, WTO, African Union, ASEAN
Organized civil society (incl. NGOs)	Non-profit groups independent of government	Expertise, monitoring, campaigning, service delivery	Amnesty International; Médecins Sans Frontières
Private actors/companies	Firms, local to multinational	Investment, jobs, lobbying, control of technology	Multinational corporations, platform firms
Social movements	Broad, loose networks seeking change	Numbers, protest, framing, moral pressure	Fridays for Future (from 2018)
Resistance movements	Groups opposing a ruling or occupying authority	Armed or unarmed pressure, local support	Label is contested – report who uses it
Political parties	Organisations competing for office	Votes, seats, government posts	Governing and opposition parties
Interest and pressure groups	Organised groups influencing policy, not seeking office	Lobbying, membership, funding, strikes	Trade unions, business associations
Political leaders	Individuals whose position or standing shapes decisions	Office, personal authority, media profile	Heads of government; movement leaders
Formal and informal political forums	Settings where actors meet and decide	Agenda-setting, bargaining, statements	Formal: UN General Assembly. Informal: G7, G20
The media	News organisations and social platforms	Agenda-setting, framing, reach	Public broadcasters; social media platforms
Other individual and collective actors	Everyone else who shapes an issue	Varies	Diasporas, whistleblowers, expert networks

Must-know distinctions

Pair	The difference in one line
Actor vs stakeholder	Can act vs is affected (may be both)
IGO vs NGO	Members are states vs independent of government
Social movement vs pressure group	Loose network seeking wide change vs organised group seeking specific policy influence
Pressure group vs political party	Influences those in office vs seeks office itself
Formal vs informal forum	Founding rules and set membership vs no treaty or permanent secretariat, non-binding outcomes
Hard law vs soft law	Binding (treaties) vs non-binding (declarations, resolutions, guidelines)
Norm vs law	Shared expectation vs binding rule; a norm may later become law
Structure vs dynamics	How the system is arranged vs how interactions in it change
Institution (sense 1) vs (sense 2)	Organisation vs pattern of rules and norms

Method in steps: analysing actors in a source

Use this on any Paper 1 source.

1. Issue and scale   -> What is the issue? Global, regional, national, local?
2. Actors            -> Who can act? Label each with its type from the guide.
3. Stakeholders      -> Who is affected but cannot act? Say why they cannot.
4. System            -> What structure (authority, decision rule, distribution
                        of power) limits or enables each actor?
5. Rules and norms   -> Which laws, norms or institutions shape the options?
                        Do any of them cause the issue?
6. Context           -> Would the same type of actor have more or less power
                        and legitimacy in a different system?

Systems in brief

• Scale (the guide’s list): global, international, regional, national, subnational, local, community.
• Structure questions: Is there an authority above the actors? (Internationally, no world government.) What is the decision rule – majority, consensus, veto? Who dominates?
• Dynamics questions: Who is cooperating, competing or forming alliances? Which rules are being tested? Has a new actor entered?
• Key idea from the guide: structures and dynamics regulate interactions and limit possible courses of action. Similar actors can have very different power and legitimacy in different systems.

Small reminders:

• UN Security Council: five permanent members with a veto – a structural reason a resolution can fail despite wide support.
• WTO dispute settlement: only member governments are parties – companies need their government to act.

Legal frameworks, norms and institutions in brief

• UN Charter (1945): Article 2(4) bans the threat or use of force against another state; Article 51 keeps the right of self-defence.
• Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961): diplomatic immunity.
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948): a General Assembly resolution, so soft law, yet highly influential.
• Paris Agreement (2015): a treaty, but each party’s contribution is self-set and meeting it is not legally binding.
• Rules, norms and institutions can shape, limit or cause political issues. Name which one you mean.

Command terms you will meet on this topic

From the guide’s glossary:

• Identify (AO1) – provide an answer from a number of possibilities.
• Outline (AO1) – give a brief account or summary.
• Explain (AO2) – give a detailed account including reasons or causes.
• Distinguish (AO2) – make clear the differences between two or more items.
• Compare and contrast (AO3) – similarities and differences, referring to both throughout.
• Evaluate (AO3) – weigh up strengths and limitations.
• To what extent (AO3) – consider the merits of an argument, with a clear, supported conclusion.

Quick self-test

1. Give the precise difference between an actor and a stakeholder.
2. Name three actor types from the guide that are not states.
3. What makes an organisation an IGO rather than an NGO?
4. Give one formal and one informal political forum.
5. Distinguish a social movement from an interest or pressure group.
6. What are the two senses of “institution” in the guide?
7. Is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights hard or soft law? Why?
8. Which article of the UN Charter prohibits the use of force against another state, and which preserves self-defence?
9. Give one structural feature of the UN Security Council that limits action.
10. Why should you avoid calling a resistance movement “terrorists” as a statement of fact?
11. List the seven scales the guide names.
12. Give one way a rule or institution can cause, rather than just shape, a political issue.

Answers

1. An actor has the agency and means to act on an issue; a stakeholder is affected by it, whether or not they can act.
2. Any three of: subnational and local governments, IGOs, organized civil society/NGOs, private actors/companies, social movements, resistance movements, political parties, interest and pressure groups, political leaders, political forums, the media, other individual and collective actors.
3. An IGO’s members are states and it is set up by agreement between them; an NGO is independent of government.
4. Formal: UN General Assembly (or any body with founding rules and set membership). Informal: G7 or G20.
5. A social movement is a broad, loosely organised network seeking wide change, often by protest; a pressure group is an organised body seeking specific policy influence, usually by lobbying.
6. (1) Formal organisations or agencies; (2) social structures of rules and norms that shape and constrain behaviour.
7. Soft law: it was adopted as a General Assembly resolution, not a binding treaty.
8. Article 2(4) prohibits force; Article 51 preserves self-defence.
9. The five permanent members each hold a veto, so one of them can block a resolution.
10. The label is contested: supporters and opponents describe the same group differently. You should say who uses which label.
11. Global, international, regional, national, subnational, local, community.
12. For example, a border agreement that divides a community, or trade rules that one group sees as unfair, can themselves be the source of the dispute.

Where marks are usually lost

• Using “actor” and “stakeholder” as synonyms, so the answer never shows who is affected but voiceless.
• Naming an actor type without saying what that actor can actually do in the source’s context.
• Treating an actor type as having fixed power – for example, assuming all NGOs are weak – instead of linking power to the system.
• Describing “the UN” as one actor when the source is really about a specific organ, such as the Security Council or General Assembly.
• Forgetting the second meaning of “institution”, which loses easy explanation marks on norms and rules.
• Stating that soft law is irrelevant rather than explaining how it works through legitimacy and pressure.
• Adopting one side’s label for a contested group rather than reporting it.
• Offering an example with no explanation: the guide expects contextualisation, not a bare name.
• Relying on old historical cases instead of contemporary ones from roughly the past two decades.

Next steps

• Practise with the practice questions.
• Revisit the study guide for the worked Paris Agreement mapping.
• Pair this with the power revision notes and legitimacy revision notes.
• Review paper formats in the assessment revision notes.
• Connect actors to a thematic study: Peace and conflict revision notes and Rights and justice revision notes.

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Global politics guide, first assessment 2026 (published February 2024). Core topics: Understanding power and global politics – prescribed topic “Framing global politics / Systems and interactions in global politics”.