Midterm 2 Terms

Question 1

Pop Culture as constitutive

Answer 1

Argues that pop culture actively shapes norms, ideas, identities, and beliefs in a state, society or region

Question 2

Hunger Games test case hypothesis

Answer 2

Hypotheses:

1. Fiction increases issue salience (importance)
2. Fiction increases narrative persuasion (making certain actions more justifiable)
3. Fiction makes students more politically cynical

Question 3

Issue salience

Answer 3

How much a person/society cares about an issue

Question 4

Hunger Games experiment method

Answer 4

randomly assigned young people to read or watch parts of dystopian fiction and compared their attitudes to those who watched nothing and only news media

Question 5

Hunger Games Results

Answer 5

Increased support for radical political methods over legal, peaceful ones when contesting injustice

Question 6

Defining war

Answer 6

A state of organized, armed conflict between political communities; three characteristics (organized in groups, armed, political purpose)

Question 7

Clausewitz

Answer 7

Believed that war should be an extension of politics in that there should be a clear political goal

Question 8

Early approaches to cause of war

Answer 8

human nature is destructive, anthropology: war is culturally constructed, psychology: how people feel they are perceived and how they see themselves affects war

Question 9

Neorealist study of war

Answer 9

causes of war are found on a systemic level

Question 10

relational concept of power

Answer 10

a state has power over another state if they can get it to so something it would not otherwise do (power arises out of interactions)

Question 11

unit-level concept of power

Answer 11

A state has a lot of military capability or economic resources that could translate into military capability (inherently has power)

Question 12

Key factors in measuring power

Answer 12

geography, economic base, population size, types of forces, nationalism, technology, leadership, regime type, doctrine

Question 13

Realist paths to war

Answer 13

fundamental conflict of interest, security dilemmas (preemptive war), preventative war, hegemonic war

Question 14

power transition theory

Answer 14

the probability of a major war is greatest at the point when the declining leader is being overtaken by a rising challenger

Question 15

Realist paths to peace

Answer 15

balancing, bandwagoning, buckpassing, appeasement

Question 16

Balancing

Answer 16

internal: building up own military to balance a power
external: creating alliances to counter a power

Question 17

Bandwagoning

Answer 17

joining a rising power to hopefully gain some benefit (Mearsheimer says is bad)

Question 18

Buckpassing

Answer 18

letting someone else bear to the costs of checking the aggressor (Mearsheimer says preferred way)

Question 19

Appeasement

Answer 19

providing a rising power with something it wants in the hope that it will stop them from pursuing more

Question 20

Strategies for gaining power

Answer 20

war, blackmail, bait and bleed (lead rivals into conflict with each other), bloodletting (stay on sidelines)

Question 21

Blainey Balance of Power

Answer 21

Says balance of power is only clear in the aftermath of a conflict because power is relational–so states go to war when they disagree about their relative power

Question 22

Strategic Issues with Nukes

Answer 22

First strike capability: ability to strike a state with a nuke so they can’t strike back
Second strike capability: ability to withstand a nuke attack from another states and launch a retaliatory strike in response

Question 23

NPT: Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty

Answer 23

1968: an agreement that only France, US, USSR, UK and China are allowed to have nukes, but they are going to work on reducing the number they have; if others agree not to pursue nukes, they can use nuclear material for civilian purposes

Question 24

Issues with NPT

Answer 24

some sovereign states have not signed, others have signed but violated, it’s hypocritical for the 5 countries, it’s not taken seriously

Question 25

Deterrence

Answer 25

To discourage potential actors or aggressors from acting by convincing him or her that the probable cost of their actions will far exceed any anticipated gains

Question 26

Conditions for deterrence to succeed

Answer 26

clarity, capability, credibility

Question 27

Issues with deterrence

Answer 27

rationality and self-discipline/state ability

Question 28

International law

Answer 28

a body of rules which bind states and other agents in world politics in their relations with one another (implicit and explicit)

Question 29

Institution

Answer 29

set of roles structuring and regulating state interactions

Question 30

How institutions facilitate cooperation

Answer 30

increase the number of transactions among states, reduce transaction costs of individual agreements, enable closer monitoring, link issues

Question 31

Concert of Europe

Answer 31

1815: aim was to maintain balance of power in Europe by preventing hegemony; was too informal, elitist, politically conservative and not adaptable to Germany as a rising power

Question 32

League of Nations

Answer 32

1920: aim was to pursue the liberal idea of collective security for all; but did not reflect the existing distribution of power, limited enforcement capability, unanimity hampered ability to make decisions

Question 33

UN

Answer 33

1945: has peacekeeping, security council, a judicial organ, and specialized agencies like UNICEF