International Relations Key terms War an event involving the organized use of military force by at least two parties that satisfies some minimum threshold of severity Interstate war a war in which the main participants are states Civil war a war in which the main participants are within the same state such as the government and a rebel group Crisis bargaining a bargaining interaction in which at least one actor threatens to use force in the event that is demands are not met Coercive diplomacy the use of threats to influence the outcome of a bargaining interaction Bargaining range the set of deals that both parties in a bargaining interaction prefer to the reversion outcome When the reversion outcome is war the bargaining range is the set of deals that both sides prefer to war Compellence an effort to change the status quo through the treat of force Deterrence an effort to preserve the status quo through the treat of force Incomplete information a situation in which parties in a strategic interaction lack information about other parties interest and or capabilities Resolve the willingness of an actor to endure costs in order to acquire some good Risk return trade off in crisis bargaining the trade off between trying to get a better deal and trying to avoid a war Credibility believability A credible threat is a threat that the recipient believes will be carried out A credible commitment is a commitment or promise that the recipient believes will be honored Brinksmanship a strategy in which adversaries take actions that increase the risk of accidental war with the hope that the other will blink or lose its nerve first and make concessions Audience costs negative repercussions for failing to follow through on a threat or honor a commitment Preventive war a war fought with the intention of preventing an adversary from becoming stronger in the future Preventive wars arise because states whose power is increasing cannot commit not to exploit that power in future bargaining interactions First strike advantage the situation that arises when military technology military strategies and or geography give a significant advantage to whichever state attacks first in a war Preemptive war a war fought with the anticipation that an attack by the other side is imminent Indivisible good a good that cannot be divided without diminishing its value Interests what actors want to achieve through political action their preferences over the outcomes that might result from their political choices Actors the basic unit for the analysis of international politics can be individuals or groups of people with common interests State a central authority with the ability to make and enforce laws rules and decisions within a specified territory Sovereignty the expectation that states have legal and political supremacy or ultimate authority within their territorial boundaries Anarchy the absence of a central authority with the ability to make and enforce laws that bind all actors National interests interests attributed to the state itself usually security and power Interactions the ways in which the choices of two or more actors combine to produce political outcomes Cooperation an interaction in which two or more actors adopt policies that make at least one actor better off relative Bargaining an interaction in which actors must choose outcomes that make one better off at the expense of another Bargaining is redistributive it involves allocating a fixed sum of value between different actors Coordination a type of cooperative interaction in which actors benefit from all making the same choices and subsequently have no incentive to not comply Collaboration types of cooperative interaction in which actors gain from working together but nonetheless have incentives to not comply with an agreement Public goods individually and socially desirable goods that are nonexcludable and nonrival in consumption such as national defense Collective action problems obstacles to cooperation that occur when actors have incentives to collaborate but each acts in anticipation that other will pay to costs of cooperation Free ride to fail to contribute to a public good while benefiting from the contributions for others Iteration repeated interactions with the same partners Linkage the linking of cooperation on one issue to interactions on a second issue Power the ability of Actor A to get Actor B to do something that B would otherwise not do the ability to get the other side to make concessions and to avoid having to make concessions oneself Coercion the threat or imposition of costs on other actors in order to change their behavior Means of international coercion include military force and economic sanctions Outside options the alternatives to bargaining with a specific actor Agenda setting power a first mover advantage that helps an actor to secure a more favorable bargain Institutions set of rules known and shared by the community that structure political interactions in specific way Mercantilism an economic doctrine based on a belief that military power and economic influence are complements applied especially to colonial empires in the sixteenth through the eighteenth century Mercantilist policies favored the mother country over its colonies and over its competitors Peace of Westphalia the settlement that ended the Thirty Years War in 1648 often said to have created the modern state system because it included a general recognition of the principles of sovereignty and nonintervention Sovereignty the expectation that states have legal and political supremacy or ultimate authority within their territorial boundaries Hegemony the predominance of one nation state over others Pax Britannica British Peace a century long period beginning with Napoleons defeat at Waterloo in 1815 and ending with the outbreak of World War 1 in 1914 during which Britain s economic and diplomatic influence contributed to economic openness and relative peace Gold standard the monetary system that prevailed between about 1870 and 1914 in which countries tied their currencies to gold at a legally fixed price Treaty of Versailles the peace treaty between the Allies and Germany that formally ended WW1 League of Nations a permanent collective international security organization formed in the aftermath of World War 1 The League was supplanted by the United Nations after WW2 and was dissolved in 1946 North Atlantic Treaty Organization a military alliance created in 1949
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