International Relations:

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Date: 08/27
➢ SALT treaties, first agreements with the Soviet Union
➢ The Soviet Union attempts to spend more on the military in the ’70s
➢ Partially fault of the fall of the Soviet Union
➢ Hobbs prior to the government there was the state of nature
➢ “War against everyone” “nasty, brutish, and short”
➢ So after the Afghanistan fall, there was a Hobbesian state of being
➢ Taliban rules most of the country
➢ They used Islamic texts to rule the country
➢ The biggest mistake that the Bush administration made was to downsize the quest to pull
Osama Bin Laden out of Afghanistan
➢ He then was able to get out and into Pakistan
➢ In Pakistan, the military and the intelligence services don’t listen to the prime minister
➢ The current Pakistan prime minister is called Imran Khan (He is a famous cricket player
ei. Michael Jordan)
➢ The Pakistani intelligence services have been helping the Taliban for the last 20 years
➢ Pakistan is called the graveyard of governments/empires
➢ We’ve had basically 20 years of back and forth
Date:08/31
➢ Two different types of terrorist groups, ex.Red Brigade vs IRA
➢ Taliban would fit into IRA Version
➢ ISIS is similar to the Red Brigade
➢ What we did wrong
○ 1. Stay
○ 2. Bagram
○ 3. Evacuate all Americans first
○ 4. Re-invade
○ 5. What we did
Date: 09/21
➢ EU: a group of 27 countries
➢ Eurozone: countries that use the Euro (15)
➢ Schengen zone/area: open border travel (most of the EU + switzerland + norway +
iceland)

➢ What should the government do?

 ○ Help for the poor, old, disabled
○ Infrastructure
○ Public goods/services (libraries, etc.)
○ Currency
○ SEC, FDA, OSHA
○ Public Safety
■ Military
■ Police, etc.
○ Schools
○ Healthcare
○ Culture
➢ Floating vs fixed
➢ A state is a political entity, central government, tax, military, borders, recognition
➢ And a nation is a cultural entity (ex. Palestinians, Kurds, Basque)
➢ Realism is the theory that the international arena is a Hobbesian state of nature
➢ Countries act out of self-interest
➢ Joe Nye the IR guy
➢ Hard power vs soft power (aid, culture)
➢ Rules for Human Nature: (realism)
○ 1. Objective Rules—Human Nature
○ 2. Power allows you to do whatever you want
○ 3. Power is power
○ 4. Moral — Power — Action “aware of moral significance”
○ 5. No nation is uniquely moral
○ 6. Realism is different (Ignore, it’s not that important)
➢ After the fall of the berlin wall, we had a unipole world
➢ Nuclear weapons countries: India, China, America, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, UK,
France, Israel*
➢ SALT, START,CTBT, MAD, NPT
➢ “There has never been nuclear war”
➢ Second Strike Capability: No matter how much you have, I can possibly hit you back
➢ The US had N.Dakota, Subs, and Airborne nuclear weapons
➢ ^^^ nuclear triad
➢ Prolif?
○ G: if N then less likely, Nukes deter conventional war,
○ B: Kim Jong-Un, leakage, miscalc, accident
➢ Nunn-Lugar Act (Comp. Threat Reduction)
➢ MAD (mutual assured destruction)
➢ CTBT (comprehensive test ban treaty)
➢ NPT (non-proliferation treaty)
➢ SALT I/II(strategic arms limitation talks/treaties)[started during Nixon administration]
➢ ABM (anti-ballistic missile treaty)
➢ START (strategic arms “talks” reduction)
➢ Liberalism:
○ 1. HR (human rights) are a thing
○ 2. Democracy good (Democracy promotion?)
○ 3. Free Trade (neoliberalism: Opening markets)
○ 4. Cooperation Good
○ 5.“Fairness” rather than individual national goods
➢ Marxism:
○ IR explained by class struggle
➢ Feminism:
○ 1. Essentialism
■ Counterarguments: Condoleeza Rice, Margret Thatcher
○ 2. Asking the Questions
➢ Constructivism: making stuff up and those things become real
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