International Relations

Question 1

Main principles of the Westphalia Treaty (4)

Answer 1

1. Sovereignty over defined territory
2. Territorial Integrity / Non interference
3. Separation of religion and state
4. State based system replaces imperial rule

Question 2

Westphalian system is trade off between…(2)

Answer 2

1. Security within states - state authority over own people

2. Insecurity between states - no overarching authority between states to maintain peace

Question 3

Theoretical Approaches to International Relations (2)

Answer 3

1. Liberal/Idealist School of Thought (Locke, Kant)
   Positive view of human nature (can work together/soft power)
2. Realist School of Thought (Hobbes, Machiavelli)
   Largely negative view, humans and states seek power (hard power)

Question 4

Idealist/Liberal School of IR (post WWI)

Principles & Objective) (4

Answer 4

1. Human nature is basically cooperative
2. Central problem: how to secure peace
3. Motivation of actors is mutual assistance
4. Nature of international relations is cooperative
   Objective: create international authority

Question 5

Realist School of IR (post WWII)

Principles & Objective) (5

Answer 5

1. Human nature is power-seeking
2. Key actors are states
3. Anarchy underpins international system
4. Motivation of states is national interest
5. National Security is central problem
   Objective: balance of hard power between two states

Question 6

What creates [in/]security?

Answer 6

Answer depends on history

Question 7

Creation of IR?

Answer 7

After WWII

Question 8

IR issues in WWI

Answer 8

Insecurity: Greatest threat is state to state warfare
Solution: International Cooperation

Question 9

IR issues in WWII

Answer 9

Insecurity: Greatest threat is external nuclear attack
Solution: National Security

Question 10

IR issues Presently

Answer 10

Insecurity defined by transnational threats to human beings rather than state to state threats: pandemics, global warming, terrorism, etc.

Question 11

Examples of New Threats (Name at least 3)

Answer 11

Proliferation of weapons
Nuclear
Non-nuclear
Population/environmental threats
Intra-state/ethnic conflict/ ‘cleansing’
Terrorism
Pandemics

Question 12

Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (1970)

Answer 12

International Treaty to limit the spread of nuclear weapons (beyond US, UK, France, Russia and China)
Four nations have not signed : India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel

Question 13

Security Threats in Post Cold-War World (3)

Answer 13

1. Nuclear weapons in unstable region/state
2. Nuclear weapons obtained by non state terrorists
3. Nuclear weapons and superpower (e.g. USA Trump 2020)

Question 14

Nuclear Weapons Proliferation

Answer 14

Superpowers declining stockpile but growing in other countries

Question 15

Non nuclear weapons Proliferation

Answer 15

1. Small arms kill 1000 people/day in conflicts
2. Arms are sold largely to countries in conflict
3. Global Small Arms Trade is big business
4. Arms Trade exacerbates conflict in developing world

Question 16

Intra state Conflict (1946-1990)

Answer 16

Frequency of Wars
Increase In 1990
But decrease since
Fewer deaths

Question 17

Realism

Answer 17

Post WWII -> Realist School of Thought (Hobbes, Machiavelli)
-Hobbes: we are all power-driven individuals that seek it in different ways, power and fear are the biggest driving forces
Cooperation is inherently malicious
WW2 - showed that idealism is as naive as it can get (fascist states)
–> Hard Power is key - security is rooted in military; strong countries are strong in the fear that they generate

PRINCIPLES

• human nature is power-seeking
• key actors are states
• anarchy underpins international system
• motivation of states is national interests
• national security is central problem

Ideal objective: balance of hard power between two states creates peace (like Cold War)

• a system where the strongest keep order allows a sense of peace
• a uni-polar world is a bad idea and create vacuum and uncertainty

Question 18

Idealism

Answer 18

Liberal/Idealist School of Thought (Locke, Kant) -> WW1
Woodrow Wilson (self-determination); Soft Powers 

PRINCIPLES
Human nature is essentially at its heart, cooperative and well-intentioned (Locke’s ‘noxious peace’, society cannot be made of of beasts)

Central problem: how to secure peace?
-motivation of actors is mutual assistance
= nature of IR is cooperative - states look to cooperate for beneficial (trade is a good example)

Objective: create international authority, like UN or LON or EU to make sure obligations are met
-STATES LIKE AND BENEFIT FROM COOPERATION (most of the time) - umbrella organization to protect rogue states

Question 19

Hans Morgenthau; Politics Amongst Nations

Answer 19

1948
The book introduces the concept of political realism, presenting a realist view of power politics.

This concept played a major role in the foreign policy of the United States, which made it exercise globe spanning power in the Cold War period.

The concept also called for a reconciliation of power politics with the idealistic ethics of earlier American discussions about foreign policy

Question 20

Peace of Westphalia

Answer 20

Product of 5 years of negotiations; 128 clauses

Authority of rulers to determine the religious affiliations of their subjects; infused with a emergent ideas concerning international law;

‘laws of war and peace’ confronted conflicting moralities and the need for tolerance and coequal juridical states (sovereignty)

Question 21

Woodrow Wilson

Answer 21

US president from 1913 to 1921

• Progressive foreign policy but retrograde domestically (proponent of slavery)
• Took us to war to “make world a better place” (idealism)
• Efforts to establish new idealist world order after war

Question 22

League of Nations

Answer 22

A failure; did not prevent outbreak of WW2

• Internationalism heavily idealist and criticized by realists
• UN based in part on structure of lON

First attempt at collective security: successful on such a large scale

Question 23

English School

Answer 23

Gathered first time in london, 1959; believed entire field suffered from intellectual poverty

The English School of international relations theory maintains that there is a ‘society of states’ at the international level, despite the condition of anarchy. The English school stands for the conviction that ideas, rather than simply material capabilities, shape the conduct of international politics, and therefore deserve analysis and critique. In this sense it is similar to constructivism, though the English School is more open to normative approaches than is generally the case with constructivism

Rejected scientism of US IR; believe states revolve around the concept of international society (sovereign states formed under conditions of anarchy); interested in establishing a stable, international order

Criticism that it was a very Eurocentric view (discusses only english speaking states)

Question 24

UN Security Council

Answer 24

Established under chapter 5 of the charter

10 permanent members, ‘p5’, 20 non-permanent members, holding veto power over security council decisions (collective security and cooperation of big powers)

-p5 no longer reflects current balance of power or world population; leaders of developing world think it is skewed towards developed countries

Question 25

Human Security

Answer 25

• UN ‘human development report’ 1994: “the world can never be at peace unless people have security in their daily lives
• health security, employment security, environmental security, and security from crime; understood as the “safety from the constant threats of hunger, disease, crime and repression” and “protection from sudden and hurtful disruptions in the pattern of our daily lives - whether in our homes, in our jobs, in our communities or in our environment “
• critics say the broad definition dilutes the definition of the term
• concept of security changes after 9/11 to a more interventionist one

Question 26

Antonio Gramsci

Answer 26

• italian intellectual/activist that served as the leader of the italian communist party; imprisoned under mussolini and books published as ‘prison notebooks’
• accepts dialectical struggle, but rejects materialism of marxist theory to argue that REALITY IS NOT EXCLUSIVE TO HUMAN INTERESTS and danger of accepting ‘status quo’
• focusing on the naturalization of power in the creation of hegemony by elite, gramsci argues that ruling class maintains power/control through non-coercive ways because they make inequalities seem natural and inevitable and right; the hegemony is thus consented to by the masses (hegemony through consent)

Question 27

Constructivism

Answer 27

Developed by classic sociologists such as durkheim, weber, manheim

A social theory that asserts that significant aspects of international relations are shaped by ideational factors, not simply material factors

• Like CT, argues that order is not natural but a product of human activity
  Institutionalization + process of habitualization necessary to understand society

Rationalist constructivism (more realist): rationality underlies human behaviour towards ends; knowledge can be obtained through empirical evidence and states are main actors in an anarchic system; abandoned that realism/idealism can predict what the future holds
-reflectivist scholarsip: doubt rationality in constructivism

Question 28

Critical IR Theory

Answer 28

Abbreviated to CT
Critiques of traditional theories of society/politics
-includes but not limited to socialist theory and negative impacts of capitalism on social life
-problems/remedies differ

Cox continues to argue that realism is the ideology of the status quo; supports the international order and the interests of those that prosper under it; as it perceives the order as natural, inevitable and unchanging and does not challenge it

-CT aims to PROVIDE THE INTELLECTUAL AND NORMATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR EMANCIPATION FROM UNFAIR AND UNJUST POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC ARRANGEMENTS THAT BENEFIT THE FEW AT THE EXPENSE OF MANY THROUGH HEGEMONIC CONTROL IN A SYSTEM OF COERCION AND CONSENT