VOCABULARY – INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. Global Politics: the politics of global social relations in which the pursuit of power,
interests, order, and justice transcends regions and continents.
2. International Relations: the study of the interactions of states (countries) and other
actors in the international system.
3. Nongovernmental organization (NGO): an organization, usually a grassroots one,
with policy goals but not governmental in makeup. An NGO is any group of people
relating to each other regularly in some formal manner and engaging in collective
action, provided the activities are noncommercial and nonviolent and are not on
behalf of government.
4. Transnational actor: any nongovernmental actor, such as a multinational corporation
or a global religious humanitarian organization, that has dealings with any actor from
another country or with an international organization.
5. Government: the people and agencies that have the power and legitimate authority to
determine who gets what, when, where, and how within a given territory.
6. Nonstate Actor: any participant in global politics that is neither acting in the name of
government nor created and served by government.
7. Nongovernmental organizations: terrorist networks, global crime syndicates, and
multinational corporations are examples.
8. Multinational corporation or enterprise (MNC/MNE): a business or firm with
administration, production, distribution, and marketing located in countries around the
world. Such a business moves money, goods, services, and technology around the
world depending on where the firm can make the most profit.
9. Nation: a community of people who share a common sense of identity, which may be
derived from language, culture, or ethnicity, this community may be a minority within
a single country or live in more than one country.
10. State: a legal territorial entity composed of a stable population and a government.
It possess a monopoly over the legitimate use of force; its sovereignty is recognized
by other states in the international system.
11. Nation-State: a political community in which the state claims legitimacy on the
grounds that it represents all citizens, including those who may identify as a separate
community or nation.
12. Sovereignty: the condition of a state having control and authority over its own
territory and being free from any higher legal authority. It is related to, but distinct
from, the condition of a government being free from any external political constraints.
13. Realism: a theoretical approach that analyzes all international relations as the relation
of states engaged in the pursuit of power. Realists see the international system as
anarchic, or without a common power, and they believe conflict is endemic in the
international system.
14. Liberalism: a theoretical approach that argues human rights, parliamentary
democracy, and free trade---while also maintaining that all such goals must begin
within a state.
15. Constructivism: an approach to international politics that concerns itself with the
centrality of ideas and human consciousness. As constructivists have examined global
politics, they have been broadly interested in how the structure constructs the actors’
identities and interests, how their interactions are organized and constrained by that
structure, and how their very interaction serves to either reproduce or transform that
structure.
16. Grotian Tradition: a liberal tradition in international relations theory name for Hugo
Grotius that emphasizes the rule of law and multilateral cooperation. Grotians believe
the international system is not anarchic, but interdependent; a society of states is
created in part by international law, treaties, alliances, and diplomacy, which states
are bound by and ought to uphold.
17. Kantian Tradition: a revolutionary tradition in international relations theory name for
Immanuel Kant that emphasizes human interests over state interests.
18. Paradigm: a model or example. In the case of international relations theory, the term
is a rough synonym for ‘academic perspective.’ A paradigm provides the basis for a
theory, describing what is real and significant in a given area so that we can select
appropriate research questions.
19. Interparadigm debate: the debate between the main theoretical approaches in the
field of global politics.
20. Cognitive Consistency: The tendency of individuals to accept information that is
compatible with what has previously been accepted, often by ignoring inconsistent
information; linked to the desire of individuals to be consistent in their attitudes.
21. Cold War: The era in international relations between the end of World War II and
1990, distinguished by ideological, economic, political, and military rivalry between
the Soviet Union and the United States
22. Collective good: public goods that are available to all regardless of individual
contribution - e.g., the air, the oceans, or Antartica - but that no one owns or is
individually responsible for; with collective goods, decisions by one group or state
have effects on other groups or states
23. Collective security: the concept that agression against a state should be defeated
collectively because aggression against one state is an aggression against all; basis of
League of Nations and United Nations.
24. Comparative advantage: the ability of a country to make and export a good
relatively more efficiently than other countries; the basis for the liberal economic
principle that countries benefit from free trade among nations.
25. Complex peacekeeping: multidimensional operations using military and civilian
personnel, often including traditional peacekeeping and nation-building activities;
 more dangerous because not all parties have consented and because force is usually
used.
26. Cultural relativism: the belief that human rights, ethics, and morality are
determined by cultures and history and therefore are not universally the same.
27. Democratic peace: theory supported by empirical evidence that democratic states do
not fight wars against each other, but do fight wars against authoritarian states.
28. Demographic transition: the situation in which increasing levels of economic
development lead to falling death rates, followed by falling birthrates
29. Dependency theorists: individuals whose ideas are derived from radicalism, and
explain poverty and underdevelopment in developing countries based on their
historical dependence on and domination by rich countries.
30. Direct foreign investment: investing in another state, usually by multinational
corporations, by establishing a manufacturing facility or developing an extractive
industry.
31. Disarmament: the policy of eliminating a state's offensive weaponry; may occur for
all classes of weapons or for specified weapons only; the logic of the policy is that
fewer weapons leads to greater security
32. Ethnonational movements: the participation in organized political activity of self-
conscious communities sharing an ethnic affiliation; some movements seek autonomy
within an organized state; others desire separation and the formation of a new state;
still others want to join with a different state.
33. European Union (EU): a union of twenty-seven European states, formerly the
European Economic Community; designed originally during the 1950s for economic
integration but since expanded into a closer political and economic union.
34. General Assembly: one of the major organs of the United Nations; generally
adresses issues other than those of peace and security; each member state has one
vote; operates with six functional committees composed of all member states