Intro to IR Final Exam Vocab

Extremists

Actors whose interests are not widely shared by others; individuals or groups that are politically weak relative to the demands they make

Context: Terrorists are typically extremists, but what it means to be an extremist is relative to one’s culture. Extremist groups tend to be small and politically weak (relative to the demands they make), because of lack of support. They then resort to violence to further their goals. 

Example: ISIS (ideals weren’t shared by a lot of muslims, weak relative to their goal of a world of islam control)

Coercion

A strategy of imposing or threatening to impose costs on other actors in order to induce a change in their behavior 

Context: A strategy of violence used by terrorists (contrasted with provocation, spoiling, and outbidding) strategy for exercising power, works through future costs, terrorists use coercion to induce policy change by imposing costs—usually civilian deaths and injuries—on the target.

Example: Al-Qaeda threatening future attacks on the US after 9/11 if they did not withdraw their troops from the middle east

Provocation

A strategy of terrorist attacks intended to provoke the target government into making a disproportionate response that alienates moderates in the terrorists’ home society or in other sympathetic audiences 

Context: strategy of violence used by terrorists to further their interests (contrasted with coercion, spoiling, and outbidding), attacks can involve any combination of the four, helps us understand the power of non-state actors in IR

Example: Al-Qaeda and 9/11 to elicit an attack in the middle east, disproportionate response of the war on terror, alientation of moderates in anti-american sentiment and civilian attacks, goal of generating sympathy for their group

Spoiling

A strategy of terrorist attacks intended to sabotage a prospective peace between the target and moderate leadership from the terrorists’ home society

Context: strategy of violence used by terrorists to further their interests (contrasted with coercion, spoiling, and outbidding), helps us understand the power of non-state actors in IR, attacks can involve any combination of the four. This strategy is particularly relevant in situations where a negotiated settlement is being considered or implemented, but spoilers seek to sabotage the process by increasing mistrust between the negotiating parties, spoilers exploit commitment problems to generate distrust

Example: Oslo Accords, Hamas attempt to disrupt Israeli and Palestinian peace

Outbidding

A strategy of terrorist attacks designed to demonstrate superior capability and commitment relative to other groups devoted to the same cause

Context: strategy of violence used by terrorists to further their interests (contrasted with coercion, spoiling, and outbidding), helps us understand the power of non-state actors in IR, attacks can involve any combination of the four, helps explain why terrorist organizations may escalate attacks even when it seems counterproductive, shows role of competition among non-state actors not just state vs nonstate

Example: Fatah and Hamas competing for the support of the Palestinian people 

Comparative advantage

The ability of a country or firm to produce a particular good or service more efficiently than it can produce other goods or services, such that its resources are most efficiently employed in this activity. The comparison is to the efficiency of other economic activities that the actor might undertake given all the products it can produce–not to the efficiency of other countries or firms

Context: core concept of the economics of trade, applies the principle of specialization to countries, compares the things a country could do (produce), don’t need an absolute advantage to be cost efficient, just a comparative advantage, clear implications for free trade (countries benefit from engaging in its comparative advantage, and trading with countries that don’t have their comparative advantage, so trade barriers are bad)

Example: Saudi Arabia and oil (large reserves, low production costs)

Absolute advantage

The ability of a country or firm to produce more of a particular good or service than other countries or firms can produce with the same amount of effort and resources

Context: contrasted with comparative advantage, not necessary for a country to be cost-effective or profit, 

Example: Saudi Arabia and oil (large reserves low costs)

Neo-mercantilism

A belief that national economic policy should encourage exports and discourage imports and that the country should aim to run a trade surplus. 

Context: likeness to the classical mercantilism of the colonial powers, which aimed to run trade surpluses with their colonies, discourages free trade which is supported by comparative advantage and economic logic, results in protectionism

Example: China (invested in industries and infrastructure, imposed tariffs on imports)

Heckscher-Ohlin trade theory

The theory that a country will export goods that make intensive use of the factors of production in which it is well endowed. For example, a labor-rich country will export goods that make intensive use of labor

Context: helps to understand a country’s comparative advantage, national comparative advantage and national trading partners, comparative advantage is not just the result of effort, explains broad international trade and changes in a country’s trade relations, 

Example: india (labor rich, highly skilled growing population = main export is IT services and customer support)

Protectionism

The imposition of barriers to restrict imports

Context: feature of neo-mercantilism, despite arguments for free trade established by comparative advantage economic logic, every country rn has restrictions on trade, most rich countries were protectionist at some point in their history

Example: Trump’s current economic strategy, increasing tariffs with the goal of protecting domestic industries

Trade barriers

Government limitations on the international exchange of goods. 

Context: feature of protectionism

Example: tariffs, quantitative restrictions (quotas), import licenses, requirements that governments buy only domestically produced goods, and health and safety standards that discriminate against foreign goods

Tariff

A tax imposed on imports. Tariffs raise the domestic price of the imported good and may be applied for the purpose of protecting domestic producers from foreign competition

Context: type of trade barrier, historically the most common type of trade barrier, 

Example: US tariffs on china in the ongoing trade war

Quantitative restriction (quota)

A limit placed on the amount of a particular good that is allowed to be imported and sold domestically

Context: type of trade barrier, type of nontariff barrier to trade, have the same effects as tariffs (make imported goods more expensive to domestic consumers)

Example: US import quota on sugar

Nontariff barriers to trade

Obstacles to imports other than tariffs (trade taxes).

Context: effect is to shelter domestic producers from foreign competition, includes quotas

Example: “Buy American” laws that govern what state and local governments can buy, for example, are an implicit–but nontariff–obstacle to the purchase of imports. 

Stolper-Samuelson theorem

The theorem that trade protection benefits the scarce factor of production. This view flows from the Heckscher-Ohlin theory: if a country imports goods that make intensive use of its scarce factor, then limiting imports will help that factor. So, in a labor-scarce country, labor benefits from protection and loses from trade liberalization. 

Context: comes from from the Heckscher-Ohlin theory, explains who will oppose and support trade protection

Example: 

Ricardo-Ciner (specific-factors) model

A model of trade relations that emphasizes the sector in which factors of production are employed rather than the nature of the factor itself. This differentiates it from the Heckscher-Ohlin theory, in which the nature of the factor–labor, land, capital, is the principal consideration. 

Context: approach to predicting trade policy, contrasted with the Heckscher-Ohlin theory, differs from stolper-samuelson (bcuz some factors of production are industry specific), relevant actors are industrial sectors, interests of an individual flow from the sector in which they are employed (worker in an export industry will want free trade, a worker in an industry with import competition will want protections) 

Example: 

Reciprocity

In international trade relations, a mutual agreement to lower tariffs and other barriers to trade. Reciprocity involves an implicit or explicit arrangement for one government to exchange trade-policy concessions with another

Context: a type of institutional agreement that facilitates trade negotiations, type of linkage politics that helps bind agreements, 

Example: NAFTA, created a free trade zone between the US, Canada, and Mexico

Most-favored-nation (MFN) status

A status established by most modern trade agreements guaranteeing that the signatories will extend to each other any favorable trading terms offered in agreements with third parties

Context: another type of institutional agreement that facilitates trade negotiations, developed over the last 100 years, serves to link negotiations between two countries to all their multilateral trade relations

Example: under the WTO’s general agrement on trades and tariffs (GATT) all members must extend a MFN status to each other

World Trade Organization (WTO)

An institution created in 1995 to succeed the GATT and to govern international trade relations. The WTO encourages and polices the multilateral reduction of barriers to trade, and it oversees the resolution of trade disputes. 

Context: type of international institution, most important one in the world of commercial relations, superseded the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (1947) which was one of the original Bretton Woods systems, more structured and formal to accommodate the growing number of countries in the international trade system

Example: WTO resolved US and China disputes on intellectual property rights

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

An international institution created in 1947 in which member countries committed to reducing barriers to trade and providing similar trading conditions to all other members. In 1995, the GATT was replaced by the WTO.

Context: one of the original Bretton Woods systems created in 1947, predecessor to the WTO, oversaw the dramatic liberalization of trade relations, in the 90s members began to believe it was too loose to accommodate the growing number of countries involved in the international trade system, 

Example: ?

Regional trade agreements (RTAs)

Agreements among three or more countries in a region to reduce barriers to trade among themselves.

Context: institutional structure (like the WTO) to help facilitate trade, complementary to the WTO, can help resolve conflicts, but also could limit members trade with nonmembers

Example: European Union (free movement within a single market), NAFTA

Less developed countries (LDCs)

Countries at a relatively low level of economic development

Context: want to develop, but steps to development may threaten interests of domestic and international actors, primary three barriers to development: geography, domestic factors such as a nation’s political economy, and domestic institutions.

Example: Afghanistan (low GDP, high poverty rates, poor insfrastructure)

Infrastructure

Basic structures necessary for social activity, such as transportation and telecommunications networks, and power and water supply

Context: weak infrastructure is part of the domestic factors that can limit development, can be physical (roads, airports, utilities) or social (public health, education, urban planning).

Example: CTA in Chicago

Primary products

Raw materials and agricultural products, typically unprocessed or only slightly processed. The primary sectors are distinguished from secondary sectors (industries) and tertiary sectors (services).

Context: Historically, LDCs sold mainly primary products, markets were competitive so prices moved quickly. In contrast, industrialized countries sold secondary and tertiary products, where markets were more controlled by oligopolistic firms

Example: coffee beans (Brazil, Colombia)

Oligopoly

A situation in which a market or industry is dominated by a few firms

Context: While LDCs historically sold primary products, industrialzied countries sold manufactured goods. Oligopolies led to more controlled markets than in LDCs, as the oligopolistic firms could control the markets and ensure prices didn’t fall. 

Example: global commercial aircraft industry (Boeing and Airbus)

Terms of trade

The relationship between a country’s export prices and its import

Context: the inequality in LDCs (primary products) and developed countries (manufactured products) markets led to deterioration of the terms of trade in LDCs, meaning they got less for what they sold and paid more for what they bought. Countries that produced primary products were at a disadvantage. 

Example: Saudi Arabia exporting oil (to the US) and importing machinery (from the US)

Import-substituting industrialization (ISI)

A set of policies, pursued by most developing countries from the 1930s through the 1980s, to reduce imports and encourage domestic manufacturing, often through trade barriers, subsidies to manufacturing, and state ownership of basic industries

Context: contrasted with export-oriented industrialization, brought upon by the great depression and the world wars turning countries inward, developing countries wanted to move away from primary production and towards industrialization, these countries did not do as well as those with EOI: the industries were not efficient and had difficulty selling their goods abroad, leading to a worrisome balance between imports and exports

Example: India after its independence (1947), focused on developing domestic industries, wanted economic independence, imposed tariffs on imports

Export-oriented industrialization

A set of policies, originally pursued in the mid-1960s by several East Asian countries, to spur manufacturing for export, often through subsidies and incentives for export production

Context: contrasted with ISI, was much more successful (especially after the debt crisis of the 1980s)

Example: South Korea, focused on electronics and automobiles (Samsung, Hyundai)

Group of 77

A coalition of developing countries in the UN, formed in 1964 with 77 members, that seeks changes to the international economic order to favor the developing world. It has grown to over 130 members but retains the original name.

Context: developing country based institution, succeeded by the Non-Aligned Movement, which focused on economic and political concerns in developing countries, using collective numbers to make economic change

Example: 

Commodity cartels

Associations of producers of commodities (raw materials and agricultural products) that restrict world supply of their products and thereby cause the price of their goods to rise

Context: an attempt of other LDCs to emulate OPEC (a group of developing countries who changed the global economy), oil producers were the most successful

Example: OPEC

Human rights

The rights possessed by all individuals by virtue of being human, regardless of their status as citizens of particular states or members of a group or organization 

Context: long philosophical tradition dating back to John Lock and his natural rights, which informed the french and american revolutions, first international steps towards protecting tehse were in the Universal Decalration of Human Rights

Example: right to life, freedom of speech, freedom from torture, right to education, and right to participate in government

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

A declaration, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, that is defined as a “common standard of achievement for all peoples” and forms the foundation of modern human rights law

Context: protects human rights (see above), foundation of modern human rights law, see above predecessors, type of soft law

Example: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), inspired by the UDHR

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

The agreement, completed in 1966 and in force from 1976, that details the basic civil and political rights of individuals and nations. Life, liberty, freedom of movement

Presumption of innocence, Legal recourse when rights have been violated, Freedom of thought, conscience, religion, Forbids torture, inhumane punishment, slavery, and arbitrary arrest/detention

Context: an attempt at translating the UDHR into hard law, combined with the ICESCR to make the twin covenants

Example: challenged the death penalty in the Phillipines

International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)

The agreement, completed in 1966 and in force from 1976, that specifies the basic economic, social, and cultural rights of individuals and nations. Right to a minumum standard of living, form trade unions, and strike, Equal pay, maternity leave, primary education, Copyright, patent, trademarks, Forbids exploitation of children and requires countries to combat world hunger

Context: an attempt at translating the UDHR into hard law, combined with the ICESCR to make the twin covenants

Example: India’s Right to Education Act

International Bill of Rights

The UDHR, ICCPR, and ICESCR collectively. Together, these three agreements form the core of the international human rights regime

Context: UDHR, ICCPR, ICESCR contexts combined

Example: United Nations Human Rights Council

Nonderogable Rights

Rights that cannot be suspended for any reason, including in cases of social or public emergency

Context: found in ICCPR Article 4, along with the rights that can be suspended, contrasted with the rights in the ICESCR where there are no nonderogable rights, these rights have lots of support wit international organizations like Amnesty International

Examples: emphasized during the war on torture, US held that even in counterterrorism efforts torture is not justified: freedom from torture or cruel and degrading punishment; the right to be recognized as a person before the law; and freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.

Prisoners of conscience (POCs)

Individuals imprisoned solely for the peaceful expression of their beliefs. The term was coined by the human rights organization Amnesty International

Context: example of a human rights violation, and violation of the ICCPR in the International Bill of Rights

Example: Mohammad Ali was imprisoned for refusing to serve in the Vietnam war because of his beliefs as a muslim

Individual petition

A right that permits individuals to petition appropriate international legal bodies directly if they believe a state has violated their rights.

Context: an important development made in international human rights law, human rights are outlined in the UDHR and nonderogable rights are found in teh ICCPR

Example: European Court of Human Rights 

International criminal court

A court of last resort for human rights cases that possesses jurisdiction only if the accused is a national of a state party, the crime took place on the territory of a state party, or the UN Security Council has referred the case to the prosecutor.

Context: prosecutes crimes against humanity, court of last resort, prosecuted few cases, but helps deter human rights violations, but is highly controversial as their involvment may prolong conflict

Example: Arrests warrants for Deif, Netanyahu, and Gallant in palestine

Public goods

Products that are nonexcludable and nonrival in consumption, (can’t prevent anyone else from using it, and one person using it doesn’t make it less available for someone else)

Context: contrasted with purely private goods (only one person can possess and consume), efforts to produce public goods can result in collective action problems

Examples: national defense or clean air and water

Common-pool resources

Goods that are available to everyone, but such that one user’s consumption of the good reduces the amount available for others. Common-pool resources are rival but non-excludable.

Context: goods can be defined by whether they are excludable or rival, type of nonexcludable but rival good, can lead to a collective action problem if one party overexploits the resource, which is a failure of cooperation

Example: Forests

Nonexcludable goods

Goods that, if available to be consumed by one actor, cannot be prevented from being consumed by other actors as well.

Context: paired with nonrival to create a public good, paired with rival to create a common pool resource 

Examples: national defense, clean air and water

Nonrival goods

Goods for which consumption by one actor does not diminish the quantity available for others.

Context: paired with nonexludable to create a public good, paired with exludable to create club goods

Examples: digital content, news broadcasts, public knowledge

Kyoto Protocol

An amendment to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted in 1997 and entered into force in 2005, that established specific targets for reducing emissions of carbon and five other greenhouse gases throughout 2020

Context: privatized what was a public good (nonexcludable and nonrival)

Example: Eu emissions trading scheme (ETS)

Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer

A framework convention adopted in 1985 to regulate activities, especially emissions of CFCs that damage the ozone layer

Context: with the montreal protocol, a result of US leadership in climate negotiations in the 1980s

Example: 

Montreal Protocol

An international treaty, signed in 1987, that is designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of a number of CFCs and other chemical compounds

Context: with the Vienna convention of the Protection of the Ozone Layer, a result of US leadership in climate negotiations in the 1980s

Example:

Cap-and-trade system

A cap-and-trade system sets an overall limit on emissions, which is then lowered over time to reduce pollutants released into the atmosphere. Forms can sell “credits” when they emit less than their allocation or must buy from others when they emit more than their allocation

Context: works well for large emitters, but for things like individual automobiles it is better to use an efficiency standard, ETS was the first international cap and trade system created by the Kyoto Protocol

Example: Emissions Trading Scheme in Europe

Nationally determined contribution (NDC) 

The commitment each party to the Paris Agreement makes as to how it will contribute to reducing the threat of global warming

Context: goal of reducing threat of global warming, created by the paris climate agreement, they can be achieved however a country chooses, 

Example: China committed to carbon neutrality by 2060

Externalities

Costs or benefits resulting from an actor’s decision that affect stakeholders other than that actor. When an externality exists, the decision maker does not bear all the costs or reap all the gains from the action.

Context: key factor in understanding bargaining problems, particularly when looking at climate change and polluting commitments,

Example: Volkswagen Emissions Scandal (Dieselgate), cars emitted up to 40 times legal emissions of nitrogen oxide