IR 002: Lecture 10 Flashcards
What are critiques against the argument that liberal democracies want peace and export democracy and human rights abroad?
-For decades European democracies were also colonial powers
-Western democracies have forged alliances with many dictatorships (to access natural resources, to fight communism, to fight terrorism, etc.)
-Western democracies often use democracy and human rights to hide strategic objectives
What is an example of the United States using democratization to hide strategic objectives?
Democracy and the US-led intervention in Afghanistan in 2001
What are reasons some scholars are skeptical of the US involvement in Afghanistan?
The US claimed the purpose was for the human rights of women and girls in the Middle East. However, post 9/11 human rights helped justify the US-led occupation of Afghanistan (The US failed to capture and kill the leader of the Taliban Osama Bin Laden))
What year did the US withdraw from Afghanistan?
2010
Why is foreign-led democratization difficult?
-Not everyone in the world wants democracy (ex. Many men in Iraq saw gender equality as a threat)
-Political interference fuels resentment
-Military occupation fuels resentment
Foreign interveners often have a superficial approach (They organize elections but neglect deeper features)
-Ethnic/religious tensions
-Religious conservatism
-No political culture/institutions in the first place
-Economic underdevelopment
Why are infant democracies unstable?
-They have just emerged from internal tensions (political, religious, ethnic, etc.)
-They have no stable institutions
-They have no democratic culture (ex. tolerance, respect for minorities, etc.)
-Many local elites stir hatred to take/consolidate power
True of false democratization is often a very long-term process
True
How do international organizations (IO’s) help mitigate conflict?
-Forums for diplomacy and conflict resolutions
-Cooperative behavior leads to trust
-International Organizations collect information on states’ behavior (transparency helps build mutual trust)
What is the Post-1945 “world order”?
-“Predictability, or patterned regularity”
-More international treaties
-More global and regional organizations
-Shared principles (ex. national sovereignty)
What are critiques against international organizations?
-They are controlled by great powers
-They are to vulnerable to money/corruption
-They are too divided and bureaucratic to be effective
What is an example of an international organization failing?
The United Nations selective moboilization against genocides
What is the origins of the “Liberal Order”?
-Enlightenment in Europe between the 17th and 18th century
-US Revolution in 1776
-French Revolution in 1789
How did the end of the Cold War effect liberalism?
The end of the Cold War was a liberal triumph and liberalism would spread globally
What are the 3 axes of the Cold War US-led “liberal order”?
-Axis 1: Promotion of free trade
-Axis 2: Promotion of democracy and human rights
-Axis 3: Promotion of international organizations
After the Cold War, how did the liberal order spread around the world?
-Bigger or new international liberal organizations (ex. NATOs expansion)
-Economic “hyper-globalization” (ex. de-regulation of finance, labor law, state welfare, etc.) (ex. More power to international economic institutions like the World Trade Organization)
-Spread of liberal democracy globally
-Bring Russia and China into the “liberal order” (ex. China joins the World Trade Organization, Regular pressures on China and Russia on human rights.)
What year did China join the World Trade Organization?
2001
Around what year did the liberal international order begin to decline?
2005
Why was there backlash against the liberal order after 2005?
-Globalization
-Economic Inequalities
-Political Polarization in many countries
Why did democracy promotion backfire?
-Inherently difficult and expensive (Ex. US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan)
-Removing dictators does not necessarily help instability (ex. In 2017 NATO’s intervention to overthrow Gaddafi)
-Democracy promotion antagonized non-democratic great powers (ex. China and Russia launched an authoritarian counter-offensive)
Approximately how much did the the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost?
~$6 trillion
What is the cost of economic “hyper-globalization”?
-Decline of social protections in most countries
-Excessive financial deregulation caused huge crises (ex. 2007-2008 global financial crisis)
-Growing inequalities
What are some of the consequences of “hyper-globalization” in most liberal democracies?
-Growing domestic divisions
-Declining trust in institutions
-Anti-liberal political forces (ex. 2016 Trump’s rise)
What was the cost of engaging China?
-The US believed that engaging China would make the Chinese regime more liberal but China instead exploited access to US market/investments/technologies to become a peer rival
What “may have been the worst blunder any country has made in recent history?”
The US engaging China hoping to make the Chinese regime more liberal
What are other arguments regarding the future of the liberal international order?
-Multipolar order dominated by great powers
-Creation of decentralized autonomous regions
-China-centric order
What are the main arguments for the opinion that the liberal order will survive?
-Open enough to accommodate rising powers like China and India
-Rising powers do not form a coherent bloc
-The liberal order has survived many other crises (ex. Vietnam War, Oil Crisis)
-The West is still more powerful than any other group (ex. 50% of global GDP and 57% of global military spending)
