International Relations Terms Chapters 1-6

Behavioralism

An approach to the study of social science and international relations that posits that individuals and units like states act in regularized ways; leads to a belief that behaviors can be described, explained, and predicted.

Globalization

The process of increasing integration of the world in terms of economics, politics, communications, social relations, and culture; increasingly undermines traditional state sovereignty.

International Relations

The study of the interactions among various actors (states, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and subnational entities like bureaucracies, local governments, and individuals) that participate in international politics.

Normative

Relating to ethical rules; in foreign policy and international affairs, standards suggesting what a policy should be.

Balance of power

Any system in which actors (e.g., states) enjoy relatively equal power, such that no single state or coalition of states is able to dominate other actors in the system.

Caliphate

The notion that the Muslim world must have a caliph, a spiritual leader of Islam, heading the community.

Capitalism

The economic system in which the ownership of the means of production is in private hands; the system operates according to market forces whereby capital and labor move freely.

Cold War

The era in international relations between the end of World War II and 1990, distinguished by ideological, economic, political, and military rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Colonialism

The practice of founding, maintaining, and expanding a state's reach to territory abroad, motivated by expectation of economic gain, political agreement, or cultural supremacy.

Containment

A foreign policy designed to prevent the expansion of an adversary by blocking its opportunities to expand through foreign aid programs or through use of coercive force; the major U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union during the Cold War era.

Detente

The easing of tense relations; in the context of this volume, detente refers to the relaxation and reappraisal of threat assessments by political rivals, for example, the United States and Soviet Union during the later years of the Cold War.

Domino effect

A metaphor that posits that the loss of influence over one state to an adversary will necessarily lead to a subsequent loss of control over neighboring states, just as dominos fall one after another.

Imperialism

The policy and practice of extending the domination of one state over another through territorial conquest or economic domination.

League of Nations

The international organization formed at the conclusion of World War I for the purpose of preventing another war.

Legitimacy

The moral and legal right to rule, which is based on law, custom, heredity, or the consent of the governed.

Nationalism

A sense of national consciousness where people identify with a common history, language, or customs, often placing primary emphasis on one's own nation's culture and interests over those of other nations.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Military and political alliance between Western European states and the United States established in 1948 for the purpose of defending Europe from aggression by the Soviet Union and its allies; post-Cold War expansion to Eastern Europe.

Populism

Belief that champions the common person, contrasting people's concerns with those of the elite; often opposing big business and financial interests.

Rollback

A strategy of using, or threatening the use of, armed force to aggressively coerce an adversary into abandoning occupied territory.

Socialism

An economic and social system that relies on intensive government intervention or public ownership of the means of production in order to distribute wealth among the population more equitably; in radical Marxist theory, the stage between capitalism and communism.

Sovereignty

The authority of the state, based on recognition by other states and by non-state actors, to govern matters within its own borders that affect its people, economy, security, and form of government.

Summits

Talk and meetings among the highest-level government officials from different countries.

Superpowers

The highest-power states as distinguished from other great powers; term coined during the Cold War to refer to the United States and the Soviet Union.

Third Reich

The German state from 1933-45; a time which coincides with the rule of Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Workers Party, or "Nazis."

Treaties of Westphalia

Treaties ending the Thirty Years War in Europe in 1648; in international relations represents the beginning of state sovereignty with a territorial space.

War on Terror

Declaring to use a given society's material and nonmaterial resources to defeat those using terror, often non-state actors targeting noncombatants to instill fear in the population.

Warsaw Pact

The military alliance formed by the states of the Soviet bloc in 1955 in response to the rearmament of West Germany and its inclusion in NATO; permitted the stationing of Soviet troops in Eastern Europe.

Weapons of mass destruction (WMD)

Nuclear, chemical, biological, and radiological weapons which can kill or bring major harm to large numbers of people or structures.

Anarchy

The fact that there exists no hierarchically superior coercive authority that can create laws, resolve disputes, or enforce law and order in the system.

Balancing

Taking actions to offset the power of more powerful states.

Bandwagoning

A process in which states that might have opposed a threatening state choose to ally with it instead.

Collective Security

The idea that aggression by a state should be defeated collectively because aggression against one state is aggression against all.

Complex interdependence

States are connected through multiple channels (both formal and informal), there is no hierarchy of issues, and the result is a decline in the use of military force.

Constructivism

An international relations theory that hypothesizes how ideas, norms, and institutions shape state identity and interests.

Dependency Theory

A strand of the radical school of economic thought that seeks to explain the underdevelopment of dominated states.

Discourse

How we choose to talk about ourselves and others.

External balancing

Allying with other states to offset the power of more powerful states.

Hypotheses

Specific falsifiable statements that question the proposed relationship among two or more concepts.

Identity

A sense of self based on certain qualities and beliefs that define a person or group.

Internal Balancing

A state building up its own military resources and capabilities in order to be able to stand against more powerful states.

International Institutions

Sets of rules such as international treaties and organizations meant to govern international behavior.

Liberalism

The theoretical perspective based on the assumption of the innate goodness of the individual and the value of political institutions in promoting social progress.

Multinational corporations (MNCs)

Private enterprises which span state borders through the actual presence in, investments in, or trade with other countries.

National interest

The interest of the state, most basically the protection of territory and sovereignty; in realist thinking, the interest is a unitary one defined in terms of the pursuit of power; in liberal thinking, there are many national interests; in radical thinking, it is the interest of a ruling elite.

Neoliberal Institutionalism

A reinterpretation of liberalism that posits that even in an anarchic international system, states will cooperate because of their continuous interactions with each other and because it is in their interest to do so; institutions provide the framework for cooperative interactions.

Neorealism

A reinterpretation of realism that posits that the structure of the international system is the most important level to study; states behave the way they do because of the structure of the international system; includes the belief that general laws can be found to explain events.

Norms

Collective expectations for the proper behavior of actors with a given identity.

Radicalism

A social theory, formulated by Karl Marx and modified by other theorists, that posits that class conflict between owners and workers will cause the eventual demise of capitalism; offers a critique of capitalism.

Rational Actors

Actors that make decisions by weighing the costs and benefits of various options against the goal to be achieved.

Realism

A theory of international relations that emphasizes states' interest in accumulating power to ensure security in an anarchic world; based on the notion that individuals are power seeking and that states act in pursuit of their own national interest defined in terms of power.

Relative gains

How much more one state gains over another.

Security dilemma

The situation in which each state tries to increase its own power to protect itself, but htis increased power is seen as a threat by other states, leading them to be more insecure and thus to seek to increase their own power which, in turn, makes others more insecure.

Socialization

The process through which one adopts the identities of other groups.

Theory

A collection of propositions that combine to explain phenomena by specifying the relationships among a set of concepts.

Theoretical perspectives

Sets of theories united by some common themes such as actors, concepts, and issues.

Belief system

The organized and integrated perceptions of individuals that form a relatively integrated set of images.

Bipolar

The distribution of the power to conquer is concentrated in two states or coalitions of states.

Cognitive consistency

The tendency to accept information that is compatible with what has previously been accepted, often ignoring inconsistent information.

Evoked set

Details from a present situation that are similar to information gleaned from past situations.

Groupthink

A mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when members' strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action.

Levels of analysis

Analytical framework based on the ideas that events in international relations can be explained by looking at individuals, states, or the international system and that causes at each level can be separated from causes at other levels.

Mirror images

Seeing in one's opponent the opposite of characteristics seen in oneself.

Multilateralism

The conduct of international activity by three or more states in accord with shared general principles, often, but not always, through international institutions.

Multipolar

The distribution of the power to conquer is concentrated in more than two states.

Nation

A group of people sharing a common language, history, or culture.

Nation-state

The entity formed when people sharing the same historical, cultural or linguistic roots form their own state with borders, a government, and international recognition; trend began with French and American Revolutions.

System

An assemblage of units, objects, or parts united by some form of regular interaction in which a change in one unit causes changes in the others.

Unipolar

The power to conquer all other states in the system combined resides within a single state.

Bureaucratic Politics Model

The model of foreign policy decision making that posits that national decisions are the outcomes of bargaining among bureaucratic groups having competing interests; decisions reflect the relative strength of the individual bureaucratic players or of the organizations they represent.

Compellence

The use of threats to coerce another into taking an action it otherwise would not take.

Credibility

The quality of having both the ability and incentive to act using a certain policy such that other states believe it will be carried out.

Deterrence

The policy of maintaining a large military force and arsenal to discourage any potential aggressor from taking action.

Diplomacy

The practice of states trying to influence the behavior of other states by bargaining, negotiating, taking specific non-coercive actions or refraining from such actions, or appealing to the foreign public for support of a position.

Engagement

Getting a target state to act in a desired way by rewarding the moves it makes in the desired direction; often referred to as positive sanctions.

Etnonational movements

The participation in organized political activity of self-conscious communities sharing an ethnic affiliation; some movements seek autonomy within an organized state; others desire separation and the formation of a new state; still others want to join with a different state.

extremist Islamic fundamentalism

Groups seeking to change states and societies through violent and coercive means to support imposition of Sharia law.

Fragile state

State which has ineffective or nonexistent government, widespread lawlessness, often accompanied by insurgency and crime; situation where state authorities are not protecting their own people.

Hard power

States using various sources of power (economic or military) to coerce other states into adopting actions in its interests.

Organizational process model

The foreign policy decision-making model that posits that national decisions are the products of subnational governmental organizations and units which follow the standard operating procedures and processes of the organizations.

Pluralist model

A model of foreign policy making that focuses on the role that societal groups play in influencing national decisions.

Power

The ability not only to influence others but also to control outcomes so as to produce results that would not have occurred naturally.

Power Potential

A measure of the power an entity like a state could have, derived from a consideration of both its tangible and its intangible resources; states may not always be able to transfer their power potential into actual power.

Public diplomacy

Use of certain diplomatic methods to create a favorable image of the state or its people in the eyes of other states and their publics; methods include, for example, goodwill tours, cultural and student exchanges, and media presentations.

Sanctions

Economic, diplomatic, and even coercive military force used to enforce an international policy or another state's policy; sanction can be positive (offering an incentive to a state) or negative (punishing a state).

Satisficing

In decision-making theory, the tendency of states and their leaders to settle for the minimally acceptable solution, not the best possible outcome, in order to reach a consensus and formulate a policy.

Smart power

Using a combination of the hard power of coercion with the soft power of persuasion and attraction.

Smart sanctions

Limited sanctions targeted to hurt or support specific groups; used to avoid the humanitarian costs of general sanctions.

Soft power

The power to attract states to change their behavior rather than having to coerce them into doing so; power is based on the legitimacy of the state's values or its policies.

Statecraft

Techniques states use to exert influence and project power including diplomacy, economic, and use of force tools.

Track One Diplomacy

Negotiations among government officials taken on behalf of governments.

Track Two Diplomacy

Unofficial overtures by private individuals or groups from outside governments to try and resolve an ongoing international crisis or civil war.

Transnational movements

Groups of people from different states who share religious, ideological, or policy beliefs and who work together to change the status quo.

Arms control

Regulating arms research, manufacturing, deployment, and proliferation of weapons systems.

Asymmetric conflict

Conflict between a more powerful party and significantly weaker party.

Commercial peace theory

A theory that states that are interdependent through trade and investment are less likely to go to war; conflict is too economically costly.

Conventional wars

Regular armies openly engaged in combat with the objective to win control of the state by defeating the enemy's military force on the battlefield.

Cyberspace

The entire spectrum of networked information and communication systems and devices.

Cyberwarfare

State actions taken to penetrate another state's computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption.

Democratic peace theory

Theory supported by empirical evidence that democratic states do not fight wars against each other, but do fight wars against authoritarian states.

Disarmament

Reducing the amount of arms and the types of weapons employed by a state.