Understanding Interests, Interactions, and Institutions

A set of vocabulary flashcards based on key concepts from the lecture on interests, interactions, and institutions in International Relations.

Interests

What actors want to achieve through political action; their preferences among possible outcomes resulting from their political choices.

Sovereignty

The expectation that states have legal and political supremacy—ultimate authority—within their boundaries.

Anarchy

The absence of a central authority that can enforce laws binding all actors.

Strategic interactions

Interactions where each actor's strategy depends on the anticipated strategy of others.

Cooperation

When actors work together to make at least one of them better off, and no one worse off.

Bargaining

An interaction where two or more actors decide how to distribute something of value; increasing one actor’s share 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

• Everyone benefits when all actors make the same choice — and once they do, no one has an incentive to change.

• Key idea: Success depends on matching behavior, not compromise.

Collaboration

A cooperative interaction in which all actors gain from working together, but each one is tempted to cheat (defect) because they can get the benefits without the costs.

Public goods

Products that are nonexcludable (can’t limit how many people have access to it) and nonrival (the product isn’t dimished) in consumption, such as national defense, public transportation, clean air

Collective action problems (CAPs)

Situations where people want to work together, but each person hopes others will do the work and pay the costs instead of them.

Free ride

to benefit from a public good without contributing to its cost.

Power

The ability of one actor to get another actor to do something they would otherwise not do, often involving concessions.

Iteration

repeated interactions with the same actors whereby actors can prevent one another from cheating by threatening to withhold cooperation in the future

Linkage

the linking of cooperation on one issue to interactions on a second issue (So if you betray me in one area, I’ll punish you in another)

Coersion

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

Outside options

Alternatives to bargaining with a specific actor, influencing negotiation dynamics.