Theories of International Relations: Realism, Liberalism, Marxism, and Postmodern Approaches

Comprehensive practice flashcards covering foundational theories of International Relations: Classical and Structural Realism, Liberal Idealism, Neo-Liberal Institutionalism, Marxist and World Systems Theories, and Postmodern/Constructivist approaches.

Theory (in International Relations)

A lens of assumptions and premises through which we view and interpret observed actions in world politics, producing expectations that are separate from how political leaders describe themselves.

Realism

An IR paradigm founded on power politics, state-centrism, and self-interested competition occurring within an anarchic international state of nature.

Thucydides

An ancient Greek historian and foundational realist thinker whose Melian Dialogue established the principle that 'might makes right.'

Niccolò Machiavelli

A foundational realist thinker who emphasized political power, force, coercion, and the absence of an inherent moral order in statecraft.

Thomas Hobbes

A foundational philosopher for realism who characterized the 'state of nature' as a state of competitive war of all against all, providing an analogy for the anarchic international system.

Classical Realism (Morgenthau)

A theoretical approach articulated by Hans Morgenthau asserting that all politics is a struggle for power, states act rationally in pursuit of interest defined as power, power is fluid, and ethics are circumstantial rather than universal.

Stag Hunt Allegory

A conceptual model used in realism to illustrate competitive human nature, contrasting the collective benefit of cooperation with the direct and relative individual gains of defection.

Power Seeking

The central realist concept equating the pursuit of power with the pursuit of security, characterized by coercion, force, capability, influence, and relative advantage.

Anarchy (Realist Conception)

The constant and overriding condition of the international system defined by the complete lack of central authority above sovereign states.

Balance of Power

The division of global power into roughly equal shares among states and the natural tendency of power holders to seek a new equilibrium whenever that balance is disturbed.

Polarity

The concentration of power around one or more Great Powers in the international system, where the number of poles determines systemic stability and the likelihood of great power war.

Unipolarity

An international system characterized by the hegemony of a single dominant state, considered somewhat stable because great power war is impossible, though the hegemon faces no checks on its actions.

Bipolarity

An international system balanced between two roughly equal Great Powers, considered the most stable configuration because both sides check each other, making direct war too costly while proxy wars become common.

Multipolarity

An international system containing three or more Great Powers, considered the least stable structure because the balance is easily disrupted and great power wars are most likely.

Structural Realism (Waltz)

A realist theory developed by Kenneth Waltz arguing that the balance of power is a natural, automatic condition arising from systemic structure, where states facing a threat naturally ally to combine power and offset danger.

Hugo Grotius

A foundational thinker of liberalism who articulated the fundamental legal right of states and individuals to repel violence.

Immanuel Kant

An Enlightenment philosopher foundational to liberalism who theorized a universal community of humanity, an evolving international system, and the 'liberal peace.'

Emer de Vattel

A foundational liberal theorist who advocated for international justice and the collective organization of world states to oppose injustice.

Liberal Idealism

An IR perspective grounded in the premise that human nature tends toward the good and collective action, emphasizing international institutions, domestic politics, and non-coercive power to foster cooperation.

Fourteen Points

Woodrow Wilson's liberal idealist proposals promoting economic transparency, open trade, purely defensive militaries, an end to colonialism, and international organizations to preserve peace.

Collective Security

A liberal institutional mechanism designed to solve the security dilemma through a broad alliance of states committed to joint opposition against any aggressor.

Security Dilemma

A condition generated by realist competition where actions taken by one state to increase its own security inherently decrease the perceived security of others, driving spiral escalation.

Neo-Liberal Institutionalism

A modern liberal IR theory responding to realism that rejects the idea of 'natural' peace and argues that international institutions are necessary to facilitate and lock in inter-state cooperation.

Harmony (Keohane)

A condition described in Robert Keohane's After Hegemony where the interests of various actors are naturally aligned, requiring no compromise or institutional intervention.

Cooperation (Keohane)

The active process described in Robert Keohane's After Hegemony whereby states with conflicting or competing interests negotiate and find middle ground to achieve mutual gains.

Robert Axelrod (Evolution of Cooperation)

A political scientist who demonstrated that international politics is not a zero-sum game, showing that cooperation emerges when self-interested actors prioritize long-term relations over short-term gains.

Prisoner's Dilemma

A game-theoretic scenario demonstrating how individual rational choices aimed at short-term self-interest lead both parties to defect and receive sub-optimal outcomes compared to mutual cooperation.

Vladimir Lenin (Marxist IR Foundation)

A Marxist theorist who posited that the state is fundamentally organized around class divisions and serves as an instrument to maintain and defend the capitalist system.

John A. Hobson

An economic theorist who contributed to Marxist foundations by linking capitalist overproduction to international imperialism and inter-state conflict.

Bourgeoisie

The capitalist class that owns the means of production, driven by competitive and exploitative behavior within Marxist theory.

Proletariat

The working class in Marxist theory that sells its labor to survive and is exploited by the bourgeoisie, divided globally between industrial and developing nations.

Stratification (Marxist Conception)

The structural inequality of the global capitalist system characterized by disproportionate access to wealth, resources, and power among classes and states.

Dependency School

A Marxist critique of international capitalism arguing that advanced capitalist nations maintain economic and cultural domination over underdeveloped states, structurally hindering their progress.

Debt (in Dependency Theory)

A mechanism of structural domination where developing states receive high-interest, conditional loans in foreign currencies from foreign states and international organizations, locking them into cycles of dependency.

Unequal Trade (Dependency School)

A structural trade imbalance wherein dependent states export cheap, raw primary commodities and import expensive manufactured finished goods from industrialized states.

Direct Foreign Investment (Marxist Conception)

The mechanism whereby multinational corporations from advanced economies establish control over local, underdeveloped economies, curbing domestic economic ownership and autonomy.

North-South Gap

The systemic global divide between wealthy, industrialized northern states that share conditions for cooperation and poor, dependent southern states burdened by debt, overpopulation, and resource exploitation.

World Systems Theory

A Marxist structural framework that categorizes all countries within the global capitalist economy into three distinct tiers: Core, Semi-Periphery, and Periphery.

Core (World Systems Theory)

Industrial, powerful, consumer states that dominate global capitalism and exploit both the semi-periphery and periphery for labor and raw materials.

Semi-Periphery (World Systems Theory)

States with moderate industrial capacity and consumption that exploit the periphery while remaining economically subjugated to the core.

Periphery (World Systems Theory)

Weak, non-industrial states that supply cheap labor and raw materials, controlled and exploited by core and semi-periphery corporations and states.

Imperialism (Marxist Conception)

The economic expansion and colonial subjugation driven by capitalist powers to secure profits, appease domestic working classes, and strip peripheral territories of resources.

Postmodernism (in IR)

An epistemological approach that rejects Enlightenment notions of a single objective truth, asserting that international relations must be understood through diverse perspectives and subjective meanings.

Feminist IR Theory

A critical, postmodern approach that rejects the dominant masculine paradigm, arguing that global politics is gendered and that men historically drove political norms, institutions, and scholarship while subordinating women.

Social Constructivism

An IR approach emphasizing that global affairs are driven primarily by social factors, shared learning, and intersubjective meanings rather than purely material forces.

Social Construct

A shared norm, rule, or concept created and maintained by human social interaction that defines accepted reality, such as nuclear deterrence, sovereignty, or polite social customs.

Alexander Wendt's Conception of Anarchy

The constructivist argument that 'anarchy is what states make of it,' meaning anarchy has no fixed, inherently dangerous nature but functions according to the social meanings states attach to it.