Chapter 2: The Historical Context of Contemporary International Relations

What event marks the origin of the contemporary state system?

The Treaties of Westphalia in 1648, ending the 30 years war

The Treaties of Westphalia marked the end of rule by ___ authority in Europe and the emergence of secular authorities

religious

What foundational principle of IR, concerning the territorial integrity of states, emerged from the Treaty of Westphalia?

The principle of sovereignty, which asserts that each state has authority over its territory and is free from external interference.

French philosopher whose writing defined sovereignty as “absolute and perpetual power vested in a commonwealth?”

Jean Bodin

According to Jean Bodin, sovereignty resides in the ___ rather than in an individual, making it perpetual

state

Three types of limits on a leader’s sovereignty, according to Jean Bodin?

1. Divine law 2. Natural law 3. Civil law

The Thirty Years’ War began as a religious dispute between which groups?

Protestants and Catholics

First impact of the Treaty of Westphalia in accordance with International Relations?

Legitimized the notion of state sovereignty and territoriality

Treaty of Westphalia introduced the principle of ___ in the affairs of other states?

non-interference

How did the Treaty of Westphalia connect to military power?

By allowing states to establish permanent national militaries

What two principles shaped politics for the next two centuries and emerged from the American and French Revolutions?

The abolishing of absolute rule and nationalism

Which English philosopher argued that political power rests with the people and not a monarch?

John Locke

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

Legitimacy

Which French leader rose to power after the French Revolution and conquered nearly all of Europe with large, motivated armies?

Napoleon Bonaparte

The Russian tactic involves the destruction of food and shelter. This method was used to defeat Napoleon’s invasion of 1812.

Scorched Earth policy

In 1815, what was the battle called when Napoleon was finally defeated by English and Prussian forces?

The Battle of Waterloo

Name for the group of five European powers (Austria, Britain, France, Prussia, Russia) that maintained relative peace after Napoleon’s defeat?

The Concert of Europe

What was one of the primary factors that discouraged war among European elites after 1815?

United in their fear of revolution among the masses.

Rivalries between European states were often played out in distant places through the phenomenon of__

imperialism and colonialism.

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

Imperialism

The practice of founding, maintaining, and expanding a state’s reach to territory abroad, often involving the settling of people

Colonialism

The 19th-century revolution provided European states with the military and economic capacity for territorial expansion.

The Industrial Revolution

Which 1885 conference did the major European powers formally divide Africa into spheres of influence?

The Congress of Berlin

A system where states have relatively equal power, such that no single state or coalition can dominate others.

Balance of power

In a balance-of-power system, states form ___ to counteract any potentially powerful states

alliances

A dominant state that has a preponderance of power and often establishes the rules in the international system.

Hegemon

In the 19th-century balance of power, which country most often played the role of ‘offshore balancer’?

Great Britain

What late 19th-century alliance consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy?

Triple Alliance

In 1904, Britian joined with France in an alliance called ___

the Entente Cordiale

Which Asian power’s victory over Russia in 1905 compromised the colonial idea of inherent White superiority?

Japan's

The assassination of which political figure in Sarajevo in June 1914 triggered the start of WW1?

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

Name of Germany’s failed military strategy for a decisive victory in a two-front war against Russia and France during WWI?

Schlieffen Plan

Three major European empires that collapsed during or at the end of WWI?

The Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires.

Which principle advocated by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, called for the right of national groups to self-rule?

Self-determination

What treaty, which ended WWI, imposed harsh war reparations on Germany?

The Treaty of Versailles

What intergovernmental organization was created after WWI to prevent future wars, but was weakened by the U.S. refusal to join?

The League of Nations

The rise of fascism in Germany was fueled by dissatisfaction with the __, which ended WWI?

Treaty of Versailles

The German State from 1933-45 under the rule of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Third Reich

The alliance between Germany, Italy, and Japan during WWII was known as the ___ powers

Axis

What event in December 1941 caused the United States to enter WWII?

The attack on Pearl Harbor

The Third Reich’s ill-fated invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941?

Operation Barbarossa

The brutality of the Axis Powers during WWII led to the creation of what body of international law afterwards?

The Geneva Conventions of 1948 and 49

The use of atomic bombs on which two Japanese cities led to Japan’s unconditional surrender in August 1945?

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The era of rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States from the end of WWII to 1990?

The Cold War

A term coined during the Cold War to refer to the highest-power states, the United States and the Soviet Union.

Superpowers

Name of the aggressive U.S. strategy that advocated for pushing the USSR back to its own borders?

Rollback

The major U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War, designed to prevent the expansion of the Soviet Union.

Containment

Who was the U.S. diplomat who, in the famous “X” telegram, argued that containment should be the cornerstone of U.S. postwar foreign policy?

George F. Kennan

What 1947 U.S. policy put the idea of containment into action, pledging to support free peoples resisting subjugation?

The Truman Doctrine

An economic system where the means of production are privately owned and operate according to market forces.

Capitalism

An economic system relying on government intervention or public ownership to distribute wealth more equitably.

Socialism

What military and political alliance was established in 1949 by Western European states and the United States to defend against Soviet aggression?

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

What was the Soviet Unions’s military alliance formed in 1955 with Eastern European states in response to NATO?

Warsaw Pact

The state of affairs where a nuclear war would likely result in the complete destruction of both superpowers was known as___

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

The 1948 Soviet blockade of ___ promoted a 13-month airlift by the U.S. and Britain.

Berlin

The Korean War (1950-53) began when communist ___ Korea invaded non-communist ___ Korea

North, South

What 1962 confrontation between the U.S. and Soviet Union over missiles in Cuba nearly led to nuclear war?

The Cuban Missile Crisis

A metaphor positing that the loss of one state to an adversary will lead to the subsequent loss of neighboring states.

The Domino Effect

U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War was largely justified by the ___ theory.

Domino Theory

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

Summits

The easing of tense relations, specifically referring to the relaxation of tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Union during the later Cold War

détente

During the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the United States provided covert support to Islamic guerrillas rebels known as the __

Mujahideen

Two domestic reform processes initiated by Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev in the mid 1980s?

Glasnost (political openness) and perestroika (economic restructing)

The fall of what structure in November 1989 became the most iconic symbol of the end of the Cold War?

Berlin Wall

First major international crisis in post- Cold War era, occurring in 1990

Iraq’s invasion and annexation of Kuwait

In the 1990s, the disintegration of which country led to ethnic conflict and civil wars in Bosnia and Kosovo?

Yugoslavia

What transnational issue emerged as a vital national security interest for many states after 9/11?

Terrorism and global security

After 9/11, the U.S. led a ‘war on terror,’ beginning with a military campaign in which country?

Afghanistan

The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was officaly justified by the belief that Iraw possessed ___

weapons of mass destruction.

The terrorist organization ISIL declared itself a worldwide __, an area under leadership of a spiritual leader of Islam.

caliphate

The series of popular uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa that began in the late 2010 is known as the___

Arab Spring.

In 2014, the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine and annexed which province?

Crimea.

A belief that champions the common person, contrasting people’s concerns with those of the elite, and often opposing globalization

Populism

What 2016 event was one of the first concrete indicators of a populist rebellion against globalization in Europe?

The vote in Great Britain to leave the European Union