International Relations - Exam 1

international relations

the relationships among the world’s state governments and the connection of those relationships with other actors (such as the United Nations, multinational corporations, and individuals), with other social relationships (including economics, culture and domestic politics), and with geographic and historical influences

collective goods problem

a tangible or intangible good, created by the members of a group, that is available to all group members regardless of their individual contributions; participants can gain by lowering their own contribution to the collective good, yet if too many participants do so, the good cannot be provided

dominance

a principle for solving the collective goods problems by imposing solutions hierarchically

reciprocity

a response in kind to another’s actions; a strategy of reciprocity uses positive forms of leverage to promise regards and negative forms of leverage to threaten punishment

identity

a principle for solving the collective goods problems by changing participants’ preferences based on their shared sense of belonging to a community

issue areas

distinct spheres of international activity (such as global trade negotiations) within which policy makers of various states face conflicts and sometimes achieve cooperation

conflict and cooperation

the types of actions that states take toward each other through time

international security

a subfield of international relations that focuses on questions of war and peace

international political economy

the study of the politics of trade, monetary, and other economic relations among nations, and their connection to other transnational forces

state

an inhabited territorial entity controlled by a government that exercises sovereignty over its territory

international system

the set of relationships among the world’s states, structured by certain rules and patterns of interaction

nation-states

states whose populations share a sense of national identity, usually uncluding a language and culture

gross domestic product

the size of a state’s total annual economic activity

nonstate actors

actors other than state governments that operate either below the level of the state (that is, within states) or across state borders

intergovernmental organization - igo

an organization (such as the United Nations and its agencies) whose members are state governments

nongovernmental organization - ngo

a transnational group or entity (such as the Catholic Church, Greenpeace, or the International Olympic Committee) that interacts with states, multinational corporations (MNCs), other NGOs, and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs)

globalization

the increasing integration of the world in terms of communications, culture, and economics; may also refer to changing subjective experiences of space and time accompanying this process

north-south gap

the disparity in resources (income, wealth, and power) between the industrialized, relatively rich countries of the West (and former East) and the poorer countries of Africa, the Middle East, and much of Asia and Latin America

league of nations

an organization established after WWI and a forerunner of today’s United Nations; it achieved certain humanitarian and other successes but was weakened by the absence of US membership and by its own lack of effectiveness in ensuring collective security

munich agreement

a symbol of the failed policy of appeasement, this agreement, signed in 1938, allowed Nazi Germany to occupy a part of Czechoslovakia. Rather than appease Nazi German aspirations, it was followed by futher German expansions, which triggered WWII

cold war

the hostile relations punctuated by occasional periods of improvement, or détente-between the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, from 1945 to 1990

containment

a policy adopted in the late 1940s by which the US sought to halt the global expansion of Soviet influence on several levels - military, political, ideological, and economic

sino-soviet split

a rift in the 1960s between the communist powers of the soviet union and china, fueled by china’s opposition to soviet moves toward peaceful coexistence with the united states

summit meeting

a meeting between heads of state, often referring to leaders of great powers, as in the cold war superpower summits between the united states and the soviet union or today’s meetings of the Group of Twenty (G20) on economic coordination

cuban missile crisis (1962)

a superpower crisis, sparked by the soviet union’s installation of medium-range nuclear missiles in cuba, that marks the moment when the united states and the soviet union came closest to nuclear war

proxy wars

wars in the third world - often civil wars in which in the united states and the soviet union jockeyed for position by supplying and advising opposing factions

realism

a broad intellectual tradition that explains international relations mainly in terms of power

idealism

an approach that emphasizes international law, morality, and international organizations, rather that power alone, as key influences on international relations

power

the ability or potential to influence others’ behavior, as measured by the possession of certain tangible and intangible characteristics

geopolitics

the use of geography as an element of power, and the ideas about it held by political leaders and scholars

anarchy

in international relations theory, a term that implies not complete chaos but the lack of a central government that can enforce rules

norms

the shared expectations about what behavior is considered proper

sovereignty

a state’s right, at least in principle, to do whatever it wants within its own territory; traditionally, sovereignty is the most important international norm

security dilemma

a situation in which actions that states take to ensure their own security (such as deploying more military forces) are perceived as threats to the security of other states

balance of power

the general concept of the power of one or more states being used to balance that of another state or group of states; the term can refer to :

1. any ration of power capabilities between states or alliances

2. a relatively equal ratio

3. the process by which counterbalancing coalitions have repeatedly formed to prevent one state from conquering an entire region

great powers

generally, the half dozen or so most powerful states; the great power club was exclusively European until the twentieth century

middle powers

states that rank somewhat below the great powers in terms of their influence on world affairs (for example, Brazil and India)

neorealism

a version of realist theory that emphasizes the influence on state behavior of the system’s structure, especially the international distribution of power

multipolar system

an international system with typically five or six centers of poewr that are not grouped into alliances

power transition theory

a theory that the largest wars result from challenges to the top position in the status hierarchy, when a rising power is surpassing (or threatening to surpass) the most powerful state

hegemony

the holding by one state of a preponderance of power in the international system so that it can single-handedly dominate the rules and arrangements by which international political and economic relations are conducted

hegemonic stability theory

the argument that regimes are most effective when power in the international system is most concentrated

alliance cohesion

the ease with which the members hold together an alliance; it tends to be high when national interests converge and when cooperation among allies becomes institutionalized

burden sharing

the distribution of the costs of an alliance among members; the term also refers to the conflicts that may arise over such distribution

north atlantic treaty organization - nato

a US military alliance, formed in 1949 with mainly western european members, to oppose and deter soviet power in europy; it is currently expanding into the former soviet bloc

warsaw pact

a soviet-led eastern european military alliance founded in 1955 and disbanded in 1991; it opposed the nato alliance

US-Japanese security treaty

a bilateral alliance between the United States and Japan, created in 1951 against the potential Soviet threat to Japan. the United States maintains troops in Japan and is committed to defend Japan if that nation is attacked, and Japan pays the United States to offset about half the cost of maintaining the troops

nonaligned movement

a movement of third world states, led by India and Yugoslavia, that attempted to stand apart from the US-Soviet rivalry during the cold war

deterrence

the threat to punish another actor if it takes a certain negative action (especially attacking one’s own state or one’s allies)

compellence

the threat of force to make another actor take some action (rather than, as in deterrence, refrain from taking an action)

arms race

a reciprocal process in which two or more states build up military capabilities in response to each other

rational actors

actors conceived of as single entities that can “think“ about their actions coherently, make choices, identify their interests, and rank the interests in terms of priority

national interest

the interests of a state overall (as opposed to particular parties or factions within the state)

cost-benefit analysis

a calculation of the costs to be incurred by a possible action and the benefits it is likely to bring

game theory

a branch of mathematics concerned with predicting bargaining outcomes; games such as prisoner’s dilemma and chicken have been used to analyze various sorts of international interactions

zero-sum games

situations in which one actor’s gain is by definition equal to the other’s loss

non-zero-sum game

it is possible for both actors to gain (or lose)

prisoner’s dilemma

a situation modeled by game theory in which rational actors pursuing their individual interests all achieve worse outcomes than they could have by working together

interdependence

a political and economic situation in which two states are simultaneously dependent on each other for their well-being. the degree of interdependence is sometimes designated in terms of sensitivity or vulnerability

neoliberal

shorthand for “neoliberal institutionalism“ an approach that stresses the importance of international institutions in reducing the inherent conflict that realists assume in an international system; the reasoning is based on the core liberal idea that seeking long-term mutual gains is often more rational than maximizing individual short-term gains

international regime

a set of rules, norms and procedures around which the expectations of actors converge in a certain international issue area (such as oceans or monetary policy)

collective security

the formation of a broad alliance of most major actors in an international system for the purpose of jointly opposing aggression by any actor; sometimes seen as presupposing the existence of a universal organization (such as the United Nations) to which both the aggressor and its opponents belong

democratic peace

the proposition, strongly supported by empirical evidence, that democracies almost never fight wars against each other (although they do fight against authoritarian states)

constructivism

a movement in international relations theory that examines how changing international norms and actors’ identities help shape the content of state interests

postmodernism

an approach that denies the existence of a single fixed reality and pays special attention to texts and to discourses - that is to how people talk and write about a subject

subtext

meanings that are implicit or hidden in a text rather than explicitly addressed

economic classes

a categorization of individuals based on economic status

marxism

a branch of socialism that emphasizes exploitation and class struggle and includes both communism and other approaches

conflict resolution

the development and implementation of peaceful strategies for settling conflicts

mediation

the use of a third party (or parties) in conflict resolution

militarism

the glorification of war, military force, and violence

positive peace

a peace that resolves the underlying reasons for war; not just a cease-fire but a transformation of relationships, including elimination or reduction of economic exploitation and political oppression

world government

a centralized world governing body with strong enforcement powers

peace movements

movements against specific wars or against war and militarism in general, usually involving large numbers of people and forms of direct action such as street protests

difference feminism

a strand of feminism that believes gender differences are not just socially constructed and that views women as inherently less warlike than men on average

liberal feminism

a strand of feminism that emphasizes gender equality and views the “essential“ differences in men’s and women’s abilities or perspectives as trivial or nonexistent

postmodern feminism

an effort to combine feminist and postmodernist perspectives with the aim of uncovering the hidden influences of gender in international relations and showing how arbitrary the construction of gender roles is

gender gap

refers to polls showing women lower than men on average in their support for military actions, as well as for various other issues and candidates