International Relations Midterm Review

Front 1

Theory and it's uses

Back 1

Framework of concepts and assumptions, helps clarify actors and classes of events, simplifying device that directs attention to the most consequential factors in an otherwise complex phenomenon

Front 2

Walt on theory and policy

Back 2

Needs to be more communication between IR scholars and policy-makers, theory is essential to policy making, influence one another

Front 3

Prediction and Explanation

Back 3

Theories can predict without explaining, but are less useful

Front 4

Correlation and Causation

Back 4

Correlation is not causation, watch for this in theories, if they are confused, it is a poor theory

Front 5

Economic reasons for the rise of the nation-state

Back 5

Argument focuses on inefficiencies:
(1) property rights, (2) arbitrary and hereditary legal system, (3) lack of standardized weights, measurements, & coinage, (4) lack of central monopoly on violence & political stability

Front 6

Weber's conception of the state

Back 6

"that which has a monopoly over the legitimate use of organized violence"

Front 7

Tilly's 4 main activities of the state

Back 7

(1) War-making [w/ external enemies]
(2) State-making [disposing of enemies w/in the state]
(3) Protection [internal/external violence]
(4) Extraction [collect resources]

Front 8

Institutional alternatives to the state

Back 8

(1) Transnational/mulit-ethnic empires [ex: Ottoman Empire]
(2) City-state [ex: Ancient Greece]
(3) City-leagues [ex: Hanseatic Empire]

Front 9

Treaty of Westphalia

Back 9

1648, ended the 30 Year War, territorial nation-state was born

Front 10

The three levels (images) of analysis

Back 10

1st image: individual level
psychology, idiosyncrasies, elite preferences, interpersonal affinities or animosities

2nd image: unit level
state-society relations, coalition politics, factions, parties, interest groups, domestic sources of foreign policy in general

3rd image: system level
international anarchy, structural distribution of material capabilities, power configurations of the international systems

Front 11

Military explanations for the rise of the nation-state

Back 11

economic explanation is necessary, but not sufficient, warfare was decisive (war against city-states, city-leagues, and empires) states hat to build up extractive processes to become "war-machines" - nation-states out competed other forms

Front 12

Security dilemma

Back 12

Cannot tell if another country is going to attack you, can never be sure that you are safe

Front 13

Offensive-defensive balance

Back 13

4 factors [Military, geography, socio-political, technology]

Front 14

Jervis "4 worlds"

Back 14

1.) offense advantage / can't tell offense from defense = doubly dangerous
2.) defensive advantage / can't tell offense from defense = security dilemma, but security requirements may be compatible
3.) offense advantage / can tell offense from defense = no security dilemma, but aggression possible
4.) offense advantage / can tell offense from defense = doubly stable

Front 15

Morgenthau's 6 Principles of Realism

Back 15

(1) politics is governed by objective laws that are rooted in human nature
(2) interest is defined in terms of power
(3) the concept of power is universally valued
(4) there can be no political morality w/out prudence
(5) no equation between national aspirations and universal morality
(6) the autonomy of the political sphere: politics is to be dealt with on its own terms

Front 16

Anarchy

Back 16

No world "police" international situation is one of self-help, no one else to run to if you can't protect yourself

Front 17

Different configurations of polarity

Back 17

Unipolar (US right after WWII, one main dominant power)

Bipolar (Cold war, two competing powers)

Multi-polar (now? three or more powers competing simultaneously)

Front 18

Features common to various strands of realism

Back 18

(1) "state centrism"
(2) survival = 1st goal of state
(3) International system is a self-help environment [states are on their own]
(4) domestic politics and international politics belong to qualitatively different realms

Front 19

Balancing, underbalancing, and bandwagoning

Back 19

Balancing – more favorable for status-quo powers, aggression is discouraged, states try to minimize the threat they pose to each other.

Bandwagoning – more competitive world, rewarding stronger and aggressive, more likely to lead to use of force

Balancing is more common than bandwagoning

Front 20

4 main strands of liberalism

Back 20

liberal institutionalism, neo-liberalism, commercial liberalism, and idealism

Front 21

Kant's 3 Definitive (not preliminary articles)

Back 21

(1) Republican Government

(2) International Law

(3) Trade interdependence