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45 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is the world of international relations made of? |
The agency is the states and IGOs, and the structure is anarchy. |
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What do we mean when we ask what agents are like and what they want? |
Agents are groups of people that have something in common and are established. They want military, money, and people
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What do we mean when we ask what structures are like? |
Anarchy with a bunch of different actors competing for the most military strength, money, and population. |
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What's the key question to ask when we talk about the interaction between structures and agents? |
Endless conflict to get to the top. Who has the strongest military, monetary, and population wise and what have they done to stay at the top. |
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What are the three elements of human nature, and what is the balance between them? |
40% Good instincts. 10% Bad instincts. 50% reason. |
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How are the three elements of human nature controlled inside a community? |
Teach human beings to be reasonable, however, you can control bad instincts but cannot eliminate them. Authority figures help keep you in line. Unity comes from domination and coercion |
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What is the balance between the three elements once one community interacts with another community? |
Instincts are controlled at the community level and projected out in the other communities. Leaders redirect your passions toward other communities. |
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What is the role of leaders in classical realism? |
Leaders point their finger at other communities in order to redirect the bad instincts to do terrible things elsewhere. |
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What does Niebuhr mean when he talks about hypocrisy as an "inevitable by-product of all virtuous endeavors"? |
Classical realists use selfishness when going to war. Leaders lie because your nation is a hypocrisy. Hypocrites say anything to outrage people who criticize the hypocrite. Lie to make their actions look and sound good. |
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What is the social setting in which states find themselves at the international level? |
Anarchy. Constant drive to take their bad instincts out on other communities. |
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Why can't the League of Nations, for example, mitigate the nature of that social setting? |
The League of Nations is only a puppet to the most powerful countries. Classical realists love the U.N. on paper, even though the U.N. does nothing. Neoliberals believe you can only make people love people in their own community. |
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War and Power Seeking: Agency |
Human nature and communities |
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War and Power Seeking:Structure |
Anarchy |
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Where does order and stability come from in a community? |
Give people rules in order to achieve your goal. |
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How does order collapse? |
Power intoxicates us to be reckless and do terrible things with that power. |
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What is the difference between power and influence? |
Power is a skill leaders have by gaining the influence of the people. By influencing the people to vote for you gives you power because the people decided to make you a leader. |
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What are the classical realist notions of tragedy and hubris? |
Hubris causes downfall because power causes arrogance. Tragic flaws of character cause something bad to happen. More power, equals more hubris. |
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U.S. war in Iraq |
Hubris is the United States war in Iraq. Neoconservatives wanted to assert democracy abroad because power intoxicated the Bush Administration. United States defied the international community's social conventions: agreements, treaties, and norms. |
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What mistakes did the United States make? |
Hope rather than reason. Suppress bad news. Underestimated opposition. Invading on the cheap. Inadequate plans. |
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Why does Arendt say the regular Jewish people did not resist the Holocaust? |
Regular Jews didn't resist because their leaders didn't. Jewish leaders were supposed to protect their community and failed. As a result, the regular Jewish people didn't resist. |
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What was the role of German society in the Holocaust? |
Take their bad instincts out on the Jewish community. |
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What does Arendt mean by the expression "banality of evil" and how is it different from the more traditional notion of evil expressed by Niebuhr and Ned Lebow? |
How it doesn't require a psychopath to kill a large amount of people. It takes a normal person to be evil and express their bad instincts on other people. |
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According to Arendt, why does statelessness matter so much when we talk about the Holocaust? |
When ousted from a community, there is no one to protect you. Nazi's made the Jews stateless from the Germans. |
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How did Bulgaria, Denmark, and Italy react to Nazi requests during the holocaust? |
Bulgaria and Italy used the Star of David as pin for Jews to wear. Denmark openly refused to do anything because Jews are stateless, so you have no claim over them. Italy established that anyone who had a family member in the fascist party was not obligated. |
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Arendt says that the court prosecuting Eichmann in Jerusalem did not understand two major issues during the trail- what are they? |
Didn't understand Eichmann's evil, he was subconsciously doing bad things. Community vs Community: Eichmann was a part of a destructive community, he was attacking humanity. Punishing evil and protecting the vulnerable. |
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What are the similarities and differences in terms of agency and structure between Niebuhr and Arendt? |
Both Niebuhr and Arendt believed the agency was human nature. Niebbuhr believed in anarchy. Arendt believed in anarchy and humanity. |
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What is the difference between classical and structural realists in terms of agency and structure as explanations for why there is constant power-seeking and the constant risk of war? |
Both agree that these actors all exist in anarchy. Classical realists believe in that evil exists because of human nature. Structural realists believe evil exists because countries are trying to put themselves in better positions. |
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What is the structural realist conception of agency and structure? |
A social structure leaves more space for agency; that is for the individual or state to influence their environment, as well as to be influenced by it. |
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What does Mearsheimer mean when he says that anarchy is an "iron cage"? |
Iron Cage setting explains why states behave the way they do. Anarchy forces behavior Structural realists believe that if you live in the cage, you must adjust to their requirements. |
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Why do defensive realists think states want a limited amount of power? |
Balancing fears, defense is easier, and conquest is costly. |
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Why do offensive realists think states want an unlimited amount of power? |
Balancing is difficult (buck-passing), defense is difficult, and conquest is cheap. |
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Why is the presence of anarchy not sufficient to explain when war is more or less likely? |
There needs to be a balanced or unbalanced world to predict the likelihood of war.
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What is the least, medium, and most warlike international structure and why? |
World is balanced during a bipolarity setting, least warlike World is balanced during a multipolarity setting, medium warlike World is unbalanced during a multipolarity, most warlike |
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Why does Mearsheimer think that Europe and North-East Asia were peaceful in the 1990s and what does he think will happen in the next few decades there? |
In the 1990s, there was a balanced multipolarity (US, Russia, China) 21st Century will be worse if there is either no change- US leaves- Japan rises- more war OR China rises- US responds- more war |
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Why would trading more make the agent and structure more peaceful? |
Trade depends on expectations of peace with the trading partner. Violent conflict endangers access to markets, imports, and capital. |
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Why would being in an organization make the agent and structure more peaceful? |
They are multipurpose, or functional agencies directed to specific goals to promote unity. The more trade and democracy between countries the less chance they will fight each other. |
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What is dyadic and monadic in the democratic peace theory? |
Dyadic is used to signify the particular character of a relationship between a pair of actors, usually states. Monadic is referring to the unique character of republican states in terms of their aversion to war.
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What is the difference between the monadic and the dyadic versions of democratic peace theory? |
The dyadic claim included both the dynamics of domestic political interactions between leader and potential opposition, and the interactions between two independent states. The monadic claim completely ignores the latter. |
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What was Europe like before WWII? |
Dictatorships had arisen largely because of the breakdown of the world economy in the 1930s
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What changes in agency and structure occured that made the EU such a peaceful place, according to liberals? |
The EU acts as an interngovernmental body with its member states retaining important elements of their traditional sovereignty. |
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What is the difference between liberalism and neoliberalism? |
Agrees with everything liberals believe in.
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What new agent do neoliberals introduce? |
Independent IOs that impact global politics. Neoliberals should determine which IO works best |
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What are the three major problems that international organizations have when it comes to getting states to listen to them? |
Bargaining- rules and procedures for their collective decision-making Defection- States fear that their cooperative partners may fail to live up to mutual agreements Autonomy- Facilitate self-interested cooperation, allow independence |
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How did the WTO deal with those problems effectively? |
WTO reviews each country and tries to figure out if they are following the rules. Publish the countries information and records to show if countries are cheating or reliable. |
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What is principal-agent theory and how does it apply to neoliberalism? |
Delegation serves the interest of most countries. Also allows international institutions to independently pursue and shape multilateral agendas. |
