IR MIDTERM 1 Flashcards
Realism
Characterized by the distribution of power: unipolarity, bipolarity, multipolarity. Military power the most important. History does not change.
Balance of Power
International order is based on this. Who has power and who does not. Restoring balance, creating new alliances.
Neg effect of World Power
Dystopian aspect. Potential for sharp shift financially/environmentally
Constructivism
States act on the basis of what the believe. Identity, beliefs, and values determine the effects of international systems.
Ex: Putin justification of invasion of Ukraine
Marxist
Materialistic, driven by material factors. History driven in the struggle for power through production. State is controlled by class interests. “Class” defined by those who control production (wealth & resources)
Critical Theory
(structuralism) Critique of idea that there are facts knowable outside of our theories.
Ex: Heteronormativity, Privilege, Feminism
Nationalsim
Political doctrine that the culture unit (the people) and the political unit (state) should be the same. Popular sovereignty.
Congress of Vienna (1815)
Invite nations to create a new world oder. Sovereign states that limit competition
Long Peace (1815-1914)
Period of relatively controlled conflict and progress; no systemic wars. Stable Multipolarity. Britain acts as “balancer” to prevent new continental Hegemon. No player eliminates another.
Classical Realism
Contest for power rooted in Human Nature
Structural Realism/Neo-Realism
Under Anarchy there is only self help. Strong incentive for military competition. Pushed to prepare for conflicts. “If one side arms, even to defend themselves, you must arm yourself.
Offensive Realism
Argue that states try to expand as much as possible (Power Maximizers). Only when you are absolutely powerful will you be safe.
Defensive Realism
States maximize security over power (Security Maximizers).
International order is based on…?
Distribution of Power
How do leaders respond when power shifts, and the international order is changed?
-They Accommodate: appease (Munich Conference w/ Hitler)
-They can Balance: Try to change the balance of power:
External–> increase defense spending
&
Internal –> Find allies
How to calculate Balance of power?
-Nominal GDP
-PPE
Why is calculating the balance of power hard to do?
-Stats unreliable
-Military tech changes
-Moral of soldiers/civilians is hard to assess
-Reaction of other countries unclear
-Quality of leadership uncertain
Cooperation- Problem of “relative gains”
-If one side gains too much the balance of power will be upset
-If the other side benefits more, then pull back in coorperation
-ex: US benefit disporoportionate to Peoples Republic of China
Cooperation enhanced under Hegemony
One country becomes stronger than the other and can set the rules (often in its own favor)
Realism is NOT amoral
-Realists insist that it is necessary to act
-“War is often the wrong choice”
-“But it if foolish, and immoral, to deny the realities of world power and to act as it they do not exist”.
The Enlightenment
-Foundation of Liberalism
-Change of ways of thinking
Three Strands of Liberalism
-Commercial Liberalism
-Legal Liberalism
-Constitutional Liberalism
What is Commercial Liberalism?
-Originally best formulated in economics
-Basis for the idea of the free market economy
-Argues that there is a natural harmony of interest in many spheres of life (if we each peruse our self interest, it can be for the greater good)
-If states get out of the way, people would naturally interact to their mutual benefit.
-Advocates free trade - both more efficient, but also on moral grounds- would unite nations through the bonds of commerce
-Benefits of coorperation go up in world of free trade, conversly so does the cost of conflict
Interdependence
In modern IR when sates rely on each other
What is Legal Liberalism?
-Advocated of “utilitarianism” –what is good is what maximizes the interests of the greatest number
-Strong advocate of international law as the guiding principle of states
-Strengthen international law for mutual benefits
Critic of Imperialism and human rights advocate
What is Neoliberalism?
-Argued that growing economic interdependence leads to growing density of international institutions–laws, treates, agreements, and institutions
What is Constitutional Liberalism?
& Democratic Peace Hypothesis
-Democratic peace hypothesis:Argued in a world of Republics wars between republics would become unlikely because those who pay the costs of war would decide whether to go to war or not
Argued wars not likely bc ppl who pay the costs of war would be ordinary ppl who dont want to go to war
It would be the kings and ppl higher up who want to go to war
-Questions: What is a Democracy?
Germany before WWI?
Were the Confederate States?
When did the US become a democracy? 1789? 1865? 1920? 1965?
What is war?
An Abbreviation History of IR Liberalism–>
Divides moder IR history into three phases: An Abbreviation History of IR Liberalism–>
-Liberalism 1.0– the League of Nations System (End of WWI)
-Liberalism 2.0– the UN System
-Liberalism 3.0– transcending the Sovereign State System
What is Embattled Liberalism?
-G. John Ikenberry –Professor of IR at Princeton
-Leading proponent of Liberalism in the academy
–>Divides modern IR history into three phases
Argues the US is a “Liberal Leviathan” that may fail to preserve the system
Liberalism 1.0, 2.0, 3.0
Liberalism in Action: 14 Points Speech
-Free commerce and navigation
-Open diplomacy (no secret deals)
-Self Determination of peoples
-A League of Nations
(Aimed to remake the international system, world based upon)
Russia Post Cold War
-Returing to Unifinished business–> the “Frozen Conflicts”
-Territoral disputes: Transistria, Georgia, Crima..etc.
-Fights war in Georgia 2008
-Fights war in Ukraine in 2014
The Persistance of the Liberal Order
-Under complec interdependence states beomce increasingly dependent on one another
Liberalism 1.0
The Interwar period
(The League of Nations System-End of WWI)
-League of Nations and other Insternational insititutions were not misguided (as Realists claim) but a first step twards a truly more just and peaceful world
-Sucesses: German democratization (Weimer period), Mangement of refugee crisis, Progress in arms control
-Problems: Lack of US involvement, Weak orgganizational structure, Obvious hypocracy(self determination of peoples only in Europe-Empire expands)
International Liberal Order 2.0
Post 1945
-UN General Assembly (NY)
-World Trade Organization
-Steady growth of European Union
-3 Wayve democracy:
1-End of WWI (rise of fascism)
2-End of WWII
3-Break up of Soviet Union
-Rising dbouts abt International Institutions- eg. increaing Humanitarian interventions
More recently world trade has been struggling
International Liberal Order 2.0
Humanitarian Interventions & Norms of Soverignty
-At least 31 since end of the Cold War
-Include: Bosnia, Cambodia, Chad, Kosovo, Liberia, Libya, etc
-Violating norms of Soverenty
Norms of Soverignty
Russian Agression
-1999 War in Kosovo
-Serb stats ethnicalky cleansing Kosovar Albanians
-US and NATO intervine (drive out Serb military)
-Russia Protests –> is ignored
-Create an independent Kosovo state 2008
-2008 Russia intervines Georgia, claims need to protect ethnic enclaves in Abkhazia and South Ossetia from Georgian agression
-US protests
-Russia ignors and crushes Georgia
“Responsibility to Protect”
(Nobal ideal or Fatal Conciet?)
-Proposed in 2000 by UN Secretary general Kofi Anan (as response to humanitarian disasters- Rwanda, Sudan)
-Carious International Regimes strained (eg. Nonproliferation)
-Climate change not being adequetly adressed
-Democratic Backsliding (Weakening of the system and things like free speech, etc.)
What is Constructivism?
-International politics is dirriven by more than rational calculationf of material interests like the balance of power (Realism) or enhansing material welfare (Liberalism)
-Identity, beliefs, and values profundly influence politics
-Elements of the international system emerge from social interactions
-Our own knowledge of supposedly objective material structures are sheped by our beliefs
International actors make their own reality -> “Socially Constucted”
Reality
(The material world and what we know of it)
Reality is the world as it is, the “truth”
-Intersubjective facts –> things that resists our will
(we might not like the facts but too bad, can’t cange them)
What is Ontology?
-The world as we believe it to be
-Scientists, people, all have beliefs on hwo the world works
What is Epistemology?
-The study of how we come to know of the world
-Conditioned through social interations (upbrigning, origins)
Sources of Beliefs
-Direct Observation –> evidence of our senses and our lived experiences
-Social Interaction –> what we learn from other people through discourse (socialization)
Constitutive of Reality
-Many of our beliefs are unreflected and are taken for granted
-They are constitutes for reality
EX: Identity –> socially constructed
How to trace the Origins of Discource?
-Michel Fouccault and German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche
-Where does a praticular belief/norm come from?
-What are the social and power relations that give rise to it?
Cannot just talk; but must speak to authority
Can be driven by religion, regional customs.. etc.
Russia/Ukraine History
WWI- Ukraine haunted by memories of terrible past: Civil War, WWI, artificial famine
WWII- Germans initially greeted by many in Ukraine, followed by extreme brutality–> breeds savage resistance and liberation by Red Army
1991- Ukraine hold referendum –> Putin calls this his “greatest tragedy of the 20th Century”
2010- Pro-Kremlin Viktor Yanukovych becomes President after regionally divided elections
2014- Yanukovych forced to flee adter turning down association agreement with EU and joining Putin’s Eurasian Union instead
2014- Russian Forces moved into Ukraine, seized Crima and parts of Eastern Ukraine. March 16- referendum held, Crima joins the Russian Federation –> Russian backed Separatists seize control of Donetsk and Luhansk
—-> Putin wins battle, but loses war
-Ukrainian public sentiments shift sharply against Moscow- even in the East, Russia now seen as the hostile “other” (IDENTITY SHIFTS)
2019- Volodomir Zelensky- President on a TV comedy show elected to the real presidency
Russia/Ukraine History
Putin’s Narrative
-Ukraine is historically part of Russia
-Outside powers have tried to seperate Ukraine from Russia
-The West brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union
-It is trying to lear Ukrain futher into the West
-Putin needs to bring it back for Russia to be whole and great again
Russia/Ukraine History
Zelensky’s Narrative
-Ukraine has a long and proud history of its own
-Under Soviet rule Ukraine suffered terribly
-Ukraine is seeking democracy and liberty by turning to the West
-Russia is Neo-Soviet Imperalist power–> Ukraine can never go back
What are Norms?
Socially held idea about the way the world is and the way the world should be
-Define what is appopriate behavior
-When internalized are taken for granted
-Frequently are contested
Norms & the Concept of Ligitimacy
-Jean Jacques Rousseau-French Philosopher (1712-1778)
-Many beliefs tell us not simply what is, but what is right and what is wrong
Example of an International Norm: The Nuclear Taboo
1945– Hiroshima and Nagasaki:
-Initially viewed as powerful bombs
-Welcomed by many in the US as a way to quickly end WWII and save hundreds of thousands of lives
Early Cold War viewed as legitimate weapon:
-1950s– The Radford Plan– US would use thousands of nuclear weapons to compensate for Soviet military superiority
-US threatened nuclear war to end the Korean War in 1953
Gradually the public became aware of the horrors of nuclear war:
-Nuclear Activists pushed for banning the bomb
-US public Opinion becomes quite critical of Nuclear weapons today–no longer seen as legitimate
-Obama pushes a arms control agenda
-Closer Examination reveals uncertainty – general support for nuclear deterrence
—>Norm being tested in the Ukraine Today
Putin testing norm with nuclear threats
To what degree is the world socially constucted?
To what degree is it objectively real?
(“Thick Constructivists” vs. “Thin Constructivits”)
-“Thin” Constructivists- much of the world is constructed, but it is still shaped by an objective reality- eg. Balance of Power, physical welfare
-Post structuralists/”Thick Constructivists” -we only know the “objective world” through constructions
-Our theories- Relaism, Liberalism, etc. -are themselves constuctions
Implications of a Post Structuralist Position
-Positivist Social Science- which claims to objectively analyze reality (it’s impossible)
-The role of the socail scientist (Critical Theorist) is to expose the power relations and biases that shape our world
–> this is called “Deconstruction”
Example of Weastern Imperialism
-Legitimated as spreading civilization to the benighted regions of the world
-Often backed with racist understanding of the world
Rudyard Kipling
-Poem “The White Man’s Burden”
-Wants the US to take on Imperalist vision
Orientalism
-Imperalistic further legitimated by constructions of the other
=”Orientalism”
Femenist Critique of US Security Policy
-Constructivist ideas
