LEC 1: introduction

Question 1

how does booth describe international relations?

Answer 1

we are all children of international relations, where we are born, our language and culture is all shaped by how international relation shave unfolded in the past

Question 2

what is the international?

Answer 2

• the most rigourous defintion of the international is relationships between nations
  however in practice it involves terroist gorups, NGOs and transnational corporations

Question 3

what are the origins of international relations

Answer 3

the merging of a multitude of subjects all concerning the international (law, history, geography ect)

Question 4

what questions does international relations ask?

Answer 4

big questions like

why can someone from sweden access 160+ countries visa free whereas someone from pakistan can only visit 30

Question 5

what issues does IR cover?

Answer 5

• international order who has the capacity to call the shots?
• issue of soverignty: all states are soveign domestically but not internationally
• internations between economics, and military creating power
• causes of international conflict and co-operation
• role of culture, religion and the rise of identity policity

Question 6

what are IR theories?

Answer 6

• they are lenses which make you see the world in a different way. depending on what you are analysing
• visisual representations of the world not accurate descriptions
• some theories empahsis some things and hide others so must be looked a critically

Question 7

why are IR theories useful?

Answer 7

• help us to understand the world
• leads you to questioning the world
• develop a multi-dimentional understanding of international politics
• critically assess your own assumptions
• group ideas together to establish patterns and see differences between events

Question 8

dunne et al defintion of a theory

Answer 8

framework or knowledge which we engage and give meaning to the world

Question 9

gerico et al definition of theory

Answer 9

groups of ideas to explain some empirical phenomenon

Question 10

what is theorising?

Answer 10

making assumptions and then attaching logical arguments to tho assumptions to answer a question and help understand things
using knoedlge of the worls and logical processes

Question 11

what are explainatory theories?

Answer 11

explain an outside reality

Question 12

what are critical theories?

Answer 12

not only explain but criticised social systems

Question 13

what are consecutive theories?

Answer 13

attempts to understand a reality to which they also belong
for example theories about childhood in mongolia are possiblee to make but you have to understand if you have not been a child in mongolia before oyu need to recognise there will be limitations to your findings

Question 14

what are normative theories?

Answer 14

a body of work which adresses the moral dimentions of international relations and the wider questions of meaning and interpretation within the discipline

Question 15

what ways do we learn international relations theories?

Answer 15

• history of boxes
• ## fight club history

Question 16

what is the history of boxes

Answer 16

divided international relations into schools of thought (liberealism, realism ect)
each theory having its own hisotry, heros and villans

Question 17

what are the key foundations of realism?

Answer 17

• main actors are states
• human nature is selfish and therefore states are lead by. selfish leaders who are trying to maximise their national interest
• goal is stability and this is aachieved through a balence of power

Question 18

what are self help systems in realism

Answer 18

the idea that there is no supari-national authaurity to protect states they can only rely on themsleves, ehnce military expansion

Question 19

what are the foundations of liberalism?

Answer 19

• main actors are states but alos multi-national corporations and international organisations
• beleif that there is a potential for progress in the world
• international co-orportation
• military. power isnt the only typ eo fpower
• states dont all act the same as states actions are shaped by their different political systems
• stability comes from countries who have layers of interdependence
• international law is importantn

Question 20

foundations of social constructivism

Answer 20

• social reality is constucted by agents
• the social world and its actors are neither natural or given but open to change
• relaist/marxist assumptions are too fixed
• states behave in a way that reproduces anarchy. (Wendt)

Question 21

problems with history of boxes

Answer 21

• these boxes dont follow a chronological order and doesn’t take into consideration how and why theories were made
• simplifies complex ideas
• limited to 5-7 boxes

Question 22

what is. fight club hsitory

Answer 22

• there have been 4 IR debates between ideologies and each time there has been a winner and looser
• debates are the basis of theoretical evoultion of IR as a dsicplinee

Question 23

what were the fight club history debates

Answer 23

liberalism v realism
theory v behaviorism
neorealism v neoliberalism
positivist approachs v post positivist alternatives