POLS 2000 Lecture 1: 1
5 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Kim 1
-The Hazards of Correcting Myths about health care reform
-War Games
-Games often mimic the study of international politics and the realist perspective
-Most international politics is: trade, travel, mail delivery, telephone service,
environmental regulation, etc
-Most studied international politics is: war
-War is rare
-What causes war?
-What does fiction tell us?
-Seldom addresses the international politics of war
-Usually only tells us people caught up in wars
-IS war a choice?
-War is no accident
-Choice to go to war is consciously and rationally made by at least one of the
participants
-Is war rational?
-To understand war, we need to understand anarchy
-Realism
-Theory that is directly derived from a few assumptions about anarchy
-Theory of international politics operating in an anarchic environment
-History of Realism and Idealism
-WW1 was really bad
-No one would ever choose that
-Development of War as Accident Theory (post WW1)
-Idealism based on obsession with preventing war
-But it did’t work
-Idealis did’t work eause of aarhy
-Realism & its assumptions
-States as rational unitary actors
-This line of thinking limits the effect that domestic politics can have on
international relations to the point where most phenomena can be explained
entirely by dynamics external to the state
-Unitary rational states interact in an anarchic environment
-States seek security in a world where there is no overarching authority to
which they can turn for protection
-Realism is often described as a systematic theory because the nature of the
anarchic system defines the dynamics of how international politics will work
-Power is the fundamental resource to be pursued
-In an anarchist environment, power is all that is required to do whatever it is
that the unitary rational state thinks needs doing
-Goal: obtain more power through acquiring land/people
-Back to game analogy
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
The hazards of correcting myths about health care reform. Games often mimic the study of international politics and the realist perspective. Most international politics is: trade, travel, mail delivery, telephone service, environmental regulation, etc. Usually only tells us people caught up in wars. Choice to go to war is consciously and rationally made by at least one of the participants. Theory that is directly derived from a few assumptions about anarchy. Theory of international politics operating in an anarchic environment. To understand war, we need to understand anarchy. Development of war as accident theory (post ww1) This line of thinking limits the effect that domestic politics can have on international relations to the point where most phenomena can be explained entirely by dynamics external to the state. Unitary rational states interact in an anarchic environment. States seek security in a world where there is no overarching authority to which they can turn for protection.
