International Cooperation, Conflict, and Human Rights: Key Concepts and Theories

Prisoner's Dilemma

Rational self-interest leads actors to defect even when cooperation would yield better collective outcomes.

Collective Action Problem

Difficulty coordinating many actors to provide public goods due to free-riding.

Global Governance vs. Sovereignty

Tension between international rules/institutions and states' authority over domestic affairs.

Actors

IGOs (UN, EU), INGOs (Amnesty), MNCs, TANs (advocacy networks shaping norms).

United Nations

Intergovernmental body; UNSC dominated by 'great powers' with veto; principle of sovereign equality in General Assembly.

Views on UN

Support—forum for cooperation/norms; Criticism—inequality, enforcement limits, great-power politics.

MDGs/SDGs

UN development frameworks; SDGs broaden scope (inequality, climate, governance).

EU & Supranationalism

Authority delegated above the state (law-making, courts, market rules).

International Law/Norms/Regimes

Shared rules and expectations; ICJ adjudicates disputes with consent.

Human Rights Regime

UDHR, treaties, courts, monitoring bodies, TANs.

IHL & Human Security

Laws of war (Geneva Conventions); people-centered security.

Just War

Jus ad bellum/in bello standards; war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, ethnic cleansing.

Refugees/Asylum

Protection for those fleeing persecution.

Limits

Enforcement weak; sovereignty shields violators.

Types of International Conflict

Interstate war, civil war, irregular warfare/insurgency; MIDs short of war.

Funnel of Causation

Permissive → underlying → proximate causes.

Levels of Analysis

Systemic, dyadic, state/sub-state, individual.

Interstate War Explanations

Systemic: Realism, Economic structuralism/postcolonialism, Liberalism.

Civil Conflict Explanations

Colonial legacies; state weakness; opportunity vs grievance; conflict traps; ethnic/religious dynamics.

Internationalized Civil War

Intervention, diffusion, spillover; peacekeeping vs enforcement.

Irregular Warfare

Asymmetry, insurgency, guerrilla tactics, terrorism, civil resistance.

CTS

Challenges state-centric definitions; includes state terrorism; critiques War on Terror.

Civil Resistance

Consent of the governed; success factors—mass participation, resilience/backfire, loyalty shifts, diverse tactics; recent decline.

IPE Approaches

Liberalism, realism, economic structuralism, constructivism, feminism.

Trade Doctrines

Comparative advantage; mercantilism/protectionism.

Bretton Woods

GATT/WTO roots, World Bank, IMF; embedded liberalism.

Washington Consensus

Neoliberal reforms, privatization, deregulation.

Globalization

Trilemma; race to the bottom; WTO 1999 protests.

Poverty Measures

GDP/capita, Gini, HDI, basic needs.

North-South Gap

Economic, QoL, environmental disparities; colonial roots, debt/conflict traps.

Development Debates

Modernization vs dependency; late development strategies.

Development Finance

IMF/World Bank; conditionality; critiques.

Environment

Commons, climate collective action; Kyoto, Montreal, Paris.

Green Theory

Ecological justice; critiques growth-centric IR.

Climate Colonialism

Unequal burdens and power in climate governance.