Chapter 4

Question 1

unilateral

Answer 1

a strategy that relies on independent, self-help behavior in foreign policy

Question 2

Rational Choice

Answer 2

decision making procedures guided by careful definition of problems, specification of goals, weighing the costs, risks, and benefits of all alternatives, and selection of the optimal alternative

Question 3

Polarity

Answer 3

the degree to which military and economic capabilities are concentrated among the major powers in the state system

Question 4

Polarization

Answer 4

the degree to which states cluster in alliances around the most powerful members of the state system

Question 5

Geopolitics

Answer 5

a school of thought claiming that a state’s foreign policy is determined by its location, natural resources, and physical environment

Question 6

First World

Answer 6

the relatively wealthy industrialized countries that share a commitment to varying forms of democratic political institutions and developed market economies

Question 7

Second World

Answer 7

during the Cold War, the group of countries, including the Soviet Union and its eastern European allies, that a shared a commitment to centrally planned economies

Question 8

Third World

Answer 8

a Cold War term to describe the developing countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America

Question 9

Global North

Answer 9

a term used to refer to the worlds wealthy, industrialized countries located primarily in the northern hemispheres

Question 10

Global South

Answer 10

a term used to designate the less developed countries located primarily in the Southern Hemisphere

Question 11

Global East

Answer 11

the countries of East and South Asia whose rapidly expanding economies have made them competitors with the traditionally dominant members of the Global North

Question 12

Constitutional Democracy

Answer 12

government system in which political leaders’ power is limited by a body of fundamental principles, and leaders are held accountable to citizens through regular, fair, and competitive elections

Question 13

Autocratic Rule

Answer 13

a governmental system where unlimited power is concentrated in the hands of a single person

Question 14

Rational Political Ambition Theory

Answer 14

an approach the study of foreign policy that assumes that state leaders want to maintain power and they make decisions with that goal in mind

Question 15

Diversionary War Theory

Answer 15

the contention that leaders initiate conflict abroad as a way of steering public opinion at home away from controversial domestic issues

Question 16

Democratic Peace

Answer 16

the theory that although democratic states sometimes wage wars against other state, they do not fight each other

Question 17

SOP

Answer 17

rules for reaching decisions about particular types of situations

Question 18

bureaucratic Politics

Answer 18

a description of decision making that sees foreign policy choices as being based on bargaining and compromises among governmental agencies

Question 19

Political Efficacy

Answer 19

the extent to which a policy maker believes in his or her ability to control events politically

Question 20

Procedural Rationality

Answer 20

a method of decision making based on having perfect information with which all possible courses of action are carefully evaluated

Question 21

Unitary Actor

Answer 21

an agent in world politics, usually a sovereign state, assumed to be internally united, so that changes in its internal circumstances do not influence its foreign policy as much as do the decisions that the actor’s leaders make to cope with changes in its global environment

Question 22

Two-Level Games

Answer 22

a concept that refers to the interaction between international bargaining and domestic politics

Question 23

Satisficing

Answer 23

the tendency fro decision makers to choose the first available alternative that meets minimally acceptable standards

Question 24

Prospect Theory

Answer 24

a behavioral decision theory that contends decision makers assess policy options in comparison to a reference point and that they take greater risks to prevent losses than to achieve gains

Question 25

sunk costs

Answer 25

a concept that refers to costs that have already been incurred and cannot be recovered

Question 26

groupthink

Answer 26

the propensity for members of small, cohesive groups to accept the groups prevailing attitudes in the interest of group harmony, rather than speak out for what they believe

Question 27

newgroup syndrome

Answer 27

the propensity of members of newly formed groups to conform with the opinions expressed by more powerful, assertive peers or the group’s leader due to a lack of well-developed procedural norms