Final Flashcards
What is international security?
The amalgamation of measures taken by states, IOs and other actors that affect the mutual survival and safety including military action and diplomatic agreements
An issue at the core of security is political violence
Describe the typology of political violence
State vs non state
Perpetrator vs target
Target:state perp:state = interstate war
Target:non state perp:state = state repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing
Target:state perp:non state = organized crime, military coup, mass protests, civil war, terrorism, political assassination
Target:non state perp:non state = inter communal violence, political assassination
What are interests and national interests
What actors want to achieve through political action: their preferences over outcomes that might result from their political choices
Interests attributed to the state itself, usually security and power
Rational actor approaches to decision making = assumptions?
Actors are purposive: they behave with the intention of producing a desired result
Actors adopt strategies to obtain desired outcomes given what they believe to be the interests and likely actions of others
Rationality refers to the instrumental process of decision making not the goals or preferences that actors adapt to their estimates of success
What is coercion?
The threat or imposition of costs to get an actor- a state, a leader of state, a terrorist group, a transnational or international organization, a private actor- to do something it does not want to do
cooperation - positive sum
barganing - negative o zero sum
What is compellence
An effort to change the status quo through the threat of force
A compelling threat is used to coerce the target state into making a concession or changing policy
What is deterrence
Deterrence is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy the fear to attack
An effort to preserve the status quo by threatening the other side with unacceptable costs if it seeks to alter the current relationship
Deterrence by denial
Deterrence by punishment
Rationality
Means perception and communication
Credibility
What is nuclear deterrence theory and what are its 3 elements
Developed between 1952-1966 by political scientists, economists, military strategists, other scientists, mostly at RAND corporation
Driven by Cold War and fears of nuclear Armageddon
1. precarious
2. its devastating
3. mutually assured destruction
What is a solution to deterrence credibility
- Burning bridges and irrevocable commitment
- Introduce illogic and uncertainty
Rebellion and public goods
Rebel groups typically claim public good as their goals like secession, autonomy, democratization, and redistribution appearing to be the most common
What is the rebels dilemma
For rebellions to successfully organize individuals have to participate
Participation is a costly
If the rebellion succeeds everyone should benefit from the system change even those who don’t participate
There is strong incentive to free ride and reap the benefits of others
This makes the rebel organization difficult
How can you overcome the rebels dilemma?
Increase costs of nonparticipation
Change material incentives to participate
Ideology
Rebel institutions or self government introducing hierarchy
How do we get from rebellion to civil conflict
Involves the state and at least one organized and armed non state actor
A contested incompatibility that concerns government and or territory where the use of armed force reaches a certain threshold
Types of conflict and their goals
Territorial
Separatist: non state actor wants to separate a territory to form an independent state
Irredentist: non state actor wants to detach a territory from one country and reunite it with the territory of another country
Governmental
Nonstate actors try to seize control of the government
Types of warfare
Conventional: military technologies between state and non state actors are symmetric. Non Tate actors can directly confront the state
Irregular: asymmetric military capabilities that privilege the state. Non state actors can challenge and harass the state but lack the capacity to confront in a direct and formal way
Symmetric and non conventional: both sides lack advanced military capabilities
What is bargaining theory
It’s about how to divide the object of dispute
There is only win or lose
The existence of a bargaining range implies both players should always have an incentive to locate peaceful settlements that avoid the cost of war
independent of conflict type
neither side is assured victory
What are the 3 solutions to the bargaining puzzle
1 incomplete information
Probability of winning or losing
Costs of fighting
How big is the pie
2 commitment problems
it is future proof?
3 indivisibility
All or nothing
How to avoid war according to bargaining model
Raising the cost
Increasing transparency
Providing outside enforcement of commitments
Dividing apparently indivisible goods
Raising the utility of peace
When do wars end in bargaining model?
Is utility of war is less than of peace
In information asymmetry: war reveals information
Commitment problem: belief that deal will stick
What states fight over
Most are about Territory
National policy
Regime type
Militarized interstate disputes
A set of interactions between or among nations involving
The threat to use force
The display of force
The actual use of military force
Leaders vs national interest
Leaders may have private incentives that diverge from the national interest
Diversionary theory of war: war instigated by a country’s leader in order to distract its population from their domestic strife
democratic peace theory
Pairs of democracies are less likely to fight than other pairs of states
Normative explanations to democratic peace
Democratic norms promote compromise rather than the elimination of opponents
Non democracies exhibit norms in which political conflicts are more likely to be resolved thorough violence and coercion
To guard against exploitation and to ensure their own survival democracies employ non democratic norms in their relations with non democracies
Institutional explanations of democratic peace
Democracies are characterized by institutional constraints
Because wars are costly, wars are generally unpopular among publics
In democracies leaders are generally more reliant on public support than non democracies are
Democracies are less able to bluff because of information and audience costs
Elements of audience costs theory
Domestic political audience has the means and incentives to coordinate to punish the leader
Domestic actors view backing down after having made a threat as worse than conceding without having made a threat in the first place
Outsiders are able to observe the possibility of domestic sanctions from backing down
What is delegation
An act where one person or group called a principal relies on another person or grew up called an agent to act on the principals behalf
Agency loss
Describes the difference between the perfect and actual outcome from delegation. Agency loss occurs from conflicting preferences incomplete information and lack of enforcement mechanisms
Two main problems with principal agent
Adverse selection
Problem: information asymmetry between agent and principal
Solutions: ex ante mechanisms
Screening signaling contract design
Moral hazard/agency slack
Problem: divergent preferences may incentivize the agent to act inappropriately
Solution: ex post mechanisms
Sanctions
What is terrorism
Highly contested
Ineluctably political in aims and motives
Violent or equally important threatens violence
Designed to have far reaching psychological repercussions beyond the immediate victim or target
Conducted by either an organization with an identifiable chain of command or conspiratorial cell structure (whose members wear no uniform or identifying insignia) or by individuals or a small collection of individuals directly influenced motivated or inspired by the ideological aims of examples of s9me existent terrorist movement and or its leaders
Perpetrated by a sub national group or non state entity
Some argue that the target of violence has to be civilians or non combatants while others relax this
