Lecture 1 Flashcards
“War is merely a continuation of politics with other means”
- Carl Von Clausewitz, Prussian general
- Narrow focus, reflects great wars of its time (i.e., state-to-state conflict)
- With/by important distinction
- War is part of the diplomatic tool kit if others fail first
- Violence is a means to a political end
- War is political, a tool used by leaders to meet a political objective
3 typologies of Int’l Conflict
- Interstate Conflict (State to State)
a. Realism - Intrastate Conflict (Civil Wars, Internal Wars)
a. Power transition, security dilemma, and realism can’t explain or account for these types civil wars taking place
b. identity driven (sectarian) - Non-State Actors at the Global Level (e.g., extremists).
a. Importance of tech in connecting across political boundaries - tough to snuff it out.
b. Use of cyber attacks.
c. Asymmetrical power dynamics
Examples of interstate conflict:
- WWI/WWII
2. US-Iraq with Kuwait 1990
Examples of potential present day interstate conflicts:
- Iran-Israel
- Iran-Saudi Arabia
- US-China
Examples of intrastate conflict:
- Seria
- Yemin
- Libia,
…around 40 ongoing conflicts today.
Examples of conflicts with Non-State Actors at the Global Level
- 911 Al Qaeda
- Syria - Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)
- Lebanon - Hezbollah
Evolution of Warefare
- Conventional warfare (i.e., military vs. military)
to
- Non-conventional warefare (i.e., WMD’s, cyber warfare)
3 periods of warfare
- 1500’s - 1945 (end of WWII) - Multipolar system
- Cold War period (1945 - 1990) - Bipolar
- End of cold war (1990-2004) - Unipolar, shifting
1500’s - 1945 (end of WWII)
a. Treaty of Westphalia
b. Multipolar system
c. Big powers
d. Interstate to intrastate 1:1
Cold War period (1945 - 1990)
a. MAD
b. Bipolar
c. Ideological enemies (i.e., socialist vs. democratic)
d. New states emerge from WWII, Interstate to intrastate 1:5
End of cold war (1990-2004)
a. End of cold war
b. Unipolar
c. R2P, “right to protect”
d. Explosion of civil wars - sectarianism
