IR Foundations
The condition in which no central government exists above sovereign states.
What is anarchy?
This concept means states possess supreme political authority within their territory.
What is sovereignty?
For realists, this is the state's most fundamental objective.
What is survival/security?
Liberals believe this is possible even under anarchy.
What is cooperation?
Shared expectations about appropriate behavior.
Norms
Individual, state, and system are all what in the study of IR?
What are levels of analysis?
This organization was created after WWI to promote collective security but suffered major institutional weaknesses.
What is the League of Nations?
Classical realism locates the roots of power politics partly here.
What is human nature?
A situation in which everyone benefits if actors cooperate but individuals have incentives to free ride or defect.
What is a collective action problem?
Shared meaning or understanding among actors.
Intersubjectivity.
Military force and economic coercion are generally examples of this type of power.
What is hard power?
Two dominant superpowers made the Cold War international system this type of polarity.
When one state's defensive actions make another state feel threatened, producing countermeasures that leave both less secure.
What is the security dilemma?
Institutions make cooperation easier by providing information, monitoring behavior, and reducing these.
What are transaction costs?
"Friend," "enemy," "leader," and "neutral state" are examples of concepts constructivists use to understand this.
Identity/role identity.
Attraction through culture, values, credibility, or legitimacy is associated with this form of power.
What is soft power?
Name two weaknesses of the League of Nations discussed in class.
Examples include the U.S. not joining, lack of its own military/enforcement capacity, dependence on member cooperation, and major powers prioritizing their own interests. Your lecture explicitly identifies these weaknesses.
What is the difference between absolute and relative gains?
Absolute- "we care about what we've gained."
Relative- "we care about what we've gained only in the context of what the other has gained"
Explain how repeated interaction changes the Prisoner's Dilemma.
Information sharing, learning, and incentives to cooperate
Complete and explain: "Anarchy is what the state...."
Makes of it.
A leader's personal beliefs explain a war in one account; the distribution of power explains it in another. Identify the levels.
What is the individual and the system?
After WWII, states attempted to address earlier failures by creating stronger institutions and a system of collective security. Name one major institution and explain what problem it was intended to address.
U.N/GATT/WTO/etc.
What did Morgenthau mean by the "dynamic nature of power"?
The meaning and use of national interest are not fixed. What counts as power or a vital national interest changes depending on the political and historical context.
Two states both benefit from addressing climate change but neither wants to bear the costs alone. Give two liberal mechanisms that might facilitate cooperation.
reduce uncertainty, reduce transaction costs, facilitate monitoring, increase cost of defection, create expectations for reciprocity, etc.
An agent possessing a strong notion about appropriate behavior in the international system. They work to call attention to issues and promote change in behavior.
What is a norm entrepreneur?