IR Theory 101
This major theory sees the international system as anarchic and argues that states must rely on “self-help” to survive, prioritizing power and security.
What is realism?
This small strip of territory, controlled by Hamas and blockaded by Israel and Egypt, has been the focus of intense violence since 2023.
What is the Gaza Strip?
In February 2022, this country launched a full‑scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
What is Russia?
This global organization headquartered in New York City tries to maintain peace and security through peacekeeping missions and Security Council resolutions.
What is the United Nations?
This country is currently the world’s largest economy in nominal GDP and a central actor in the post‑1945 liberal international order.
What is the United States?
This theory emphasizes cooperation, interdependence, and the role of international institutions like the UN and WTO in promoting peace and order.
What is liberalism?
This territory, including cities like Ramallah and Hebron, is nominally under Palestinian Authority control but heavily affected by Israeli settlements and military presence.
What is the West Bank?
This politician and former entertainer has served as the sixth president of Ukraine since 2019.
Who is Volodymyr Zelenskyy?
This court in The Hague prosecutes individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, though not all states accept its authority.
What is the International Criminal Court?
This country is often described as a rising great power and strategic competitor to the United States, especially in the Indo‑Pacific region.
What is China?
This approach argues that norms, ideas, and identities shape how states behave, and that the “social construction” of reality matters as much as material power.
What is constructivism?
On October 7, 2023, militants from this group launched a major attack on southern Israel, triggering the current war in Gaza.
What is Hamas?
NATO is an alliance originally created to contain this superpower during the Cold War and today includes many European states plus the United States and Canada.
What is the Soviet Union?
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States launched a “war” on this type of non‑state violence aimed at civilians for political purposes.
What is terrorism?
This organization based in Washington, DC, sometimes called the “lender of last resort,” provides loans and advice to countries facing financial crises.
What is the International Monetary Fund (IMF)?
This Enlightenment thinker is known as the "father of liberalism".
Who is John Locke?
For decades, diplomats have talked about this basic formula for ending the conflict: an independent Palestine alongside Israel, roughly based on pre‑1967 borders.
What is the two‑state solution?
The war in Ukraine is often used in IR classes to illustrate this concept, where states worry about their security and may arm themselves in ways that alarm others.
What is the security dilemma?
In security debates, this term refers to weapons with massive destructive power, such as nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.
What are weapons of mass destruction (WMD)?
This Geneva‑based organization sets rules for international trade and helps resolve disputes between its 160‑plus member countries.
What is the World Trade Organization (WTO)?
This term describes a situation with no world government above states, often used to explain why international politics can be conflict‑prone.
What is anarchy?
This branch of a major international institution was founded to to investigate the 1947 Israeli Palestinian conflict and propose solutions for Palestine's future government.
What is the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (or, UNSCOP)?
Many analysts see Russia’s seizure of territory from Ukraine as a major challenge to this post‑1945 norm against using force to conquer land.
What is the prohibition on territorial conquest (or the norm against changing borders by force)?
In 2015, nearly every state signed this landmark climate agreement in Paris, a key example of multilateral cooperation on a global issue.
What is the Paris Agreement?
This scandal involved the U.S. secretly selling arms to a Middle-East adversary to secure the release of hostages held in Lebanon, and using the profits to illegally fund anti-communist right-wing rebels in South America.
What is the Iran-Contra Scandal?