International Relations Flashcards

Anarchy

• Nature of order:

  • Hierarchy: A system with a clear chain of command and authority.

  • Anarchy: The absence of a central authority or world government.

• Implications of a missing world government:

  • No means to enforce agreements: States can break agreements without a global enforcer.

  • No means to define or enforce shared moral principles: Difficulty in establishing universal ethical standards.

• The ordering principle in the international system is anarchy:

  • Anarchy ≠ chaos: Anarchy is not necessarily chaotic; it simply means the absence of a world government.

  • Anarchy is the opposite of hierarchy: No overarching authority.

  • Kang: Hierarchy as a possible ordering principle: Observed in East Asia over several centuries.

Power

• Power: Capabilities to get others to do something they wouldn’t otherwise do.

  • Hard power: Using coercion or incentives to influence behavior.

  • Soft power: Using persuasion and attraction to influence behavior.

  • Structural power: Influence in creating and upholding the "rules of the game."

  • Relational power: Influence derived from specific relationships and interactions.

Balance of Power

• Definition: Dynamic equilibrium among powerful states in a region or the international system.

• Purpose: To contain and/or balance against a state (or group of states) that threatens interests or systemic stability.

• Mechanisms:

  • Form temporary alliances as needed.

• Balance of power vs. Distribution of power:

  • Distribution of power: How power is spread among states.

  • Balance of power: States' actions to achieve equilibrium given the distribution of power.

• Balancing against threats:

  • States may balance against the most threatening, not necessarily the most powerful, states.

  • Doyle: Democracies are less threatening to other democracies.

  • Wendt: Norms of prior interactions determine perceived threat.

  • Jervis: Leaders’ perception of other states’ security posture (offense v. defense).

Distribution of Power

• Definition: How power is spread among states in the international system.

• Determining factor: Number of states that can project power beyond their region.

• Types:

  • Unipolar (or hegemonic): One great power.

  • Bipolar: Two great powers.

  • Multipolar: Three or more great powers.

Soft Power

• Definition: The ability to influence others through persuasion and attraction.

• Mechanisms:

  • Persuasion: Using diplomacy and diplomatic resources.

  • Emulation: Attracting others through perceived political, economic, and/or cultural success.

Structural Power

• Definition: Relative influence in creating and upholding the “rules of the game.”

• Example: US and the West upholding the liberal/rules-based international order.

Active/Passive Soft/Hard Power

Compellence

• Definition: The threat of punishment to influence a state.

• Examples:

  • Austria to Serbia (WWI).

  • Russia to NATO (Cold War and continuing conflict).

  • US sanctions threats.

Deterrence

• Definition: The threat of punishment in retaliation.

Bandwagoning

• Definition: Allying with the stronger side.

• Potential benefits: Sharing in the spoils of aggression.

• Potential costs: A powerful state might turn on allies.

• Walt's Perspective:

  • A balancing world is more stable than a bandwagoning one.

  • Defensive states balance for deterrence (stability).

  • Aggressive states bandwagon to gain spoils (instability).

• Current example - East Asia: Will smaller states balance against or bandwagon with China?

Core and Periphery (Marxist IPE Theory)

• IPE Theory:

  • Owners of capital (bourgeoisie) extract ‘surplus value’ of labor (proletariat).

  • Results in inequality, instability, and potential for revolution.

• World-systems theory and North-South relations (Wallerstein):

  • Analogy: In an integrated/specialized world economy, ‘core’ = bourgeoisie and ‘periphery’ = proletariat.

  • Underdevelopment of the South is a direct, intentional result of globalized capitalism.

Energy Independence

• Definition: Independence regarding energy resources, energy supply, and/or energy generation by the energy industry.

• Liberal perspective: Specialize and trade—energy isn’t actually scarce.

• Realist/mercantilist perspective: Interdependence in strategic resources = vulnerability, independence = security.

• Tradeoffs:

  • Energy: Independence (and ↓ vulnerability) may be possible, but at a high cost.

  • Environment: Interdependence is inevitable for transboundary phenomena (pollution, climate change).

Extended Deterrence

• Definition: When a third state is doing the deterring (e.g., NATO).

• Example: US ‘strategic ambiguity’ policy vis-à-vis China, Taiwan.

Free Riding

• Definition: Avoiding cooperation in an agreement and taking advantage of the cooperation of others with no cost.

• Impact: Presents collective action dilemmas.

Globalization

• Definition: Increasing interconnectedness and integration of different countries and regions through the flow of goods, services, capital, people, and ideas.

• Forms of globalization:

  • Economic globalization:

    • Naím: Associated with financialization, Americanization, etc.

    • Integration of national economies via trade, foreign direct investment, and financial investment.

  • Other forms: Political, Cultural, and Technological.

Humanitarian Intervention

• Definition: Outside intervention into a sovereign state on the basis of international human rights law/norms.

• Range of interventions:

  • Naming & shaming (maximum deference to state sovereignty).

  • Sanctions.

  • Military intervention.

  • State-building (international creation of a sovereign state).

Interdependence

• Definition: Degree of overlap in states’ interests.

• Areas: Trade/economic, military, climate, public health, etc.

Liberal International Order (LIO)

• Definition: Post-Cold War rules of the game.

• Key aspects:

  • Liberalism: economic > globalization (WTO, IMF, World Bank, etc.), political > democracy, rule of law (NATO, EU, etc.).

  • Ambivalence toward sovereignty: UN upholds external sovereignty, but requires states to exercise it responsibly.

• US/West's structural power: Capacity to establish rules of the game (embodied in LIO international institutions).

Mercantilism

• Definition: Economic theory where a nation's wealth is seen as a fixed entity, and a nation's power and strength are best achieved by maximizing exports and minimizing imports, often through government intervention and protectionist policies.

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

• Definition: A military ‘strategy’ where the ability of opposing sides to completely destroy each other deters them from initiating a nuclear attack.

Norms

• Definition: Presence/strength of standard practices based on shared beliefs about appropriate actions.

• Examples: Free trade, no first use of nuclear weapons…and sovereignty.

Norm Entrepreneur

• Definition: An individual, group, or organization that actively promotes or advocates for new social norms or interpretations of existing ones, aiming to influence the behavior of other actors.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

• Definition: A military alliance (international institution) of 32 countries from Europe and North America, founded in 1949 to promote collective defense and security.

• Core principle: An attack against one member is considered an attack against all.

Nuclear Proliferation

• Definition: The spread of nuclear weapons, technologies, and fissile materials to countries that do not already possess them.

• Significance: Major international security concern, as it increases the risk of nuclear war, regional instability, and the potential for nuclear terrorism.

Paris Climate Agreement

• Definition: An international treaty on climate change that was signed in 2016. The treaty covers climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance.

• Relevance: Relates to the debate on Global Governance.

Rational Actor

• Definition: A model of decision-making where states are assumed to act based on a clear understanding of their goals, available options, and the potential consequences of each choice, aiming to maximize their utility or satisfaction.

• Process: Weighing costs and benefits and choosing the action that best aligns with their preferences.

Refugee

• Definition: A person who has fled their home country due to a well-founded fear of persecution or violence, and is unable or unwilling to return.

Responsibility to Protect

• Definition: An international norm where states have a duty to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.

• International community's role: If a state is unwilling or unable to do so, the international community has a responsibility to step in and help.

Self-Help

• Link to anarchy: Anarchy, self-help, and the security dilemma.

• Security dilemma: State arming itself (self-help) looks threatening, induces self-help in response, leads to a security dilemma, and arms races (e.g., Cold War).

• Limitations of treaties: Treaties can’t end the security dilemma (Athens/Sparta, US/Soviets).

• Basic logic: States’ need for security in an anarchic international system à seek power à increased probability of conflict.

Sovereignty

• Internal sovereignty: State has a monopoly on legitimate coercion (police, military, taxation).

• External sovereignty: Other states recognize a state’s right to noninterference.

• Treaty of Westphalia (1648): Invention of the sovereign state.

• Evolution: The international system is organized around Westphalian sovereignty, but not globally until after WWII.

• Challenges: Putin, Trump.

Thucydides Trap

• Definition: The tendency for war to erupt when a rising power threatens to displace an existing great power.

• Examples: China and the US, or the origin, Athens and Sparta.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• Definition: An international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings.

Unitary Actor

• Definition: The idea that a state, or a group of states, acts as a single, unified entity when making decisions.

• Assumptions:

  • The state has a single set of interests and goals.

  • Actions are driven by a rational calculation of how best to achieve those goals.

Washington Consensus

• Definition: A set of ten economic policy recommendations generally advocated by Washington-based international financial institutions (like the IMF and World Bank) for developing countries in the 1980s and 1990s.

• Key elements: Largely market-oriented and emphasized deregulation, privatization, and fiscal discipline.

Levels of Analysis (LOA)

• LOA as first step toward theory: General indication of where to look to explain war, peace, cooperation, etc. (Attributed to Spanier and Wendzel).

• Systemic level of analysis: Characteristics of the international system drive relations among states (e.g., anarchy, distribution of power, etc.).

• Actor level of analysis: Characteristics of states drive relations among them (e.g., regime type: democracy v. authoritarian; culture/ideology; interest groups, etc.).

• Decision-making level of analysis: Individual leaders’ worldviews (misperceptions), decision-making contexts (crises, bureaucracies).

Cooperation

• Definition: States coordinating actions to achieve a shared goal.

War

• Definition: Sustained violence with a state military on at least one side.

• Criteria:

  • Sustained: Many people die.

  • Violence: Organized.

  • State military: v. other state, v. internal groups.

International Institutions

• Definition: Structures created by states to help them cooperate toward shared goals.

• Creation: Via treaties, etc. Not all states are members of—or bound by—all international institutions.

• Purpose: Achieve ‘goods’ or ‘benefits’ interdependent states can only attain via cooperation (e.g., global financial stability, public health).