global politics midterm

interdependence liberalism

economic/trade and commercial relations (complex interdependence)

republican liberalism (internal mechanism)

rule of law (checks and balances)

democratic peace thesis

democratic countries will not go to war with other democracies

liberal institutionalism (external mechanism)

international organizations (UN)

realism

• power politics

• self-centered

• no room for low politics

• no room for non-state actors

• focus on the state (no universal morals)

• balance of power

constructivism

• matching of identities and interests

• social relations

• inter-subjective exchanges

• world is always under construction (dynamic)

international anarchy

• leads to state of self-help/competition

• then leads to security dilemma

• high probability of war

balance of power

power is distributed in a way that prevents one state from becoming too powerful

polarity

question of how many superpowers are in the world

unipolarity

one superpower

bipolarity

two superpowers

multipolarity

multiple superpowers

security dilemma

when a state’s actions of increasing security leads to other states feeling threatened and interpreting increased national security as aggressive

• responding states may feel the need to increase their national security, confront in a military manner, or attempt to diffuse the situation

• leads to high probability of war

high politics

focuses on military, national, and international security

low politics

focuses on economic, social, and cultural affairs

billiard ball model

• state-centric approach

• states are impermeable, self-contained units

• can only be effected through a collision

• collisions are linked to military and security matter

• not all balls are the same size (states are more powerful than one another)

cobweb model

• complex interdependence

• web-like strings hold all the balls together

• if an interaction occurs, it can be felt throughout the whole web

• states are drawn to cooperation and integration of forces

collective goods problem

• multiple people/groups have a shared interest but different way of achieving it

• leads to an incentive to free ride

• difficult to get many parties to agree on how to achieve common goal

• can be costly

foreign policy

strategies and actions taken by a state in the international arena to influence or manage events outside the state’s border

• high politics

• “steering process” countries act and react to actions of other countries

rational model of foreign policy

4 steps

• set goals

• prioritize them

• undertake cost-benefit analysis

• take action

incrementalism model

• science of muddling through

• inadequate information and low levels of understanding leads to bold, innovative courses of action being difficult or impossible

• more avoidance prone than innovative

organizational process/behavior model

• driven by established routine and standard operating procedure

• actions emerge from organizational output

bureaucratic politics model

result of bargaining between powerful, individual leaders in government (like treasury, homeland security, defense)

domestic politics model

results from societal factors like public opinion, media, and interest groups

psychological model

results from the pyschological state of president

globalization

emergence of complex web of interconnectedness

• lives are shaped by events that occur and decisions that are made at great distance from us

hyperglobalists

view that new globalized economic and cultural patterns became inevitable with the rise of technology

sceptics

portrayed globalization as a fantasy and dismissed idea of integrated global economy

• don’t like globalization and don’t see it positively

transformationalists

accept that profound changes have taken place in patterns and processes of world politics without established or traditional features being swept away

external sovereignty

capacity of the state to act independently and autonomously on world stage

international sovereignty

refers to location of supreme power/authority within the state

sovereignty

principle of absolute and unlimited power, absence of higher authority in either domestic or external affairs

four features of a state

• defined territory

• permanent population

• effective government

• capacity to enter relations with other states

treaty of westphalia

treaties signed in 1648 that ended the thirty years war

• established principle of religious toleration and territorial sovereignty

• established concept of a balance of power to control inter-state aggression

• laid foundation for modern political principles like sovereign states