Global Politics: Unit 1 & 2 Vocab

Globalization

The process of increasing interconnectedness among societies such that events in one part of the world more and more have effects on peoples and societies far away. Involves political, economic, social, cultural and environmental levels.

Foreign Policy

The articulation of national interests (goals) and the means chosen to secure those interests (military, economic, social) in the international arena.

Global Politics

The politics of global social relations in which the pursuit of power, interests, order (stability), and justice transcends regions and continents.

Global Relations

Relations between nations, multinational corporations, international organizations etc. that determine who gets what, when and how they get it.

Non-governmental Organization (NGO)

Non-governmental, non-commercial (not for profit) organizations that advocate for specific policy or provide specific services. (EX- World Wildlife Fund, World Central Kitchen, Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, International Red Cross, etc.)

Multinational Corporations (MNC)

A business or firm with administrative, production, distribution, and marketing located in countries around the world. MNCs move money, goods, services, and technology around the world depending on where the MNC can make the most profit. (EX- BMW, McDonald's, Walmart, CNN, UPS, Google, Levi's, etc.)

Non-state Actor

Any participant in global politics that is not acting in the name of government. Examples include NGOs, MNC, terrorist networks, and global crime syndicates. (EX- American Mafia, ISIS, International Red Cross, Nike, etc.)

Government

The people and agencies that have power and legitimate authority to determine who gets what, when, and how within a given territory. (EX- BRICS)

Nation

A community of people who share a common sense of identity including geography, language, culture or ethnicity. Political scientists use the term to convey a group identity larger than family or tribal groups. (EX- Native Americans in the US, the Welsh in the UK, the Mongols in China)

State

A geographic territory with a stable population and a government. The state possesses a monopoly on the use of force; its legitimacy is recognized by other states in the international system. The highest-level political structure within a territory that makes authoritative decisions. (EX: Countries like China, Russia, etc.)

Nation-State

A political community in which the state claims legitimacy on the grounds it represents all citizens within its territory - even those who may identify with a separate community or nation. (Sometimes referred to as "country" or "state" & most have several nations)

Sovereignty

The principle that the state is recognized as the supreme and sovereign power within its territory. It emphasizes the inviolability of the borders of a state. It is not acceptable to intervene in the internal affairs of other states. (est. by Peace of Westphalia 1648)

Theory

a proposed explanation of an event or behavior of an actor in the real world. Theories are simplifying devices that allow us to focus/decide on which facts matter most and which facts matter less.

Tradition

In international relations, a tradition is an historical way of thinking that describes the nature of global politics.

Machiavellian Tradition

A tradition in international relations named for Niccolo Machiavelli that describes the international system as anarchic; states are constantly in conflict and pursue their own self interests as they see fit. ASSOCIATED WITH REALISM.

Grotian Tradition

A tradition in international relations named for Hugo Grotius that emphasizes the rule of law and multilateral cooperation within the international system. The system is interdependent and not anarchic; a society of states is developed by international law, treaties, alliances and diplomacy. ASSOCIATED WITH LIBERALISM.

Kantian Tradition

A revolutionary tradition in international relations named for Immanuel Kant that emphasizes human interests over state interests. A normative tradition that explains what the world could be like in the future. ASSOCIATED WITH IDEALISM.

Prescription

Recommendations for state survival in the international system based on international relations traditions/theories.

Realism

A theoretical approach that analyzes all international relations as the relation of states engaged in the pursuit of power (economic, political, cultural). Realists see the international system as anarchic, or without a world government/power, and they believe conflict is endemic in the international system as states compete with each other.

Liberalism

A theoretical approach that argues for human rights, representative democracy, and free trade internationally, while maintaining that these goals must begin within a state. This theory believes global security and prosperity is best achieved through these mechanisms.

Marxism

A theory critical of the status quo of capitalism. It critiques the capitalist political economy from the viewpoint of the proletariat (worker class). Marxists' ideal is a stateless and classless society. (Utopian)

Feminism

A political project to understand and end women's inequality and oppression. Feminist theories tend to be critical of the biases of the global system.

Historical Approach

To create a detailed description that helps us understand a particular decision or event and help us understand the decisions key actors made. Historians research: Public documents (primary sources), Memoirs, Interviews with key actors.

Social Science Approach

Seek to explain international relations behavior, predict what others may do in similar situations and develop a list of policy options or prescriptions for policymakers. Social scientists want to bring the precision and certainty of the natural sciences to the social world. Social scientists develop hypotheses based on dependent (Y) and independent (X) variables (If "X" then "Y"). Test their hypotheses and confirm or revise and refine them to make them more accurate.

Levels of Analysis

A framework within the study of global politics with four levels of analysis to explain an event and make policy decisions to respond if necessary.

Individual Level

This level explores the range of variables that can affect leaders' policy choices and implementation strategies. (EX- GORBACHEV IN COLD WAR)

Domestic Sources

Factors at this level include a state's history, traditions, and political, economic, cultural, and social structures, as well as the level of military power, economic wealth, and demographics, and more permanent variables like geographic location and natural resource base. (WITHIN A COUNTRY & ITS INTERNAL STRUCTURE, GOVT, ECONOMY, ETC.)

Systemic Level

To most realists, the anarchic nature of international relations may be the most important factor at this level. However, the individual and collective actions states have taken to cope with anarchy via treaties, alliances, and trade conventions—formal contracts created by states in an attempt to provide order—also constitute significant systemic factors, as well as distribution of power within the system. (WITHIN A GLOBAL SYSTEM; ABOUT TRADITIONS, COMMON GOALS, SHARED NORMS, DISTRIBUTION OF POWER. EX- BIPOLAR IN COLD WAR, UNITED NATIONS BC THEY EST RULES)

Global Level

Global-level variables challenge notions of boundaries and sovereignty. The processes that define globalization are multidimensional and originate from multiple levels. Globalization and its economic, political, cultural, and social dimensions derive from decisions made or actions taken by individuals, states, and international and regional organizations or other nonstate actors, but they are seldom traceable to the actions of any one state or even a group of states. (EX- TECH INNOVATION, MOVEMENT OF $$ BY MULTINATIONAL BANKS,CLIAMTE CHANGE, COVID)

Arguments FOR Globalization

States are no longer closed units; they can no longer fully control their own economies. This interdependence acts as a stabilizer in the global system and encourages cooperation. Also, developing cosmopotilaton culture & risk culture.

Cosmopolitan culture

People across states share goals and aspirations.

Risk culture

People are realizing the risks they face are global (climate, pandemic) and solutions require nation state cooperation and global governance structures (World Health Organization).

Arguments AGAINST Globalization

Western Imperialism, exploitative capitalism, and globalization also spreads hate, racist ideas, encourage violence as well as make it easier for terrorists and crime syndicates to operate.

Western Imperialism

The forces being globalized are western ideas and structures- capitalism, human rights, representative democracy.

Exploitative Capitalism

As economies become interdependent, the more developed countries where the MNCs are based extracts resources (cheap labor, raw material) from less developed countries instead of building those economies.

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

German priest and theologian whose beliefs form the basis of Lutheranism. He was ordained in 1507 as a Catholic priest and he came to reject several of the practices of the Catholic Church, such as Indulgences, forbidding translating bibles, and not allow priests to marry.

Ninety-Five Theses (1517)

95 complaints detailing Church corruption and sparked the beginning of the Reformation.

Protestant Reformation

A social and political movement begun in 1517 in reaction to widespread perception that the catholic Church had become corrupt and lost its moral compass.

Thirty Years War (1618-1648)

The last of the great wars in Europe fought for religion. (Catholic vs Protestant States)

Peace of Westphalia (1648)

A series of treaties that ended the Thirty Years War and was crucial in delimiting the political rights and power of European monarchs. Established the principle of sovereignty (the right of a state to control its own territory). It recognized the 300 separate German states as equal in political standing. Established diplomacy (negotiation) as a way to prevent and end war.

Sovereign Equality

The idea that all countries have the same rights, including the right of noninterference in their internal affairs.

Society of States

An association of sovereign states based on their common interests, values, and norms. This world order did have many wars - but established the idea of a balance of power among the states. CENTRAL ELEMENTS OF THIS PERIOD-All states act to preserve their freedom, A mutual recognition of each others right to independence, Diplomacy as a way to solve conflicts, International Law. EX- BRICS to balance power of U.S.

Balance of Power

In the international system, a state of affairs in which there is parity and stability among competing forces, and no one state is sufficiently strong enough to dominate all the others. Realists believe that balance among the great powers is the only way to provide global stability.

Peace of Utrecht (1713)

The agreement that ended the War of Spanish Succession and consolidated the link between sovereign authority and territorial boundaries in Europe.

National Self Determination

The right or desire of distinct national groups to become states and to rule themselves.

Concert of Europe

An informal institution created in 1815 by the five great powers of Europe (Austria, Britain, France, Prussia, Russia) whereby they agreed on controlling revolutionary forces, managing the balance of power, and accepting interventions to keep current leaders in power. This system kept the peace in Europe from 1815 until World War 1 (1914).

Feudal structure

3 Estates (classes) - 1. Clergy, 2. Nobility, 3. Others (serfs, middle class representing 95% of population) the 3rd estate (commoners) was the poorest and paid taxes to monarch, nobility and clergy.

Estates General (1789)

3 Estates elect representatives, meet separately, make proposals to the other 2 estates, a proposal is accepted if 2/3 estates vote in favor. So the 3rd estate representing 95% of the population could be outvoted by the nobility and clergy. Third estate broke away and formed the National Assembly in June 1789 -> Storming of the Bastille July 1789.

Ten Years of Revolution (1789 -1799)

While one authoritarian regime was replaced with a different authoritarian regime there were key outcomes that affected global politics. Set the stage for the emergence of the United States as a new great power. Primacy of the idea that sovereignty was vested in the nation rather than in the rulers. National Self-determination.

Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815)

A series of conflicts fought (1803-1815) under Emperor of the French Napoleon Bonaparte and a fluctuating array of European coalitions. The wars originated in political forces arising from the French Revolution (1789-1799) and produced a period of French domination over Continental Europe.

Congress of Vienna (1815)

the great powers redrew the map of Europe after the Napoleonic Wars and established a "congress" to maintain order on the continent and maintain the conservative political order.

The Concert of Europe (1815 - 1914)

Shifted the decentralized Society of States era into a more managed hierarchical system in the 19th C. emphasizing balance of power, diplomacy, and international law. Established fewer wars in Europe which allowed nations to engage in Imperialism and Colonialism in Africa and Asia. It was a multipolar model that relied on shifting counter-balances in alliances between Great Britain, France, Austria, Russia, Prussia (later Germany). After the German Empire formed in 1871, the alliances hardened and became less flexible, nationalism increased, militarism increased. The result was a breakdown in the Concert of Europe.

Causes of WW1 (1914-1918

(MAIN)

Militarism

military arms race developed within the multipolar modal; when one power increased its power relative to a neighbor, the neighbor had to increase its military to maintain balance. Germany launched a massive military buildup starting in 1870.

Alliances

A complex system of alliances some of which were secret and not public

Imperialism

European states competing for resources and colonies

Nationalism

Strong patriotic beliefs

Modern Wars

Technology shifted how wars were fought from the previous 500 years - machine guns, artillery, airplanes, submarines, tanks, chemical warfare, nuclear bombs. Required new tactics and strategies not yet developed.

Total Wars

full mobilization of society. Forced conscription of men, women went to work in factories of production and work on the front line. All members of society and all means of production used in the war efforts.

Fourteen Points

President Woodrow Wilson's vision of international society articulated in 1918. It includes the principle of self-determination, the conduct of diplomacy on an open and not secret basis, and the establishment of the League of Nations to provide security guarantees of independence and territorial integrity.

Treaty of Versailles (1919)

The agreement that formally ended World War I (1914-1918) and forced Germany to accept full responsibility for the causes and devastation. ALSO EST LEAGUE OF NATIONS. & ARTICLE 231 FORCED GERMANY TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY.

League of Nations

The first permanent collective international security organization aimed at preventing future wars and resolving global problems. The League failed due to the United States reluctance to join.

Causes of World War II (1939-1945)

The harshness of the Treaty of Versailles, The Great Depression (severe global economic crisis that lowered the prestige of liberal democracy), Rise of fascism - far right, authoritarian (anti-democratic), extreme nationalism in Germany, Japan and Italy, Cult of Adolf Hitler, Policy of Appeasement by Allied Powers (Munich Agreement 1938), Hitler/Stalin Non-aggression Pact, Territorial expansion of Germany, Japan, and Italy, American Isolationism.

Liberal Democracy

(CAPITALISM) A state with democratic or representative government and a capitalist economy that promotes multilateralism and free trade. Liberal democracies promote freedom of the individual, constitutional rights and laissez-faire economic arrangements.

Munich Agreement 1938

Agreement negotiated after a conference between Germany and Great Britain and other major powers in Europe along with Czechoslovakia permitting Nazi Germany to annex northern Czechoslovakia inhabited by ethnic Germans.

Appeasement

A policy of making concessions to a territorial acquisitive state (aggressor state) in the hope that settlement of more modest claims will stop the state's further expansion.

Blitzkreig

German word for "lightning war" and is an offensive strategy combining mechanized forces and aircraft to exploit breaches in the enemy's front line.

Holocaust

The system attempt to murder the Jewish population of Europe. 6 million Jewish people were killed in concentration camps along with 1 million others including political prisoners, homosexuals, and disabled people.

Genocide

The deliberate and systematic extermination of an ethnic, national, tribal, or religious group.

Superpower

A state with a dominant position in the international system. It has the will and the means to influence the actions of others states in favor of its own interests, and it projects its power on a global scale to secure its national interests.

Bipolar Power Structure

The United States and the Soviet Union emerge as the dominant superpowers shaping global politics and alliances

Cold War Conflict

No direct military conflict but intense political, economic, and ideological rivalry between the two blocs, often manifesting in proxy wars and espionage

Iron Curtain

A political, economic, and ideological boundary between Eastern Europe under Soviet influence and Western Europe/Japan allied with America

Marshall Plan

American led effort to support political and economic rebuilding of Western Europe strengthening its influence

Nuclear Arms Race

The development and proliferation of nuclear weapons created a mutually assured destruction (M.A.D.) threat within the international system

United Nations

international organization formed to promote peace and cooperation among nation states.

Decolonization

Process of a state to withdraw from a former colony, leaving it independent.

1948 - United Nations passes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Recognized that all people are born free and equal

1960 - United Nations passes Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and People

Stated that colonialism is a denial of human rights and that power should be transferred to the countries concerned.

Domino Theory

American geopolitical anti-communist theory that if one state fell to communism, the next state would be at risk and so American intervention was necessary to stop even one state from becoming communist.

Social Democracy

(SOCIALISM) A state with democratic or representative government and state regulation of the economy (not state ownership) and high levels of social welfare programs.

Hegemony

(u.s. and soviet union fighting for global dominance) A system regulated by a dominant leader, or political and economic domination of a nation or region. It is power of a leading state over other states.

Cold War

The period from 1946-1991 defined by the ideological conflict and rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. This was a global struggle for the hearts and minds of citizens around the world that was characterized by political conflict, military competition, proxy wars and economic competition.

Bipolar

An international political order in which two states dominate all others. It is used to describe the nature of the system when two superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States, were dominant powers during the Cold War.

Capitalism

Economic system based on private ownership of the factors of production and distribution. A system of production in which human labor and its products are commodities that are bought and sold in the market with prices determined by supply and demand.

Centrally Planned Economy

The government makes decisions regarding the production and distribution of goods. The government controls the factors of production, investment, and the overall direction of economic priorities.

Truman Doctrine

An American policy put forth in the early years of the Cold War that the United States would support all people and nations that are resisting subjugation by Soviet ideology; that the United States would work to contain Soviet influence and power.

Containment

An American political strategy for resisting perceived Soviet expansion.

Berlin Airlift 1948

The first Cold War confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States. After blocking rail and road access to Berlin from West Germany, the US launched a major 24 hour a day airlift to provide supplies to the western controlled quadrants of Berlin.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

An organization established by treaty in 1949 with 12 original members (now 32) from Western Europe and North America. It is a collective security agreement with an important clause stating that if one member is attacked, all other members will defend.

Warsaw Pact

An agreement of mutual defense and military aid signed in 1955 by the USSR and 7 communist states in Eastern Europe in response to West Germany's rearmament and admission to NATO.

Arms Race

A central concept in realist thought. As states build up their military to address perceived threats to their national security, they create insecurity in other states. These states in turn develop their military capacity. This never ending pursuit of security creates a security dilemma.

Detente

A period of relaxed tensions between the superpowers from the late 1960s-late 1970s and a time of nuclear arms negotiations to reduce the number of warheads and types of delivery systems.

Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs)

Weapons system the US and USSR developed to threaten each other with nuclear destruction. The 30-40 minute flight times of the missiles created a situation that is called "mutually assured destruction" (MAD) or the "balance of terror."

Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) 1968

states that had nuclear weapons agreed to stop the arms race. States without nuclear arms agreed not to pursue them. Four states did not sign or withdrew and developed nuclear weapons - India, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea. Libya and South Africa developed nuclear weapons and gave them up.

Rapprochement

U.S. re-established diplomatic relations with the PRC under President Richard Nixon and his advisor Henry Kissinger. Nixon becomes the first president to visit China in 1972 and meets Mao Zedong.

Glasnost

A policy of greater openness pursued by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev from 1985, involving more toleration of internal dissent and criticism.

Perestroika

Gorbachev's policy of government restructuring intended to modernize the Soviet political and economic systems.

"New World Order"

President George H. W. Bush

Triumph of Wilsonian ideas

of multilateralism and cooperation, rise of representative governments and free market economies, and an international rules based system that respected sovereignty of individual nations.