Week 1
Key Concepts
Key Concepts
The study of political interactions between state actors
across state boundaries
What is international politics?
Criticized as being utopian and discounting power politics, this tradition is optimistic about the possibility of creating peace through international law and economic interdependence
What is classical liberalism or idealism?
An assembly of governments and leaders from twenty of the world’s largest economies.
What is the G20?
A legal entity with a permanent population, a well-defined territory, and a government capable of monopolizing the legitimate use of force
What is a state?
Focus on human nature, belief systems, personality factors, and other psychological factors often influence decision-making.
What is the first level of analysis?
The study of all interactions between state actors across state boundaries.
What is international relations?
The state of nature was a central premise for which author in international relations?
Who is Thomas Hobbes?
The first major collective security organization formed?
What was the League of Nations (1919)?
A collection of people who on the basis of ethnic, linguistic, or cultural affinity, perceive themselves to be members of the same group.
What is a nation?
Analysis focused on factors such as nationalism and militarism that increase the likelihood of interstate conflict.
What is the second level of analysis?
The goals that officials leading states seek abroad, the values that underlie the goals, and the means used to pursue goals.
What is foreign policy?
According to this scholar, the value of invasion, conquering, and occupying territory are reduced or illusory as countries’ economies develop through the process of industrialization and economic interdependence.
Who is Norman Angel? (The Great Illusion 1909)
A collective defense treaty and organization formed in 1949; if any one of these nations was attacked, the others were bound to help defend it.
What is NATO? North Atlantic Treaty Organization
The right or desire of distinct national groups to become states and rule themselves
What is self-determination?
Focus on the polarity or distribution of power in the international system.
What is the third level of analysis?
A process of reasoning by which new information is interpreted according to a memory structure, such as mental maps, scripts, or metaphors
What is schematic reasoning?
According to this scholar, power is viewed as an ends in and of itself, as humans are power hungry.
Who is Hans Morgenthau (neo-classical realist)
A diplomatic and political international organization formed in 1945 - with the intended purpose of maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations, and achieving international cooperation
What is the United Nations?
A state’s supreme authority to manage internal affairs and foreign relations within its own territory, free from any higher legal authority.
What is state sovereignty?
Focus on anarchy being a consistent permissive cause of war.
What is the third level of analysis.
The study of how global actors’ attempt to achieve and defend their goals and ideals, and how it affects the world at large
What is world politics?
A liberal tradition that emphasizes the rule of law, alliances, diplomacy and multilateral cooperation among a society of states in an interdependent system.
What is the Grotian tradition?
The treaty that ended the 30 years war, signed in 1648, which gave birth to the modern state system.
The people and agencies that have the power and legitimate authority to determine who gets what, when, where, and how within a given territory.
What is a government?
Focus on the security dilemma and the downward spiral of tensions that can lead to conflict.
What is the third level of analysis?