PSC 124 Study Guide - Nato, Collective Action, War Powers Resolution
6 Dec 2014
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Document Summary
Liberals: institutions/igos can help foster cooperation under anarchy. Review: international institutions are designed to create conditions that improve the likelihood of cooperation among member states, but, they can be undermined by the collective action problem. See league of nations failure: institutions may be more effective in some issue areas than others. The structure of the international system, according to waltz: ordered anarchically (a constant, states (units) functionally undifferentiated (a constant, distribution of capabilities (power) varies across states and time. They prefer outcomes that increase their security over outcomes that decrease it. The cost of being exploited varies with the offense-defense balance. To date, we"ve assumed state interests are fixed and that states make decisions based off of external factors. Such theoretical assumptions are powerful and helpful ways to explain state behavior (cooperation & conflict), but Something that most (if not all) actors within a country share.
