INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS EXAM QUESTIONS WITH
COMPLETE SOLUTIONS
Afghanistan 2005 - ANSWER-The monopoly claim on coercive authority is tenuous at
best outside the capital.
Hierarchy - ANSWER-is a chain of command.
Anarchy - ANSWER-means that all the actors have equal authority, and are in equal
relationship to each other.
Great Power - ANSWER-state that can project power across the system
Multipolarity - ANSWER-Three or more Great Powers
Example - Europe at the beginning of the 20th century
Bipolarity - ANSWER-Two great powers
Examples
Athens and Sparta in Ancient Greece
USA and USSR during Cold War
Unipolarity - ANSWER-One great power
Example - the US right now
Economy - ANSWER-system for producing and distributing value
Mercantilism - ANSWER-Dominant mode of economic thought from beginning of
sovereign state system to Industrial Revolution (approximately 1648 to 1830s)
Adam Smith - ANSWER-Major Work: The Wealth of Nations, 1776
Influential for liberalism
Foundation of modern economics
Creation of wealth is possible.
Division of labor: each individual should do what they can do better than others,
allowing more wealth creation
Harmony of interests: each individual's pursuit of economic self-interest leads to best
possible outcome for the society as a whole (in the right conditions)
David Ricardo - ANSWER-Major Work: Principles of Political Economy and Taxation,
1817
, Law of Comparative Advantage: Each actor should specialize in the production that it
can do most efficiently, even if someone else can produce that same thing better.
Absolute Advantage - ANSWER-Specialization produces more wealth when each actor
produces what they can produce more efficiently than other actors.
Comparative Advantage - ANSWER-Specialization produces the most wealth when
each actor produces what it is individually best at producing, even if another actor could
produce the same thing more efficiently.
Ways to Close Markets - ANSWER-Autarky - official policy of producing all goods
domestically
costly and rare
Japan 1639 - 1868
North Korea today
Tariffs - tax on imports
Very common in 19th and 20th centuries
Quotas - only permitting set amount of imports
Subsidies - cash support to producers facing international competition
Agriculture heavily subsidized today
Stolper-Samuelson Theorem - ANSWER-Predicts who will win and who will lose when a
given state opens its markets
Depends on factors of production
Land
Unskilled Labor
Skilled Labor
Capital
Types of Interaction among Actors - ANSWER-All types of actors interact.
Harmony
Coordination
Cooperation
Conflict
What is a theory? - ANSWER-Simplification of reality
Perspective - tells you where to look
Statement about cause and effect
Which variables go together? (correlation)
Why does this regularity occur? (causal mechanism)
Independent/explanatory variable = cause
Dependent variable = effect/outcome
RELATIONS EXAM QUESTIONS WITH
COMPLETE SOLUTIONS
Afghanistan 2005 - ANSWER-The monopoly claim on coercive authority is tenuous at
best outside the capital.
Hierarchy - ANSWER-is a chain of command.
Anarchy - ANSWER-means that all the actors have equal authority, and are in equal
relationship to each other.
Great Power - ANSWER-state that can project power across the system
Multipolarity - ANSWER-Three or more Great Powers
Example - Europe at the beginning of the 20th century
Bipolarity - ANSWER-Two great powers
Examples
Athens and Sparta in Ancient Greece
USA and USSR during Cold War
Unipolarity - ANSWER-One great power
Example - the US right now
Economy - ANSWER-system for producing and distributing value
Mercantilism - ANSWER-Dominant mode of economic thought from beginning of
sovereign state system to Industrial Revolution (approximately 1648 to 1830s)
Adam Smith - ANSWER-Major Work: The Wealth of Nations, 1776
Influential for liberalism
Foundation of modern economics
Creation of wealth is possible.
Division of labor: each individual should do what they can do better than others,
allowing more wealth creation
Harmony of interests: each individual's pursuit of economic self-interest leads to best
possible outcome for the society as a whole (in the right conditions)
David Ricardo - ANSWER-Major Work: Principles of Political Economy and Taxation,
1817
, Law of Comparative Advantage: Each actor should specialize in the production that it
can do most efficiently, even if someone else can produce that same thing better.
Absolute Advantage - ANSWER-Specialization produces more wealth when each actor
produces what they can produce more efficiently than other actors.
Comparative Advantage - ANSWER-Specialization produces the most wealth when
each actor produces what it is individually best at producing, even if another actor could
produce the same thing more efficiently.
Ways to Close Markets - ANSWER-Autarky - official policy of producing all goods
domestically
costly and rare
Japan 1639 - 1868
North Korea today
Tariffs - tax on imports
Very common in 19th and 20th centuries
Quotas - only permitting set amount of imports
Subsidies - cash support to producers facing international competition
Agriculture heavily subsidized today
Stolper-Samuelson Theorem - ANSWER-Predicts who will win and who will lose when a
given state opens its markets
Depends on factors of production
Land
Unskilled Labor
Skilled Labor
Capital
Types of Interaction among Actors - ANSWER-All types of actors interact.
Harmony
Coordination
Cooperation
Conflict
What is a theory? - ANSWER-Simplification of reality
Perspective - tells you where to look
Statement about cause and effect
Which variables go together? (correlation)
Why does this regularity occur? (causal mechanism)
Independent/explanatory variable = cause
Dependent variable = effect/outcome
