International Relations Theories

Question 1

Liberal IR Premises: Reason, Individualism, Progress

Answer 1

Optimistic view of human nature: Rational, individual, Self-interested action can produce outcomes beneficial to all

Humans can progress over time

Progress is based on the actions of individual agents

Question 2

Liberal IR Theory

Answer 2

Hugo Grotius- 1582-1645
Samuel Pufendorf- 1632-1694
Immanuel Kant, Perpetual Peace 1795

Question 3

Liberal IR in practice

Answer 3

WW1 was a “total war”. Bust build peace after it ends

US President Woodrow Wilson (1913-21) refers to Liberal Ideas to Enter War: “to make the world safe for democracy”

And to crare peaceful post-war order

Question 4

The Treaty of Versailles

Answer 4

June 1919: Creates League of Nations, but also imposes harsh penalties on germany

Combination of progressive liberal ideals and measures harsh enough that they ensured a future war

Reparations imposed on Germany take 93 years to pay off, final payment was in 2010

Question 5

Principles of Self-Determination

Answer 5

Right to states freely determine their own government, policies, and practices

The quest of nationalist group to secure political autonomy

Further strengthens legitimacy of nation-state concept, despite it not being extended beyond Europe until mid-20th century

Question 6

The Realist Turn

Answer 6

Established a series of Buffer states between Western Europe and USSR

But Japan and Germany (re)emerge as major powers; with the german invasion of Poland in 1939, World War 11 begins

Liberal Idealism gives way to Realism…

Question 7

Realism

Answer 7

Emphasis on “the way things are” rather than on “how they ought to be”

Not a single theory, but an approach that emphasizes the struggle for power and security by states in conditions of anarchy

Formally emerges in the 1930s but claims a long history reaching back to ancient greece

Question 8

Modern Antecedents of Realism

Answer 8

Niccolo Machiavelli (1467-1527)
-All actions judged against the stability of the state; raison d’etat (reason of state); contemporary equivalent of today’s national interest

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
-State of nature, a “war of all against all”; continual dear, danger and violent death; “life of man (is) solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”
-Because war is omnipresent involving everyone, there is no notion of right or wrong, there is no law, there is no justice

Question 9

Ancient Realism: Thucydides

Answer 9

Anarchic system, ruthless, dangerous world

Allies can never be completely trusted to pull their weight; everyone for themselves

Fundamental human motivations; ambition, fear, and self-interest

athens growing power created security dilemma for Sparta (whose survival was in question); Athens lost despite being more powerful

Question 10

The Melian Dialogue

Answer 10

Thucydides (c.460-395 BCE) the peloponnesian war

“….. the question of justice only enters where the pressure of necessity is equal, and that the Powerful exact what they can, and the weak grant what they must.”

Question 11

Realism in the 20th Century

Answer 11

Hans Morgenthau, in Politics among nations (1944): pessimistic view of human nature; politics trumps morality most if not all the time

Realists like Morgenthau, Arendt, and Kennan have considerable impact on the US government policy

Question 12

U.S Elections

Answer 12

Deep federalism
-Highly decentralized electoral system

Electoral college
-Indirect voting system
-Popular vote - electors- president
-“Winner takes all” in most states
-#of senators + # of representatives
-270/538 electoral votes to win
How to lose democratically…

Question 13

Behaviorism vs. Normative Analysis

Answer 13

Behaviouralism in IR after WWll, especially in the US
Rejects legal, historical, and comparative studies in favor of quantifiable data
Reliance on the scientific method to produce objective, positive knowledge

Normative analysis is concerned with norms, values, and ethics
Does not claim itself to be “scientific”

Question 14

The English School and the idea of international Society

Answer 14

Groups of English scholars, including Martin Wight, and Hedley Bull who argues that IR theory was underdeveloped

Concerned with IR as a “society of states”

Largely rejected the scientific approaches of the US in favor of historical and normative ones

Its concern with international order and justice is at the heart of issues including state sovereignty, global human rights culture, and humanitarian intervention

Question 15

Neorealism and Neoliberalism

Answer 15

Neorealism (also called “structural realism”) places emphasis on the structure of the international system, downplaying domestic politics

Neoliberalism (also called “liberal institutionalism”) adopts many of the assumptions of realism, but argues for the importance of international institutions

Question 16

Neorealism

Answer 16

Kenneth Waltz, Man, the State of War (1959); Theory of International Politics (1979)

Aimed for a more scientific, parsimonious theory of IR to generate testable hypotheses

Use of “3 images” to explore IR and the causes of war: 1) the individual 2) the states 3) the international system of states

Question 17

The Security Dilemma

Answer 17

John Mearshimer: “in essence, great powers are trapped in an iron cage where they have little choice but to compete with each other for power if they hope to survive”

An action taken by a state to secure itself provokes other states, thereby leaving the first state feeling less secure

Question 18

Offensive and Defensive Realism

Answer 18

Mearsheimer argues for an offensive realism, where states maximize relative power

Waltz argues for a defensive realism, where too much power in a state will generate a security dilemma

All realists are aware of the dangers of expansionism (such as 2003 iraq War, or NATO expansion)

Question 19

Neoliberalism

Answer 19

Also called liberal institutionalism

Robert Keohane, After Hegemony (1984) draws on institutional economics to argue that the international system can be stable even without a hegemon.

A range of non-state actors, NGOs Etc.., play key roles in international civil society