GOV 241 Quiz 1

Anarchy

The idea that there is no central power that is able to make and enforce laws that everyone has to follow. Can be used to describe international politics because there is no central body of authority that can impose laws onto all states.

Sovereignty

A state’s right to control itself. The idea that a state has ultimate legal and political control within its own borders.

Hegemony

One nation state holds dominance over other nation states.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

The alliance formed between the US, Canada, and most of Western Europe in response to the threat of the Soviet Union.

Warsaw Pact

An alliance between the Soviet Union and its Cold War allies in Eastern Europe during the Cold War after the formation of NATO.

Prisoner's Dilemma

Both parties have to decide to either cooperate with their accomplice by staying silent or defect on their accomplice by ratting them out. Shows the risks and benefits associated with trusting your accomplice. Best outcome for each player is they defect and the partner cooperates. Example is collective action problems because you risk using resources while others free ride.

Chicken Game

A situation in which the best thing to do is the opposite of what your opponent does. If the other person doesn’t swerve then you want to, but you want to be the one who doesn’t swerve. Example is coercive bargaining/nuclear wars.

Stag Hunt Game

Equilibrium occurs when both parties make the same decision but the best option is both cooperating. Metaphor for coordination.

Security Dilemma

Both states build up their defenses and this leads the other state to build up defenses to catch up. The problem that leads to arms races.

Coercive diplomacy

a state gets another state to do what it wants through showing power. The state says you have to agree with me because I have a lot of power. One state can threaten the other into bargaining.

Compellence

An effort to change the status quo through the threat of force. “Give me y, or else” or “Stop doing x, or else”

Deterrence

An effort to preserve the status quo through threat of force. “Don’t x, or else”

Credibility

believability. A major problem in cooperation and bargaining because it can be difficult to assess the credibility of another state’s threats or agreements.

Brinksmanship

when adversaries take action that increases the risk of an accidental war with the hope that the other will lose its nerve first and make concessions. A state tries to approach the brink of war in an attempt to get the other side to get scared of a war breaking out and just give in.

Audience costs

negative consequence of failing to follow through on a promise or threat.

Preventive war

A war fought to keep an adversary from becoming too powerful in the future.

Preemptive war

A war that occurs because one strikes out of fear that the other will get the first strike. A result of a first-strike advantage.

Indivisible good

A good that cannot be split without losing value. Ex. the city of Jerusalem

Rally effect

when people become more supportive of their government during times of a dramatic international event, like a war. An example of this is Bush’s approval rating skyrocketing after 911.

Diversionary incentive

the incentive that state leaders have to start an international crisis in order to reap the benefits of the rally effect.

Military-Industrial complex

The alliance between military leaders and industries that benefit from international conflicts, most notably arms manufactures.

Democratic peace

The pattern that there have been few wars between mature democratic states. Does not mean that democratic states are not involved in war, but rather that democratic states do not frequently go to war with each other.

Alliance

An agreement between two states to help each other. States have a number of motivations for joining these. They can also cause problems.

Collective Security Organization

Institutions that promote peace and security among its members. Ex. the League of Nations and the United Nations. Form when states have a shared interest in preventing violence and conflict.

Bandwagoning

The strategy in which states join forces with the stronger side in a conflict. Usually these are offensive.

Balance of power

When the military capabilities of two states or groups of states are roughly equal. Alliances often form to preserve or create this.

United Nations

A collective security organization founded after World War II. Meant to prevent wars.

Security Council

The main governing body of the United Nation, which has the authority threats to international peace and security and to prescribe the organization’s response, including military and/or economic sanctions

Peacekeeping operation

Operation in which troops and observers are deployed to monitor a cease-fire or peace agreement.

Peace enforcement operation

military operation in which force is used to make and/or enforce peace among warring parties that have not agreed to end their fighting.

Asymmetrical warfare

Armed conflict between actors with highly unequal military capabilities, such as when rebel groups or terrorists fight strong states

Separatists

Actors that seek to create an independent state on territory carved from an existing state

Irredentists

Actors that seek to detach a region from one country and attach it to another, usually because of shared ethnic or religious ties

Proxy wars

Conflicts in which two opposing states “fight” by supporting opposite sides in a war, such as government and rebels in a third state

Spoiling

A strategy of terrorist attacks intended to sabotage a prospective peace between the target and moderate leadership from the terrorists’ home society