I R 1 0 1 1 ( I N T R O D U C T I O N T O I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E L AT I O N S )

C H A P T E R 1 : T H E 2 0 T H C E N T U RY O R I G I N S
O F I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E L AT I O N S
D R . F E L I X TA N

AIMS:
to introduce you to the
main background factors
that led to the creation and
evolution of IR as an
academic discipline

LEARNING OUTCOMES
by the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

a. discuss what is meant by the 20 years crisis;

b. describe the influence of 20th century crisis on the
development of IR;
c. illustrate some of the fundamental differences between
Realist, Liberal, English School and Post-colonial approaches
in IR;
d. discuss the subjects with which IR should be concerned; and
e. define the vocabulary terms in bold

INTRODUCTION
IR deals with the best and the worst of humanity: respect and hatred, cooperation

and war

but these are not new debates and some one can certainly trace the history of IR

to some of the following ideas of past greats (just to name a few):

(I) Thucydides - Greek historian of the 5th BCE

(II) St. Thomas Aquinas - 13th century Christian theologian

(III) Hugo Grotius - 17th century Dutch lawyer
(IV) Jean-Jacques Rousseau - 18th century French philosopher
(V) Immanuel Kant - German thinker during the Napoleonic wars
each contributed substantial ideas and an understanding of topics associated to

some aspects in the discipline of IR (i.e. the causes of war, the possibilities of
peace; the impact of trade and ideas; etc)

Self-control is the chief element in self-respect,

and self-respect is the chief element in courage
THUCYDIDES, THE HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN
WAR

T H E O R I G I N S O F I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E L AT I O N S :
THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND THE INTER-WAR
the world experienced 3 protracted conflicts between 1914 and

1989:

(a) World War 1 (WWI)

WW1 (1914-1918)

Two rival camps (Alliances)

Imperial Germany and Austro-Hungarian Empire (AHE)

v e r s u s U K , F r a n c e , a n d Ts a r i s t R u s s i a
(www.mapsofworld.com)

Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand (AHE) by Serbian

nationalist

http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/maps/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/

(b) World War 2 (WWII)

(c) The Cold War
these nearly obliterated whole human populations; facilitated the

rise of some great powers; and led to the demise of others

the hugely destructive wars of this bloodiest era in history have

been at the heart of IR since its first emerged as a taught subject

after 1918

CAUSES OF WW1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXqppJ-L88U (6.5 min summary

entangling alliances)
Serbias attempted secession from the Austro-Hungarian Empire

ACTIVITY 1:
C O M P L E T E T H E TA B L E B E L O W B Y L I S T I N G E V E N T S F R O M T H E 2 0 T H C E N T U R Y
T H AT H A V E I N F L U E N C E D T H E D E V E L O P M E N T O F K E Y T O P I C S I N I R . T H I S L I S T
W I L L B E U S E F U L W H E N Y O U P R E PA R E E S S AY S A N D E X A M I N AT I O N A N S W E R S T O
QUESTIONS ON THESE TOPICS

IR TOPIC

A S S O C I AT E D H I S T O R I C A L E V E N T S

HUMAN RIGHTS

JEWISH HOLOCAUST DURING WW2. KHMER ROUGE (POL POT) GENOCIDE

IN CAMBODIA 1975-1979. RWANDAN GENOCIDE 1994

CAUSES OF WAR

VA R I O U S I R T H E O R I E S T O E X P L A I N W W 1 A N D W W 2 ( R E A L I S M ,
LIBERALISM, MARXISM)

Led to Austrias invasion of Serbia. Russia is Serbias traditional ally

(ethnic ties)
Austria linked to Germany through Triple Alliance treaty
Russia linked in military alliances with UK and France (Triple Entente)
Why is WW1 important?

ROLE OF ECONOMICS
IN IR

CONDITIONS FOR
PEACE

GREAT DEPRESSION 1930S. OIL CRISIS 1973. GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS

2008-09.

RISE OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION AFTER WW2.

EU IS A REGIONAL SECURITY COMMUNITY(RSC) IN WHICH ITS MEMBERS TA T E S D O N O T U S E F O R C E A G A I N S T O N E A N O T H E R I N S E T T L I N G
DISPUTES.

in the post-WWI settlement,

if war gave birth to academic IR, then the

establishment of peace was its first mission

IR is sometimes thought of as being too pessimistic in

its view on war and peace, and too theoretical in its

approach to global issues

IR, according to David Davies, was to help scholars

engage in practical understanding that would herald

in a new world freed from the menace of war

Edward Hallett "Ted" Carr CBE

(28 June 1892 3 November
1982) - one of the most
influential writers in the
discipline - later called this the
twenty years crisis
he argued that the settlement

contained within it the seeds for

an even greater conflict
he was also very critical of the

then US President Woodrow

W ilson, who founded the
League of Nations, a precursor
to the United Nations

 For Carr, he saw powerful revisionist states (i.e. Germany),

dissatisfied with the status quo (read Hilters Mein

Kampf??) created after the Great War, pushing hard to shift
the balance of power (B.o.P) in their favour

Carr had actually envisioned and hoped that these states

(Germany and Japan) could be contained through a

strategy of diplomatic concession, arguing that any
peaceful change was still preferable to war

however, in the end, both Germany and Japan could not be

satisfied through appeasement as he had hoped, resulting

in one of the most destructive war in history - WWII

WORLD WAR TWO IN EUROPE

(YOUTUBE VIDEO)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm5SxG68KSM
World war two in Europe (5.5 minutes)
WW2 summary video 3.3 minutes (https://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4YxioD1kBI)

Causes of WW2: www.history.com (interactive) - http://

www.history.com/interactives/inside-wwii-interactive

July 1919 Treaty of Versailles laid the framework for the rise
of Hitlers Nazi Germany in the early 1930s and the road to
WW2
Germany was to take full responsibility for the damage
caused during World War I (known as the "war guilt" clause,
Article 231)
major land concessions forced upon Germany (including the
loss of all her colonies
limitation of the German army to 100,000 men
Germany had to pay a very large sum in reparations
Germany

EH CARRS
(1919-1939)

TWENTY

YEARS

CRISIS

Rise of Hitler - persuaded Germany that the Jews were

responsible for the countrys plight. Spread racial

(extremist nationalist) hatred as a means to gaining
national power. Anti-semitism.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/

hitler_01.shtml
Hitler invaded Poland on 1 September 1939 (Before that,

Hitler used force to takeover Czechoslovakia). Polands

allies, UK and France, declared war against Hitler.
December 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor; US

entered WW2.

W W 2 A N D I M P E R I A L J A PA N
h t t p : / / w w w. e d u p l a c e . c o m / k i d s / s o c s c i / b o o k s /

applications/imaps/maps/g5s_u8/

Japans brutal occupation of China, Korean peninsula,

and Southeast Asia

WW2 ended in 1945 with the US and Soviet Union

(USSR or Russia) as the worlds two superpowers.

But US was actually more powerful economically and

militarily compared with the USSR. US hegemony.

Why is WW2 important?

T H E P O S T- 1 9 4 5 W O R L D :
A M E R I C A N
H E G E M O N Y
EUROPEAN DECLINE

A N D

several important lessons were learnt as a result of WWII:

1. that global security would never be achieved as long as the

international economy did not function properly;
2. there was a need to construct some kind of reformed League of
Nations, the United Nations (UN), within which the great powers
would be given a special role and special responsibilities for
maintaining international peace and security leading to the creation
of the permanent five (P5) within the UN Security Council;
3. it was believed that the USA would not retreat into political
isolationism, as it had done following WWI, but instead, it needs to
remain actively engaged in international affairs as Europes
international influenced waned

as a result of WWII, the

chances of a return to the prewar status quo were very slim

in fact, by 1945, every great

power - winners and losers

alike - was in a state of severe
d i s re p a i r, b a re l y a b l e t o
recover from a war that had left
their societies in ruins
however, this marked the

beginning of the age of the

superpower between the
USSR and the US

 as the war came to an end, many became aware that a

huge power shift was underway

it was only much later that IR would define this

phenomenon as a two power; bipolar system

bipolarity describes a distribution of power among two

great powers in the international system

this can also be contrasted with unipolarity - with a

single dominant great power - and multipolarity - in

which capabilities are divided among many great powers

IMPERIALISM
A policy aimed at conquering or controlling foreign

people and territory on the basis of its superior

economic and military power

Examples of imperial empires: Egyptian, Babylonian,

Roman, Mongol.

European empires: early 16th to 20th centuries. Spain,

Portugal, UK, France, Holland, Italy, and Germany

as the colonial empires of

the UK, France, Portugal

a n d o t h e r E u ro p e a n
powers disintegrated
after WWII, the USA saw
a need to established
new forms of economic
and political hegemony
because of American

self-confidence, many
discounted any threat
from the USSR

ACTIVITY 2:
S T O P A N D R E A D S E C T I O N 3 O F C H A P T E R 3 , P P. 5 4 - 5 6

Which came first, the decline of European power in

the international system, or the independence of its

colonies around the world?

Did the decline of European imperialism mark an end

to all forms of hegemony in the international system? If

not, what new forms took its place?

THE COLD
REALISM

WAR

AND

THE

BIRTH

OF

there have been many debates with regards to the Cold

War, which lasted for 45 years

some of these have ranged from Soviet expansionism,

other, the political and economic policies of the USA

the Cold War has also been viewed as a natural

consequence of competition between the 2 superpowers

and their opposing ideologies - capitalist principles vs
state socialism (i.e. democracy vs communism)

while both sides in the Cold War exaggerated the

aggressive intentions of their opponent, the fact

remains that the larger international system was in
turmoil after WWII

Insecurity was the order of the day and many Western

policy-makers saw no reason to trust their Soviet

counterparts

British writer George Orwell and American columnist

Walter Lippmann called this a Cold War

 this very new kind of war would be conducted in a bipolar

world where power was polarised in the hands of 2 nucleararmed superpowers

Europe, and later many other regions of the world divided

into blocs, one pro-Soviet and one pro-American

the Cold War was to have all the features of a normal war

except for direct military confrontation

but there were also those who refused to outrightly support

either the Soviet nor the Americans

however, despite the fact that they were part NAM,

many of the movements members were still very much

closely associated, and some in support, of the
superpower blocs

because the Non-Aligned Movement was formed as

an attempt to thwart the Cold War, it has struggled to

find relevance after the Cold War ended

the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) formed in

Belgrade in 1961 was one example of this attempt at

remaining neutral

NAM was largely conceived by India's first prime

minister, Jawaharlal Nehru; Burma's first Prime Minister

U Nu; Indonesia's first president, Sukarno; Egypt's
second president, Gamal Abdel Nasser; Ghana's first
president Kwame Nkrumah; and Yugoslavia's
president, Josip Broz Tito.

ACTIVITY 3:

STOP AND READ SECTIONS 4 AND 5

O F C H A P T E R 3 , P P. 5 6 - 6 3
IN NO MORE THAN 500 WORDS,
RESPOND TO THE QUESTION
B E L O W. Y O U R A N S W E R S H O U L D
INCLUDE A ONE-SENTENCE THESIS
S TAT E M E N T T H AT C L E A R LY S TAT E S
YOUR POSITION, FOLLOWED BY THE
MAIN POINTS ON WHICH YOU BASE
T H AT P O S I T I O N :

To what extent were the

Soviet and American blocs

during the Cold War similar
to the empires of European
states prior to the Second
World War? What made
them similar and different?

YOUR FIRST
I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E L AT I O N S
T H E O R Y: R E A L I S M
a Jewish exile from Nazi

Germany and a highly

influential American writer,
Hans J. Morgenthau, believed
that one should be trying to
build a more orderly world by
learning from the past
his seminal book Politics

Among Nations made a

distinction between building a
better world a more orderly
one, which continues to
separate Liberals and Realists

for Morgenthau, the past taught him:

that states were driven by deep power

ambitions;

that these drives were permanent features

of IR;

that it was the international responsibility of

the USA to act as a great and responsible

power, especially confronted by a powerful
Soviet adversary

 Morgenthau - and George F. Kennan

(see: http://

- believed that the

best way forward during this period of the Cold War
was through a long-term containment policy of the
Soviet Union and its ambitions
history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/kennan)

W H AT W A S T H E C O L D W A R
(1946-1991)?
http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war
http://www.history.com/videos/cold-war#cold-war
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/causes%20of

%20the%20cold%20war.htm

Main causes? Mistrust between the US and Soviet

Union. This is a key argument made by Realism (or

realist theory).

Despite all the criticisms and the various policy defeats

that Kennan suffered in the early 1950s, containment

in the more general sense of blocking the expansion
of Soviet influence remained the basic strategy of the
United States throughout the cold war.

its through this that some form of stability could be

restored to the world

this no-nonsense way of thinking about the world

seemed logical and sensible, and called itself Realism

REALISM: MAIN ASSUMPTIONS

Realist concept: Balance of Power (BOP)

www.washingtonpost.com

1. Flawed human nature: Greed for power

and dominance over others

2. States are the (only) key players in IR

3. International Anarchy (absence of a world

government able to ensure the survival of

states): Self-Help in the face of threats to
ones national survival. Balance of Power
(BOP). Hostile Alliances.

some, such as structural Realist

Kenneth Waltz, argued that 2

superpowers were better than
one hegemony (or many great
powers) so as to create a
balanced international situation
the Cold War, thus, simplified

world politics and, in doing so,

made it far more predictable
Waltz concludes that in an

international system without a

supreme ruler - an anarchic
international system - the seesaw of Cold War bipolarity was
responsible for bringing some
order to relations between the
superpowers

R E A L I S T S C H O L A R : K E N N E T H W A LT Z
http://www.nytimes.com/

2013/05/19/us/kenneth-nwaltz-who-helped-shapeinternational-relations-asa-discipline-diesa t - 8 8 . h t m l ?
pagewanted=all&_r=0

Kenneth Waltz Theory of

International Politics 1979

 influential historian John Gaddis,

also argued that the Cold War

was a new form of long peace;
underwritten by the reality of
nuclear mutually assured
destruction (MAD), and
supported by 2 rationally
constrained superpowers whose
passing would probably
destabilise the international
system they dominated
this prediction, however, failed to

materialise after the fall of the

Berlin Wall in 1989 and the
disintegration of the Soviet Union
in 1991, ushering the death knell
of the Cold War as we know it

ACTIVITY 4:
STOP AND READ REALISM AND WORLD POLITICS IN THE INTRODUCTION,
P. 4

note down the main assumptions that Realism uses to

understand the world around it. Pay special attention

to who is considered an international actor, why they
act the way they do, and what kind of international
system they inhabit

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

GROWING DIVERSITY IN IR

GROWING DIVERSITY IN IR:

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS
Assumptions of the major IR theories

LIBERALISM
Liberalism predates Realism

and remains one of the

disciplines most influential
approaches

Realism

for

Liberals,
interdependence, which is
mutual dependence on one
another for social and material
goods - provides the best
foundations on which we can
build a more peaceful world

Liberalism
English School of International Society
Constructivism
International Political Economy (IPE)

LIBERALISM
ASSUMPTIONS

(LIBERAL

THEORY):
according to supporters, such as Robert Keohane and

1. Human nature is good: mutual cooperation &

progress
2. Non-State Actors are equally important as States in

IR.
3. International Anarchy does not have to lead to

armed conflicts (wars): Role of Democracy,

Economic Interdependence, and International
Organizations

Joseph Nye, the expansion of trans-boundary

interactions since the end of WWII is the most obvious
foundation on which to build a new international
system in a post-hegemonic age

increasing interdependence means that states are not

absolutely sovereign insofar as they remain vulnerable

to transnational forces

ENGLISH SCHOOL
OF THOUGHT
liberals argued that additional means must be sought

to guarantee the stability and improvement of the

international system

this includes an expanded set of international actors,

focusing on the role of multinational corporations

(MNCs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and
inter-governmental organisations (IGOs)

many of its theorists, however,

accept a good deal of what

Realists have to say about
power and the competitive,
anarchic character of IR

yet, they disagreed with

Realisms claim that the

international system is a freefor-all, anything goes arena

scholars such as Hedley Bull

(The Anarchical Society) are

part of the the ES

THE ENGLISH SCHOOL OF

I N T E R N AT I O N A L S O C I E T Y: A S S U M P T I O N S
1. IR has features of both conflict and cooperation

(Hedley

Bull, The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in world politics 1977)

2. Rules and Institutions of international society that

helps to maintain international order and stability:

Respect for national sovereignty

Non-use of force in settling disputes

Balance of Power (BOP)

Diplomacy (peaceful negotiations)

Use of economic sanctions (against rogue states)

Use of war (last resort)

Unity of the Great Powers

English School (ES) argues that Realism cannot explain why

states - even those who are hostile to each other - are able to
work together, engage in diplomacy, and thereby generate
forms of international order in an otherwise anarchic system

the ES thus argues that the international system is best

described as an international society in which actors

(including states, MNCs, NGOs, IGOs, etc.) are bound
together by socially-generated practices and principles

these practices and principles - which some ES scholars call

institutions - range from bilateral and multilateral treaties to

unwritten but influential principles such as sovereignty and
democracy promotion

 as a result, regions such as Europe, has gone from being one

of the worlds most unstable and war-torn regions (e.g. 30years war; WWI; WWII; etc.) to one of its most tranquil

its institutions have evolved over time away from the use of

force as a legitimate means of conflict resolution

this does not mean that war in Europe is impossible, but only

that it is made less likely as an alternative means of conflict

resolution - mainly via the creation of the European Union
(EU) - become available and accepted

for ES, analysing the (changing) character and evolution of

international institutions therefore remains the main object of

research

one such scholar is Robert W. Cox, whose

contribution to International Relations theory places

the discipline in a transformational framework.

His theory goes beyond the neorealist state-centric

framework and brings out the connections between

material conditions, ideas and institutions in what he
terms the formation of world orders.

How people organize themselves in the sphere of

production not only determines their own life but also

that of their states and the world order.

CRITICAL
THEORISTS
in the 1960s, a new generation of

critical theorists began to

question global power structures
rather than merely taking them
for granted
most of these CTs were either

historians of US diplomatic
history who were dissatisfied with
standard accounts of American
conduct abroad, or radical
economists with an interest in the
Third World and its discontent

In saying that change can come from any one of the

spheres (material conditions, ideas and institutions), he

denies and goes beyond the basesuperstructure thesis
of Marxism.
Cox also identifies creation of a vibrant civil society,

emergence of organic intellectuals representing the

marginalized, development of community-level
solidarity, participatory democracy, non-violent methods
of conflict resolution, pluralism and multilateralism as
key elements of his transformational agenda.

 Core concepts are:

Critical theory was first defined by Max

Horkheimer of the Frankfurt School of sociology in

his 1937 essay Traditional and Critical Theory
Critical theory is a social theory oriented toward

critiquing and changing society as a whole, in

contrast to traditional theory oriented only to
understanding or explaining it

through the efforts of these thinkers, critical theories born in other

branches of the social sciences began to have a major impact on the

generation of IR scholars
this includes:
Marxism, with its class- based analysis of global economics;
Social Constructivism, with its focus on humans ability to

consciously alter the principles by which the world operates;

Post-structuralism, which denies the existence of any absolute

Truths on which to base analyses of human action; and

Post-colonialism, which traces the international systems social,

economic, and political foundations back to its colonial - and

ultimately European - roots

1. That critical social theory should be directed

at the totality of society in its historical
specificity (i.e. how it came to be configured
at a specific point in time);
2. T h a t c r i t i c a l t h e o r y s h o u l d i m p ro v e
understanding of society by integrating all
the major social sciences, including
geography, economics, sociology, history,
p o l i t i c a l s c i e n c e , a n t h ro p o l o g y, a n d
psychology.

MARXISM (MARXIST THEORY)

Basic unit of analysis Economic

Classes, not states

Class Struggle between the haves

and have-nots

Economic Exploitation of poor

masses (proletariat) by the

property-owning ruling class
(bourgeoisie)

Advocates the use of revolutionary

violence to overthrow the status

quo (Karl Marx, Lenin, Mao
Zedong)

CONSTRUCTIVISM (CONSTRUCTIVIST
THEORY)
1. Based on Ideas (ideational), not material power
2. Interests, Identity of states are not pre-determined
3. Socialization among leaders and citizens between

states lead to formation of national interests &

identity

4. Norms of peaceful expectations of interstate

behaviour

5. Alexander Wendt

A L E X A N D E R W E N D T: C O N S T R U C T I V I S T
SCHOLAR
Anarchy is what states make of it
An anarchical (conflictual)

international system is not

determined

pre-

It is the result of socialization

among leadership elites

If the socialization

experiences
of leaders and
elites change, it
can lead to
greater mutual
cooperation and international
order and security

I N T E R N AT I O N A L P O L I T I C A L E C O N O M Y ( I P E )
this branch of IR seeks to explain links between the international economic

and political system

the collapse of the post-WWII Bretton Woods economic system in 1971,

perceptions of relative US economic decline, and a general recognition

that one could not understand IR without at least having some knowledge
of the material world forced some in IR to come to terms with economics,
a branch of knowledge of which they had hitherto been woefully ignorant

ACTIVITY 5:

It is about the interplay

STOP AND READ FROM THE BEGINNING OF LIBERALISM AND WORLD

P O L I T I C S ( P. 4 ) T O T H E E N D O F P O S T C O L O N I A L I S M ( P. 6 ) I N C H A P T E R 1

between politics and

economics - A battle
between states and
markets?

Using the list of Realist assumptions that you created

in the last activity, draw up a parallel list of

assumptions for each of the alternative theories on pp.
4 - 6. Remember to think about key questions:

Examples: Changes in

interest rates in the US,

China, Japan, EU, a n d
geopolitical tensions 2008 global financial crisis?
(Baylis p.248)

Who acts?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special_reports/
global_economy/.

Why do they act?

What kind of system shapes their actions?

http://www.economy.com/dismal/article_free.asp?cid=236302

1945-53: ONSET OF THE COLD WAR

THE COLD WAR

The cold war was a complex relationship that assumed

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/coldwar/

(BBC videos about the origins of the Cold War)

The Korean War (1950-53): North Korean dictator Kim

Il-Sungs invasion of South Korea

The Cuban Missile Crisis October 1962 (US President

John Kennedy and Soviet leader Khrushchev)

competition but remained cold in large part because of

the existence of nuclear weapons

Most experts assumed the cold war would continue and

were surprised when it came to a peaceful conclusion

The end of the cold war weakened the intellectual hold

of realism within IR as an academic discourse and

helped popularize Constructivism as a methodology
(michael cox in Baylis 2011: 69)

THE COLD WAR 1947-1991

(CW)
First World (US and Western

Europe)
Second World (USSR, PRC, North

Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba)

Third World: The Global-South of

poor and developing states

http://blueprintforhistory.wordpress.com/

1945-53: ONSET OF THE COLD WAR

COLD WAR: MARSHALL PLAN OF JUNE

1947

T h e M a rc h 1 9 4 7

Truman Doctrine:
US Containment
Policy against Soviet
Expansionism in
E u ro p e ( G re e c e ,
Turkey)

its aim was to aid

W e s t e r n E u r o p e s
post-WW2 economic
recovery against
Soviet expansionism
http://marshallplan2013.blogspot.sg/

COLD WAR: NATO

W A R S A W PA C T ( 1 9 5 5 )

1948

VERSUS

COLD WAR: THE CHINESE CIVIL WAR

1921- OCTOBER 1949
Mao Zedong: leader of the

Chinese Communist Party

(CCP). Peoples Republic of
China (PRC) in Beijing

General Chiang Kai-shek:

leader of the Kuomingtang

(KMT). Taipei.

Issues:
http://www.nato.int/docu/review/2008/03/ART8/EN/

http://www.uiowa.edu/~c016003a/coldwara.htm

COLD WAR: THE KOREAN WAR 1950-53

North Korean dictator Kim

COLD WAR: CUBAN

OCTOBER 1962

http://idcommunications.org/cannes-2011/

MISSILE

CRISIS

Soviet leader Khrushchev

Il-Sungs invasion of South

Korea, aided by Soviet
Unions Stalin and Chinas
Mao Zedong

placed short-ranged nuclear

missiles in Cuba to counterbalance US power and the
Containment Policy

US President John Kennedy

US used the UN, under the

Uniting for Peace

Resolution for military
intervention to save South
Korea from Communism

National Unity. Taiwan

Issue: PRCs position is that
Taiwan is an integral part of
Chinese sovereign territory.

saw the Soviet missiles as a

threat to national security
interests
http://www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/tl-cuban-missile-crisis/

http://crescentok.com/staff/jaskew/TAH/US/korea.htm

Cuban leader Fidel Castro

(read Baylis case study p. 58)

COLD WAR: THE ARAB-ISRAELI WARS

ACTIVITY 6:
S T O P E A N D R E A D S E C T I O N T W O O F C H A P T E R 4 , E N T I T L E D T H E E N D O F T H E C O L D W A R , P P. 6 8 - 6 9

N O T E D O W N K E Y W O R D S I N T H E R E A D I N G T H AT M I G H T I N D I C AT E T H E
A U T H O R S T H E O R E T I C A L P O S I T I O N . D O Y O U T H I N K H E I S A R E A L I S T, A
L I B E R A L , A M E M B E R O F T H E E N G L I S H S C H O O L , A M A R X I S T, O R A S T U D E N T
O F I P E ? L I S T T H E T E R M S A N D Y O U A N S W E R I N T H E S PA C E B E L O W

Israel established in May

1948.
Arab-Israeli Wars of 1948,

June 1967 Six-Day War, and

October 1973 Yom Kippur
War. US supported Israel;
Soviet Union supported Arab
states.
1956 Suez Canal Crisis:

Egyptian leader Nassers

unilateral nationalization of
Suez Canal led to military
intervention by UK, France,
and Israel.

http://www.mapsofworld.com/israel/

I N T E R N A T I O N A L
R E L AT I O N S A N D T H E
END OF THE COLD WAR
the end of the Cold War was an

unexpected and almost entirely

peaceful revolution in world
politics

the fall of the Berlin Wall in

1989 and the collapse of the

Soviet Union in 1991 shattered
the stability of the Cold War
international system, plunging
IR scholars into an intellectual
crisis as they tried to come to
terms with the end of bipolarity

KEY ISSUES IN THE STUDY OF IR

Use of Force within and between states (Great Powers)
Impact of Globalization on state-sovereignty
Humanitarian Intervention and Human Rights
The Balance of Power and international stability
Role of International Law and Organizations in maintaining international

order

Regional Integration and Regionalism

Threat of Nuclear Proliferation
Global Warming and Climate Change

many now emphasise the role of non-state actors and

the apparent absence of a coherent international

structure in the new, uncertain, post-modern world of
the 1990s and early 21st century

there have been many changes to the study of IR,

especially in the 21st century

however, one thing remains unchanged - that

academic IR still revolves around an American axis

some have even argued that a new Cold War has

emerged between the US and China; or even US and a

newly democratised Russia

this led to the scholars such as Samuel P. Huntington

and Francis Fukuyama (The End of

History and the Last Man), and many others to attempt to
explain what a post-Cold War world would be like
(Clash of Civilization)

this led to a shift in IRs intellectual focus towards a

whole host of new security issues associated with

globalisation

these are qualitatively different from their classical and

statist predecessors, and include issues such as human

rights, crime, and the environment (Al Gores An
Inconvenient Truth)

S A M P L E E X A M I N AT I O N Q U E S T I O N S
Why has IR been dominated by Realist ways of

thinking about the international system since

the end of the Second World War?

What are the main challenges to Realism?

In what sense was the Cold War a long

peace?

What is the proper subject matter of IR?

THE END