week one and two

Question 1

Realism

Answer 1

• Self-interested states competing for power or security in an anarchical international system.
• Survival and maximizing relative power over other states.

Question 2

Liberalism

Answer 2

• power should be measured or amassed instead through state economies, political freedoms and rights along with the possibilities of peace and cooperation
• international cooperation is possible

Question 3

Constructivism

Answer 3

elite beliefs, social identities, and interactions that shape interests and preferences.

Question 4

(Mearsheimer) why is cooperation so hard to achieve in the international system?

Answer 4

• concerns over relative gains
• cheating

Question 5

(Mearsheimer) How do international institutions prevent cheating ?

Answer 5

• Intl institutions can increase the number of transaction between particular states over time.
• Intl instiutions can increase the amount of information available to participants in cooperative agreements

Question 6

what does intl institutions increasing the number of transactions do

Answer 6

• the prospect of future cooperation
• reciprocation
• reputation

Question 7

what does intl institutions increasing the amount of information available do

Answer 7

• it increases the likelihood that cheaters will be caught
• it provides victims with early warning of cheating, thereby enabling them to take
  protective measures before they are badly hurt

Question 8

why is there an issue of concerns over relative gains

Answer 8

• even if both states will benefit from cooperation, one state is likely to gain more
  from the cooperation than the other
• balance of power, in the long run, shifts due to accumulated relative gains
• therefore, even with ‘absolute gains,’ cooperation is hard to occur

Question 9

why is there an issue of cheating

Answer 9

• no state can be sure that other states will keep the promise
• this is due to anarchy (enforcement problem)

Question 10

what did keohane and martin counterargue?

Answer 10

institutions can mitigate the concerns over relative gains

Question 11

how can institutions mitigate the concerns over relative gains (keohane and martin)

Answer 11

• by providing information about distributional outcomes
• drawing reciprocity
• extending the time horizon of interactions among states

Question 12

Mearsheimer’s main argument in False Promise?

Answer 12

• that international institutions do little to promote peace and should have restructured or dissolved after the Cold War
• international institutions cannot mitigate concerns over relative gains but they can help with cheating.

Question 13

where are relative gains concern more likely?

Answer 13

where States A and B are equally powerful, any deal made could directly impact the relative power balance between the two states.

Question 14

what is a real-world example of concerns over relative gains

Answer 14

• the US-China conflicts over trade and tariff in which open and free trade brings absolute gains to both parties – if they made an agreement, who benefits more?

Question 15

what is special about intl cooperation

Answer 15

• Problem of cheating occurs due to lack of enforcements
• Concerns over relative gains is due to self-interested states wanting to maximize their relative power and protect their state for survival

Question 16

why are cheating and concerns over relative gains not an issue unique in the domestic system?

Answer 16

the government can enforce agreements due to the monopoly of coercive power.