Levels of analysis Correct Answer-An approach to understanding international relations by breaking down the various actors who are involved in the making of international relations decisions and the impact of those decisions on the various actors (K).
The security dilemma Correct Answer-A situat...
PWAD 250 – Midterm Questions with correct answers
Levels of analysis Correct Answer-An approach to understanding
international relations by breaking down the various actors who are
involved in the making of international relations decisions and the
impact of those decisions on the various actors (K).
The security dilemma Correct Answer-A situation in which one state
improves its military capabilities to ensure its own security, but in so
doing becomes a direct threat to another country, which responds with
its own military buildup. The result is military buildup and feelings of
insecurity and threat rather than protection (K).
Realism Correct Answer-One of the major approaches to understanding
international relations, which assumes that states are the center of the
international system and that all states will make decisions based on
their national interest, which is defined by power (K). Emphasized the
role of human nature as a source of aggressive behavior and war, so in
international relations, all states (regardless of their internal policies or
professed ideology), will act in their rational self-interest given
international anarchy (L&T).
Neorealism Correct Answer-(Waltz) Critical of attributing causality to
"human nature;" Instead, emphasized the pursuit of security, with power
serving as a means rather than an end; additional emphasis on
international anarchy and the distribution of power in the system (L&T).
Liberalism Correct Answer-A major theoretical approach to
understanding international relations that grows from the confluence of
, economics and politics and believes that all states will benefit from the
flourishing of free trade and the open exchange of ideas. It also assumes
that countries will benefit from cooperating with one another and
advocates pursuing policies that are in the "common good." This is also
known as the pluralist approach (K).
neoliberalism Correct Answer-recognizes the role of actors other than
nation-states and places greater emphasis on the role that non-state
actors play in understanding international relations. Like realists,
neoliberal thinkers start with the assumption of the state as a unitary
actor that will act in its own best interest, but rather than assuming that
the inevitable result will be conflict, as the realists do, the neoliberals
conclude that cooperation will be in the state's interest (L&T).
Rationalist explanations for war (Fearon's explanations) Correct
Answer-They attempt to explain all behavior in terms of the preferences
of actors, their beliefs about others and the world, the structure of the
system that imposes constraints on their actions and those of the
adversary, and the information that is available. Only three sets of
conditions under which two rational unitary actors could end up at war
with each other: private information and incentives to misrepresent that
information, commitment problems, and indivisible issues. Fearon
demonstrated that if none of these conditions is present, there must be a
"bargaining space" of outcomes that are mutually preferred to war.
Leads to game theory/bargaining theories (L&T).
The Prisoner's Dilemma Correct Answer-Often used to demonstrate the
coherence of strategic realism a classic example is an arms race like the
Cold War. During the Cold War, the opposing alliances of NATO and
the Warsaw Pact both had the choice to arm or disarm. From each side's
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