This document introduces some of the key concepts in world politics, including the complex and interconnected nature of the global system, the challenges of seeking security in an anarchic world, and the difficulties of cooperation between self-interested states. It discusses levels of analysis, theoretical paradigms for understanding international relations, and dilemmas like the Prisoner's Dilemma that illustrate obstacles to cooperation. The overall goal is to set the stage for examining patterns in world politics and issues around achieving security in a complicated global environment.

1. IR 2
World Politics:
Seeking Security
in a Complicated
and Connected
World
1
SCOTT / CARTER / DRURY
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World Politics
• Political, economic and social activities and
interactions among states and non-state
actors
• IGOs, NGOs, TNCs
• Evolved to include an increasingly diverse
set of states from the developed and
developing worlds and non state actors

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A Complex World Connected to You
• World politics and you
• World politics affects our daily lives
- Security delays at airports
- War
- Economic crises
- Agricultural concerns

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Search for Security in a Challenging
Environment
• Security: Survival and safety
• Military, intelligence, and law enforcement
arenas
• Special emphasis on conflict, violence, and war

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Figur
e
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1-1 Pursuit of Security in Three
Arenas

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Search for Security in a
Challenging Environment
• Fundamental challenges
• Anarchy: Absence of central government in world
politics
• Does not mean chaos or disorder
• International norms- regular patterns of behavior
• Diversity: Variation in values, norms, identities,
goals, and other political, economic, and cultural
factors in world politics
• Complexity: Multidimensional issues, actors, and
connections that characterize international relations

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• Levels of analysis- different perspectives from
which IR may be examined
• Systemic or international level
• Directed to the broad patterns and interactions among the
players of world politics
• Emphasis on the impact of the structural characteristics of the
international system
• State or national level
• Attention is directed to the states or units
• Emphasis on the attributes of countries and nations and how
these attributes shape policy goals and behavior and, the
interactions among the players
• Individual or local level
• Attention is directed to people
• Emphasis on personalities, perceptions, and preferences of
individual decision makers and their effects on policy and
interactions

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Levels of Analysis

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Explaining the Patterns of World
Politics
• Theories: Tools for explaining cause-and-
effect relationships among complex
phenomena
• Help to strategically simplify the world
• Aid in the explanation of patterns and the
prediction of likely developments

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Explaining the Patterns of World
Politics
• Theoretical paradigms
• Realism
- Revolves around the issue of conflict and
power and stresses the role of states pursuing
their self-interests
• Liberalism
- Emphasizes cooperative approaches and
addresses the role and influence of non-state
actors

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Explaining the Patterns of World
Politics
• Theoretical paradigms
• Constructivism
- Builds on the social construction of reality and
stresses the role of the identity, ideas,
culture, norms and interactions of people
• Foreign policy analysis
- Emphasizes the individuals and groups who
make decisions, and the processes and
policies produced

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Explaining the Patterns of World
Politics
• Theoretical paradigms
• Marxism
- Stresses class-based economic interests and
the role of wealth and who controls it as the
key to behavior
• Feminism
- Focuses on gender issues and approaches and
asks what the world would be like if it were
not historically dominated by men

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Dilemmas of Cooperation in
International Relations
• The prisoner’s dilemma: Situation in which
two prisoners must decide whether to
collaborate with each other or not
• Stag hunt: Situation in which hunters must
decide whether to collaborate with each
other or act on their own

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Dilemmas of Cooperation in
International Relations
• Together these theories:
• Highlight several key issues about the nature of
world politics
• Suggest there are important structural obstacles
for cooperation between states
• Illustrate the tension between pursuing self-
interest and broader collective interests
• Suggest that part of underlying issue is trust
• Commitment problem: Countries have a hard
time committing to cooperative courses of
action

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Dilemmas of Cooperation in
International Relations
• If two or more states are involved in a
Prisoners Dilemma it is referred to as a
collective action problem- obstacles to
cooperation that occur when actors would
benefit from cooperation but few
incentives lead any actor to assume the
costs of such actions

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Table
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1-2 The Prisoner’s Dilemma

17. KEY TERMS
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18. LEARNING OUTCOMES
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1 Summarize the complex arena of world politics
2 Identify the nature and challenges of security—
international, economic, and human—in
international relations
3 Define the levels of analysis in the study of
international relations
4 Describe the challenges of cooperation
among the actors of international relations
5 Assess the dilemmas of cooperation illustrated
by the Prisoner’s Dilemma and Stag Hunt
scenarios

19. SUMMARY
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• Contending with the challenges of anarchy,
diversity and complexity plays a major role
in world politics
• Enormous consequences for countries and
other players as they grapple with the
dilemmas of self-interest and mutual
interest