Key Concepts

Question 1

Unilateralist

Answer 1

A doctrine that a nation should conduct its foreign affairs individualistically, without the advice or involvement of other nations. This means that when a country adopts this doctrine, it does not involve other nations in its foreign affairs.

If the country goes to war with a neighbour country for example, it will not take advice from any outside groups or allies

Question 2

Human rights

Answer 2

• Human rights are the rights and protections afforded to all people simply by the virtue of being a human being.
• These rights are enshrined in the non-binding Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the legally binding Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. These principles are based on human dignity and equality, and were born from the atrocities committed during the holocaust.
• The United states has a chequered past in regards to human rights, mostly in regards to internal issues such as police brutality, surveillance of citizens, abuse of illegal immigrants and incarceration for profit.
• However, it has shown support for foreign dictators and operate black sites, allowing the torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Question 3

Realism

Answer 3

A IR perspective that suggests the struggle for power and the condition of anarchy are two fundamental realities of world politics.
Shaping power, the exercise and balance of power. Power of nations that we deal with.

Question 4

The Four Horsemen of American power

Answer 4

Demography
Economy
Hard Power
Soft Power

Question 5

Demography (4 Horsemen)

Answer 5

• Immigration
• Birth rate
• Size matters
• World population is slowing.
• US has high rate of immigration and a reasonably high birth rate
• 2025, US will probably be the third largest nation.
  Of all the countries in the world, the US has the highest foreign born population

Question 6

Economy (4 Horsemen)

Answer 6

• Rate of growth in US is steep, much greater than China
• Working age population is going to grow rapidly, in China it is a negative number
• US is essentially at full employment.
• GDP is growing
• Real Wage Growth is happening
• Household income is growing
• Federal deficit is improving.
• Domestic energy production is up. Natural gas and oil. For most of the 60s-90s, the US was dependent on the middle east, now the US is almost energy self-sufficient and will soon become an exporter.

Question 7

Hard power (Horsemen)

Answer 7

• Continued military ascendency
  
  • ‘controlling the domains’ land, air, sea, space and internet.
  • 13% increase over 2017 in military budget
    Active duty increases from 51,500 to 1, 365,500

Question 8

Soft Power (Horsemen)

Answer 8

• Doctrines (Monroe, open door, fourteen points, Truman, Guam and shanghai) (Good summaries of them in this power point).
• Carter closest to Woodrow as an idealist

Joseph Nye

Question 9

Five eyes

Answer 9

The five eyes are an intelligence agency comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

It was established post-WW2, in the wake of the Atlantic charter and the goals for the post-war world it laid out.

Similar languages and values allow the agency to operate interchangeably and exchange information.

Question 10

Deterrence

Answer 10

A policy or strategy based on the threat of massive retaliation in the event of an attack. It is premised on the notion that if the destruction threatened in retaliation is great enough, it will deter any initial attack. It is mostly associated with nuclear weapons and MAD.

Question 11

Anti-colonialism

Answer 11

The ideology and struggle opposed to colonialism. Fuelled the decolonisation process.

• America has always been anti-colonialist. Monroe doctrine. Releasing of their colonies.

Question 12

Soft Power

Answer 12

Ability to exercise influence through the attractiveness of culture, values and policies.

Intangible, non-material, non-military elements including ideas, ideology, culture, institutions.

Attraction and persuasion rather than coercion

Question 13

Isolationism

Answer 13

non-involvement with other countries

combines a non-interventionist (don’t interfere) military policy and a political policy of economic nationalism (protectionism)

Question 14

The Third World

Answer 14

If the first world is the west and those who sided with capitalism during the cold war, and the second world is the east that sided with communism, the third world refers to nations that wished to remain neutral (often weren’t actually allowed to do so).

JFK believed the Cold War could in fact be won, not on the plains of Europe but in the emerging nations of the Third World.

Question 15

Linkage

Answer 15

Linkage was a foreign policy that was pursued by the United States and championed by Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger in the 1970s détente, during the Cold War.

Aimed to persuade the Soviet Union and Communist China to co-operate in restraining revolutions in the Third World in return for concessions in nuclear and economic fields.

The US recognition of China and the UN security Council seat being moved.

Question 16

The End of History

Answer 16

An idea proposed by Fukuyama
No geopolitical economic alternatives to liberal capitalism now that the communist bloc had failed.

Defines history as the progress of mankind over the centuries towards modernity, characterised by institutions such as liberal democracy and capitalism

Question 17

New World Order

Answer 17

“new world order” has been used to refer to any new period of history evidencing a dramatic change in world political thought and the balance of power.

WW1 - league of nations
WW2 - United Nations
post cold war era

Question 18

Internationalism

Answer 18

Internationalism is a political principle which transcends nationalism and advocates a greater political or economic cooperation among nations and people

Woodrow, United Nations, Bretton Woods.

Question 19

Free trade

Answer 19

the idea that governments should not interfere in cross-border trade or invoke protectionist policy

US protected free trade with the open door policy, however the current trump administration is going against this sentiment.

Question 20

American Influence vs Power

Answer 20

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Question 21

Domino theory

Answer 21

The domino theory was a theory prominent from the 1950s to the 1980s that posited that if one country in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect.

Korea and then China went communist and then the conflict in Vietnam happened so not completely crazy.

Question 22

Empire

Answer 22

An empire is an extensive group of states or countries ruled over by a single monarch, an oligarchy, or a sovereign state.

America came closest to being an empire in the regional era when they acquired colonies (Hawaii, Cuba, Guam, Samoa).

Question 23

No Entangling alliances

Answer 23

After the revolution, America abandoned the old world ways, and instead distanced themselves with new world principles so there is a distancing there in ideals.

George Washington in his farewell address stated that it was important to extend commercial relations but to have as little political connection as possible.
US terminated its alliance with France after Thomas Jefferson stated ‘peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none’.

Question 24

Anti-imperialist

Answer 24

Imperialism is the expansion of a state’s domain over foreign lands and peoples through conquest and control.

Both the US and USSR viewed the other as imperialist. Marshall Plan and Satellite States.

anti-imperialists often are opposed to colonialism, colonial empires, hegemony, imperialism and the territorial expansion of a country beyond its established borders.

Question 25

Interoperability

Answer 25

ability of a system (such as a weapons system) to work with or use the parts or equipment of another system.

Five eyes

Question 26

Clash of Civilisation

Answer 26

Samuel Huntington
After the end of history and the end of ideological conflict the next conflict will be conflict between cultural and religious identity

Question 27

Gradual escalation

Answer 27

October 1961, 1400 US troops;
 October 1963, 10,000 US troops,
 October, 1963, 15,000 US troops
 July, 1965, 125,000 US troops
  Ultimately 541,000 US troops

Question 28

American influence vs American power

Answer 28

Soft power vs Hard power

Question 29

League of nations

Answer 29

The League of Nations was an international diplomatic group developed after World War I as a way to solve disputes between countries before they erupted into open warfare.

Woodrow Wilson, Congress would not allow America to join.