IR MIDTERM

IR affects daily life profoundly; we all participate in IR.

IR is a field of political science concerned mainly with explaining political outcomes in international security affairs and in the international political economy.

Theories complement descriptive narratives in explaining international events and outcomes, and although scholars do not agree on a single set of theories or methods, the three core principles (i.e., dominance, reciprocity, and identity) shape various solutions to collective goods problems in IR.

States are the most important actors in IR; the international system is based on the sovereignty of about 200 independent territorial states of varying size.

Nonstate actors such as intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and multinational corporations (MNCs) exert a growing influence on international relations.

Three levels of analysis—individual, domestic, systemic—suggest multiple explanations (operating simultaneously) for outcomes in IR.

Globalization, though conceived of differently by various scholars, generally refers to the growing scope, speed, and intensity of connectedness worldwide. The process may be weakening, strengthening, or transforming the power of states. Antiglobalization activists oppose growing corporate power but disagree on goals and tactics.

World Wars I and II dominated the twentieth century, yet they seem to offer contradictory lessons about the utility of hardline or conciliatory foreign policies.

For nearly 50 years after World War II, world politics revolved around the East-West rivalry of the Cold War. This bipolar standoff created stability and avoided great power wars, including nuclear war, but turned states in the global South into proxy battlegrounds.

The post–Cold War era holds hope of growing peace and great-power cooperation despite the appearance of new ethnic and regional conflicts.

The U.S. military campaign in Iraq overthrew a dictator, but it divided the great powers, heightened anti-Americanism worldwide, and led to years of insurgency and sectarian violence.

The NATO campaign in Afghanistan against Taliban influence ended in 2014, although some NATO troops remained until 2021. In 2011, U.S. special forces killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, where drone attacks targeted other militants.

The Arab Spring uprisings, which began in 2011, overthrew governments in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen, and sparked a brutal civil war in Syria.

Two events highlight the existence of a backlash to globalization: the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Both showed that themes of national over global concerns resonate with many citizens.

Russia disrupted the geopolitical landscape in 2022 with its invasion of Ukraine.

Realism explains international relations in terms of power.

Realists and idealists differ in their assumptions about human nature, international order, and the potential for peace.

Power can be conceptualized as influence or as capabilities that can create influence.

The most important single indicator of a state’s power is its GDP.

Short-term power capabilities depend on long-term resources, both tangible and intangible.

Realists consider military force the most important power capability.

International anarchy—the absence of world government—means that each state is a sovereign and autonomous actor pursuing its own national interests.

The international system traditionally places great emphasis on the sovereignty of states, their right to control affairs in their own territory, and their responsibility to respect internationally recognized borders.

Seven states account for half of the world’s GDP as well as the great majority of military forces and other power capabilities.

Power transition theory states that wars often result from shifts in relative power distribution in the international system.

Hegemony—the predominance of one state in the international system—can help provide stability and peace in international relations, but with some drawbacks.

States form alliances to increase their effective power relative to that of another state or alliance.

Alliances can shift rapidly, with major effects on power relations.

The world’s main alliances, including NATO and the U.S.-Japanese alliance, face uncertain roles in a changing world order.

International affairs can be seen as a series of bargaining interactions in which states use their power capabilities as leverage to influence the outcomes. But bargaining outcomes also depend on strategies and luck.

Rational-actor approaches treat states as though they were individuals acting to maximize their own interests. These simplifications are debatable but allow realists to develop concise and general models and explanations.

Game theory draws insights from simplified models of bargaining situations. The Prisoner’s Dilemma game embodies a difficult collective goods problem.

The central claims of realism—regarding anarchy, state actors, rationality, and the utility of military force—have been challenged on a variety of grounds.

Liberals dispute the realist notion that narrow self-interest is more rational than mutually beneficial cooperation.

Reciprocity can be an effective strategy for reaching cooperation in ongoing relationships but carries a danger of turning into runaway hostility or arms races.

Neoliberalism argues that even in an anarchic system of autonomous rational states, cooperation can emerge through the building of norms, regimes, and institutions.

Collective goods are benefits received by all members of a group regardless of their individual contributions. Shared norms and rules are important in getting members to pay for collective goods.

International regimes—convergent expectations of state leaders about the rules for issue areas in IR—help provide stability in the absence of a world government.

Hegemonic stability theory suggests that the holding of predominant power by one state lends stability to international relations and helps create regimes.

In a collective security arrangement, a group of states agrees to respond together to aggression by any participating state; the UN and other IGOs perform this function.

Democracies have historically fought as many wars as authoritarian states, but democracies have almost never fought wars against other democracies. This is called the democratic peace.

Constructivists reject realist assumptions about state interests, tracing those interests in part to social interactions and norms.

Postmodern critics reject the entire framework and language of realism, with its unitary state actors. Postmodernists argue that no simple categories can capture the multiple realities experienced by participants in IR.

Marxists view international relations, including global North-South relations, in terms of a struggle between economic classes (especially workers and owners) that have different roles in society and different access to power.

Peace studies programs are interdisciplinary and seek to broaden the study of international security to include social and economic factors ignored by realism.

For scholars in peace studies, militarism in many cultures contributes to states’ propensity to resort to force in international bargaining.

Feminist scholars of IR agree that gender is important in understanding IR but diverge into several strands regarding their conception of the role of gender.

Difference feminists argue that men are more warlike on average than women. They believe that although individual women participants (such as state leaders) may not reflect this difference, the participation of large numbers of women would make the international system more peaceful.

Liberal feminists disagree that women have substantially different capabilities or tendencies as participants in IR. They argue that women are equivalent to men in almost all IR roles. As evidence, liberal feminists point to historical and present-day women leaders and women soldiers.

Postmodern feminists seek to uncover gender-related subtexts implicit in realist discourse, including sexual themes connected with the concept of power.