prac 1 Flashcards

1
Q

Do international laws matter?

A

Do:
- Laws are a tool to facilitate cooperation and resolve disputes
- States don’t have to comply but do anyway
- When states don’t comply, it’s usually because
a) the laws are imprecise and violations are unclear
b) the states do not have the ability to comply with the regulations

Don’t:
- states follow rules that align with their interests and don’t follow ones that don’t
- laws are malleable and can be interpreted in different ways to justify actions that states want to take

Truth:
- Somewhere in the middle; states have to set aside short term interests in favor of long-term benefits. They realize this through repetitions of the prisoner’s dilemma.

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2
Q

What is a human right?

A

Rights that are possessed by all individuals by virtue of being human

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3
Q

Why do states violate human rights?

A
  1. lack of state capacity:
    - Some states have the desire to follow human rights but do not have the capacity to do so
  2. Defense of national security:
    - When under attack or under perceived attack, states may violate the human rights of those that are thought to be the aggressor group(s)
  3. Preserve hold on power:
    - Leaders may violate human rights to eliminate all domestic competition
    - State not under attack, but uses abuse of human rights to suppress national dissent
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4
Q

Why would states care about how other states treat their citizens?

A

Moral motivations:
- Belief that all individuals should have basic human rights
- Empathy for those whose human rights are being violated or abused
- Belief that human rights are secure only when humans everywhere are protected

Self-interested motivations:
- Belief that protecting human rights will promote peace
- Fear of neighboring countries’ human rights issues leading to political unrest that directly or indirectly spill over into their own state
- States with better human rights records may be more peaceful (eg; Democratic Peace Hypothesis)

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5
Q

How can other states punish human rights violations?

A

Naming and shaming: consists of publicizing that a state has done something wrong
- low-cost strategy
- states can just ignore it, ineffective

Economic sanctions: consists of restricting trade, loans, and travel to the target country to pressure them into improving political and civil rights
- effective due to the aggressor being subjected to material costs and not just reputational costs
- Sending states also suffer costs
- Is it ethical to subject the whole population to these costs?

Humanitarian aid: the use of military force from another state to stop or prevent major violations of human rights
- bolstered by R2P (responsibility to protect)
- may be effective at ending human rights violations
- violation of sovereignty with no clear end
- very costly

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6
Q

Why do states trade?

A

Absolute advantage:
- the ability to produce more of a certain good than other countries

Comparative advantage:
- gains from specializing in creating a specific good more efficiently than other states
*efficiently: produce the highest output with the lowest cost
*states have finite resources, and so, must choose to allocate these resources to make goods (opportunity cost)

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7
Q

What’s the Heckscher-Ohlin Theory?

A

It posits that states will export goods that use resources that are abundant to them and import goods that use resources that are scarce to them

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8
Q

Who supports trade protections?

A

Stolper-Samuelson Theory:
- based on the HO model of factors of production
- Scarce factors cannot export and need help from protections to compete domestically

Ricardo-Viner Theory:
- Industries are main actors, not factors
- Factors of production are immobile
- Industries may favor protections to help them compete with imported competition

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9
Q

Who supports free trade?

A

Heckscher-Ohlin Theory:
- States produce whatever goods they can with a comparative advantage
- States then trade those goods for ones that they cannot efficiently produce domestically
- Outcome: high volume of goods with low prices

Firm-based theory:
- Firms are the main actors
- A few firms contribute to most exports
- Most productive firms in the export industry may favor free trade (to maximize exports and profit)

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10
Q

What is protectionism?

A

restrictions on imports into a country with the goal of protecting domestic producers from cheaper goods brought in from abroad

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11
Q

What are tariffs?

A

taxes imposed on imported goods that are levied at the border that are paid for by the importing company/firm

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12
Q

what are nontariff barriers?

A

barriers to imports that aren’t tariffs (eg: quotas)

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13
Q

who gains from free trade?

A
  • customers (cheap goods)
  • domestic industries with comparative advantages (no protections in other countries)
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14
Q

who loses from free trade?

A
  • Domestic industries who do not have a comparative advantage (no protections from imported competition)
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15
Q

Why are regional agreements beneficial?

A
  • Cooperation is easier with fewer actors
  • Geographically proximate countries trade more and interact more often
  • May be beneficial to link trade with cooperation in other issues
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16
Q

Main function of the WTO?

A
  • To govern and regulate international trade regulations
  • facilitate cooperation to reduce barriers to trade
  • resolve disputes in trade