Chapter 5 - International Relations

International Law

Explicit rules that stipulate rights and obligations of states.

Treaty

A formal agreement between two or more states.

Statutory international law

Written laws that are agreed upon by participating states.

Customary international law

Unwritten legal norms that have come to be seen by states as requiring their compliance.

International Organization

A formal body or association established by two or more states.

International Institutions

Sets of rules, principles, and expectations that govern interstate interaction.

Genocide

Crimes committed against a national, racial, religious, or ethnic group with the intent of destroying that group.

International Tribunals

Ad hoc legal proceedings that are applied to specific international situations.

Truth and Reconciliation Commissions

Public hearings about humanitarian crimes, such as in South Africa after apartheid.

International Criminal Court

Permanent body to prosecute individuals suspected of international war crimes or genocide.

Humanitarian Intervention

When one or more countries intervene in a foreign country's civil war for the purpose of protecting non-combatants.

Responsibility to Protect

Doctrine that states sometimes ought to undertake a humanitarian intervention in a foreign conflict to protect non-combatants.

Territorial Sea

Area that extends 12 nautical miles from a state's shoreline.

Exclusive Economic Zone

The area up to 200 nautical miles from a state's shoreline.

High Seas

The area of the seas beyond 200 nautical miles.

Innocent Passage

A sea-faring state's vessels may move through a coastal state's territorial waters in a non -threatening manner.

Transit Passage

A sea-faring state's vessels may move through a strait that otherwise is part of a coastal state's territorial seas.

Mixed Interests

In game theory, a situation wherein two players could gain from cooperation but also benefit from cheating.

Prisoner's Dilemma

A mix-interest game that illustrates both the value of cooperation and the difficulty of obtaining it.

Conditional Cooperation

A strategy (also called tit-for-tat) in game theory capable of resolving the Prisoner's Dilemma.

Veto Player

An agent within a political system whose consent is required for some policy to be accepted and implemented.

Hegemonic Leader

A particularly powerful state that facilitates cooperation.

Taboo

A strong and widely held normative condemnation of some form of behavior.

Naming and Shaming

Strategy to highlight publicly non-compliance of relevant actor with their international responsibilities.