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Summary International relations key terms - lecture 6-12
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International relations key terms - lecture 6-12
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Key terms for IR midtermRealism
Without the state, society will be in a state of anarchy. A state must always act in its own best
interest. In the realist world, you have to build up power in order to best be able to protect yourself
against others. Survival is best ensured by acquiring more material power. Stability in this anarchical
system is achieved through a balance of power. This is difficult to maintain due to the security
dilemma though.
Offensive realism = Power maximizers. You have to expand to be safe. The world in absolute terms.
Defensive realism = security maximizers. Build up your defense – if another state becomes more
powerful, that’s fine, but you have to be able to protect yourself against them.
Liberalism
The more cooperation, the less conflict you will have – i.e. mutual benefits for all <3 Urges
international trade and everything that has to do with international cooperation. unlike
realists, liberals believe that the external behaviour of a state is crucially influenced by its
political and constitutional make-up. HOWEVER, places democracy as central concept, as
they think democracies do not go to war against each other. Keohane felt that the liberal
world order that has been constructed will prevail, regardless of who the hegemon is. Three
types of liberalism:
1. Interdependence/commercial liberalism
i. A form of liberalism that emphasizes the economic and international benefits
of free trade, leading to mutual benefit and general prosperity as well as
peace amongst states.
2. Institutional/regulatory liberalism
i. An approach to study that emphasizes the role of institutions (both formal
and informal) in the realization of liberal principles and goals
ii. Facilitate information exchange
iii. Formalize agreements
iv. Enhance cooperation
3. Republican liberalism
i. Centered on states as democracies
i. Democracies do not go to war with each other. This is because the
citizens will be against the war, democracies tend to share values, you
tend to opt for negotiation rather than war, and wars occur due to
self-interested militaristic and undemocratic governments
Constructivism
Looks at own identity, as well as relationship with others. Who am I, and who is the other?
Historical, cultural and social context. Collective understanding of how to understand past,
situate the present, and act towards the future. Part of critical theory.
Critical theory
, Social construction of actors. Underlying processes of current world. Challenging power.
Transforming and emancipating. Anything critical of the status quo.
Critical theorists reject both realist state-centrism and liberal assertions about the retreat of
the state, but they do so in different ways. Neo-Marxists and post-Marxist theorists may
have abandoned the orthodox Marxist belief that the (capitalist) state is merely a reflection
of the class system, but they continue to argue that state structures and, for that matter,
world orders are grounded in social relations. The mutual dependence between markets and
states has in fact intensified as a result of globalization, leading to what Cox (1993) called the
‘internationalization of the state’. Social constructivists deny that the state has a fixed and
objective character; rather, the identity of the state is shaped by a variety of historical and
sociological factors, and these, in turn, inform the interests of the state and its actions.
Wendt (1999), for example, distinguished between the social identity of the state (shaped by
the status, role or personality that international society ascribes to a state) and its corporate
identity (shaped by internal material, ideological and cultural factors). Feminist theorists
have been ambivalent about the state. While liberal feminists have believed that it is
possible to reform the state from within, by increasing female representation at all levels,
radical feminists have highlighted structural links between the state and the system of male
power, believing that the state has an intrinsically patriarchal character.
State-centrism
An approach to political analysis that takes the state to be the key actor in the domestic realm and on
the world stage.
Mixed actor model
The theory that, while not ignoring the role of states and national governments, international politics
is shaped by a much broader range of interests and groups, such as NGOs, TNCs, Al-Qaeda,
Greenpeace, Google, GM, Coca-Cola, fuckin Pope Francis, etc.
Containment
Basically just stopping the enhancement of potential enemies. CONTAINING A
DEVELOPMENT IN ARMS????
Prisoner’s dilemma
Two people committed a crime. Each person is interrogated separately – do you trust your
sidekick to keep his mouth shut and not just blame it all on you in order to go free? What
will you do? From a realist pov, you’ll think that he will act in favour of himself. From a
constructivist pov, you’ll take your relation and former experience with your sidekick into
account when making your decision.
Deterrence
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