Midterm Flashcards
1648 Peace of Westphalia
Established the legal basis of modern statehood
By implication the fundamental rules or constitution modern politics
Sovereign states are loosing their importance
Why?
1. Countries are not owned by rulers anymore
2. No obligation to citizens
3. Fixed borders
4. Non interference
5. No higher political authority and this must be recognized as such by peers
Territorial
Human nature is organized principally into exclusive territorial (political). Communities with fixed borders
Sovereignty
Within its borders the state government has an entitlement to supreme unqualified and exclusive political and legal authority
Autonomy
The principal of self determination or self governance considers countries as autonomous containers of political social and economic activity
Fixed borders separate the domestics sphere from the world outside
Globalization
The politics of global social relations in which the pursuit of power, interests, order and justice transcend regions and continents
The dissolution of the distinction between domestic and international politics
Globalization CONT
The process of increasing interconnectedness between societies such that events in one part of the world has on people/societies far away
Evidence of globalization
- Economic- A Global market economy
- Global communications infrastructure
- Global culture- A more homogeneous world
- Global migration
- Transnational problems
- Global polity
Globalization: terms of debate
Hyperglobalist
Globalization is bringing the demise of the sovereign, globalize game forces are undermining the ability of the state to govern its own territory
Skeptics
Very doubtful there are forces trumping the state, the state has fostered globalization
Transformationalist
Hyperglobalists/skeptics exaggerate what is happening, but some major transformations are taking place
Realism and globalization
Globalization has not fundamentally altered world politics- state remains the main actor and anarchy is central
Liberalism and globalization
Endorse globalization, a good thing- interdependence and reign on the market, world politics is changing and states are no longer the central actors
Marxism and globalization
Same patterns with a different name- role of global capitalism
Constructivism and globalization
Globalization is not an external force that we must respond to but rather a process human beings participate in and can change
Classical realism
Focus is on the real world and not what we imagine it to be
State survival is the main goal
Basic tenants
- stateism: States are the most important actors
- survival: Most important goal of every state and the fundamental national interest
- Self-help: relying on yourself and not on others
Hobbs and realism
You need a government to maintain order
State of nature: life is haste, brutish and short
Social contract: giving up our power and giving it to the sovereign
Internal and external
Internal: devoting more resources to military, economy and less money for other things like social issues
Constructivism and globalization
Globalization is not an external force that we must respond to, rather a process human beings participate in and can change
Balance of power
States are more likely to have war without a power balance
Human nature explains power politics; because we are hard wired to pursue power
More power= more interests
Balance of power politics will prevail when 2 requirements are met:
- The order be anarchic
- Be populated by units wishing to survive, to ensure survival the state must balance, prevent the emergence of a predominant state
The 3 S’s of realism
Stateism: states are the main actors
Survival: the main goal, most important goal of every state, the fundamental national interest
Self help: the basic principal of action, have to rely on yourself and not others
Self help
In international anarchy one cannot look to or rely on the help of government to protect ones interests and rights and to provide security- you must do it yourself
Structural Realism/ Neorealism
- Organizing principal: Anarchy
- Differentiation of units: sovereign states are like units in the functions they fulfil
- Distributor of capabilities(power): unipolar, bipolar, tripolar, multipolar systems
Anarchy
The absence of an overarching central authority above the individual
Anarchy (not human nature) the reason for conflict and the endless thirst for power (STRUCTURAL REALISM)
Kenneth Waltz
International politics are a struggle for power (waltz did not attribute this to human nature
-Security competition, interstate conflict and difficulties achieving international cooperation resulted from the structure of the international system- more specifically the lack of an overarching government
The distribution of power is key to understanding war/peace, alliance politics and balance of power
In critical situations the ultimate concern is not power but is security
Neoclassical realism
Places domestic politics as an intervening variable between the distribution of power and foreign policy behaviour
Neorealist arugula that all states have similar interests
Randal schweller
Differ in interest + ability to extract resources from the societies that they rule
- states present different capacities to translate various elements
Domestic politics have meaning: look at domestic politics to explain why the state does what it does
Waltz says states should be treated as units but neoclassical realism rebukes this
Liberalism
Main rival to realism- optimism rather than pessimism
- conflict is not inevitable, harmony of interests exists
4 main components
- Judicial equality
- Democracy (republicanism)
- Liberty
- Free market
Liberal tradition
Enlightenment: with reason we can solve problems
Commercial liberalism
Trade is the path to peace
-free trade brings mutual gains to all parties
Interdependence: a condition where states/ people are affected by decisions and developments taken by others
- makes war to costly- integrated economies makes war to disruptive
Liberalism + Globalization
Liberalism endorses globalization
Internationalization: intensification of cross border interactions, high teens interdependence
Liberalization: remove government imposed restrictions on free trade
Universalization: the spread of various objects and experiences to all people
Critical IR theory
Discourse, how we think and talk about the world largely shapes practice
Constitutive theory: our theories help construct the world
- theories about the world cause is to act in certain ways
Marxist theories
Social world needs to be analyzed at totality
Capitalism as a mode of production- unequal society
- Class struggle classes are the main actors
Also known as historical materialism
Can be less influential as liberalism or realism
World is divided into core, periphery, and semi periphery
- core exploits peripheries
