West Coast American Leadership Academy

Political Science 5 – Western Political Thought

Spring 2016 / Fall 2016 – Power Point 10

1. From Tariffs To Income Tax

2. Realism

3. Rational Choice

4. Liberal Theories

5. Liberal Institutionalism

6. Collective Security

7. The Waning Of War

8. International Regimes

9. Peace Studies

10.Kant & Peace

11.Why Gender Matters

12.Gender In War And Peace

Course Lecture Topics

Taxes

• From tariffs to income tax.

16th amendment passed in 1913.

• Progressive tax system.

Guiding societal norms of behavior.

Deductions, penalties.

• Social welfare programs.

We are all on the welfare dime.

Realism

• Human nature is the predominantfactor in a nation-state’s foreign policy.

• Abrupt philosophy focused on theinherent evils of mankind.

• World is wrought with anarchy.

• Hard power: economic & military.

• Survival is the key!

Rational Choice

• People base their decisions accordingto self-interest…as they define thatself-interest to be.

• Making a rational choice requiresperfect information.

• Emotions interfere with rational choice.

Liberal Theories

• Realism offers mostly dominance solutions

to the collective goods problems of

International Relations.

• Alternative theoretical approaches that draw

mostly on the reciprocity or identity principles

are called liberal theories.

• These approaches are generally more

optimistic than realism about the prospects

for peace.

Liberal Institutionalism

• Liberal institutionalism cannot adequately

explain how to maintain a stable international

system in a post-Cold War world.

Collective Security (1)

• John J. Mearsheimer lists nine reasons why states

may be unwilling to base their fate on collective

security systems:

Can only work when states are able to

differentiate between aggressor and victim and

utilize force against the later.

Collective security assumes that all aggression

is wrong.

States may be for historical or ideological

reasons, overly friendly.

Collective Security (2)

• Concept grows out of liberal institutionalism.

• Refers to the formation of a broad alliance of most

major actors in an international system for the purpose

of jointly opposing aggression by any actor.

Kant.

League of Nations.

Organization of America States, Arab League, and

the African Union.

Collective Security (3)

• States that have shared hostile relations in the

past may not be willing to cooperate.

• States that agree to combat aggression may not

be able to distribute the burden associated with

doing so.

• States have difficulty reacting quickly in a

collective security system.

• States may not be willing to join a collective

security system, as a local conflict can become

international.

Collective Security (4)

• Forcing states to instantaneously react to

aggression impinges on state sovereignty.

• Responsible states that normally see war as

repellent may not be willing to rescue threatened

states.

The Waning Of War

• In recent years, a strong trend toward fewer warshas become evident.

The current period is one of the least warlikeever.

World wars killed left whole continents in ruin.

Cold War – proxy wars killed millions and theworld feared a nuclear war that could havewiped out our species.

International Regimes

• Set of rules, norms, and procedures around whichthe expectations of actors converge in a certainissue area.

Participants have similar ideas about what ruleswill govern their mutual participation.

• Regimes can help solve collective goods problemsby increasing transparency.

• Conception of regime.

• Enforcement and survival of regimes. Role of permanent institutions such as the UN,

NATO, and the IMF.

Peace Studies

• Criticism: normative bias.

• Conflict resolution.

Mediation.

Citizen diplomacy.

Arbitration.

Confidence-building.

Linkage.

Kant & Peace (1)

• What explains this positive trend toward peace?

• Kant gave 3 answers over 200 years ago:

1.States could develop the organizations and rulesto facilitate cooperation (UN).

2.Peace depends on the internal character ofgovernments - specifically republics, with alegislative branch.

3.Trade promotes peace, relies on thepresumption that trade increases wealth,cooperation, and global well-being.

Kant & Peace (2)

• Kant argued that states could join a worldwidefederation and respect its principles.

Remain autonomous.

But forego certain short-term individual gains.

• Kant: International cooperation more rational optionthan going to war.

To realists, war is a rational option; to liberaltheorists, war is an irrational deviation thatresults from defective reasoning and that harmsthe interests of warring states.

Kant & Peace (3)

• Neoliberal approach differs from earlier liberalapproaches in that it concedes to realism severalimportant assumptions:

States are unitary actors rationally pursuing theirself-interests, but they say states cooperatebecause it is in their self-interest.

Mutual gains better than cheating or takingadvantage of each other.

Neorealist’ pessimism is unjustified. Statescooperate MOST of the time.

Positive reciprocity.

Why Gender Matters

• Feminist scholarship seeks to uncover hiddenassumptions about gender.

Core assumptions of realism reflect the ways inwhich males tend see the world.

No such thing as a “feminist approach” toInternational Relations.

Difference feminism: gender differencesimportant and fixed.

Liberal feminism: gender differences are trivial.

Postmodern feminism: gender differencesimportant but arbitrary and flexible.

Gender In War And Peace

• Difference feminists find plenty of evidence tosupport the idea of war as a masculine pursuit.

Males usually the primary, and often only,combatants in warfare.

Testosterone.

• Both biologically and anthropologically, no firmevidence connects women’s care giving functionswith any particular kinds of behavior such asreconciliation or nonviolence.

• Idea of women as peacemakers has a long history.

• Gender gap.