Chapter Vocabulary:

1. Structural Violence – is a term describing a type of violence in which a societal structure or

organization harms individuals by denying them access to fundamental necessities.
2. Balance of Power – According to international relations theory, nations can ensure their
survival by preventing any one state from attaining sufficient military force to rule the others.
3. National Security – is the security and defense of a nation state, including its citizens, economy,
and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government.
4. Concert of Powers – refers to a general consensus among the Great Powers of 19th Century
Europe to maintain the European balance of power and the integrity of territorial boundaries.
5. Versailles Peace Treaty – was the most important of the peace treaties that brought World
War I to an end.
6. Compliance – adhering to a rule, such as a policy, standard, specification, or law.
7. Security Community – is a region in which a large-scale use of violence has become very
unlikely or even unthinkable
8. Civil Society – refers to the space for collective action around shared interests, purposes and
values, generally distinct from government and commercial for-profit actors
9. Disarmament – the reduction or withdrawal of military forces and weapons.
10. Détente - the easing of hostility or strained relations, especially between countries.
11. Peacekeeping – the maintenance of international peace and security by the deployment of
military forces in a particular area: The United Nations' efforts toward peacekeeping.
12. War on Terror – It refers to the international military campaign that started after the
September 11 attacks on the United States.

Test your knowledge and understanding:

1. Should peace be defined as the absence of war?

- In my own perspective, a state peace cannot be defined as the absence of war because
there are other conflicts that can occur in addition to war, such as troubles within their own
country. The absence of fighting does not imply that a country is at peace. If people are
impoverished and subjected to maltreatment by their own leaders, we cannot call it peace.
2. Is there any single theory of peace that you find convincing?
- I believe that the power balance may protect everyone from conflict. There will be no wars
or dominance of other states if there is no dominating state in military force.
3. Can nuclear weapons be seen as weapons of peace?
- There are some occasions where nuclear weapons may not function as intended; they may
fail and result in mass destruction, and the fact is that we cannot ever call this peace.

Chapter 15

Chapter Vocabulary:

1. Power – power as a measure of influence or control over outcomes, events, actors and
issues; Power as victory in conflict and the attainment of security.
 2. Legitimacy – is the right and acceptance of an authority, usually a governing law or a regime.
3. Anarchic System – is the idea that the world lacks any supreme authority or sovereign.
4. Geopolitics – is the study of the effects of Earth's geography (human and physical)
on politics and international relations.
5. Rimland – is a concept championed by Nicholas John Spykman, professor of international
relations at Yale University.
6. Capabilities – the capacity to carry out or achieve certain actions or results in terms of
human capital, capability refers to the ability to accomplish or achieve certain
actions/outcomes at the intersection of capacity and ability.
7. Europe – taken a different approach.
8. Toxic Assets – are assets that are difficult, if not impossible, to sell at any price because to a
lack of demand. Toxic assets have no prospective purchasers since they are largely regarded
as a surefire way to lose money.
9. Austerity – refers to strict economic policies that a government imposes to control growing
public debt, defined by increased frugality.
10. Appeasement – is a diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to
an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict.

Test your knowledge and understanding:

1. Is there an agreed definition of power?

- In the social sciences, power has three different definitions, according to British sociologist
Paul Hirst. To begin with, it depicts a connection between performers that "allows one actor
to triumph over another." Second, power refers to a ‘quantitative capability,' implying that
one actor wins because it has more power and hence can compel others to comply. Finally,
power is frequently used to define a zero-sum game in which one actor's gains are canceled
by another's losses.
2. Does geopolitics tell us anything of value today?
-
3. Explain the difference between hard power, soft power and smart power.
- The differences between hard power, soft power, and smart power are, Hard Power refers
to a country's or political body's capacity to influence other players' conduct through
economic incentives or military might. Soft power, rather than coercion, is the capacity to
captivate and co-opt others (contrast hard power). To put it another way, soft power entails
using attractiveness and attractiveness to influence others' preferences. And lastly, the term
Smart Power is referring to the use of both hard and soft power methods.
4. Can President George W. Bush’s foreign policy be explained in terms of power alone?
-