Introduction to International Relations - Leiden
University IRO Study Questions Solved 100%
Correct| Latest Update 2024/25
What is the myth of Westphalia? - ✔✔- 400 years long process of implementation of
"Westphalian" principles
- Eurocentrism: example being similar changes in China 770-221 BC, during its feudal period,
where Qin states' victory led to a centralized, bureaucratic empire
- Multiple other regional international orders (Lawson) - other types of political units & inter-
units organization
Alternative argument about emergence of the sovereign state - ✔✔- Charles Tilly - "Wars
made the state and the state made war"
- Evolutionary argument: explains that states compete for population, territory and survival
1. Threat of war - rulers forced to defend borders
2. Larger, more centralized states, increased tax collection & military recruitment
3. Expand representative rule & bureaucracy
4. Strong states survive, weak perish
Explanation for emergence of states & "state systems"
Legacies of the long 19th century - ✔✔1. Rise of the West and the "great divergence"
(Pomeranz)
- Not in isolation, but due to previous global networks
- Industrialization (& de-industrialization)
,- Evolution of the state
- Tech changes (steamships, trains, telegraph
- Imperialism & colonialism
2. Emergence of unified intl. order
- Interdependence
- First IOs, international standards set
- Exploitation & inequality at global level
3. Why does this matter today?
- Manjari Miller's "Wronged by Empire"
- Early stages (historical context) of globalization & inequalities
- 1905: rise of the rest?
How did the World Wars impact IR? - ✔✔1. Led to emergence of IR discipline
- First IR debate: causes of WW1
- First chair of IR in 1919
- Structured the realism-liberalism debate
2. Changed nature of war and its implications
3. Further changing the state system
How did the Cold War impact IR? - ✔✔1. Globalization of post-WW2 politics
- From decolonization to cold-war rivalries
- Bipolar world
- Formation of long-term alliances
,- Non-alignment of global south (Bandung Conference 1955)
2. Nuclear revolution - "long peace" sustained by mutual deterrence
3. Led to emergence of the institutionalized (liberal?) intl. order today
The End of History - ✔✔- Famous post-Cold War article from Francis Fukuyama
- With end of CW, no ideological alternative to liberalism
- 30 years later, the return of history?
Questions on the post-Cold War Era - ✔✔1. The US as sole superpower: unipolar moment?
2. The end of conflict?
3. Did 9/11 change IR?
4. Will the globalization of IR continue?
5. Will the rise of new powers change IR?
What is Polarity in IR? - ✔✔Description of the international system:
- Unipolarity
- Bipolarity
- Multipolarity
- Balanced = more or less stable intl. order
- Hegemony: 1 dominant leadership by 1 state
What is the international system? - ✔✔- The comprehensive global context in which states
operate
- System: an assemblage of units united by some form of regular interaction
- Intl. system: sum of all these interactions
, What is an international order? - ✔✔A stable, structured pattern of relationships among
states
What is the future of American hegemony? - ✔✔1. Post-Cold War characterized as the
"unipolar moment" (Krauthammer 1990)
2. Into the unknown?
- Back to the future? (Mearsheimer 1990)
- What to do with American primacy (Haas 2000)
3. Retrenchment/restraint vs. engagement
- Unsettled debate
Is the world becoming more peaceful? - ✔✔YES (Pinker)
- Decline in violence over fatalities
- Emergence of "better angels"
No
- Data problems (e.g. battlefield deaths)
- Conflict between developing vs. developed world
- Total no. of conflicts increased (but low-intensity)
- "New and Old Wars" (Kaldor). New = interstate but also involves NSAs
Impact of 9/11 on IR - ✔✔1. 9/11 was a result of a series of old and new developments
2. Transformative events in many ways
- Security policies of next 15 years
University IRO Study Questions Solved 100%
Correct| Latest Update 2024/25
What is the myth of Westphalia? - ✔✔- 400 years long process of implementation of
"Westphalian" principles
- Eurocentrism: example being similar changes in China 770-221 BC, during its feudal period,
where Qin states' victory led to a centralized, bureaucratic empire
- Multiple other regional international orders (Lawson) - other types of political units & inter-
units organization
Alternative argument about emergence of the sovereign state - ✔✔- Charles Tilly - "Wars
made the state and the state made war"
- Evolutionary argument: explains that states compete for population, territory and survival
1. Threat of war - rulers forced to defend borders
2. Larger, more centralized states, increased tax collection & military recruitment
3. Expand representative rule & bureaucracy
4. Strong states survive, weak perish
Explanation for emergence of states & "state systems"
Legacies of the long 19th century - ✔✔1. Rise of the West and the "great divergence"
(Pomeranz)
- Not in isolation, but due to previous global networks
- Industrialization (& de-industrialization)
,- Evolution of the state
- Tech changes (steamships, trains, telegraph
- Imperialism & colonialism
2. Emergence of unified intl. order
- Interdependence
- First IOs, international standards set
- Exploitation & inequality at global level
3. Why does this matter today?
- Manjari Miller's "Wronged by Empire"
- Early stages (historical context) of globalization & inequalities
- 1905: rise of the rest?
How did the World Wars impact IR? - ✔✔1. Led to emergence of IR discipline
- First IR debate: causes of WW1
- First chair of IR in 1919
- Structured the realism-liberalism debate
2. Changed nature of war and its implications
3. Further changing the state system
How did the Cold War impact IR? - ✔✔1. Globalization of post-WW2 politics
- From decolonization to cold-war rivalries
- Bipolar world
- Formation of long-term alliances
,- Non-alignment of global south (Bandung Conference 1955)
2. Nuclear revolution - "long peace" sustained by mutual deterrence
3. Led to emergence of the institutionalized (liberal?) intl. order today
The End of History - ✔✔- Famous post-Cold War article from Francis Fukuyama
- With end of CW, no ideological alternative to liberalism
- 30 years later, the return of history?
Questions on the post-Cold War Era - ✔✔1. The US as sole superpower: unipolar moment?
2. The end of conflict?
3. Did 9/11 change IR?
4. Will the globalization of IR continue?
5. Will the rise of new powers change IR?
What is Polarity in IR? - ✔✔Description of the international system:
- Unipolarity
- Bipolarity
- Multipolarity
- Balanced = more or less stable intl. order
- Hegemony: 1 dominant leadership by 1 state
What is the international system? - ✔✔- The comprehensive global context in which states
operate
- System: an assemblage of units united by some form of regular interaction
- Intl. system: sum of all these interactions
, What is an international order? - ✔✔A stable, structured pattern of relationships among
states
What is the future of American hegemony? - ✔✔1. Post-Cold War characterized as the
"unipolar moment" (Krauthammer 1990)
2. Into the unknown?
- Back to the future? (Mearsheimer 1990)
- What to do with American primacy (Haas 2000)
3. Retrenchment/restraint vs. engagement
- Unsettled debate
Is the world becoming more peaceful? - ✔✔YES (Pinker)
- Decline in violence over fatalities
- Emergence of "better angels"
No
- Data problems (e.g. battlefield deaths)
- Conflict between developing vs. developed world
- Total no. of conflicts increased (but low-intensity)
- "New and Old Wars" (Kaldor). New = interstate but also involves NSAs
Impact of 9/11 on IR - ✔✔1. 9/11 was a result of a series of old and new developments
2. Transformative events in many ways
- Security policies of next 15 years
