exam #2

Question 1

International regime

Answer 1

set of rules, norms, and
procedures around which the expectations of actors
converge in a certain issue area

Question 2

collective security

Answer 2

formation of a broad alliance of most major
actors in an international system for the purpose of
jointly opposing aggression by any actor

Question 3

core peraphary

Answer 3

world-system (“unit with a
single division of labor and multiple cultural
systems” [Wallerstein]) – one world, one
economy

Question 4

rational actor model

Answer 4

Identify issues/problems and goals
• Prioritize goals
• Gather information
• Identify all available options 
• Examine the alternatives and the outcomes 
• Choose a policy

Question 5

psychological process

Answer 5

interfere with 
decision-making as it is described in the 
Rational Actor Model include:
• 	 Misperceptions/Selective Perceptions
• 	 Information Screens
• 	 Affective Bias
• Positive or negative feelings
• 	 Cognitive Bias 
• Justification of effort - sunk costs
• Wishful thinking - skewing odds

Question 6

Bureacratic politics model

Answer 6

interfere with 
decision-making as it is described in the 
Rational Actor Model include:
• 	 Misperceptions/Selective Perceptions
• 	 Information Screens
• 	 Affective Bias
• Positive or negative feelings
• 	 Cognitive Bias 
• Justification of effort - sunk costs
• Wishful thinking - skewing odds

Question 7

organizational process model

Answer 7

sees governments as conglomerates of
different agencies and organizations, each
addressing one dimension of a foreign policy
issue or problem according to its standard
operating procedures

Question 8

incrementalism

Answer 8

Decision-makers pursue the safest policy (as
opposed to the best policy) and are more
concerned about avoiding disastrous outcomes than
they are about achieving the optimal outcome (=
muddling through strategy)

Question 9

treaty of westphilia 1648

Answer 9

1) States acquire legitimacy through mutual
recognition
• 2) Religion no longer basis for war or for treaty
decisions
• 3) Territorial claims to be settled by treaties
between major powers

Question 10

classical balance of power

Answer 10

preventing any one state from acquiring too much power.

Question 11

hegemonic war

Answer 11

Seeking control over entire world order
• More likely today to result in global
annihilation than in past

Question 12

total war

Answer 12

One state against another with goal to
completely defeat the enemy and replace the
vanquished state’s government
• Typically mobilizes all of society and all of
enemy’s society is legitimate target

Question 13

limited war

Answer 13

Objective short of complete surrender of
enemy
•Includes single raids and low-intensity
conflict (repeated or tit-for-tat raids)

Question 14

civil war

Answer 14

intrastate war between different factions
vying for control of state apparatus or for
dissolution/partition of the state

Question 15

guerilla war

Answer 15

A technique, as opposed to more scope and
objective-focused nature of other type
definitions

Question 16

individual cause of war

Answer 16

Individual level theories
• Rational decisions of national leaders, both
of whom decide more is to be gained from
war than in peace (WWI classic example)
• Realism
• Possibly flawed choices of leaders due to
information screens, cognitive biases,
collective nationalism (domestic pressure),

Question 17

domestic causes of war

Answer 17

Societal characteristics
• Capitalism = expansion (Marxists)
• Communism = totalitarian 
• Problem is that societies change over time, 
so characteristics argument not solid

Question 18

interstate causes of war

Answer 18

Power relations among major international
actors
• War more likely at times of hegemonic
transition or when power is fairly equally
distributed, as deterrence is lower

Question 19

global causes of war

Answer 19

Cyclical K-waves, world order shifts or

economic cycles

Question 20

Nationalism

Answer 20

“Devotion to the interests of one’s own nation
over others” - Shared identity, usually based on
culture and language

Question 21

ideological conflict

Answer 21

Like religion, ideology is a rallying cry for support of
conflict
• Make similar appeal to core values and absolute
truth – classic example communism vs. capitalism
• Ideological claims for conflict historically harder
to sustain over time
• Tool for mobilization
• Can sharpen and intensify conflicts between
rivals

Question 22

drug trafficking

Answer 22

Smuggling that deprives states of revenue and violates states’
legal control of their borders
• Smuggling generally an economic issue rather than a security
one

Question 23

economic conflict

Answer 23

Economic competition is the most pervasive
form of conflict in international relations
because economic transactions are pervasive.

Question 24

types of international conflict

Answer 24

Ethnic
• Religious
• Ideological
• Territorial
• Governmental 
• Economic

Question 25

conflict of ideas

Answer 25

Most difficult types of conflict have intangible
elements such as ethnic hatred, religious fervor, or
ideology – all conflicts of ideas

Question 26

asymmetric warfare

Answer 26

when the enemy doe not play by our rules

Question 27

terrorism

Answer 27

acts against states and individuals to instill fear and terror

Question 28

globalization

Answer 28

• A series of economic, cultural, and social
processes through which sovereign national
states are criss-crossed and undermined by
transnational actors with varying prospects
of power, orientations, identities, and
networks”

Question 29

globality

Answer 29

The reduction and elimination of closed
spaces
•Time-space compression
•Increasing interconnection

Question 30

globalism

Answer 30

The ideology of globalization
•Concept that globalization is the natural 
end point of market liberalism
•Idea that markets are inherently 
democratic, voluntary, and apolitical
•Globalization, in this view, is both 
inevitable and beneficial

Question 31

huntington’s cultural argument

Answer 31

• Differences real and basic: history, language,
culture, tradition, and religion
• Increased interactions among people increases
“civilization consciousness” and increases
likelihood of conflict
• Unlike class or ideology, cultural differences
are not mutable – esp. case w/religion
• Large civilizations include Western, Confucian,
Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin
American, and possibly African

Question 32

International political economy

Answer 32

Looks at interaction between State and
Market - tensions and complements
• Also looks at States and other organizations
– especially IOs and MNC/TSEs
• We are interested in international/domestic
linkages – sometimes different
constituencies, and different preferences

Question 33

IPE low politics

Answer 33

Early modern western economic theorists
believed politics and economics should be
separate (but were not) – hence Smith’s
advocacy of a laissez-faire approach instead
of mercantilism