The Way I See It

At the very end of class Professor Pervez asked us what is a state. Obviously we know that answer to that question…a state is a geographic domain governed by a set of institutions, such as a government, who “control a monopoly of violence.” (I believe that was how it was put…) I began thinking a little more about how I would describe a state. The best way I could think of was by creating an analogy. I once heard the state described as a computer…so I began thinking how I could tie all of this together and went from there. (Okay so I know I am a being a five year old, but this is the way my mind works and how I process information. So bear with me…)
The computer programmer is the population, dictator, governing body, etc. Just like the computer programmer, a person or in the case of a democracy, the people decide how things are planned, where something will go, and how everything will work.
Next comes the program, the government and institutions are the basic infrastructure to a state, just like a program provides a basis to the computer. These programs are essential to carrying out the plans of programmer/ programmers. They run the computer, but are operated by a higher power.
Finally the computer, it is just a structure, really. It contains and protects all the hardware. It is just the structure; really, it contains all the hardware and acts as a defined area which you can control. The programmer needs the computer otherwise there is no were to run the programs.
To cap it off, I guess you could say that the international system is like a big server, a network of computers. Each is operated by different programmers and each has different software. You could go on and on with this analogy…you know, throw something in there about how viruses are like domestic problems and then how they spread and become universal problems, like hunger…or you could go on to describe the internet as an overarching program, such as the U.N. which connects the computers. Again, the possibilities are endless and could be used to describe states’ continuity, physical survival and international anarchy.