International Relations: Chapter 1 Key Terms

Front 1

Prisoner's Dilemma

Back 1

a game in which two prisoners rationally choose not to cooperate in order to avoid even worse outcomes.

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Anarchy

Back 2

the decentralized distribution of power in the international system; no leader or center to monopolize power.

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Self-help

Back 3

the principle of self-defense under anarchy in which states have no one to rely on to defend their security except themselves.

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Unilateralism or Minilateralism

Back 4

action by one or several states but not by all states

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States

Back 5

the actors in the contemporary international system that have the largest capabilities and right to use military force.

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Sovereignty

Back 6

an attribute of states such that they are not subordinate to a higher power either inside or outside their borders and they agree not to intervene in the domestic jurisdictions of other states.

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Power

Back 7

the material capabilities of a country, such as size of population and territory, resource endowment, economic capability, and military strength.

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Geopolitics

Back 8

a focus on a country's location and geography as the basis of its national interests.

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Security Dilemma

Back 9

the situation that states face when they arm to defend themselves and in the process threaten other states.

Front 10

Balance of Power

Back 10

the strategy by which states counterbalance to ensure that no single state dominates the system, or an outcome that establishes a rough equilibrium among states.

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Power Balancing

Back 11

a school of realism that sees hegemony as destabilizing and war as most likely when a dominant power emerges to threaten the equilibrium of power among other states.

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Hegemony

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a situation in which one country is more powerful than all the others.

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Power Transition

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a school of realism that sees hegemony as stabilizing and war as most likely when a rising power challenges a previously dominant one and the balance of power approaches equilibrium.

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Polarity

Back 14

the number of states- one (unipolar), two (bipolar), three (tripolar), or more (multipolar), holding significant power in the international system.

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Alliances

Back 15

formal defense arrangements wherein states align against a greater power to prevent dominance.

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Defense

Back 16

the use of force to defend a country after an attack.

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Deterrence

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the use of threatened retaliation through force to deter an attack before it occurs.

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Compellence

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the use of force to get another state to do something rather than to refrain from doing something.

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Reciprocity

Back 19

the behavior of states toward one another based largely on mutual exchanges that entail interdependent benefits or disadvantages

Front 20

Interdependence

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the mutual dependence of states and nonstate actors in the international system through conferences, trade, tourism, and the life.

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Technological Change

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the application of science and engineering to increase wealth and alter human society.

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Modernization

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the transformation of human society from self-contained autarchic centers of agrarian society to highly specialized and interdependent units of modern society.

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Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs)

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nonstate actors such as student, tourist, and professional associations that are not subject to direct government control.

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Civil Society

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the nongovernmental sector.

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Transnational Relations

Back 25

relations among non-governmental, as opposed to governmental, authorities.

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Human Security

Back 26

security concern that focuses on violence within states and at the village and local levels, particularly violence against women and minorities.

Front 27

Diplomacy

Back 27

discussions and negotiations among states as emphasized by the liberal perspective.

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Cooperation

Back 28

working to achieve a better outcome for some that does not hurt others.

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Bargaining

Back 29

negotiating to distribute gains that are zero-sum (that is, what one side gains, the other loses).

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Collective Goods

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benefits, such as clean air, that are indivisible (they exist for all of for none) and cannot be appropriated (their consumption by one party does not diminish their consumption by another).

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Collective Security

Back 31

the establishment of common institutions and rules among states to settle disputes peacefully and to enforce agreements by a preponderance, not a balance, of power.

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International Institutions

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formal international organizations and informal regimes that establish common rules to regularize international contacts and communications.

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Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs)

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formal international organizations established by governments.

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Global Governance

Back 34

the system of various international institutions and great powers that in a loose sense govern the global system.

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International Regime

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a network of international institutions or groups not under the authority of a single organization.

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Path Dependence

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a process emphasized by liberal perspectives in which decisions in a particular directions affect later decisions, accumulating advantages or disadvantages along a certain path.

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International Law

Back 37

the customary rules and codified treaties under which international organizations operate; covers political, economic, and social rights.

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Human Rights

Back 38

rights concerning the most basic protections against human physical abuse and suffering.

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Multilateralism

Back 39

the inclusion of all states in international diplomacy.

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Legitimacy

Back 40

the right to use power in international affairs.

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Values

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ideas that express deep moral convictions

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Norms

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ideas that govern the procedural or substantive terms of state behavior, such as reciprocity and human rights.

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Beliefs

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ideas about how the world works as emphasized by identity perspectives.

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Constructivism

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a perspective that emphasizes ideas, such as the content of language and social discourse, over institutions or power.

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Construction of Identities

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a process of discourse by which actors define who they are and how they behave toward one another.

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Social Constructivism

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an identity perspective in which states and other actors acquire their identities from intersubjective discourses in which they know who they are only by reference to others.

Front 47

Agent-Oriented Constructivism

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an identity perspective that allows for greater influence on the part of independent actors in shaping identities.

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Communicative Action

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an exchange of ideas free of material and institutional influence to establish validity claims.

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External Identity

Back 49

the identity of a country that is determined by its historical and external dialogue with other states.

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Internal Identity

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the identity of a country that derives from its unique national self-reflection and memory.

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Distribution of Identities

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the relative relationship of identities among actors in the international system in terms of their similarities and differences.

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Relative Identities

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identities that position actors' self-images with respect to one another as similar or dissimilar.

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Shared Identities

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identities that overlap and fuse based on norms and images that cannot be traced back to specific identities or their interrelationships.

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Epistemic Communities

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communities of individuals or countries that share a broad base of common knowledge and trust.

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Soft Power

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the attractiveness of the values or ideas of a country as distinct from its military and economic power or its negotiating behavior.

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Belief Systems

Back 56

ideas about how the world works that influence the behavior of policy makers.

Front 57

Psychological Studies

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studies that emphasize ideas that define actor personalities, although the ideas may not be conscious but subconscious and sometimes irrational.

Front 58

Feminism

Back 58

a theory that critiques international relations as a male-centered and -dominated discipline.

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Marxism

Back 59

a theory that emphasizes the dialectical or conflictual relationship between capitalist and communist states in the international system, leading to the triumph of communism, not democracy.

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Postmodernists

Back 60

theorists who seek to expose the hidden or masked meanings of language and discourse in international relations in order to gain space to imagine alternatives.