Unit Two

Question 1

What are causes of conflict? And an example?

Answer 1

1) Natural resource conflict: In its initial planning, the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 was called operation Iraqi Liberation, Russia/ukraine war

2) Territorial: Israel - Palestine

3) Cultural: Canada and First Nations, Rwanda

4)Religious: Ireland/Iraq (sunni/shiite)

5)Geopolitical: Russian invasion of Ukraine

Question 2

State VS nation sate

Answer 2

State → political borders

Nation state → defined political borders that other people know is your country, with a culture in it

Question 3

When was the Soviet Union? Who was in it?

Answer 3

1922-1991

Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, and the Transcaucasian Federation

Question 4

What is Nato?

Answer 4

Nato → North Atlantic Treaty Organization
- Made up of a group of countries “the winners” of WWII
- Made up of a treaty, a law abiding (must be followed)
- An attack on one of the countries in blue is an attack on all

Question 5

What is the Warsaw Pact?

Answer 5

Warsaw pact (counter to NATO) → a collective defence treaty established by the Soviet Union and seven other Soviet satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe

Question 6

At the end of WWII Europe dived in half, what were the groups?

Answer 6

Democracy Capitalism Liberty (Western side - blue on the map)
Communism authoritarian (East- red)

Question 7

What happened at the start of the Cold War? Who were the dominant powers? Where did they fight?

Answer 7

Beginning of the cold war, communism and democracy fighting each other
Dominant powers USA, UK and Soviet Union
Fought in Korea, Cuba

Question 8

what is the dividing line called that ran between the Soviet Union and nato countries in Europe?

Answer 8

The dividing line between the two is called the iron curtain

Question 9

What was important about the North European plain and its geography?

Answer 9

Flat terrain. Moscow had to worry about attacks across the great European plain. They had a massive border.
- During the warsaw pact, they had less to protect as they had other countries on their side.

Question 10

What is a reason Russia wants to control Ukraine?

Answer 10

If Russia controls Ukraine, they have less to protect. Whereas if Ukraine joins NATO, Russia has to protect a larger border, this makes them feel threatened.

Question 11

Russia. Why is it important? What is its connection with Ukraine? Europe? The war?

Answer 11

Second largest exporter of oil, Largest reserves of natural gas in the world, about 50% of their revenue comes from these resources.

Ukraine began charging Russia Tariffs to use their natural gas pipelines. Russia did not like this and began building their own lines around Ukraine. Europe depends on Russia for natural gas
- Europe economy is tanking → going to hit a recession

Question 12

What are some conflict theories?

Answer 12

Frustration aggression theory, social identity group theory, Samuel Huntington’s: clash of civilizations theory, and Thomas Homer Dixion Theory.

Question 13

What is frustration aggression theory?

Answer 13

• Use of psychology to explain civil strife, including strikes, riots, coups, revolutions and guerrilla wars
• They suggest that individuals become aggressive when they feel frustrated by something or someone they believe is clocking them from fulfilling a strong desire
• Frustration and aggression can be caused by relative deprivation when people perceive a widening gap between the level of satisfaction they have achieved (often defined in economic terms) and the level they believe they deserve
• Unjust Vs Depreciation
• Frustration does not automatically mean aggression
• If you can’t respond to the frustration you tend to take it out on weaker targets or the scapegoats
• Eg. Jewish population was a minority- they were the perfect scapegoat and blame them

Question 14

What is social identity group theory?

Answer 14

• Uses social psychology to help explain conflict involving nationalism, ethnicity, and religion
• Groups reinforce and the we-thy division that often result
  Individuals may have a need for a sense of camaraderie or “we-ness” that can be satisfied in a group when it discriminates against or attacks another group; similarly, a person’s sense of self-worth may be strengthened when is or her groups status is enhanced relative to that of other groups
• By attacking outside groups, leaders may try to exploit these needs in order to increase their political power within their own groups, but this behaviour makes divisions between groups deeper and more sharp
• Eg. the way people will form their identity towards groups or clubs
• Groups feel strengthen by attacking other groups
• People feel a sense of belonging by joining these groups (Mega- the states)

Question 15

What are the 3 pillars of social identity group theory?

Answer 15

1) An insecure environment - can relate to. Eg a poor kid joining a gang to feel safe and belong
2) A tool to bond the targeted audience with the group - religion is a great bonding tool. Eg This could be religion (great bonding tool)
3) Self interest - can I benefit? Eg. It might seem they can make their life better, be known, have a greater purpose

Question 16

What is Samuel Huntington’s: clash of civilizations theory?

Answer 16

• Conflict would most frequently and violently occur because cultural rather than ideological differences
• Cold war conflict occurred between the capitalist west and communist bloc east
• Now was most likely to occur between the world’s major civilizations - identifying sen, and a possible with: western, latina america, islamic, sinic, hindu, orthodx , japanese and the african
• Western and islamic culture are dominate clashing civilizations

Question 17

Why does Samuel Huntington believe civilizations will clash?

Answer 17

• Civilization consciousness - the awareness of differences between civilizations and commonalities within civilizations
• Growth of civilization consciousness is enhanced by the dual role of the west. On one hand west is at a peak of power and the return to the roots phenomenon is occurring among non western areas. A west at the peak of its power confronts non western countries that increasingly have the desire, the will and resources to shape the world in non western ways.
• West VS the rest.

Question 18

What is Thomas Homer Dixion theory?

Answer 18

• The human population is expected to pass eight billion by the year 2025. While rapid growth in the global economy will spur ever increasing demands for natural resources
• The world will consequently face growing scarcities of such vital renewable resources as cropland, fresh water, and forests
• Look at the ever increasing demand of natural resources and the scarcity of those recourses
• climate change will cause a lack of places to plant food, get natural water etc. this will drive them to move (migrate), this movement of people will drive conflict

Environmental degradation leads to:
- Decreased agricultural production
- Economic decline
- Population displacement

Question 19

What is structural conflict?

Answer 19

• The central argument in this sociological theory is that conflict is built into the particular ways societies are structured or organized
• Describes the condition of the society and how such conditions or environment can create conflict. Structural conflict theory identifies such conditions as social exclusion, deprecation, class inequalities, injustice, political marginalization, gender imbalance, racial segregation, economic exploitation and the likes, all which often lead to conflict
• Is the system set up to make the rich richer?
• Structures in society can also help prevent conflict or a lack of structure can perpetuate it

Question 20

What is an example of structural conflict?

Answer 20

Example: The US had a lot of free labour (slavery) so they didn’t have to pay people to do alot of jobs, much of the US was born out of slavary, there still is strucurtal segregation within the society, there is still generational trauma because of it.
Redlining → segregation of race, the best neighbourhoods went to white people
Trump tapped into a big group of white people who were facing class inequality → MEGA

Question 21

What happened in Lybia VS Syria?

Answer 21

2011 → Arib spring (a guy who was frustrated with the government corruption set himself on fire) → lead to a massive protest of democracy → sprung from country to country

Nato intervened in Libya by bombing them and killing their dictator.

Syria however still has their dictator → this cause they have structre to offer (NATO can’t bomb syria as Russia and China have strong relationships with them)

Question 22

Why is war less common now?

Answer 22

Diplomacy
Powerful weapons → no winner
Allies
War is too expensive → too much to loose
Interconnected with other countries, what’s the point?
Democracy has taken off within the world
You have to worry about getting elected again

Question 23

What is the End of History and the Last Man theory?

Answer 23

Theorized that war will not happen anymore, because liberal democracy is taking off and interconnectedness

As countries get richer they fight less because they have a lot more to lose.

Populists are coming to power, they are staying in power longer and longer
- Dip in democracy

Question 24

What is the Golden Arches theory?

Answer 24

• Any country with a McDonalds within it will not fight a war against each other
• A place with a McDonalds has a strong middle class, fairly developed, they have a lot too loose
• Represent the growing middle class
• Therefore war is less likely

Question 25

What are soft powers and what do they do?

Answer 25

Used to Deter Conflict

1) Co-option: potential opponents become closely tied eg. Germany and France, Canada and US (biggest trading and travel partners)
- Golden arches theory
- Dell supply chain theory

2) Public Diplomacy: create an ongoing positive change
- Show up to other countries, show face

3) Government Diplomacy: International negotiations
- Behind closed doors

Question 26

What are hard powers and when are they used?

Answer 26

Used when soft power doesn’t work.

1) Aid Payments and Bribes: wealthy countries provide financial incentives to poorer countries for their support
- US has been sending about 70 billion dollars of weapons to Ukraine. Can be done as a bribe, join us and we will give financial aid or we will stop giving it. Vote with us or you are in trouble.

2) Sanctions: measures taken by countries or orgs like the UN against countries to force them to change their policies
- If aid payments don’t work. Stopping sale or import of another countries stuff. Canada have stopped certain people from Russia from ever entering their country. Can sanction countries from using their air space. A way to punish countries for doing bad things.

3) Force: warfare - symmetric or asymmetric (more common now)

Question 27

What is military Industrial Complex?

Answer 27

Network of individuals and institutions involved in the production of weapons and military technologies. The military-industrial complex in a country typically attempts to marshal political support for continued or increased military spending by the national government.

Question 28

What is terrorism, why is caused?

Answer 28

Political Motives
Uses fear
Destroys sense of security
Targets large groups
Inhumane acts
Threatens
Domestic
Asymmetrical → don’t have power to fight militarily
Revenge/frustration
Clash of cultures (sometimes)
Violence is involved (threat or use)

Question 29

How has terrorism impacted society?

Answer 29

Changed society in many ways due to fear of recurring. Eg. Security to go through airports

Question 30

What is domestic terrorism?

Answer 30

operate within a country and don’t attack outside it

Question 31

What is the Hobbesian trap?

Answer 31

Is a theory that explains why preemptive strikes occur between two groups, out of bilateral fear of an imminent attack.
The Hobbesian trap can be avoided by influences that increase the trust between the two parties.
i.e.. Cuban Missile Crisis
M.A.D. = Mutual Assured Destruction

Where there is a lack of trust, countries are more selfish we are more likely to attack them in fear they will do the same to us.

Question 32

What is security Dilemma?

Answer 32

What we do to make ourselves feel safer can have the unattended reaction of making others feel not safe.
A situation in which actions taken by a state to increase its own security cause reactions from other states, which in turn lead to a decrease rather than an increase in the original state’s security
Eg. Russia is feeling threatened by countries joining NATO which is there way of feeling safe

Question 33

How is climate change a prisoners dilemma?

Answer 33

Every nation and every individual benefits if others restrain their pollution, but we all prefer not to have to restrain our own.
However, currently there are not any present day consequences for
“Defecting”
Unless all hope on board, it could mean “political suicide.

Question 34

What are motives of terrorism?

Answer 34

Cultural Fanaticism → Taliban, Hezbollah, Timothy Mcveigh, Resisting secularism (removal of religion from government). Unabomber - Ted kaczynski (revolution against modern industrial society/eco facism)

With religion = believe they are morally right

Psychology → personal dissatisfaction with life - Toronto van tragedy, “we vs they” Belgium and france - recruits

Resistance to imperialism → real or believed - 1RA in Ireland, As-Qaeda in response to USA meddling in the Middle east

Imperialism: expanding a country’s state of their power, territory, influence across the world

Injustice → feeling wronged - frustration - aggression theory

Blowback: unintended consequences or reactions to your actions

Question 35

9/11 What happened?

Answer 35

European powers conquered most of the world through imperialism
Middle east however was not and it was controlled under the ottoman empire
At the end of WWI the ottoman empire lost (sided with germany)… European powers redraw the borders of the middle east (it comes under infidel control)
This creates massive culture shock
Next 40 years - middle east people get ripped off in the usal colonial way
Becomes very poor
1940s a lot of the countries like Egypt, Iraq, Syria gained their independence
The struggle for independence was messy - those who were apart of the military typically took over these countries (as they needed the military to back them)
Many dictators form → lots of political and civil unrest/chaos
They wanted to modernize and remain independent
Wanted to replicate the success of the west while retain the arab culture
Military dictators did not know how to run an economy
Arab becomes the 2nd poorest region in the world
Under these conditions revolutionaries emerge
Bin Laden - believed following western ideals was inappropriate for Muslims
His solution is Islamism → Political movment marrying the ideogly of Islam with political movements… extreme nonsecular movement

Bin Laden cam from a Billionaire family and used his wealth to fun the Mujahideen (muslims who fight on belf of ther faith or muslim community) to fight Russians in Afghanistan
They defeated the Russians (with CIA help) and this was seen as a HUGE vindication for his movement
The goal is now to overthrow secular governments (not subject of bound by religious rule)… he was trying to assassinate the egyption government
Saudi Arabia banishes him for his extreme activity (asked by the US)
Moves to Sudan then to Afghanistan with protection of the Taliban

Here he formed Al-Qaeda
In the 1980s and 1990s targeted dictators in the arab world and killed “tens of thousands of people”
Governments in their overreaction to the threat, responded by killing tens of thousands more
Not a single regime was overthrown in this period. Col. (libya, Iraq, Syria, Egypt) and others remained in power for decades

He realized if he attacks the US he needed to recruit “soldiers” for his revolution
He hated the USA for their goriegn policy of interventionism and overthrowing governments and/or propping up regimes
The plan is to hit the USA in the economic ‘heart’ and hopefully force a response
If the USA invades and begins killing Muslims - he has his recruiting tool

Question 36

What is secularism?

Answer 36

Separation between religion and government

Question 37

What was the Debathification that took place in Afghanistan?

Answer 37

All Baath government employees including soldiers (mostly sunni) are banished from gov, losing their jobs

Question 38

What is the game theory?

Answer 38

The study of mathematical models of strategic interaction among rational decision makers
Deals with competitive situations where the outcome of a participants choice of action depends critically on the actions of other participants
Game theory has been applied to context in war, business, and biology
Especially in the business world between competitions

Question 39

what is the prisoner dilemma?

Answer 39

The prisoner dilemma is an example of game theory. This models the potential interactions between people, we can understand why rational beings sometimes make choices that seem counter - intuitive.
Noncooperative game → demonstrates why two rational individuals would refuse to work together even if it might be in their better interest to do so
In a cooperative game theory it’s in players’ best interests to form teams, and the bonds between teammates can be trusted. Together they work toward a shared goal.

Question 40

what is social dilemma?

Answer 40

Situation in which an individual profits from selfishness, unless everyone chooses the selfish alternative, in which case the whole group loses.

Question 41

How does game day theory relate to real life?

Answer 41

Opposing alliances of NATO and the Warsaw Pact both had the choice to arm or disarm.
From each side’s point of view, disarming whilst their opponent continued to arm would have led to military inferiority and possible annihilation. Conversely, arming whilst their opponent disarmed would have led to superiority.
If both sides chose to arm, neither could afford to attack the other, but both incurred the high cost of developing and maintaining a nuclear arsenal.
If both sides chose to disarm, war would be avoided and there would be no costs.

Question 42

Zero-sum game theory

Answer 42

a situation in which each participant’s gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other participants.
If you think of the game of chess, if I win you lose, if you win I lose. There is not both kinda winning.
Found in competitive sports

Question 43

Non Zero-sum game theory

Answer 43

is a situation where one’s win does not necessarily mean another’s loss, and one’s loss does not necessarily mean that the other party wins. In a Non-Zero-Sum Game, all parties could gain, or all parties could lose.
Happens in the real world
We both lose a little bit
So the world does not just end tomorrow

Question 44

what is realism?

Answer 44

Believe that the state is number one priority in the world
The principal actors in the world are countries
Believe we live in an anarchy (lawlessness)
We live in a world anarchy → no world government, police, etc
Causes us to be competitive by nature
If you don’t take power someone else will take it from you
Realists believe that our selfishness, our appetite for power and our inability to trust others leads to predictable outcomes. Perhaps this is why war has been so common throughout recorded history.

Question 45

Critiques of realism?

Answer 45

Realism can be seen as a self-fulfilling prophecy.
By assuming the world is uncooperative and selfish, they are more likely to act in ways based upon this suspicion.
Realism is often criticised as excessively pessimistic, since it sees the confrontational nature of the international system as inevitable.
Realists are also accused of focusing too much on the state as a solid unit, ultimately overlooking other actors and forces within the state and also ignoring
international issues not directly connected to the survival of the state.

Question 46

What is liberalism?

Answer 46

The rights of an individual person to life and liberty and property should be a high goal of government
Believe organizations are important to the world (united nations)
Believe that war is not necessary and it can be avoided by working together in international groups
If we interconnect our economies and globalize this will foster peace.