IR theories 16 11 2011 03 03 00 Pearl Harbor 9 11 Surprise attack On American soil US unprepared Significant loss in life Pearl harbor not 9 11 Pearl harbor o Nation state behind attack o Military target o Multipolar world o News spread by radio o Joined allies in war 9 11 o terrorist cell behind attack non state actor o civilian and military targets o unipolar world o turned down allied offers to help in war o news spread by television power of images o surprise only actors were able to bring down twin towers realists cared about who caused it Components of a theory Actors individuals people and states and or institutions Incentives money Power prestige Actions what can actors do to get what they want Constraints international system norms simply saying its not OK is that enough resources not attacking because we simple don t have the resources other actors Outcomes foreign policies wars sanctions strategies What makes theory good o Coherence can you explain it to others o Generalizability o Plausibility do assumptions accord with reality o Testability confirm or disprove this o Accuracy does it actually explain what s going on Realism Exist in a an unchanging world of anarchy States only actors not UN or WTO Interested only in survival security and sovereignty All actions aimed at securing the above in an anarchic world Most important level international domestic politics of a country don t really matter only what they can project into an international agenda Outcome strong military low tolerance for external influence into your own affairs willingness to use force defensive trade policy Pessimistic view of human nature Balance of power a world power emerges other countries ally against it to bring it down and this continues over and over Classical realists Hobbes Liberalism Even in a world of anarchy there can be change and cooperation value cooperation see you can achieve more in cooperation than on your own Primary actors are states but there are other actors as well Interested in own health and welfare can achieve many ways Interested in institutions treaties and orgs Don t just use military force to achieve goals Outcome WTO and other international orgs Believe they can enforce international norms and delete anarchy Interest in others domestic policies Liberalists o John locke Jeremy bentham sociological liberalism Richard Cobden o Interdependence liberalism Stanly Hoffman Joseph Nye Andrew moravcsik o Republican liberalism Kant Larry Diamond on the democratic peace Democracies don t fight each other Can every country become a democracy Answer there is no model of governance with any broad normative appeal or legitimacy in the world other than democracy Diamond defines democracy as a system of government in which the people choose their leaders at regular intervals through free fair and competitive elections By this definition mid 1970s Greece and spain and 9 latin American countries 1987 phillipines 1987 martial law lifted in Taiwan 1989 eastern Europe Chile 1991 Pakistan Nepal Bangladesh Summary all states can become democratic because most states already are 1974 there were 41 151 states democracies Today 2 5ths of the worlds states are democracies Adam przeworski o From 1950 to 1990 no country with per capita income higher than 6055 in 1985 PPP dollars suffered a breakdown of democracy Constructivism Constructs that matter are the ones that we think matter ie no objective significant other than that which we assign Actors constantly changing Constraints Norms that govern society radically new concept Actions words matter as much as force Influence IR with concepts and ideas not just wealth and force Alternative approaches Focus on public opinion o Interest groups A group of individuals or orgs that share common objective and take actions to influence the policy process to favor that outcome Examples trade based defense related ethnic groups Domestic institutions Johnson announced on news BEFORE hand about attack on Vietnam so the unit was captured International political economy o Main strands mercantilism notion that econ are subordinate to politics liberalism and Marxism challenges to mercantilism Adam smith liberalism Marxism most important factor is the con class struggle which is constant in all nations international theory Keynesianism Keynes updated econ liberalism International society o Reject notion that IR theory is a science o Disagree with realists that there is a structure of IR that operates with law like regularity o Rather base your understanding on philosophy history law o Hedley bull martin Wight Henry Kissinger 16 11 2011 03 03 00 16 11 2011 03 03 00