Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Global Issues

These flashcards cover key concepts related to terrorism, counterterrorism, global issues, and the role of the US in international organizations.

What is terrorism?

Terrorism is the use or threatened use of violence against non-combatants for political goals.

What distinguishes terrorist organizations?

Terrorist groups are non-state actors targeting civilians to send costly signals.

What is the terrorist's dilemma?

The terrorist’s dilemma is balancing operational control and the need for shocking violence against the risk of alienating supporters or provoking retaliatory actions.

Where do most terrorist attacks occur globally?

Most terrorism occurs in weak or war-torn states in the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa.

What psychological vs strategic explanations do terrorist organizations use for resorting to violence?

Psychological explanations focus on individual motivations, while strategic explanations view leaders as rational actors using violence to achieve political objectives.

What is provocation in the context of terrorism?

Provocation seeks to trigger an overreaction to boost recruitment by portraying the terrorized group as victimized.

Why are terrorists hard to deter?

Terrorists lack territory, operate in covert cells, and often accept death, making retaliation ineffective.

What was the main reason for the US invasion of Afghanistan post-9/11?

The US refused to distinguish between terrorists and states that harbor them, with the Taliban providing sanctuary for Al Qaeda.

What is the significance of democracy in relation to foreign policy?

Democracies broaden whose interests matter, holding leaders accountable for unpopular foreign policies.

What is the tragedy of the commons?

It is a situation where individuals overuse public goods because they gain from its use while costs are diffused across society.

What does the Paris Climate Accord outline?

It is a 2015 agreement where states submit voluntary emissions targets to keep global warming below 2°C.

What is the political significance of the dollar's reserve currency status?

It allows the US to finance deficits cheaply and exert financial influence on global markets.

What are rare earth minerals and why are they significant?

Rare earths are specialized metals vital for advanced manufacturing, and China's dominance in this market gives it leverage.

How did President Trump address NATO’s burden-sharing issue?

Trump pressured allies to meet defense spending targets and questioned US commitment to contributions.

What are the implications of labeling Venezuelan drug trafficking as a national security threat?

It legitimizes stronger military actions and aligns Venezuela policy with broader counter-terrorism strategies.

Module 16 Terrorism and Counterterrorism: What is terrorism? What distinguishes terrorist organizations? What is the terrorist’s dilemma?

Terrorism is the use or threatened use of violence against non-combatants for political goals. Terrorist groups are non-state actors targeting civilians to send costly signals. The terrorist’s dilemma is balancing operational control and need for shocking violence against risking alienating supporters or provoking overwhelming retaliation.

Module 16 Terrorism and Counterterrorism: What are broader global patterns in terrorist attacks? Which countries are main targets?

Most terrorism occurs in weak or war-torn states in the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. Countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, and Nigeria are consistently the most targeted.

Module 16 Terrorism and Counterterrorism: Why do terrorist organizations resort to political violence? Psychological vs strategic explanations.

They use violence because they are militarily weak and must alter government incentives. Psychological explanations focus on individual motivations (grievance, alienation, social identity). Strategic explanations view leaders as rational actors using violence to achieve political objectives.

Module 16 Terrorism and Counterterrorism: What strategic uses of violence do terrorists employ (provocation, outbidding, spoiling)?

Provocation seeks to trigger an overreaction to boost recruitment. Outbidding uses dramatic violence to prove greater commitment than rival groups. Spoiling attacks are intended to undermine trust during peace negotiations and derail settlements.

Module 16 Terrorism and Counterterrorism: What are the dilemmas of counterterrorism? Costs and benefits of defensive measures.

Defensive measures like surveillance, intelligence, and target hardening can disrupt plots and reduce vulnerability but impose financial costs, restrict civil liberties, risk government overreach, and can alienate communities.

Module 16 Terrorism and Counterterrorism: Why are terrorists hard to deter? Tradeoffs of targeting leaders with drone strikes.

They lack territory, operate in covert cells, and often accept death, making retaliation ineffective. Drone strikes can remove key leaders but risk civilian casualties, increased recruitment, and rapid leadership replacement.

Module 16 Terrorism and Counterterrorism: How did 9/11 lead to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan?

The US adopted a doctrine refusing to distinguish between terrorists and states that harbor them. The Taliban’s sanctuary for Al Qaeda made them targets. Domestic fear, urgency to prevent further attacks, and political pressure accelerated the decision for war.

Module 16 Terrorism and Counterterrorism: How did the US move from Afghanistan to Iraq?

Key Bush officials argued Iraq was part of the broader threat, citing WMD fears, Saddam’s past behavior, and a desire to reshape the Middle East. The administration linked terrorism, rogue regimes, and WMD proliferation as justification.

Module 16 Terrorism and Counterterrorism: What are tradeoffs of using external military force (Afghanistan, Iraq) to counter terrorism?

Benefits include destroying safe havens and punishing hostile regimes. Costs include civilian deaths, long occupations, radicalization, massive financial burdens, damaged US legitimacy, and difficulty exiting insurgencies.

Module 17 The United States and International Organizations: What are institutions? How do they differ from organizations? Examples?

Institutions are rules of the game that structure behavior. Organizations are physical bodies created to enforce or act within institutions. Examples: sovereignty, election rules (institutions)

UN, NATO, WTO (organizations).

Module 17 The United States and International Organizations: How do international institutions shape politics?

They guide expectations, provide information about interests and compliance, and allocate power by granting agenda-setting authority or veto rights.

Module 17 The United States and International Organizations: How does US membership in UN, NATO, WTO solve the problem of creating and constraining power?

Membership pools allied coercive power but simultaneously binds the US to rules and veto structures that limit unilateral action, making US power more acceptable to others.

Module 17 The United States and International Organizations: What are the tradeoffs of participating in IOs vs national sovereignty?

States must give up some autonomy and accept constraints in exchange for cooperation benefits, legitimacy, dispute resolution, economic gains, and collective security.

Module 17 The United States and International Organizations: What are the two main political bodies of the UN? How do they confer legitimacy? Who has the most power?

The General Assembly (universal membership) and Security Council (15 members, P5 veto). Legitimacy comes from broad support or legal authority. The P5 (US, UK, France, Russia, China) hold the most power due to veto rights.

Module 17 The United States and International Organizations: Why does the US participate in and follow the UN despite its power advantage?

UN authorization provides international and domestic legitimacy, helps build coalitions, reduces diplomatic costs, and signals alignment with global norms.

Module 17 The United States and International Organizations: What is interstate cooperation? What are major impediments?

It is coordination that yields mutual gains. Impediments include cheating concerns, enforcement problems, distributional disagreements, and domestic political constraints.

Module 17 The United States and International Organizations: What incentivizes global governance? What collective-action and compliance problems arise?

Transnational problems push states to create institutions. Collective action problems cause free-riding. IOs face enforcement challenges, limited monitoring capacity, and reliance on powerful states for punishment.

Module 17 The United States and International Organizations: What are NATO’s Cold War origins? What did Lord Ismay’s quote mean?

NATO was formed to contain the Soviet Union and anchor US power in Europe. “Keep the Russians out” (contain USSR), “Americans in” (prevent US withdrawal), “Germans down” (restrain German militarism).

Module 17 The United States and International Organizations: What are NATO’s two main dilemmas and how did Trump address them?

Burden-sharing (Europe under-spending) and US overextension. Trump pressured allies to hit defense-spending targets and questioned US commitment to force contribution.

Module 18 Democracy Promotion in US Foreign Policy: What is democracy? What are Dahl’s three minimal procedural conditions?

Democracy requires public contestation, inclusion, and democratic sovereignty. This means free competition, broad suffrage, civil liberties, and elected officials actually holding power.

Module 18 Democracy Promotion in US Foreign Policy: How did voting restrictions shape American democracy? What expansions occurred and how did they affect representation and outcomes?

Restrictions long excluded minorities and women. Key expansions included the 15th, 19th, 24th, and 26th Amendments and the Voting Rights Act. Inclusion improved descriptive representation and altered electoral outcomes.

Module 18 Democracy Promotion in US Foreign Policy: How does democracy affect foreign policy?

Mass participation broadens whose interests matter. Competitive elections punish leaders for costly or unpopular foreign policies, encouraging caution and accountability.

Module 18 Democracy Promotion in US Foreign Policy: What is democratic peace theory? What mechanisms explain peace among democracies?

Democracies rarely fight each other due to electoral constraints, institutional checks, credible commitments, and shared democratic identity that reduces threat perception.

Module 18 Democracy Promotion in US Foreign Policy: What are critiques of democratic peace theory?

Transitions to democracy are often violent, and great-power settlements or geopolitics may better explain peace in democratic regions than democracy itself.

Module 18 Democracy Promotion in US Foreign Policy: Why has democracy promotion varied in importance over time?

US emphasis shifts with strategic context, security threats, domestic politics, and presidential ideology.

Module 18 Democracy Promotion in US Foreign Policy: What efforts has the US used to promote democracy? Benefits and challenges?

Efforts include election monitoring, aid conditionality, civil society support, and sometimes military intervention. Benefits include more stable partners and improved rights. Challenges include backlash, accusations of hypocrisy, high costs, instability, and limited local knowledge.

Module 18 Democracy Promotion in US Foreign Policy: What are the waves of democracy and their causes?

Democratization occurs in waves influenced by demonstration effects, neighborhood diffusion, IO conditionality, and pressure or support from hegemonic democracies.

Module 18 Democracy Promotion in US Foreign Policy: According to Krasner, what are the two main tendencies in US policy and what is his third option?

Tendencies: ambitious transformational promotion vs hands-off “model at home.” Krasner proposes “good enough governance,” focusing on pragmatic stability and incremental reforms rather than insisting on full liberal democracy in entrenched autocracies.

Module 19 Globalization and US Trade Policy: What are the chief indicators of globalization increasing since WWII?

Growth in international trade, specialization, and cross-border economic integration reflected in higher trade flows and deeper global markets.

Module 19 Globalization and US Trade Policy: What is comparative advantage and how does it generate gains from trade? How does trade support international order?

Comparative advantage means countries should specialize in goods they produce at lower opportunity cost. Specialization raises total output, making states wealthier. More trade links economies together, creating interdependence that stabilizes the international system.

Module 19 Globalization and US Trade Policy: What is the Ricardian model of trade? How does specialization increase national income?

The Ricardian model shows that if countries specialize according to comparative advantage and trade, overall national income rises because resources are allocated to their most productive uses.

Module 19 Globalization and US Trade Policy: If trade makes states wealthier, why is there political resistance to globalization?

Because globalization shifts income within economies: some groups gain while others lose. Workers in import-competing sectors face job loss and wage declines, generating political backlash.

Module 19 Globalization and US Trade Policy: What are the domestic distributional consequences of globalization? Who wins and loses in the US?

Winners: high-skilled labor, tech, finance, and sectors using abundant US factors. Losers: workers in sectors using scarce factors, especially low-skilled labor in manufacturing. Job losses occur when firms relocate production abroad.

Module 19 Globalization and US Trade Policy: What is the Heckscher-Ohlin (H-O) model and what does it show about redistribution inside countries?

The H-O model argues that countries export goods that use their abundant factors and import goods using their scarce factors. Access to world markets raises incomes of abundant-factor groups and lowers incomes of scarce-factor groups, explaining redistribution.

Module 19 Globalization and US Trade Policy: How do trade and globalization shape political relations and order?

By increasing wealth, reducing incentives for war, deepening interdependence, and creating shared economic interests that support order.

Module 19 Globalization and US Trade Policy: Why did the US launch a trade war against China in 2018?

Due to America First strategy, skepticism of free trade, concerns about job losses, unfair Chinese trade practices, intellectual property theft, currency manipulation concerns, and China’s rising power.

Module 19 Globalization and US Trade Policy: What were key stages of the US–China trade war?

Rising tariffs from both sides, WTO disputes, Trump’s specific demands, escalation into Phase 1 negotiations, and retaliatory tariffs affecting US counties.

Module 19 Globalization and US Trade Policy: How did domestic political forces and distributional consequences contribute to the trade war?

Manufacturing job losses and anger in affected communities created political pressure. Trade deficits were used politically to justify tariffs as protections for workers harmed by globalization.

Module 20 Finance and US Foreign Policy: What does financial globalization look like?

Massive cross-border capital flows, integrated financial markets, investment mobility, and globalized bond and currency markets.

Module 20 Finance and US Foreign Policy: What is an exchange rate, how do changes affect imports/exports, and how do they influence trade policy?

An exchange rate is the price of one currency in terms of another. Dollar appreciates: imports rise (cheaper), exports fall (more expensive). Dollar depreciates: exports rise, imports fall. Shifts shape trade politics by influencing perceived competitiveness.

Module 20 Finance and US Foreign Policy: What is the Mundell-Fleming Trilemma?

States cannot simultaneously have monetary autonomy, exchange-rate stability, and free capital mobility. They must pick two, sacrificing the third.

Module 20 Finance and US Foreign Policy: What is a trade deficit? How is it related to capital inflows?

A trade deficit means imports exceed exports. It is financed by capital inflows, as foreigners buy US assets like Treasury bonds. This boosts US investment beyond domestic savings.

Module 20 Finance and US Foreign Policy: What is the political significance of the dollar’s reserve currency status?

Global demand for dollars allows the US to finance deficits cheaply, exert financial influence, and stabilize global markets. It reflects and reinforces US hegemonic power.

Module 20 Finance and US Foreign Policy: How can global capital markets discipline governments?

If investors lose confidence, they sell a country’s assets, causing currency depreciation and forcing governments to raise taxes, cut spending, or raise interest rates.

Module 20 Finance and US Foreign Policy: What emergency actions did the Fed take during COVID-19?

Rate cuts to zero, massive quantitative easing, corporate bond purchases, lending facilities for businesses, states, and local governments, swap lines with foreign central banks, and repo facilities to prevent global dollar shortages.

Module 20 Finance and US Foreign Policy: How did the dollar’s reserve status enable these actions? How does this relate to Hegemonic Stability Theory?

Reserve currency status ensures global demand for dollars, allowing the Fed to expand its balance sheet and inject liquidity without triggering crises. This aligns with HST: the hegemon supplies key public goods like stability and liquidity.

Module 20 Finance and US Foreign Policy: What do the Fed’s actions show about costs and benefits of US hegemony?

Benefits: the US can borrow cheaply, stabilize global markets, and support domestic economy. Costs: the US bears responsibility for global stabilization and faces criticism for exercising disproportionate influence.

Module 21 The United States and the Bretton Woods Organizations: What is the Bretton Woods economic order? What motivated it, and what organizations emerged?

Created in 1944 to prevent another Depression and war by promoting trade, stability, and reconstruction. Drivers were WWII devastation and failures of the interwar system. Institutions created: IMF, World Bank, and later GATT (precursor to WTO).

Module 21 The United States and the Bretton Woods Organizations: What are the main elements of international economic cooperation, and why is it hard?

Cooperation includes joint tariff reduction, monetary coordination, foreign aid, and emergency lending. It is difficult due to cheating concerns, uncertainty about interests, compliance monitoring problems, and distributional conflicts.

Module 21 The United States and the Bretton Woods Organizations: How do IOs like the WTO and IMF facilitate cooperation?

They enforce agreements, monitor compliance, reveal information, reduce transaction costs, and manage distributional tensions. WTO panels and IMF conditionality promote adherence to rules.

Module 21 The United States and the Bretton Woods Organizations: What are the GATT and WTO, how do they differ, and what norms guide them? How does WTO dispute settlement support trade?

GATT was a multilateral framework for reciprocal tariff reduction but lacked enforcement. The WTO added formal dispute settlement with judicial panels that authorize retaliatory sanctions. Norms include reciprocity, nondiscrimination, and tariff binding. Dispute settlement preserves trade commitments by punishing defections.

Module 21 The United States and the Bretton Woods Organizations: What is the IMF? What are its functions, sources of influence, and conditionality? Why does the US dominate it?

The IMF stabilizes exchange rates, provides crisis lending, and acts as lender of last resort. Its influence comes from conditionality: loans are disbursed in stages requiring economic reforms (budget cuts, tariff reductions). US dominance stems from its status as the largest financial contributor, giving it the greatest voting power and influence over loan terms.

Module 22 The Environment and US Foreign Policy: What is the basic scientific claim about climate change, its consequences, and which regions will be most affected?

Climate change is driven by rising CO₂ levels from human activity

CO₂ is a heat-trapping gas, rising from 280 ppm (1800) to over 400 ppm today. Expected consequences include extreme drought or precipitation, lower agricultural productivity, water shortages, wildfires, melting ice sheets, and rising sea levels. Developing regions, coastal communities, and areas dependent on agriculture face the most severe damage.

Module 22 The Environment and US Foreign Policy: What is the tragedy of the commons and why do individuals overuse public goods?

It arises when public resources cannot easily be restricted. Individuals gain privately from using the resource, but costs are diffused across society, so overuse is rational for each actor even though it depletes the resource. Examples: fisheries, grazing lands, shared aquifers, global atmosphere.

Module 22 The Environment and US Foreign Policy: What is an externality?

A cost or benefit from an economic activity that is imposed on others not involved in the transaction. Pollution is the classic example

private and social costs diverge.

Module 22 The Environment and US Foreign Policy: What is the collective action problem and how does it apply to climate change? Solutions?

Since CO₂ mitigation is a public good, each state has an incentive to free ride. This complicates cooperation. Solutions include leadership by large actors, international agreements that punish noncompliance, and creating institutions reducing free-rider incentives.

Module 22 The Environment and US Foreign Policy: What are the three distributional struggles in climate change?

Within countries: coal/oil vs renewable sectors. Between countries: developed vs developing economies. Across generations: current vs future populations.

Module 22 The Environment and US Foreign Policy: What is the Paris Climate Accord? How does it reduce emissions and manage developed–developing tensions?

A 2015 agreement where states submit voluntary emissions targets to keep warming below 2°C. It uses national discretion (“naming and shaming”) and provides a $100B climate finance fund for developing countries to address fairness concerns.

Module 22 The Environment and US Foreign Policy: What are the main components of the Paris Accord?

Voluntary, non-binding Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). A $100B annual climate finance fund. A long-term goal of limiting warming to 1.5–2°C.

Module 22 The Environment and US Foreign Policy: Which countries receive foreign aid under the Paris Accord, why, and how does aid help them?

Developing countries receive climate finance to compensate for historical emissions by developed states. Aid helps them transition to clean energy, invest in resilience, and meet NDC targets.

Module 22 The Environment and US Foreign Policy: What is a Nationally Determined Contribution?

A voluntary national plan outlining how a country will reduce emissions, monitored through transparency and peer pressure rather than legal enforcement.

Module 22 The Environment and US Foreign Policy: What are the pros and cons of the Paris Accord?

Pros: universal participation, realistic voluntary structure, funding for developing states. Cons: current NDCs insufficient for 2°C goal

weak enforcement

many states not meeting targets.

Module 22 The Environment and US Foreign Policy: How did Obama’s executive approach make the US commitment vulnerable, and how did Trump undermine and withdraw?

Obama joined via executive authority, not treaty ratification, making reversal easy. Trump announced withdrawal, ended climate diplomacy, and reversed domestic climate policies.

Module 22 The Environment and US Foreign Policy: How did Biden reverse Trump’s decisions, and why might other states doubt long-term US reliability?

Biden re-entered on Day 1, restored climate diplomacy, and embedded climate in foreign policy. Other countries may fear another administration could exit again, making US commitments unstable.

Module 22 The Environment and US Foreign Policy: What are the economic and national security benefits of US climate leadership, and what are the four pillars of the Baker-Schultz plan?

Benefits: clean tech growth, reduced climate-driven disasters, strengthened geopolitical position, and leadership in the clean-energy world economy. Four pillars: Revenue-neutral, economy-wide carbon fee. Dividend payments to citizens. Replace many regulations with carbon pricing. Carbon border tariff on imports.

Module 23 International Immigration: Differences between voluntary and forced migration?

Voluntary migration is motivated by economic opportunity

forced migration includes refugees and victims of trafficking fleeing war, persecution, or coercion.

Module 23 International Immigration: Global patterns: which countries receive the most migrants and refugees?

Top migrant-receiving countries: US, Germany, Saudi Arabia. Top sending countries: India, Mexico, China. Refugee burden: mostly developing countries, especially Turkey.

Module 23 International Immigration: What are the main types of immigration policy? Merit-based vs family-based?

Policies include skill-based, family-based, refugee/asylum, and undocumented regulation. Merit policies prioritize skills and education

family-based prioritizes reunification regardless of skill level.

Module 23 International Immigration: Why is there a gap between public opinion and immigration policy?

Collective action: firms benefiting from immigration are concentrated and organized

those bearing costs are diffuse and unorganized, so policy reflects interest-group influence rather than broad opinion.

Module 23 International Immigration: How is migration part of globalization, and who wins and loses economically?

Labor movement increases aggregate economic wealth. Winners: high-skill sectors and firms seeking cheaper labor. Losers: low-skill domestic workers facing wage pressure.

Module 23 International Immigration: What are remittances and how do they redistribute wealth?

Remittances are transfers from migrants back home, totaling >$600B annually. They exceed global foreign aid and directly support households, bypass corruption, and provide investment and insurance.

Module 23 International Immigration: How does migration affect demographic composition and generate identity conflict?

It accelerates ethnic and religious diversification, provoking political conflict over language, culture, and national identity (e.g., US English-language debates, European concerns over Muslim immigration).

Module 23 International Immigration: How does migration intersect with national security?

Concerns include terrorist infiltration and border vulnerabilities. Migration also provides security resources: skilled immigrants, military recruits, and stronger demographic bases.

Module 24 Global Poverty and Foreign Aid in US Foreign Policy: How do GDP, GDP per capita, and growth shape perceptions of economic power?

National GDP indicates total economic weight

GDP per capita reflects average prosperity

growth rates show dynamic economic potential. Countries ranked differently depending on the metric.