Chapter 14 - International Relations

Economic security

The ability to maintain prosperity in a world of scarcity.

Competing economic blocs

Groups of states in economic competition organized around the economies and currencies of major economic powers.

National Champions

Companies, due to their dominant positions in a particular industry or sector, are seen as serving the strategic or economic interests of their home country

Flexible alliances

Temporary alliances in which states form pacts but shift from one partner to the other depending on the circumstances

Fixed alliances

Alliances in which countries remain allied with the same partners over long periods of time.

Soft balancing

Steps to constrain or hobble a great power that fall well short of the significant mobilization of military power or the formation of security alliances against the power.

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

An agreement among Russia, China, and the central Asian states of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan formed in 2001 to enhance the security of member states against threats of terrorism and ethnic conflict.

End of history

The end of ideological conflict and the victory of liberal values.

Clash of civilizations

The idea that international conflict in the future will be characterized not by interstate conflict but rather by conflict between civilizations, a term that incorporates religious, cultural, ethnic, and, to some extent, linguistic similarity.