POL114H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Trans-Pacific Partnership, Immanuel Kant, Security Dilemma
Document Summary
See the world as a collection of sovereign states in constant competition for power and security, raison d"etat (reason of state) Russia was like gotta back ourselves up so they started building weapons, and usa predicted 20 years. Russia did it in 4 years, so then it started an arms race until usa got the hydrogen bomb. At the height of the cold war, both usa and russia had enough to destroy every city on earth 10x over - it was a system of deterrence. Neither side will attack the other because they are scared of counter attack. Central problem: avoiding war -> the only way to do this is to see the system for what it is and not what we want it to be. The united nations - veto power (us, china, russia, france, britain) - it is a largely crippled and failing organization. Ir - self help system - every man for themselves - ex: usa.
