World Politics Chapter 2

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paradigm

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Derived from the Greek paradeigma, meaning an example, a model, or an essential pattern; a paradigm structures thought about an area of inquiry.

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theory has three important applications

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Diagnostic value, Prescriptive value.Lesson-drawing value.

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Diagnostic value.

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Helps policy makers assess issues they face by facilitating their ability to discern patterns and focus on important causal factors.

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Prescriptive value.

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Provides a framework for conceptualizing strategies and policy responses.

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Lesson-drawing value.

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Facilitates critical assessment so that policy makers reach accurate conclusions about the successes and failures of a policy.

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neoconservative

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A political movement in the United States calling for the use of military and economic power in foreign policy to bring freedom and democracy to other countries.

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Realism

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A paradigm based on the premise that world politics is essentially and unchangeably a struggle among self-interested states for power and position under anarchy, with each competing state pursuing its own national interests.

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self-help

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The principle that, because in international anarchy all global actors are independent, they must rely on themselves to provide for their security and well-being.

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Relative Gains

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Conditions in which some participants in cooperative interactions benefit more than others.

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National Interest

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The goals that states pursue to maximize what they perceive to be selfishly best for their country.

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Security Dilemma

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The tendency of states to view the defensive arming of adversaries as threatening, causing them to arm in response so that all states’ security declines.

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Balance Of Power

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The theory that peace and stability are most likely to be maintained when military power is distributed to prevent a single superpower hegemon or bloc from controlling the world.

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Kellogg-Briand Pact

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A multilateral treaty negotiated in 1928 that outlawed war as a method for settling interstate conflicts.

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Neorealism

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A theoretical account of states’ behavior that explains it as determined by differences in their relative power within the global hierarchy, defined primarily by the distribution of military power, instead of by other factors such as their values, types of government, or domestic circumstances.

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agency

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The capacity of an actor to make choices and achieve objectives.

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Liberalism

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A paradigm predicated on the hope that the application of reason and universal ethics to international relations can lead to a more orderly, just, and cooperative world; liberalism assumes that anarchy and war can be policed by institutional reforms that empower international organization and law.

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Diplomacy

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Communication and negotiation between global actors that is not dependent upon the use of force and seeks a cooperative solution.

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Zero-Sum

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An exchange in a purely conflictual relationship in which what is gained by one competitor is lost by the other.

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collective security

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A security regime agreed to by the great powers that sets rules for keeping peace, guided by the principle that an act of aggression by any state will be met by a collective response from the rest.

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Adjudication

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a judicial procedure for resolving conflicts by referring them to a standing court for a binding decision.

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transnational relations

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Interactions across state boundaries that involve at least one actor that is not the agent of a government or intergovernmental organization.

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complex interdependence

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A model of world politics based on the assumptions that states are not the only important actors, security is not the dominant national goal, and military force is not the only significant instrument of foreign policy; this theory stresses crosscutting ways in which the growing ties among transnational actors make them vulnerable to each other’s actions and sensitive to each other’s needs.

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international regime

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Embodies the norms, principles, rules, and institutions around which global expectations unite regarding a specific international problem.

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neoliberalism

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The “new” liberal theoretical perspective that accounts for the way international institutions promote global change, cooperation, peace, and prosperity through collective programs for reforms.

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responsibility to protect

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Unanimously adopted in a resolution by the UN General Assembly in 2005, this principle holds that the international community must help protect populations from war crimes, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and crimes against humanity.

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Consequentalism

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An approach to evaluating moral choices on the basis of the results of the action taken.

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Constructivism

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A paradigm based on the premise that world politics is a function of the ways that states construct and then accept images of reality and later respond to the meanings given to power politics; as consensual definitions change, it is possible for either conflictual or cooperative practices to evolve.

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Social Constructivism

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A variant of constructivism that emphasizes the role of social discourse in the development of ideas and identities.

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agent-oriented constructivism

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A variant of constructivism that sees ideas and identities as influenced in part by independent actors.

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norms

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Generalized standards of behavior that, once accepted, shape collective expectations about appropriate conduct.

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Feminist Theory

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Body of scholarship that emphasizes gender in the study of world politics.

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Liberal Feminism

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A category of feminist theory that sees men and women as equal in skills and capabilities, and promotes the equal participation of women under existing political, legal, and social institutions and practices.

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Standpoint Feminism

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A category of feminism that sees women as experiencing a very different reality from that of men, and consequently holding a different perspective on international affairs.

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Post-Structural Feminism

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A category of feminist theory that focuses on the implications of gendered language for world politics.

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Postcolonial feminism

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A category of feminist theory that looks at differences in the experiences of women, and argues there is no universal feminine perspective or approach.

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Socialism

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Body of scholarship that emphasizes public ownership and control of property and resources.

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Capitalism

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An economic system characterized by private ownership of the means of production and distribution.

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Marxism

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A theoretical critique of the capitalist status quo that views the ruling class as benefiting unfairly through the exploitation of the subordinate working class.

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Surplus Value

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From a Marxist perspective, the difference between the value of the raw materials and the value of the final product as enhanced through workers’ labor.

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Imperalism

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The policy of expanding state power through the conquest and/or military domination of foreign territory.

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dependency-theory

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A theory hypothesizing that less developed countries are exploited because global capitalism makes them dependent on the rich countries that create exploitative rules for trade and production.

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World System Theory

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A body of theory that treats the capitalistic world economy originating in the sixteenth century as an interconnected unit of analysis encompassing the entire globe, with an international division of labor and multiple political centers and cultures whose rules constrain and share the behavior of all transnational actors.