International Relations Notes

What is a State?
A state is an organized political unit that has:
A geographic territory
A stable population
And a government to which the populations owes allegiance
And that is legally recognized by the other states
Modern state system began with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648
State ≠ Nation

What is a theory?
Basic problem: what information matter?
A theory is: a simplifying device to help you decide which facts matter and which do not
Can be implicit or explicit
More formally, it is: a coherent set of propositions and concepts that seeks to explain phenomena by specifying the relation ships among the concepts
Purpose of theory is explanations and predictions
Good theory generates testable hypotheses

Major Theoretical Approaches to IR
Realism & Neorealism
Neoliberal Institutionalism
Constructivism
Domestic politics and Liberalism
Feminism

The Rise of Realism
Centuries of interest in world politics, but…
Modern academic field of IR founded in 11919 at the University of Wales
Idealism: early normative commitment to solving the worlds big problems
Realism: dedicated to observing the world as it is (not such a great place) rather than how it ought to be

Rival Theories/Paradigms
Realism: a paradigm based on the idea that world politics is essentially a struggle among self-interested states for power and position under anarchy, with each competing state pursuing its own national interests
Liberalism: a paradigm predicted on the hope that the application of reason and universal ethics to IR can lead to a more orderly, just, and cooperative world
Constructivism: a paradigm based on the premise that ides construct or shape how we view the world
Paradigm: a model or example; in IR, it is roughly synonymous with “perspective,” “approach” or “worldview”

Research Approached & Levels of Analysis
Historical Approach: draws on the historical record to describe & explain international relations
Social Scientific Approach: develops hypotheses, then test and confirms or revises them until they are accurate
e.g., “if X, then Y” (where X in the independent, or casual, variable, and Y is the dependent variable, or outcome

Levels of Analysis:

Sovereignty
The authority of the state, based on recognition by other states and by non state actors, to govern matter within its own borders that affect its people, economy, security, and form of government
Sovereign Equality: The idea that all countries have the same rights, including the right to noninterference in their internal affairs (i.e. the right to sovereignty)

Essentials of Realism
“The life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”
–Thomas Hobbes, The Leviathan (1651)

**Three Things that all Realist agree on**
Statism:
States are the primary actor & are sovereign
The international system in anarchic
Survival:
States’ preeminent goal is survival
Self-Help:
Because of the anarchic international system, states must rely only on themselves to provide for their own security
States seek to maximize their power
This leads to the “Security Dilemma”
Conflict and ware are always possible
The distribution of power among states determines state behavior and the likelihood of conflict

**Types of Realist Arguments**
Classical Realism
Inter-state conflict is rooted in human nature
Individual Level of Analysis
Examples: Thucydides, Machiavelli, Morgenthau
Neorealism (a.k.a. Structural Realism)
Inter-state conflict is rooted in the structure of the international system
International System Level of Analysis
Defensive Realism: states are security-maximizers, concerned about absolute power (Waltz)
Offensive Realism: states are power-maximizers, concerned about relative power (Mearsheimer)
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9/4/2013

Challenges for Realism
Defining Power
The ability to get another actor to do what it would not otherwise have done (influence)
Capabilities
Explaining Cooperation
States’ concerns about relative gains and cheating should make cooperation rare, but…
Predicting major events in International Relations
Accounting for the role of domestic politics and non-state actors
Explaining change in the international system

9/6/2013

Neoliberal Institutionalism
Central Tenets
1. States are the primary actors
2. They assume that the international system is anarchic
3. States must ensure their own security
4. Cooperation is possible, despite the condition of anarchy
5. Self-interest can motivate states to cooperate
6. Institutions can help to facilitate cooperation and mitigate conflict

Robert Keohane – After Hegemony (1904)
Looks at world-wide economic cooperation after WWII
Liberals would explain this in terms of international agreements but realists would explain the agreements in terms of US hegemony
As US economic dominance waned, Keohane asks, “can cooperation take place after hegemony, and if so, how?” (p. 293)
His answer: YES! – institutions can facilitate cooperation, even among self-interested state operating under conditions of anarchy
Institutions are “recognized patterns of practice around which expectations coverage” (p. 292)
Institutions:
The long-term, authoritative rules, norms, and procedures that structure the flow of power
Organizations or activities that define and shape rules, norms, and structures through which we operate.
Examples:
NATO
United Nations
World Trade Organization

Obstacles to Cooperation
1. Coordination problems
2. Fears of Cheating

The Prisoners dilemma is a classic illustration of why rational people (or states) don’t always cooperation – even when it is in their best interests to do so

3. Collective action problems 4. Relative gains concerns

Institutions Facilitate Cooperation By:
Reducing transaction costs
Ensuring repeated interactions among states (leads to reciprocity)
Linking issues
Providing information and reducing uncertainty

Challenges for Neoliberal Institutionalism
Explaining conflict
Addressing the prospects for cooperation in the security realm
Accounting for chance in the international system

The Realist-Neoliberal Debate
Main Points of Disagreement
Consequences of anarchy
The prevalence of cooperation in the international system
Degree of concern about relative gains
The role of institutional and the potential for institutions to shape state behavior

Evolution of Constructivists Thought
End of the Cold Was & rise of important non-state actors
Failure of realism & Liberalism to explain major changes in the international system
Constructivists seek to understand how global politics is “social constructed,” focusing on changing ideas & identities and how those shape states’ interests & behavior
Wendt: “Anarchy is what states make of it.”

Constructivism – Central Tenets
1. States are the primary actors, but other actors can still play an important role
2. The international system is socially-constructed
3. The international system is anarchic, but this does not necessarily lead to self-help system
4. Identities influence state behavior in the international system
5. Ideas and norms also influence state behavior in the international system

The Role of international Norms
Definition: A norm is a “standard of appropriate behavior for the actors with particular identity.”
Examples:
Respect for the state boundaries
Multilateral intervention
Prohibition on slavery

Challenges of Constructivism
Explaining initial changes in identities and ideas
Understanding how states behave when norms conflict with one another
Measuring identities and ideas

Review of Rival Theories/Paradigms
Realism: a paradigm based on the idea that world politics is essentially a struggle among self-interested states for power and position under anarchy, with each competing state pursuing its own national interests
Neoliberal Institutionalism: a paradigm based on the idea that states can achieve cooperation based on their own self-interest, especially with the help of norms, regimes, and institutions
Constructivism: a paradigm based on the premise that ideas construct or

Essentials of Liberalism
Belief in reason & the possibility of process
Unity of humankind
Value of individuals, freedom & human rights
Power of Ideas in promoting peace
Emphasis on Free Trade
Provides material incentives to avoid conflict
Business elites font want conflict
Web of trade relations breaks down barriers among states
Advocacy of Global Institutions
Common interests in avoiding conflict
Mediating disputes

Evolution of Liberalism
Enlightenment Thinkers’ influence on liberal thinking
Post-WWI rise of contemporary liberal theory
League of Nations (est. 1919)
Collective Security: A security regime guided by the principle that an act of aggression by any state will be met by a collective response from the rest
Post-WWII rise of mutualism, spread of international governmental organizations (IGOs), and liberal internationalism.

What’s Your Worldview?
Liberal internationalism is a perspective that seeks to transform international relations to emphasize peace, individual freedom and prosperity and to replicate domestic models of liberal democracy at the international level.

Domestic Politics Arguments (in general)
Interdependence
Identities
Institutions

What is the Democratic Peace?
The observations that, although democratic states sometimes wage wars against non-democratic states, they do not fight on another
Not actually a theory because it does no explain why we observe this phenomenon (more of a hypothesis or observed correlation

Explanations for the Democratic Peace
Cultural explanations
Institutional explanations
Slow decision making in democracies
Domestic public constraints in democracies

Feminist Theories – Central Tenets
Feminist Theory: a body of scholarship that emphasizes gender in the study of world politics
1. Gender matter in IR
2. Challenge traditional approaches to IR as gender-biased, incomplete
3. Take perspectives, values, and concerns of women explicitly into consideration

Different Feminist Perspectives in IR
Difference feminism – valorizes the feminine
Liberal feminism – vies men & women as equal
Postmodern feminism – rejects assumptions about gender

A Critique of Realism
Realist’s emphasis on autonomy rests on a hidden assumption of masculinity
War is a quintessentially male occupation
Peace is the dominance of women

Women in IR
Focus on integration women into the overwhelmingly male domain of IR
Examples of women in IR support the argument that they handle power just as men do
Women in the Military
Women as military target

Deconstructing Gender
Gender is socially-constructed
Reject archetypes of male “just warrior” and female “victim”
Deconstruct the language of war

What causes war?
Of war men ask the outcome, not the cause.” –Seneca

But… political scientists ask about the causes of war!
Conflict: discord, often arising in IR from perceived incompatibilities
Armed conflict: combat between the military forces of two or more states or groups
War: a condition arising within states (civil war) or between states (interstate war) when actors use violent means to destroy or coerce their opponents; often measured as at least 1,00 battle deaths in a calendar year

The Structure of the International System
Systemic (International) Level of Analysis
Position of States (Distribution of power)
Interaction of states (alliances)
Trends in major wars:
Observation that wars are cyclical
Observation that war is becoming obsolete

Polarity
The number of blocs of states that exert power in the international system
Focus on power distribution
Three types of system polarity:
Multipolarity
Bipolarity
Hegemony (unipolarity)
Power Transition Theory: war is likely when a dominant great power is threatened by the rapid growth of a rival’s capabilities, which reduces the difference in their relative power

Norms of a Balance-of0Power System
Attempts to assume dominance must be constrained
States want to increase their capabilities
Negotiating is better than fighting
Fighting is better than failing to increase capabilities
Other states are potential allies
States pursue their national interests (power)

Hegemonic Stability Theory
A body of theory that maintains that the establishment of hegemony by a single great power is a necessary conditions for global order in both commercial transactions and international military security

Interdependence as a Cause of War?

Neoliberal institutionalist:
Economic ------------- Peace
Interdependence

The Realist Challenge:
Economic ------------ Peace
Interdependences

Economic ------------- Conflict
Interdependence

Security Dilemma & War

Offense has the advantage
Defense has the advantage
Offensive and defensive weapons NOT distinguishable

Offensive and defensive weapons distinguishable

Conflicts of Interest
War is costly
States would rather get what they want without going to war
“In war, the aggresor is always peace loving; he would prefer to take over our country unopposed”

What states Fight Over
Territorial Disputes and the Risk of Interstate Conflict 1950-1990

War as an Instrument of Policy
“War is nothing but a continuation of political intercourse, with a mixture of other means” –Carl von Clusewitz

Coercion
The power to hurt (Schelling)
The threat or use of force to gain compliance
Direct use of force
When a state uses military means to achieve its objectives
Indirect use of force
When a state uses the threat of employing military means to achieve it objectives

The Direct Use of Force

The Indirect Use of Force

Bargaining Approaches to War
War as the outcome of a failed bargain

Three rationalist explanations for war (Fearon 1995)
1. Private information
2. Commitment problems
3. Indivisible issue

Other Domestic Political Factors
War as a result of nationalism
War as a result of regime type
Democratic Peace
Democratization & War (Mansfield)
War as a result of misperception
War as a result of domestic interest
War as a diversionary tactic
“Wag the Dog” (1997)

Background on WWI: Alliances

Immediate Causes:
The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand
1908: Austria-Hungary annexes Bosnia; Serbian nationalists oppose the annexation
June 28, 1914: Archduke Ferdinand and his wife are assassinated while visiting Sarejevo in Bosnia
Structural Causes:
Rise in German power
German industrialization
Lack of German Colonial Possessions

Arms Races and the rise in German Military Power
Tight alliance structure.
European Alliances Prior to WWI

Failure of interdependence
Domestic political Causes:
Nationalism
Cult of the offensive

Causes of World War II
1. Structural causes
A. A weakness of the League of Nations
B. Rise in German, Japanese, and Russia power
C. The failure of deterrence
2. Domestic political causes
1.A. German backlash in response to Versailles Treaty
1.B. Ideology – Nazism, Fascism, and militarism (and U.S. Isolationism
3. Individual-level causes
3.A. Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini, etc.

What is the Cold War?
The era of international relations between the end on WWII & 1990, characterized by ideological, economic, political & military rivalry between the USSR & the US
The “temperature” of the Cold War was a matter of perspective.
45 years of overall high-level tension & competition, but no direct conflict

Causes of the Cold War
1. Realism – changes in material capabilities & conflicting national interests
2. Constructivism – conflicting ideologies
3. Domestic Level – character of the state

Containment and the Consolidations of Alliances
NATO and Warsaw Pact Countries

The Korean War, 1950-1953

The Vietnam War, 1965-1976

CAUSES OF COLD WAR
*American fear of communist attack
* Truman’s dislike of Stalin
* USSR’s fear of the American's atomic bomb
* USSR’s dislike of capitalism
* USSR’s actions in the Soviet zone of Germany
* America’s refusal to share nuclear secrets
* USSR’s expansion west into Eastern Europe + broken election promises
* USSR’s fear of American attack
* USSR’s need for a secure western border
* USSR’s aim of spreading world communism
1.
Why did the Cold War end?
The Fall of the Berlin Wall, November 1989

Why did the Cold War end?
1. Realism – changes in material capabilities
2. Constructivism – changes in ideas at the international level
3. A combinations of constructivism and domestic politics changes among important leaders

The First Gulf War, 1991
Coalitional Members
(in order of troop contributions):
U.S.
Saudi Arabia
U.K.
Egypt
France
Syria
Morocco
Kuwait
Oman
Pakistan
And more than 20 other countries

Some Major Post-Cold War Conflicts
1990 Gulf War
1991 disintegration of Yugoslavia &
1999 NATO intervention
1992 U.S.-led intervention in Somalia
1994 genocide in Rwanda
Bout.. the post-Cold War era actually had been more peaceful than the Cold War era

Background on the 2003 Iraq War
September 11, 2001
Global “war on terrorism”
War in Afghanistan
Iraq’s alleged WMDs

Theoretical Explanations of the 2003 Iraq War
Realism: anarchy, security dilemma
But, disagreement over efficacy of deterrence
Constructivism: social construction of threat, importance of legitimacy
Democratic Peace: danger of Saddam’s authoritarian regime, democratic stability
Neoliberalism: Iraq disobeyed UN, so UN-sanctions collective action OK

Definitions: Types of War
I. Hegemonic War
II. Total War
III. Limited War
IV. Civil War
V. Guerilla War

Trends in International Conflict

Causes of Civil War
1. Motivation for Rebellion
a. Ancient hatreds between ethnic/national groups
b. Economic grievances
c. Political grievances
2. Opportunity for rebellion
a. State weakness
b. Natural resource exploitation
3. Combination of motive
Insecurity

State Weakness: Autonomy & Capacity
State Autonomy: the ability to wield power independent of interference or pressure from interests groups or other states and international actors
State capacity:

The U.S. Governments’ definition of Terrorism
Terrorism is “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents.”
Are Terrorists Rational?
Terrorists are commonly portrayed as irrational, but…
Rationally refer to purposive behavior, strategies to pursue interests (not content of preferences)
Individuals vs. group rationality
Randomness is part of the strategy

Strategic Rationales for Terrorism
Wear down the government (attrition)
Influences political agendas
Generate fear or intimidation
Inspire resistance
Provoke government repression
Outbid rival groups
Spoil peace process

Can Terrorism be Prevented?
Deterrence
Preemption
Defense
Criminalization
Negotiation and compromise

Comparative Advantage
Benefits of specialization (or division of labor)
Gains from trade
Comparative Advantages: The ability of a country to produce a particular good or service more efficiently than other goods or services, such that its resources are most efficiently employed in the activity.
Absolute

If free trade is best, why do countries adopt protectionist measures?
Protectionism: the use of specific measures to shield domestic producers from imports
Heckscher-Ohlin Trade Theory: predicts that countries will export products that use their abundant and cheap factor(s) of production and import products that use the countries scarce factor(s)
Which domestic groups will advocate for protectionism?
Stolper-Samuelson Theorem: protection benefits the scarce factor of production.

Types of Trade Barriers
Subsidies and countervailing duties
Tariffs
Quotas
Voluntary export restraints (VERs)
Dumping and anti-dumping duties
Health and safety regulations

Creation of the GATT and the WTO
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
An international institution created in 1947 in which member countries committed to reduce barriers to trade and to provide similar trading conditions to all other members
World Trade Organization (WTO)
An institution created in 1995 to succeed that GATT and to govern international trade relation; the WTO encourages and polices the multilateral reduction of barriers to trade and it oversees the resolution of trade disputes
Trade policy review mechanism (TPRM)
Dispute Settlement Body

Guiding Principles of the GATT & WTO
1. Economic Liberalization
2. Nondiscriminatory – key aspect is Most Favored Nation (MFN) status

How does the WTO facilitate trade?
Reduces transaction costs – a standing set of rule and a bureaucracy
Ensures repeated interactions among states – 8 rounds of trade negotiations completed; 9th round (Doha) is ongoing
Provides monitoring 0 trade policy review mechanism
Provides a formal mechanism for resolving disputes (DSB)

Potential negative consequences of globalization
a. Promise of increased economic growth and development has not materialized for most regions of the world
b. Rise in inequality?
c. Corporate exploitation of labor and the environment
d. Erosion of national values and standards
e. Race to the bottom
f. Inability of governments to provide social welfare services

How can we explain variation in economic growth and development across countries?
1. Investment in infrastructure.
2. Investment in human capital
3. Domestic Institutions: Property rights, rule of law
4. Domestic institutions
5. High levels of external debt

Questions about the Role of International Institutions
1. Lots of aid, any progress?