Key Concepts in International Relations

🔱 Power

Core Types & Thinkers:

• Hard Power: Military + Economic (Realist). Also called Command Power.
• Soft Power: Joseph Nye — power of attraction (culture, diaspora, diplomacy).
• Smart Power: Joseph Nye + Hillary Clinton — mix of hard and soft.
• Fast Power: John Chapman — emphasizes speed & timing in securing national interests.
• Structural Power: Susan Strange —
  • Knowledge
  • Financial
  • Security
  • Production

  Key Works: States and Markets (1988), Retreat of the State (1996), Casino Capitalism (1998)

🛡️ Security

Traditional vs Non-Traditional:

• Traditional (Realists/Neo-realists): Focus on national military security.
• Liberal Traditional: Global institutions ensure security.
• Non-Traditional Security (Barry Buzan): Political, economic, societal, environmental security.

  → People, States and Fear (1983)

Conceptual Developments:

• Human Security: Amartya Sen, Mahbub ul Haq (HDI)
• Security Community: Karl Deutsch
• Security Regimes: Robert Jervis
• Security Complex Theory: Barry Buzan, Ole Wæver
• Copenhagen School: Buzan + Wæver
• Security Dilemma:
  • John Herz: Hobbesian fear cycle.
  • Robert Jervis: Offense-Defense theory.
  • Social Constructivists: Emphasize interpretation, not structure.
  • George Sorenson: “Insecurity Dilemma” – Internal threats, ethnic movements.
  • Amitabh Acharya: Not fully applicable to Global South.

👑 Sovereignty

• Jean Bodin: Six Books of the Republic — origin of the modern concept.
• Thomas Hobbes: Sovereignty = monopoly of coercive force.

Types:

• Internal: Final authority within the state.
• External: Autonomy in international affairs.

⚔️ War

• Clausewitz: On War (1832) – “War is an extension of politics by other means.”

Concepts:

• Autarky: Full economic independence.
• Negative Peace: Absence of war, but tensions remain.
• Positive Peace: Absence of causes of war – harmony.
• Pacifism: Gandhi’s ideal – rejection of war.
• Jus ad bellum: Justice before war.
• Jus in bello: Justice during war.

New War Theorists:

• Mary Kaldor: New Wars, Global Civil Society.
• Raymond Aron: Hyperbolic Wars.
• Martin Shaw: Degenerate Wars.
• Martin van Creveld: The Transformation of War
• David Kilkullen: The Accidental Guerrilla
• Michael Walzer: Just and Unjust Wars

🧬 Human Rights

Generations:

• First Gen: Civil & Political Rights (Negative) – life, liberty, property.
• Second Gen: Economic, Social, Cultural (Positive) – work, healthcare.
• Third Gen: Solidarity Rights – self-determination, peace, environment.

Key Documents:

• 1948: Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
• 1949: Geneva Convention (POWs)
• 1951: Genocide Convention
• 1954: Refugee Convention
• 1966:
  • ICCPR – Civil/Political
  • ICESCR – Economic/Social/Cultural
• 1975: Declaration on Torture
• 1981: CEDAW (Women)
• 1990: CRC (Children)
• 1993: Vienna Convention on Human Rights

🚨 Humanitarian Interventions

Humanitarian grounds in IR:

• 1991: Iraq (Kurds)
• 1992: Somalia
• 1994: Haiti, Rwanda
• 1999: Kosovo, East Timor
• 2000: Sierra Leone

🤝 Major Treaties in IR

Arms Control & WMDs:

• 1959: Antarctic Treaty – no weapons in Antarctica.
• 1963: PTBT – bans above-ground nuclear testing.
• 1967: Outer Space Treaty – no nukes in space.
• 1968: NPT – no horizontal proliferation.
• 1972:
  • SALT I – Freeze ICBMs
  • ABM Treaty – Limits defense missiles
• 1979: SALT II – cap on long-range nukes
• 1987: INF Treaty – ban intermediate nukes in Europe.
• 1991: START I – limit warheads/delivery systems
• 1993: START II – eliminate specific warheads
• 2002: SORT (Moscow Treaty) – deployable warheads

Biological/Chemical Weapons:

• 1972: BTWC – bans development/stockpile (India signed in 1973)
• 1993: CWC – bans chemical weapons (India signed in 1993)

Test Ban Treaty:

• 1996: CTBT – bans nuclear tests
  • ❌ Not signed by India, Pakistan, North Korea
  • ❌ Not ratified by USA, China