Podcast
Questions and Answers
What is a defining characteristic of a civil war?
What is a defining characteristic of a civil war?
Which factor is NOT a grievance that may lead to civil war?
Which factor is NOT a grievance that may lead to civil war?
What are the two main components that contribute to the occurrence of civil wars?
What are the two main components that contribute to the occurrence of civil wars?
Which of the following is a key aspect of classic peacekeeping?
Which of the following is a key aspect of classic peacekeeping?
Signup and view all the answers
What is a major challenge in reaching an agreement during peace negotiations?
What is a major challenge in reaching an agreement during peace negotiations?
Signup and view all the answers
How is terrorism defined, according to the provided content?
How is terrorism defined, according to the provided content?
Signup and view all the answers
Which scenario best illustrates a security threat based on the definition provided?
Which scenario best illustrates a security threat based on the definition provided?
Signup and view all the answers
Why is understanding terrorism relevant in an international relations context?
Why is understanding terrorism relevant in an international relations context?
Signup and view all the answers
What is a reason why good intentions in protection efforts often fail?
What is a reason why good intentions in protection efforts often fail?
Signup and view all the answers
Which of the following statements describes non-excludable goods?
Which of the following statements describes non-excludable goods?
Signup and view all the answers
Which type of investment is considered a less controversial area in international economics?
Which type of investment is considered a less controversial area in international economics?
Signup and view all the answers
What role do institutions play in international relations?
What role do institutions play in international relations?
Signup and view all the answers
What is the main focus of the International political economy?
What is the main focus of the International political economy?
Signup and view all the answers
When discussing exports, which of the following statements is correct?
When discussing exports, which of the following statements is correct?
Signup and view all the answers
What is a significant concern regarding sovereign lending?
What is a significant concern regarding sovereign lending?
Signup and view all the answers
Which of the following identifies a characteristic of collective security organizations?
Which of the following identifies a characteristic of collective security organizations?
Signup and view all the answers
What is one primary role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today?
What is one primary role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today?
Signup and view all the answers
What is a key condition of loans provided by the IMF?
What is a key condition of loans provided by the IMF?
Signup and view all the answers
Which of the following describes a floating exchange rate system?
Which of the following describes a floating exchange rate system?
Signup and view all the answers
In the context of recession, what is an appropriate action regarding interest rates?
In the context of recession, what is an appropriate action regarding interest rates?
Signup and view all the answers
What does the term 'political voice' refer to in the structure of the IMF?
What does the term 'political voice' refer to in the structure of the IMF?
Signup and view all the answers
What has changed over time regarding the understanding of threats to states?
What has changed over time regarding the understanding of threats to states?
Signup and view all the answers
How does Human Security differ from traditional security concepts?
How does Human Security differ from traditional security concepts?
Signup and view all the answers
What are International Norms defined as?
What are International Norms defined as?
Signup and view all the answers
Which of the following is not a type of international law?
Which of the following is not a type of international law?
Signup and view all the answers
What distinguishes soft law from hard law?
What distinguishes soft law from hard law?
Signup and view all the answers
What role do international treaties play in international law?
What role do international treaties play in international law?
Signup and view all the answers
What is the focus of Jus in Bello?
What is the focus of Jus in Bello?
Signup and view all the answers
What does the term 'obligation' refer to in the context of international law?
What does the term 'obligation' refer to in the context of international law?
Signup and view all the answers
Study Notes
Civil War
- An event involving the organized use of military force by at least two parties, reaching a minimum threshold of severity.
- Civil war occurs between a state and an organized rebel group fighting for political goals.
What Groups Want to Achieve
- Territory
- Governmental control
- Irredentism
Why Civil Wars Occur
- Opportunity + Willingness: The combination of favorable circumstances and the will to fight.
- Grievances: Discrimination, ideological differences, and environmental factors.
- Greed: Economic gain (individual and leader levels), and incentives for soldiers.
Looking at Individual Incentives for Civil War
- Supporting the group's goals: 70.4%
- Retaliation: 5.0%
- Better living conditions inside the group than outside: 2.3%
- Fear of consequences if they don't join: 51.2%
- Offered money to join: 0.4%
- Social pressure to join: 1.4%
- Protecting their community: 15.8%
- Kidnapped/abducted: 2.0%
- Total respondents: 557
State Weakness
- County-level factors: State capacity, geography, governmental structure and stability.
Rebel Group Strength
- Group-level factors: Committed recruits, organizational capacity.
- International factors: Financing.
Recap: Why Civil Wars Occur
- Opportunity + Willingness: State weakness + Rebel strength + Greed + Grievances
Week 9: Tools to Maintain Peace
- Actions short of force
- Peace enforcement (More recent from: Humanitarian intervention)
- Peacekeeping (More recent from: Peace building)
- Classic peacekeeping steps
- When will this work best?
- The peace process: Goal to achieve positive peace; hard to do; get to a yes
Difficulties in Finding Agreement
- Veto players, mistrust
To Decrease Mistrust, Bring In Institutions
- Short-term: Third-party guarantors
- Long-term: Power-sharing arrangements, address factors related to recurrence
Terrorism
- Why study terrorism in an IR class?: Most attacks are domestic, groups, targets, location; transnational
- Civil War & Terrorism: Connections between the two types of violence
What is Terrorism?
- The premeditated use of threatened use of violence against non-combat targets by individuals or non-state groups for political ends, through the intimidation of a larger audience.
Why Use Violence?
- Weak actors, military, politically
When Will Attacks Happen?
- Civil war
- Opportunity + Willingness + Motivations
- Permissive conditions, related to terrorism
Week 10: Human Security
- What is security?: Alleviation of threats to cherished values.
- Whose security?: The state above all else.
- What are cherished values?: Sovereignty.
- What is a security threat?: Anything that threatens states and their sovereignty; has changed over time.
- How to achieve security?: Traditionally the military; today, military plus a wide range of tools
- Threats & values: What counts as a cherished value depends on who you ask.
- What is Human Security?: Vast scope; virtually any kind of unexpected or irregular discomfort could constitute a threat to one's human security. Human security is a powerful alternative; remove focus on states; focus on individuals; consider their safety, health, environment, etc.
International Norms
- Why no nuclear weapons in Vietnam?: Levels of analysis: Domestic, interstate, transnational.
- System level norms.
- What are International norms?: Shared standards of behavior for actors with a given identity. Rights and obligations
- Types of norms: Constitutive (Example: IS is a state?), Procedural (Example: Who makes the rules?), Regulative (Example: Nuclear taboo)
- The norm cycle: Emergence. Cascade and Internalization.
Do Norms Matter?
- How norms can shape behavior; can change what is acceptable, interactions of states.
What are international laws?:
- Are a body of rules that bind states and other agents in world politics.
- Secondary Rules
- Primary Rules
- Sources of international law: Customary law, International treaties
Variations in International Laws
- Obligation: How legally bound agents are
Types of International Laws
- Hard law: obligatory, precise delegate adjudication; soft law: aspirational, imprecise; no delegation
Restrictions on War
- Legal restrictions on wars
Jus in Bello
- Laws that regulate actions during war (limits on weapons, treatment of certain groups)
Human Rights
-
What are human rights? Set of ideals, a legal regime, UDHR (International Bill of Human Rights), 9 core UN treaties
-
Types of protections: Negative and Positive Rights, ICESCR, ICCPR, Non-derogable Rights
-
Three questions on human rights Law:
-
Why do states sign HR treaties?, Why do states repress (violation of human rights)?, Do HR treaties constrain behavior?
-
Why do states sign HR treaties?: Tie your hands, practice what you preach and camouflage
-
Why do states avoid signing HR treaties?: Signed?, Ratified?
-
What about extreme violations?: Genocides, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity
Environmental Security
- A focus area within human security; relevant to traditional security studies; OR maybe we should protect the environment for the environment's sake?
Why do Collective Security Organizations Fail?
- Effort to maintain peace and how these efforts often fall short.
- Why are peace missions underfunded?
Factors that influence cooperation,
- Actors (group size, partnerships, leadership), The Problem (complexity), Institutions (standards, disputes, compliance)
- International Political Economy (Trade, finance, monetary policy, relevant for traditional and human security, International trade),
Comparative Advantage
- Imports (domestic purchases)
- Exports (sales)
- Self sufficiency vs specialization
- Comparative advantage: Producing good/service at lower opportunity cost than other countries
- Absolute advantage: Producing something more efficiently than other countries
- The Heckscher-Ohlin Theory: Human and material endowments, export and import goods.
- Following comparative advantage: using the best resource or comparative advantage
Protectionism
- Free trade (absence of political barriers)
- Protectionism (measures to shield domestic products)
- Tariffs, quotas, nontariff barriers
- Why put up barriers to trade? (resource endowments, Stolper-Samuelson Theorem, Political systems, Domestic-level actors, Industry-level preferences, Ricardo-Viner model, chances of retaliation, strategic partnerships)
- Explaining trade cooperation: Factors that facilitate trade cooperation (role of institutions, economic benefits, market stability, political benefits)
World Trade Organization (WTO)
- Facilitating trade
- Non-discrimination (MFN, national treatment)
- Reciprocity
- Safety valves
Regional Trade Organizations
- NAFTA/USMCA, Mercosur, European Union
- Types of investment: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Sovereign lending
FDI: International Investments
- Multinational Corporations (MNCs)
- FDI: A less controversial space (why allow in MNCs?)
- International Controversies (host-MNC interactions)
- The controversy behind sovereign lending
- Creditor interest, Debtor interest, What if they can't pay back?, and crisis support
Exchange Rates
- The price of one currency relative to another
- Fixed exchange rate (currencies kept to a value)
- Floating exchange rate (traded on open market)
- International Monetary System (Gold Standard, Bretton Woods, Today)
Bringing in Monetary Policy
- Fixed rate: Maintain value of currency
- Floating rate: Use tools to influence
- Monetary policy: Tools for influencing macro, usually managed by a country's central bank
Domestic Factors & Institutions
- Domestic factors that facilitate economic activity, Public goods & infrastructure, Policies that promote trust in the system, Regime type
- What undermines this?
History
- Colonialism (From divergent interests to predatory relationships, Arbitrary maps, Extractive colonies).
- More Recent History (Neocolonial and/or dependent relationships, LDCs primary products, Developed countries: secondary/tertiary products, Biased international institutions? Attempts to balance influence)
Economic Policies
- Import-substituting Industrialization (ISI): Reduce imports, encourage manufacturing; trade barriers; external borrowing; subsidies; state-owned industries
- Export-oriented Industrialization (EOI): Reduce imports, encourage manufacturing, trade barriers, external borrowing
- Geography- Landlocked, Climate
Studying That Suits You
Use AI to generate personalized quizzes and flashcards to suit your learning preferences.
