IR 002: Lecture 5 Flashcards
What is the concept of unipolarity?
A world in which one state is the only superpower
What was the argument of “the unipolar moment”?
-the end of the Cold War was the end of the bipolarity; and the US was now in a league of its own
What is the counter argument to “the unipolar moment”?
While in terms of military domain the US had unipolarity in many other facets such as economic domain the world was multipolar (US/Europe/Japan)
Who wrote “The end of History”?
Francis Fukuyama
What was “The end of History” about?
-Universalization of the western liberal democracy as the final form of human government
-Globalization of goods/services/people
-Popular but declined overtime
What was the “Clash of Civilizations” about?
-Globalization increases identity conflicts (culture, language, religion, etc.)
-Popular after 9/11 (controversial)
What was the renewed power competition?
-Only a matter of time before Russia or China opposes the US
-Increasingly popular since the Ukraine crisis of 2014
What is foreign policy?
The sum total of [a states] interactions with the outside world
What is the breakdown of what a state wants?
-States have interests (foreign policy)
-To satisfy interest they develop policy objectives)
-To attain policy objectives they define strategies
-These strategies use different policy instruments
What is an interest?
Long term condition or situation in the world that the leaders of a government want to exist, so much that they are willing to pay costs to bring it about
What is a policy objective?
The outcomes that help advance an interest
What is a strategy?
Overarching connection of means to an end. A strategy aims at policy objectives and outlines what policy instruments will be used to attain that objective
What are two types of policy instruments?
-Persuasion
-Coercion
What is persuasion?
Convincing others to do something
What is coercion?
Forcing others to do something
What are tools of persuasion?
-Diplomacy
-Economic incentive
What is diplomacy?
Process by which representatives of two or more governments meet and discuss matters of common concern
What are tools of coercion?
-Economic Sanctions
-Propaganda to discredit the enemy
-Cover Operations
What is the complexity of the foreign policy process?
-Difficult to understand the world
-Difficult to implement those decisions
-Smart foreign policy does not have guaranteed success
Why is bureaucracy challenging for the foreign policy process?
-Often unresponsive
-Long term position where its challenging to fire those in cahge
-Hard to change course (inertia)
-Large
What are the 3 inter-connected levels of analysis?
-Individual
-State
-Intenational
What factors affect individual state leader?
-Personality
-Conviction
-Experience
