International relations

European Union

A group of 27 European countries that abide by common laws and practices.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

A defense pact formed in 1949 between North American and West European states. Today it includes 30 member states.

Euro

The common currency of the eurozone.

Berlin Wall

The wall dividing Communist-controlled East Berlin from Western-controlled West Berlin during the Cold War until its fall in 1989.

International governmental organizations (IGOs)

Organizations that states join to advance their interests.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

Nonprofit groups that work across borders on political or social issues,

National leaders

Individual office-holders who make foreign policy and military decisions on behalf of their countries.

Sovereignty

The capacity to govern residents within a given territory to establish relationships with governments that control other states.

State

A political entity with territorial borders and political authorities who enjoy sovereignty.

Nation

Collections of people who share a common culture, history, or language.

Nation-state

A political unit inhabited by people sharing common culture, history, or language.

Non-state actors

Consequential actors other than states that operate within or across state borders.

Civil society

Communities of private citizens that operate outside the sphere of government or business control.

Interest

Some condition of the world sufficiently important that a state is willing to pay meaningful costs to attain or maintain it.

Strategy

The connection by state leaders of means, or policy instruments, to ends, or policy objectives.

Policy instrument

A tool used by a state's government to attain its interests. These come in many forms, divided into persuasive and coercive forms.

Statecraft

The use of policy instruments, including military, diplomatic, and economic, to achieve foreign policy objectives.

Theory

A group of ideas intended to explain some empirical phenomenon.

Anarchy

The fact that in international relations there is no government of the whole world to adjudicate disputes among states and protect weak from strong ones.

Imperialism

A state strategy in which one country conquers foreign lands to turn them into colonies.

Scramble for Africa

The carving up of Africa by colonial powers after 1870

Levels of analysis

Different places to look for answers to questions in international relations, generally grouped into the individual, state, and international levels.

Democratic peace theory

The theory that democracies are unusually peaceful toward each other.

Enduring questions

Questions which have engaged and challenged generations of international relations scholars and students.

Developed countries

Wealthy countries with advanced economies.

Developing countries

Poor countries with small economies whose residents have not, on average, attained the living standards typically enjoyed by residents of wealthy countries.

Globalization

The ongoing process of international economic and technological integration, made possible by advances in transportation and communication.

Brexit

The decision made by British citizens in a popular referendum to have the United Kingdom leave the European Union.

Dissatisfied states

States who feel that their influence, status, and material benefits should be higher than what they are actually achieving.

Security dilemma

A situation in international politics in which one state takes steps to become more secure, yet ends up less secure due to the reactions it prompts in other states.

Empires

Political entities that contain a substantial geographical space, often many different peoples, and over which a powerful ruler governs.

Dynastic states

States ruled by 'imperial dynasties' or 'dynastic families,' in which members of a given extended family, over a number of generations, maintain power.

Feudalism

A system in which individuals receive land in exchange for swearing loyalty to specific leaders.

Balance of Power

Process by which a state or coalition of states increase their capabilities to prevent the dominance of an opposing state or group of states.

Peace of Westphalia

Treaties that ended the Thirty Years War and divided Europe into sovereign states independent of higher authorities.

Westphalian State System

The modern state system in which each state is sovereign, with no higher authority (such as a church or empire).

Concert of Europe

An agreement among the great powers to maintain order collectively within Europe.

Mercantilism

The idea that military power rests on financial wealth, and the financial wealth of the world is a fixed quantity.

Colonies

Areas and people conquered and exploited by a colonizer that exercises political and economic control..

Rum Triangle

A transatlantic trading triangle active in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries between Europe, West Africa, and the Americas.

Meiji Restoration

An important period in Japanese history during which it strengthened itself militarily and technologically relative to the West.

Triple Alliance

A military alliance finalized in 1882 between Germany, Austria-Hungary.

Triple Entente

A military alliance finalized in 1907 between France, Britain, and Russia.

Schlieffen Plan

A German military plan believed by the Germans to result in a quick victory.

League of Nations

An international body established by the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I.

Weimar Republic

Republic formed by democratically elected German delegates in the aftermath of World War I .

Locarno Accords

An agreement that sought to stabilize Germany's relations with its neighbors.

Kellogg-Briand Pact

A 1928 international pact outlawing war.

Great Depression

An international economic disaster precipitated by the 1929 crash of the US stock market.

Beggar-thy-neighbor policies

Policies designed to shift the negative consequences of a global economic downturn onto a state's neighbors.

Smoot-Hawley Tariff

A 1930 US law that raised tariffs to high levels to protect the US economy.

Rhineland Crisis

In March 1936, in clear violation of the Versailles settlement, Hitler ordered troops to reoccupy the Rhineland.

Appeasement

An effort by one state to reduce conflict with another by accommodating the demands of the latter.

Munich analogy

A critical reference to the 1938 transfer of a part of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany by Western European democratic leaders.

Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact

A pact signed between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia in 1939 in which the two countries agreed not to attack each other and to jointly attack Poland, dividing the country between them.

Battle of Stalingrad

A battle between September 1942 and February 1943 in which Soviet forces destroyed a massive German army. It was a major turning point of World War II's European theater.

Cold War

Period from the mid-1940s to the late 1980s of high tension between the United States and Soviet Union.

United Nations (UN)

A critical international organization, that today includes virtually all countries, founded in 1945.

Self-determination

The idea that every people should determine and manage their own political systems.

Isolationism

The historical practice by the United States of avoiding alliances and engaging only sporadically in European balance-of-power politics and the management of global affairs.

Containment

A strategy by which one state tries to check efforts by an adversary state to extend its global sphere of influence.

Truman Doctrine

The declaration by its namesake US President that US assistance would be given to 'free peoples everywhere facing external aggression or internal subversion.'

Marshall Plan

A US plan to counteract Soviet influence in Europe by providing economic aid to help European nations rebuild after World War II.

Sphere of Influence

A set of geographically proximate countries whose policies and institutions are greatly influenced by an external power.

Bipolarity

An international competition between two especially powerful states.

Warsaw Pact

An alliance between the Soviet Union and several mid-level powers in Europe that formed a Soviet sphere of influence.

Third World

A designation, no longer relevant today, given to developing countries over which the United States and Soviet Union competed

Proxy Wars

Military conflicts in which states avoid directly engaging each other, but instead back opposing sides of smaller conflicts to gain influence.

Détente

In general, a relaxation of tensions between states; specifically, a phase of the Cold War in which economic interdependence began to develop between East and West.

Decolonization

The process by which imperial powers relinquished their overseas holdings leading to new independent nation-states.

Nationalism

A term that describes an intense political identity a people share, or a sense of collective fate as a political community.

Non-Aligned Movement

A movement founded in 1955 to create a pathway by which member states could remain apart from the confrontations of the Cold War. It now includes over 100 countries, representing over one-half of the world's population.

Unipolarity

An international system containing one dominant power relative to all others.

Populism

A political idea or movement that proposes to support the interests of common people rather than those of a privileged elite.

Caliphate

A state governed in accordance with Islamic law.

Collective Action Problems

Problems that require international cooperation yet nevertheless may be difficult to solve

Alliances

Coalitions of states formed for mutual protection.\####Deterrence

Foreign Policy

Analysis of it seeks to understand why governments take the decisions they do toward other countries or actors.

Diplomacy

The process by which representatives of two or more governments meet and discuss matters of common concern..

Incentives

Rewards of some form offered by one state to another designed to influence the foreign policy of the recipient.

Economic Incentives

These are basically carrots: country A promises some economic gain to B, and delivers it if B does what A wants it to do.

Economic Sanctions

The restriction of customary trade and investment relations with a target state.

Propaganda

The selective use of information, and at times misinformation, in order to advance a state's interests.

Covert Operations

Secret operations by a government against the interests of a foreign government or actor.

Cyber Operations

The use or manipulation of information on the internet to advance foreign policy interests.

Coercive Diplomacy

Aggressive actions short of the immediate large-scale use of military force designed to convince a country to rethink some behavior.

Bureaucratic Politics

A possible influence on a country's strategy characterized by national leaders and their subordinates engaging in foreign policy debates, building coalitions, and generally seeking to influence each other.

Rally 'round the flag effect

A commonly observed boost in the popularity of a leader due to external conflicts or war.

Foreign affairs media

Those individuals and organizations who report or comment on foreign developments in print, on television, over radio, and through the internet.

Framing

The process by which media participants select or present particular elements of a news story in such a way as to influence the opinions of recipients of the story.

Lobbying

Meeting and speaking with members of legislatures and officials in executive departments in an attempt to influence policy. Interest groups often engage in it.

Internationalism

A strategy in which a state is fully engaged with other states building cooperative relationships.

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.