Wednesday January 13^th 1999
Announcements: Professor Gartzke made a few clarifications about the syllabus: make sure to read the World Briefing section of the New York Times along with the other articles on international relations; for the short paper take one part or problem for a country and come up with a plan on how to fix it; and make sure to pay attention to the definitions on the side of the pages of the textbooks they are used for material on the mid-term and final.

Lecture notes:

1. International politics is anything that has to do with relations between countries and the events that happen in foreign countries.
   Examples: the bombings in the Congo; the U.S. putting sanctions on three Universities in Moscow for allegedly selling technology to Iran.
2. The focus of the course will be to examine the relations between countries.
   Example: The crisis between the U.S. and Iraq

1. Iraq invaded Kuwait because they wanted its oil and by invading Kuwait they broke international law concerning borders
2. The United States and others used force to get Iraq out of Kuwait

1. After the war the United States and the United Nations lead the mission in making sure that Iraq was not able to build weapons of destruction.
2. Iraq used chemical weapons on its on citizens in the South and the North during their uprisings.
3. The United States stepped in to stop the use of chemical weapons and established a no-fly zone over the Northern and Southern sections of Iraq.
4. Iraq is showing resistance to this no-fly zone in resent weeks and which has prompted retaliation by the U.S. and the UN

1. Levels of Understanding:

1. Description- is the states the situation or problem that has occurred
2. Explanation- why the situation occurred and the cause and effects if the situation
3. Normative – should the situation happened
4. Prescriptive- what should be done about the situation now that it has occurred
5. In this course the focus will be on the explanation of the situation.
   Examples: War is a bad thing but learning about why war happens is good because it leads to a possible end or at least a lessening of suffering and destruction due to war.
6. This system of understanding links events and facts to better understand the whole situation

1. Diversion War Theory