exam 2 vocabulary Flashcards
state
The government and political system of a country
foreign policy
Policy (actions or state- ments intended to change behavior or outcomes) aimed at problems outside of the policy-making state’s borders.
State-level theories of Int’l Politics
State-level theories are theories of foreign policy that categorizes states based on shared characteristics
dyad
pair of states
zone of peace
A group of states that tend not to go to war with each other because they are democratic.
rally around the flag
The increase in popular support often gained by leaders of a country in times of war.
rational choice theory
A theory that bases explanations of deci- sions on the assumption that decision makers have clear goals, calcu- late the costs of various courses of action, and pick the policy that will best serve their goals.
The second, “dyadic” (focusing on pairs) model…
The second, “dyadic” (focusing on pairs) model holds that toward autocracies democracies are just as warlike as autocra- cies, but that democracies do not fight each other.
audience cost
The costs in loss of public support paid by leaders of democracies when they renege on a commitment.
mainstream effect
The tendency for the public to follow political leaders and the media when those actors have consensus on an issue.
expected utility theory
A variant of the rational action model. The theory asserts that leaders evaluate poli- cies by combining their estimation of the utility of potential outcomes with the likelihood that different outcomes will result from the policy in question.
ministries
ministries The main institutions of the executive branch of government. In the United States, these institutions are called “departments.”
groupthink
agreeing w/ the majority
deaths for a war
1000
deaths to = a militarized dispute
1-999
cognitive dissonance
A theory that holds that individuals tend to con- struct internally consis- tent views of the world and that psychological discomfort, or “cogni- tive dissonance,” results when some new piece of information does not fit with an individual’s existing beliefs.
bolstering
The tendency of deci- sion makers facing a difficult decision to increase their certainty once a decision is made
causes of war
Liberalism Regime Type Expected Utility Diversionary War Capitalism Rivalry greed grievances territory nuc's
