GOV 120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Utopia, John Maynard Keynes
The 4 Levels of Analysis
1. Individual: focuses on the choices and actions of individual human beings (usually state
actors)
2. Domestic: focuses on the phenomena and/or aggregations of people within states that
influence foreign policy (sub state actors, domestic economics, political institutions, etc.)
3. Interstate: focuses on the interactions between states that occur within the international
system (diplomatic relations, IGOs, international law, balance of power).
4. Global Level: focuses on global trends and forces that transcend the actions of states (global
capitalism, the fallout effects of imperialism, environmental factors, global terrorism).
The Establishment of the Modern State System
• The modern state system has its roots in 2 events
o The Peace of Westphalia: (1648) a pair of treaties signed after the thirty years war
(1618-1648)
▪ The war was fought between the great powers of Europe (Spain, France, the
Netherlands, Sweden, etc.) over the Holy Roman Empire
▪ The treaties set three important principles
▪ States are territorial
▪ States are sovereign
▪ States are equal
o The Congress of Vienna: (1815) a series of meetings whose purpose was to decide the
shape of Europe after the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815)
▪ Reestablished Westphalian principles
▪ And created a forum for peace management known as the Concert of Europe
International Relations and the League of Nations
• International Relations first became an academic discipline in 1918
o Inspired by the nature of WW1 (1914-1918)
o As was the League of Nations
▪ An intergovernmental organization founded to maintain world peace in 1919
• League of Nations provisions included:
o A collective security agreement: or a broad alliance in which aggression by any one actor
is opposed by all others.
o The Kellogg-Briand Act: a disarmament and non aggression pact.
• Yet the league failed to carry out its mission (Japanese took over Manchuria in 1931)
• The Twenty Years’ Crisis- by Edward Carr was written in order to counter this post-WWI
intellectual trend
• Some of the reasons given for WWI:
o Nationalism
o Economic Imperialism and Colonial Expansion
o A series of secret alliances
o Arms Races and a Cult of the Offensive
The Big Two-Realism and Liberal Idealism
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Document Summary
Individual: focuses on the choices and actions of individual human beings (usually state actors: domestic: focuses on the phenomena and/or aggregations of people within states that influence foreign policy (sub state actors, domestic economics, political institutions, etc. ) Netherlands, sweden, etc. ) over the holy roman empire: the treaties set three important principles. International relations first became an academic discipline in 1918: inspired by the nature of ww1 (1914-1918, as was the league of nations, an intergovernmental organization founded to maintain world peace in 1919. Some of the reasons given for wwi: nationalism, economic imperialism and colonial expansion, a series of secret alliances, arms races and a cult of the offensive. The big two-realism and liberal idealism: realism: explains international relations as a struggle for power between states in an anarchic (or chaotic) world, cooperation between states is unlikely and tenuous. It is the oldest perspective toward world politics (sun tzu, machiavelli, hobbes: though the younger ir theory (becoming prominent after wwii)
