Week 2 - Lecture 3 - Regional dynamics and power relations

Question 1

Human security

Answer 1

Protecting vital freedoms. It means protecting people from critical and pervasive threats and situations, building on their strengths and aspirations. It also means creating systems that give people the building blocks of survival, dignity and livelihood.

Question 2

Summary of Iran’s stance

Answer 2

• Supporter of Assad regime
• Funds Hezbollah
• Shia Islam (anti-IS)
• Regional rivalry with Saudi Arabia (Cold War of the Middel East)

Question 3

Summary of Iraqs stance

Answer 3

• Power vacuum ⟶ rise of IS
• Former rivalry, current friendship with Syria (similar ideological roots)
• Religious population is much more mixed, but the majority is Shia
• Economic connections
• Limited regional power

Question 4

Summary of Saudi Arabias stance

Answer 4

• Used to oppose Assad-regime
• Part of anti-IS coalition
• Majority of the population is Sunni Islam
• Funded (Islamist) rebel groups
• Careful rapprochement with US
• Regional rivalry with Iran (until 2023)

Question 5

Summary of Turkeys stance

Answer 5

• Used to oppose Assad regime
• Part of anti-IS coalition
• Main concern with Kurdish population of Syria and Iraq
• Occupies territories in Northern Syria

Question 6

Summary of Israels stance

Answer 6

• History of Arab-Israeli conflicts
• Support for anti-IS coalition, not a member perse
• Supported various opposition groups
• Occupies the Golan Heights
• Anti-Hezbollah operations form the current focal point of Israeli actions on the border

Question 7

Summary of the United States’ stance

Answer 7

• Opposes the Assad regime
• Funds various opposition groups
• Part of anti-ISIS coalition
• Historical adversarial relationship with Iran
• “World Police”
• History of military intervention in the Middle East

Question 8

Summary of the European Unions stance

Answer 8

• Opposes the Assad regime
• Funds various opposition groups
• Part of anti-ISIS coalition
• Differentiation between member states (based on domestic policies)
• Humanitarian motives: at least that’s how the EU likes to portray itself

Question 9

Summary of Russia’s stance

Answer 9

• Supports Assad regime
• Tartarus naval base
• Active military intervention in Syria against opposition cells
• State military
• Private military and security companies (Wagner)
• Russia-Syria-Iran-Iraq Coalition

Question 10

Realism

Answer 10

• States are main actors in international politics
• States relate to each other under the condition of anarchy: there is no higher power that keeps them in check
• States are motivated by power
• States are in competition with each other

Question 11

Classical Realism

Answer 11

• Human nature is translated to international political action
• Constant state of insecurity
• Maximisation of power to prevent conflict/offset its effects
• Morality is not entirely absent

Question 12

Structural- or Neorealism

Answer 12

• States seek to maximise power
• States are motivated by survival:
  1. Exogenous (coming from the outside) and unchanged interest
  2. Determined by the structure of anarchy
• States are unitary, rational actors

Question 13

Offensive realism

John Mearsheimer

Answer 13

• More power = more security
• More power = hegemony
• Hegemons are unlikely to be attacked
• Competitive, offensive, and expansionist policies
• Maximization of power

Question 14

Defensive Realism

Kenneth Waltz

Answer 14

• More stability = more security
• Preserving the balance of power
• Unlimited maximisation of power: security dilemma
• Practice restraint
• Maximize security

Question 15

Balance of power

Answer 15

When states maximise power, other states seek to match it

Question 16

Bandwagoning

Answer 16

Forming alliances to counterbalance a hegemon

Question 17

Unipolarity

Answer 17

A condition in which one state under the condition of international anarchy enjoys a preponderance of power and faces no competitor states.

Question 18

Bipolarity

Answer 18

Bipolarity is a distribution of power in which two states have a preponderance of power.

Question 19

Multipolarity

Answer 19

A distribution of power in which more than two states have similar amounts of power.

Question 20

What was the polarity like during the Syrian Civil War?

Answer 20

Multipolarity

Question 21

Liberalism

Answer 21

• International cooperation is possible
• Motivated by ideals
• States as primary actors, but also secondary actors (e.g. NGO’s, corporations, etc.)
• Foreign policy is determined by domestic politics

Question 22

Perpetual peace

Immanual Kant

Answer 22

Republics are a peaceful form of government

Question 23

Structural- or Neoliberalism

Robert Keohane

Answer 23

• ‘’Economic version’’ of liberalism
• Absolute gains rather than relative gains
• Reducing transaction costs: international cooperation
• Structure remains anarchical, but states (and other actors) work together to reduce the dangers of anarchy

Question 24

Constructivism

Martha Finnemore

Answer 24

• Importance of intersubjective ideational structures (norms).
• Mutual constitution of agents and structures (the system influences how actors behave, but actors also have influence of what the international space looks like and create new norms/change norms)
• So we have (some) freedom to act, and even change the structures that currently exist
• Influence of identity on state’s interest
• Anarchy does not force states intro a particular course of action

Question 25

‘’Logic of Consequences’’

Answer 25

Interest (survival) dictates behaviour

(Realism and liberalism)

Question 26

‘’Logic of Appropriateness’’

Answer 26

Identify forms interest, which shapes behaviour

(Constructivism)