Ch. 4 Levels of Analysis

Levels of Analysis: The international system, the state, and the individuals.

Waltz’s 3 Explanations for War

International System Level - Distribution of power or with international and regional organization and their strengths and weaknesses
State Level/Domestic Factors - Characteristics of state. Example is type of government, economic system, interest groups in country, and/or national interest.
Individual - personality, perceptions, choices, and activities of individual decision makers and participants

Realism and International System

Possibility of war and peace rely on concept of polarity
System Polarity: The distribution of capabilities among states in the international system by counting the number of “poles”.
Multipolar System: Is any system in which the distribution of the power to conquer is concentrated in more than two states
In a stable multipolar system a balance of power system the implicit rules guiding interactions are clear to each of the state actors: Rules of Competition, cooperation, and shifting alliances. Alliances tend to be short and for a specific purpose.
Bipolar Systems: those in which the distribution of power to conquer is concentrated in 2 states or coalitions of states. Alliances tend to be longer and based on relatively permanent interests. Certain about the direction and magnitude of threat.
Unipolar System: The power to conquer all other states in the system combined resides within a single state
Bipolar systems are difficult to regulate formally, because neither uncommitted states nor international organizations can reliably direct the behavior of either of the two poles
Hegemon: Most powerful state in the system
When the hegemon loses material capability or is no longer willing to exercise its advantage in relative power to provide benefits to all, then system stability is jeoparidized

Liberalism and the International System

Actors in the international channels include the international governmental organizations (U.N.) , nongovernmental organizations (Human Rights Watch), multinational corporations, and substate actors (parliaments and bureaucracies).
Multilateralism: The conduct of international activity by three or more states in accord with shared principles, often, but not always, through international institutions

Schools of thought Regarding Liberal International Order Future

Elites have prospered and ordinary people are left out
Even rising powers that aren’t liberal democracies benefit from the liberal international order through free trade and the institutions that help to sustain it
States are already returning to their old habits (return of geopolitics and rising nationalism unconstrained by liberal principles).
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