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Summary Full Course Study Guide
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Full course study guide for international relations at EUC. Everything you need to succeed.
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Lecture 1 – Negotiation- Cooperation – Negotiation – Fighting
o Interests common interests and individual interests (you have to negotiate to come to a
solution)
o Relationship
o Book: „Getting to yes“, Rob Fischer
Individual vs. group What is the most effective way to deal with a problem?
Speak with one voice (same understanding, same background, etc.)
- Conditions for successful negotiations
o Power balance not too difference
o Multiple parties
o Common interests
o Conflicting interests
o Continuity in the relationship
o Time pressure
o Mutual dependency
- Skills for successful negotiations
o Empathy
o Listening and summarizing
o Convincing power
o Confronting
o Cooperation
o Fighting
- How to know your best alternative to a negotiated agreement?
o Information (what has been decided before?)
o Alternatives?
o Knowledge of the markets/surrounding?
o Realistic?
o Common interest?
- How to be effective?
o Reliable information
o Written mandate (with alternatives etc.)
o Concession management?
o First bidding?
, o “theatre”
- Different strategies
o Two opposing strategies
Cooperation: negotiator helps everybody
Competition: negotiator secures a better share of this value for himself (value
distribution)
PBL 1 – Realism
Preparation
1. What is realism and how did realism evolve?
Beginnings of international relations:
- Early 20th century: new international dynamics
- Nationalism and the nation state era of free trade under UK dominance ended
- Foundation of academic study of IR What is going on and what can be done about it?
- First debate in the 1930 Realism vs. Idealism
o Should we understand the world of international politics in terms of utopia or in terms of
reality?
Attack on Wilsonian politics (idealistic create lasting global peace and spread
democracy)
Realism won
- Realism
o We should take the world as it really is
o Not a new way of thinking in IR
o School of political theory
o Central idea: violent conflicts are inevitable (cannot be escaped)
Thucydides (Greek historian: Athenian General, Historian, Political thinker; 460-
400BC) father of realism
Described the Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta
Concluded that in war, all what counts is power self-interest overcomes
moral principles
o Human beings are selfish and self-interested
o Melian dialogue: first great debate between political realism and
idealism
, Athenians were attacking the island of Melos which was
inhabited by the Melians the Melians were
outnumbered and not capable to defend themselves
Athenians made the Melians their slaves // this is against
the rights but Athenians had more power the strong
do what they can and the weak suffer what they must
Machiavelli
The Prince (1513)
In power, the only ethics is to stay in power
Self-help is preferable to alliances
“It is better to be feared than loved, if not both” leads to power
Power is essential to politics
Hobbes (Levethian, 1651)
State of nature = anarchy (no authority or institutional arrangement that
creates stability) international world actually is anarchic
Homo homini lupus (the man is a wolve to men)
“life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”
Only way out: bestowing authority and absolute sovereign
IR are characterized by violence
Von Clausewitz (Prussian General, 19th century)
“Of war” (1831) distinction between regular politics and welfare is non-
sense
War is the continuation of politics by other means politics is violent and
only technical transformation makes it into real welfare
- Classical Realism (1930s-1970s)
o E.H. Carr, Hans Morgenthau, George Kennan
Takes the perspective of the diplomat (decision-maker)
Seeks to articulate a science of IR
Morgenthau
o Politics among Nations (1948)
Politics is ruled by objective laws
Politics has roots in human nature
Politics interest is defined in terms of power ( politics is
always about power)
States should act rationally (weighing out benefits and
costs)
Ethics are important but state interests are more
important state’s interests > ethics
- Structural Realism
o Kenneth Waltz (“Theory of International Politics”, 1979)
o Looks from above (international structures) and tries to see how the international structure
governs the behavior of states
o States are governed by the structure of the international anarchy makes us seek relative
gains for survival
o Not only anarchy, but three possible structures:
Uni-polar: one state that is so incredibly powerful that no other states can actually
compete with it or significantly contest it (=hegemon)
Bi-polar: two states are balancing each other (e.g. cold war) and will be of relatively
equal size and they relate in a very competitive way
Multi-polar: multiple states that are roughly of equal size and that balance each
other out in very dynamic ways
o Different kinds of structures significantly affect the ways how states act behavior of states
changes with polarity of the international system
o John Mearsheimer
It is the structure of the international system that explains in large parts how states
behave
, Domestic state of a country doesn’t have an impact on the behavior of that country
in the international system
The fact that states live in anarchy + that states can never be certain about peace
states to try everything to be as powerful as possible (smallness and weakness =
vulnerability; greatness and strength = invulnerable)
Ideal situation for any state in the international system is to be as powerful as
possible best state to survive in an anarchy
Realism has two sets of theories
Human nature realist theory
o Hans Morgenthau was a supporter of this school of thought
o Human beings (= hard wired) are born with a type A personality:
they want to pursue power as an end in itself this causes
conflicts
Structural theory
o It is the structure of the international system that causes states to
be aggressive and to engage in security competition (anarchy)
states can never be certain that another state comes after them
The most important questions in international relations realism can answer to
most of them: provides simple explanations for certain important events
If China continues to rise economically, it will transfer its economic power into
military power and it will control Asia in a similar way as the US dominates the
western world for realist reasons, China will try to become a hegemon in Asia
the best way to survive in the international system is to be powerful
US will not tolerate that and will try to prevent China from rising (similar to
EU vs. Soviet Union conflict)
There is no way you can predict a future without a theory
- Neorealism
o Developed out of structural realism
o Looks less at survival and more towards relative power
o Less focused on polarity, more on role of great powers and how they interact (e.g. rise of
China does that lead to the loss of power for the US?)
o Mearsheimer “Tragedy of Great Power Politics” (2001)
o Offensive realism vs. defensive realism
Offensive realism: states always want to gather more power regardless of the
circumstances
Defensive realism: states will gather as much power as they need to feel safe, but
then they’ll stop
- Neo-classical Realism
o Combines insights from neo-realism and classical realism
o Maintains the idea of anarchy and competition
o More emphasis on leaders, perceptions, etc.
o What is the best policy for…? appropriate balancing vs. overbalancing (e.g. US vs. Iran)
Is realism realistic? maybe rather pessimistic?
Is the international system anarchic? no world government but does that mean
anarchic or are there institutions that mitigate this?
Do we agree with role of ethics in realism? Do states only weigh their own
interests?
Is realism common sense? realist theories? Are we really in the competition of
power and survival?
The Security Dilemma and Arms Races
- Security Dilemma = “A structural notion in which the self-help attempts of states to look after their
security needs tend, regardless of intention, to lead to rising insecurity for others as each interprets
its own measures as defensive and measures of others as potentially threatening.” (John Herz, 1951)
o Fundamental concept in the study of global politics
o Core of why arm races start
o Core assumptions:
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