Midterm Exam Definitions Flashcards
Realism, Liberalism, Constructivism
Realism: Balance of relative power; power maximization; endless power competition and risks of war, world in anarchy
Liberalism: Countries that trade together don’t fight each other, peace achieved through the expansion of democratic countries, if you have institutions, international organizations (EU, etc.) then prospects of peace go up
Constructivism: Importance of ideas, identity, values, norms, and culture, social processes more than strategic interaction; role of non-material & non-state actors
Offensive versus Defensive Realism
Offensive Realism: Balance of relative power; power maximization; endless power competition and risks of war
Defensive Realism: Intentions as well as power capabilities; stability is possible; security dilemma
Hierarchy and hegemony
Notion that international politics will be the most stable when there is a hegemon
When the hegemon declines does that mean that international politics has to become unstable?
Some say hegemon establishes order and the rest of the world benefits from it. Some think stakeholders will continue to uphold that structure.
Others think that the decline of the hegemon naturally weakens the order.
Tributary System
The tributary system of China - a network of loose international relations focused on China which facilitated trade and foreign relations by acknowledging China’s predominant role in East Asia. It involved multiple relationships of trade, military force, diplomacy and ritual.
Qing Empire
Last Chinese empire. Ruled China proper from 1644 to 1912. After more than a century of Western humiliation and harassment, the Qing dynasty collapsed in the early 1900s. Internal changes played a major role in the downfall of the Qing dynasty, including: corruption, peasant unrest, ruler incompetence, and population growth which led to food shortages and regular famine.
Open Door policy
The Open Door Policy was a policy between China, the US, Japan, and several European powers that stated each of those countries should have equal access to Chinese trade. It was created in 1899 by US Secretary of State John Hay and lasted until 1949, when the Chinese civil war ended.
Triple Intervention
The Tripartite Intervention or Triple Intervention was a diplomatic intervention by Russia, Germany, and France on 23 April 1895 over the harsh terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki imposed by Japan on Qing dynasty China that ended the First Sino-Japanese War. The goal was to stop Japanese expansion in China.
Liaotung (Liaodong) peninsula
A peninsula in southern Liaoning province in Northeast China, and makes up the southwestern coastal half of the Liaodong region. The peninsula was an important area of conflict during the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895). Defeat precipitated decline in the Qing dynasty which was exploited by colonial powers who extracted numerous concessions.
Port Arthur
Japanese troops entered Port Arthur at about 2:00 p.m. Upon seeing the mutilated remains of their fallen comrades, they took to killing those who remained in the town. Several accounts of the events were recorded by members of the Japanese forces, such as the following by a member of the 1st Division
The incident strained the delicate foreign relations Japan had been dealing with. The war itself hurt Japan’s relations with Britain, and threatened to hurt Japan’s renegotiation of treaties with the US. The incident coloured Western perceptions of Japan as barbarians under a thin veil of civilization. These perceptions contributed to anti-Japanese sentiments in North America in the early 20th century, which would continue through World War II.
Manchuria
After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Manchuria was conquered by the Japanese, who renamed it Manchukuo. It was a puppet empire, headed by the former Last Emperor of China, Puyi. Japan launched its invasion of China proper from Manchukuo; it would hold on to Manchuria until the end of World War II.
Anglo-Japanese alliance
An alliance between Britain and Japan, signed in January 1902. saw an end to Britain’s splendid isolation, the alliance was renewed and expanded in scope twice, in 1905 and 1911, before its demise in 1921 and termination in 1923. The main threat for both sides was from Russia. France was concerned about war with Britain and, in cooperation with Britain, abandoned its ally, Russia, to avoid the Russo-Japanese War of 1904. However, it angered the United States and some British dominions, which were hostile to Japan
Russo-Japanese War
Fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1905 over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of military operations were the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden in Southern Manchuria, and the seas around Korea, Japan, and the Yellow Sea. It was the first all-out war of the modern era in which a non-European power defeated one of Europe’s great powers. As a result, the Russian Empire and Tsar Nicholas II lost considerable prestige, along with two of their three naval fleets.
First and Second Sino-Japanese War
The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between the Qing dynasty of China and the Empire of Japan primarily over influence in Joseon Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the port of Weihaiwei, the Qing government sued for peace in February 1895. The war demonstrated the failure of the Qing dynasty to modernize its military and fend off threats to its sovereignty, compared with Japan’s successful Meiji Restoration. For the first time, regional dominance in East Asia shifted from China to Japan; the prestige of the Qing dynasty, along with the classical tradition in China, suffered a major blow. The humiliating loss of Korea as a tributary state sparked an unprecedented public outcry. Within China, the defeat was a catalyst for a series of political upheavals led by Sun Yat-sen and Kang Youwei, culminating in the 1911 Xinhai Revolution.
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. China fought Japan with aid from the Soviet Union and the United States. After the Japanese attacks on Malaya and Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war merged with other conflicts which are generally categorized under those conflicts of World War II as a major sector known as the China Burma India Theater.The war was the result of a decades-long Japanese imperialist policy to expand its influence politically and militarily in order to secure access to raw material reserves, food, and labor. The period after World War I brought about increasing stress on the Japanese policy.
Washington Treaty system
AKA: Five-Power Treaty, signed during 1922 by the major Allies of World War I, agreeing to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. Signed by Great Britain, the US, France, Italy, and Japan. Limited the construction of battleships, battlecruisers and aircraft carriers by the signatories. The numbers of other categories of warships, including cruisers, destroyers, and submarines, were not limited by the treaty, but those ships were limited to 10,000 tons displacement each.
WHY DID IT FAIL
- Rise fo Japanese militant nationalism and seizure of “Manchuria” in 1931
- Global economic crisis and protectionism
- Turbulence in Chine & rise of Chinese nationalism
- Exclusion of Soviet union and Germany
- Contradiction between Wilsonian Internationalism and imperialism
Kellogg-Briand Pact
multilateral agreement attempting to eliminate war as an instrument of national policy. It was the most grandiose of a series of peacekeeping efforts after World War I. violated in 1931 when Japan invaded Manchuria. Although Japan had signed the treaty. The primary problem was that the treaty provided for no means of enforcement or sanctions against parties who violated its provisions.
