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Exam 2
Chapters 6-10
20
Political Studies
Undergraduate 4
11/02/2011

Additional Political Studies Flashcards

 


 

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Term
Asymmetrical Conflicts
Definition
In symmetrical warfare, armies with comparable weapons, tactics, and organizational structures do battle. Wars are fought on near-equal terms of weapons and technology, the weaker side adopts asymmetrical tactics. These include guerrilla warfare, roadside bombs, attacks on civilians, and other terrorist attacks.
Term
Collective Security
Definition
Refers to an arrangement where "each state in the system accepts that the security of one is the concern of all, and agrees to join in a collective response to agression."
Term
Regimes
Definition
Sets of implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures around which actors' expectations converge in a given area of international relations. Often simply defined as governing arrangements in a regional or global policy area.
Term
Veto Power
Definition
The right of the five permanent members of the Security Council (US, Russia, China, France, and Great Britain) to forbid any action by the United nations.
Term
Responsibility to Protect
Definition
The 2001 final report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty; a UN publication that asserted the moral obligation for states to intervene in a state when that state violates the human rights of people living there.
Term
International Criminal Court
Definition
The first international court with the potential of a truly global jurisdiction. The ICC conducts trials of individuals accused of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity.
Term
Nongovernmental Organizations
Definition
An organization, usually a grassroots one, with policy goals, but not governmenal 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 a government.
Term
Revolution in Military Affairs
Definition
This is the effect generated by the marriage of  advanced communications and information processing with state-of-the-art weapons and delivery systems. It is a means of overcoming the uncertainity and confusion that are part of any battle in war.
Term
Human Development
Definition
The notion that it is possible to improve the lives of people. Basically, it is about increasing the number of choices people have. These may include living a long and healthy life, access to education, and a better standard of living.
Term
Realpolitik
Definition
First used to describe the foreign policy of bismarck in Prussia, it describes the practice of diplomacy based on the assessment of power, territory, and material interests, with little concern for ethical realities.
Term
Human Security
Definition
The security of people, including their physical safety, their economic and social well-being, respect for their dignity, and the protection of their human rights.
Term
Multilateralism
Definition
The process by which states work together to solve a common problem.
Term
Civil Society
Definition
(1) The totality of all individuals and groups in a society who are not acting as participants in any government institutions, or (2) all individuals and groups who are neither participants in government nor acting in the interests of commercial companies.
Term
Regulatory Arbitrage
Definition
In the world of banking, the process of moving funds or business activity from one country to another in order to increase profits by escaping the constraints imposed by government regulations. By analogy, the term can be applied to any transfer of economic activity by any company in response to government policy.
Term
Balance of Power
Definition
In realist theory, this refers to an equilibrium between states; historical realists regard it as the product of diplomacy (contrived balance), whereas structural realists regard the system as having a tendency towards a natural equilibrium (fortuitous balance). It is a doctrine and an arrangement whereby the power of one state (or group of states) is checked by the countervailing power of other states.
Term
Terrorism
Definition
The use of violence by nonstate groups or, in some cases, states to inspire fear, by attacking civilians and/or symbolic targets, and eliminating opposition groups. This is done for purposes such as drawing widespread attention to a grievance, provoking a severe response, or wearing down an opponents moral resolve, to effect political change.
Term
Transnational Criminal Organizations
Definition
Criminal organizations that are not only international, but are orginizations that by definition have to cross borders as an essential part of their criminal activity. 
Term
Maastricht Treaty
Definition
Creation of the European Union, encompassing the European Community and two parallel pillars for Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and justice and home affairs; economic and monetary union (the euro)
Term
Leverage Politics
Definition
When NGO's use material leverage or moral leverage to persuade governments to act in certain ways. NGO's often shame governments into acting a certain way, and are adept to using the media to expose hypocritical behaviors and to make certain the public is aware of unpopular practices by governments, transnational corporations, and other actors.
Term
Human Rights
Definition
commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal (applicable everywhere) and egalitarian (the same for everyone).
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