IR Final Study Guide PDF

Quotes Nation-States and Multinational States/Inclusive Nationalism and Occidentalism Beissinger: “The most important dimension of any situation is perception: whether politics and policies are accepted as ‘ours’ or rejected as ‘theirs’...empire must be understood not as a thing,...

Quotes Nation-States and Multinational States/Inclusive Nationalism and Occidentalism Beissinger: “The most important dimension of any situation is perception: whether politics and policies are accepted as ‘ours’ or rejected as ‘theirs’...empire must be understood not as a thing, but as a set of practices that give rise to perceptions and claims that the polity represents a fundamentally alien rule, an ‘other’” Lieven: “In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries, for most Europeans (except some of those themselves subject to empires) the concept of empire was a positive one. To be an empire was to be powerful, in an era when the gulf between strong and weak states was growing ever wider, and when the weak seemed doomed to marginalization or extinction.” Owen and Rosencrance “The Third Estate, inspired in part by the successful American colonists a few years earlier, inaugurated a revolution to force its will on clergy and nobility. Purporting to act on behalf of France as a whole – la Nation – the Third Estate abolished feudalism and established universal legal equality on the night of August 4, 1789” Kellas “During the French Revolution in the late eighteenth century, the nation took on a new political meaning which linked nationalism to the aim of popular sovereignty. This meant that the nation was no longer to be passive in the government of the state, but was to be an active participant, without which there would be no legitimate authority” “The idea of the nation now meant a community based on political equality and democracy…” “Orthodox French revolutionaries…defined the French nation in terms of the citizenship of the French state, which made no ethnic distinctions. Rather it resulted from the ‘social contract’ which all could make.” Carr “A decree of the French National Assembly of April 20, 1792, committed the French nation to ‘adopt in advance all foreigners who, by abjuring the cause of its enemies, shall range themselves under its banners and consecrate their efforts to the defense of liberty.” Nieves “The Freedmen became full citizens of the Cherokee Nation after emancipation, as part of the Treaty of 1866 with the United States. But in 1983, by tribal decree, the Freedmen were denied the right to vote in tribal elections on ground they were no “Cherokee by blood.” They sued, and in December won their challenge. But that has prompted a bigger fight. On Saturday, the Cherokee Nation is holding a special election – believed to be the first of its kind – to decide, in essence, whether to kick the Freedmen out of the tribe.” Buruma and Margalit  “Hitler, in his table talk, was of the opinion that “American civilization is of a purely mechanized nature. Without mechanization, America would disintegrate more swiftly than India.” Not that an alliance with Japan came easily, for he also believed that the Japanese were “too foreign to us, by their way of living, by their culture. But my feelings against Americanism are feelings of hatred and deep repugnance.”” “Whatever the US government does or does not do is often beside the point. The Kyoto professors were referring not to American policies, but to the idea of America itself, as a rootless, cosmopolitan, superficial, trivial, materialistic, racially mixed, fashion-addicted civilization.” “The Japanese transformation from a nation of feudal fiefdoms, presided over by a samurai dynasty, to a modern Western-style nation-state was always going to be a patchwork job. The constitution was largely Prussian, the navy was fashioned after the British Royal Navy, and so on. But the biggest problem for the Meiji-period intellectuals and politicians was to find the most suitable model for a modern state. Some looked to Britain and the United States, attracted by the same bourgeois institutions that Tocqueville had analyzed so sympathetically. Others saw greater merit in the German model of ethnic nationalism: the Volk of heroic patriots ruled by a militarized monarchy. The latter prevailed and they proceeded to establish an authoritarian state along Germanic lines, dressed up in half-invented and frequently distorted Japanese traditions.” “German Romanticism, unlike other forms of Romanticism in western Europe, was not just a literary and artistic movement; it had intense political and social implications. In his Naturphilosophie, Schelling paints the universe as a living organism, behaving in a goal-directed manner. This is a complete reversal of Isaac Newton’s idea of nature as a mechanism, directed not by goals, but by forces and causes. Schelling’s organic notion was a means of doing away with the calculating mind of the West and provided the idea of society as a living organism, driven by communal goals. This was the antithesis of the liberal notion of a society made up of individuals bound by contract.” Occidentalims and Consequences of Nationalism Owen and Rosencrance “Even the Napoleonic Empire, coercive as it was, pressed liberal values outward onto other societies. The French imperialists imposed their vision by force, but it was in some ways a liberal vision; the German philosopher Hegel called Napoleon ‘the world spirit on horseback.’ Wherever they conquered, France’s armies and bureaucracies overturned the old institutions and traditional monarchy and aristocracy and brought equality before the law and meritocracy within the government.” Professor Rivera “The Slavophiles argued that the Orthodox Church, or Eastern Christianity, was superior to the churches of the West due to the fact that it had not imbibed the Greek and Roman  heritage of rationalism and legalism. Thereby Orthodoxy alone had remained true to the teachings of Christ.” Snegovaya and McGlynn “Through these steps, Russia intends to cultivate a system of international relations that ‘preserves cultural and civilizational identity’ and to ‘counter attempts to impose pseudo-humanistic or other neoliberal ideological views that undermine traditional spiritual and moral values and integrity’(Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation 2023). This is an explicit rejection of teleological liberalism, or the ‘end of history’ thesis, which Russian officials frequently criticize.” Kellas “Nationalism never became a great system of ideas, as did liberalism or Marxism. But its influence on politics was even more important than these, if we look at the history of the modern world. Nearly all the wars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries had their roots in nationalism, and all states now owe their legitimacy to some version of the national idea” European imperialism Owen and Rosencrance “In the 1820s official discrimination against non-Anglican Christians was ended, and in the coming years discrimination against Jews likewise became illegal” (In GB) “Britain was the leader both in international trade and in empire; others copied the British example and sought colonies as well. But no other country did as well as Britain. By 1897 it ruled one sixth of the world’s territory and one quarter of the world’s population. Queen Victoria was very proud of her extended domains.” “German governments were accountable to the kaiser, not the people, and the government suppressed both Catholicism and socialism” “Third was the Panic of 1873, sometimes known as the first Great Depression. The causes of the Panic were many and complex, but the effect was an economic contraction across the industrial countries that lasted for many years until at least 1896. Financial markets crashed, vast amounts of wealth were lost, hundreds of firms went bankrupt, and unemployment rose sharply. States responded by curtailing international trade in agricultural and other goods. The more each state slowed its imports, the more other states believed they had to do the same. States began to fear that national survival might require securing access to natural resources through the acquisition of empire. The Origins of World War I Gilpin  “Throughout history the primary means of resolving the disequilibrium between the structure of the international system and the redistribution of power has been war, more particularly, what we shall call a hegemonic war. In the words of Raymond Aron, describing World War I, a hegemonic war “is characterized less by its immediate causes or its explicit purposes than by its extent and the stakes involved. It affected all the political units inside one system of relations between sovereign states. Let us call it, for want of a better term, a war of hegemony, hegemony being, if not conscious motive, at any rate the inevitable consequence of the victory of at least one of the states or groups”” Lieber “The key decisions of the final days of the July crisis are undisputed— July 25: Austria rejects Serbia’s conciliatory reply to its ultimatum, and Russia decides on military measures to support Serbia; July 27: Austria rejects British peace proposals; July 28: Austria declares war on Serbia; July 29: Austria begins bombardment of Belgrade; July 30: Russia secretly orders general mobilization, and Britain rejects German requests for British neutrality; July 31: Austria rejects all offers of mediation, and Germany issues ultimatum to Russia to cease all military preparations; August 1: Germany declares war on Russia and orders general mobilization after receiving no response to its ultimatum, and France orders general mobilization; August 3: Germany declares war on France; and August 4: Germany invades Luxembourg and Belgium, and Britain declares war on Germany.” “The ‘cult of the offensive’ fostered intense arms racing, rigid and interlocking mobilization schedules, and dangerous preemptive war incentives – all of which limited the time and space for crisis diplomacy.” Thucydides “As to the reasons why [the Athenians and the Peloponnesians] broke the truce, I propose first to give an account of the causes of complaint which they had against each other and of the specific instances where their interests clashed: this is in order that there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind about what led to this great war falling upon the Hellenes. But the real reason for the war is, in my opinion, most likely to be disguised by such an argument. What made war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta.” Wilentz “By the time you get to the American Revolution and the Constitution, it is in fact the Americans, the American colonies have given birth to the first anti-slavery movement in the Atlantic world. It had begun with the Quakers very early on in 1688 or so. But in the 1760s and 1770s there were plenty of Northerners who were just railing against slavery,  saying in fact ‘how can we call ourselves lovers of liberty if there are these slaveholders among us?’And, in fact, the northerners were starting the very first successful emancipation projects, again, in Atlantic history. The very first gradual emancipation law was passed in Pennsylvania in 1780. The first constitution that banned adult slavery was enacted in Vermont in 1777. The first anti-slavery society in the history of the world was established in Philadelphia in 1775, about five days before Lexington and Concord. This is America. It’s not that America is anti-slavery. It’s that there’s a fight, there’s an argument from the very beginning. There’s no one thing about America and slavery. To say that slavery and racism are foundational to America obliterates the fact that when the United States was being formed there was a great deal of anti-slavery out there as well, not all of it coming from the enslaved….There was always a struggle. The struggle was there from the beginning. And that is not there in the 1619 Project.” The following discussion of the Constitution is relevant as well.” Tuchman “On learning of the Anglo-Russian talks, Moltke said in May during a visit to his Austrian opposite number, Franz Conrad von Hotzendorff, that from now on “any adjournment will have the effect of diminishing our chances of success.” Two weeks later, on June 1st, he said to Baron Eckhardstein, “We are ready, and the sooner the better for us.” “Behind her wall, as Victor Hugo urged at his most vibrant: “France will have but one thought: to reconstitute her forces, gather her energy, nourish her sacred anger, raise her young generation to form an army of the whole people, to work without cease, to study the methods and skills of our enemies, to become again a great France, the France of 1792, the France of an idea with a sword. Then one day she will be irresistible. Then she will take back Alsace-Lorraine.” “Within a few months of Grandmaison’s lectures, the President of the Republic, M. Fallieres, announced: “The offensive alone is suited to the temperament of French Soldiers…We are determined to the temperament of French soldiers…We are determined to march straight against the enemy without hesitation.” The new Field Regulations, enacted by the government in October, 1913, as the fundamental document for the training and conduct of the French Army, opened with a flourish of trumpets: “The French Army, returning to its traditions, henceforth admints no law but the offensive.”” “General staffs, goaded by their relentless timetables, were pounding the table for the signal to move lest their opponents gain an hour’s head start. Appalled upon the brink, the chiefs of state who would be ultimately responsible for their country’s fate attempted to back away but the pull of military schedules dragged them forward.” Putin during state visit to Serbia “They [Serbian-Russian relations] have strong, stable, and deep roots – the Russians and Serbian peoples have always been spiritually close. If we are together, then victory awaits.” Thomas Ehrhard, VP for Defense Strategy in the Long Term Strategy Group “The most troubling of all is that China and Russia believe that we are ready to strike at a moment, that bolt-out-of-the-blue is right around the corner. So they are motivated by time. They want to be able to assess the environment and make rapid decisions. This drives them to automated methods of Command and Control [C2], which exist in cyberspace, which are driven by algorithms, not humans. There is no time in there for humans to think about what they need to do…I’m worried about that because C2 systems in the twenty-first century are like the train schedules of the early twentieth century that led to World War I. The capacity for C2 systems structure itself to be a catalytic environment in escalation dynamics in the twenty-first century is very high.” Impact of World War I and the Socialist Paradigm Winston Churchill “There was a strange temper in the air. Unsatisfied by material prosperity, the nations turned restlessly towards strike internal or external. National passions, unduly exalted in the decline of religion, burned beneath the surface of nearly every land with fierce, if shrouded, fires. Almost one might think the world wished to suffer. Certainly men were everywhere eager to dare.” Furet “The war was greater than its causes. When it came, it brought death to so many, shattered so many lives, and so irrevocably rent [apart] the tissue of nations after having solidified it, that it became the primordial experience of a new era. What resulted testifies to that.” “The longer the war lasted and the more human lives it cost, the more deeply it reworked the soil of European politics. It forced even the humblest soldiers to return to their most elementary views about the world.” The war “cut down millions of men in their prime, leaving whole nations maimed and widowed. The parity of forces, massive armaments, the entombment of soldiers in the trenches, and murderous yet meaningless advances and retreats dragged the war on and on…When the cannons finally fell silent, the survivors looked back upon those nightmare years and sought to understand what it all meant and what role had been played by their governments. Politics resumed its functions, heavy with unanimous questioning about the violence and duration of that massacre.” Chernov WW1 and the Civil War “wiped out the value of human life–both of one’s own and of others. It hardened people not to care about the death of millions. The right to spill blood and take away life ceased to be a tragic problem. Here was the new breed of sadists in power.” Lenin  Preface of 1920: “It is proved in the pamphlet that the war of 1914-1918 was imperialist (that is annexationist, predatory, war of plunder) on the part of both sides; it was a war for the division of the world, for the partition and repartition of colonies and spheres of influence of finance capital, etc.” “The capitalists divide the world, not out of any particular malice, but because the degree of concentration which has been reached forces them to adopt this method in order to get profits. And they divide it in proportion to “capital,” in proportion to “strength,” because there cannot be any other system of division under commodity production and capitalism.” “Thanks to her colonies, Great Britain has increased the length of “her” railway by 100,000 km, four times as much as Germany. And yet, it is well known that the development of productive forces in Germany, and especially the development of the coal and iron industries, has been much more rapid during this period than in England–not to mention France and Russia. In 1892, Germany produced 4,900,000 tons of pig iron and Great Britain produced 6,800,000 tons; in 1912 Germany 17,600,000 tons and Great Britain 9,000,000 tons. Germany, therefore, had an overwhelming superiority over England in this respect. We ask, is there under capitalism any means of removing the disparity between the development of productive forces and the accumulation of capital on the one side, and the division of colonies and “spheres of influence” for finance capital on the other side–other than by resorting to war?” Bullock “The outbreak of the First World War threw European socialism into confusion and destroyed the Second International, the federation of socialist parties founded in 1889. Lenin had no patience with socialists who supported the war or with those who declared themselves pacifists. His call was to answer war with revolution and “turn the imperialist war into a civil war,” frankly accepting the charge of defeatism. The defeat of tsarism would be the prelude to revolution–as indeed it proved to be.” Impact of World War I and the Socialist Paradigm Soviet Leader Grigorii Zinoviev in a meeting in December 1918 “We have among us today guests who are neither Marxists nor communists, but all of us here are agreed on one point, in our hatred of the bourgeoisie, in our hatred of a class guilty of the death of millions of men in the interests of a small group.” Francois Furet “Lenin and Mussolini emerged from the same political family–that of revolutionary socialism. Mussolini was Il Duce of the revolution before becoming Il Duce of Fascism…for the entire first half of his life, the years prior to World War I, he gravitated towards the most radical form of revolutionary ideology.” Hitler  “I am a Socialist…I was once an ordinary workingman. I would not allow my chauffeur to eat worse than I eat myself.” “Man has become great through struggle…Whatever goal man has reached is due to his originality plus his brutality…All life is bound up in three theses: struggle is the father of all things, virtue lies in blood, leadership is primary and decisive.” “There was nothing that they did not drag in the mud…the nation, because it was held to be an invention of the capitalist classes; the Fatherland, because it was held to be an instrument in the hands of the bourgeoisie for the exploitation of the working masses; the authority of the law, because that was a means of holding down the proletariat; religion as a means of doping the people, so as to exploit them afterwards; morality, as a badge of stupid and sheepish docility.” “In the face of that revelation, the scales fell from my eyes. My long inner struggle was at an end…Thus I finally discovered who were the evil spirits leading our people astray.” “As a boy and a young man I often longed for the occasion to prove that my national enthusiasm was not mere talk…Just as millions of others, I felt a proud joy in being permitted to go through this inexorable test…For me, as for every German, there now began the greatest and most unforgettable time of my life.”  Notes Nation-States and Multinational States/Inclusive Nationalism Nation states v. multinational state ○ One or the other Multinational State: ○ Federation: Political power divided between central state level and regional sub-level Sublevels represent “homeland” or “nations” with sense of autonomy Ie: Russian Federation (claims they’re a federation) ○ Empire: Minority nations think they’re ruled by an alien nation. Not voluntary on both sides. WW1+2 changed perception of an empire. Used to be seen as a good thing ○ USSR, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, UK, Belgium, Canada, Nigeria, Most states in Africa, Iran, Iraq Ways nations can define themselves ○ Inclusively: Residency, loyalty, political support The French Revolution changed discourse around nationalism and the idea of a nation. Full political rights to Protestants, Jews, and ofc Catholics “Civic Nationalism” US: Constitution gives birthright citizenship GB ○ Exclusively: Parents Japan, Germany, Dominican Republic “Ethnic Nationalism” Hard to obtain citizenship Most nations throughout history fit in this category Occidentalism Occidentalism favors ethnic nationalism and not civic 1789 Declaration of Rights of Man ○ Universalism ○ Human rights, not nation rights ○ Napoleon exported through imperialism French Rule → “Awakening of nations” ○ Increasingly aware of own ethnic identity ○ Creation of “Romantic Nationalism” Anti-French Anti-Universalist Anti-Enlightenment Nativist → opposite of universalist ○ Schelling ○ Society has goals, not individuals Occidentalism: “Dehumanizing picture of the west” ○ West is devoid of spirituality, addicted to pursuit of wealth, machine like ○ Non-western societies are “organic” → rooted in nature ○ Opposed to market econ and nationalism, commodification of people/labor  ○ Germany spread to Russia then to Japan. Also spreads to middle east and 3rd world communism ○ Slavophilism ○ Anti-western ○ Traditional values ○ Islamic Fundamentalists ○ Hitler, Putin, Bin Laden Israel Lobby: Mearschimer and Waltz Consequences of Nationalism Secessionism: Why # of states increases ○ Belief that nation is getting a bad deal from ruling nation ○ Communism/USSR ended by capitalism and nationalism Opposition to Participation in IGOs Wars of National Unification ○ Demands for redrawing borders so all members of nation live in same area ○ Wars of Italian Unification (1870) ○ Prussia→German Empire ○ Korea + Vietnamese Wars ○ Armenia + Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh ○ Russia + Ukraine European Imperialism 1880s: New wave of imperialism ○ Great Divergence Marx says imperialism good because it progressive bourgeois to lower level societies Explanations of late 19th Century Imperialism ○ Schumpeter: “Social Atavism” = 19th century Europe emerged from Feudalism and major powers have different elites. Old feudal elites (military) don’t have a function anymore. Lobby for imperial expansion to give themselves purpose/maintain social status ○ Lenin: “Monopoly capitalism” ○ “The White Man’s Burden”: Advanced nations have purpose to spread civilization, literacy, build hospitals, etc Kipling Rhodes: “Cultural Racism” Russian conquest of Kazakhstan: Czar outlawed slavery ○ Global movement to abolish slavery GB outlawed transatlantic slave trade Reason and excuse for scramble for Africa ○ Great Depression of 1873-1896 If high tariffs, need to conquer to fuel industrialization Slavery in African and Abolition Wikipedia ○ The continuing anti-slavery movement in Western Europe became a reason and an excuse for the conquest and colonization of Africa. It was the central theme of the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference 1889–90. During the Scramble for Africa, an  early but secondary focus of all colonial regimes was the suppression of slavery and the slave trade. In French West Africa, following conquest and abolition by the French, over a million slaves fled from their masters to earlier homes between 1906 and 1911. In Madagascar, the French abolished slavery in 1896 and approximately 500,000 slaves were freed. Slavery was abolished in the French controlled Sahel by 1911. Independent nations attempting to westernize or impress Europe sometimes cultivated an image of slavery suppression. In response to European pressure, the Sokoto Caliphate abolished slavery in 1900 and Ethiopia officially abolished slavery in 1932. Colonial powers were mostly successful in abolishing slavery, though slavery remained active in Africa even though it has gradually moved to a wage economy. [Stop here.] Slavery was never fully eradicated in Africa. WW1 Why so much literature on WW1 ○ Huge loss of human life ○ Huge political repercussions Collapse of Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, German, Russian. Leads to communist revolution German National Socialism (Hitler) ○ Many parties involved Geopolitical Environment ○ 5 separate great powers in Europe ○ Late 19th early 20th: Witnessed tightening of alliances into 2 opposing camps Entente (Allies): Russia, France, GB Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria Explanations of WW1 ○ Rise of German Power Realist Germany has rapid industrial growth and economic modernization → rise of military power Hegemonic War Major power rises to so no more hegemon, then there's disequilibrium Fear in GB ○ German Fears of Russia - not strong argument Large young population Allied with France Reorganization of military after war with Japan Germany starts as preventative war ○ Nationalism France’s animosity of Germany War of 1870: Germany annexed Alsace and Lorraine French obsessed with getting back France is revisionist state Russia/Slavs vs Germanics  Great Power competition and Russian pan-slavism override monarchical solidarity and family ties ○ Tuchman’s Argument: Cult of the offensive and resulting rigid military mobilization plans JFK thinks Tuchman says war was unintentional - Wrong Revolves around military doctrines Advance on enemies as fast as possible then seize capital = better than defense Reduces options for diplomacy Most agree this is exaggerated French overrode doctrine by not going into Belgium Wilhem wanted to stop but Moltke said its too late Consequences of WW1 Consequences ○ Total war between entire societies Everyone involved ○ Tech advancements Machine gun: Advantage on defense Tanks: Returns advantage to offense ○ Laissez faire replaced with regulatory states + “Managed capitalism” ○ Soldiers learn how to kill and that life is cheap. At home, politicians mobilize them and use them on internal enemies ○ Socialism transformed to modern communism ○ Nationalism transformed to fascism ○ Political instability and “revolutionary situations” ○ Widespread pacifism Except for the fascists Socialist/Radical Paradigm Begins with Karl Marx(economist first) Hobson Lenin ○ Domestic politics, a revolutionary, overthrow czar ○ 1916: Begins studying IR. Book Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism Most widely read treatise on IR ever, bible of communists WW1 backdrop for the book ○ Critique of actions of European Socialists parties in 1914 Preached anti-militarism + pacifism Failed to oppose own state’s participation in war Second International Support war because argue its a defensive war Lenin disgusted, “treason to socialism” ○ Slave → Feudal → Capitalist → Socialism →communism = Marx Capitalist is free market and monopoly = Lenin ○ Law of Uneven Development  Asymmetry(disequilibrium) can only be solved by war ○ WW1 is war of capitalist plunder Dominant economic class vs broad masses of population Realist with class added Not a good explanation Communists, Fascists, Nazis Communism ○ Union of Soviet(Council) Socialist Republics No ethnic/linguistic/religious content But has class content Councils were council of soldiers and workers deputies ○ Membership restricted to soldiers(not officers) and workers(lower class) ○ Upper Class disenfranchised Believed Lenin’s IR policies Capitalism ultimately responsible for WW1 WW1 is cold-blooded capital crime, and criminals are the bourgeoisie Fascism ○ Intertwined with communism ○ National Fascist Party of Italy ○ National Socialist Workers Party of Germany ○ Tough to define with no core writer. Ideology of action ○ Characteristic of Fascism Antipathy towards democracy Democracy to destroy democracy Communists: Dictatorship of socialist intellectuals Outlawed other political parties, censorship of press, silenced dissidence, mass murder of opponents Fascists rejected capitalism Ultra-nationalism Nazi nationalism was extreme victimization. ○ Treaty of Versailles, Internal enemies that stab germany in the back(liberals, socialists, Jews) Glorified war War was not to be avoided, but accepted + embraced Fascists dislike communists ○ Marxist socialists are international, wanted denationalized Europe ○ Fascists were ultranationalists WW2 not religious war because christianity is international, so nazism ≠ christianity Eras of Great Power Conflict 1. 1517-1648: The Era of Religious Warfare a. Scholars regard it as a period in which issues stemming from religion played a major role in the international politics of Europe  2. 1648-1789: A Secular Struggle over Power and Territory a. The period from Westphalia to the French Revolution was an era in which monarchs competed for power and territory 3. 1789-1917: The Era of Nationalism and Nationalist Wars a. The period from the French Revolution to World War I was an era in which nations competed with each other, driven by nationalism. 4. 1917-1991: The Era of Ideological Struggle a. The central issue over which states were fighting was NOT who would control what pieces of territory but rather whose socio-economic institutions would spread around the world and replace those of the enemy camp. In politics, this means democracy versus one-party dictatorship. In economics, capitalism versus state socialism. 5. 1991-2007: US unipolarity a. “The end of history” 6. 2007-Present: Return of Great Power Competition (Realist) vs Rise and Challenge From Capitalist Autonomy (Liberal) a. 2007 was Putin’s Munich Speech, Democracy begins to fade globally "Return From ISIS" is a FRONTLINE documentary that tells the story of an American mother, Sam Sally, who traveled to Syria with her young children to join ISIS alongside her husband, a sniper for the group; the documentary details the family's journey to the ISIS caliphate, their experiences there, and the legal repercussions they faced upon returning to the United States, including the mother's trial for supporting terrorism.