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106 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
The relationships among the world’s state governments and the connection of those relationships with other actors (such as the United Nations, multinational corporations, and individuals), with other social relationships (including economics, culture, and domestic politics), and with geographic and historical influences.
international relations (IR)
Distinct spheres of international activity (such as global trade negotiations) within which policy makers of various states face conflicts and sometimes achieve cooperation.
issue areas
The types of actions that states take towards each other through time.
conflict and cooperation
A sub-field of international relations (IR) that focuses on questions of war and peace.
international security
The study of the politics of trade, monetary, and other economic relations among nations, and their connection to other transnational forces.
international political economy (IPE)
An inhabited territorial entity controlled by a government that exercises sovereignty on its territory.
state
An organization of nearly all world states, created after World War II to promote collective security.
United Nations (UN)
The set of relationships among the world’s states, structured by certain rules and patterns of interaction.
international system
The size of a state’s total annual economic activity.
gross domestic product (GDP)
Actors other than state governments that operate either below the level of the state (that is, within states) or across state borders.
nonstate actors
Transnational groups or entities (such as the Catholic Church, Greenpeace, and the International Olympic Committee) that interact with states, multinational corporations (MNCs), other NGOs and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs).
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
Organizations (such as the United Nations and its agencies) whose members are state governments.
intergovernmental organizations (IGOs)
The disparity in resources (income, wealth, and power) between the industrialized, relatively rich countries of the West (and the former East) and the poorer countries of Africa, the Middle East, and much of Asia and Latin America.
North-South gap
A broad intellectual tradition that explains international relations mainly in terms of power.
realism (political realism)
An approach that emphasizes international law, morality, and international organization, rather than power alone, as key influences on international relations.
idealism
The ability or potential to influence others’ behavior, as measured by the possession of certain tangible and intangible characteristics.
power
The use of geography as an element of power, and the ideas about it held by political leaders and scholars.
geopolitics
The process of formal bargaining, usually with the parties talking back and forth across a table.
negotiation
A response in kind to another’s actions; a strategy of reciprocity uses positive forms of leverage to promise rewards and negative forms of leverage to threaten punishment.
reciprocity
The threat to punish another actor if it takes a certain negative action (especially attacking one’s own state or one’s allies). The term has a somewhat more specific meaning in the context of the nuclear balance between the superpowers during the Cold War.
deterrence
The use of force to make another actor take some action (rather than, as in deterrence, refrain from taking an action).
compellence
A reciprocal process in which two (or more) states build up military capabilities in response to each other.
arms race
Actors conceived as single entities that can “think” about their actions coherently, make choices, identify their interests, and rank the interests in terms of priority.
rational actors
The interests of a state overall (as opposed to particular parties or factions within the state).
national interest
A calculation of the costs incurred by a possible action and the benefits it is likely to bring.
cost-benefit analysis
A branch of mathematics concerned with predicting bargaining outcomes. Games such as Prisoner’s Dilemma and Chicken have been used to analyze various sorts of international interactions.
game theory
A situation in which one actor’s gain is by definition equal to the others loss, as opposed to a non-zero-sum game, in which it is possible for both actors to gain (or lose).
zero-sum games
In IR theory, the term implies not complete chaos but a lack of a central government that can enforce rules.
anarchy
The shared expectations about what behavior is considered proper.
norms (of behavior)
A state’s right, at least in principle, to do whatever it wants within its own territory; traditionally sovereignty is the most important international norm.
sovereignty
A situation in which states’ actions taken to assure their own security (such as deploying more military forces) are perceived as threats to the security of other states.
security dilemma
The general concept of one or more states’ power being used to balance that of another state or group of states. The term can refer to (1) any ratio of power capabilities between states or alliances, (2) a relatively equal ratio, or (3) the process by which counterbalancing coalitions have repeatedly formed to prevent one state from conquering an entire region.
balance of power
Generally, the half dozen or so most powerful states; the great-power club was exclusively European until the twentieth century.
great powers
States that rank somewhat below the great powers in terms of their influence on world affairs (for example, Brazil and India).
middle powers
A version of realist theory that emphasizes the influence on state behavior of the system’s structure, especially the international distribution of power.
neorealism
The holding by one state of a preponderance of power in the international system, so that it can single-handedly dominate the rules and arrangements by which international political and economic relations are conducted.
hegemony
The ease with which the members hold together an alliance: it tends to be high when national interests converge and when cooperation among allies becomes institutionalized.
alliance cohesion
The distribution of the costs of an alliance among members; the term also refers to the conflicts that may arise over such distribution.
burden sharing
A U.S.-led military alliance formed in 1949 with mainly West European members, to oppose and deter Soviet power in Europe. It is currently expanding into the former Soviet bloc.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
A Soviet-led Eastern European military alliance, founded in 1955 and disbanded in 1991. It opposed the NATO alliance.
Warsaw Pact
A bilateral alliance between the United States and Japan, created in 1951 against the potential Soviet threat to Japan. The United States maintains troops in Japan and is committed to defend Japan if attacked, and Japan pays the United States to offset about half the cost of maintaining the troops.
US-Japanese Security Treaty
Movement of third world states, led by India and Yugoslavia, that attempted to stand apart from the U.S.-Soviet rivalry during the Cold War.
nonaligned movement
Shorthand for “neoliberal institutionalism”, an approach that stresses the importance of international institutions in reducing the inherent conflict that realists assume in an international system; the reasoning is based on the core liberal idea that seeking long-term mutual gains is often more rational than maximizing individual short-term gains.
neoliberalism
A strategy of strict reciprocity (matching the other player’s response) after an initial cooperative move; it can bring about mutual cooperation in a repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma game, since it ensures that defection will not pay.
tit for tat
A tangible or intangible good, created by the members of a group, that is available to all group members regardless of their individual contributions; participants can gain by lowering their own contribution to the collective good, yet if too many participants do so, the good cannot be provided.
collective goods problem
Those who benefit from someone else’s provision of a collective good without paying their share of costs.
free riders
A set of rules, norms, and procedures around which the expectations of actors converge in a certain international issue area (such as oceans or monetary policy).
international regime
The argument that regimes are most effective when power in the international system is most concentrated.
hegemonic stability theory
The formation of a broad alliance of most major actors in an international system for the purpose of jointly opposing aggression by any actor; sometimes seen as presupposing the existence of a universal organization (such as the United Nations) to which both the aggressor and its opponents belong.
collective security
A strand of feminism that believes gender differences are not just socially constructed and that views women as inherently less warlike than men (on average).
difference feminism
A strand of feminism that emphasizes gender equality and views the “essential” differences in men’s and women’s abilities or perspectives as trivial or nonexistent.
liberal feminism
An effort to combine feminist and postmodernist perspectives with the aim of uncovering the hidden influences of gender in IR and showing how arbitrary the construction of gender roles is.
postmodern feminism
Refers to polls showing women lower than men on average in their support for military actions (as well as for various other issues and candidates).
gender gap
A movement in IR theory that examines how changing international norms help shape the content of state interests and the character of international institutions.
constructivism
An approach that denies the existence of a single fixed reality, and pays special attention to texts and to discourses -- that is, to how people talk and write about a subject.
postmodernism
Meanings that are implicit or hidden in a text rather than explicitly addressed.
subtext
The development and implementation of peaceful strategies for settling conflicts.
conflict resolution
The use of a third party (or parties) in conflict resolution.
mediation
The glorification of war, military force, and violence.
militarism
A peace that resolves the underlying reasons for war; not just a cease-fire but a transformation of relationships, including elimination or reduction of economic exploitation and political oppression.
positive peace
A term used by some scholars to refer to poverty, hunger, oppression, and other social and economic sources of conflict.
structural violence
A centralized world governing body with strong enforcement powers.
world government
Movements against specific wars or against war and militarism in general, usually involving large numbers of people and forms of direct action such as street protests.
peace movements
A philosophy based on a unilateral commitment to refrain from using any violent forms of leverage. More specifically, pacifism refers to a principled opposition to war in general rather than simply to particular wars.
nonviolence/pacifism
A difference in preferred outcomes in a bargaining situation.
conflict
The outcome of a bargaining process.
settlement
A form of nationalism whose goal is the regaining of territory lost to another state; it can lead directly to violent interstate conflicts.
irredentism
Forced displacement of an ethnic group or groups from a particular territory, accompanied by massacres and other human rights violations; it has occurred after the breakup of multinational states, notably in the former Yugoslavia.
ethnic cleansing
The waters near states’ shores generally treated as part of national territory. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea provides for a 12-mile territorial sea (exclusive national jurisdiction over shipping and navigation) and a 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) covering exclusive fishing and mineral rights (but allowing for free navigation by all).
territorial waters
The space above a state that is considered its territory, in contrast to outer space, which is considered international territory.
airspace
It holds that the economic and population growth of states fuels geographic expansion as they seek natural resources beyond their borders, which in turn leads to conflicts and sometimes to war.
lateral pressure (theory of)
Large groups of people who share ancestral, language, cultural, or religious ties and a common identity.
ethnic groups
The intentional and systematic attempt to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, in whole or in part. It was confirmed as a crime under international law by the UN Genocide Convention (1948).
genocide
The tendency to see one’s own group (in-group) in favorable terms and an out-group in unfavorable terms.
ethnocentrism (in-group bias)
Stigmatization of enemies as sub-human or nonhuman, leading frequently to widespread massacres or, in the worst cases, destruction of entire populations.
dehumanization
A state created apart from religious establishments and in which there is a high degree of separation between religious and political organizations.
secular (state)
A broad and diverse world religion whose divergent populations include Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims, and many smaller branches and sects, practiced by Muslims, from Nigeria to Indonesia, centered in the Middle East.
Islam, Muslims
War for control of the entire world order -- the rules of the international system as a whole. Also known as world war, global war, general war, or systemic war.
hegemonic war
Warfare by one state waged to conquer and occupy another; modern total war originated in the Napoleonic Wars, which relied upon conscription on a mass scale.
total war
Military actions that seek objectives short of the surrender and occupation of the enemy
limited war
A war between factions within a state trying to create, or prevent, a new government for the entire state or some territorial part of it.
civil war
Warfare without front lines and with irregular forces operating in the midst of, and often hidden or protected by, civilian populations.
guerilla war
An effort to combat guerrilla armies, often including programs to “win the hearts and minds” of rural populations so that they stop sheltering guerrillas.
counterinsurgency
The use of terrorist groups by states, usually under control of a state’s intelligence agency, to achieve political aims.
state-sponsored terrorism
The subordination of state authority or national identity to larger institutions and groupings such as the European Union.
supranationalism
They include intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) such as the UN, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
international organizations (IO)
The founding document of the United Nations; it is based on the principles that states are equal, have sovereignty over their own affairs, enjoy independence and territorial integrity, and must fulfill international obligations. The Charter also lays out the structure and methods of the UN.
UN Charter
Comprised of representatives of all states, it allocates UN funds, passes non-binding resolutions, and coordinates third world development programs and various autonomous agencies through the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
UN General Assembly
A body of five great powers (which can veto resolutions) and ten rotating member states, which makes decisions about international peace and security including the dispatch of UN peacekeeping forces.
UN Security Council
The UN’s executive branch, led by the secretary-general.
UN Secretariat
The UN peacekeeping forces, so called because they wear helmets or berets in the UN color, blue, with UN insignia.
blue helmets
A structure established in 1964 to promote third world development through various trade proposals.
UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
Based in Geneva, it provides technical assistance to improve health conditions in the third world and conducts major immunization campaigns.
World Health Organization (WHO)
The judicial arm of the UN; located in The Hague, it hears only cases between states.
World Court (International Court of Justice)
National laws that establish the conditions under which foreigners may travel and visit within a state’s territory, work within the state, and sometimes become citizens of the state (naturalization).
immigration law
The process by which the status of embassies and that of an ambassador as an official state representative are explicitly defined.
diplomatic recognition
Refers to diplomats’ activity being outside the jurisdiction of the host country’s national courts.
diplomatic immunity
Violations of the law governing the conduct of warfare, such as by mistreating prisoners of war or unnecessarily targeting civilians.
war crimes
Permanent tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
International Criminal Court (ICC)
Soldiers who have surrendered (and who thereby receive special status under the laws of war).
prisoners of war (POWs)
A nongovernmental organization (NGO) that provides practical support, such as medical care, food, and letters from home, to civilians caught in wars and to prisoners of war (POWs). Exchanges of POWs are usually negotiated through the ICRC.
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
A branch of international law and political theory that defines when wars can be justly started (jus ad bellum) and how they can be justly fought (jus in bello).
just war doctrine
Rights of all persons to be free from abuses such as torture or imprisonment for their political beliefs (political and civil rights), and to enjoy certain minimum economic and social protections (economic and social rights).
human rights
A category of legal offenses created at the Nuremberg trials after World War II to encompass genocide and other acts committed by the political and military leaders of the Third Reich (Nazi Germany).
crimes against humanity
An influential non-governmental organization that operates globally to monitor and try to rectify glaring abuses of political (not economic or social) human rights.
Amnesty International
The expectations held by participants about normal relations among states.
international norms