IR Test 1

Modern vs. Contemporary vs. Current 

  • Modern: world governed by science, last 500 years (post enlightenment) 

    • The anthropocene: era in which humans have irreversibly damaged the earth 

  • Contemporary: (think of older gen’s “contemporaries”) last 50-80 years

  • Current: right now, post Monroe doctrine

    • Monroe doctrine: statement made by president Monroe that established the US as a protector of the western hemisphere and warned Europe to stay out. 

State sovereignty - independence, cannot interfere w/ other states’ affairs

  • Westphalian settlement - treaties signed between Munster and Osnabruck to end 30 years war, established state sovereignty/groundwork for modern IR 

Normative vs. Empirical - normative is prescriptive, empirical is descriptive

Heartland vs. Rimland theory

  • Heartland: those who control asia/europe control the world

  • Rimland: controlling oceania through ports can overtake the heartland (ex: US) 

Postmodernism: way of thinking that challenges all supposed “truths”, a problem of our time according to Lawson 

  • Linked to identity politics

  • Rejects the idea of accepting increasing globalization, hopes for a fragmented society (where power is split)

Munich treaty - gave Czechoslovakian land to Hitler without permission, “don’t appease dictators” 

Council on Foreign relations and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: 

  • Both represent political and economic IR thinking

  • CFR: advisory to Woodrow during WWI, now leading thinktank on US IR. 

  • CEIP: started by Carnegie, who like other billionaires, oppose war 

Humanitarian intervention: 

  • Those who intervene tend to do so for personal gain 

  • Ex: invasion of Iraq - what first started as a mission to retrieve WOMDs (that did not exist) turned into a humanitarian cause 

Hegemony - domination maintained through consent/coercion, US became a hegemonic power after fall of USSR

Rules-based order - norms set by western countries post WWII, Russia broke this after Ukraine invasion

  • Ex: human rights, weapons of mass destruction spread

Cosmopolitan pluralism - adding diverse perspectives without erasing current IR schools of thought

Cosmopolitanism - view that we should be “global citizens” before other associations 

  • But richer people (who travel the world) are more inclined to call themselves global citizens, more wealth inequality 

Sphere of influence - area where a country has power to affect developments without formal authority

Culture - large scale social formations, can be a nation or a religion or anything really 

  • The term implies a hierarchy between the “civilised” and “primitive” 

Human nature - no set definition, but generally that we’re social 

Thomas Hobbes - believed “every man for himself” and that the natural state of society is dangerous and can only be controlled by a sovereign authority. 

Great game - 19th century contest between Russia and Germany for control of central asia 

  • No collective security arrangement between Stan countries 

  • Russia sees area as potential sphere of influence, China sees possible extension of its belt and road program 

Deindustrialization threat - with less weapons produced domestically, we may be at risk for not having the supplies if we go to war. 

  • WPO article suggests 15% shift in current spending to invest in private industry, but this might just be to the author’s benefit 

Carl von Clausewitz - prussian general who fought in napoleonic wars, wrote about the “fog and friction” of war

  • Fog and friction - you may start a war for rational reasons, but it often turns into something else due to the fog and friction