International Affairs

Theory

A logically consistent set of statements that explains a phenomenon of interest.

Interactions

The ways in which the choices of two or more actors combine to produce political outcomes.

Institutions

Set of rules (known and shared by the relevant community) that structure interactions in specific ways.

Bargaining

An interaction in which two or more actors must decide how to distribute something of value. In bargaining, increasing one actor's share of the good decreases the share available to others.

Cooperation

An interaction in which two or more actors adopt policies that make at least one actor better off relative to the status quo without making others worse off.

Anarchy

The absence of a central authority with the ability to make and enforce laws that bind all actors.

Mercantilism

An economic doctrine based on a belief that military power and economic influence complemented each other; applied especially to colonial empires in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Mercantilist policies favored the mother country over its colonies and over its competitors.

Peace of Westphalia

The settlement that ended the Thirty Years' War in 1648; often said to have created the modern state system because it included a general recognition of the principles of sovereignty and nonintervention.

Sovereignty

The expectation that states have legal and political supremacy-or ultimately authority- within their territorial boundaries.

Hegemony

The predominance of one nation-state over others.

Pax Britannica

"British Peace," a century-long period, beginning with Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815 and ending with the outbreak of World War I in 1914, during which Britain's economic and diplomatic influence contributed to economic openness and relative peace.

Gold Standard

The monetary system that prevailed between about 1870 and 1914, in which countries tied their currencies to gold at a legally fixed price.

Treaty of Versailles

The peach treaty between the Allies and Germany that formally ended World War I on June 28th, 1919.

League of Nations

A collective security organization founded in 1919 after World War I. The League ended in 1946 and was replaced by the United Nations.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

An alliance formed in 1949 among the United States, Canada, and most of the states of Western Europe in response to the threat posed by the Soviet Union. The alliance requires its members to consider an attack on any one of them as an attack on all.

Bretton Woods System

The economic order negotiated among allied nations at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944, which led to a series of cooperative arrangements involving a commitment to relatively low barriers to international trade and investment.

Warsaw Pact

A military alliance formed in 1955 to bring together the Soviet Union and its Cold War allies in Eastern Europe and elsewhere; dissolved on March 31st, 1991, as the Cold War ended.

Decolonization

The process of colonial possessions winning independence, especially during the rapid end of the European empires in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean between the 1940s and the 1960s.

Interests

What actors want to achieve through political action; their preference among the possible outcomes that might result from their political choices.

Actors

The basic unit for the analysis of international politics; can be either individuals or groups of people with common interests.

State

A central authority that has the ability to make and enforce laws, rules, and decisions within a specified territory.

Sovereignty

The expectation that states have legal and political supremacy-or ultimate authority- within their territorial boundaries.

National Interests

Interests attributed to the state itself, usually security and power.

Bargaining

An interaction in which two or more actors must decide how to distribute something of value. In bargaining, increasing one actor's share of the good decreases the share available to others.

Coordination

A type of cooperative interaction in which actors benefit from all making the same choices and subsequently have no incentive not to comply.

Collaboration

A type of cooperative interaction in which actors gain from working together but nonetheless have incentives not to comply with any agreement.

Collective Action Problems

Obstacles to cooperation that occur when actors have incentives to collaborate but each act with the expectation that others will pay the costs of cooperation.

Free Ride

To fail to contribute to a public good while benefiting from the contributions of others.

Iteration

Repeated interactions with the same partners.

Linkage

The linking of cooperation on one issue to interactions on a second issue.

Power

The ability of Actor A to get Actor B to do something that B would otherwise not do; the ability to get the other side to make concessions and to avoid having to make concessions oneself.

Coercion

A strategy of imposing or threatening to impose costs on other actors in order to induce a change in their behavior.

Outside Options

The alternatives to bargaining with a specific actor.

Agenda Setting

Actions taken before or during bargaining that make the reversion outcome more favorable for one party.

War

An event involving the organized use of military force by at least two parties that reaches a minimum threshold of severity.

Interstate War

A war in which the main participants are states.

Civil War

A war in which the main participants are within the same state, such as the government and a rebel group.

Security Dilemma

A dilemma that arises when efforts that states make to defend themselves cause other states to feel less secure; can lead to arms races and war because of the fear of being attacked.

Crisis Bargaining

A bargaining interaction in which at least one actor threatens to use force in the event that its demands are not met.

Coercive Diplomacy

The use of threats to advance specific demands in a bargaining interaction.

Bargaining Range

The set of deals that both parties in a bargaining interaction prefer over the reversion outcome. When the reversion outcome is war, the bargaining range is the set of deals that both sides prefer over war.

Compellence

An effort to change the status quo through the threat of force.

Deterrence

An effort to preserve the status quo through the threat of force.

Incomplete Information

A situation in which actors in a strategic interaction lack information about other actors' interests and/or capabilities.

Resolve

The willingness of an actor to endure costs in order to acquire a particular good.

Risk-Return Trade-Off

In crisis bargaining, the trade-off between trying to get a better deal and trying to avoid a war.

Credibility

Believability. A credible threat is a threat that target believes will be carried out. A credible commitment is a commitment or promise that the recipient believes will be honored.

Brinksmanship

A strategy in which adversaries take actions that increase the risk of accidental war, with the hope that the other will "blink" (lose its nerve) first and make concessions.

Audience Costs

Negative repercussions for failing to follow through on a threat or to honor a commitment

Preventive War

A war fought with the intention of preventing an adversary from becoming stronger in the future. Preventative wars arise because a state whose power is increasing cannot commit not to exploit that power in future bargaining interactions.

First-Strike Advantage

The situation that arises when military technology, military strategies, and/or geography give a significant advantage to whichever state attacks first in a wat.

Preemptive War

A war fought with the anticipation that an attack by the other side is imminent.

Indivisible Good

A good that cannot be divided without destroying its value.

Nationalism

A political ideology that prioritizes attachment to one's nation, where nations are groups defined by common origin, ethnicity, language, or cultural ties.

Bureaucracy

The collection of organizations-including the military, diplomatic corps, and intelligence agencies- that carry out most tasks of governance within a state.

Interest Groups

Groups of individuals with common interests that organize to influence public policy in a manner that benefits their members.

Rally Effect

People's tendency to become more supportive of their country's government in times of dramatic international events, such as crises or wars.

Diversionary Incentive

The temptation that state leaders have to start international crises in order to rally public support at home.

Military-Industrial Complex

An alliance between military leaders and the industries that benefit from international conflict, such as arms manufacturers.

Democratic Peace

The observation that there are few, if any, clear cases of war between mature democratic states.

Democracy

A political system in which candidates compete for political office through frequent, fair elections in which a sizable portion of the adult population can vote.

Autocracy

A political system in which an individual or small group exercises power with few constraints and no meaningful competition or participation by the general public.

Accountability

The ability to punish or reward leaders for the decisions they make, as when frequent, fair elections enable voters to hold elected officials responsible for their actions by granting or withholding access to political office.

Alliances

Institutions that help their members cooperate militarily in the event of a war.

Balance of Power

A situation in which the military capabilities of two states or groups of states are roughly equal.

Bandwagoning

A strategy in which states join forces with the stronger side in a conflict.

Entrapment

The condition of being dragged into an unwanted war because of the opportunistic actions of an ally.

United Nations

A collective security organization founded in 1945 after World War II. With over 190 members, the UN includes all recognized states.

Collective Security Organizations

Broad-based institutions that promote peace and security among their members. Examples would include the League of Nations and the United Nations

Genocide

Intentional and systematic killing aimed at eliminating an identifiable group of people, such as an ethnic or religious group.

Humanitarian Interventions

Interventions designed to relieve humanitarian crises stemming from civil conflicts or large-scale human rights abuses, including genocide.

UN Security Council

The main governing body of the UN, which has the authority to identify threats to international peace and security and to prescribe the organization's response, including military and/or economic sanctions.

Permanent Five (P5) of the UN

The United States, Great Britain, France, Russia, and China

Veto Power

The ability to prevent the passage of a measure through a unilateral act, such as a single negative vote.

Peace-Enforcement Operation

A military operation in which force is used to make and/or enforce peace among warring parties that have not agreed to end their fighting.

Peacekeeping Operation

An operation in which troops and observers are deployed to monitor a cease-fire or peace agreement.

Terrorism

The use or threatened use of violence against noncombatant targets by individuals or nonstate groups for political ends.

Asymmetrical Warfare

Armed conflict between actors with highly unequal military capabilities, such as when rebel groups or terrorists fight strong states.

Separatist

An actor that seeks to create an independent state on territory carved from an existing state.

Irredentist

An actor that seeks to detach a region from one country and attach it to another, usually because of shared ethnic or religious ties.

Proxy Wars

Conflicts in which two opposing states "fight" by supporting opposite sides in a war, such as the government and rebels in a third state.

Insurgency

A military strategy in which small, often lightly armed units engage in hit-and-run attacks against military, government, and civilian targets.

Extremists

Actors whose interests are not widely shared by others; individuals or groups that are politically weak relative to the demands they make.

Coercion

A strategy of imposing or threatening to impose costs on other actors in order to induce a change in their behavior.

Provocation

A strategy of terrorist attacks intended to provoke the target government into making a disproportionate response that alienates moderates in the terrorists' home society or in other sympathetic audiences.

Spoiling

A strategy of terrorist attacks intended to sabotage a prospective peace between the target and moderate leadership from the terrorists' home society.

Outbidding

A strategy of terrorist attacks designed to demonstrate superior capability and commitment relative to the other groups devoted to the same cause.

Comparative Advantage

The ability of a country or firm to produce a particular good or service more efficiently than it can produce other goods or services, such that its resources are most efficiently employed in this activity. The comparison is to the efficiency of other economic activities that the actor might undertake given all the products it can produce-not to the efficiency of other countries or firms.

Absolute Advantage

The ability of a country or firm to produce more of a particular good or service than other countries or firms can produce with the same amount of effort and resources.

Neo-Mercantilism

A belief that national economic policy should encourage exports and discourage imports, and that the country should aim to run a trade surplus. So called in relationship to the classical mercantilism of the colonial powers, which aimed at running trade surpluses with their colonies.

Heckscher-Ohlin Trade Theory

The theory that a country will export goods that make intensive use of the factors of production in which it is well endowed. For example, a labor-rich country will export goods that make intensive use of labor.

Protectionism

The imposition of barriers to restrict imports.

Trade Barriers

Government limitations on the international exchange of goods. Examples include tariffs, quantitative restrictions (quota), import licenses, requirements that governments buy only domestically produced goods, and health and safety standards that discriminate against foreign goods.

Tariff

A tax imposed of imports. Tariffs raise the domestic price of the imported good and may be applied for the purpose of protecting domestic producers from foreign competition.

Quantitative Restriction (Quota)

A limit placed on the amount of a particular good that is allowed to be imported and sold domestically.

Nontariff Barriers to Trade

Obstacles to imports other than tariffs (trade taxes). Examples include restrictions on the number of products that can be imported (quotas); regulations that favor domestic over imported products; and other measures that discriminate against foreign goods or services. "Buy American" laws that govern what state and local governments can buy, for example, are an implicit-but nontariff- obstacle to the purchase of imports.

Stolper-Samuelson Theorem

The theorem that trade protection benefits the scarce factor of production. This view flows from the Heckscher-Ohlin theory: if a country imports goods that make intensive use of its scarce factor, then limiting imports will help that factor. So, in a labor-scarce country, labor benefits from protection and loses from trade liberalization.

Ricardo-Viner (specific-factors) Model

A model of trade relations that emphasizes the sector in which factors of productions are employed rather than the nature of the factor itself. This differentiates it from the Heckscher-Ohlin theory, in which the nature of the factor-labor, land, capital-is the principal consideration.

Reciprocity

In international trade relations, a mutual agreement to lower tariffs and other barriers to trade. Reciprocity involves an implicit or explicit arrangement for one government to exchange trade-policy concessions with another.

Most-Favored-Nation Status

A status established by most modern trade agreements guaranteeing that the signatories will extend to each other any favorable trading terms offered in agreements with third parties.