POS 455-001, International Relations- Dr. Scott Turner

Developed Countries

A category used by the World Bank to identify Global North countries with an annual GNI per capita of $12,196 or more.

Developing Countries

A category used by the World Bank to identify low-income Global South countries, with an annual GNI per capita below $995, but less than $12,196

Nation

A collection of people who on the basis of ethnic, linguistic, or cultural affinity perceive themselves to be members of the same group.

Nuclear Winter

1980s scientist Carl Sagan popularized the thesis of 'Nuclear Winter.' Not just the explosion or radiation, it will throw up so much debris to block the sunlight long enough to kill all life on earth.

State-centric system (Strains from above) International Organizations

20th and 21st centuries has been a period where countries, sovereign states, have entered into international organizations for a purpose: Most common: United Nations-promote peace, European Union-single economy for Europe, NATO-guarantee defense, African Union. There are hundreds of organizations countries enter into voluntarily that aim to do various things because countries believe they will get more out of cooperation than competition. They have built institutional structures in which national governments participate.

Third World

A Cold War term used to describe the less-developed countries of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America.

Second Strike Capability

A States capacity to retaliate after absorbing an adversary's first-strike attack with weapons of mass destruction.

Global North

A Term used to refer to the worlds wealthy, industrialized countries located primarily in the Northern Hemisphere.

Hegemonic Stability Theory

A body of theory that maintains that the establishment of hegemony for global dominance by a single great power is a necessary condition for global order in commercial transactions and international military security.

World-system theory

A body of theory that treats the capitalistic world economy originating in the sixteenth century as an interconnected unit of analysis encompassing the entire globe, with an international division of labor and multiple political centers and cultures whose rules constrain and share the behavior of all transnational actors.

Classical Liberal Economic Theory

A body of thought based on Adam Smith's ideas about the forces of supply and demand in the marketplace, emphasizing the social and economic benefits when individuals pursue their own self-interest.

Crimes Against Humanity

A category of activities, made illegal at the Nuremburg war crime trials, condemning States that abuse human rights.

Nation-state

A collectivity whose people see themselves as members of the same group because they share the same ethnicity, culture, or language without independence or legal ability to exercise exclusive control over its population or territory.

Military Industrial Complex

A combination of defense establishments, contractors who supply arms for them, and government agencies that benefit from high military spending, which act as a lobbing coalition to pressure governments to appropriate large expenditures for military preparedness.

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

A condition of mutual deterrence in which both side possess the ability to survive a first-strike with weapons of mass destruction and launch a devastating retaliatory attack.

Arbitration

A conflict resolution procedure in which a third party makes a binding decision between disputants through a temporary ruling board created for that ruling.

Mediation

A conflict resolution procedure in which a third party proposes a nonbinding solution to the disputants.

Adjudication

A conflict-resolution procedure in which a third party makes a binding decision about a dispute in an institutional tribunal.

National Security

A countries psychological freedom from fears that the state will be unable to resist threats to its survival and national values emanating from abroad or at home.

International Criminal Courts

A court established by the United Nations for indicting and administering justice to people committing war crimes.

International Criminal Court (ICC)

A court established by the United nations in 2002 for indicting and administering justice to people committing war crimes.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

A cross border investment through which a person or corporation based in one country purchases or constructs an asset such as a factory or bank in another country so that a long term relationship and control of an enterprise by nonresidents results.

Fascism

A far right ideology that promotes extreme nationalism and the establishment of an authoritarian society built around a single party with dictatorial leadership.

Political Economy

A field of study that focuses on the intersection of politics and economics in international relations.

Nonalignment

A foreign policy posture that rejects participating in military alliances with rival blocks for fear that formal alignment will entangle the State in an unnecessary involvement in war.

Liberal Democracy

A form of government in which representative democracy operates under the principles of liberalism, i.e. protecting the rights of the individual, which are generally enshrined in law. It is characterized by fair, free, and competitive elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into different branches of government, the rule of law in everyday life as part of an open society, and the equal protection of human rights, civil rights, civil liberties, and political freedoms for all persons. To define the system in practice, liberal democracies often draw upon a constitution, either formally written or uncodified, to delineate the powers of government and enshrine the social contract. After a period of sustained expansion throughout the 20th century, liberal democracy became the predominant political system in the world.

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)

A forum for 21 Pacific Rim member economies that seeks to promote free trade and economic cooperation throughout the Asia-Pacific region. It was established in 1989 in response to the growing interdependence of Asia-Pacific economies and the advent of regional trade blocs in other parts of the world; to fears that highly industrialized Japan would come to dominate economic activity in the Asia-Pacific region; and to establish new markets for agricultural products and raw materials beyond Europe (where demand had been declining).

Nonintervention Norm

A fundamental international legal principle, now being challenged, that that has traditionally defined interference by one state in the domestic affairs of another is illegal.

World Federalism

A global citizen's movement with member and associate organizations around the world. The WFM International Secretariat is based in New York City across from the United Nations headquarters. The organization was created in 1947 by those concerned that the structure of the new United Nations was too similar to the League of Nations which had failed to prevent World War II, both being loosely structured associations of sovereign nation-states, with few autonomous powers. Supporters continue to advocate the establishment of a global federalist system of strengthened and accountable global institutions with plenary constitutional power and a division of international authority among separate global agencies. The Movement has had Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 1970 and is affiliated with the UN Department of Public Information (DPI) and a current board member of the Conference of NGOs (CONGO). It currently counts 30,000 to 50,000 supporters.

Empire

A group of nations or peoples ruled over by an emperor, empress, or other powerful sovereign or government: usually a territory of greater extent than a kingdom, as the former British Empire, French Empire, Russian Empire, Byzantine Empire, or Roman Empire.

Neorealism

A theoretical account of a States behavior that explains it as determined by differences in their relative power within their global hierarchy, defined primarily by the distribution of military power, instead of by other factors such as their values, type of government, or domestic circumstances.

Dependency theory

A theory hypothesizing that less developed countries are exploited because global capitalism makes them dependent on the rich countries that create exploitative rules for trade and production.

BRIC Countries

A grouping acronym that refers to the countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China, which are all deemed to be at a similar stage of newly advanced economic development. It is typically rendered as "the BRICs" or "the BRIC countries" or "the BRIC economies" or alternatively as the "Big Four". A related acronym is BRICS which includes South Africa. The acronym was coined in 2001 by Jim O'Neill from investment bank Goldman Sachs in a paper entitled "Building Better Global Economic BRICs. The acronym has come into widespread use as a symbol of the apparent shift in global economic power away from the developed G7 economies towards the developing world.

Export-Led Industrialization

A growth strategy that concentrates on developing domestic export industries capable of competing in overseas markets.

Human Security

A measure popular in liberal theory of the degree to which the welfare of individuals is protected and promoted, in contrast to Realist theory's emphasis on putting the states interests in military and national security ahead of all other goals.

Irredentism

A member of a party in any country advocating the acquisition of some region included in another country by reason of cultural, historical, ethnic, racial, or other ties of the population/territory.

Domino Theory

A metaphor popular during the Cold War that predicted that if one State fell to communism, its neighbors would also fall in a chain reaction, like a row of dominoes.

Compellence

A method of coercive diplomacy usually involving an act of war or threat to force an adversary to make concessions against its will.

North American Treaty Organization (NATO)

A military alliance created in 1949 to deter a Soviet attack on Western Europe that since has expanded and redefined its mission to emphasize not only the maintenance of peace but also the promotion of democracy.

Kellogg-Briand Pact

A multinational treaty negotiated in 1928 that outlawed war as a method of settling interstate conflicts.

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

A permanent, international organization headquartered in Vienna, Austria, was established in Baghdad, Iraq on 10-14 September 1960. Its mandate is to "coordinate and unify the petroleum policies" of its members and to "ensure the stabilization of oil markets in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers, and a fair return on capital for those investing in the petroleum industry." In 2014 comprised twelve members: Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

Ballistic Missile Defense

A planned antiballistic missile system using space-based lasers that would destroy enemy nuclear missiles before they could enter Earth's atmosphere.

Isolationism

A policy of withdrawing from active participation with other actors in world affairs and instead concentrating State efforts on managing internal/domestic affairs.

Neoconservative

A political movement in the United States calling for the use of military and economic power in foreign policy to bring freedom and democracy to other countries.

Preemptive Warfare

A quick first-strike attack that seeks to defeat and adversary before it can organize and initial attack or a retaliatory response.

Survival of the Fittest

A realist concept derived from Charles Darwin's theory of evolution advising that ruthless competition is ethically acceptable to survive, even if the actions violate moral commands not to kill.

Sphere of Influence

A region of the globe dominated by a great power.

European Union (EU)

A regional organization created by the merger of the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Atomic Energy Community, and the European Economic Community (called the European Community until 1993) that has since expanded geographically and in its authority (single currency).

Collective security

A security agreed to by the great powers that sets rules for keeping peace, guided by the principle that an act of aggression by any state will be met by a collective response from the rest.

Ideology

A set core of philosophical principles that leaders and citizens collectively construct about politics, the interests of political actors, and the ways people ought to behave.

Containment

A strategy of confronting attempts of a power rival to expand its sphere of influence, with either force or the threat of force, thereby preventing it from altering the balance of power.

Coup d'état

A sudden, forcible takeover of government by a small group within that country, typically carried out by violent or illegal means with the goal of installing their own leadership in power.

Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicles (MIRVs)

A technology innovation permitting many weapons to be delivered from a single missile.

Asian Tigers

A term used in reference to the highly free and developed economies of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. These nations and areas were notable for maintaining exceptionally high growth rates (in excess of 7 percent a year) and rapid industrialization between the early 1960s and 1990s. By the 21st century, all four had developed into advanced and high-income economies, specializing in areas of competitive advantage.

Global South

A tern now often used to refer to the "Third World" to designate the less developed countries in the Southern Hemisphere.

Theory

A tested hypothesis that is supported by investigation and study of correlating data. A theory to be good must be supported by extensive testing.

Structural Adjustment Loans (SALs)

A type of loan to developing countries. It is the mechanism by which international financial institutions, such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, impose structural adjustment. (often controversial)

Social constructivism

A variant of constructivism that emphasizes the role of social discourse in the development of ideas and identities.

Modernization

A view of development popular in the Global North's liberal democracies that wealth is created through efficient production, free enterprise, and free trade, and that countries relative wealth depends upon technological innovation and education more than on natural endowments such as climate and resources.

War Crimes

Acts performed during war that the international community defines as crimes against humanity, including atrocities committed against an enemy's prisoners of war, civilians, or the States own minority population.

Disarmament

Agreements to reduce or destroy weapons or other means of attack.

Low politics

All other political issues/affairs other than military affairs. (environmental, societal, etc.) These are considered of little importance by Realism theorists.

Immanuel Wallerstein

American sociologist, historical social scientist, and world-systems analyst, arguably best known for his development of the general approach in sociology which led to the emergence of his World-System Theory.

Democratic Peace Theory Characteristics

Among proponents of the democratic peace theory, several factors are held as motivating peace between liberal states: Democratic leaders are forced to accept culpability for war losses to a voting public, Publicly accountable statesmen are more inclined to establish diplomatic institutions for resolving international tensions, Democracies are less inclined to view countries with adjacent policy and governing doctrine as hostile, Democracies tend to possess greater public wealth than other states, and therefore eschew war to preserve infrastructure and resources.

Unilateralism

An approach to foreign policy that relies on independent, self-help strategies in foreign policy.

Idealism

An approach to philosophy that regards mind, spirit, or ideas as the most fundamental kinds of reality, or at least as governing our experience of the ordinary objects in the world.

Zero-sum

An exchange in a purely conflictual relationship in which what is gained by one competitor is lost by another.

Horizontal Proliferation

An increase in the number of States that possess nuclear weapons.

State

An independent or legal entity with a government exercising exclusive control over the permanent population, a well-defined territory it governs, and a government capable of exercising sovereignty.

Sovereign Immunity

An individual could not be held accountable for government decisions. This was a traditional understanding.

Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT)

An international agreement that seeks to prevent horizontal proliferation by prohibiting further nuclear weapons sales, acquisitions, or production.

Foreign Debt

An outstanding loan that one country owes to another country or institutions within that country. Foreign debt also includes due payments to international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Asymmetric Warfare

Armed conflicts between belligerents of vastly unequal military strength, in which the weaker is often a non-state actor that relies on unconventional tactics.

Information Warfare/ Cyber Warfare

Attacks on an adversary's telecommunications and computer networks to degrade the technology systems vital to its defense and economic well-being.

Realism

Awareness or acceptance of the facts and necessities of life; a practical rather than a moral or dogmatic view of things.

United Nations

Born from the idea that the use of collective security from the UN members will collectively intercede to end aggression between global States. Created after League of Nations.

Multinational Corporations (MNCs)

Business enterprises headquartered in one State that invest and operate extensively in many other States.

Alliance

Coalitions that form when two or more States combine their military capabilities and promise to coordinate their policies to increase mutual security.

Washington Consensus

Coined in 1989 by English economist John Williamson to refer to a set of 10 relatively specific economic policy prescriptions that he considered constituted the "standard" reform package promoted for crisis-wracked developing countries by Washington, D.C.-based institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and the US Treasury Department. The prescriptions encompassed policies in such areas as macroeconomic stabilization, economic opening with respect to both trade and investment, and the expansion of market forces within the domestic economy. Washington Consensus has come to be used fairly widely in a second, broader sense, to refer to a more general orientation towards a strongly market-based approach (sometimes described as market fundamentalism or neoliberalism).

Collective Defense

Collective defense is an arrangement, usually formalized by a treaty and an organization, among participant states that commit support in defense of a member state if it is attacked by another state outside the organization. NATO is the best known collective defense organization; its famous Article 5 calls on (but does not fully commit) member states to assist another member under attack. By combining and pooling resources, it can reduce any single state's cost of providing fully for its security. Member states can become embroiled in costly wars benefiting neither the direct victim nor the aggressor. In the World War I, countries in the collective defense arrangement known as the Triple Entente (France, Britain, Russia) were pulled into war quickly when Russia started full mobilization against Austria-Hungary, whose ally Germany subsequently declared war on Russia.

Policy Conditions of Structural Adjustment Loans

Combination or all of the following: Fiscal policy discipline, Redirection of public spending from subsidies ("especially indiscriminate subsidies") toward broad-based provision of key pro-growth, pro-poor services like primary education, primary health care and infrastructure investment, Tax reforms which broaden the tax base and lower marginal tax rates, while minimizing dead weight loss and market distortions, Interest rates that are market determined and positive (but moderate) in real terms, Competitive exchange rates; devaluation of currency to stimulate exports, Trade liberalization - liberalization of imports, with particular emphasis on elimination of quantitative restrictions (licensing, etc.); any trade protection to be provided by low and relatively uniform tariffs; the conversion of import quotas to import tariffs, Liberalization of inward foreign direct investment, Privatization of state enterprises, Deregulation - abolition of regulations that impede market entry or restrict competition, except for those justified on safety, environmental and consumer protection grounds, and prudent oversight of financial institutions, Legal security for property rights.

State-centric system: Strains from above Forms of global integration

Communication: our community of communication is the entire world, National borders are insignificant to the art of communication, Business transactions: Multi-national companies who trade and organize their operations internationally. Spread across multiple countries, Environment: Global scale: garbage, acidity in oceans, climate change, Terrorism: Not limited in any one place and one attack can simultaneously effect many countries, Great Recession of 2007 effected the economies of the US and other foreign powers (investors), World economies are so integrated that a decline anywhere effects multiple countries.

Multilateralism

Cooperative approaches to managing shared problems through collective and coordinated actions.

Multilateral Agreements

Cooperative compacts among many States to ensure that a concerted policy is implemented toward alleviating a common problem such as levels of future weapons capabilities.

Failed States

Countries whose governments have so mismanaged policy that their citizens, in rebellion, threaten revolution to divide the country into separate independent states.

Emerging Powers

Countries with rising political and economic capabilities and influence that seek a more assertive role in international affairs.

National self-determination

Determination by the people of a territorial unit of their own future political status.

Core- World System Theory

Dictates Core countries focus on higher skill, capital-intensive production.

Second World

During the Cold War, the group of countries, including the Soviet Union, its (then) Eastern European Allies, and China, that embraced communism and central planning to propel economic growth.

Foreign Aid

Economic assistance in the form of loans and grants provided by a donor country to a recipient country for a variety of purposes.

Millennium Development Goals (MGD)

Eight international development goals that were established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. All 189 United Nations member states at the time (there are 193 currently), and at least 23 international organizations, committed to help achieve the following Millennium Development Goals by 2015: To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, To achieve universal primary education, To promote gender equality and empower women, To reduce child mortality, To improve maternal health, To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, To ensure environmental sustainability, To develop a global partnership for development.

International regime

Embodies the norms, principles, rules, and institutions around which global expectations unite regarding a specific international problem.

Treaty of Westphalia (1648)

Ended 30 year war between Protestants and Catholics after the Protestant Reformation. This recognized the authority of a Monarch to decide what religion the population will follow. This centralizes State power (under the Monarch) and permitted wars over religion to end. This is the first step toward building a State Power this gives the Monarch the power over the population and the territory governed.

Arms Control

Multilateral or bilateral agreements to contain arms races by setting limits on the number and types of weapons States are permitted.

Bilateral Agreements

Exchanges between two States, such as arms control agreements, negotiated cooperatively to set ceilings on military force levels.

State-Sponsored Terrorism

Formal assistance, training, and arming of foreign terrorists by a state in order to achieve foreign policy and/or domestic goals.

League of Nations

Formed by President Woodrow Wilson after WWI. A liberalist theory advocating the creation of global institutions to contain the raw struggle for power between self-serving, mutually suspicious states. The founders declared that peace was indivisible: and attack on one member of the League would be considered an attack on all. The concept of collective security.

Laissez-Faire Economics

From a French phrase (meaning literally "let do") that Adam Smith and other commercial liberals in the eighteenth century used to describe the advantages of freewheeling capitalism without government interference in economic affairs.

Idealism Theory Assumptions

Human nature is altruistic or good. Historic progress is possible because human nature permits the ability to change. Bad institutions reward decisions and these bad institutions mold human nature to become what we are. War is a product of Bad institutional arrangements and reforming these arrangements will eliminate wars. War is not an innate position of human nature. War prevention requires international cooperation of many States to keep peace.

Realism Theory Assumptions

Human nature is self-interested and power hungry by nature. Human nature is static and doesn't change over time (no changing self-preservation). International system is Anarchical in that no overarching world government has the power to impose world order. States alone are the only significant actors in the international political system. A State is a unitary actor in politics and the population is not involved in international actions. The supreme goal of every State is to secure and promote self-preservation by maximizing power. Power is best achieved through military might. High politics are primary concern of the State and Low politics (environment, social, and infrastructure) must remain secondary. Allies may be necessary as an expedient resolution to issues but should not be trusted or considered permanent.

Bilateral

Interaction between two transnational actors, such as treaties, they have accepted to govern their future relationship.

Liberalism

Liberals view the individual as the seat of moral value and assert that human beings should be treated as ends rather than means. Politics at the global level becomes a struggle for consensus and mutual gain rather than a struggle for power and prestige. Correlates to Idealism but isn't the same.

Long Peace

Long lasting periods of peace between any of the militarily strongest great powers.

High Politics

Military affairs are the primary consideration and all others are secondary from a realist perspective.

State-centric system: Strains from below

Nationalism can also be a disintegrative force. Nationalism can put further strain on existing states: Example of the Kurds, Ukrainian crisis, Vote in Scotland, Quebec. Religious strain on the integration of a state: Once India gained independence Muslims and Hindus did not want to remain together and a violent separation happened creating India and Pakistan. This is a world of change, there is some continuity to the international system: anarchical (there is no world state, a system that is self-help) and hierarchical (some are more equal than others, some powerful countries and some weak).

Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)

New international treaty. Not just ban the use but also production and stock-pile of chemical weapons. Required all stock-piles to be dismantled. US had 9 from the Cold War; one in Anniston, AL. process was completed in 2011. 2013 Government of Syria used chemical weapons in civil war. Weapons were turned over and dismantled.

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Nuclear, Biological, or chemical weapons with the ability to kill numerous amounts of people. Unleashing biological agents and begin killing mass peoples = indiscriminant. Atomic Bomb; only US used nuclear weapons in combat, ending WWII. Bomb on Hiroshima: had the power of 15,000 tons of TNT, Within 20 years the Soviet Union had built a nuclear weapon with explosion force of 57 mega (million) tons of TNT in one warhead. Throughout Cold War period the US & Soviet Union engaged in nuclear arms race. Total production of ~128 thousand warheads.

Regional Trade Organizations

Organizations that use regional trade agreements (RTAs)/treaties that integrate the economies of members through the reduction of trade barriers.

Mercantilism

Political economic perspective that views international trade in zero-sum terms and calls active State intervention into domestic economies.

Long Cycle Theory

Power(s) replacing power(s) and the wars within the transition. You go through from unipolar to multipolar and it ends with a Hegemon coming to power and a new cycle emerges.

Smart Bombs

Precision guided military technology that enables a bomb to search for its target and detonate at the precise time it can do the most damage.

Deterrence

Preventive strategies designed to dissuade an adversary from doing what it would otherwise do.

Good Offices

Provision by a third party to offer a place for negotiation among disputants but the party does not serve as a mediator in the actual negotiations.

Economic Sanctions

Punitive economic actions, such as the cessation of trade or financial ties, by one global actor against another to retaliate for objectionable behavior.

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)/ Star Wars

Reagan on national television in 1980s and described the scenario where US developed technology of space based lasers to shoot down incoming nuclear missiles.

World-System Theory

Refers to the inter-regional and transnational division of labor, which divides the world into core countries, semi-periphery countries, and the periphery countries.

Covert Operations

Secret activities undertaken by a State outside its borders through clandestine means to achieve specific political or military goals with respect to another State.

Multipolar

Several great powers; Balancer: the first among equals, benefits the most, they need to keep things balanced, or managed to avoid great conflict and have a different system.

New International Economic Order (NIEO)

The 1974 policy resolution in the United nations that called for a North-South dialogue to open the way for the less developed countries of the Global South to participate more fully in the making of international economic policy.

Cold War

The 42 year (1949-1991) rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as their competing coalitions, which sought to contain each other's expansion and win worldwide predominance.

Max Weber

Sociologist, Definition of a State: Human Community with a monopoly on the legitimate use of force with in a given territory.

International Criminal Tribunals

Special tribunals established by the United Nations prosecute those responsible for war time atrocities and genocide, bring justice to victims, and deter such crimes in the future.

Liberalism concepts

Stress the values of individual human rights, national self-determination, democracy, free trade and free markets to keep peace. All these things promote a more conducive international order and promote peace.

Preventive Warfare

Strictly outlawed by international law, a war undertaken by choice against an enemy to prevent it from suspected intentions to attack sometime in the distant future-if and when the enemy might acquire the necessary military capabilities.

Private Charities

Subventions or subsidies are used by private charities to subsidize programs and projects that fit within the funding criteria of the grant-giving entity or donor. Grants can be unrestricted, to be used by the recipient in any fashion within the perimeter of the recipient organization's activities or they may be restricted to a specific purpose by the benefactor

Sovereignty

Supreme authority to govern inhabitants and be free from interference by other governments or States.

Counter-Value Targeting Strategy

Targeting hub centers (cities) that serve as the life-blood for the nation. This strategy was used during the Cold War to suggest never using the nuclear missiles due to retaliation.

Counter Force Targeting Strategy

Targeting other side's military centers or military assets only.

Massive Retaliation

The Eisenhower administration's policy doctrine for containing Soviet communism by pledging to respond to any act of aggression with the most destructive capabilities available, including nuclear war.

Communism

The Marxist ideology maintaining that if society is organized so that every person produces according to his or her ability and consumes according to his or her needs, a community without class distinctions will emerge, sovereign states will no longer be needed, and imperial wars of colonial conquest will vanish from history.

Communist Theory of Imperialism

The Marxist-Leninist economic interpretation of imperialist wars of conquest as driven by capitalism's need for foreign markets to generate capital.

Hegemon

The State power capable of dominating the conduct of international, political, and economic relations.

Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START)

The United States & Russian series of negotiations that began in 1993 STAT-III agreement ratified by Russia in 2000, pledged to cut the nuclear arsenals of both sides by 80% of the Cold War peaks, in order to lower the risk of nuclear war.

Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT)

The United States Russian agreement to reduce the number of strategic warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200 for each country by 2012.

Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties (START)

The United States and Russian series of negotiations that began in 1993 and, with the 1997 START-III agreement ratified by the Russia in 2000, pledged to cut the nuclear arsenals of both sides by 80% of the Cold War peaks, in order to lower the risk of nuclear war.

Peace Enforcement

The application of military forces to warring parties, or the threat of its use, normally pursuant to international authorization, to compel compliance with resolutions or with sanctions designed to maintain or restore peace and order.

Genocide

The attempt to eliminate in whole or in part, an ethnic, racial, religious, or national minority group.

Feminist theory

The body of scholarship that emphasizes gender in the study of politics. (Ex. Military penetrating enemy borders.)

Arms Race

The buildup of weapons and armed forces by two or more States that threaten each other, with the competition driven by the conviction that gaining a lead is necessary for security.

Soft Power

The capacity to co-opt/coerce through such intangible factors as the popularity of a State's values and institutions.

Hard Power

The capacity to coerce through military might.

Group of 77 (G-77)

The coalition of Third World countries that sponsored the 1963 Joint Declaration of Developing Countries calling for reform to allow greater equality in North-South trade.

Unipolar

The concentration of power in a single preponderant state. Ex. The United States is the only country with the military, economic, and cultural assets to be a decisive player in any part of the world it chooses. Theory of Neorealism (Structural Realism)

Coercive Diplomacy

The use of threats or limited armed force to persuade an adversary to alter its foreign and/or domestic policies.

Truman Doctrine

The declaration by President Harry S Truman that United States foreign policy would use intervention to support peoples who allied with the United States against communist external subjugation.

Digital Divide

The division between the internet technology-rich Global North and the Global South in the proportion of internet users and hosts.

Peacekeeping

The efforts by third parties such as the United Nations to intervene in civil wars and/or interstate wars or to prevent hostilities between potential belligerents from escalating, so that by acting as a buffer a negotiated settlement of the dispute can be reached.

Ecological Fallacy

The error of assuming that the attributes of an entire population- a culture, a country, or a civilization-are the same attributes and attitudes of each person within it.

Vertical Proliferation

The expansion of the capabilities of existing nuclear powers to inflict increasing destruction with their nuclear weapons.

Ethnic Cleansing

The extermination of an ethnic minority group by a State.

1839 Berlin Conference

The imperial project of conquering and establishing control over foreign powers continues into the 19th century in the scramble for Africa.

Semi Periphery

The industrializing, mostly capitalist countries which are positioned between the periphery and core countries. Semi-periphery countries have organizational characteristics of both core countries and periphery countries and are often geographically located between core and peripheral regions as well as between two or more competing core regions. Semi-periphery regions play a major role in mediating economic, political, and social activities that link core and peripheral areas.

Brinksmanship

The intentional, reckless taking of huge risks in the bargaining with an enemy, such as threatening a nuclear attack, to compel its submission.

Pacifism

The liberal idealist school of ethical thought that recognizes no conditions that justify the taking of another human's life, even when authorized by a head of State.

Private Military Services

The military outsourcing of activities of a military specific nature to private companies, such as armed security, equipment maintenance, IT services, logistics, and intelligence services.

Remittances

The money earned by immigrants working in rich countries (which almost always exceeds the income they could earn working in their home country) that they send to their families in their home country.

Just War Doctrine

The moral criteria identifying when a just war may be undertaken and how it should be fought once it begins. Philosophical influence. St. Thomas Aquinas "City of God" listed 10 principles. Exhaust all other means first, Have reasonable chance of success, Proclaims by a legitimate government, Justifies a wrong not for revenge, Negotiations for peace continues as long as fighting continues, Noncombatants must be immune from intentional attack, Only legal and moral means, Damage by war must be proportional to the damage suffered, The goal must be to reestablish morals and justice.

Newly Industrialized Countries

The most prosperous members of the Global South, which have become important exporters of manufactured goods as well as important markets for the major industrialized countries that export capital goods.

Indigenous Peoples

The native ethnic and cultural inhabitant populations within countries, referred to as the "Fourth World."

Structural realism

The neorealist theory that postulates that the structure of the global system determines the behavior of the transnational actors within it.

Neoliberalism

The new liberal theoretical perspective that accounts for the way international institutions promote global change, cooperation, peace, and prosperity through collective programs for reforms.

Debt Forgiveness

The partial or total forgiveness of debt, or the slowing or stopping of debt growth, owed by individuals, corporations, or nations. From antiquity through the 19th century, it refers to domestic debts, in particular agricultural debts and freeing of debt slaves. In the late 20th century, it came to refer primarily to Third World debt, which started exploding with the Latin American debt crisis (Mexico 1982, etc.).

Imperial Overstretch

The past tendency of past hegemons to sap their own strength through costly imperial pursuits and military spending that weaken their economies in relation to the economies of their rivals.

Imperialism

The policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire or nation over foreign countries, or of acquiring and holding colonies and dependencies.

Nationalism

The policy or doctrine of asserting the interests of one's own nation viewed as separate from the interests of other nations or the common interests of all nations.

Micro-Lending

The practice of giving very poor people very small loans to start very small businesses.

International Court of Justice (IJC)

The primary court established by the United Nations for resolving legal disputes between States providing advisory opinions to international agencies and the United Nations General Assembly.

Sovereign Equality

The principle that States are legally equal in protection under international law. It is not based on wealth or power.

Socialization

The process by which people learn to accept the beliefs, values, and behaviors that prevail in a given societies culture.

Decolonization

The process by which sovereign independence was achieved by countries that were once colonies of the great powers.

Development

The processes, economic or political, through which a country develops to increase its capacity to meet its citizens basic human needs and raise their standard of living.

Blowback

The propensity for actions undertaken for national security to have the unintended consequence of provoking retaliatory attacks by the target when relations later sour.

Firebreak

The psychological barrier between conventional wars and wars fought with nuclear weapons as well as weapons of mass destruction.

First World

The relatively wealthy industrialized countries that share a commitment to varying forms of democratic political institutions and developed market economies, including the United States, Japan, the European Union, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Colonialism

The rule of a region by an external sovereign power.

Duel Economies/Dualism

The separation of a country into two sectors, the first modern and prosperous and centered in major cities, and the second at the margin, neglected and poor.

Appeasement

The strategy of making concessions to another States in the hope that, satisfied, it will not make additional claims.

Security dilemma

The tendency of States to view the defensive arming of adversaries as threatening, causing them to arm in response, so that all States' security declines.

Realpolitik

The theoretical outlook prescribing that countries should increase their power and wealth in order to compete with and dominate other countries.

Balance of power

The theory that peace or stability are most likely to be maintained when military power is distributed to prevent a single superpower hegemon or bloc from controlling the world.

Conditionality

The use of conditions attached to the provision of benefits such as a loan, debt relief or bilateral aid. These conditions are typically imposed by international financial institutions or regional organizations and are intended to improve economic conditions within the recipient country.

Democratic Peace Theory

Theory which posits that democracies are hesitant to engage in armed conflict with other identified democracies. The theory states that although democratic States sometimes wage wars against nondemocratic States, they do not typically fight one another.

Periphery- World System Theory

These countries usually receive a disproportionately small share of global wealth. They have weak state institutions and are dependent on - according to some, exploited by - more developed countries. These countries are usually behind because of obstacles such as lack of technology, unstable government, and poor education and health systems. In some instances the exploitation of periphery countries' agriculture, cheap labor, and natural resources aid core countries in remaining dominant.

Neoliberal Institutionalism

Took off in the 1990s, Democratic Peace Theory, Democratic countries do not fight (warfare) each other. Over the course of time there has been an expansion of the number of democratic governments. Contrast to realism: realism does not matter what kind of government; every country is after the same thing: power.

Bipolar

Two great powers; this was seen in the Cold War era. Strategic competition between the US and Soviet Union. They never had a direct confrontation with one another. Less uncertainty: "if he gains an inch, I lose an inch." Athens v. Sparta in Peloponnesian War

Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT)

Two sets of the agreements reached in the 1970s between the United States and the Soviet Union that established limits on strategic nuclear delivery systems.

Balancer

Under a balance of power system, an influential global or regional great power that throws its support in decisive fashion to a defensive coalition.

Strategic Weapons

Weapons of mass destruction that are carried on intercontinental ballistic missiles or ICBMs

State-centric system

What we have today. The State requires a standing army, taxes are raised to empower and enforce the Monarchs will, the army will ensure the taxes are paid, government bureaucrats as tax collectors, and the created infrastructure supports the State power.