International Relations Ch. 1-2

Front 1

What is international relations?

Back 1

The study of the interactions among and behaviour of various actors that participate in international politics, including states, international organizations, NGOs, subnational entities, and individuals.

Front 2

What are some of the major approaches to finding answers about issues of IR?

Back 2

History - crucial background based on detailed knowledge of specific events, and used to test generalizations. Examine individual or multiple cases.
Philosophy - Speculation on normative elements of politics. Develop rationales from core texts and analytical thinking.
Behaviouralism - Find patterns in behaviour; state using empirical methods.
Alternative - Deconstruct major concepts; discourse analysis to build thick description.

Front 3

What was the Treaty of Westphalia?

Back 3

1648: Ended Thirty Years War. End of rule by religious authority in Europe, emergence of secular authorities. Created legally equal and sovereign states.

Front 4

What key developments occurred before 1648?

Back 4

- Greek city-states (~400BC) cooperated through diplomacy and power politics.
- Roman Empire (to 400AD) imperialism, expanding territorial reach united through law and language.
- Middle Ages (to 1000AD) centralization of church, decentralized politics and economic life
- Late Middle Ages (to 1500AD) developement of transnational networks during exploration.

Front 5

What did Cicero propose?

Back 5

Men ought to be united bya law among nations applicable to humanity as a whole. Rome's leaders must maintain state security by expanding resources and boundaries and ensuring domestic stability.

Front 6

What limits did Bodin put on his definition of sovereignty?

Back 6

Leaders are limited by divine/natural law, by type of regime (constitutional laws), by covenants (contracts with internal or external parties)

Front 7

What were the effects of the Treaty of Westphalia?

Back 7

- Embraced notion of sovereignty, gave it to many small states in central Europe (breakup of Holy Roman Empire); Sovereigns now had religious authority; Legitimized territoriality; States could choose own domestic policy without external pressure (right of noninterference) from other states.
- Centralized control of permanent national militaries
- Created core group of major states and the emergence of capitalist economic system

Front 8

What core principles emerged in the aftermath of the American and French Revolutions?

Back 8

Legitimacy - must be gained from the consent of those governed.
Nationalism - massed identify with common past, language, customs, practices, and leads to participation in political process.

Front 9

What reasons would have contributed to war, and why was peace still maintained, in Europe during the 1800s - the Concert of Europe?

Back 9

War: major economic, technological (industrialization), and political (italy unified, germany created, holland divided, ottoman empire disintegrated) changes were altering landscape.
Peace: Solidarity (based on similarity: European, Christian, "civilized", white), united in fear of revolution, focused on domestic issues, balance of power

Front 10

What effect did industrialization have to promote and prevent peace in the 1800s Europe?

Back 10

Promote:
Prevent: provided military and economic capacity to expand territory; motivated states to expand to secure necessary resources

Front 11

What is the liberal worldview?

Back 11

- human nature is basically good; bad behaviour is the product of inadequate or corrupt social institutions
- international anarchy and warcan be policed away by institutional reforms
- states have sovereignty but are not autonomous actors - outside influences, many interests

Front 12

How is neoliberal institutionalism different from liberalism?

Back 12

Both: same predictions
LIB: cooperation b/c establishing and reforminig institutions
NLI: coop b/c actors have continuous interactions and self-interest is to cooperate; security is essential, institutions help make security possible

Front 13

What are the key actors for liberals?

Back 13

States, NGOs, IGOs

Front 14

What is the realist worldview?

Back 14

- Individuals are selfish and power-seeking
- States are unitary, act to pursue national interest, rational
- The intl system is primarily defined by anarchy; stability comes through bal. of power

Front 15

What is neorealism?

Back 15

Gives priority to structure of international system as explanatory factor, instead of states

Front 16

What are the key elements of radical theory?

Back 16

1: Historical analysis is fundamental, especially of production process
2: Economic factors assume primary importance
3: Structure of global system is hierarchical, the by-product of imperialism
- Individual actions determined by economic class
- State is an agent of international capitalism, exists to benefit bourgeoise
- Intl system highly stratified

Front 17

What are the key actors of radicalism?

Back 17

Social classes, transnational elites, MNCs

Front 18

What are the strengths and weaknesses of radicalism as an IR theory?

Back 18

Strengths: helps us understand role of economic forces within and b/w states and explain dynamics of globalization
Weaknesses: cannot explain cooperation, poor predictive ability

Front 19

What is constructivism?

Back 19

- State behaviour shapes by elite beliefs, identities, social norms
- Structures tell us little about IR
- Ideas have power
- Key actors: individuals, collective identities