IS405 Review Session §

Class: IS405 Created Time: January 3, 2022 2:09 PM Database: Class Notes Database Last Edited Time: January 28, 2022 10:17 AM Provided Materials: IFL_IS405_Reviews_of_Articles_2021.pdf

Realism §

• These are the basic ideas of Realism that all branches of Realism shares (Structural, offensive, defensive, strategic, classical, neo-classical Realism)
• Main idea is Anarchy: order of international relation
  • doesn’t mean chaos, no overarching authority or world government
  • cooperation can still exist
• States tries to survive under anarchy
  • to survive you need to know the rule of the game
  • to master the balance of power
    • Build own power compared to neighbors, to protect one self & to not threaten others
• There is only material power or hard power
  • Economic power: sanctions are coercive nature
  • Military power

Neo-Liberalism §

• Same basic assumptions as Realism’s anarchy
• Interdependence affects the behavior of states
  • Connectivity → Sensitivity: making states more vulnerable
  • States think twice before going to war (it costs a lot more)
    • Military powerful but isn’t everything
  • IO can deal with problems which material power and states can’t deal with alone
    • Problems of Cheating
    • Free riding
    • Environmental problems
• International regime: is also very important (similar to Constructivism)
  • There’s New order: interdependence require states to work with IOs ⇒ therefore institutions are important

Constructivism §

• Social Constructivism
• Constructivism observed the world and interpreted the world differently than Liberalism and Realism
• There exist a social interaction between different actors
• Types of Power
  • Compulsory power
• 4 Types of Authority: it’s not power, it’s ability to convince people you’re in control
  • Institutional Authority
• 4 Politics: (find it in the transnational advocacy network)
  • Accountability Politics
• All actors that have authority or power will need to work with states to deal with problems of the world
  • Global Governance: is the process of interaction between decentralized inclusion of all actors who have any amount of authority
• Weakness: they didn’t explain why all these assumptions work
  • Constructivism discoveries are only done very recently, why wasn’t it discovered thousands of years ago
  • It’s assumptions are more or less correct, but why is it only applying now
  • Constructivism piggy backed on Neo-Liberalism’s assumptions of the three revolutions
    • Information revolution
    • Communication revolution
    • Transportation revolution

💡 Takeaways

• Realism is too narrow

• Neo-Liberalism gave us new order

• Constructivism gave us more actors, types of powers, and authority, but didn’t give credits to Neo-Liberalism’s developments

• Only sometimes these 3 theories have competing assumptions and explainations

  • It depends on the case & context
  • Policy recommendation: you must judge which theory is better to explain this

• A theory must have (theory vs approach)

  • ontology: where their knowledge comes from
  • epistemology: what their assumptions are
  • methodology: looking at identity

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• What are the most compelling argument for each theory?
• Use one or more theories to apply to a case study, event.
• Case study
  • Ukraine-Russia Conflict:
    • Ukraine asks to join NATO → Balance of power change → Russia’s existential fear: Realism describe better
    • How would Neo-Liberalism explain it?
      • Economic Interdependence: Russia fears the change because billions of dollars of investments in Ukraine
    • How would Constructivism explain it?
      • Democratic norms are rising → Ukraine’s democracy & join NATO → Existential threat of Russia
  • China threaten Taiwan invasion
    • More bluff than real threat: no country announce a war before taking actions
      • No surprise advantage
      • Taiwan and allies could mass troops and position them ready
      • It would cost China too much: US is still more powerful
    • China doesn’t have the war time experience or veterans to run a war properly. The last war China was in?
  • End of Cold War: State as actor in the anarchic system