International Relations

o the totality of transnational interactions among state and non-state

actors
o examines a wide variety of cross-border relationships among
subnational groups, international organizations
o Nature of IR
Concerned primarily with the relations between and among
approximately 195 states of the world
Concerned with the external behavior of states
Actors in Global Politics
o State
a political community with people, territory, and sovereign
government
Nation-state: sovereign state inhabited by a relatively
homogeneous group who share a feeling of common nationality
o International Governmental Organizations
is an organization composed primarily of sovereign states
Membership is limited only to states
Assert independent influence on interstate relations promoting
socio-economic interdependence
Examples: NATO, UN
o Non-Governmental Organizations
non-profit organization that is independent from states and
international governmental organizations
usually funded by donations, but some avoid formal funding
altogether and are primarily run by volunteers
Examples: WWF, Amnesty International
o Multinational Corporations
business enterprises that have production or marketing activities
in two or more countries
Examples: Apple, Samsung Electronics
o Religious Movement
Reflect the values of the states
o Individuals
Individuals who sculpt the political landscape on a global scale
Examples: Donald Trump
1. Identify the political and military forces at work in Europe in the late 1800s.
Nationalism: can serve as a unifying force within a country; however,
it can cause intense competition among nations, with each seeking to
overpower the other
Imperialism: made every country think they were better than others
Militarism: policy of glorifying military power made citizens feel
patriotic

2. List the countries that made the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance.
Triple Alliance: Germany, Austria, Italy
Triple Entente: Great Britain, France, Russia

3. Summarize the events that set World War I in motion.

In 1908, Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina. These were two
Balkan areas with large Slavic populations. Serbian leaders were
outraged at this. In the years that followed, Serbia continually vowed
to take the two areas from Austria. In turn, Austria-Hungary promised
to crush any Serbian effort to undermine its authority in the Balkans.
However, on June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife
Sophie, of Austria-Hungary, paid a state visit to Sarajevo, the capital
of Bosnia. The royal couple was shot at point-blank range in an open
car. The killer was Gavilio Princip, a 19 year old Serbian who was a
member of the Black Hand. Since the killer was Serbian, Austria
decided to use the murder as an excuse to punish Serbia.
Serbia agreed to most of Austrias demands, since they were not ready
to have a war against the more powerful country. Austria refused
Serbias demands and were already settled on war.

4. Describe the reaction to Austrias declaration of war.

Russia began moving its army toward the Russian-Austrian border.
Expecting Germany to join Austria, Russia mobilized its troops along
the German border; to the Germans, this was a declaration of war. On
August 1, the German government declared war on Russia. Russia
looked to its ally France for help. Germany did not wait for Frances
reaction; two days later, it declared war on France. Soon afterward,
 Great Britain declared war on Germany. Much of Europe was now
locked in battle.

5. Summarize military events on the Western Front.

The Western Front was a deadlocked region in northern France, were
the war turned into a long and bloody stalemate.
Facing a war on two fronts, the Germans developed a battle strategy
known as the Schlieffen Plan. The plan called for attacking and
defeating France in the west and rushing east to fight Russia. Early on
the plan seemed to work for the Germans. However, on September 5,
the Allies regrouped and attacked the Germans northeast of Paris, in
the valley of the Marne River. This was known as the First Battle of
the Marne, and was perhaps the single most important event in World
War I.
In 1915, opposing armies on the Western Front had dug miles of
parallel trenches to protect themselves from enemy fire. This set the
stage for what was known as trench warfare. The space between
opposing trenches earned the grim nickname no mans land.

6. Explain the development of war in the Eastern Front.

By 1916, Russias war effort was near collapse. Unlike the nations in
Western Europe, it was yet to become industrialized. The Russian
army was continually short on the necessary supplies. They only had
one asset left their numbers. Although the Russians suffered a
staggering number of losses throughout the war, they continually
rebuilt its ranks from its enormous population. The battered Russian
army managed to tie up hundreds of thousands of German troops in
the east.

7. Describe the spread of the conflict.

The Allies wanted to attack a region in the Ottoman Empire known as
the Dardanelles. By securing it, they believed they could take
Constantinople, defeat the Turks, and establish a supply line to Russia.
 However, the two clashing groups reached a stalemate on the Gallipoli
Peninsula on the western side of the strait. This was known as the
Gallipoli campaign.
France and Britain also recruited soldiers from their own colonies.
America joined the war after unrestricted submarine warfare outrage,
warned the Germans once, yet they still sunk three American ships.
The Zimmermann note was the last straw.

8. Identify how governments established wartime economies.

Since World War I was considered a total war, countries devoted all of
their resources to war. Their economies were rationed and swarmed
with propaganda. Women took jobs vacated by men.

9. Explain the effects of war.

World War I was a new kind of war, which ushered new technologies,
and presented the notion of war on a grand and global scale.

10. Explain events that led to the Treaty of Versailles.

Because there were heated arguments among the leaders of France,
Britain, and US considering each individual aims, they reached a
compromise known as the Treaty of Versailles. This was due to that
fact that Britain and France showed little interest in agreeing with US
President Wilsons Fourteen Points, and both countries wanted to strip
Germany of its war-making power.

11. Identify the effects of the treaty on European powers.

The Western powers signed separated peace treaties with each of the
other defeated nations: Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman
Empire. These treaties led to huge land losses for the central powers.
Several new countries were also created.
The war-guilt clause on Germany left her people very bitter and
hateful. People in Germanys mandated territories were angry at the
way the Allies disregarded their desire for independence.
 Peace occurrence of harmony characterized by lack of violence, conflict
behaviors, and the freedom from fear of violence
TWO MAJOR APPROACHES FOR DEALING WITH CONFLICT
o Conflict Avoidance
Disregards conflict altogether
Seeks to avoid the unpleasant and destructive consequences of
conflict
Two Types:
Isolationism
o Minimizing international interactions
Appeasement
o preferable to seek peace and order when the
promotion of ones own interest may lead to
violent and harmful conflict
o Best illustrated by Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlains acceptance of Hitlers annexation of
the Sudetenland
o Conflict Management
Assumes that conflict is constrictive and beneficial
Seeks to manage social and political conflict rather than
eliminate it altogether
Two Types:
Indirect/Third Party
o Conciliation the outside party gathers facts,
classifies issues in the disputes, and seeks to
reestablish negotiation and bargaining between the
parties
o Mediation similar to conciliation, except the
third party may propose a solution
o Arbitration the parties entrust the settlement of a
dispute to an arbiter or a group of them
o Adjudication similar to arbitration, but the
judgment is based on international law
Direct Resolution
o Use of Force occurs when one party uses its
superior force to impose its will on a weaker one
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum
 o Threats of Coercive Power a good example is the
Big Stick Approach
o Compromise contesting parties decide to resolve
a dispute by mutually accepting a less than ideal
settlement

REVOLUTIONS IN RUSSIA
Alexander III succeeded his father, Alexander II, and halted all
reforms in Russia
o He clung to the principles of autocracy like his grandfather
Nicholas I
o He used harsh measures:
Imposed strict censorship codes on published materials
and documents
The secret police carefully watched secondary schools
and universities
Political prisoners are sent to Siberia
He made Jews the target of persecution and allowed
pogroms, which was organized violence against Jews
Nicholas II continued the tradition of Russian autocracy
o His most capable minister launched a program to
industrialize the country
o With the help of British and French investors, work began on
the worlds longest continuous rail line the Trans-Siberian
Railway
o Rapid industrialization stirred discontent among the people of
Russia
o Workers organized strikes
Several revolutionary movements grew and competed
for power
Russian Marxists split into two groups:
 The moderate Mensheviks that wanted a broad
base of popular support for the revolution
The more radical Bolsheviks that supported a
small number of committed revolutionaries
willing to sacrifice everything for change
The major leader of the Bolsheviks was Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov,
who adopted the name Lenin
o Had an engaging personality
o Excellent organizer, yet ruthless
o 1900s: Lenin fled to Western Europe to avoid arrest by
czarist regime
CRISES
o Bloody Sunday: Revolution of 1905
January 22, 1905: workers approached the Winter
Palace in St. Petersburg
Carried a petition asking for better working conditions,
more personal freedom, and an elected national
legislature
The generals ordered soldiers to fire on the crowd
1,000 were wounded and several hundred killed thus
the name Bloody Sunday
o World War I
o Russo-Japanese War
The March Revolution
o Focused around Petrograd
o Forced the czar to abdicate his throne
o Leaders of the Duma established a provisional government
headed by Alexander Kerensky
o His decision to continue fighting in WWI cost him the
support of the soldiers and the people
o Socialist revolutionaries formed soviets, local councils
consisting of workers, peasants, and soldiers
 o Lenin was returned to Russia by the Germans, and reached
Petrograd in April 1917
The Bolshevik Revolution
o Lenin and the Bolsheviks soon gained control of the soviets
in major Russian cities
o November 1917: armed factory workers stormed the Winter
Palace in Petrograd
Called themselves the Bolshevik Red Guards
Took over government offices and arrested the
government leaders
o Lenin then ordered that all farmland be distributed among
peasants
o March 1918: Treaty of Brest-Litovsk a truce with Germany
to stop all fighting
o However, the Bolsheviks faced a new challenge: the White
Army, which was pretty much the opposition in Russia
o Leon Trotsky expertly commanded the Red Army in the
Civil War
o The victory showed that the Bolsheviks were able to seize
power and maintain it
March 1921: Lenin resorted to a small-scale version of capitalism
called the New Economic Policy, or NEP
o Allowed peasants to sell their surplus crops
o Let some small factories, businesses, and farms operate under
private ownership
1922: the country was named the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics, or USSR, in order to keep nationalism in check
The Bolsheviks renamed their party: the Communist Party

TOTALITARIANISM
 government that takes total, centralized, state control over every
aspect of public and private life
Key Traits:
o Ideology
o State Control of Individuals
o Methods of Enforcement
Police terror
indoctrination
Censorship
Persecution
o Modern Technology
o State Control of Society
o Dictatorship and One-party Rule
o Dynamic Leader