INR2002 Exam 11. What are the three main traditional approaches to studying world politics? What do they focus on and what assumptions do they make about the world?1. Dominant Approaches to IR (Schools of Thought) 1. *Realism – conflict is likely; cooperation rare; preoccupation with security and power 2. *Liberalism – more optimistic view of international politics; power is not the only goal of states 3. *Constructivism – postmodern; “Anarchy is what states make of it”; Importance of identity and ideas and the ability for people 2. Social Science approach to IR 1. Science is the accumulation of knowledge. 2. Offer an explanation, try to prove it with test, if the test fails you revise the test. 3. Natural is different from science. 4. A *theory is a generalized thing. For example, we are not look for a theory to explain WW2 we are trying to explain war in general. 2. What are interests, interactions, and institutions and why do we care about them?1. Interactions can take various forms, but most can be grouped into two broad categories: cooperation and bargaining. 1. *Cooperation – an interaction in which 2+ actors adopt policies that make at least one actor better off relative to the status quo without making others worse off. 2. *Bargaining – an interaction in which actor must choose outcomes that make one better off at the expense of another. This involves allocation a fixed sum of values between different actors; redistributive. 2. In coordination situations, cooperation is self-sustaining because once coordination is achieved, no one can benefit by unilaterally defecting. 3. Institutions Affect Cooperation 4. International institutions facilitate cooperation by making self-enforcements easier y doing four things: 1. Setting Standard Behaviors – clear standards of behavior reduce ambiguity and enhance cooperation; determine whether or not actors are violation the agreement;2. Verifying Compliance – acquire information on compliance; In many international institutions, self-reporting is common practice: countries are required to submit reports documenting their compliance. 4. Institutions protect the ability of countries to verify compliance independent 1. Reducing the cost of joint decision making – institutions make it easier for actors to make decision collectively 2. If the absence of some agreed upon rule on collective decision making, the cost of any policy would be enormous. 3. Resolving Disputes – International institutions do not directly enforce cooperation, except in extremely rare cases when they are empowered to punish defectors directly. 5. *Actors comply with institutions for the two following reasons 1. First, since many problems in international relations combine both cooperation and bargaining, actors may agree to comply with rules for the cooperation they facilitate even though the outcome of those rules is biased against them. 2. Second, actors comply with institutions because they are already in place and cheaper to use, even if they are biased, than are the cost of creating a brand-new institutions that might more fully reflect their interests. 6. Interaction: Cooperation v Bargaining 1. What is Cooperation? When two or more actors can increase the amount of a good. A positive sum gain. Leads to bargaining as well. 2. What is bargaining? A zero sum gain. The part of land you get, is a part of land they lose. You are trying to divide the fixed amount; moving along the PF 3. Moving towards and along the Pareto Frontier – the line in which there is no way to be on it and be Pareto Efficient; inside the triangle is Pareto Efficient7. Pareto Efficient Outcome - at least one person benefits and no one else loses At most general level, analyst often group interest at the individual and collective levels into three categories: power or security, economic or material welfare, and ideological goals. 8. To say that states are sovereign means that they have ultimate authority over their own policies and political processes. 1. Actors – the basic unit for the analysis of international politics; can be individuals or groups of people with common interest 2. *State – a central authority with the ability to make and enforce laws, rules, and decisions within a specified territory. We are talking about countries. 3. *Sovereignty – the expectation that states have legal and political supremacy within their territorial boundaries. 4. *Anarchy - the absence of a central authority within the ability to make and enforce laws that bind all actors. 5. The availability of information affects the likelihood of cooperation 3. How has the structure of world politics changed over time? How did the level of cooperation and conflict change over time?1. World War 1 and its Effects 1. While the Europeans were engulfed in war the US became principal source of war loans to the Allies, so that between 1914-1919 America changed from being the world's biggest debtor to its biggest lender 2. In WW1 the was a changing *balance of power tied to rigid alliance system and national discontent, defensive war decided by late US entry, and Russian Revolution and the creation of the Soviet Union 2. Interwar Years 1. The idea was that if people broke up Austro-Hungarian Empire and Ottoman this would stop wars.2. *Treaty of Versailles (ended WW1 and reparation on Germany, 3. *League of Nation (the world would come together and solve their problem in a different way than violence; USA did not join this)4. *The Great Depression (helped lead to WW2; final end to economic openness created by Britain) and the turn from economic openness. WW25. Started when German invaded Poland1. German aggression (Hitler) and Japan's search for anarchy (complete economic sufficiency; you don't trade or invest from other countries) a little help for the Italians 6. Victorious alliance of US, UK, Soviet Union – beat the German and Japan7. US and Soviet emerge from war as clear superpower, old power system forever ended – Britain used up all its stuff to fight wars, they are now a Jr to the USA; the USA decided to aggressively defend itself as a world power along with the Soviet Union. The USA and SU do not like each other. They did not want to fight each other.3. *Cold War World divided between capitalist, democratic West (USA) and communist East (Soviet Union) 1. They were nuclear weapons – big difference2. Superpower crises and proxy wars – both
View Full Document
Unlocking...