POLSCI 4QQ3 midterm

hard balancing (cox and stokes reading)

building economic and political strength to influence others; countries respond by building and increasing military capabilities

soft balancing (cox and stokes reading)

the ability to persuade others and gain their support, typically using their good reputation; non-military methods to power such as diplomatic cooperation, use of international institutions

liberalism (cox and stokes reading)

domestic/internal theory that promotes democracy, liberty, free trade, international institutions, international cooperation

wilsonianism

US President Woodrow Wilson rejected realism and promoted democracy, free trade, collective security, self-determination, international institutions

civilizational wilsonianism (Gawthorpe reading)

both Woodrow Wilson and Donald Trump believed the US had a special role in protecting Western civilization both at home and abroad

• Wilson: condemned “Reconstruction”, partake in IOs to preserve civilization (excluding “uncivilized” countries from League Of Nations), believed European immigrants could be re-educated into Americanness due to their whiteness and subjected Black and Asian immigrants to additional literacy tests, hated immigrants w/strong ties to their home state (hatred of hyphenated identities)

• Trump: believer of Great Replacement - concern that increased immigration weakened US industries and workers where the workers are typically white, using racial tropes to refer to Muslim and Hispanic immigrants

liberal internationalism (cox and stokes reading)

domestic/internal theory that encourages the construction of a peaceful international order that consists of multilateral cooperation, international orgs, and open markets

marxism (cox and stokes reading)

domestic/internal theory that provides an inside out explanation focused on the capitalist economy; foreign policy is influenced by capitalism, corporations, economic interests, search for markets, access to raw materials

neo classism realism (cox and stokes reading)

domestic/internal theory that combines systemic and domestic explanations; emphasizes leader’s perceptions, domestic state structures (ie. how political institutions outside the country affect international pressures)

foreign policy analysis/FPA (hudson and day reading) + benefits to IR

subfield of IR that looks at human beings that make the decisions for a country, humans not states act, choose not to act, and/or make a constellation of decisions over time (process)

• helps integrate theories from diff levels (domestic and int politics affect leader decisions)

• gives IR the concept of human agency, explains change, creativity and accountability

• moves beyond describing states to explaining the “why” behind it

• naturally connects IR to other fields like comparative politics, through examining domestic politics and policy

danger (campbell reading) + case

US constructs its national identity thru the identification of external factors, suggesting that defining who or what threatens the nation also helps establish who the nation understands itself to be; the condition of possibility for the state, since the state cannot guarantee achieving full security, it chooses to perceive which of the many risks in the world are worth identifying as such (leaders respond to what speaks to their interests)

• ie. Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait was considered dangerous to US, but decade earlier Iraq invaded Iran and the US did not react w/alarm

discourse (doty reading) + case

constructs subjects and positions them

• ie. case of the Philippines: dichotomy btwn 2 identities made intervention possible

  • US: moral, rational, efficient, honest, world citizen

  • Philippines: emotional, passionate, childlike, inept, needs guidance

identity (campbell reading) + weldes case

performed thru repeated acts, is established in relation to difference (transformed into otherness), shapes what counts as danger

• ie. Cuban Missile Crisis: JFK speech positioned America as patient, w/restraint, and powerful and framed USSR as dangerous (othering) and Cuba as victims and dependent (othering)

norm against noticing (vitalis reading, freeman, kim and lake reading) + case

scholars overlook racism in IR (ie. rarely publish work on race, dominated space of white male scholars, theories like realism see race as domestic, focus on anarchy and sovereignty hides racial hierarchy)

• ie. Roosevelt and the Panama Canal: canal strengthened American trade, military power, and global influence BUT progress for whom bc it restricted Panama’s sovereignty and racialized labour practices

implicit racial bias (carson, min, van nuys reading)

harder to detect and easily embedded, 4 diff types used in a range of state behavior (territorial expansion, empire building, alliances, threat perceptions)

4 implicit racial tropes (carson, min, van nuys reading)

infantilization (“tantrums”, “babysitting”), animal analogies (“rabid Arab”, viet officials “growl”), belligerence (“hostile”, implies actors are naturally prone to conflict), irrationality (surprise when non-white actors act rational, reinforcing that actor cannot think logically)

freeman’s 2 faces of realism

deficiency, threat

deficiency (freeman)

non-white countries seen as less capable, less civilized, less competent [ie. failure to cultivate land (Indigenous ppl), justifies European expansion]

threat (freeman) + examples

non-white countries seen as dangerous to world order (aggressive, irrational)

• ie. Phillipines - irrational, child-like

• ie. US-Mexico war - (US did not want to take over all of Mexico bc they are “inferior)

gender as a pre-emptive deterrent (bayard de volo)

against decisions and actors associated w/femininity, discouraging signs of weakness and cowardice as well as diplomacy and cooperation

clean bombs (cohn reading)

example of technostrategic language; implies radiation is the only dirty part abt killing ppl bc this thing involves less radiation

technostrategic language (cohn reading) + 3 types of imagery

abstract big pic language used by defense intellectuals to communicate nuclear strategy

• phallic/sexual, virginity, domestic

institutional contestation (heinkelmann-wild reading)

when a state publicly criticizes an international institution and challenges its authority by demanding changes to how it works

three modes of contestation (heinkelmann-wild reading)

voice, subversion, exit

voice (heinkelmann-wild reading)

public criticism ie. reform demands, threats that undermine/exit

subversion (heinkelmann-wild reading)

withholding commitment to int institution ie. open non-compliance, withholding resources, obstruction of decision making, blocking decision-making processes, violating int rules and norms and/or cutting back on key contributions to int institutions

exit (heinkelmann-wild reading)

withdrawing membership ie. terminating participation, unsigning treaties, withdrawing to avoid future policies and outcomes

institutional control (heinkelmann-wild reading)

formal and informal mechanisms for state to do this, done to assert and maintain power in IO

• formal: VETO powers, weighted voting

• informal: financial contributions

informal influence (heinkelmann-wild reading)

using political and economic power to influence (ie. financial contributions), more prominent role in discussions, staff relationships, ability to ignore IO rules

degeneracy (gawthorpe)

a concern that both Wilson and Trump have; the US straying away from the traditional values of its perceived civilization and the need to make America great again (Trump rhetoric)

institutional resilience (heinkelmann-wild reading)

using accomodation or defense mechanisms to to survive during US withdrawal

• accommodation: adjusting to demands or making compromises to keep US engaged

• defense: protecting the IO’s rules, authority, and independence against US using soft and hard power

contrapuntal reading (benabdallah reading)

examining dominant and marginalized experiences together and how power connects them ie. vaccine distribution (ie. unequal access to vaccines)

defensive realism (cox and stokes reading)

states are security maximizers, avoid unnecessary expansion bc of balance of power (excessive expansion makes state less secure bc you seek min amt of power to attain + maintain security)

offensive realism (cox and stokes reading)

states cont’d to look for opportunities to increase their power relative to other states, the goal is to be as powerful as possible

domestic/internal theories (cox and stokes reading)

domestic politics/economy (political institutions and values) and public opinion shape foreign policy

• ie. liberalism, wilsonianism, liberal internationalism, marxism, neoclassicism realism, constructivism

systemic theories (cox and stokes reading)

international forces shape foreign policy (ie. defensive and offensive realism)