International Relations: Military Force, International Organizations, Trade, and Environment

Vocabulary flashcards covering key international relations terms including military force and security, international organizations, international trade and political economy, and global environmental governance.

Terrorism

Premeditated violence against civilians or noncombatants, usually carried out by non-state groups, meant to spread fear and force political change.

Four Waves of Terrorism

David Rapoport's framework dividing modern terrorism into anarchist (1880s), anticolonial (1920s), New Left (1960s), and religious (about 1979 onward), with each wave lasting roughly a generation and driven by a larger shift in world politics.

Religious Terrorism

Violence justified by religious belief or aimed at religious goals; it is the fourth wave that grew after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, characterized by absolute rather than negotiable goals.

Genocide

Acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, as defined in the 1948 Genocide Convention.

Darfur

A region of western Sudan where, beginning in 2003, government-backed Janjaweel militias attacked non-Arab communities, killing hundreds of thousands and displacing millions.

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Nuclear, chemical, biological, and sometimes radiological weapons capable of killing large numbers of people indiscriminately.

Steady Proliferation

The view that nuclear weapons spread gradually, a few states at a time over decades, rather than in a sudden wave or cascade to many countries.

NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty)

A 1968 treaty in which nuclear-weapon states agree not to spread weapons and to work toward disarmament, while non-nuclear states agree not to build them in exchange for access to peaceful nuclear technology under IAEA inspection.

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty

A 1996 agreement banning all nuclear explosions that has not entered into force because several key states (including the US, where the Senate rejected ratification in 1999) have not ratified it.

SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks)

A series of US-Soviet negotiations in the 1970s to limit strategic nuclear weapons, consisting of SALT I (1972), which capped missile numbers and limited missile defenses via the ABM Treaty, and SALT II (1979), which was signed but never ratified.

Rationalist Institutionalism

The theory that states are rational, self-interested actors who build institutions to lower costs, share information, and make cooperation easier under anarchy.

START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty)

US-Soviet/Russian treaties beginning in 1991 that moved beyond capping weapons to substantially cutting deployed strategic warheads with verification inspections.

TPNW (Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons)

A 2017 treaty that bans developing, possessing, and using nuclear weapons, which took effect in 2021 without the participation of any nuclear-armed state.

International Organization

An institution with states as members, created by treaty so they can cooperate on shared issues, set rules, share information, and bargain.

Prisoner's Dilemma

A game in which each side gains by defecting even though both would be better off cooperating, illustrating why cooperation is difficult under an anarchic system.

Two-Level Challenge

Robert Putnam's concept that leaders negotiate with foreign counterparts and domestic constituents simultaneously, requiring agreements to satisfy both levels.

UN General Assembly

The UN body where all member states have one vote to debate global issues and pass mostly nonbinding resolutions.

Security Council

The 15-member UN body with primary responsibility for international peace and security, featuring five permanent members with veto power (US, UK, France, Russia, China) and the authority to legally mandate sanctions and force.

Secretariat (UN)

The administrative arm of the United Nations, led by the Secretary-General, which carries out daily operations, provides expertise, and manages peacekeeping missions.

Secretary-General (UN)

The UN's chief administrator and top diplomat, appointed by the General Assembly on the Security Council's recommendation, who exercises influence through mediation, agenda-setting, and moral authority.

UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI)

A political and assistance UN mission created in 2003 to support Iraq's political transition, elections, and humanitarian needs following the US-led invasion.

Sérgio Vieira de Mello

A Brazilian UN diplomat who headed the UN mission in Iraq and was killed in the August 2003 bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad.

Political Economy

The study of how politics and economics interact, focusing on how political forces shape economic outcomes and how economic forces shape politics.

Ideology

A set of beliefs about how society and the economy should be organized; in international political economy, the three main ideologies are liberalism, nationalism, and Marxism.

Market

A system in which buyers and sellers exchange goods and services, with prices set by supply and demand.

Economic Liberalism

An economic belief associated with Adam Smith in free markets, free trade, and limited government intervention, holding that open trade creates mutual gains and promotes peace.

Classicism

The classical economics tradition of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, built on the invisible hand, laissez-faire policy, and gains from trade.

Economic Nationalism

An economic perspective (also called mercantilism) holding that economic policy should serve national power through protectionism, subsidies, tariffs, and self-sufficiency.

Marxism

The view that capitalism rests on class conflict and exploitation, and that the global economy benefits wealthy core states at the expense of the poor periphery.

Comparative Advantage

David Ricardo's concept that countries gain by specializing in what they produce at the lowest opportunity cost and trading for the rest, even if one country is more efficient at producing everything.

GATT

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (1947), a multilateral agreement that reduced tariffs through successive negotiation rounds until it was replaced by the WTO in 1995.

Uruguay Round

GATT's 1986–1994 negotiating round that established the WTO and expanded multilateral trade rules to services, intellectual property (TRIPS), and agriculture.

World Trade Organization

An international institution created in 1995 that administers trade agreements, hosts negotiations, and operates a binding dispute settlement mechanism that can authorize penalties against non-compliant states.

Doha Round

A WTO trade negotiation round launched in 2001 as a development round to assist poorer countries, which stalled over disagreements regarding agricultural subsidies and market access.

Battle in Seattle

The 1999 protests by labor, environmental, and anti-globalization groups against the WTO ministerial meeting in Seattle, which disrupted negotiations and highlighted the role of civil society in global governance.

Global Warming

The rise in Earth's average temperature caused by greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and agriculture.

Tragedy of the Commons

Garrett Hardin's concept that individuals acting independently in their self-interest will overuse and deplete a shared, open-access resource.

Cornucopians

Optimists who believe human ingenuity, technological advances, and market forces will overcome environmental resource scarcity.

Neo-Malthusians

Pessimists who believe population and consumption growth will outstrip finite global resources, resulting in scarcity, famine, and conflict.

Four Principle Social Effects

Thomas Homer-Dixon's framework identifying four major social consequences of environmental scarcity: lower agricultural production, economic decline, population displacement, and disrupted social institutions.

Simple Scarcity Conflicts

Direct interstate disputes over scarce physical resources, such as water or river access and arable land.

Group Identity Conflicts

Hostilities that arise when resource scarcity drives human migration, bringing different ethnic or religious groups into contact and competition.

Relative-Deprivation Conflicts

Internal unrest, frustration, and insurgencies that occur when economic decline leaves people worse off than they expect, driven by perceived inequality.

Triple Dilemma

Short term costs (predictable) vs long term gains (unpredictable); Concentrated costs (big oil companies) vs Diffused gains (everybody); Benefits are global, but each state must pay a cost

Ozone

A layer of gas in the upper atmosphere that shields Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation, which was depleted by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to create the Antarctic ozone hole.

Montreal Protocol

A 1987 international treaty that phased out the production of ozone-depleting substances like CFCs, widely considered the most successful environmental agreement.

UNFCCC

The 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a treaty establishing the international climate negotiation process and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

Kyoto Protocol

A 1997 international treaty that set legally binding greenhouse gas reduction targets solely for developed countries.

Copenhagen Accord

A 2009 nonbinding agreement aiming to limit warming to $2^\circ\text{C}$ through voluntary national pledges, accompanied by a promise from wealthy states to mobilize $\$100\text{ billion}$ per year in climate finance.

Paris Accord

A 2015 global climate agreement relying on bottom-up, voluntary national emissions reduction targets to hold global temperature rise well below $2^\circ\text{C}$.