POLI 244 Study Guide - Stephen Walt

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Document Summary

To what extent and how does this distribution of capabilities (distinctive among states in the contemporary global system) matter for patterns of international politics: the global system today has concentrated power capabilities. Definition and measurement unprecedented in the modern era. Unipolarity: used to distinguish a system with one extremely capable state from systems with two or more great powers (bi, tri or multipolarity) Therefore, the concentration of military and overall economic potential in the us distinguishes the current international system from its predecessors. *author saying the international system we have now is very unipolar in comparison to past bipolar and multipolar systems. Offers powerful structural incentives for the leading state to be revisionist (tendency to prefer reform over revolutionary change) Free-ride problem of public/collective goods need cooperation. Cooperation in ir requires the leadership of a dominant state: dominant state: bears disproportionate share of costs to offer international collective goods (eg. open world economy, stable security order).