Week 7 Flashcards
(29 cards)
Who should I vote for?
Richard di Natale WOGS UNITE
What is bipolarity?
A global system where the threats of existence only come from the other country.
What is the best example of bipolarity?
The cold war
Who argues that a bipolar world is the most stable?
That would be Waltz in 1964. He thought that it reduced uncertainty and meant that states internally balanced.
What is the individual level explanation for the end of the cold war and bipolarity?
- Gorbachev’s belief that the only way to revive the Soviety economy was through cooperation with the West.
- Reagan’s shifting view towards peace.
What is the state level explanation for the end of the cold war and bipolarity?
- Soviet economic and technological decline
What is the system level explanation for the end of the cold war and bipolarity?
- Increasing US power and decreasing Soviet power
What was the deterrent for the escalation of the Cold War?
Nuclear weapons
What is democracy?
- Constitutional government
- Representative government
- Separation of powers
- Judicial and legal rights
- Individual participation
What is the democratic peace theory?
Empirical finding: No two democracies fought an interstate war against each other.
In regards to democratic peace, explain Immanuel’s Kant’s view.
- His book, “Perpetual Peace” (1795), suggests that no two democracies will ever fight because the citizens won’t consent as they don’t want to pay for the costs of war. He rejects World Government.
What’s the Kantian Triangle?
It is a theory that suggests that Democracy, Economic Interdependence and International Law and Organisations work dependently on each other to create a peaceful society.
What’s monadic democratic peace theory?
A view that democratic states are generally less war like.
What’s dyadic democratic peace theory?
Democracies do not fight each other.
What are four critiques of democratic peace?
- Democracies were peaceful because of shared interests
- Democratizing states are more war prone that autocratic established states
- War and democracy are rare therefore it is unlikely that they have fought each other
- It justifies spread of democracy
What’s the systemic analysis of democratic peace theory?
That the more democracies there are in the world the safer the world will be.
What is anarchy?
“The absence of a central authority with the ability to make and enforce laws that bind all actors.”
Does anarchy make war inevitable?
- Not necessarily, but it does increase the chance that it may break out at any time.
- There is a focus on relative gains, rather than absolute gains so there is a tendency for war.
What is the main focus for states in an anarchist system?
Security
What is the rationality assumption?
- All actions are in pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain
- People/states focus on their maximisation of expected utility when given a choice of actions
- Preference structures remain stable
- Decisions are made in uncertainty
What is the realist approach to the rationality assumption?
- All states’ primary interest is security.
- Security through power is the largest interest.
What are the three ways in which states can forward common interests?
- Tacit cooperation
- Formal bilateral and multilateral negotiations
- Creating international regimes
What’s the lesson from the Prisoners’ dilemma?
- It is hard to trust when the other side has incentives to defeat you.
What’s the lesson in the game of chicken?
- Reputation matters.
