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Political Science 014

Monday, January 25th, 1999
Announcements: Make sure you know who your TA is and what you section number is. You will need to know if for the test.

Lecture notes:

  1. Topics in the News
    1. Secretary of State Madeline Albright goes to Russia and is talking about the Star II Treaty: nuclear weapons (reduction)
    2. United States has a plan to protect itself from nuclear weapons (under current law, U.S. can not protect itself from nuclear missile attack.

II. Two things that will help analyse world affairs:

    1. Realists- deal with the world around them, they view the world as it is.
    2. Idealists- want more structure in the world, they believe that realists are too pessimistic. They view the world as it could be.

      3. C. Things to look for in international politics:

      1. Actors- people who run the world
      2. Preference- what the actors want to happen
      3. Structure- anything that can limit actors from reaching a goal

D. Realism vs. Idealism

Actors :

Realism—heads of government

Idealism—Countries

Preferences:

Realists – are concerned with security, the absent of threats to this security and the affects of military capabilities.

Idealists—they believe people should live and let live; " Don’t bother them, they won’t bother you."

Structure:

Realists—Believe in not rocking the boat; but also always have an incentive to arm themselves

Idealists—Believe that more institutions there are the more order there is in the world

E. Security Dilema – in the absences of the knowledge, what a country does to protect itself from another country; to always be on the defensive

F. Think of theories as always being wrong, because they can not observe like theories in science
    1. We are always applying a theory, even if we don’t know it
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These notes are not a substitute for class attendance.


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