Deck 8: The Pursuit of Power Through Arms and Alliances

Question 1

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." This statement by President Eisenhower exemplifies which of the following concepts?

A)human security
B)soft power
C)opportunity costs
D)diminishing returns

Answer 1

C

Question 2

What school of thought argues that the drive for power and the domination of others for self-advantage is a universal and permanent motive throughout world history?

A)pragmatism
B)statism
C)realism
D)liberalism

Answer 2

C

Question 3

What trend in the USU.S. military started around the beginning of the Iraq War?

A)the use of private military services
B)the use of smart bombs
C)increased reliance on weapons of mass destruction
D)increased reliance on international coalitions

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which behavior is strictly outlawed in international law?

A)deterrence
B)mutually assured destruction (MAD)
C)preemptive war
D)preventive war

Question 5

When the United States threatens or uses limited force to persuade an adversary to alter its foreign or domestic policy, the US is engaging is what practice?

A)forceful diplomacy
B)coercive diplomacy
C)selective engagement
D)soft power

Question 6

What is necessary for mutually assured destruction (MAD)to work?

A)constant communication
B)second-strike capability
C)ballistic missile defense (BDM)
D)preemption

Question 7

What technological innovation allows many weapons to be delivered from a single missile?

A)multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs)
B)nonlethal weapons (NLWs)
C)smart bombs
D)cyber-strategic artificial intelligence weaponry

Question 8

Which concept refers to the expansion of the capabilities of existing nuclear powers to inflict increasing destruction with their nuclear weapons?

A)horizontal nuclear proliferation
B)vertical nuclear proliferation
C)nuclear deterrence
D)parallel nuclear proliferation

Question 9

When country A chooses to attack country B based on a suspicion that country B might attack it sometime in the distant future, country A is engaging in which of the following?

A)preemptive war
B)preventive war
C)extended deterrence
D)bandwagoning

Question 10

Aside from the obvious consequences of a nuclear war, such as the destruction of life and property, what other devastating outcomes might such a war bring?

A)a nuclear winter
B)nuclear summer
C)Earth's axial tilt
D)Earth's geomagnetic reversal

Question 11

Which states dominate the arms export market, supplying 36 and 21 percent of all conventional weapons exports, respectively, between 2014 and 2018?

A)Germany and France
B)China and India
C)China and Russia
D)the United States and Russia

Question 12

Which of the following concepts describes a country's psychological freedom from fears that the state will be unable to resist threats to its survival and national values emanating from abroad or at home?

A)national security
B)national defense
C)security dilemma
D)self-help

Question 13

Which of the following countries spends the most on its military?

A)Japan
B)Russia
C)China
D)the United States

Question 14

According to realism, which element of state power is by far the most important?

A)military capabilities
B)size of economy
C)geographical location
D)population size

Question 15

The inability of arms suppliers to control the uses of their military hardware and the fact that friends can become foes can lead to which of the following?

A)deterrence
B)soft power
C)blowback
D)diminishing returns

Question 16

When country A deliberately threatens country B with nuclear destruction in hope that country B will concede to its demands, country A is engaging in which of the following?

A)massive retaliation
B)brinkmanship
C)nuclear deterrence
D)preemption

Question 17

What is required for deterrence to be successful?

A)the ability to inflict an unacceptable amount of damage
B)the ability to win a nuclear war
C)a second-strike capability
D)the ability to survive an all-out war

Question 18

What aspect of power might explain why seemingly weak countries have at times been successful at fighting against much more powerful adversaries?

A)tangible elements of power
B)intangible elements of power
C)power potential
D)stochastic power

Question 19

What does a country engage in when it displays its military force to intimidate an adversary?

A)coercive operations
B)deterrence
C)gun-boat diplomacy
D)bandwagoning

Question 20

Which concept refers to an increase in the number of states that possess nuclear weapons?

A)horizontal nuclear proliferation
B)vertical nuclear proliferation
C)nuclear deterrence
D)mutually assured destruction

Question 21

The condition that results when each state's increase in military capability is matched by the others, resulting in no significant gain in security for any one state, is known as which of the following?

A)the security dilemma
B)mutually assured destruction
C)coercive diplomacy
D)balance of power

Question 22

Why did some countries call for an explicit ban on AI weapons?

A)because AI is susceptible to computer viruses
B)because AI weapons include machines that have discretion to take human life
C)because AI weapons do not minimize collateral damage
D)because AI weapons are unreliable

Question 23

Which of the following states has the highest relative burden of military spending?

A)Saudi Arabia
B)Germany
C)Poland
D)Mexico

Question 24

Variables such as the relative size of a state's economy, its population and territorial size, geographic position, raw materials, and many others can be thought of as which of the following?

A)relative gains
B)absolute gains
C)power potential
D)soft power

Question 25

When describing the trade-off between government expenditures on the military versus social welfare and economic programs, the common adage "guns vs. butter" is used. This situation is referring to which of the following concepts?

A)the peace dividend
B)opportunity costs
C)coercive diplomacy
D)the security dilemma

Question 26

Biological and chemical weapons share which of the following characteristics?

A)They are regarded as a "poor man's atomic bomb."
B)They can cause widespread injury and death.
C)They are prohibited by international law.
D)All of these are characteristics of biological and chemical weapons.

Question 27

What did President Bush advocate for when he argued that the United States "must take the battle to the enemy" and "confront the worst threats before they emerge"?

A)a preemptive war
B)a preventive war
C)a war of attrition
D)a just war

Question 28

Which weak military power managed to prevail over the United States?

A)Vietnam
B)Iraq
C)South Korea
D)Cambodia

Question 29

The capabilities or resources held by a state that are considered necessary to its asserting influence over others is known as which of the following?

A)power potential
B)power
C)coercive diplomacy
D)national security

Question 30

What percentage of the world's military expenditures were the 29 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization responsible for?

A)15%
B)24%
C)53%
D)88%

Question 31

Which preventive strategy is designed to dissuade an adversary from doing what it would otherwise do?

A)deterrence
B)coercive diplomacy
C)compellence
D)power politics

Question 32

What are the key elements of deterrence?

A)prevention and preemption
B)capabilities, credibility, and communication
C)second-strike capability and uncertainty
D)retaliation and unacceptable amounts of damage

Question 33

What is the common criticism of the use of private military companies in warfare?

A)that these companies lack adequate monitoring and evaluation
B)that it is too difficult to establish corporate liability even when employees have broken the law
C)that private companies will have an incentive for armed conflicts to persist
D)All of these are common criticisms of private military companies.

Question 34

Which of the following is an example of an indirect intervention?

A)a military occupation of a country
B)a forceful removal of a dictator by special forces
C)broadcasting propaganda in a target country
D)a show of military force to intimidate an adversary

Question 35

Which weapons are sometimes called a "poor man's atomic bomb"?

A)biological and chemical weapons
B)artificial intelligence weapons
C)nonlethal weapons
D)active denial technology

Question 36

What is the goal of coercive diplomacy?

A)to use unilateral coercion to persuade an opponent
B)to limit the number or options an opponent has
C)to coerce an opponent through diplomatic channels
D)to alter the target state's cost and benefits calculation

Question 37

The term for attacks on an adversary's telecommunications and computer networks with the purpose of degrading an enemy's defense capabilities is known as which of the following?

A)nonlethal weapons (NLWs)
B)information-warfare tactics
C)revolution in military technology (RMT)
D)a strategic weapon

Question 38

From a realist perspective, what is the pervasive concern of states?

A)national security
B)arms races
C)treaties
D)disarmament

Question 39

The United States supplied weapons to the Taliban during the Soviet-Afghan War. Some of these weapons were later used by the Taliban to fight the USU.S. What is this an example of?

A)blowback
B)the creation of a military industrial complex
C)vertical proliferation
D)opportunity cost

Question 40

Which country is the leading global weapons exporter?

A)Brazil
B)China
C)the United States
D)the United Kingdom

Question 41

Which of the following refers to a fundamental international legal principle, now being challenged, that traditionally defined interference by one state in the domestic affairs of another state as illegal?

A)a new commitment to intervention
B)a nonintervention norm
C)asymmetry of motivation favoring the coerced
D)domestic sovereignty

Question 42

What do weak states engage in when they seek alliance with the strongest power, irrespective of that power's ideology or type of government?

A)balancing
B)deterrence
C)bandwagoning
D)alignments

Question 43

The balance of power is, perhaps, the most well-known theory of international relations. What are its core tenets and why is it desirable?

Question 44

Compare old trends versus the new trends in military spending. How has military spending changed over time? What are the consequences?

Question 45

Power distribution in the world during the height of the Roman Empire can best be described as which of the following?

A)unipolarity
B)bipolarity
C)multipolarity
D)molecular polarity

Question 46

The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty seeks to prevent horizontal proliferation of nuclear weapons. Many countries reject the NPT as hypocritical as it denies them the same rights and capabilities that are afforded to the United States, Russia, China, Britain, and France. Analyze this argument. How can countries justify denying other countries nuclear weapons while they have no intention of giving up their own?

Question 47

How are military expenditures and economic growth linked? Some people argue that there is a trade-off between "guns and butter," because military expenditures divert resources away from growth-promoting investments. However, other people claim that military spending stimulates economic growth. Which side of this debate do you support? Why?

Question 48

What adjectives would a realist use to describe the characteristics of international alliances?

A)temporary and opportunistic
B)ironclad and reliable
C)formal and permanent
D)opportunistic and permanent

Question 49

Military power is an important characteristic of states from a realist point of view, but states that are apparently weak seem to win a large number of armed conflicts.
(a)How can we change our definition of military power to reflect this reality?
(b)Are there other types of power that may be more important in predicting military victories?
(c)Should states focus primarily on military power in their security decisions? Why?

Question 50

Which military alliance was created by the United States and Western Europe to deter a Soviet attack?

A)NATO
B)Warsaw Pact
C)WTO
D)Axis