POLSCI 1G06 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Collective Security, Collective Action, Washington Naval Treaty
Thursday, February 4, 2016
Political Science 1G06 2016 II Lecture 6a International
Relations Theory
International Relations Theory
Is politics in the international realm fundamentally different than politics in the domestic realm?
If so, why?
• The Discipline of International Relations is divided into different theoretical camps
• Each theory offers a different explanation for why the international realm is structured as it is
• Why war and peace
• Why Cooperation and discord
Political Idealism
• Context of World War I
• Given its frequency throughout human history, is war inevitable?
• Idealists suggested no – it may be widespread and recurrent, but it is not inevitable
• first modern theory on international relations!
• war and peace!
• why do wars occur?!
• WWI - it emerges here!
• 17 million killed, 20 million killed by Spanish flu after!
• war itself is irrational and is something that we must overcome!
• can we do so? is war inevitable? (it is not, war can be overcome)!
• logic starts with human nature; for idealists human nature is cooperative!
• human species is a social species (cooperate tg )
• if the basic human nature if cooperation why does it fall apart?!
The logic here is as follows:
1. Human Nature is essentially cooperative, not antagonistic nor belligerent
• We know this to be the case from the fact that humans always group together into social
collectivities
2. This being so, war must be caused by something that channels this natural cooperation into something
more destructive
• Poorly designed institutions can pervert the natural human tendency to cooperate
3. Because war is caused by institutional failure rather than Human Nature, war can be rendered obsolete
• Provided that defective international institutions are reformed
• Peace requires the right International organizations and well-designed international law
• solution is to put better institutions in places to avoid war!
• international system was put into place (laws, collective security, etc)!
• collective security- agreement between all states that is there a threat that is posed to another
state, all states will join together to protect!
!1
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Political science 1g06 2016 ii lecture 6a international. The discipline of international relations is divided into different theoretical camps. Each theory offers a different explanation for why the international realm is structured as it is. Idealists suggested no it may be widespread and recurrent, but it is not inevitable. The logic here is as follows: human nature is essentially cooperative, not antagonistic nor belligerent. We know this to be the case from the fact that humans always group together into social collectivities: this being so, war must be caused by something that channels this natural cooperation into something more destructive. Poorly designed institutions can pervert the natural human tendency to cooperate: because war is caused by institutional failure rather than human nature, war can be rendered obsolete. Collective security is an institutional mechanism that can contribute to peace where an attack against - one state automatically triggers a war by all states against the aggressor.