Poli Sci ID's Flashcards
Theory xxvii
Definition: A logical consistent set of statements that explains a phenomenon of interest.
Significance: Theories are a huge part of how we are trying to solve each puzzle we come across. They help find answers.
Historical example: Theories helped us predict/describe the Iraq War and why it happened in the fist place.
Interests pg.45
Definition: What actors want to achieve through political action; their preferences over the outcomes that might result from their political choices.
Significance: IR is all about actors decisions and how each of those play out/result in, which originates with interests.
Historical example: In the showdown with Iraq, an interest in security might explain the U.S. government’s desire to remove a regime that threatened American allies in the region.
Anarchy pg.47
Definition: The absence of a central authority with the ability to make and enforce laws that bind all actors.
Significance:
Historical example: The French Revolution stands as a landmark in the history of anarchism.
Interactions pg.51
Definition: The ways in which the choices of two or more actors combine to produce political outcomes.
Significance: Part of the three I’s which help us solve the puzzles in class.
Historical example: Hussein having the option to step down from power or the US would use force to get him out
Cooperation pg. 53
Definition: The interest in which two or more actors adopt policies that make at least one or more actors better off relative to the status quo without making others worse off.
Significance: Cooperation is something that can be the different between a war and no war. This is a big topic in class and if actors don’t cooperate, bug events can occur.
Historical example: A great example of this is the United Nations an intergovernmental organization tasked with the job of promoting and maintaining political cooperation among the world’s nations.
Bargaining pg.55
Definition: An interaction in which two or more actors must choose outcomes that make one better off at the expense of another. Bargaining is redistributive: it involves allocating a fixed sum of value between different actors.
Significance: The bargaining model is a big chunk of IR and the failure of bargaining is what leads to war. We study this in almost every chapter.
Historical example: Two actors wanting the same piece of territory, for example the French and Indian War is what they were fighting over.
Institutions pg. 68
Definition: Set of rules (known and shared my the community) that structure interactions in specific ways.
Significance: A part of the three I’s and helps us solve the political puzzles.
Historical example: The U.S. Congress has rules that determine who gets elected to it and how it passes laws.
Mercantilism pg.5
Definition: An economic doctrine based on a belief that military power and economic influence complemented each other; applied especially to colonial empires in the 16th C. Mercantilist policies favored the mother country over its colonies and over its competitors.
Significance:
Historical example: Sugar Act of 1764 that made colonists pay higher tariffs and duties on imports of foreign-made refined sugar products.
Peace of Westphalia pg.8
Definition: The settlement that ended the Thirty Years’ War in 1648; often said to have created the modern state system because it included a general recognition of the principles of sovereignty and nonintervention.
Significance: Peace treaties have been a big topic throughout this class and this is just that. Peace treaties help the world stay civil and prevent wars from happening.
Historical example: Used in the 30 years way to help it come to an end.
Sovereignty pg.8&47
Definition: The expectation that states have legal and political supremacy- or ultimate authority- within their territorial boundaries.
Significance: Someone that feels like they are entitled and hold power over all else may also be someone that causes unnecessary conflict/war which is something we are studying in the class.
Historical example: A king of a country for example like Britain, or a president that has power of the US.
Hegemony pg. 8
Definition: The predominance of one nation state over others.
Significance: Similar is sovereignty, one nation being too powerful can cause conflict and failure of bargaining.
Historical example: The British defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815, and sealed international hegemony.
Pax Britannica pg.11
Definition: “British Peace”, a century long period, beginning with Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815 and ending with the outbreak of World War I in 1914, during which Britain’s economic and diplomatic influence contributed to economic openness and relative peace.
Significance: This period of peace was outstanding to the world and is a huge study of IR to try to determine how to make this be a more common occurrence and why it happened/ended.
Historical example: A time of peace had begun after the defeat in Waterloo but ended at the start of WWI.
Gold Standard pg.13
Definition: The monetary system that prevailed between about 1870 and 1914, in which countries tied their currencies to gold at a legally fixed price.
Significance: This was a big point in history and is apart of how people and countries would trade which is significantly related to IR.
Historical example: Britain had had a gold-backed currency since 1717. By the 1870s majority of industrial world had switched to this.
Treaty of Versailles pg.20
Definition: Forced Germany and other Central Powers to take all the blame for World War I which ultimately ended the war.
Significance: As this is part of WWI ending, this is a big part in history and is something well studied in IR. It explains how cooperation and collaboration can truly help cause peace.
Historical example: It was the treaty that ended WWI aka the war guilt.
League of Nations pg. 21&205
Definition: A collective security organization founded in 1919 after WWI. The League ended in 1946 and was replaced by the United Nations.
Significance: Without this, many more wars probably would have occurred and states wouldn’t have felt some of the security they had.
Historical example: Used during WWI to help prevent another war.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization pg.24&203
Definition: (NATO) An alliance formed in 1946 among the United States, Canada, and most of the states of Western Europe in response to the threat posed by the Soviet Union. The alliance requires its members to consider an attack on any one of them as an attack on all.
Significance: Without this treaty, these countries may have been overtaken due to the lack of military backing.
Historical example: Created after WWII to help protect one another and is still continued to this day.
Warsaw Pact pg.25&203
Definition: A military alliance formed in 1955 to bring together the Soviet Union and its Cold War allies in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, dissolved on March 31, 1991, as the Cold War ended.
Significance: A huge alliance and a role-model to others on how alliances can be formed and carried out but sometimes fall apart. That is what we figure out in IR and why these events occur.
Historical example:
Decolonization pg.29
Definition: The process of shedding colonial possessions.
Significance: Decolonization can cause lots of ruckus and have the potential to cause wars which is another topic IR is in charge of figuring out.
Historical example: Especially during the rapid end of the European empires in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean between the 1940s and the 1960s.
Actors pg.47
Definition: The basic unit for the analysis of international politics; can be either individuals or groups of people with common interests.
Significance: Actors are a huge part of IR and is one of the biggest ways we explain/solve puzzles that include multiple countries, states, people, etc.
Historical example: Cold War, against The Soviet Union and the United States. In this case they were the two actors.
State pg.47
Definition: A central authority with the ability to make and enforce laws, rules, and decisions within a specified territory.
Significance: The US along with many of countries are filled with states and we would not have IR without them.
Historical example: California or any state in the US.
National interest pg.49
Definition: Interstate’s attributed to the state itself; usually security and power. Something all of the states agree on to benefit everyone.
Significance: National interests are a good example of cooperation and how actors can work together to help benefit each other. IR dives into how we achieve more of this.
Historical example: In the US everyone agrees to keep one another safer by having a law that stealing is illegal.
Coordination pg.58
Definition: A type of cooperative interaction in which actors benefit from all making the same choices and subsequently have no incentive not to comply.
Significance: Coordination is key in keeping peace but can also cause the exact opposite between actors, IR does a big job studying this.
Historical example: In 1804 New York made the law to decide which side of the road you were required to drive on. By the Civil War this was applied in every state.
Collaboration pg.58
Definition: A type of cooperative interaction in which actors gain from working together but nonetheless have incentives not to comply with any agreement.
Significance: A fail of collaboration and having incentives to not follow through is just what can lead to wars, also another term that IR has a big focus on and attempts to determine why actors do not follow through always.
Historical example: Prisoners Dilemma?
Public goods pg.60
Definition: Products that are non excludable and non rival in consumption, such as national defense.
Significance: Public goods can bring people/states together, but can also cause war and disagreements.
Historical example: Law enforcement, national defense, and the rule of law.
Collective Action Problems pg.60
Definition: Obstacles to cooperation that occur when actors have incentives to collaborate but each acts with the expectation that others will pay the costs of cooperation.
Significance: These problems can result in war and free riding which both don’t lead to good outcomes.
Historical example: For example, individuals would prefer to benefit from national security without paying taxes or volunteering for military service.
Free ride pg.60
Definition: To fail to contribute to a public good while benefiting from the contributions of others.
Significance: Free riding causes countries and actors to have conflict since not everyone is contributing but benefitting from the public good which can cause civil or interstate wars. IR studies these actions.
Historical example: This is why public goods are often provided by governments, which have the power to tax citizens or otherwise mandate their contributions.
Iteration pg.62
Definition: Repeated interactions with the same partners.
Significance: Repeated interactions with the same partners can lead to treaties and interests groups coming together which can help keep peace.
Historical example: The US working with the UN.
Linkage pg.62
Definition: The linking of cooperation on one issue to interactions on a second issue.
Significance:
Historical example: One of the reasons the United States and Great Britain have been able to sustain their “special relationship” of deep cooperation, including on Iraq, is that they are bound together on so many different issues.
Power pg.63
Definition: The ability of Actor A get Actor B to do something that B would otherwise not do; the ability to get the other side to make concessions and to avoid having to make concessions oneself.
Significance: Power is one of the most important things in this course since it can lead to an outbreak of wars and conflict between actors, but can also do the opposite and keep peace.
Historical example: Germany convinced the US and the president at the time to join into WWI.
Coercion pg.65&279
Definition: A strategy of imposing or threatening to impose costs on other actors in order to induce a change in their behavior.
Significance: This is somewhat related to the bargaining model/range which is an important factor in IR.
Historical example: The demand of the United States that Saddam Hussein step down or be removed by force.
Outside options pg.66
Definition: The alternatives to bargaining with a specific actor.
Significance: Having outside options can be apart of bargaining with another actor which is also apart of incomplete information. Both of these topics can lead to bargain failure=war.
Historical example: the United States might have preferred to work through the UN to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq in 2003, the U.S. government felt that it had an attractive outside option: act- ing unilaterally.
Agenda setting power pg.67
Definition: Actions taken before or during bargaining that make the reversion outcome more favorable for one party.
Significance:
Historical example: by sponsoring legislative proposals, calling public attention to issues, and cajoling individual legislators, the president of the United States has important agenda-setting power in Congress.
Dominant strategy pg.82
Definition: When one strategy is better than another strategy for one player, no matter how that players opponent may play.
Significance: This decision making can show that one side may hold more power/confidence and can lead to wars.
Historical example: a best response might be too cooperate when the other side cooperates and defect when the other side defects.
Equilibrium p.83
Definition: An outcome that arises from each side choosing best-response strategies
Significance:
Historical example: Prisoners dilemma when both people pick what’s best for them.
