1. Assumptions
*Analytic
unit: state is the principal actor.
*View
of actor: state is unitary actor.
*Behavioral dynamic: in its foreign policy, the state is a
rational actor seeking to maximize its own interest or objectives.
*Issues: national security issues are most important. 2.
Precursors
*Thucydides,
Machiavelli, Hobbes
*Grotius: maintenance of order between states through norms
of international law
*Clausewitz: a state’s military objectives are important,
but subordinate to larger political objectives.
*E.H.
Carr: The Twenty Years’ Crisis: 1919-1939
3. Power
*Definition:
several elements
(1) Absolute
power and relative power
(2) Static
power and dynamic power
(3) Resources and outcomes *Measurement
(1) Characteristics (capabilities) of the
state (e.g., Morgenthau’s)
(2) Material
factors, psychological factors
(3) Is it really possible to presume a
unitary state?
(4)
Universal
measurements of power; power related to time, place, and issue
6 E
*The
concept of balance
*System as distribution of characteristics vs. system as
interaction
*Is the international system a large collection of bi-state
relations (dyadic structure) or a condition of the whole?
*Anarchy
and the structure of international relations *The principle of self-help
*Rousseau’s stag hunt fable
5. Vulnerability: imbalance between strong
and weak actors *Military (science and technology, weapons, organization,
scale, leadership)
*Examples:
the Russian border; the U.S.A. in Latin America *Economic factors (food, oil,
advanced technology): examples of the Great Depression and the Middle East *The
hegemonic state: a source of peace and stability, or an object of fear and
envy?
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