IR Terms Midterm

1. State- an organized political entity defined by internal and external sovereignty over a clearly defined territory

2. Internal sovereignty– state has monopoly over legitimate coercion (taxation, police, military

3. External sovereignty– other states recognize a state’s right to non interference

4. Noninterference– leaving a state's internal affairs alone

5. International system– the political order within which sovereign states interact

6. Legitimate– having authority, and those who you hold siad authority over believing it. 

7. Ordering principle–the thing that dictates the order (the arrangement of units in a system that produces predictable results) (in the case of IR, the ordering principle is anarchy)

8. Anarchy– an absence of hierarchy (aka no world gov)

9. Distribution of Power– how power is spread among states

   1. Unipolar– one power, ex. USA right after USSR disolves

   2. Bipolar– two powers, ex. Cold War

   3. Multipolar– three of more great powers, ex. Pre WW2

10. Power– capabilities to get others to do something they wouldn’t otherwise do.

    1. Absolute power (a state’s total stock)

Hard power–Hard power refers to a nation's ability to use economic incentives or military strength to influence other actors' behaviors. 

1. military coercion– numbers/strength, sophistication or bombs, guns, etc.

   1. Ex. US and Afghanistan, military is also a strong weapon of deterrence

2. Economic coercion– size of GDP (market power), industrial/technological capacity

   1. Allows for sanctions, tariffs, and power over trade, again a strong tool of deterrence

      1. Ex. US and Mexico

Soft power

3. Persuasion– diplomacy

4. Emulation– perceived political, economic, and/or cultural success of appeal

2. Relative power (in relation to others)

Structural power

1. Relative influence in creating and upholding ‘rules of the game’ (liberal/rules-based international order)– ASK FOGARTY AB THIS

Relational power– relative centrality and/or asymmetry in security relations (e.g. alliances), economic relations, (e.g. trade and financial networks) etc.

11. Interdependence– degree of overlap in state’s interests

    1. Ex. climate change, or a state that imports a ton from another

12. International institutions– presence/strength of rules and organizations intended to help states collectively solve problems created by interdependence 

    1. Ex. geneva conventions, united nations, world health organization 

13. Norms– presence /strength of standard practices based in shared beliefs about appropriate actions

    1. Ex. free trade (up until recently), no first use of nuclear weapons, and sovereignty

14. Enduring patterns

15. Facts

16. Theory

17. National interest

18. Security

19. Globalization

20. Global issues

21. Systemic levels of analysis- characteristics of the international system drive relations among states (e.g. anarchy, distribution of power)

22. Actor level of analysis– characteristics of states drive relations among them (e.g. anarchy, distribution of power, etc.)

23. Decision-making level of analysis– individual leaders’ worldviews (misperceptions), decision making contexts, (crisis, bureaucracies)

    1. Ex. in 2022, there were multiple examples of decision-making analysis misconceptions leading to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

The EU and Ukraine didn’t believe US intelligence that Russia was planning to invade

Russia did not think that the West would be so quick and willing to defend the country. 

24. Description– defining terms, observing examples/cases 

    1. Ex. hard power, summarized in index (a list)

25. Explanation- identifying cause-effect relationships

    1. E.g. more fascist government → rising probability of war 

26. Unitary

27. Rationality– a state’s ability to do cause-benefit analysis when making a decision

28. Realpolitik– look powerful, or others will take advantage (from Machiavelli)

29. Self-help– look threatening, arm yourself. 

30. Security dilemma– everyone is self helping and scaring themselves and doing self help to make themselves feel better and then they sacre their enemy who also self helps and so on and so forth

31. Cooperation– coordination to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes

32. Relative gains– even if an agreement gives us both things we want, are you getting more of what you want than me?

33. Positive-sum– look at notes!

34. Elective v. unavoidable interdependence– elective interdependence are forms of interdependence that states can opt into. ex) trade. Unavoidable interdependence is just that, things you can’t avoid. Ex. security, environmental issues

    1. Ex. ethiopia damming the nile river upstream of egypt, who relies on it for agriculture and tourism

35. Asymmetrical interdependence- more dependent state is vulnerable 

    1. Mexico and US

36. Prisoner’s dilemma– do I stick with the collective action, or reap better benefits by myself

    1. Ex. Iran in the nuclear arms deal

37. Free ride– reap the benefits of collective action without actually contributing. 

    1. North Korea never joined the nuclear arms deal

38. Dyadic– an approach to social science, you see what you want to see

39. Integration: deep cooperation, with delegation to supranational institutions

    1. Ex. the EU (democracy as a precondition to membership, but democratic decay in Poland/ Hungary

    2. African Union: democratization correlated with integration, but diversity of regime types within the AU

Legitimacy: perception that someone/something has a right to rule/ right to be obeyed