Midterm

Question 1

1648 Peace of Westphalia

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Territorial

Answer 2

Human nature is organized principally into exclusive territorial (political). Communities with fixed borders

Question 3

Sovereignty

Answer 3

Within its borders the state government has an entitlement to supreme unqualified and exclusive political and legal authority

Question 4

Autonomy

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Globalization

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Globalization CONT

Answer 6

The process of increasing interconnectedness between societies such that events in one part of the world has on people/societies far away

Question 7

Evidence of globalization

Answer 7

1. Economic- A Global market economy
2. Global communications infrastructure
3. Global culture- A more homogeneous world
4. Global migration
5. Transnational problems
6. Global polity

Question 8

Globalization: terms of debate

Hyperglobalist

Answer 8

Globalization is bringing the demise of the sovereign, globalize game forces are undermining the ability of the state to govern its own territory

Question 9

Skeptics

Answer 9

Very doubtful there are forces trumping the state, the state has fostered globalization

Question 10

Transformationalist

Answer 10

Hyperglobalists/skeptics exaggerate what is happening, but some major transformations are taking place

Question 11

Realism and globalization

Answer 11

Globalization has not fundamentally altered world politics- state remains the main actor and anarchy is central

Question 12

Liberalism and globalization

Answer 12

Endorse globalization, a good thing- interdependence and reign on the market, world politics is changing and states are no longer the central actors

Question 13

Marxism and globalization

Answer 13

Same patterns with a different name- role of global capitalism

Question 14

Constructivism and globalization

Answer 14

Globalization is not an external force that we must respond to but rather a process human beings participate in and can change

Question 15

Classical realism

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Hobbs and realism

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Internal and external

Answer 17

Internal: devoting more resources to military, economy and less money for other things like social issues

Question 18

Constructivism and globalization

Answer 18

Globalization is not an external force that we must respond to, rather a process human beings participate in and can change

Question 19

Balance of power

Answer 19

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:

1. The order be anarchic
2. Be populated by units wishing to survive, to ensure survival the state must balance, prevent the emergence of a predominant state

Question 20

The 3 S’s of realism

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Self help

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Structural Realism/ Neorealism

Answer 22

1. Organizing principal: Anarchy
2. Differentiation of units: sovereign states are like units in the functions they fulfil
3. Distributor of capabilities(power): unipolar, bipolar, tripolar, multipolar systems

Question 23

Anarchy

Answer 23

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)

Question 24

Kenneth Waltz

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Neoclassical realism

Answer 25

Places domestic politics as an intervening variable between the distribution of power and foreign policy behaviour

Neorealist arugula that all states have similar interests

Question 26

Randal schweller

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Liberalism

Answer 27

Main rival to realism- optimism rather than pessimism
- conflict is not inevitable, harmony of interests exists

4 main components

1. Judicial equality
2. Democracy (republicanism)
3. Liberty
4. Free market

Question 28

Liberal tradition

Answer 28

Enlightenment: with reason we can solve problems

Question 29

Commercial liberalism

Answer 29

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

Question 30

Liberalism + Globalization

Answer 30

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

Question 31

Critical IR theory

Answer 31

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

Question 32

Marxist theories

Answer 32

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