IR2 Flashcards
(25 cards)
colonialism
the conquest and control of other people’s land and goods
neo-colonialism
former colonial powers mentain economic and political influence over newley independent nationa rheough inderect means, such as multinational corporations, international finnantial institutions and military agreements
“last stage of imperialism”
decoloniality
project that tries to delink modes of knowledge from european ways of knowledge
orientalism
knowledge of the Orient that places things Oriental in class, court, prison, or manual for
scrutiny, study, judgment, discipline, or governing. Orientalism was ultimately a political
vision of reality whose structure promoted the difference between
the familiar (Europe, the West, “us”) and the strange (the Orient,
the East, “them”)
A certain freedom of intercourse was
always the Westerner’s privilege; because his was the stronger cul
ture, he could penetrate, he could wrestle with, he could give shape
and meaning to the great Asiatic mystery.
! Such strength and such weakness are as intrinsic
to Orientalism as they are to any view that divides the world into
large general divisions, entities that coexist in a state of tension
produced by what is believed to be radical difference.
For that is the main intellectual issue raised by Orientalism
Postcolonialism and IR
- Capitalism: the history of colonialism is also about the capitalism system that uses raw material and human labour from colonized coutnries
- Racism: it was one of the ways in which colonialism was legitimised
- knowledge production: particular way of producing knowledge that justifies the colonial project. They justify violence/ representations with associating the west with enlightement, reason, truth and the east as backwardenss, savageness, exotic etc
! both material and ideational
The 4 biases of IRT
- Eurocentrism: justification to colonialism= civilising missions
- False universalism: western ideals are universal ideals (concepts like democracy, development, universal human rights, Thirld world). Social theories in their core are political and therefore they cannot be universal per se.
- Agency denial: like how cuba is ignored when talking about the misstle crisis, no agency for the palestenians
- Absence of historicization: They are more positicist, they all start with a starting point like sovereign states or markets, so you ignore a lot of historical events that are relevant
the 2 sides of naturalisation
dominant position: understand priveledge as natural being in power is the ability not to question yourself and your behaviour
marginal position: double consciousness looking at oneself through the eyes of the dominant and experiencing the dominant discourse as well as the marginal self
truth changes based on whos in power: regime of truth
failed state
failes to maintain a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence within its own tenito,y, and provide basic services to its own people, and command respect for its authority both internally and externally.
operational definitions of war
intensity threshold: over 1000 battle related deaths per year
for armed conflict is 25
types of war and conflict
-interstate
- intrastate (civil wars: armed groups represanting the state and other non-state group(s) )- they can last veeery long
- internationalized intrastate (spilover fro civil?)
- extrastate (non-state actors: rebel groups, terrorists, millitias)
Power Distribution and the Risk of War
The relationship between power distribution and the likelihood of war is explained differently by two major theories:
- Balance of Power Theory: Suggests that parity between states leads to stability. When power is evenly distributed, no single state is dominant enough to threaten others, reducing the incentive for conflict.
- Power Transition Theory: Argues that parity increases the risk of war. When a rising power approaches parity with a dominant one, the threat to the status quo can trigger conflict, especially if the rising power is dissatisfied.
war of attrition
is a military strategy where each side tries to gradually wear down the other by inflicting continuous losses in personnel, equipment, and resources. The goal is not necessarily to win through a decisive battle, but to exhaust the opponent to the point where they can no longer continue fighting.
terrorism
unlawful use or threatened use of violence against civilians, often rto acheive political, religious, or similar objectives
IPE
considers flows of production, distribution and consumption across national borders, recognizing importance of not just national governments play a role, but also foreign governments and international institutions. It considers that the state plays a role in production, distribution and consumptions. Economics is the study of production, distribution and consumption of scarce resources.
din slides
Mercantelism
- state controls the market/ politics is in charge of economics
- exports strengthen state power, imports weaken state power
- advocates subsidies on exports and tariffs on imports
- economic competition between states in zero-sum game
Economic liberalism
- market oriented principles (have to be autonomous)
- countries gain from trade
- comparativre advantages (?)
- important role of institutions WTO
- multinational corporationsare positive enterpreses in driving up competition, innovations and specialisation
- economic exchange via free market is a positive sum-game
- stet should only intervene in case of market failures
! both realists and liberalists agree that it is important that the cpaitalist system functions well so that we have global stability
liberals argue that the market is autonomous
when does the state intwrvene
market failures
- monopoly of a singe company: which reduces consumer choice (states should guarantee that the market remains competitive)
- the state has to intervene in order to provide pulbic goods: street lights, universities, roads, clean airs (goods that are non-excludable where you cannot exclude individuals)
- externalities occur when the actions of one party exposes/ costs/ benefits of others who are not involved in the transaction. Negative externalities: pollution. Positive externality: research and development: research on cancer treatment, you pay for it even if you don’t use it. This has to be managed by the state because for the market they would not do this, is too expensive.
neo-marxism
- class relations determine both economic and political outcomes
- class competition is a zero-sum game
- global capitalist system is exploitative in nature
- WST puts class conflict on an internaitonal scale (periphery, semi-periphery, core)
- unequal exchange: economic surplus is transfered from periphery to the core
- syrplus is appropriated from low-wage prodicers in the periphery to high wage, high progfit producers in the core
- environmental exploitation
globalisation of the World Economy
- trade liberalisation: the removal of barriers to trade like tariffs/ quotas, free flow of goods and services which led to increase international trade
- finnancial integration: capital to move freely throughout coutnries, foregin direct investment and finnancial instruments-> key element to economic globalisation
- supply chain globalise: company outsource servicies/ components throughout the world and have acces to cheap labour and expertise-> problems with tariffs
- technological development: transportation, communication facilitated globalisation by reducing cosats and time associated with conducting business
the political trilemma of the woprld economy
- nation state
- democratic politics
- deep economic integration
you can only have two at the same time, never three!
you have to transfer power either for the market, for your sovereignity or for democracy
why is terrorism so famous topic
First, the decrease in interstate warfare since the end of the Cold War (Petterson and Eck 2018). Second, the unusual scale and intensity of some of the terrorist attacks that have occurred in the new mil- lennium, including the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, later attacks in Paris, Madrid, London, and in other parts of the world. This violence in the midst of an otherwise relatively peaceful international system has put the issue of inter- national terrorism high on the agenda.
terrorism definition
Criminal acts, including those against civilians, committed with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, or taking of hostages, with the purpose to provoke a state of terror in the general public . . . intimidate a population or compel a government or an interna- tional organization to do or abstain from doing any act, which constitute offences within the scope of and as defined in the international protocols relating to terrorism, are under no circumstances justifiable by considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other similar nature.
blowback terrorism
some commentators argue that the US–Western involvement in the war in Iraq leads to ‘blowback terrorism’, meaning that the war tends to increase, rather than decrease, the recruitment poten- tial to international terrorism (Mann 2003: 159–93). The same argument could be made about the Western involvement in the fight against the so-called Islamic State group (ISIL) in Iraq and Syria in 2016–17.
purposes/def of war
- War is thus an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will.
- The natural aim of military operations is the enemy’s overthrow … Since both belligerents hold that view, it would follow that military operations could not be suspended … until one or other side were finally defeated.
- War is merely the continuation of policy by other means. (Clausewitz)
