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Political Science, University of Calgary (unknown year; likely early 2020s) > First Midterm 381 Intro to International Relations > Flashcards

First Midterm 381 Intro to International Relations Flashcards

1
Q

Real Politik

A
  • Thucydides and Greek early suggestion of this
  • System of politics or principles based on practice not morality or ideology
  • Do what you must to protect your interests
  • pramatism over ethics, pursue national interest, what is best for state regardless of external moral factors
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2
Q

International Orders

A
  • Regularized practices of exchange among discrete political units that recognize each other to be independent
  • Political multiplicity
  • Recent rise of the west
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3
Q

Treaties of Westphalia

A
  • Ended 30 years war in 1648
    1) territory/geographical location with borders
    2) Stable population
    3) Some form of government to govern people but ability to defend and maintain territory
    4) Ought to be recognized by other states through diplomatic and international legal means.
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4
Q

Sovereignty (modern impact of treaty of Westphalia)

A

1) Principle of the sovereignty of states and fundamental right of political self determination
2) Legal equality between states
3) Non intervention of one state in the internal affairs of another state

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5
Q

Idealists v.s Realists

A

Idealist= Norman Angell 1910:
-prospects of war remote because of interconnected economy. proved wrong by WW1
Realists= E.H. Carr:
-interwar years.
-no perfect remedy for war
-competitive nature of politics between nations, war likely outcome. WWII proves him right

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6
Q

Hans Morgenthau

A
  • 1948, Politics Among Nations
  • Classical realism
  • Competition for power eventually results in war
  • Interests not ideology
  • Best explained by human nature and human kinds lust for power
  • Keep power, increase power, demonstrate power
  • Urged for balance of power
  • National interest disciplines foreign policy
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7
Q

Name the Pre-20th Century Realists

A
  • Thucydides
  • Niccolo Machiaveli
  • Thomas Hobbes
  • Jean-Jacques Rouseau
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8
Q

Thucydides as a Realist

A
  • Power politics as law of human behavior
  • Desire for power and need to follow self interest
  • Human nature explains why international politics = power politics
  • National Interest= survival
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9
Q

Machiaveli

A
  • Cynical/Pessimistic view of human nature

- Leaders better feared than loved, learn not to be good and act accordingly

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10
Q

Hobbes

A
  • Pessimistic view of human nature in state of nature condition
  • Influenced by English Civil War
  • Life of man ‘nasty, brutish and short’
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11
Q

Rousseau

A
  • Contract establishing sovereignty reflects general will

- No high power to settle disputes between sovereign states.

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12
Q

Shared Assumptions of Realism

A
  • Statism: within state there is authority that upholds order. Social contract. Legitimate use of force within states. States only actors that matter because of sovereignty. Trade liberty for guarantee of security
  • Survival: Core interest of states. Henry Kissinger: first and utmost responsibility. Ethic responsibility.
  • Self-Help: no one out there to assist a state. State must help themselves. Can create a security dilemma, one’s quest for security can make other states fearful of intentions. Balance of power emerges from this.
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13
Q

Structural or Neorealism

A

-Kenneth Waltz 1979 Theory of International Relations
Struggle for power due to structure, anarchy
-More scientific basis
-Structure is a fundamental notion (tangible or intangible) referring to recognition, observation, nature and permanence of patters and relationships of entities

3 Elements of Structure:
1. Organizing principles 2. Differentiation of Units 3. Distribution of capabilities
Elements of Structural/Neo
1. All states are monolithic unity actors capable of making rational decisions based on preference ranking and value maximization
2. Anarchy not chaos is the ordering principle
3.Distribution of power within international system. Waltz placed an emphasis on capabilities: ie) size, econ capabilities, resource endowment, territory

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14
Q

Theory of Offensive Realism

A
  • John Mearsheimer
  • States are power maximizers, survival is ensured by being the most powerful in the system
  • Self help but states can’t know other states intentions so all states continually search for opportunities to gain more power at expense others
  • Hegemony best way to guarantee survival
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15
Q

Reasons States Seek Power Neo/Structural

A

1) Great powers are the main actors in the world and operate in an anarchic system
2)All states possess some offensive military capabilities. Can only attempt to gauge military capabilities if it possess a threat.
3) States can never be certain about the intentions of others states. Revisionist: determined to use force to alter balance of power. Status Quo: satisfied enough with its position that they have no interest in changing the system balance using force
4) Main goal is survival
5) States are rational actors > monolithic unitary actors capable of making rational decisions
^Incentives to gain power

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16
Q

Reason of State

A

-1st law: tells statesmen what to do: preserve health and strength of state. State is the key actor and must pursue power. Survival is not guaranteed,

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17
Q

Defensive Realism

Arguments for and against

A

-Recognize international system creates strong incentive to maximize power but maintain that trying to achieve and maintain hegemony is a foolish strategy. WHY?
Restraints to Hegemony:
-States will balance against you
-Offence-Defense balance, in terms of military capabilities defense is easier
-Conquest does not pay especially in the modern age with national self-determination
Offensive Realist Counter Arguments:
-Balancing is inefficient since each state has a reason to defect
-Offence-defense balance is not straightforward. offense wins wars
-Conquest may not always pay but it CAN pay

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18
Q

States Rational Decision Making Process

A
  • Goal setting and ranking
  • Consideration of options
  • Assessment of consequences
  • Profit-maximizing
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19
Q

What Causes Great Power War? Structural Realist Perspective

A

1) # of Poles (Major States)
Stable pentarchy 18 and 19th century. Only stable if capability is equal. Bipolar system Cold War era security dilemma. Unipolar.
2) Distribution of Power Between States. Uni polar favors major powers
3) Changes in Distribution of Power. Power Transition Theory A.F.K Organski: even major power will act to ensure survival if there is a change. If a state thinks they can overcome the hegemon they will act. Thucydides trap: when one state tries to replace the dominant power war occurs.
4) Variations in offense defense balance

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20
Q

Neoclassical Realism

A
  • Address these gaps in neorealism: can’t explain all international behavior, treats states as black box rational actors but states often do not act rationally, leaves out human eleven.
  • Shares statism, survival and self-help and anarchy
  • Human nature foremost determinant of states international behavior.
  • Adds individual and domestic factors. Includes unit level analysis
  • Fear of others alongside competition for scarce resources leads human beings to seek power and dominate over others
  • Power seeking behavior ultimately grows out of human need and desire for power. End in and of itself
  • Community, Order and Stability. Morgenthau said all politics is struggle for power that is inseparable from social life itself. No clear distinction between domestic and international politics, differ in degree not kind
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21
Q

Randall Schweller

A
  • states differ in interests and ability

- different capacities to convert state power

22
Q

Morgenthau’s Principles of Realism

A

1) Politics governed by objective laws with roots in unchanging human nature
2) Realism perceives world through concept of interest understood in terms of power
3) Interests universally define class power. meaning and content of interests may shift and change
4) Moral significance
5) Moral aspirations may not be universally valid
6) Focus on autonomy of political realm and decisions made within it

23
Q

Influence

A

is a psychological relationship

24
Q

Melian Dialogues

A
  • Athenian empire successful when power used in accord with social conventions governing Greek speech and behavior
  • When Athens chose power over principle it lost its hegemonic legitimacy, alienated allies and weakened its power base
  • Interests defined outside language of justice are self defeating since justice is the foundation on which relationships and community depend on
25
Q

Why is Justice Important in IR

A

1) Determines how others understand and respond to you. Policy is constrained by accepted ethical principles. Support = legitimacy. Helps reconcile less powerful actors with subordinate status
2) A commitment to justice is a powerful source of self restrain. Restraint necessary in direct proportion to ones power.
Morgenthau: restraint and partial accommodation most practical short term strategies for preserving the peace except for pathological states

26
Q

Internal Factors that Matter

A

1) type of domestic institutions
2) influence of societal elites
3) State apparatus access to national resources
Affect power and freedom of actions of decision makers. Limits/ directs ability to pursue interests successfully

27
Q

Liberalism

A
  • Historic alternative to realism
    1) All citizens juridically equal. Basic rights
    2) Legislative assembly only authority invested by people. Not allowed to abuse basic rights
    3) Right to own property
    4) Best economic system = market driven
28
Q

Images of Liberalism

A

1) Human Nature: R. Cobden mid 19th century, causes of conflict include government intervention, determinants of peace are individual liberty and free trade
2) The State: Woodrow Wilson, causes of conflict are the international order, determinants of peace are prosperity and interdependence
3) Structure of International System: Hobson, conflict caused by balance of power, determinants are power to mediate and enforce decisions

29
Q

Liberal Thinkers

A
  • John Locke
  • Hugo Grotius
  • Immanuel Kant
  • Jeremy Bentham
30
Q

Immanuel Kant’s Liberal Assumptions

A

1) rational qualities of individuals
2) faith/feasible of progress in social life
3) Conviction that humans, despite self interest are able to cooperate and construct a more peaceful society
- Perpetual Peace is through the republican constitution which is a commercial exchange embodied in cosmopolitan law and domestic/international system of law

31
Q

Constraints on Conflict

A
  • Realists believe that the balance of power, power dispersion across the system, offence-defense balance constrains on conflict
  • Realists also argue that allies or alliances are a coincidence of interest. Distance and size also play a role.
  • Kant accepts anarchy and survival from Hobbes and Rousseau. Difference is that he believes there is a strong rationalist view. Leaders perceive and create the system of rules and incentives for cooperation by which in own self interest might tame threats inherent in international anarchy.
  • Kant: overcome security dilemma and constrain conflict through democratic government, economic interdependence, international law and organizations
32
Q

Mechanisms of Democracy Kant

A

1) Operate on principle that conflicts should be resolved peacefully by negotiation and compromise without resorting to threats and violence. Assumes other democracies are the same
2) Democratic leaders who fight a war are held responsible through democratic institutions for cost benefits of war
- Democracies rarely fight/threaten each other

33
Q

Kant’s International Trade

A

1) Sustained commercial interaction is a medium for communication, getting information on needs, desires, fears and preferences of other states beyond just economic. Understanding lessens fear
2) Self-interests of rational-actors trade depends on expectations of peace with trading partners

34
Q

Kant’s International Organizations and Institutions

A
  • Mechanisms to promoting peace
  • Separating or coercing norm breakers
  • Mediating amount conflicting parties
  • Reduces uncertainty by providing information
  • Mutual identification
35
Q

Democratic Peace Theory

A
  • Democracies don’t fight other democracies
  • Most conflicts are now internal, decrease in inter state war
  • Increase in trade openness (globalization) tracks well with the increase in democracies
  • Increase in state membership in International Governmental Organization also tracks with increase in democracies
  • Secure world = world of democracies
36
Q

Bentham and Cobden

A
  • Bentham: power of law to solve the problem of war
  • Federal states transform identities to more peaceful
  • Coined term international

Cobden: free trade equals peaceful word order

  • core of liberalism
  • trade=mutual gains to all states irrespective of size or nature
  • brought disproportionate gains to hegemonic powers
37
Q

Woodrow Wilson

A
  • peace only secured with creation of international organizations to regulate anarchy
  • need system of regulation and international force for when non violent conflict resolution failed
  • Collective security and collective defense: # of states join in response to a specific external threat
  • Collapse of League of Nations was a blow to Idealism
  • Post 1945, more pragmatic but still need the international institutions
38
Q

J.S Mills

A
  • liberal government highest stage of civilization
  • internationally imperialist, domestic social reformer
  • Stratification of international order
39
Q

Gulf War

A
  • 1990-1991
  • Iraq annexes Kuwait
  • UN resolutions, sanctions, stations forces in Saudi Arabia
  • Operation Dessert Storm crushed Iraq
  • Revival of collective security
40
Q

Are Democracies More Peaceful?

A

-Highest probability of war is between two authoritarian states
-Mid Range is democracy v.s authoritarian
-Low Range is democracy v.s democracy
The probability of war will increase the greater the difference in the strength of the democracy

41
Q

Pluralism

A
  • interdependence has undercut state autonomy. A change in one are of the world has consequences in others.
  • Theory attacked by Kenneth Waltz
42
Q

International Trade

A

-Use dyadic approach
-Importance of international trade to a country’s GDP
EX) There is a difference of 500x between Guatemala and the US in terms of amount of GDP that is attributed to trade between these two countries
US and China. Difference of 4x but international trade makes up 69% of China’s GDP
Russia 57% of GDP international trade.

43
Q

Caveats to Liberalism

A
  • All great powers war prone to protect their interests
  • Great powers are less constrained by trade and IGO’s
  • Democratic systems vary greatly in how effectively they can restrain their leaders
44
Q

Neoliberalism

A
  • Accepts core of neorealism such as anarchy and the centrality of the state as well as rationalist approach but believe cooperation is not impossible
  • Cooperation possible through international regimes: reduce information asymmetry, reciprocity and defection is easier to punish.
  • Rational qualities of the individual
  • Collective benefits with greater human reasoning
  • Benefits from more effective institutions
  • States must adjust behavior to preferences of others, need to understand other preferences
  • Main concern, how to achieve cooperation among states and other actors
45
Q

Neoliberalism v.s Neorealism

A
  • Neorealists believe in relative gains, need more than other to bargain or join regime. positivist scientific , cooperation is not automatic
  • Neoliberals, equal to bargain or join regime
46
Q

Formal Institutions v.s Informal Institutions

A
  • Formal: multilateral organizations with physical location, buildings, staff and resources ex) UN
  • Informal: international regimes which are sets of implicit of explicit principles, norms, rules and decision making procedures around which actors expectations converge in given area of international relations ex) NPT, Kyoto Protocol, Paris Agreement
47
Q

Why is Cooperation Easier?

A

1) Interdependence in which actions and interests intertwined
2) Hegemonic stability in post WWII era today we are living in a US system created and run by.

48
Q

Challenges Confronting Liberalism

A
  • In the 1990’s it appeared that there was a new world order. The ascendance of liberal ideas and institutions
  • 2nd Decade of 21st century, decline in the confidence of the liberal order. Realization that cooperation is hard to sustain.
  • Violence and unrest triggered by financial crisis
49
Q

Liberal Internationalism 1.0

A
  • G. John Ikenberry

- interwar period. failed to replace the old balance of power with rule of law

50
Q

Liberal Internationalism 2.0

A

-G John Ikenberry
-Post 1945, US constructed international system. Fundamental liberal principles in to rules and institutions. US max military power but also mas burden.
-But American led international order in crisis
Hegemony no longer adequate support, West v.s Re-emerging powers, World no longer wants a one man show
-R2P right to protect controversy
-Not sustainable for future

51
Q

Liberal Internationalism 3.0

A
  • Unrealistic
  • Future of complete cooperation
  • Problem with liberalism is its inherent imperialistic nature. Controlling institutions and protecting and securing access to resources and markets
52
Q

George Sorensen

A
  • Sovereign states are the primary building blocks
  • Tensions when liberty is pursued in the world
  • Democracy promotion can be exploitative, democracy criteria for membership in international institutions? But if exclude these nations, cooperation is just getting hurt

Political Science, University of Calgary (unknown year; likely early 2020s) (34 decks)

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