Week 7 Handout

PS 140 Handout for Week 7 Week of October 18th, 2021 Lectures 10 & 11 Textbook 5.3, 6.3-4; Willcoxon, “Syria, Seven Years of War Explained” Video, Ghosh, Council on Foreign Relations, Bapat, Tannenwald, & “The Battle of Algiers” movie Key terms and concepts Cycle Theories • Definition: • Example & other details: Nationalism • Definition: • Example & other details: Ethnic groups • Definition: • Example & other details: Ethnocentrism • Definition: • Example & other details: Dehumanization • Definition: • Example & other details: Genocide • Definition: • Example & other details: Secular • Definition: • Example & other details: Islam/Muslims • Definition: • Example & other details: Islamist • Definition: • Example & other details: Irredentism • • Definition: Example & other details: State-sponsored Terrorism • Definition: • Example & other details: Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) • Definition: • Example & other details: Fissionable Material • Definition: • Example & other details: Ballistic Missiles • Definition: • Example & other details: Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) • Definition: • Example & other details: Cruise Missile • Definition: • Example & other details: Missile Technology Control Regime • Definition: • Example & other details: Chemical Weapons Convention • Definition: • Example & other details: Biological Weapons Convention • Definition: • Example & other details: Proliferation • Definition: • Example & other details: Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) • Definition: • Example & other details: Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) • Definition: • Example & other details: Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) • Definition: • Example & other details: Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty • Definition: • Example & other details: Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) • Definition: • Example & other details: Discussion 1. What types of conflict do we see in IR? Which do you think is the hardest to resolve? Interstate conflicts, intrastate conflicts, ethnic conflicts, resource conflicts, ideological conflicts, territorial conflicts. Hardest to solve: Interstate and Intrastate Interstate: can escalate into bigger wars and often involve national pride, making compromise harder. Intrastate: Rooted in identity, inequality, and historical grievances which can complicate negotiations and reconciliation efforts. 2. The rise of fundamentalism among the world’s major religions challenges traditional notions of state sovereignty. How might this trend strengthen, or weaken, the United Nations and other attempts to create supranational authority (which also challenges state sovereignty)? Strengthen: • Global solidarity against extremism: the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy promotes member states to work together to address terrorism • Human rights advocacy: Fundamentalism may provote human rights violations and in turn, can make these issues global issues. The UN can utilize human rights frameworks to intervene in states where fundamentalist groups threaten minority rights or perpetrate violence Weaken: • When citizens prioritize religious or ideological commitments over national loyalty, it can undermine the legitimacy of state governance. • Resistance to global governance: Countries may resist UN initiatives as they see it as infringing on their sovereignty or cultural values. Can lead to a decline in the effectiveness of international agreements and institutions, as states prioritize their national agendas over collective action • Challenges in consensus building: When member states hold fundamentally different views influenced by their religious ideologies, achieving consensus becomes difficult. 3. When does nationalism lead to war? Which of the explanation(s) covered in lecture do you find most convincing? • Democratization, weak administrative institutions, past atrocities, dispora politics, power balance, societal cleavages • Past atrocities because grievances can bring states to do whatever means necessary to take back what was “theirs” 4. Willcoxon found three primary sets of drivers of post-war relapse into conflict. What are they/explain them? • Political institutions of post-war countries: factors like when the next election is and decentralization impact post-war risks • Military and security-related factors: Larger militaries allow for more mitigation of conflict and the presences of UN peacekeepers lowers the risk • Economic growth: Income growth per capita, growth needs to be gradual or else it indicates high risk of relapse 5. Imagine a world in which most of the states, rather than just a few, had nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles. Would it be more peaceful or more war-prone? Why? War-prone: • Miscalculation and misinterpretation of intentions could result in a nuclear conflict (emphasis on the security dilemma) • Exacerbation of regional tensions • Possibility of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of non-state actors of terrorist groups