readings 1 Flashcards
Why Race Matters in International Relations - Zvobgo, Loken
- race is central organizing feature of world politics
ex: - anti-japanese racim guided and sustained US engagement in WWII
- race shapes perception and responses to violent extremism, inside and outside “war on terror”
- dominant IR paradigms (realism, liberalism, constructivism) rooted in Eurocentric perspectives and argues that key concepts like anarchy and hierarchy are raced
- lack of diversity in the field
- need for 3 key initiatives: incorporating race-related scholarship into IR curricula, promoting diversity among scholars, encouraging professional associations to address and include discussions on race
One World, Rival Theories -Snyder
- relevance and limitations of 3 dominant theories: realism, liberalism, and constructivism
- context of post 9/11 world
- realism: rooted in struggle for power among self-interested states, credited with explaining the centrality of military strength, US response to 9/11 attacks, faces challenges in explaining importance of non-state actors like terrorist organizations
- “law alone can preserve peace”
- liberalism: emphasizing cooperative potential of democracies; highlighted for its influence on US foreign policy, promoting democracy as a means to fight terrorism
- while liberalism’s claim of democracies not fighting each other holds, emerging democracies face challenges leading to conflict
- countries transitioning to democracy with weak political institutions more likely than other states to get into international and civil wars
- Armenia, Burundi, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Russia, former Yugoslavia
- democratic accountability works imperfectly and national politicians can hijack public debate
- free trade has led to protectionism disrupting social relations and strife between winners/losers
- constructivism: newer form of idealism, emphasizing role of ideas, values, and transnational networks in shaping international relations
- linked to relevance in understanding post 9/11 dynamics, including influence of activist networks
- none fully explains international politics, combined insights can serve as a check on each other
History of the Peloponnesian War - Thucydides
- Summer following Alcibiades’ naval expedition, Athens attacked the island of Melos, a lacedaemonian colony that resisted athenian rule. The Melian Dialogue presents the negotiations between the Athenian envoys and Melian representatives. Depite Melos proposing peaceful coexistence, the Athenians assert their power, arguing that justice is determined by strength. The Melians appeal to morality, alliances, and divine favor, but the Athenians reject these notions, emphasizing the inevitability of the strong dominating the weak. Ultimately, the Melians refuse Athenian terms, choosing to rely on hope, alliances, and divine aid. The Athenians withdraw, warning of the harsh reality they face. Melos resists leading to a siege, betrayal, and eventual surrender. Athenians execute the men, enslave women and children, and colonize the island. The dialogue explores more power dynamics, morality, and the harsh realities of geopolitics during the Peloponnesian War.
The Clash of Civilizations - Huntington
- end of history, return of traditional rivalries between nation states
- hypothesizes that fundamental source of conflict in new world will not be primarily ideological or economic
- great divisions will be cultural
- principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of diff civilizations
1) differences among civilizations are not only real, they are basic - product of centuries (god and man, language, culture, tradition, religion - coincide with rights and responsibilities, liberty and authority, equality and hierarchy; differences will not soon disappear
2) world becoming a smaller place - interactions between civilizations increasing - intensifying consciousness and differences
3) processes of economic modernization and social change are separating people from local identities; rise of fundamentalists religions
4) dual role of the west - west at peak power at same return of roots phenomena occurring among non-western civilizations; wests confronts non-wests that increasingly have the desire to shape world win non-western ways
5) cultural characteristics/differences less mutable - religion discriminations more than ethnicity
6) economic regionalism is increasing - reinforce civilization-consciousness, may succeed only when rooted in common civilization, free trade area depends on convergence of Mexican, Canadian, American cultures
- microlevel: adjacent groups along fault lines, macro-level: states compete for relative military and economic power
islamic state and the hypocrisy of sovereignty - Lozano
- IS leaders vision for a global caliphate and effect of religious ideology in reentering collective identity from nation state to religious community
- though IS seems to be challenging system of sovereign states, it could be argues that it is behaving very much like a state
- governing Syrians and Iraqis, headed by al-Baghdadi, has a government system: advisors, 9 councils
- recruits people from around the world to fight for a new, sovereign state with territory defined by that identity
- IS claims sovereignty for its Caliphate yet rejects the treaty from which “sovereignty” as a modern concept was born - treaty of Westphalia
- demands recognition as a sovereign state while seeks to create a new world order in which territorial lines are based on religious identity
- opens up conversation on sovereignty - able to mobilize a community that exists beyond territorial boundaries of states
- presents as a substantive, nontraditional actor
- by mobilizing a community to challenge domestic politics of states, transnational religious movements challenge traditional conceptions of state sovereignty
- hypocrisy: seeks to have its territorial sovereignty respected even as it rejects the Westphalian system; defends own territorial integrity and supreme authority while rejecting the Westphalian world order which established those rules
- claim to sovereignty is paradoxical
Putin has been redefining ‘sovereignty’ in dangerous ways -Paris
- Putin emphasizes sovereignty as a metaphor for a nation’s
“inner energy” derived from common values, beliefs, and history. - perspective denies Ukraine’s legitimacy as a sovereign state, asserting that it lacks the necessary “inner force” and unity
- suggests that Putin’s reinterpretation of sovereignty has echoes of right-wing european populists and trump
- new understanding of sovereignty emphasizing societal power and purity could complicate international relations and potentially allow powerful sates to deny legal rights to others deemed lacking in these attributes
- invasion of ukraine viewed as not only a threat to its independence but also a large conflict over definition of sovereignty in international politics
war is not over - fazal
- looked at from a high enough vantage point, violence is in decline after centuries of carnage
- optimism built on shaky foundations
1) body counts
- far fewer people die in war nowadays
- no more world wars spanning continents
- faulty statistics: improvements in military medicine, wounded ratio now 10:1, better sanitation
- most wars have been civil
- number of active armed conflicts has increased and in 2016 reached highest point - Congo, mexico, Yemen
- WWI and WWII have skewed our sense of what war is; view them as emblematic of war when most wars are short and of fewer battle deaths
- Korean War, vietnam war
The Decline of War and Conceptions of Human Nature -Pinker
- decline of war since WWII by examining human nation and factor contributing to reduction of violent conflicts:
1) decline in war: historical rarity of great powers engaging in warfare since WWII and since Cold War
2) skepticism and human nature: decline in war may be temporary due to enduring nature of aggressive inclinations present in human nature
3) components of human nature: not a singular essence but comprised of multiple components; motivations for vioolence - exploitation, dominance, revenge, ideology, inhibiting factors like self-control, empathy, moral sense and reason
4) cognitive abilities: reason inhibits violence, allows for the generation fo vast array of thoughts, including institutions that discourage war
5) examples: decline in homicice, human sacrifice, capital punishment
6) inhibiting violence: gov, democracy, commerce, international cooperation, intergovernmental organizations
Why the Ukraine Crisis is the West’s Fault: The Liberal Delusions that Provoked Putin - Mearsheimer
- rooted in West’s expansionist policies, particularly NATO enlargement and attempts to bring Ukraine into western orbit
- work towards making ukraine a neutral buffer state
Anatomy of a Rally Effect: George W. Bush and the War on Terrorism -Hetherington, Nelson
- rally round the flag effect that occurred after September 11, 2001
- significant increase in public approval of president in response to dramatic international events involving the country
- largest recorded, George w. Bush went from 51% to 86%
- Americans rallying to president as symbol of national unity in times of crisis
- opinion leadership: opposition leaders refrain from criticizing the president, leaving citizens with supportive message
- consequences: presidential approval, trust in government, party identification
- effects on trust and party identification were short lived
- while effect was extraordinary in size and duration
- political advantages were personal to President Bush
Women’s Suffrage and the Democratic Peace - Barnhart
- women’s suffrage reduces likelihood of interstate conflict, especially between democratic nations
- discusses well-established concept of democratic peace, asserting democracies are less prone to engage in conflicts with each other
- women’s suffrage contributes to democratic peace
- women display lower support for use of military force compared to men
- in democracies, voter preferences influence the behavior of democratic institutions
Attacking Iran will not Help Trump win reelection. here’s why -Tesler
- initiating war right be a strategy for a scandal-burdened president like trump to secure reelection.
- rally around the flag boosts when there is bipartisan elite support (9/11)
- absence of bipartisan support particularly airstrike against iran
s quds force commander makes improbable for Americans to rally in support - larger war would likely decrease trump’s odds of reelection given public opinion
- widespread pref for diplomatic efforts over military action to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons
The best predictor of a state’s stability is how its women are treated - Hudson
- strong link between state security and women’s security
- best predictor of a state’s peacefulness is how well its women are treated, surpassing factors like wealth, democracy, or ethno-religious identity
- democracies with higher levels of violence against women are as insecure and unstable as non democracies
- physical safety, son preference, family law inequities, maternal mortality, female participation in decision-making bodies
