International Relations
Lecture 1 (Week 2)
Dr Sotirios Karampampas
How can we study international relations?
Textbook: World Politics, Friedan, Jeffrey A…
Essay due 24 NOVEMBER , 2500 words
International Relations – study of how countries engage with each other in
conflict and cooperation.
The field of IR concerns the relationships among states
-Understand global affairs and interactions between states, International
organisations and other actors
- Achieve national security through assessing a country’s threats
Core concepts:
-Interests of International actors
Levels of analysis
-International leve;
-Domestic level
-Transnational level
Interests:
-Power and security
-Economic/material welfare
-Ideological
Interactions – the ways in which the choices of two or more actors combine to
produce
Bargaining – an interaction in which two or more actors must choose outcomes
that make one better off at the
, Cooperation – an interaction in which two or more actors adopt policies that
make at leats one actor better off relative to the status quo without making
others worse off.
Institutions- sets of rules that structure interaction in specific ways
Lecture 2 ( Week 3)
“Why do states fight each other?”
A war is an event involving the organised violence by at least two partie that
reaches a minimum threshold of severity
-Interstate wars
-Civil wars
-War is a recurrent features of international policies
Approaches on understanding interstate wars:
-Realist
-Cognitive-psychological
-Constructivist
Realism
-War is the inevitable result of internationally anarchy
-Anarchy creates insecurity and competition for power
-Security dilemma
-The increase in one state's security (such as increasing its military strength)
leads other states to fear for their own security
-States fight wars either to increase their own power or to counter the power of
others
-The absence of a higher authority means that wars can happen because there is
nothing to stop states from using it to advance their interests
Cognitive-psychological approach
-War is a result of misperceptions
Lecture 1 (Week 2)
Dr Sotirios Karampampas
How can we study international relations?
Textbook: World Politics, Friedan, Jeffrey A…
Essay due 24 NOVEMBER , 2500 words
International Relations – study of how countries engage with each other in
conflict and cooperation.
The field of IR concerns the relationships among states
-Understand global affairs and interactions between states, International
organisations and other actors
- Achieve national security through assessing a country’s threats
Core concepts:
-Interests of International actors
Levels of analysis
-International leve;
-Domestic level
-Transnational level
Interests:
-Power and security
-Economic/material welfare
-Ideological
Interactions – the ways in which the choices of two or more actors combine to
produce
Bargaining – an interaction in which two or more actors must choose outcomes
that make one better off at the
, Cooperation – an interaction in which two or more actors adopt policies that
make at leats one actor better off relative to the status quo without making
others worse off.
Institutions- sets of rules that structure interaction in specific ways
Lecture 2 ( Week 3)
“Why do states fight each other?”
A war is an event involving the organised violence by at least two partie that
reaches a minimum threshold of severity
-Interstate wars
-Civil wars
-War is a recurrent features of international policies
Approaches on understanding interstate wars:
-Realist
-Cognitive-psychological
-Constructivist
Realism
-War is the inevitable result of internationally anarchy
-Anarchy creates insecurity and competition for power
-Security dilemma
-The increase in one state's security (such as increasing its military strength)
leads other states to fear for their own security
-States fight wars either to increase their own power or to counter the power of
others
-The absence of a higher authority means that wars can happen because there is
nothing to stop states from using it to advance their interests
Cognitive-psychological approach
-War is a result of misperceptions
