international relations: unit 1

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms from the lecture notes on causation & power, nonstate actors, globalization, and international law.

Resource power

A quantifiable set of assets a state can possess and expend (military, economic, cultural, etc.) to influence outcomes.

Relational view of power

Power that stems from relations among actors and depends on context.

Cultural and subjective ties

Identities, ideologies, and norms that connect actors and shape relationships (postively)

Corporate actors

• Collective actions

• Formal organizations (bureaucracies)

• Solve the collective action problem, gives strength in numbers

• Types of corporate actors:

  • States

  • International organizations

  • International businesses

  • Nongovernmental organizations

Sovereignty

• Authority of a state to govern itself or another state

• Government rules over society

Domestic sovereignty

where a government exercises a monopoly on jurisdiction and authority over a fixed population within set territorial boundaries 

International sovereignty

• independence of states from one another and recognition of each other as equals entitled to exercise domestic sovereignty without external meddling

  • Ex. I recognize you if you recognize me

  • Legal equality, states recognize each other’s sovereign rights

  • Equality, thus anarchy

Quasi-states

States with international recognition but limited domestic sovereignty. ex. South Sudan

The State

A sovereign corporate actor with government, a fixed territory, a population, and domestic and international sovereignty.

Autocracy

A decision-making model where power is concentrated in a single person. Absolute power. strong state, weak society, the state makes decision

Democracy

Governance through groups representing the people; authority deriving from the people. weak state, strong society, people hold the power.

Unitary

Decision-making is centralized in a single actor aiming to maximize national interest. Autocracy

Pluralist

No single decision maker; multiple actors influence policy through cooperation and conflict. State is arena within which interest struggle. Democracy.

significance of state in issue areas

• Basic human needs

• Politics help fulfill needs

Issue Area: Security (physical needs)

Protection from threats; maintenance of order and defense.

Issue area: Economic needs (physical needs)

Provision of resources, production, exchange of goods, services, and money.

Issue area: Well-being (physical needs)

Health, dignity, and the ability to pursue aspirations; protection of rights.

Issue Areas: Ideology (Psychology / Emotional needs)

A coherent set of principles guiding political conduct.

Issue Areas: Norms (Psychology / Emotional needs)

Social expectations of proper conduct; can be formal laws or unwritten rules.

Issue Areas: Identity (Psychology / Emotional needs)

View of the self in relation to others; sense of belonging to a group.

• Can bring people together, but also put people apart

• Us vs. them mentality 

Theories

Efforts to explain significant political behavior by identifying independent and dependent variables, scientific.

Typologies

Systematic groupings of related phenomena based on shared traits.

Power: To be

Power to establish or maintain a political order and status.

Power: To do

Power to reward/punish, persuade, or threaten.

Power: Not to do

Power to dissuade, obstruct, or deter.

Observation (Monitoring)

Supervision, surveillance, and inspection to gather information.

Revelation (Monitoring)

Disclosure through confession, accusation, or informing.

Transparency (Monitoring)

Public disclosure and access to information.

Modernization

Applying scientific knowledge to various aspects of life and institutions.

Globalization

Process of increasing social interconnectedness across state borders.

International Organizations (IOs)

Formal organizations created by states to foster cooperation and manage collective action.

General Assembly (UN)

UN body with equal seats that debates and makes non-binding resolutions and budget decisions.

• equal seats, equal votes. Makes 2 types of decisions - resolutions expressing community of states and binding administrative decisions

  • Membership, budget, peace/security require ⅔ votes to pass

  • Resolutions need majority to pass 

  • Committees

    • 1. Disarmament and international security

    • 2. Economics and finance

    • 3. Social humanitarian and cultural

    • 4. Special political and decolonization

    • 5. Administration and budget

    • 6. Legal 

  • Programs

    • UN Human rights council

    • UN Environmental Program

    • UNICEF

    • UN High Commissioner for Refugees

    • UN Conference on Trade and Development

    • UNRWA

Security Council (UN)

Executive body maintaining international peace and security; includes P5 with veto power.

ECOSOC (UN)

UN body dealing with social, economic, and related development issues.

International Court of Justice (UN)

Judicial organ of the UN resolving disputes under international law; jurisdiction by consent.

Trustee Council (UN)

UN body historically supervising decolonization and independence; no longer meets.

UN principles

Foundational goals: peace, human rights, self-determination, international law, and state sovereignty.

P5 (Permanent Five)

United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China; each has veto power in the Security Council.

Double majority system (EU)

EU voting rule requiring 55% of member states representing at least 65% of the population.

European Commission (EU)

EU body that initiates proposals, budgets, and trade negotiations; has a monopoly on negotiating power.

Council of Ministers (EU)

EU body of state representatives that debates, amends, or returns proposals from the Commission.

European Parliament (EU)

EU legislative body with 705 members; 5-year terms; seats allocated by degressive proportionality; must approve Commission proposals.

European Court of Justice (EU)

EU court that interprets and enforces EU law; its rulings have direct effect in member states.

Soft power

Non-coercive influence: culture, norms, diplomacy; includes naming and shaming and boycotts.

Three Dimensions of Power

• resource

• relational view

• cultural and subjective ties

decision-making models

• autocracy

• democracy

• unitary

• pluralist

monitoring tactics

• observation

• revelation

• transparency

Five Bodies of UN

1. General Assembly

2. Security Council

3. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

4. International Court of Justice

5. Trustee Council

International Business

For-profit organization operating across international borders involved in production and exchange of goods and services 

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

a business incorporated in one state will own outright or in part business assets (factories, showrooms, service centers, etc.) in at least one other state

Multinational Corporations (MNCs)

national businesses that operate subsidiaries outside of the home country

examples of international business

• Primary Products: Aloca

• Industrial goods: Ford

• Services: McDonalds, Walmart, HSBC

Regulatory Dilemma

state seeks to maximize benefits and minimize harm without harming product

Nongovernmental Organizations (NGO)

• Non-profit, formal organization that is autonomous from government and is motivated to act across state borders by members’ shared ideals

• Basically interest groups gone international

• Proforms legitimate services and provide aid internationally

Nongovernmental Organizations (NGO) Examples

• Doctors without Borders: provides medical humanitarian assistance to people who need it the most

• Amnesty International: campaigns to end abuses of human rights

• Greenpeace: environmental justice

Homogenized

To blend (diverse elements) into a mixture that is the same throughout

globalization impact on issue areas

• Security 

  • Keeps us in Cold War (can send nukes in 25 mins)

  • Spread of weapons is dangerous for civilians

• Economy 

  • Fosters economic growth

  • Increased competition 

  • But benefits are vulnerable due to sanctions, pandemics, and panic

• Well-being

  • Disease can be spread quicker

• Spread of ideas are quicker

Customary International Law

• Made up of traditional practices that accrued over time expectations that all would follow them

• Consent to laws is implicit

• Ex. tradition that states would claim complete sovereignty over seas within two miles of their shores

Conventional International Law

• Treaties signed and ratified by sovereign states 

• Consent explicit

• Ex. Law of Seas treaty that governs claims states can make and cannot make on such bodies of water

International Law: Customs and Conventions

• customary

• conventional

used to resolve conflicts by resorting to international law

General Principles

• Concept of general principles asserts that there are some principles of law, regardless of whether it is in the domestic or international realms

• Use domestic level of law and apply them at international level

• Ex. Australian mining case

  • Used laws from US, Japan, and other systems to prove that it was a general principle

Enforcement of International Law

Not exactly enforced, but looked down upon if violated

power of distributions

• unipolar

• bipolar

• multipolar

• undifferentiated

Unipolar

one dominant international actor or “hegemon”

• To be hegemon, actor’s power must be greater than the sum of the second and third place actors in system

• Imposes peace, those who step out of line can be punished

• Rare 

• If they happen, provide limited freedom for lesser international actors

Bipolar

 two equal actors have so much power that they tower above the others in the system

• Become rivals, see who will gain most power

• Competition cause them to collapse in wars

• A little more freedom if you are a lesser power, choose which side to ally with

Multipolar

has more than two “Great Power”

• Rivalries, can make deals to maintain or increase one’s power

• Does not provide peace or wars

  • Minor wars may be fought

• Lesser powers freer to fight

• Live in this system today

Undifferentiated

all actors are relatively equal in power

• No natural leader to look to for taking initiative

• Relative equality would effectively deter aggressors, bring pease

• No economic cooperation