IS200 Flashcards
0
Q
What does it mean to be secure?
A
To be without threats to survival, however, those threats are far reaching. From organized state violence to beyond the state and even within our daily lives.
1
Q
What is international security studies?
A
It is the survival of agents that has been the dominant explanatory tool for understanding behaviour
Security is a matter of high-politics; central to policy-making and the priorities they establish.
2
Q
Broadening
A
Reference objects and the means to security beyond the state.
3
Q
Deepening
A
Questioning past assumptions as a possible cause of insecurity
4
Q
Approaches to security studies
A
- traditional
- peace studies
- critical studies
- gender security
- human security
- securitization
5
Q
The broadening security agenda
A
Environmental Societal Economic Regime Military Environmental
6
Q
Traditional security
A
Coercive diplomacy The role of intelligence Weapons of mass destruction Terrorism The defence trade
7
Q
Non traditional security
A
AIDS & HIV
Transnational organized crime
Children and war
8
Q
Traditional approaches to security in international politics (relations among states)
A
- states work to sustain security against external and internal threats
- components of security include safety, autonomy, development and rule.
- the most influential theoretical perspectives on security have been the Realist, Liberalist, and Marxist
9
Q
Realism
A
Was developed in reaction to a liberal tradition that realists called idealism.
It is a theoretical framework that has held a central position in IR.
A school of thought that explains IR in terms of power.
10
Q
Idealism
A
Emphasizes international law, morality, and international organizations, rather than power alone, as key influences on international events.
Belief that human nature is basically good
Particularly active between WWI and WWII (league of nations)
11
Q
Realpolitik
A
Power politics
Exercise of power by states toward each other.
12
Q
Why did realist blame idealists after WWII?
A
League of Nations failure. (Structure proved helpless to stop German, Italian, and Japanese aggression)
They blamed them for looking too much at how the ought to be rather than how it really is.
13
Q
Names to know regarding realist tradition..
A
Sun Tzu Thucydides Thomas Hobbes Hans Morgenthau Kenneth Waltz
14
Q
Neorealism
A
Structuralism
An adaption of realism developed by theorists such as Kenneth Waltz
More scientific than traditional realism
15
Q
Define Power
A
Ability or potential to influence others
Ability is measured by tangible characteristics/material power; size, level of income, armed forces.
And intangible characteristics; soft-power, power of ideas.
16
Q
The logic of power
A
Suggests powerful states will generally prevail
Think US and Iraq
17
Q
Elements of power
A
- State-power - mix of many ingredients
- Long-term elements of power
- Capabilities that influence in the short term
- Tradeoffs among possible capabilities - utility of military force in the short term.
18
Q
Relevance of morality
A
Rhetoric of peaceful and defensive intentions
19
Q
Geopolitics
A
Geography as an element of power
Location and control of natural resources
20
Q
Rationality
A
- identify and prioritize their interests
- use power to advance national interest
- perform cost benefit analysis
Same or quite similar to rationality in Economics
21
Q
The realist perspective
A
- State competition create security dilemmas.
- The structure of the international system is the distribution of power.
- States disagree about what a suitable distribution is and how much power each state needs.
22
Q
Power Distribution
A
The concept of the distribution of power among states in the international system
- can apply to all the states in the world or to just one region.
23
Q
Polarity
A
Refers to be number of independent power centres in the system
24
Multipolar System
Has five or six centres of power, which are not grouped into alliances
25
Bipolar System
Has two great centres of power.
26
Unipolar System
Has a single centre of power around which all others revolve (hegemony)
27
Power transition theory
the largest wars result from challenges to the top position in the status hierarchy, when a rising power is surpassing or threatening to surpass the most powerful state.
28
Hegemony
A hegemon state holds most of the power in the international system
It can dominate the rules and arrangements by which international political and economic relations are conducted.
29
Hegemonic Stability Theory
Hegemony provides some order similar to a central government in the international system: reducing anarchy, deterring aggression; promoting free trade, and providing a hard currency that can be used as a world standard.
Hegemons have an interest in the promotion of integrated world markets.
30
Realist Disputes ***
* The durability of unipolarity
* The mediation of the impact of systemic factors on a states behaviour by domestic influences
* The scale and capacity of interstate interactions
31
Traditional Liberal 5 major Critiques
- the assumption of anarchy is only a partial truth.
- states are not simple unitary actors, they are complex institutions shaped by bargaining among and within the state as well as with outside interests
- the realist conception of rationality is problematic, liberal rationality focussed on seeking to share in long term collective benefits.
- power is not simply over, it is the power to accomplish shared desires ends.
- military force as a form of leverage is a costly way to influence others
32
Liberalist approach
| 3 features
* optimistic about improving international politics and making it safer
* describes international politics as evolving, becoming more imbued with interdependence, cooperation, peace, & security
* states are the most important actors but recognizes the importance of other actors such as IGOs and NGOs, major private economic entities, and international regimes.
33
How does liberalism describe international politics
Evolving
| Becoming more involved with interdependence, cooperation, peace and security
34
A liberalists appraise depicts a states behaviour as a result of ..
Perceptions
Preferences
Decisions of elites and officials (nature of each states political system.
The character of international politics changes depending on the nature of its members. (Their objectives/decisions)
35
Commercial liberalism
| Central elements of thinking.
Support democracy, private property, free enterprise, widespread international interactions, cooperation and human rights
Open market economies.
International trade and investment
Better cooperation and less war.
Optimism of globalization. Interdependency reduces conflict.
36
3 inspired institutions (liberalism)
United Nations
League of Nations
International court of justice
37
3 utopian thinkers
Thomas More
Immanuel Kant
Woodrow Wilson
38
Idealism/Utopianism
Emphasizes beat humans nature
Humans naturally good/peace-loving
War is a product of clashing societies and civilizations
Democracies are peaceful and don't go to war with eachother.
War is a result of flawed institutions
The League of Nations as mechanism for collective security.
39
The pursuit of human rights
| 19th & 20th centuries
19th century: focus on slavery, national self determination, anti-colonialism
20th century: post Cold War. Campaigns on behave of ppl subject to economic, sexual, gender, religion, political persecution, discrimination or deprivation.
40
International Organizations
Liberalism has been building IO's for at least a century.
NGOs and international regimes promote cooperative arrangements
Neo-liberalism recognizes contributions, functional analyses and IO's ability to meet certain political needs.
International cooperation represents development of community.
41
Democratic Liberalism
promotes democracy to change international politics
Spreading democracy is now a major part of the foreign policy of democracies
42
Democratic peace thesis
democracies do not go to eat with each other. - they constitute a pluralistic security community.
View lacks consensus on why democracies have this effect, especially since democracies are quite capable of waging war on non-democracies.
43
Constructivism Approach
Draws importance of ideas, identity and interaction
Offers alternative ways of thinking about security. (Anarchy is socially constructed)
Attention to ideational factors rather than material factors.
44
Constructivists believe..
Social Norms and ideas shape/influence how actors interpret and construct social reality.
Ideas are structural factors
Dynamic relationship between ideas & material factors. (How actors interpret their material reality)
Structure produce agents and agents produce structures.
45
More about constructivism!!
Focuses on the nature of norms, identity and social interaction.
- how actors define their national interests, threats to those interests, and their relationships to one another.
- puts IR in the context of broader social relations. Very insightful
46
Key concepts in constructivism
Relations are social not material
Identity determines interest
Identity is formed via interaction and shared meanings
Norms guide choices in IR. They are both regulator and constitutive
If we live in an anarchic system, it's because we made it so. But norms and ideas change. Changing relationships and understandings gives us cooperative potential.
47
Wendt's 3 cultures of anarchy
Hobbesian: actors are each other as enemies
Lockean: as rivals
Kantian: as friends
Each culture does not produce definitive structure of anarchy. Depends on how deeply shared ideas are internalized.
Wendt believes we are moving towards Kantian culture.
48
Conventional constructivism
There can be a "via media" bridge between rationalist and reflectivist approaches
See identity as uniform and solid, ignoring questions of power and representation.
49
Critical constructivists
The goal are finding synergy (bridge) between rationalist and reflectivist approaches is contradictory and problematic.
Argue that identity is more complex and multiple that conventional constructivists present it. Believe we must investigate identity more rigorously to uncover it's meaning and construction.
50
Rationalists critique of constructivism.
Claims cannot be tested of observed empirically.
Norms, values and identities are something we cannot see.
Intentionality is difficult to discern.
We can never be sure of which norms are operating in a given situation.
51
Critique of Wendt's 3 cultures of anarchy
The focus is the states system, this leaves questions about domestic identity formation.
Placing culture at the centre may be dangerous, especially in privilege dominant power relations.
52
Main critique of constructivism
Results in an uncritical, and apolitical explanation of politics & security problems.
Challenges realist theories (timeless wisdom)
53
The New Agenda
Environment and poverty
| Socia-economic divisions and the asymmetric impact of industrialized states on development
54
The Maximalist Agenda
The proposal that the condition of peace requires the absence of structural violence resulted in controversy
55
The War On Peace Studies
Controversy to what was perceived as appeasement studies
56
Main characteristics of Peace Studies
```
Inter-disciplinary approaches
Multi-level analysis
Analytical and normative
Non-violent transformation
Theory and practice
Underlying causes
```
57
3 main levels of analysis (David signer)
1. Individual
2. Domestic
3. International
No one level answers the question.
58
What is Peace Studies
Both analytical and normative, frequently involving ethical motivations in the part of students and researches
Interdisciplinary field that embraces multi level analysis from the individual to the international
59
Core elements of Peace Studies
Concern with underlying causes of conflict and the search go non-violent approaches to conflict transformation
60
How have UN peacekeeping operations/conflict prevention been successful?
Research suggest a decline in conflict and authoritarian regimes
Regional conflicts associated with the Cold War, wars of liberation and fall of communism have also subsided
61
Where and why do we presume an "energy war"
The Persian Gulf.
This is where most of the worlds remaining reserves of fossil fuels are located.
Is likely to be a focus for competition and conflict
62
Contemporary Security concerns
Deep and enduring inequalities in the global distribution of wealth and economic power
Environmental constraints are likely to exacerbate human activity on the global ecosystem
63
Contemporary Conflict Trends
Increase human migration
Environmental and resource conflict
Competitive and violent responses from the disempowered
64
Conflict resolution
Long term process
Requires sustained analysis combined with persistent efforts to suggest viable alternative to current security paradigm.
(The global war on terror has yet to address the underlying causes for insecurity)
65
The analysis of protracted social conflict at the global level requires ..
The resolution agenda
> structural analysis > regional analysis > contextual analysis > cultural analysis >
66
Toronto desire
Desire to move beyond the confines in a form of a critique.
| Emerged from a 1994 conference in Toronto, and as the title for the book that conference produced.
67
Critical desire derived from the Toronto desire
The critical desire was an agenda set by a series of challenges to the traditional concept of security.
No coherent set of views, rather it indicated a desire
68
Which theoretical perspectives were drawn into the Toronto desire?
Constructivism
Post-Structuralism
Post-Marxism
This created condition for schism (division between strongly opposed views)
69
3 elements of Toronto desire
The stage was not sufficient referent object for security.
Thinking more broadly about the sources of both insecurity and security
These forms of rethinking required an epistemological move beyond the empiricist, positivist tradition of security studies.
70
The Copenhagen school
A new framework for security analysis.
Resolves it's incoherence by arguing social production of security is sufficiently stable enough to be treated objectively.
71
Six claims that tie security studies together
Actors are social constructs
Actors are constituted through political practices
Structures of world politics are socially constructed
Knowledge is subjective
Social sciences require interpretive methods
The purpose of theory is contextual understanding and practical Knowledge
72
Copenhagen distinctions
| Buzan's security sectors
```
Societal
Political
Economic
Environmental
Military
```
73
Copenhagen distinctions
| Security: a new framework for analysis
Seeks to distinguish between its approach and critical security studies.
In doing so, tends to produce critical security studies as an emerging school.
74
Aberystwyth Exclusions
Critical security studies and world politics
The welsh school argues for a specific critical theory.
Post-Marxist tradition identified particularly with the Frankfurt school of critical theory.
ALL KNOWLEDGE IS PRODUCED SOCIALLY, &THUS POLITICALLY
75
Aberystwyth Exclusions
| Critical Theory Distinctions
Critical security studies should be organized around this critical security theory.
District from: feminism, the Copenhagen school, constructivism, post-structuralism
76
The Copenhagen school
| Views on security
Security is about survival
A security concern must be articulated as an existential threat.
Maintains security-survival logic found in the traditional understand of security
77
Securitization Model
| First stage
The referent object
Can be individuals and groups or issue areas
Must possess a legitimate claim to survival and whose existence is ostensibly threatened
78
Securitization Model
| Second stage
The securitization actor
Can be government, political elite, military, and civil society
Securitizes an issue by articulating the existence of threats to the survival of specific referent objects
