History of IR

Question 1

What are the origins of the Westphalian peace

Answer 1

1648

after lethal 30-year war

Question 2

What was the concept that emerged from Westphalia

Answer 2

sovereign territoriality

Question 3

What are the limits to Westphalia’s validation as the pure cause of sovereignty?

Answer 3

• no immediate effect
• first came empires, only after -> nation states
• eurocentrism: multiple other regional int. orders

Question 4

Whats an alternative cause for the emergence of sovereign states?

Answer 4

“wars made the state and the state made wars” (Tilly)

Question 5

What is the ‘long 19th century’?

Answer 5

• the rise of the West and the “Great Divergence”
• due to previous global networks (e.g. access to global land, slave trade…)
• early stages of globalization and global inequality

Question 6

What were the consequences of the long 19th century?

Answer 6

1. industrialization ( and deindustrialization of others)
2. evolution of the state (bureaucratic expansion…)
3. technological changes
4. imperialism (& colonialism)
5. unified international order (interdependence, first IOs, international standards, exploitation and global inequality)

Question 7

What was the role of the world wars in IR?

Answer 7

• changed nature of war (total wars)
• debate of WW1 causes
• further changing state system

Question 8

What were the consequences of the cold war to the world system?

Answer 8

• bipolarity created, and then unipolarity
• formation of long-term alliances (NATO)
• non-alignment (emerging Third World)
• the “long peace” due to deterrence
• emergence of institutionalized (liberal) int. order of today?

Question 9

What is the restraint vs. engagement debate with global US hegemony?

Answer 9

How should the US use its hegemony

Question 10

Is the world becoming more peaceful? For & against arguments:

Answer 10

For:
-decreased # of battlefiled deaths
-sovereignty, education, democracy , trade -> less incentive for war
Against: 
-no civilian death data, famine or disease death data 
-geographical distribution
-new types of warfare
-progress of medecine

Question 11

How was Russia post-cold war?

Answer 11

• decreasing industrial production
• decreasing living standards
• transition from planned economy -> competitive market (challenge)
• Putin attempting to restore prestige and reverse decline after Gorbachev

Question 12

How was Europe post-cold war?

Answer 12

• Germany united
• Eastern Europe achieved self-determination (no more SU)
• debate: what kind of europe would it be?

Question 13

How was Asia post-cold war?

Answer 13

no stability:

• multiple conflicts followed
• nationalism & suspicion
• communist leaders tightened control

Question 14

How was the Global South post-cold war?

Answer 14

• corruption due to more money
• lack of superpower control -> chaos
• burdened by debt & poverty
• large emigration from the South
• BRICS -> also Asia

Question 15

What effect did 9/11 have on IR?

Answer 15

transformative effect:

• emergence of new security policies
• scholarship: states matter? role of religion? …
• clash of civilisations and the remaking of world order
• use of old response to new phenomenon (Iraq invasion)
• still no full consensus on 9/11

Question 16

Trends showing against continuation of globalization:

Answer 16

• developing world: resistance to WTO, IMF due to inequality
• in developed world: national populaism -> Brexit, US, Gilets Jaunes

Question 17

What are the historical benchmarks of IR:

Answer 17

1500: Discovery of America
1648: Peace of Westphalia
1800s: The long 19th century
1919: End of WW1
1945: End of WW2
1989: Cold War