Term
| Anarchical International System |
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Definition
| The traditional structure of world politics in which there is no central authority to set and enforce rules and resolve disputes |
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| A subdivision of liberal thought that is optimistic about human nature and believes that people can acheieve more collectively than individually, that people understand this, and therefore given the opportunity, people will seek to work together in their common, long term interests. |
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| A subdivision of realist thought, which believes that the root cause of conflict is the aggressive nature of humans. |
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| The view that the course of international relations is an interactive process in which theideas of and communications among "agents" (or actors: individuals, groups, and social structures, including states) serve to create "structures" (treaties, laws, international organizations, and other aspects of the international system), which, in turn influence the ideas and communications of the agents. |
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Definition
| Policy making through a variety of processes, including referendums, by which citizens directly cast ballots on policy issues. |
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| Economic Internationalism |
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Definition
| The belief that international economic relations should and can be conducted cooperatively because the international economy is a non-zero-sum game in which prosperity is available to all. |
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| The belief that the state should use its ecconomic strength to further national interests, and taht a state should use its power to build its economic strength. |
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| The belief that economic struture determines politics, as the conduct of world politics is based on the way that the world is organized economically. A radical restructuring of the economic system is required to end the uneven distribution of wealth and power. |
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Definition
| The view that women have been suppressed and ignored in both politics and political scholarship and have had to strive to achieve greater equality. |
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| A budget year, which may or may not be the same as the calendar year. The U.S. fiscal year runs from October 1 through September 30 and is referred to by its ending date. Thus FY2007 ran from October 1, 2006, through September 30, 2007. |
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Term
| Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) |
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Definition
| International/transnational actors that are composed of member countries. |
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| The merger of international and domestic concerns and decisions. |
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| The view that people and the countries that represent them are capable of finding mutual interests and cooperating to achieve them, by forming ties between countries and also by working together for the common good through international organizations and according to international law. |
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Definition
| The view that conflict and other ills that result from the anarchical international system can be eased by building global and regional organizations and processes that will allow people, groups, countries, and other international actors to cooperate for thier mutual benefit. |
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Definition
| The view that the self-interested struggle for power among countries is caused by the anarchical nature of the international system, which leaves each state solely responsible for its safety and welfare and forces each state to pursue its interests in competition with other states. |
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Term
| Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) |
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Definition
| International (transnational organizations with private memberships). |
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Definition
| A contest in which gains by one or more players can be achieved without offsetting losses for any other player or players. |
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| An idea or connected set of ideas about why things happen and how events related to one another. |
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| This theory holds that reality does not exist as such. Rather, reality is created by how we think our discourse (writing, talking). As applied to world politics, postmodernism is the belief that we have become trapped by stale ways of conceiving of how we organize and conduct ourselves. Postmodernists wish, therefore, to "deconstruct" discourse. |
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Definition
| The view that world politics is driven by competitive self-interest, and, therefore, that the central dynamic of international system is a struggle for power among countries as each tries to preserve or, preferably, improve its military secuity and economic welfar in competition with other states. |
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Definition
| The most essential characteristic of an international state. The term strongly implies political independence from any higher autority and also suggests at least theoretical equality. |
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Definition
| A political actor that has sovereignty and a number of characteristics, including, territory, population, organization, and recognition. |
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Definition
| A contest in which gains by one player can only be achieved by equal losses for other players. |
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