Deck 2: Thinking About World Politics: Theory and Reality

Question 1

Which of the following was never a member of the League of Nations?

A) United Kingdom
B) France
C) Russia
D) United States

Answer 1

D

Question 2

One of the major conclusions reached by liberals after World War I was that

A) idealism was not a strong basis for maintaining peace.
B) the League of Nations system was fatally flawed.
C) the balance-of-power system was fatally flawed.
D) the nation-state system was fatally flawed.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which schools of thought emphasize the importance of non-state actors?

A) Liberalism and radicalism
B) Radicalism and realism
C) Realism and liberalism
D) Liberalism and socialism

Answer 3

A

Question 4

After World War I,President Woodrow Wilson advocated the establishment of the

A) Organization of American States and a balance-of-power system.
B) United Nations with a veto power for major powers.
C) League of Nations and other institutions of international law.
D) International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Question 5

Which of the following schools stress the apparent rise in economic cooperation in the international?

A) Liberalism
B) Radicalism
C) Realism
D) Transnationalism

Question 6

Liberalism is good at explaining

A) realpolitik.
B) the competitive self-interest of states.
C) fights and threats among actors in the system.
D) international environmental cooperation.

Question 7

According to realists,people are

A) naïve.
B) inclined toward cooperation.
C) self-interested.
D) inclined toward violence.

Question 8

After World War II,liberal reformers emphasized the creation of a new

A) balance of power system.
B) society of states.
C) realpolitik.
D) self-help system.

Question 9

Which of the following schools argues that governments pursue not abstract national interest but the interest of dominant class or classes?

A) Liberalism
B) Radicalism
C) Realist
D) Transnationalism

Question 10

Which of the following schools assumes that most nation-states are rational,unitary actors pursuing goals of national interest,irrespective of their form of government or type of economic organization?

A) Liberalism
B) Radicalism
C) Realist
D) Transnationalism

Question 11

Realists insisted that nation-state behavior can be best explained by

A) the advancement of international organizations.
B) the anarchic nature of the international system.
C) the good-will of leaders.
D) democratic values.

Question 12

Realists argue that international organizations like the UN are

A) important organizations that promote and maintain world peace.
B) important organizations because they promote justice and equality among all powers.
C) only as important as their most powerful members wish them to be.
D) fronts for communist and socialist expansion.

Question 13

After World War II,the liberals advocated the establishment of

A) the UN and a balance-of-power system.
B) NATO and a balance-of-power system.
C) the UN and the spread of democracy.
D) the Warsaw Pact to promote socialism and defeat capitalist imperialism.

Question 14

It is argued that peace in Europe between the Napoleonic Wars and World War I was kept by

A) President Wilson placing U.S.troops on alert in Europe.
B) a systemic balance of power.
C) the League of Nations conference.
D) the UN Security Council resolutions.

Question 15

The realist notion of self-help refers to

A) the desire of nation-states to appeal to a higher authority for protection.
B) the tendency of nation-states to band together in times of crisis.
C) the consequences of an liberal view of the world.
D) the reality that states must look out for their own interests.

Question 16

Which of the following schools argues that imperialism and wars are caused by capitalists' attempts to maintain their power and exploit other classes?

A) Realism
B) Constructivism
C) Radicalism
D) Rationalist

Question 17

Which school of international relations treats all actors as agents,with interests and capabilities?

A) Realist
B) Constructivist
C) Radical
D) Rationalist

Question 18

Nation-states are by far the most important organizations in world politics,according to

A) liberals.
B) radicals.
C) realists.
D) transnationalists.

Question 19

Which of the following two schools share the conviction that people are rational and are motivated largely by self-interest?

A) Realist and liberal
B) Realist and radical
C) Constructivist and radical
D) Liberal and neorealist

Question 20

Which of the following schools believe that the present world system is unsatisfactory and should be transformed into a system of international laws and economic integration?

A) Realism
B) Liberalism
C) Radicalism
D) Transnationalism

Question 21

The new "social scientific approach" that was adopted following World War II assumed that

A) international politics was best studied through an historical perspective.
B) patterns of social behavior were nonexistent.
C) individuals and nation-states are not social beings.
D) knowledge could be acquired by investigating patterns of social behavior.

Question 22

The scientific method

A) provides us with a lens to understand how states ought to behave.
B) is a systematic way of obtaining information and making generalizations.
C) is the only value-free method for building theory.
D) is the only correct method for understanding all the nuances of world politics.

Question 23

Describe how the world works according to realists,liberals,and radicals.Provide examples.

Question 24

Describe how the world works according to rationalists,constructivists,and reflectivists.Provide examples.

Question 25

Checking predictions against observed data,an activity central to the scientific method,is known as

A) hypothesis testing.
B) common sense.
C) the comparative method.
D) a thought experiment.

Question 26

The "power of ideas" is a central scholarly focus of

A) reflectivists.
B) constructivists.
C) radicals.
D) rationalists.

Question 27

Social scientific approaches to understanding the world

A) rule out chance.
B) replace historical trends with historical facts.
C) are absolute laws of probability and behavior.
D) assume knowledge can be acquired by studying patterns of social behavior.

Question 28

Which of school of thought assumes that actors' perceptions of threats are the result of ongoing social processes?

A) Realist
B) Constructivist
C) Radical
D) Rationalist

Question 29

What are the differences between realist and liberal theories on explaining the nature of the system,the important actors,and the nature of their interaction? Explain.

Question 30

According to some realist scholars,the ethics of world politics is best described as

A) justice will always prevail.
B) might makes right.
C) capitalists that exploit the poor.
D) no bad deed goes unpunished.

Question 31

The main difference between the physical and social sciences is

A) it is more difficult to uncover the process of causation underlying correlation in the social sciences.
B) physical science studies make greater contributions to cumulative knowledge building.
C) everything can be held constant in the physical sciences and nothing can be held constant in social sciences.
D) social sciences create better knowledge for humanity.

Question 32

Empirical theory building includes

A) finding the causal connection between forces and outcomes.
B) determining the rightness and wrongness of state actions.
C) constructing models of what international actors do,how they do it,and why.
D) rejecting a series of inaccurate hypotheses.

Question 33

Which group of scholars believes that scientific objectivity is NOT achievable in social science?

A) Reflectivists
B) Constructivists
C) Radicals
D) Rationalists

Question 34

The difference between an independent and a dependent variables is

A) dependent variables explain observed outcomes.
B) an independent variable explains observed outcomes.
C) a dependent variable is an outcome we attempt to explain.
D) an independent variable is an outcome we attempt to explain.

Question 35

Which approach to the study of world politics disputes the notion that behavior is dictated by the "realities" or logic of anarchy?

A) Rationalist
B) Reflectivist
C) Constructivist
D) Liberal

Question 36

In the study of international relations,theories

A) can predict future events.
B) make world politics more complex.
C) are probabilistic explanations.
D) None of the above are true.

Question 37

Assumptions are

A) statements that simplify the task of theory building.
B) statements that make the greatest difference in bringing about an outcome.
C) statements that connects an explanation to possible real-world observations.
D) statements that suggest states' interests are socially constructed.

Question 38

When used in the social sciences and more specifically in the study of international relations,the comparative method

A) distinguishes facts from opinions in an attempt to predict the future.
B) looks for patterns,not uniqueness,while using the past to serve as a guide for the future.
C) separates politics from economics while attempting to explain the past and future.
D) uses highly descriptive single-case studies with no attempt to accumulate knowledge.

Question 39

Historical approaches to international relations stressed

A) dialectical materialism.
B) ethical and moral issues.
C) comparability.
D) description of unique events.

Question 40

A theory is an intellectual tool that

A) is not anything like a model.
B) helps us to see how phenomena are interrelated.
C) is a set of organized truths about the world.
D) is the most precise statement one can make.

Question 41

What is the role of morality and ethics in world politics? Explain.

Question 42

How does the social scientific approach to the study of international relations differ from the study of international history and international law? Explain.

Question 43

What are the core assumptions for realism,liberalism and radicalism? Which group of assumptions most accurately depicts world politics? Explain.