Term
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Definition
- Game theory is a process that models the strategic interaction between two or more players in a situation containing a set of rules and outcomes
- A player’s strategy will determine the action the player will take at any point in the game
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Term
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Definition
Three widely accepted levels of generalization to help understand complex problems in world politics:
1. The individual
2. The state (or society)
3. The international system |
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Term
| Balance of Power (Realism) |
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Definition
- A theory that suggests that international security is enhanced when there is a balance of military capabilities amongst national actors so that no one state can dominate the others
- “Balancing” is the act of states allying with one another in a coalition as a means of defending themselves against a powerful aggressor |
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Term
| The Security Dilemma (Realism) |
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Definition
- Definition: “the measures a state takes to increase its own security may decrease the security of others”
- A vicious, fatalistic action-reaction cycle that increases state fear and their perception of the need to further arm and enter into alliances
- Led to arms race in the Middle East |
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Term
| Heuristics & Representativeness (Cognitive Psychology) |
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Definition
- Heuristics is a concept in cognitive psychology that represents a mental shortcuts which helps reduce complexities and simplifies decision-making.
- Representativeness is a type of Heuristic that explains how we estimate the likelihood of an event by comparing it to an existing prototype that already exists in our mind. |
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Term
| The Commitment Problem (Bargaining Model of War) |
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Definition
| - In the anarchy of international politics, states may be unable to commit themselves to following through on an agreement and may also have incentives to violate that agreement and wage war. - Preemptive: The first-strike advantage and the fear of imminent attack - Preventative: If a declining power expects it might be attacked by a rising power in the future, then a preventive war in the present may be rational; employed based on the fear that a country could revise the bargaining settlement once it is more powerful - Goods/objects that are a source of future bargaining power: State leaders frequently bargain over territory using threats to go to war. Because territory is not just directly valuable but can also be used to generate military resources, a deal struck today may affect the terms of deals struck in the future. In particular, conceding territory to another state may allow it to grow stronger militarily and so to demand yet more in the future (e.g. mountain ranges, oil). |
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Term
| The diversionary theory of war (relationship between domestic politics and foreign policy) |
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Definition
| When leaders of states who are threatened by domestic turmoil occasionally initiate an international conflict in order to shift the nation's attention away from internal troubles. |
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Term
| The 1858 Ottoman Land Code |
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Definition
- Revolutionary because land went from being communally owned to individual, titled property with the payment of a registration fee
- Led to the stratification of Arab society between those who could pay the registration fee and those who could not, creating indebted servants
- “Absentee landlords” and regional authorities were able to sell their land to the Jewish population all over the world (largely Russia) in the 1920s |
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Term
| The Young Turk Revolution |
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Definition
| - Young Turks’ Movement, July 1908 Revolution - allows freedom of the press, resulting in the emergence of information criticizing the Ottoman empire and articulating Arab consciousness/identity |
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Term
| The emergence of Arab nationalism before WWI |
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Definition
| - First Arab Congress, 1913 - calls for autonomy, Arabic as the national language and taught in schools; did not request for statehood/independence but rather some form of autonomy and civil/social rights |
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Term
| In what context/background did Zionism emerge? |
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Definition
Zionism was a response to the Jewish condition in Western and Eastern Europe
1. Pale of Settlement - Tsarist Russia limiting Jewish population to the region of present day Poland, Ukraine and Belarus; the region was known for its discrimination of the Jewish people; most immigrants who came to Palestine in the 20th century came from the pale of settlement because their living conditions were the most harsh
2. 1881 Pogrom- Russian government sponsored massacres, restrictions, and persecutions of Jews following the assassination of the Czar Alexander II in Russia. One of the plotters was found to be jewish.
3. The Dreyfus Affair (1894)- Dreyfus was a Jewish officer of the french general staff, he was accused of treason. Herzl believed he was framed. It was later discovered that he was framed, but this unleashed a wave of anti semitism in France. This event became a symbol of Jewish inequality and confirmed to Herzl that anti-semitism in Europe was incurable. |
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