Mason Teng

International Relations
Mr. Manning
9/29/15
Outline
Is There an Enduring Logic of Conflict in World Politics?
I.
TWO THEORETICAL TRADITIONS: REALISM AND LIBERALISM
A. Globalization and Technological development
1. Global Internet communications are nearly instantaneous
2. Nuclear weapons have added a new dimension to war
3. Not only governments but nonstate actors hold the technology that have
destructive powers
4. As the effects of distance shrink, any small country become highly
relevant to strong countries
B. Some things about international politics have remained the same over the ages
1. There are highly resemblances between the Peloponnesian War 2500
years ago and Arab-Israeli conflict after 1947
2. There is a certain logic of hostility, a dilemma about security that goes
with interstate politics
C. Governments have different challenges
1. Rather than vanishing, nationalism and the demand for separate states
have increased
2. Most wars today are civil or ethnic wars
II.
WHAT IS INTERNATIONAL POLITICS?
A. There are three basic forms of world politics
1. World imperial system
a) one government is dominant over most of the world with which it
has contact
b) The greatest example in Western world was the Roman Empire
c) Ancient world empiresthe Sumerian, the Persian, the Chinese
were actually regional empires (Lack of Communication with other
empires
2. Feudal system
a) Human loyalties and political obligations are not fixed primarily by
territorial boundaries
b) People follow their political obligations
3. Anarchic system of states
a) Composed of states that are relatively cohesive but with no higher
government above them
b) Example: City-states of ancient Greece or Machiavellis fifteenthcentury Italy
B. International politics is often called anarchic
1. It is in the absence of a common sovereign, politics among entities with
no ruler above them
2. Thomas Hobbes called such anarchic systems a state of nature
C. Difference between domestic and international politics
1. Domestic politics
a) The government has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force

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IV.

b) There is a widespread sense of community that gives rise to

common loyalties, standards of justice, and views of what is
legitimate authority
2. International politics
a) No one has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force
b) Divided peoples do not share the same loyalties
TWO VIEWS OF ANARCHIC POLITICS
A. Realism
1. The central problem of international politics is war and the use of force,
and the central actors are states
2. Seek to maximize the power and to minimize the ability of other states to
jeopardize its own security
3. Liberals predicted that nations could not afford future war in 1910, but the
predictions failed catastrophically in 1914
4. In 1990, realists claimed that the force and war are ever-present dangers
in Iraq
B. Liberalism
1. See a global society that functions alongside the states and sets part of
the context for states.
2. Emphasize the growth of economic interdependence and the evolution of
a transnational global society
3. States can aggressively increase their power peacefully by trade
4. Dramatic growth in ecological interdependence will so blur the differences
between domestic and international politics that humanity will evolve
toward a world without borders
C. Marxism
1. It was a credible alternative for many people, with its predictions of class
conflict and warfare caused by problems among capitalist states
2. Failure of Marxism left it lagging in the explanatory competition
D. Dependency theory
1. The wealthy countries in the center of global marketplace would control
and hold back poorer countries on the periphery
2. Illustrate some structural causes of economic inequality
3. Failed to explain why some poor countries actually grew faster than the
wealthy countries in 1980s and 1990s
E. Constructivists
1. Emphasize the importance of ideas and culture in shaping both the reality
and the discourse of international politics
2. Stress the ultimate subjectivity of interests and their links to changing
identities
3. Focused on identities, norms, culture, national interests, and international
governance
4. Feminist constructivists add that world politics have been heavily
influenced by gender
5. Though sometimes loosely formulated and lacking in predictive power, it
remind what the two main theories often miss
BUILDING BLOCKS

V.

A. Basic three concepts to theorizing about international politics, but each is

changing
1. Actors
a) States and nonstate actors
b) While nonstate actors lack military force, they are relevant to a
countrys economic goals
c) Nonstate actors include multinational companies,
intergovernmental organizations(IGOs), nongovernmental
organizations(NGOs), transnational ethnic groups, terrorist
groups, international religious movements
2. Goals
a) Traditionally the dominant goal of states in an anarchic system is
military security
b) Countries today often care more about their economic wealth,
social issues, or ecological changes
c) Agenda of international politics has become more complex as
states pursue a wider range of goals
3. Instruments
a) The British historian A. J. P. Taylor defined a great power as one
able to prevail in war
b) Many states find it more costly to use military force to achieve
their goals
c) It is difficult to rule an occupied country whose people feel strongly
about their national identity.
d) Internal constraints, such as growing ethic of antimilitarism, effect
leaders decisions
e) The use of economic interdependence, communication,
international institutions, and transnational actors sometimes plays
a larger role than force
B. The basic game of security goes on
1. The balance of power is usually determined by a leading, or hegemonic
state
2. Eventually the top country will be challenge, and this will lead to the kind
of vast conflagrations we call hegemonic, or world wars
3. After world wars, a new treaty sets the new framework of order
THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR
Cause and Theories
A. Thucydidess view
1. The war was inevitable because of the growth of Athenian power and the
fear this caused in Sparta
B. The Athenian leader, Pericless view
1. It is right and proper for you to support the imperial dignity of Athens.
Your empire is now like a tyranny: it may have been wrong to take it, but it
is certainly dangerous to let it go.
2. There was no choice for Athenians
C. Some other voice in Athens

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1. Think, too, of the great part that is played by the unpredictable in war:
think of it now before you are actually committed to war. The longer a war
lasts, the more things tend to depend on accidents,
2. There were some people against war
D. Anarchic organization
1. The absence of a higher government
2. Independent action taken by one state to increase its security may make
all states more insecure
3. Building defenses is a rational response to a perceived threat
E. Prisoners Dilemma
1. The best outcome for the individual is to cheat on the other and get to go
free
2. The second best outcome is both stay silent and spend a year in jail
3. A worse outcome is for both to squeal and spend 10 years behind bars
4. Worst of all is to be played for a sucker by staying quiet while the other
talks and spend 25 years in jail
5. If the two could talk to each other, they might agree to make a deal to stay
silent and both spend one year in jail
6. If communication were possible, trust and credibility is another problem
7. In international politics the absence of communication and trust
encourages states to provide for their own security
Inevitability and the Shadow of the Future
A. Cooperation is difficult to develop when playing the game only onece
B. Tit for tat is a good strategy only when there is a chance to continue the game for
a long period
C. Believing the war is inevitable, it is very close to the last move and harder to trust
the opponent
D. Both Athens and Sparta were slave states and both feared that going to war
might provide an opportunity for the slaves to revolt
E. The war was not caused by impersonal forces but by bad decisions in difficult
circumstances
F. Cooperation does occur in international affairs, even though the general structure
of anarchy tends to discourage it