International Politics Vocab

Globalization

Process of increasing integration of the world in terms of economics, politics, communications, social relations, and culture; increasingly undermines traditional state sovereignty

Great Power Politics

Process through which powerful states compete to maximize wealth, territory, and military and economic influence across the globe

International Relations

Study of the interactions among various actors (states, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and subnational entities like bureaucracies, local governments, and individuals) that participate in international politics

Normative

Relating to ethical rules; in foreign policy and international affairs, standards suggesting what a policy should be

Positivism

Belief that the world can be both objectively observed and analyzed using facts and physical evidence

Behavioralism

Approach to the study of social science and international relations that posits that individuals and units like states act in regularized ways; leads to the belief that behaviors can be described, explained, and predicted

Hypotheses

Specific falsifiable statements that question the proposed relationship among two or more concepts

Correlations

Statistical calculations that express the extent to which different factors are related

Post-Positivism

Belief that seemingly objective observations and data can never truly be objective

Treaties of Westphalia

Treaties ending the Thirty Years’ War in Europe in 1648; in the international relations represents the beginning of the state sovereignty within a territorial space

Sovereignty

Authority of the state, based on recognition by other states and by nonstate actors, to govern matters within its own borders that affect its people, economy, security, and form of government

Legitimacy

Moral and legal right to rule, which is based on law, custom, heredity, or the consent of the governed

Nationalism

Sense of national consciousness where people identify with the common history, language, or customers, often placing primary emphasis on ones own nations culture and interest over those of the other nations

Imperialism

Policy and practice of extending the domination of one state over another through territorial conquest or economic domination

Colonialism

Practice of founding, maintaining, and expanding a states reach to territory abroad, motivated by expectation of economic gain, political agreement, or cultural supremacy

Balance of Power

System in which actors enjoy relatively equal power, such that no single state or coalition of states is able to dominate other actors in the system

League of Nations

International organization formed at the conclusion of WWI for the purpose of preventing another war; based on the collective security

Third Reich

German state from 1933-45; a time which coincides with the rule of Hitler and his National Socialist Workers Party, or “Nazis”

Cold War

Era in international relations between the end of WWII and 1990, distinguished by ideological, economic, political, and military rivalry between the Soviet Union and the US

Superpowers

Highest power states as distinguished from other great powers; term coined during the Cold War to refer to the US and Soviet Union

Rollback

Strategy of using, or threatening the use of, armed force to aggressively coerce an adversary into abandoning occupied territory

Socialism

Economic and social system that relies on intensive government intervention or public ownership of the means of production in order to distribute wealth among the population more equitably; in radical Marxist theory, the stage between capitalism and communism

NATO

Military and political alliance between Western European states and the US established in 1948 for the purpose of defending Europe from aggression byt the Soviet Union and its allies; post-Cold War expansion to Eastern Europe

Warsaw Pact

Military Alliance formed by the states of the Soviet bloc in 1955 in response to the rearmament of West Germany and its inclusion in NATO; permitted the stationing of Soviet troops in Eastern Europe

Domino Effect

Metaphor that posits that the loss of influence over one state to an adversary will necessarily lead to a subsequent loss of control over neighboring states, just as dominos fall one after another

Summits

Talks and meeting among the highest-level government officials from difference countries

Detente

Easing of tense relations; in the context of the CH 2, detente refers to the relaxation and reappraisal of threat assessments by political rivals, for example, the US and Soviet Union during the laters year of the CW

War on Terror

Declaring to use a given society’s material and nonmaterial resources to defeat those using terror, often non-state actors targeting noncombatants to instill fear in the population

Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Nuclear, chemical, biological, and radiological weapons which can kill or bring major harm to large number of people or structures

Caliphate

Notion that the Muslim world must have a caliph, a spiritual lead of Islam, heading the community

Populism

Belief that champions the common person, contrasting people’s concerns with those of the elite; often opposing big business and financial interests

Theory

Collection of propositions that combine to explain phenomena by specifying the relationships among a set of concepts

Theoretical Perspectives

Sets of theories united by some common themes such as actors, concepts, and issues

International Institutions

Sets of rules such as international treaties and organizations meant to govern international behavior

Multinational Corporations (MNCs)

Private enterprises which span state borders through the actual presence in, investments in, or trade with other countries

Identity

A sense of self based on certain qualities and beliefs that define a person/ group

Norms

Collective expectations for the proper behavior of actors with a given identity

Realism

Theory of international relations that emphasizes states interest in accumulating power to ensure security in an anarchic world; based on the notion that individuals are power seeking and that states act in pursuit of their own national interest defined in terms of power

National Interest

Interest of the state, most basically the protection of territory and sovereignty; in realist thinking, the interest is a unitary one defined in terms of the pursuit of power; in liberal thinking, there are many national interest; in radical thinking, it is the interest of a ruling elite

Anarchy

Fact that there exists no hierarchically superior, coercive authority that can create laws, resolve disputes, or enforce law and order in the system

Balancing

Taking actions to offset the power of more powerful states

Rational Actors

Actors that make decisions by weighing the costs and benefits of various options against the goal to be achieved

Relative Gains

How much more one state gains over another

Security Dilemma

Situation in which each state tries to increase its own power to protect, but this increased power is seen as a threat by other states, leading them to be more insecure and thus to seek to increase their own power which, in turn, makes others more insecure

Internal Balancing

A state building up its own military resources and capabilities in order to be able to stand against more powerful states

External Balancing

Allying with other states to offset the power of more powerful states

Bandwagoning

Process in which states that might have opposed a threatening state choose to ally with it instead

Neorealism

Reinterpretation of realism that posits that the structure of the international system is the most important level to study; states behave the way they do because of the structure of the international system; includes the belief that general laws can be found to explain events

Hegemon

Dominant state that has a preponderance of power; often establishes and enforces the rules and norms in the international system

Liberalism

Theoretical perspective based on the assumption of the innate goodness of the individual and the value of political institutions in promoting social progress

Collective Security

Idea that aggression by a state should be defeated collectively because aggression against one state is aggression against all

Neoliberal Institutionalism

Reinterpretation of liberalism that posits that even in an anarchic international system, states will cooperate because their continuous interactions with each other and because it is in their self-interest to do so; institutions provide the framework for cooperative interactions

Complex Interdependence

States are connected through multiple channels (informal and formal), there is no hierarchy of issues, and the result is a decline in the use of military force