Module 1: Intro to International Politics
The two main components of the international system.
What are actors and structures?
- Guides policy
- Defines national identity
- Subject to domestic political conflict
What is the national interest?
Intellectual architecture or world view that provides the foundation for foreign policy.
What is Grand Strategy?
The use of military power and international institutions to pursue a liberal international order.
What is Liberal Internationalism?
Two examples from lecture of how structures serve to constrain the behaviors of actors in the international system.
- U.S. Legal Code
- Sovereignty & territorial Borders
The difference in Trump's counter-terrorism strategy compared to President Bush.
What is restricting immigration?
Foreign policy that focuses on reducing foreign interventions and future commitments.
What is Isolationism?
Actions / Behaviors that are made in consideration of the limits of U.S. Power. The overarching goal is to avoid a great power war.
What is selective engagement?
The most important actor in the international system.
What are states?
This foreign policy was adopted by the U.S. following the events of 9/11.
The components of grand strategy.
What are National Interests, Principal Threats, & Optimal Policy Instruments?
The key principles of Trump's foreign policy.
Nationalist economic policy
No more multilateralism
No more free riding
How are international relations marked by a condition of anarchy?
The international system lacks supranational authority over states that can direct or control their behavior.
The major threats to American interests following 9/11.
What is Radical Terrorism?
What are Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Historical examples of isolationism from lecture.
Republican successors to Wilson in 1920's
Washington's Farewell Address
The main principles of Trump's grand strategy.
America First, Neomercantilism, Restoring American Sovereignty, Strategic Retrenchment.
Components of the international system that serves to undermine the Iran nuclear accords.
Who is Trump?
What is the condition of Anarchy?
The main components of the foreign policy bureaucracy in the United States.
State Department, Department of Defense/Joint Chief of Staffs, Treasury Department, CIA, Directorate National Intelligence, National Security Council
Components of Posen's alternative grand strategy.
Focus on 3 missions: Prevent proliferation of WMD, Prevent rise of a rival, Fight terrorism
Reduce alliance commitments
Avoid counterinsurgence
Cut military spending
The seven different grand strategies.
Isolationism, Restraint, Offshore Balancing, Selective Engagement, Liberal Internationalism, Liberal Hegemony, Primacy