International Relations: Conflict, War, Institutions, and International Law

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards defining key International Relations concepts, forms of warfare, international institutions, treaties, and legal doctrines based on the lecture notes.

Conflict

A disagreement or struggle between two or more actors over competing interests, values, resources, territory, or power; a difference in preferred outcomes in a bargaining situation that does not necessarily involve violence.

Leverage

The ability of an actor to influence another actor's decisions or behavior by controlling something the other actor wants or needs; using power capabilities to reach a more favorable agreement.

Defense Spending

The financial resources a government allocates toward its military, including personnel, weapons, technology, training, and operations, reflecting its security priorities and economic capacity.

Guns-versus-Butter Debate

The domestic economic trade-off a government faces between allocating resources to military spending versus domestic social spending.

Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA)

The belief that information technology, communications, new doctrines, and organizational changes fundamentally alter how wars are fought, emphasizing a smaller, leaner, technologically superior military.

Cyberwarfare

The use of digital capabilities to disrupt, damage, manipulate, or infiltrate another state's computer systems, networks, and digital infrastructure without physical military invasion.

Attribution Problem

The conceptual and technical challenge in cyberwarfare of conclusively identifying who is responsible for launching a digital attack.

Drones

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operated remotely or autonomously, used for surveillance, intelligence gathering, reconnaissance, and targeted military strikes.

Civil-Military Relations

The relationship between civilian political leaders and military institutions, concerning who makes military decisions, how forces are governed, and civilian accountability.

Coup d'état

A sudden seizure of domestic political power and governmental authority by military forces.

War

Organized, sustained armed violence between political communities, usually involving states or organized non-state groups, occurring across borders (interstate) or within borders (intrastate).

Carl von Clausewitz's Definition of War

The philosophical view of war as diplomacy or politics carried out by other means, serving as a rational policy instrument composed of primordial violence, hatred, chance, and probability.

John Keegan's Definition of War

The theoretical view that war is sui generis (of its own kind) and represents the bankruptcy of policy, driven primarily by culture, social rituals, norms, and tribalism.

Selecting on the Dependent Variable

A methodological research flaw where analysts study only cases where war occurred rather than examining cases where war was avoided, skewing causal conclusions.

Territorial Conflicts

Disputes between political actors over control, ownership, or administration of a geographic area, which serves as the physical basis for sovereignty.

Irredentism

A political movement or policy in which a state seeks to reclaim or annex territory it considers rightfully belonging to it due to historical, ethnic, or national ties.

Border / Land Disputes

Disagreements between states over the demarcation, recognition, or sovereign control of international boundaries, islands, maritime zones, or strategic geographic features.

Secessionism

The movement or effort by a distinct region or ethnic group within an existing sovereign state to break away and establish an independent state.

Economic Conflicts

Disputes between states over economic interests, trade policies, financial influence, access to markets, or resources, carried out using tariffs, sanctions, or embargoes.

Economic Interdependence

A condition in which states rely mutually on one another for goods, services, resources, investments, and markets, creating shared economic interests and mutual vulnerabilities.

Material Conflicts

Conflicts driven primarily by competition over tangible, physical resources or assets, such as oil, minerals, water, land, and wealth.

Identity-Based Conflicts

Conflicts driven by competition over or perceived threats to ethnic, religious, cultural, national, or ideological identities rather than purely tangible resources.

Nationalism

A political ideology emphasizing devotion and loyalty to a nation, asserting that a group sharing a common national identity is entitled to sovereign political self-determination.

Syrian Civil War

A complex intrastate conflict beginning in 2011 following protests against Bashar al-Assad, evolving into an internationalized proxy conflict involving external powers and insurgent groups.

Civil War Lessons

Key empirical findings about intrastate conflict, including that post-colonial weak states are frequent victims, civil wars routinely spill across borders, and external intervention is standard.

Greed vs. Grievance

Two prominent models explaining civil wars: one arguing groups fight over economic resources and plunder (greed), and the other arguing groups fight due to discrimination, political exclusion, and inequality (grievance).

Ancient Hatreds

The argument that ethnic or sectarian violence is an inevitable result of longstanding, inherited historical enmities, often criticized for overlooking elite manipulation and institutional breakdown.

Terrorism

The use or threat of politically motivated violence, typically by non-state actors against civilians, designed to spread fear and coerce governments or societies.

Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs)

A classification of advanced weaponry capable of producing massive, indiscriminate casualties and widespread physical destruction, traditionally comprising nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

A strategic condition in which opposing nuclear-armed powers possess sufficient second-strike capability to completely annihilate each other, deterring full-scale nuclear attacks.

Vertical Proliferation

The expansion, qualitative advancement, and modernization of the nuclear weapons capabilities and arsenals within an existing nuclear-armed state.

Horizontal Proliferation

The spread of nuclear weapons and weapons capabilities to additional states that did not previously possess them.

Counterproliferation Strategies

The spectrum of diplomatic, legal, economic, intelligence, and military policies aimed at preventing, limiting, or neutralizing the spread and threat of weapons of mass destruction.

International Institutions

Sets of rules, norms, decision-making procedures, and organizational frameworks that structure interactions, reduce uncertainty, and foster cooperation among international actors.

Enlargement

The process by which an international institution or political union expands by admitting new sovereign member states.

Disintegration

The structural weakening, collapse, or political dissolution of an international organization, union, or multinational federation.

Compliance

The degree to which sovereign states abide by the legal rules, treaties, and institutional obligations they have formally committed to in an anarchic system.

United Nations (UN)

A global international organization founded in 1945 to maintain international peace and security, cultivate friendly interstate relations, protect human rights, and promote international cooperation.

General Assembly (UN)

The main deliberative body of the UN consisting of all member states, operating on the principle of sovereign equality where each state has a single vote.

UN Secretary-General

The chief administrative officer of the United Nations, directing the Secretariat and exercising diplomatic mediation and crisis notification powers under the UN Charter.

UN Security Council

The 15-member UN body charged with maintaining international peace and security, featuring five permanent members with veto power and ten rotating non-permanent members.

UN Peacekeeping

The deployment of international military, police, and civilian personnel to assist war-torn countries, traditionally guided by the principles of consent, impartiality, and non-use of force except in self-defense.

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

A collective defense alliance formed in 1949 whose core mutual assistance commitment, Article 5, stipulates that an armed attack against one member is an attack against all.

European Union (EU)

A supranational and intergovernmental political and economic union of European countries established formally by the 1993 Maastricht Treaty, evolving from post-WWII integration.

Council of Ministers

An EU decision-making body composed of government ministers from each member state, organized by policy area, representing national governmental interests.

European Council

An EU institution composed of heads of state or government, its President, and the Commission President, which determines the overarching political direction and priorities of the EU without passing ordinary legislation.

European Parliament

The directly elected supranational legislative body of the European Union, representing EU citizens and sharing budgetary and legislative authority with the Council.

European Commission

The supranational executive body of the European Union, responsible for proposing legislation, implementing common policies, and serving as the 'guardian of the treaties.'

European Court of Justice (ECJ)

The supreme judicial organ of the EU, responsible for interpreting EU law to ensure consistent application, upholding principles such as direct effect and legal supremacy.

European Central Bank (ECB)

The supranational monetary institution created in 1998 to manage the single European currency (the euro) and control monetary policy to ensure price stability.

International Law

A formal body of rules, treaties, customary practices, and general principles that govern the relations, obligations, and conduct of sovereign states and international actors.

Diplomatic Immunity

A principle of international law, formalized in the 1961 Vienna Convention, exempting diplomatic envoys from host-state jurisdiction, arrest, and prosecution to ensure open diplomatic channels.

Just War Doctrine

A moral and legal framework governing armed conflict, divided into jus ad bellum (the justice of resorting to war) and jus in bello (moral conduct and proportionality during warfare).

International Court of Justice (ICJ)

The principal judicial organ of the UN (World Court) established in 1945 to settle legal disputes submitted exclusively by sovereign states and issue advisory legal opinions.

International Humanitarian Law (IHL)

A specialized branch of international law (also known as the law of armed conflict) that regulates conduct during warfare, seeking to shield non-combatants and restrict combat methods.

Geneva Conventions

Four comprehensive international treaties adopted in 1949 that form the core of IHL, establishing protections for wounded personnel on land and sea, prisoners of war, and civilians.

Human Rights

Universal legal, civil, political, economic, and moral entitlements that belong inherently to every individual, setting standards for state treatment of people.

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

A legally binding 1966 UN treaty protecting fundamental individual rights, such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to life, and due process rights.

International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)

A legally binding 1966 UN treaty committing member states to work toward the realization of collective welfare rights, including education, healthcare, and fair labor conditions.

International Criminal Court (ICC)

A permanent international court established by the 1998 Rome Statute to prosecute individual persons accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression.

UN Genocide Convention

A 1948 international treaty that codifies genocide as an international crime, defining it as acts committed with intent to destroy in whole or part a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.

Straus Critique

Political scientist Scott Straus's argument that genocides (such as Rwanda in 1994) stem from wartime security threats, elite mobilization, and state institutional apparatuses rather than ancient ethnic hatreds.

Hegemonic War

A systemic great-power war driven by competition between an established hegemon and a rising challenger, resulting in a fundamental reorganization of the international order.

Total War

A form of armed conflict requiring the comprehensive mobilization of a state's entire society, economy, and resources, where the boundary between civilian and military spheres becomes blurred.

Limited War

An armed conflict in which belligerents deliberately constrain their political objectives, geographical theater, weapons choices, or resource commitments to prevent dangerous escalation.

Guerrilla War

An asymmetric form of irregular warfare where smaller, lightly equipped insurgent forces use hit-and-run tactics, ambushes, and local terrain to wear down a conventional military opponent.

Biological Weapons

Weapons of mass destruction that disseminate pathogenic microorganisms (such as viruses and bacteria) or biological toxins to deliberately cause disease or death in living targets.

Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)

A 1972 international arms-control treaty that outlaws the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, and transfer of biological agents and toxin weapons.