International Studies: Global Capitalism, the State System, and Ideology

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the core concepts, economic mechanisms, geopolitical models, and ideological frameworks examined in the International Studies lecture notes.

Transnational

An analytical principle in international studies focusing on issues, events, or ideas that cross state boundaries.

Relational

An analytical principle examining how different aspects of the world are shaped and affected by one another.

Inclusive

An analytical principle considering perspectives from underrepresented people, countries, and regions.

Interdisciplinary

An analytical principle drawing from a range of academic disciplines to investigate global issues.

Dialectical Thinking

An analytical approach recognizing that two seemingly contradictory realities can both be true while being mutually dependent and interrelated.

Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh

A legally binding agreement signed by 222 companies following the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse to ensure safe workplaces for garment workers.

Eurocentrism

A set of ideological assumptions about how the modern world came to be that favors Western civilization in opposition to Eastern civilization.

Worldcentrism

A non-Eurocentric explanation of the modern world's emergence that accounts for how the West was conditioned and constrained by global forces.

Contingencies

Historical events that occur or exist only because of other historical events they depend on, often arising from deliberate actions with unintended consequences.

Accidents

Historical occurrences involving natural factors—such as geology, mineral deposits, weather, or biological outbreaks—that are unpredictable and beyond human control.

Conjunctures

Major historical events that emerge when independent contingencies and accidents interact simultaneously.

Telos

An ancient Greek concept denoting an ultimate end or purpose, reflected in Eurocentric narratives as an inevitable historical progression toward capitalism.

Capitalist Circuit of Accumulation ($M-C-C'-M'$)

The structural process in which a capitalist uses money ($M$) to buy commodities ($C$), applies purchased labor ($L$) to produce new commodities ($C'$), and sells them for a higher sum ($M'$), generating profits for continuous reinvestment.

Social Division of Labor

A separation of the labor process that apportions all the individual tasks involved in manufacturing an entire commodity to a single worker.

Technical Division of Labor

The breakdown of a commodity's production process into multiple specialized sub-tasks, with each task executed repeatedly by a different worker.

Unequal Exchange

The structural exploitation of global wage differentials by substituting domestic high-wage labor with foreign low-wage labor in commodity production.

Core, Semi-Periphery, and Periphery Model

A global hierarchy model where the periphery and semi-periphery supply cheap labor and raw materials, while the core exports high-profit consumption goods back to them.

Compradors

Indigenous individuals who betray their own societies by collaborating with foreign entities to extract local resources.

Multinational Corporation (MNC)

A corporate enterprise characterized by geographical flexibility and engagement in foreign direct investment.

Geographical Flexibility

A corporation's structural ability to disperse distinct functional operations—such as coordination, R&D, and production—across different geographic territories.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

An arrangement where a corporation headquartered in one nation invests capital in an enterprise located in another nation to acquire controlling ownership.

Brownfield FDI

A type of foreign direct investment in which an enterprise acquires or merges with an existing foreign facility or corporation to gain controlling interest.

Greenfield FDI

A type of foreign direct investment in which a corporation establishes brand-new physical operational facilities from the ground up in a foreign country.

Corporate Veil of Distance

A legal shield that insulates corporate executives and shareholders from legal liability for offenses or harms committed by corporate subsidiaries in other nations.

Transfer Pricing

An intra-firm accounting practice used by multinational companies to declare lower profits in high-tax jurisdictions and shift reported profits to low-tax host countries.

Creative Destruction

The dismantling of a prevailing configuration of global capitalism in response to systemic crisis to enable a new configuration to emerge.

Neoliberalism

An economic policy paradigm that redistributes wealth upward to the wealthiest classes through privatization, deregulation, and low taxation.

Privatization

The transfer of assets, services, or infrastructure from public ownership and management into private corporate hands.

Deregulation

The elimination or reduction of government statutes, rules, and oversight controlling private business conduct in markets.

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

An intergovernmental institution that provides emergency loans with policy conditionalities to countries confronting balance of payments crises.

Balance of Payments

An accounting framework recording all economic debits and credits between a sovereign country and the rest of the world over a specified period.

Balance of Payments Crisis

An economic condition where a country's outbound payments substantially exceed inbound receipts, and national assets cannot cover the difference.

Loan with Conditionalities

A financial bailout package that requires a borrowing state to execute mandatory structural policy directives before funds are disbursed.

Structural Adjustment

A program of IMF loans imposed on peripheral and semi-peripheral nations requiring austerity, spending cuts, and market liberalization measures.

Odious Debt

National debt accrued by an illegitimate, dictatorial, or corrupt regime for self-serving ends rather than the public interest, rendering it illegitimate for citizens to repay.

Tariffs

Customs duties or taxes assessed by a government on imported commodities, making them more costly to domestic buyers.

Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI)

A state-led developmental strategy utilizing high protective tariffs, quotas, and subsidies to replace imported manufactured goods with domestic production.

Most Favored Nation (MFN)

A foundational WTO principle requiring member nations to extend any trade privilege or concession granted to one member country to all other member countries.

National Treatment Policy (NTP)

A WTO non-discrimination rule prohibiting governments from imposing higher internal taxes or stricter regulations on foreign imported goods than on domestic products.

TRIPS

The WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, setting enforceable minimum global protection standards for patents and copyrights.

Trade Dumping

The commercial practice of exporting commodities into a foreign market at prices below the exporter's domestic market rate or production cost.

The Capitalist State

A political apparatus managed by state authorities whose primary systemic objective is ensuring the reproduction and expansion of national capital as a whole.

General Conditions of Production

Foundational domestic infrastructure and utilities built and operated by the capitalist state that private firms need to operate but will not finance themselves.

Competition Cost Reduction

Direct state intervention through subsidies, research grants, contracts, or tax exemptions to absorb commercial risks and lower market operating costs for private firms.

Ultimate Guarantor

The role of the state in providing emergency financial rescue, liquidity infusions, or bailouts to avert a systemic breakdown of national capital during crises.

Imperialism

The cross-border projection of a capitalist state's economic, diplomatic, and military power to subordinate foreign territories and secure resources for national capital.

Anarchic International Structure

The absence of an overarching, centralized sovereign authority in the interstate system, compelling states to act independently to safeguard their national capital.

The Security Dilemma

A structural condition where one state's actions to bolster its national defense lead rival states to perceive an imminent threat and respond by building up their own power.

Polarity (Capitalist State Systems)

The structural distribution and concentration of relative power among states in the global system, designated as unipolarity (one power), bipolarity (two powers), or multipolarity (multiple powers).

Balancing

An interstate strategy where a nation builds up internal military capacity (internal balancing) or forms alliances (external balancing) to counter an opposing dominant state.

Bandwagoning

An alignment strategy wherein an endangered state concedes to and allies with a dominant threatening power to avert aggression and share in the spoils.

Hedging

A foreign policy posture that combines defensive balancing measures with diplomatic and commercial bandwagoning toward a powerful state to minimize strategic risks.

Banal Nationalism

The routine, everyday representations, language, and cultural practices that quietly and unconsciously reproduce national identity and belonging.

Hot Nationalism

The fervent, visible mobilization of a national population to establish, expand, or militarily defend a state, frequently surfacing during periods of warfare or crisis.

Flagging

Subtle, unexamined everyday reminders of nationhood—such as coins, postal stamps, weather maps, and national emblems—that reinforce collective identity.

Orientalism

A Western system of cultural representation theorized by Edward Said that depicts Eastern societies as exotic, backward, or irrational to legitimize imperial domination.

Negative Orientalism

Representations that portray the West as civilized and progressive while depicting the East as violent, inferior, or regressive to justify military or political control.

Positive Orientalism

Representations that romanticize Eastern societies as deeply spiritual, timeless, or mystical to satisfy Western consumer desires for spiritual authenticity and commercial consumption.