World Politics: International Institutions and War

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering Chapter 5: International Institutions and War, focusing on alliances, collective security, the United Nations, and interstate bargaining models.

Anarchy

The structural condition of the international system characterized by the absence of a central overarching authority or super-state to act as police, enforce laws, or resolve disputes between states.

Alliance

Formal commitments between states to cooperate on security matters, which can be bilateral or multilateral, offensive or defensive, and symmetric or asymmetric.

Balance of Power

A primary motive for alliance formation where states band together against the rise of a third potential threat so their combined strength equals or exceeds that of the potential adversary.

Entrapment

The risk that an alliance, by improving the expected war outcome for a protected state, inadvertently emboldens that state to adopt an aggressive posture or initiate a conflict.

Costly Signals

Resource-intensive actions (such as foreign troop basing or joint military exercises) taken by states to demonstrate credibility and resolve regarding their mutual defense commitments.

Alliance Compliance Rate

The historical finding that despite the lack of central enforcement mechanisms, approximately $70\%$ of alliances have been honored by their signatories.

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

An institution formed around the shared interest of global peace, where member states pledge to aid any member that is attacked under the principle that an attack on one is an attack on all.

Public Good (Collective Security)

Global peace, which is non-excludable and non-rivalrous, meaning all states benefit from its existence regardless of whether they contributed blood and treasure to maintain it.

Free Rider Problem (Collective Security)

The barrier to collective action wherein individual states avoid paying the costs of military intervention because they can enjoy the benefits of global peace without participating.

Joint Decision-Making Problem

The institutional challenge arising within universal-membership organizations when member states hold divergent preferences and national interests regarding when and how to intervene in a conflict.

UN General Assembly

The universal body of the United Nations where all member states are represented and hold voting power over budgets for special committees.

UN Security Council (UNSC)

The United Nations council charged with approving and directing actual security and military operations, composed of five permanent members and rotating temporary members.

Permanent Five (P5)

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council: China, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, and the United States.

Veto Power

The institutional mechanism granting each of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council the unilateral authority to block any substantive security resolution.

Policy Bias

The operational skew resulting from the veto power, wherein the UN Security Council only approves actions that align with the independent geopolitical interests of all five permanent members.

Peace Enforcement

A collective security military operation that authorizes the coercive use of force against an active aggressor to compel them to halt hostilities, as seen in the Korean War and the Gulf War.

Peacekeeping

An impartial deployment of personnel designed to resolve commitment problems by monitoring conditions on the ground, maintaining buffer zones, supervising cease-fires, and assisting stability tasks.

Responsibility to Protect (R2P)

An international norm adopted in April $2006$ affirming the United Nations' duty to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, even without state consent.

UNTSO (United Nations Truce Supervision Organization)

Established in $1948$, this was the UN's first peacekeeping mission, created to supervise the cease-fire between Israel and its Arab neighbors following the $1948$ war.

Top Contributor to UN Peacekeeping (January 2015)

Ethiopia, which ranked first globally by contributing $8{,}370$ personnel to UN peacekeeping operations.

Cold War vs. Post–Cold War UN Activity

From $1946$ to $1989$, the UNSC approved $646$ resolutions, saw $162$ vetoes, and ran $18$ missions; from $1990$ to $2017$, it approved $1{,}751$ resolutions, saw $39$ vetoes, and ran $53$ missions.

New World Order

A vision articulated by President George H.W. Bush following the $1990$ Invasion of Kuwait, proposing an international system where the rule of law replaces the law of the jungle through a credible United Nations.