Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Perspectives on international relations
- The study of international relations uses perspectives and levels of analysis to help us describe,
explain, and predict world events.
- There are three “mainstream” perspectives: realist, liberal,
and identity. Each focuses on a different factor as the cause
of world events.
- Realist
- Power
- The international system is
anarchic, forcing states to rely
on self-help for protection.
- History is largely a cyclical phenomenon
- Liberal
- Interactions and institutions
- Believe that repeated interactions, changes in
technology, and institutions can change the
incentives that prisoners face and allow them to
cooperate.
- View history as more of a linear progressio
- Indentity
- Ideas
- Emphasizes the development of ideas and at how
these ideational traditions have impacted the
course of history.
- Crithical theory
- Challenges the idea that we can
explain world events apart from the
historical and social context in which
they take place.
- Argues that it is difficult to abstract the behavior of
states in the way discussed. Instead, deep historical
and social circumstances are key determinants in the
way events unfold.
- Levels of analysis are used to determine where the causes of an
event originate
- Individual
- Characteristics of specific
decision-makers
- Domestic
- Characteristics of specific
states or of types of states
- Foreign policy
- Internal and external pressures that
shape foreign policy-making.
- Systematic
- Characteristics of the international system
- Structure
- Process
- We view international relations through the window of our moral
philosophy.
- Relativists
- All truth is relative and that no universal moral
standards exist.
- Universalists
- Some moral principles apply to all people at
all times
- Pragmatists
- The practice of international affairs demands a
practical approach to ethical issues.