Keywords Flashcards
Actor
An individual, group, organisation or collective entity (e.g. the state) that has agency
Actor-specific theory
Theory that explains the behaviour of specific actors
Such as Foreign Policy Analysis theory
Allows for richer explanation and prediction of the foreign policy behaviour of particular entities than does actor-general theory
Analogical reasoning
Reasoning based on simple analogies
Used by political leaders to make a complex world somewhat simpler, by drawing one-to-one comparisons
Bounded rationality
Assumes it is not possible for humans to attend to everything simultaneously or to calculate carefully the costs and benefits of alternative courses of action
Attention is a scarce resource
Organisation and group environments provide simplifying shortcuts, cues, and buffers that help policy makers decide
Bureaucratic politics
An approach that focuses on governmental behaviour in terms of the individual decision-makers who make policy
And who do so as players in a central and competitive bargaining game
Civilian power
Uses non-military means in its foreign policy and favours international structures for regulating international action
Duchêne famously coined the phrase for the EU which he saw as an exemplar of a new stage in political civilisation, domesticating international problems through structures of contractual politics
CNN effect
Described circumstances in which news media coverage directly affects foreign policy decision making
Causes policy makers to pursue a course of action which, in the absence of media pressure, they would not have embarked upon
Cognitive bias
Refers to distortions in the human mind that lead to perceptions and judgements that deviate from reality
Cognitive consistency
A theory produced by cognitive psychologists
Argues that people strongly prefer consistency, are uncomfortable by dissonant information and consequently discount inconsistent information to preserve their beliefs
Communicatively rational
Assumes humans are deeply social
They ‘decide’ by deliberating with other
Communicatively rational agents do not so much calculate costs and benefits, or seek clues from their environment, as present arguments and try to persuade each other
Their interests and preferences are open for redefinition
Counterfactual
In the absence of the causal factor you think was important, would the outcome nonetheless have been the same?
If the answer could plausibly be ‘yes’, then you should also test for the importance of other factors
Democratic peace thesis
Central to internationalist thought
Maintains that liberal democracies tend not to make war on fellow democracies
Democratic states may also be more peace prone
Elite model
A theoretical position, in opposition to the pluralist model
Argues that both media and public opinion are overwhelmingly influenced and shaped by the interests of elite groups in society
As a consequence, media and public opinion remain unable to influence political and economic processes
Episodic news
A term used to describe news media reports that are framed in terms of immediate events and without broader context
A news report detailing the progress of US troops during the 2003 Iraq War but providing no broader contextualisation (e.g. the justification and rationale for military action) could be described as episodic
Foreign policy analysis
Subfield of IR
Seeks to explain foreign policy, or foreign policy behaviour, with reference to the theoretical ground of human decision makers, acting singly and in groups
What are the hallmarks of foreign policy analysis?
- Looks below nation-state level of analysis to actor-specific information
- Builds actor-specific theory as the interface between actor-general theory + the complexity of the real world
- Pursues multi causal explanations spanning multiple levels of analysis
- Utilises theory and findings from across the spectrum of social science
Foreign policy behaviour
The observable artefacts of foreign policy
Specific actions and words used to influence others in the realm of foreign policy
May include behaviour that was accidental or unintended by the government
Framing
Refers to the specific properties of news text (i.e. the selection of language, facts and images) that encourage readers/viewers to think about issues in a particular way
Grand strategy
The overall vision of a state’s national security goals and a determination of the most appropriate means to achieve these goals
Groupthink
A concept used to describe the failure of small decision units to meet the criteria of optimal decision making
By their tendency to reach a decision too quickly as a result of premature consensus seeking
Hard power
A concept intimately connected with realist thinking on foreign policy
Denotes the material capabilities of a state - its size, population, wealth, and crucially, its military capacity
Implementation
The translation of decisions into actions and impact; a ‘boundary’ process which connects actors to their environments via the pursuit of foreign policy
Indexing hypothesis
Bennett’s (1990) widely-adopted theoretical framework that explains the tendency of US journalists to defer to, or index the news to, official US government sources when defining the news agenda and framing news stories
International Criminal Court
Established by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in July 1997
The ICC tries people for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes
It is a court of last resort - if a case is investigated or prosecuted by a national judicial system it will not act unless the national proceedings are not genuine
Leadership
Can apply either to individuals and their particular characteristics - whether it be ‘tough’ or ‘charismatic’ or ‘weak’
Or leadership in the international system
In the case of the latter, leadership is often connected with the capacity of a hegemonic state to shape the rules and institutions of international society
Levels of analysis
One can study and seek to explain foreign policy by considering factors operating at various levels
- Individual level
- Societal level
- State level
- International level
Multilateralism
The process by which ends are sought through cooperation, or at least negotiation
At times by ad hoc processes but usually in the context of an international organisation
Neoconservative
Those who believe the US should pursue a tough foreign policy on behalf of morality
What are the four tenets of neoconservatism?
Insist on distinguishing between the good and bad states in the international arena, with the US spearheading the good to change or remove the bad
US should strive to remain pre-eminent militarily and are strong advocates of higher defence budgets
Willingness to use military force to attain American goals
A suspicion of international institutions
Organisational behaviour
Inspired by organisational theory
The view that governmental behaviour does not conform to the notion of a unitary and rational decision maker
But rather takes the form of outputs of large organisations functioning according to standard patterns of behaviour
Ottawa process
The negotiation that was launched in Ottawa in 1996 and that led to an international treaty banning the use and trade of landmines
Pluralist model
A theoretical position, in opposition to the elite model
Argues that power is sufficiently distributed throughout society so that both media and public opinion are independent of political and economic groups
Thus media and public opinion are able to influence political processes
Political conditionality
Setting out conditions to be fulfilled in a ‘carrot-and-stick’ approach
i.e. promising benefits in case of compliance and suspension or termination of the process in case of non-compliance
Give an example of political conditionality
EU enlargement is an example of this process where strict conditions were set and progress towards meeting them were critically evaluated on the road to membership
Process tracing
A technique used to trace the operation of the causal mechanism(s) at work in a given situation
One carefully maps the process, exploring the extent to which it coincides with prior, theoretically derived expectations about the workings of the mechanism
Project for the New American Century
A small but influential tank set up by William Kristol in 1997
To give voice to a vision of American foreign policy that would allow it to remain the pre-eminent power
Widely construed as the reference site for neoconservative foreign policy thought
Rational choice
On the most general level, a methodological approach that aims to explain both individual and collective outcomes in terms of individual goal-seeking under constraints
Reaganite foreign policy
An approach to foreign policy that privileges moral argument, military might, promotion of democracy and individual liberty
And using all these resources to confront America’s adversaries
Neoconservatives believe this was how President Ronald Reagan (1981-89) dealt with the Soviet Union
He was not afraid to characterise the latter as an ‘evil empire’ and the massive increase in military expenditure during his administration helped bring about the collapse of the Soviet empire
Realism
In its 20th century form, the claim that at the core of state behaviour lies the concept of interest defined in terms of power
The world is a dangerous and insecure place, and will so remain
Thus, the prime consideration of the state is the constant pursuit of its own self-interest, which can only be done in terms of the exertion of power in defence of its security
Given the nature of humans + the anarchy characterising the international system, this means that military might is what counts, not cooperation through international law or organisations
Red-team thinking
In order to provide a more nuanced understanding of how an opponent will act in any given situation, security and military agencies engage in ‘red-team thinking’
Whereby a team is given the responsibility to consider a situation from the viewpoint of an opponent
Responsibility to protect
The legal and ethical basis for humanitarian intervention by external actors in a state that is unwilling or unable to fight genocide, massive killings, and other human rights violations
The principle of responsibility to protect holds that is a state is unwilling or unable to carry out its responsibility to prevent such abuses, that responsibility must be transferred to the international community
This community will seek first to solve problems primarily via peaceful means but will, as a last resort, use military force
Smart sanctions
Economic sanctions precisely targeted to affect the economic conditions of a particular segment of the population of a target country, usually the governmental elite
Social discourses
Discourses are broad structures of meaning that make possible human-state agency in foreign policy
e.g. the discourse of terror in the US after 9/11 has made certain kinds of American foreign policy actions possible
Discourse analysis is a key method used by interpretive IR theorists inc. constructivists and post-structuralists
Soft power
Indirect influence over political bodies
Through personal relationship-building and through cultural and ideological means
Can be distinguished from more directly coercive exercises of power, such as military action (hard power) or economic incentives
Supranationalism
Where international institutions enjoy significant independence from member states
In the EU, supranational decisions are mainly taken by institutions such as the European Commission, the European Court of Justice, and the European Parliament
These bodies have authority over member states
Uruguay Round
Last round of trade negotiations in the GATT
Continued for 8 years until 1994
Saw the creation of the WTO
