World Politics

the relationships among the world's state governments and the connection of those relationships with other actors, with other social relationships, and with geographical and historical influences - pg. 3

a(n) (in)tangible good, created by the members of a group, that is available to all group members regardless of their individual contributions; participants can gain by lowering their own contribution to the collective good, yet if too many participants do so, the good cannot be provided - pg. 5

a principle for solving collective goods problems by imposing solutions hierarchially

a response in kind to another's actions

this strategy uses positive forms of leverage to promise rewards and negative forms of leverage to threaten punishment

a principle for solving collective goods problems by changing participants' preferences based on their shared sense of belonging to a community

distinct spheres of international activity within which policy makers of various states fare conflicts and sometimes achieve cooperation

the types of actions that states take toward each other through time - pg. 11

a subfield of international relations that focuses on questions of war and peace

the study of the politics of trade, monetary, and other economic relations among nations, and their connections to other transnational forces - pg. 12

an inhabited territorial entity controlled by a government that exercises sovereignty on its territory

states whose populations share a sense of national identity, usually including a language and culture

the set of relationships among the world's states, structured by certain rules and patterns of interaction - pg. 14

the size of a state's total annual economic activity

actors other than state governments that operate either below the level of the state (within states) or across state borders - pg. 15

an organization whose members are state governments

a transnational group or entity that interacts with states, multinational corporations, other NGOs and intergovernmental organizations

the increasing integration of the world in terms of communications, culture, and economics - pg. 19

the disparity in resources (income, wealth, power) between the industrialized, relatively rich countries of the West (and the former East) and the poorer countries.

an organization established after WWI and a forerunner of today's United Nations; it achieved certain humanitarian and other successes; but it was weakened by the absence of U.S. membership and by its own lack of effectiveness in ensuring collective security - pg. 27

a symbol of the failed policy of appeasement, this agreement, signed in 1938, allowed Nazi Germany to occupy a part of Czechoslovakia. Rather than appease German aspirations, it was followed by further German expansions, which triggered WWII - pg. 27

the hostile relations between the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, from 1945-1990 ... pg. 31

a policy adopted in the late 1940s by which the USA sought to halt the global expansion of Soviet influence on several levels - military, political, ideological, and economic ... pg. 31

a rift in the 1960s between the communist powers of the Soviet Union and China, fueled by China's opposition to Soviet moves toward peaceful coexistence with the United States - pg. 31

a meeting between heads of state, often referring to leaders of great power - pg. 31

a superpower crisis, sparked by the Soviet Union's installation of medium-range nuclear missiles in Cuba, that marks the moment when the United States and the Soviet Union came closest to nuclear war - pg. 32

wars in the third world - often civil wars - in which the USA and the Soviet Union jockeyed for position by supplying and advising opposing factions ... pg. 32

a broad intellectual tradition that explains international relations mainly in terms of power - pg. 43

an approach that emphasizes international law, morality, and international organization, rather than power alone, as key influences on international relations - pg. 43

the ability or potential to influence others' behavior, as measured by the possession of certain tangible and intangible characteristics - pg. 45

the use of geography as an element of power, and the ideas about it held by political leaders and scholars - pg. 49

in IR theory, a term that implies not complete chaos but the lack of a central government that can enforce rules - pg. 50

the shared expectations about what behavior is considered proper

a state's right, at least in principle, to do whatever it wants within its own territory - pg. 50

*most important international norm

a situation in which a states' actions to ensure their own security (i.e. deploying more military forces) threaten the security of other states - pg. 51

refers to the general concept of one or more states' power being used to balance that of another state or group of states - pg. 52

the half-dozen or so most powerful states ... pg. 54

states that somewhat rank below the great powers in terms of their influence on world affairs - pg. 55

a 1990s adaptation of realism. It explains patterns of international events in terms of the system's structure, especially the international distribution of power - pg. 56

an international system with typically 5 or 6 centers of power that are not grouped into alliances - pg. 56

a theory that the largest wars result from challenges to the top position in the status hierarchy, when a rising power is surpassing/threatening to surpass the most powerful state - pg. 57

one state's holding of a preponderance of power in the international system, so that it can single-handedly dominate the rules and arrangements by which international political and economic relations are conducted - pg. 57

holds that hegemony provides some order similar to a central government in the international system: reducing anarchy, deterring aggression, promoting free trade, and providing a hard currency that can be used as a world standard - pg. 58

the ease with which the members hold together an alliance - pg. 64

the distribution of the costs of an alliance; and or the arising conflicts over said distribution - pg. 64

a U.S.-led military alliance, formed in 1949 with mainly W. European members, to oppose and deter Soviet power in Europe - pg. 65

a Soviet-led E. European military alliance, founded in 1955 and disbanded in 1991. It opposed the NATO alliance.

a bilateral alliance between the United Stated and Japan, created in 1951 against the potential Soviet threat to Japan. The U.S. maintains troops in Japan and is committed to defend Japan if attacked, and Japan pays the U.S. to offset about 1/2 the cost of maintaining the troops - pg. 67

a movement of third world states, led by India and Yugoslavia, that attempted to stand apart from the U.S.-Soviet rivalry during the Cold War

the threat to punish another actor if it takes a certain negative action (especially against one's own state or allies)

the threat of force to make another actor take some action

a reciprocal process in which two or more states build up military capabilities in response to each other

actors conceived of as single entities that can "think" about their actions coherently, make choices, identify their interests, and rank the interests in terms of priority

the interests of a state overall (as opposed to particular parties or factions within the state)

a calculation of the costs incurred by a possible action and the benefit it is likely to bring

a branch of math concerned with predicting bargaining outcomes.

situations in which one actor's gain is by definition equal to the other's loss

a situation modeled by game theory in which rational actors pursuing their individual interests all achieve worse outcomes than they could have by working together - pg. 75