POLI 283 Midterm Study Notebook Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts, actor types, types of power, individual and state levels of analysis, and concepts related to nations, sovereignty, and statehood from the POLI 283 Midterm Study Notebook.

Intermestic

The intertwining of international and domestic concerns, such as a national election shaped by jobs lost through international economic change.

Globalization

Growing integration across borders in economics, communication, and culture that increases connections among states, people, organizations, and firms.

High-value, low-probability problems

Threats that have a low probability of harming any specific individual but carry very serious consequences if they occur, such as disease outbreaks or nuclear danger.

Sovereignty

The state's authority to govern itself without a legally superior external authority, implying formal legal equality among states.

Anarchy

The absence of an overarching governing authority in the global system.

Intergovernmental organization (IGO)

An organization whose members are states, operating globally or regionally to coordinate agendas, set rules, and facilitate cooperation.

Multinational corporation (MNC)

A private enterprise with production subsidiaries or branches in more than one country.

Nongovernmental organization (NGO)

An organization formed primarily by people rather than states, legally distinct from government, and operating as a nonprofit.

Peace of Westphalia (1648)

The peace agreement ending the Thirty Years War that marks the conventional starting point of the modern sovereign-state system.

Fungibility

The transferability or convertibility of a resource into desired ends; political power is considered less fungible than money.

Hard power

Coercion through military force, credible threats, economic pressure, or sanctions to change an actor's behavior.

Soft power

Influence gained through attraction, persuasion, positive incentives, or an appealing example, operating via culture, political values, and foreign policies.

Compulsory power

A direct mechanism of power in which one actor directly controls or compels another.

Institutional power

Indirect control exercised through institutions and rules that mediate influence over socially distant actors.

Structural power

Power in which social positions and relationships define actors' capacities and possible interactions.

Productive power

The wider production and reproduction of meanings, identities, and social hierarchies through categories and discourses.

Bounded rationality

Herbert Simon's concept that decision-making involves calculation but is limited by time, incomplete information, and cognitive biases.

Cognitive dissonance

Psychological discomfort or conflict experienced when new information contradicts an existing belief or worldview.

Heuristic device

A mental shortcut, such as a stereotype or historical analogy, used to simplify complex decisions.

Cognitive consistency

The practice of maintaining existing beliefs by discounting or ignoring contradictory information.

Optimistic bias

The psychological tendency to overestimate success while underestimating failure or personal vulnerability.

Munich analogy

Using the failed 1938 appeasement of Hitler as a warning that making concessions to dictators will inevitably encourage aggression.

Operational code

Alexander George's framework analyzing a leader's philosophical beliefs about political life and instrumental beliefs about strategy.

Statecraft

The coordinated use and interplay of military, economic, diplomatic, and informational instruments to pursue state objectives.

Salience

The degree to which an issue matters to, attracts attention from, or resonates with the public.

Overstretch

A condition where extensive external commitments consume resources, weaken effective deployment capacity, and generate domestic political or financial strain.

Resource curse theory

An explanatory theory for why abundant natural resources can coexist with poor welfare, weak governance, elite capture, dependence, and conflict.

Disinformation

False or fabricated information deliberately created or spread to mislead or manipulate.

Misinformation

False or inaccurate information shared inadvertently without deceptive intent.

Malinformation

Information based on fact or truth that is used out of context or maliciously to cause harm.

Packet switching

A network technology that divides information into packets for transmission rather than requiring a single dedicated connection.

Flash war

The risk that military automation and compressed decision time accelerate escalation before meaningful human assessment can occur.

Polarity

The number of predominant power centers or poles in an international system at a given time.

Balancing

A realist strategy of building up internal capabilities or forming alliances with others to resist a dominant actor or emerging hegemon.

Bandwagoning

Aligning with a rising or dominant power in order to gain protection or benefits.

Hegemony

A system condition in which a dominant actor possesses major material advantages along with the capability and willingness to set and enforce system rules.

Nonpolarity

Richard Haass's concept of an international system where power is widely dispersed among numerous state and nonstate actors.

Nation

A group of people sharing recognized cultural or historical traits, a sense of community, and a political aspiration to govern their political fate.

Nationalism

An ideology giving primary political loyalty to the nation and supporting its political self-government.

Ethnonationalism

A group's understanding of itself as a distinct political and cultural community seeking authority over its affairs.

Imagined community

Benedict Anderson's term for a nation whose members identify with fellow members despite never meeting most of them personally.

Popular sovereignty

The political principle that ultimate political authority resides in the citizens, to whom the government is accountable.

Diversionary theory of war

The proposition that political leaders may initiate external military conflicts to redirect public attention away from domestic problems.

Xenophobia

Fear or hostility directed toward foreigners or out-groups.

Nativism

A political preference for established inhabitants and resistance to the claims or arrival of immigrants and newcomers.

Parochialism

A narrow concern for one's own group that leads to a reduced sense of responsibility or concern for outsiders.

Exceptionalism

The belief that one's nation is superior or special and exempt from ordinary international constraints.

Fragile state

A state exposed to severe pressures and vulnerabilities that threaten its stable functioning.

Failed state

An existing legally sovereign state that has lost core practical capacities such as maintaining order, governance, public services, and practical independence.