Levels of Analysis Flashcards
Keohane and Nye on costs of military force
Use of military force increasingly costly because of:
- Existence of nukes
- Resistance by people in poor or weak countries
- May not advance economic objectives of states
- Domestic public opinion resistant to use of force due to human costs of war
- System anarchic, but characterized by economic complex interdependence. (States are increasingly dependent on one another for well-being).
Liberals v Socialists on States and War
States are most peaceful when they adopt liberal values: free markets, free trade, and individual freedom. (Liberals)
States are most peaceful when they are socialist. In non-socialist societies, state leaders go to war to pursue interests of their own class, bourgeoisie, against the wishes of the proletariat, who are anti-war.
Elite View of Public Opinion, Media, and Foreign Policy
Public opinion and media have very little influence on foreign policy decision making.
Most people are ill-informed and susceptible to changing opinion on foreign policy issues very quickly irrationally. Only a minority of people are well-informed and attentive to foreign policy.
People follow gov’t on foreign policy because they have power to initiate policy and capacity to define external threats in international relations. They control info and propaganda provided to public. Have power to force people to accept policies.
News Media has limited role in influencing government because they use official sources from government for foreign policy news stories to the public.
Media also manipulates people by deciding which foreign policy issues are important, and which are not.
Lots of fake news on the internet, which can lead to misinformation on foreign policy.
Pluralist View of Public Opinion, Media, and Foreign Policy
Public opinion and media can have a great influence on foreign policy decision making.
People are rational, stable and influential. Politicians who don’t listen to public will be punished in elections.
People can access info quickly and easily. Government must respond to media coverage of foreign policy decisions.
Political processes in foreign policy decision making perspective
Foreign policy decisions are result of political compromise, conflict and confusion.
Potential effects of structure of bureaucratic politics in foreign policy decision making
Governmental action is output of SOPs of bureaucratic government agencies.
Problems are divided into sub-problems and parceled out to various different government agencies with considerable autonomy.
Bureaucratic organizations are looking out for their own survival.
Survival is measured by relative influence in decision making, organizational budget, and morale of personnel of organization.
Organizational Behavior perspective on foreign policy decision making
Individuals, such as ministers, may not be as independent in introducing innovative policy making ideas within their respective organizations.
SOPs permit little flexibility and creativity, which can quash many innovative policy ideas.
What’s wrong with Groupthink?
Group strongly believes in its decisions, leading to excessive optimism and risk-taking
Group believes its decisions are moral and ethical because everyone agrees.
Group discounts warnings that decision may be wrong.
Others, who do not belong to and do not agree with group, are marginalized as stupid or evil.
Individuals in groups self-censor and minimize doubts about a decision being made by group.
Illusion of unanimity. Interpretation of silence as consensus.
Pressure on dissenters within group to conform with majority.
Members protect group from info that challenges decision-making.
Psychology impact on IR
People are not always rational. A lot of the time there are unconscious processes in the brain going on that influence human decision-making. If this influences humans, in turn, this influences events in IR.
Problem with Human Nature Argument
How come such few conflicts and wars happen despite difficult circumstances? Can it be that human nature is not bad, but good, and that human behavior can change and adapt?
Waltz on Human Nature Argument
We cannot say human nature causes conflict because at the same time, we would have to accept it is the cause of peace as well. Plus, views on human nature are influenced by the theoretical orientation and mood of each scholar.
Human nature alone cannot explain conflict and peace except by the fact that people fight and sometimes, they don’t. There needs to be a look at other factors. So, we have to look for other factors to explain the situations in which conflict occurs and it doesn’t.
Why do policymakers make bad foreign policy decisions?
They take complex situations and over-simplify them. Ex: British PMs oversimplifying the Brexit Process, saying it’s simply the UK just saying no and getting out.
Policymakers prefer consistent rather than dissonant information. In these situations, policymakers engage in confirmation bias to preserve pre-existing convictions and beliefs.
Policymakers are poor estimators. They are not good at predicting the probability of outcomes in IR situations.
Policymakers also suffer from self-serving bias.
Policymakers suffer from loss aversion. So, they take greater risk and put more emphasis on preventing losses than focusing on making new gains.
Different perspectives on NATO
Realism: US should withdraw from NATO. It doesn’t really benefit much from the Alliance from a security standpoint.
Liberalism: US has invested too much in NATO to withdraw. NATO should expand beyond being a defensive alliance to working on peacekeeping missions and humanitarian interventions. It should also expand its membership.
Constructivism: NATO will always exist as long as there is a sense of common values among states. It is not just an alliance, but a community.
Security Dilemma
A situation in which actions taken by a state to increase its own security cause reactions from other states, which in turn lead to a decrease rather than an increase in the original state’s security
International Integration
- Increased cooperation between states
- Gradual transfer of authority to supranational institutions
- Homogenization of values across states
- Coming into being of a global civil society (NGOs are strong enough to counterbalance states as actors in IR)
