POLSCI 1G06 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Washington Naval Treaty, Arms Control, Collective Action
13 Mar 2014
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Political science 1g06 2013 ii lecture 6a international relations. 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. Idealists suggested no it may be widespread and recurrent, but it is not inevitable. 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, at least potentially, be ended, if those institutions can themselves be reformed. In other words, the international system can be reformed in such a way that war will end.
