Power and powers in IR Flashcards
Unipolar
Power can be exploited as there is no challenger
Bipolar
Seen as most stable for IR theorists. Balance of power maintenance.
Multipolar
Uncertainty, unclear who is adversary. Potential for misreading actions
What happens in a bipolar system?
A dynamic balance of power. MAD creates a stable and balanced world. A theory exclusive to the Global North.
Define hegemonic stability
Idea that international order can be provided by a single hegemonic power. Hegemon needs to define its long term interests in ways that are compatible with the interests of other systems.
Hard power
Ability to get others to do what otherwise wouldn’t through threats or rewards. Forms of coercion.
Soft power
Getting others to want the outcomes you want. Diplomacy.
Smart power
Ability to combine hard and soft power resources into effective strategies (Nye)
What can happen to discourses?
They can become mainstream and hegemonic. Cultural appeal, ie American Dream
What has happened to the US?
Retains hard power but less culturally attractive.
What does Nye argue about the US?
Trump hinders soft power. Lacks a persuasive vision, authoritarian and anti-immigrant. Contrasts the hegemonic liberal view.
Discuss the BRICS
On the rise. Brazil, Russia, India, China. Challenge power of G7. Bigger share of GDP.
Circulatory argument
Power as the end of analysis. Doesn’t delve into how this abstract idea operates.
Lump power fallacy
Difficulty of aggravating different sources that should be powerful. Markers of power: nuclear weapons, GDP. Not objective or universally true.
Define fungibility
An economic concept. Question of goods exchange. Economic vs diplomatic. No clear adjudicating system.
What is a relational character?
Power is relational so hinges on a subject which acts accordingly
Stephen Lukes: three faces of power
- Decision making power.
- Agenda setting power
- Preference shaping power
Realism
Short term power view. All great powers aware of the fact that eventually they will lose their status.
Neoliberal institutionalism
Actors value the future, power can yield returns via institutions. Co-operation and globalisation.
Constructivism
Focus on power via norms, rules and ideas. Long term. International discourses and humanitarianism.
Critical theory
Where there is power there is resistance. Emancipation can emerge out of power structures
Post-structuralism
Power shapes social and moral relations and therefore constitutes identity. Circulatory relationship between power and knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge imparted by educators. Curriculums. Discourses maintained, challenged. Ie, British Colonial History.
