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• Realist image of the state

  The state is the most important actor in international politics, sovereignty is its distinguishing trait and the state will always seek to ensure its survival in a perilous international environment
• National interest (realist definition)

  States prioritize national interests insofar as they guarantee the state's survival. States are rational actors. Interests are ordered according to their contribution to the state's survival in an anarchic environment. Self-interest is conceived to be predominantly materialistic in nature
• Power (realist concept)


  Power is a relational concept and power is a relative concept. Power is a relational concept insofar as power is always exercised in relation to another entity; it is relative, as states' calculations need to be made not only about one's own power capabilities, but also about the power that other state actor possess. Nonetheless, realists' conceptualization is predominantly materialistic in focus
• Security dilemma


  The insecurity that results from a state's inability to distinguish between defensive and offensive motivations underlying another state's military preparations. Actions that one state undertakes to make itself feel more secure will tend to produce feelings of insecurity in other states. A balance of power can, at least temporarily, mitigate the worst consequences of a balance of power, but balances of power perennially collapse, demonstrating the inescapability of the security dilemma
• Ethic of responsibility


  There are certain limits to ethical considerations in international politics. State leaders are responsible for achieving their states' survival and interests, and this might need to be done through immoral actions
• Hans J. Morgenthau's Politics among Nations (1948) is the classic work of twentieth-century classical realism
• It's the need to provide shelter, nutrition and education in a state
• The 'three Ss' of realism

  • Statism
  • Survival
  • Self-help
• State of war


  An analogy for the condition of international politics: even if there is no actual conflict, there is a permanent underlying tension among states that could become a real war at any time
• Africa is still plagued by civil wars
• Immanuel Kant's Three Articles of Perpetual Peace

  • The Civil Constitution of Every State Shall be Republican
  • The Rights of Nations shall be based on a Federation of Free States
  • Cosmopolitan Right shall be limited to Conditions of Universal Hospitality
• The League of Nations did not include the United States as a member, despite Woodrow Wilson's key role in proposing the creation of such an institution
• The second wave of liberal internationalism occurred during the 'idealist moment' that occurred after the First World War
• Liberal internationalism 3


  The need for a movement away from a sovereignty-based order towards one where global institutions become the new rulers of the world
• Arguments supporting the view that the internationalist principles that have been a feature of the liberal order since 1945 are in crisis

  • The declining power of the United States
  • The demands of rising states for greater authority
  • The unwillingness of the members of the UN and its Security Council to support intervention on internationalist grounds
• Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the UN issued a series of resolutions demanding Iraq's unconditional withdrawal. Economic sanctions were applied while the US-led coalition of international forces gathered in Saudi Arabia. Operation 'Desert Storm' crushed the Iraqi resistance in a matter of six weeks (16 January to 28 February 1991)
• Collective security


  The recognition that security for any one state in a system means security for all states in the system, and an agreement to collectively respond to aggression against any state in the system
• Victorian intellectuals divided international order into the three domains of 'civilized', 'semi-civilized', and 'barbaric'
• Democratic peace


  The theory that liberal polities do not go to war with each other, but are likely to pick fights with authoritarian states; hence democratization is a major theme of all liberal internationalist thinkers from Kant to modern day liberals
• Social facts are not based on an individual's personal interpretation of the world
• Contemporary political meaning of 'refugee'

  Anyone who was forced to flee their home because of circumstances created by humans
• The end of the cold war, which triggered the prominence of non-traditional security issues, transnationalism, and human rights, enabled the rise of constructivism
• Sociological theory is a major source of constructivist ideas
• How constructivism offered new insight

  It demonstrated how attention to norms, ideas, identities, and rules could help uncover previously neglected issues
• Social theory


  It is concerned with how to conceptualize the relationship between agents and structures
• According to Alexander Wendt, there is no Machiavellian culture of anarchy
• Mechanisms of socialization


  • Mimicking
  • Social influence
  • Persuasion
• Causes of diffusion of social institutions

  Coercion, strategic competition, uncertainty, and persuasion by experts
• Stages of the life cycle of norms

  • Norm emergence
  • Norm cascade
  • Norm internalization
• When states face tremendous uncertainty, they decide to adopt the practices that seem to have served others well
• Social influence


  Occurs when state officials aspire to status within the existing group and are sensitive to signs of approval and disapproval
• Persuasion


  Occurs when state officials are convinced of the superiority of new ways of thinking about the world
• Causes of diffusion of social institutions

  • Coercion (e.g. during colonialism)
  • Strategic competition (e.g. if a rival's weapons are superior)
  • Uncertainty leading to adoption of perceived successful or legitimate models
  • Persuasion by experts
• Stages of the life cycle of norms

  • Norm emergence
  • Norm cascade
  • Norm internalization
• Norm emergence


  Norms have to come from somewhere
• Norm cascade


  Norms go through a path of acceptance
• Norm internalization


  Norms become 'taken for granted'
• The constructivist perspective emphasizes the role of cultural environment, knowledge, and human agreement in shaping social facts, and rejects the idea that they are solely based on an individual's personal interpretation of the world
• The contemporary political meaning of 'refugee' refers to individuals who were forced to flee their homes due to human-made circumstances, and this understanding extends beyond the 1951 Refugee Convention's definition
• The end of the Cold War enabled the rise of constructivism as a theory in international relations, which drew from sociological theory and offered new insights into the study of international politics by emphasizing norms, ideas, identities, and rules