international relations - exam 3

conditionality

• policy of the IMF, the World Bank, and others to attach conditions to their loans and grants

• may require recipient countries to devalue their currencies, lift various controls, cut their budgets, raise taxes, etc

• not always super productive

• not democratic - can take sovereignty from nations loaned to

economic nationalism

• national interests, tariffs/nontariff barriers, etc (protecting domestic industry/buyers first)

• could lead to conflict, trade wars, isolation from global economy, etc

• acting in your own self interest before the global interest

• zero sum environment

liberal internationalism

• capitalism/free trade = good thing

• positive sum game

• comparative advantage

• less tariffs/nontariff barriers

• imposing western ideas onto other people, driving factor for a lot of economic relations

world systems theory

• south is dependent on and disadvantaged by the north

• “the world is an economic society brought about by the spread of capitalism and characterized by a hierarchy of countries and regions based on a gap in economic circumstances and by the domination of lower tier countries by upper tier ones”

measures of economic development

• gross national product (GNP): measure of the sum of all goods and services produced by a country’s nationals, whether they are in the country or abroad

• gross domestic product (GDP): measure of economic activity within a countries territory that includes both domestic and foreign enterprises

• purchasing power parity: measure of the relative purchasing power of different currencies - price of the same goods in different countries held against a base currency (usually the US dollar)

International Monetary Fund

• world’s primary organization devoted to maintaining monetary stability by helping countries to fund balance of payment deficits

• CRITIQUE: conditionality can make things worse (raising taxes/cutting public spending doesn’t help most people), givens loans instead of aid - brings people more into debt, vote share based on how much money you donate (power held disproportionately by the global north)

World Bank

• International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

• helping global south compete with the global north (in theory)

• world bank group: four associated agencies that grant loans to less developed countries for economic developments and other financial needs

• predatory conditionality

World Trade Organization

• implements and enforces the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and mediates trade-related disputes between and among parties to the GATT

• General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade: multilateral trade negotiations that reduced tariffs after WWII and continued into the 1990s.

  • Became enforced by the WTO in 1993

Tariffs

• a tax, usually based on a percentage of value, that importers must pay on items purchased abroad

  • import tax or import duty

• can be used as a political/economic move against a country (not super effective)

Non-tariff barriers

• barriers to trade that aren’t tariffs

• quotas, technical specifications, or lengthy quarantine or inspection procedures

• differing safety regulations, makes more difficult for imports/exports, propping up domestic businesses

• EU has lots - US upset that it makes more difficult to sell to Europe

G-77

• (originally) group of 77 countries of the south that cosponsored the Joint Declaration of Developing Countries in 1963 calling for greater equity in North-South trade.

• now includes 134 members

• represents the interests of the less developed countries in the South

Least developed countries

• least developed countries are developing countries listed by the United Nations that exhibit the lowest indicators of socioeconomic development.

• most likely to get loans from IMF/World Bank

  • most likely to have the IMF/World Bank concerns

UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

• UN organization established in 1964

• currently consisting of all UN members, plus Holy See, Switzerland, and Tonga

• holds quadrennial meetings aimed at promoting international trade and economic development

New International Economic Order

• goals and demands of the South for basic reforms in the global economic system

• G-77 really into it

Sustainable Development Goals

• 17 goals adopted by the UN in 2015 as a roadmap for peace and prosperity for humanity and the global ecosystem now and into the future

• No poverty/hunger/water/energy access, Good health/Education, Gender equality/reduced inequality, Sustainable cities and economies, Partnership for the goals

Foreign Policy (sources, types, purposes)

• how countries arrive at goals and policies

• significance: country articles about how they arrived at different goals and policies

• russia: sees itself as the center of the world, fighting the holy fight against western ideals, etc

Foreign policy and public opinion

• public opinion important - need to explain why we’re doing what we’re doing and how it serves the American people

  • needs to persuade leaders to pass legislation, leaders need to answer to their voters

  • responsibility to explain where taxpayer money is going

• significance: American public opinion shifting rapidly - IR becoming more of a partisan issue

  • impact actions of politicians - potentially more likely to take extreme stances to please voters

gender and political economy

• radical feminist theory v classical feminist theory

• positivist approach:

  • adding women to the narrative - encouraging them to entering masculine fields

  • shifting paradigm of what we value in the economy

• constructivist approach:

  • asking questions about how masculinity and femininity are mapped onto different expectations

  • reproductive economy - unpaid and undervalued because it is feminized

• issues:

  • binary format

  • little research/history of non-binary or trans people

South-south cooperation

• recent uptick in South-South cooperation - less reliant on global north

  • north making some moves to block this

• regional trade agreements (like the simulation)

• positive sum outlook

BRICS

• Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa

• admitting new members - mostly Middle East and North Africa

• group/club - informal methods of operations - acting as a semi-inclusive unit

• will this actually work ?

  • no ? has countries that don’t like each other, Russia is gonna be sad, everyone is self interested

  • lots of infighting on how to go about things - contrary interests about representation in UN, World Bank, etc