Midterm Exam Terms Flashcards
Collective security
Collective security is the result of a collection of military power in a single global institution that provides peace and security for all countries at the international level. The global institution sets up rules that states must follow to resolve disagreements and creates a preponderance of power. A preponderance of power is a pooling of the military power of all nations to punish aggressors who violate the rules. The global institution that does this currently is the United Nations. The League of Nations was the first international institution to implement this.
Balance of Power
The balance of power is the process by which states seek to ensure that no one state dominates the system. The increase in power of one state is cause of concern for other states, even if the powerful state does not have ill intentions. To keep the balance, states must align against the greater power no matter who that power may be. Even if a state has the same intentions and values as another state, if it threatens that other state’s survival, that other state must align against it. States that are roughly equal in power do not threaten each other and therefore lessen the risk of conflict.
Clash of Civilizations
A clash of civilizations was a theory presented by Samuel Huntington that past and future global conflicts can be traced along the major fault lines between the nine major world civilizations. These civilizations encompassed more than just a nation-state, but involved cultures such as language, history, customs, and identites. These civilizations are Western, Orthodox, Confucian, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto, Latin American, and African.
Persian Gulf War
The first Persian Gulf War began when Iraq invaded Kuwait and the United Nations condemned their actions and imposed sanctions against them. When Iraq refused to withdraw, the UN Security Council approved memebers to use all means necessary to expel them. The war led to a permanent precense of western troops in the Middle East to protect oil fields. This made fundamentalist Muslims believe the West was declaring war on Islam by placing troops near their holy places.
Democratic Peace Theory
The theory that democratic nations do not go to war with one another, making the spread of democracy desirable. Politicians such as Reagan and Clinton believed that the spread of democracy is a national security issue because democracies typically do not fight each other. This theory is subject to much debate.
Security Dilemma
A security dilemma is a situation that states face when they pursue power to protect themselves and, in the process, threaten other states by gathering this power. This was seen in the case of the Cold War.
Anarchy
: A state of anarchy is one in which the distribution of power is always decentralized. Realist perspectives argue that the world is always in a state of anarchy because there is no one central authority or leader of the world. Anarchy places an emphasis on self-help, in which states have no one else to rely on for defense and security except themselves.
Hegemony
A hegemony is a situation in which one country is more powerful than all the others. For much of the 20th century, the United States was a hegemon. Britain also has a history of being a hegemon. It can be argued that hegemony stabilizes a situation because the hegemon will deter other powers from attacking it.
Containment & deterrence
Containment was the policy of the United States during the Cold War. It checked aggressive Soviet actions by military alliances such as NATO. Deterrence is the use of the threat of force to stop an attack before it occurs. Nuclear deterrence was a big part of the Cold War, because both the Soviet Union and the United States knew that if either were to use nuclear weapons on one another, they would surely destroy each other (MAD).
League of Nations
The League of Nations was the first international institution to implement the ideas of collective security. It employed a principle of unanimity, in which all nations regardless of size participated and decided collectively what constituted a threat to international peace and security. All countries made decisions on an equal basis and everyone had the power to veto. The most notable country to never join the League of Nations was the United States.
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was a treaty between the winners of World War I that completely destroyed the German empire. It took away all its territory and colonies, cut their army down, and required them to pay massive reparations that had negative effects on their economy and international trade.
NATO
NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Association, was a Western military alliance created in response to the threat of the Cold War. The Soviet Union responded with a military alliance of their own and created the Warsaw Pact soon after. NATO still exists today.
Imperial overstretch
Imperial overstretch is the squandering of resources by superpowers on proxy conflicts. Both the Soviet Union and the United States suffered from imperial overstretch in Vietnam and Afghanistan.
MAD
MAD stands for “mutually assured destruction”. It was the state of things between the United States and the Soviet Union in the Cold War. If either party were to attack the other, they would without a doubt destroy each other. This mutually assured destruction was a huge factor in deterring both countries from attacking each other.
Boer War vs Iraq War
The world event that signaled Britain’s decline of power was the Boer War in South Africa. The British eventually won the war, but a small group of farmers held their own against the world’s mightiest military power and cost them thousands of dollars and many lives. This is very similar to the Iraq War, in which the United States is fighting a small group of militants far away from home, spending huge amounts of money, and losing thousands of soldier’s lives. The Iraq War could be seen as the event that signals the United States’ decline of power.
