POLS 204 Exam 2 Study Guide Flashcards

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from the POLS 330 Exam 2 study guide, focusing on conflict, defense strategy, ethics, international law, and global institutions.

Failed and failing states

States characterized by a central government that has lost effective authority, control over its territory, and the ability to provide basic public services, law and order, and security to its population.

Ethnopolitical conflict

Conflict arising between distinct ethnic groups competing for political power, self-determination, autonomy, or resources within or across state boundaries.

Relative deprivation (J-curve)

A psychological theory of revolt positing that conflict occurs when a sudden downturn creates an intolerable gap between an individual's or group's expected needs satisfaction and actual actual satisfaction.

Lenin and Hobson on sources of conflict

The theoretical perspective that capitalist states are driven into imperialist expansion and military conflict in search of new markets, raw materials, and profitable investment outlets for surplus capital.

Power transition theory

A theory suggesting that major interstate wars are most likely when a dissatisfied, rising challenger power approaches parity in power with the dominant status-quo hegemon.

Long cycle theory

A macro-historical theory of world politics proposing that global wars recur in roughly 50 to 100-year cycles, marking the rise and fall of world powers and system-wide leadership.

Guerilla (unconventional) warfare

Asymmetric warfare conducted by small, highly mobile, irregular combatants using ambushes, sabotage, and hit-and-run tactics against a larger, traditional military force.

Terrorism

The unlawful or premeditated use of violence and intimidation against civilians or non-combatants to generate fear in pursuit of political, ideological, or religious objectives.

State terror (democide)

The systematic killing or terrorization of a state's own civilian population by its government authorities or security apparatus.

State-sponsored terrorism

The provision of financial, military, logistical, or political support by a sovereign government to non-state terrorist organizations.

Information warfare

The strategic manipulation, disruption, or destruction of an adversary's communication, information systems, and public perception while defending one's own.

Arms race

A competitive and reciprocal buildup of military capability and weapon stockpiles between two or more rival states seeking security or supremacy.

Guns vs. butter

An economic model highlighting the fundamental trade-off a government faces between spending on military defense (guns) and domestic social/civilian welfare (butter).

Opportunity costs

The value of the next best alternative foregone when resources are committed to a specific choice, such as the civilian investments lost due to high military expenditure.

Imperial overstretch

The condition where a great power expands its military commitments beyond its domestic economic and material capacity to sustain them, leading to its eventual decline.

Fission and fusion nuclear weapons

Fission weapons release energy by splitting heavy atomic nuclei (such as uranium or plutonium), whereas fusion weapons (thermonuclear or hydrogen bombs) release significantly greater energy by combining light atomic nuclei at high temperatures.

ICBMs

Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles; land-based, rocket-powered ballistic missiles with an intercontinental range designed to deliver one or more nuclear warheads.

MIRV

Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicles; a ballistic missile payload carrying multiple nuclear warheads, each capable of striking a distinct, separate target.

First and second-strike capabilities

A first-strike capability is the ability to launch a surprise preemptive attack to destroy an adversary's nuclear arsenal; a second-strike capability is the ability to absorb a full-scale first strike and still deliver an intolerable, retaliatory nuclear blow.

National missile defense (NMD)

A military system designed to detect, track, intercept, and destroy incoming ballistic missiles before they reach national territory.

MAD

Mutually Assured Destruction; a strategic doctrine predicated on both sides possessing an invulnerable second-strike capability, ensuring total destruction for both if either initiates nuclear war.

Nuclear triad

The tripartite military nuclear structure composed of land-launched intercontinental missiles (ICBMs), strategic nuclear bombers, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).

Strategic nuclear weapons

Large-yield nuclear weapons designed to target an enemy's homeland, infrastructure, cities, or strategic military installations across long distances.

Tactical nuclear weapons

Lower-yield, short-range nuclear weapons intended for direct battlefield use against military forces and tactical targets.

Minimum deterrence

A nuclear defense strategy in which a state maintains only the smallest number of nuclear weapons necessary to deter an adversary from an initial attack by guaranteeing unacceptable retaliatory damage.

Weapons of mass destruction (WMDs)

A class of armaments capable of causing widespread, indiscriminate destruction, including nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

Biological weapons

Weapons that utilize toxic biological agents, such as bacteria, viruses, or fungi, intended to kill, sicken, or incapacitate humans, animals, or crops.

Chemical weapons

Toxic chemical substances deployed in munitions to inflict death, incapacitation, or permanent harm on people through their physiological effects.

Security dilemma

A structural paradox in which actions taken by a state to heighten its own security (such as increasing military power) inevitably cause other states to feel insecure, inducing them to arm in response.

Prisoner’s dilemma

A fundamental game theory scenario illustrating why two rational actors might choose to defect rather than cooperate, even when mutual cooperation yields a superior collective outcome.

Tit for tat strategy

A game-theoretic strategy in repeated interactions where an actor starts by cooperating and then simply replicates the opponent's previous move in each successive round.

Brinkmanship

The foreign policy practice of pushing a dangerous crisis to the verge of catastrophic conflict to force an adversary to back down and make concessions.

The game of chicken

A strategic model where two opposing actors head toward a catastrophic collision; the player who swerves first loses face, but if neither swerves, mutual destruction ensues.

Arms control

Mutual agreements between states to regulate, limit, monitor, or test specific types or quantities of weapons without necessarily eliminating them.

Disarmament

The reduction, withdrawal, or complete abolishment of specific armaments or military stockpiles by a state.

Consequentialism

An ethical framework evaluating the moral rightness or wrongness of an action strictly on the basis of its results or outcomes.

Pacifism

The moral belief and principled commitment that all war, violence, and militarism are unjustified and should be settled entirely through peaceful means.

Jus ad bellum

The set of criteria that establishes the moral and legal conditions under which a state may legitimately resort to war.

Jus in bello

The body of international rules and ethical principles governing moral conduct during the execution of armed conflict.

Reprisals

Otherwise illegal acts of force undertaken in response to a prior unlawful act by an adversary, carried out to compel the lawbreaker to cease their unlawful behavior.

Preemptive use of force

The first use of military force against an adversary in anticipation of an immediate, clear, and imminent armed attack.

Double effect

A moral doctrine in just war theory permitting military action that unintentionally causes civilian harm, provided the intended goal is legitimate, civilian casualties are not the means to an end, and the damage is proportional.

Natural law

The philosophy that certain universal moral principles and rights are inherent to human nature and reason, existing independently of enacted human legislation.

Legal positivism

The perspective that international law consists solely of explicit, written, and agreed-upon rules and treaties codified by sovereign states, rather than abstract moral principles.

Customary law

International law derived from the consistent and general practice of states followed out of a sense of legal obligation (opinio juris).

International Court of Justice

The principal judicial organ of the United Nations, responsible for settling legal disputes between states and providing advisory opinions on legal questions submitted by authorized UN organs.

Negative human rights

Civil and political liberties that require external actors, particularly governments, to refrain from interfering with individual freedoms (such as freedom from torture or arbitrary detention).

Positive human rights

Economic, social, and cultural entitlements that oblige the state to take affirmative action and provide resources (such as healthcare, education, and adequate food).

Humanitarian interventions

The threat or use of cross-border military force by a state or coalition to prevent or halt widespread, grave human rights violations within another sovereign state.

Universal jurisdiction

A legal principle permitting domestic courts of any state to prosecute individuals accused of heinous international crimes (such as genocide or war crimes), regardless of where the crime occurred or the nationality of the parties.

Sovereign immunity

The international legal doctrine holding that a sovereign state and its officials are immune from prosecution or civil litigation in the domestic courts of another state without consent.

International institutions (regime)

Explicit sets of implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures around which state actors' expectations converge in a given area of international relations.

World federalism

A concept of international organization advocating for the unification of sovereign nation-states under a centralized global government equipped with binding legal and policing powers.

Functionalism

A theory of international integration asserting that technical, transnational cooperation in non-political, practical sectors creates spillover that gradually fosters broader political cohesion.

Security community

A transnational group of states whose relations have become integrated to the point where war among them is considered completely unthinkable and disputes are resolved exclusively through peaceful methods.

Collective (public) goods

Goods that are characterized by non-excludability (individuals cannot be barred from consuming them) and jointness of supply or non-rivalry (one person's consumption does not reduce availability for others).

Free-rider dilemma

A market or collective action failure where actors consume benefits from a shared public good without contributing their fair share toward its creation or upkeep.

League of Nations

The first worldwide intergovernmental organization, established in 1919 after World War I under the Treaty of Versailles to promote international cooperation and achieve peace and collective security.

Permanent members of the UN Security Council

The five sovereign states (United States, Russia, China, France, and the United Kingdom) that hold permanent seats and individual veto power over substantive Security Council resolutions.

General Assembly of the UN

The primary deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the United Nations, in which all 193 member states have equal voting power under a one-state, one-vote formula.

Collective security

A system of regional or global security in which all participating states agree that an aggressive attack on any one member constitutes an attack on all, requiring a joint response.

Peacekeeping

The deployment of neutral military and civilian personnel by an international body to monitor and sustain a negotiated ceasefire with the consent of the conflicting parties.

Peacebuilding

Long-term socio-economic, institutional, and political measures implemented in post-conflict zones to address structural root causes of violence and prevent relapse into war.

Responsibility to protect

A global political commitment endorsed by UN member states stating that sovereign states have an obligation to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, and that the international community must intervene if a state fails to do so.

International Criminal Court

A permanent international tribunal located in The Hague established to investigate and prosecute individual perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.

Seville Statement of Violence

Wars do not arise from an inherent aggressive tendency in humans, but instead arises from cultural and societal issues.

Sources of Internal Conflict

A “bad neighborhood” of nearby states, political instability, new regime, low economic development, lootable resources, and rough terrain.

What can make internal conflicts extend over a longer period of time?

The presence of lootable economic resources and foreign support for guerillas.

What can defense spending be classified as?

It can be a market failure because the government is funding a public good.

How do Radicals view military spending?

They believe that military spending is used to stimulate the economy and prevent a collapse of the capitalist system, as late capitalism is theorized to have an under-consumption problem.

Defense Dominant

If the technology of the international system is firepower intensive.

Offense Dominant

If the technology of the international system favors mobility

Differentiation

If you can differentiate between the purpose of arms, this would enable a state to determine whether arms being acquired by another state pose a threat. If weapons can be differentiated, then less arms may have to be acquired in order to ensure security.

How do geopolitics and security dilemmas interact?

The geopolitical features can also help to mitigate the severity of the security dilemma, such as mountains and bodies of water.

Iterated Play

Continued interactions building confidence in the prisoner’s dilemma.

Who helped develop the idea of the just war theory?

Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Hugo Grotius.

Legitimate Authority

Wars should be declared by states and not non-state actors.

Declared Publicly

Following jus ad bellum, wars should be declared publicly to prevent private wars and vigilante actions.

Discrimination

Non-combatants should not be deliberately attacked. In other words, civilians are supposed to be given immunity from attack.

How should POWs be treated per jus in bello?

After soldiers surrender, they are also considered non-combatants who cannot harm the opposing state (POWs are given immunity from attack).

Proportionality

When undertaking a war, the benefits of the conflict should outweigh the costs.

Treaty

A formal agreement signed by states that specifies their rights and obligations in some area of international interaction.

Charter

A treaty that creates an international institution. Once the requisite number of states have ratified a charter, it goes into effect.

Hague Conventions

Clarified the rules of warfare.

Geneva Conventions

POWs and treatment of civilians.

How are IGOs and NGOs involved with human rights?

Human rights have become the basis for intrusions on state sovereignty by NGOs and IGOs when violations of human rights became severe. Dissemination of information regarding such violations is one of the ways that NGOs and IGOs influence international relations.

Transnational Community

A transnational community can be built over time as interactions facilitate attention/awareness of people in other states and cultivate a sense of mutual interests. This would be similar to the creation of communities at the domestic level.