Chapter 1 Flashcards
State
an organized political entity with a permanent population, a well-defined territory, and a government; in everyday language, often used synonymously with nation-state
Politics
the exercise of influence by competing indiviudals and groups to affect the allocation of values and distribution of resources; to political scientists Harold Lasswell, the process that determines “who get what, when, how and why?”
Actor
an individual, group or state, or organization that plays a major role in world politics
Nation-State
a specific geographic area containing a sovereign polity whose population identifies with that polity
System
a set of interconnected parts that function as a unitary whole; in world politics, the parts consist primarily of states that interact on a regular basis
Sovereignty
under international law, the principle that no higher authority is above of the state
Anarchy
the absence of higher authority with the legitimacy and coercive capability to make and enforce rules that bind states
Nation
a group of people who feel common identity due to a shared language, culture and history
Billiard-Ball Model
a conception of world politics that envisions states as the sole mover of global affairs, explains their behavior as unitary responses to external threats, and attributes little importance to domestic sources of foreign policy
Nonstate Actor
all transnationally active groups other than states, such is international government organizations whose members are states and nongovernmental organizations whose members are individuals and private groups from more than one state
Heuristics
Judgmental shortcuts used to compensate for limited information about complicated problems
Schematic Reasoning
the process by which new information is interpreted by comparing it to generic concepts stored in memory about certain stereotypical situations, sequences of events, and characters
Cognitive Dissonance
the psychological tendency to deny or rationalize away discrepancies between one’s preexisting beliefs and new information
Individual Level of Analysis
an analytical approach to the study of world politics that emphasizes the psychological factors motivating people who make foreign policy decisions on behalf of states and other global factors
State Level Analysis
an analytical approach to the study of world politics that emphasizes how the internal attributes of states influence their foreign policy behavior
Systemic Level of Analysis
an analytical approach to the study world politics that emphasizes the impact of international structures and processes on the behavior of global actors
Remote Causes
phenomena that are removed in time from the effects that they produce or help to produce
Proximate Causes
phenomena occurring close in time to the effects that they produce or help to produce
Nationalism
the belief that political loyalty lies with a body of people who share ethnicity, linguistic, or cultural affinity, and perceive themselves to be members of the same group
Containment
A term coined by U.S. policymaker George Kennan for deterring expansion by the Soviet Union, which was since been used to describe a strategy aimed at preventing a state from using force to increase its territory of sphere of influence
Ockham’s Razor
a rule of thumb attributed to the fourteenth century logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham that holds a simple casual account is preferable to a complex one if the latter does not provide additional explanatory power
Contingent Behavior
actions that depend on what others are doing
