IB Global Politics Revision Vocabulary Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards based on the IB Global Politics revision guide covering key terms, concepts, and theoretical frameworks.

Global Politics

The study of how power, authority and decision-making operate across and beyond state borders, involving state and non-state actors at local, national, regional and global levels.

Realism

A theoretical lens in global politics holding that states seek security and power in an anarchic world where no higher authority exists.

Liberalism

A theoretical lens holding that international cooperation is possible through institutions, law, trade, and democracy.

Constructivism

A theoretical lens holding that identities, ideas, and narratives shape global politics.

Power

The ability to affect others so as to obtain the outcomes you want.

Hard Power

Getting outcomes through coercion or payment, such as through military force, sanctions, or conditional aid.

Soft Power

Getting outcomes through attraction and legitimacy, rooted in culture, political values, and legitimate foreign policy.

Smart Power

The effective combination of hard and soft power strategies.

Sharp Power

Authoritarian influence exerted through manipulation, censorship, and disinformation.

Structural Power

The power to shape the rules and structures (finance, security, production, knowledge) within which others operate.

Three-Dimensional Chessboard

Joseph S. Nye Jr.'s model of current global power: military power at the top level, economic power in the middle, and transnational relations at the bottom.

Power Diffusion

The transition of power not only between states, but also from states toward non-state actors such as corporations, networks, and individuals.

Sources of Power

The resources a state or actor can use to influence others, including military, economic, technological, and natural resources.

Actor

An entity that can act and influence events in global politics.

Stakeholder

Any person or group with an interest in, or affected by, an issue or decision.

State Actors

Governments and their institutions acting on behalf of a sovereign state.

Non-State Actors

Actors that influence global politics without being a state, including IGOs, NGOs, corporations, and armed groups.

Country

An informal word for a territory and its people, primarily used geographically without a legal definition.

State

A legal-political entity with a permanent population, defined territory, a government, and the capacity to enter relations with other states.

Nation

A community of people sharing identity, history, language, culture, and a sense of belonging.

Nation-State

A state whose population largely sees itself as belonging to one nation.

Sovereignty

The supreme authority of a state to govern itself within its territory, without external interference, and to be recognised as independent by others.

Westphalian System

The model of international order based on sovereign, territorial states that are legally equal and do not interfere in each other's internal affairs.

Intergovernmental Organization (IGO)

An organization created by states through a treaty, such as the UN, EU, NATO, or IMF.

Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)

A private, non-profit organization independent of government, such as Amnesty International or Médecins Sans Frontières.

Negative Peace

The absence of direct violence, marked by a ceasefire, demobilisation, or the stopping of physical fighting.

Positive Peace

The absence of structural violence, supported by justice, equality, and institutions that prevent violence from returning.

Direct Violence

Physical and visible violence with an identifiable perpetrator, such as bombings or massacres.

Structural Violence

Violence embedded within institutions and economic systems without a direct perpetrator, such as poverty or denied access to healthcare.

Cultural Violence

Ideas, religion, language, or media representations that legitimize direct and structural violence.

Greed vs Grievance

A debate on civil war motives: greed posits warfare is driven by resource appropriation and patronage networks, whereas grievance attributes it to injustice and ethnic or political exclusion.

Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR)

The process of disarming combatants, disbanding armed units, and reintegrating individuals into civilian life.

Retributive Justice

A judicial approach focused on punishing offenders through conventional legal penalties and imprisonment.

Restorative Justice

A judicial approach focused on repairing harm through truth-telling, confessions, victim reparations, and reconciliation.

Responsibility to Protect (R2P)

An international norm adopted at the 2005 UN World Summit establishing that a state must protect its population from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.

Weaponized Interdependence

The strategic exploitation of global networks (finance, energy, data) where states controlling key central nodes use them as leverage against others.

Relational Power

The ability of actor A to get actor B to do something B would not otherwise have done.