Deck 3: International Relations in Historical Perspective

Question 1

Until recent centuries, international systems historically were

A) limited global systems.
B) limited in geographic scope.
C) world systems.
D) associated with the development of states.

Answer 1

limited in geographic scope.

Question 2

The imperial organization of the Persians was noted for all of the following EXCEPT

A) use of local advisory councils.
B) a network of roads, thus facilitating transportation.
C) a common language, thus facilitating communications.
D) highly developed democratic government.

Answer 2

highly developed democratic government.

Question 3

The Greek independent state system came to be dominated by

A) Athens and Sparta.
B) Argos and Corcyra.
C) Corinth and Thebes.
D) Athenian cultural imperialism.

Answer 3

Athens and Sparta.

Question 4

Under the regime of Chandragupta Maurya, India

A) was isolated from the rest of the world.
B) was influenced by Persians and Greeks.
C) became Buddhist.
D) became a bipolar system of states.

Question 5

For his insights on power and politics, Kautilya, Indian author of Arthashastra, has been compared to

A) Thomas Hobbes.
B) Niccolo Machiavelli.
C) Jean Jacques Rousseau.
D) Thomas Jefferson.

Question 6

The Roman Empire may be the ultimate historical expression of the

A) strong, independent state system.
B) feudal system.
C) imperial international system.
D) global politics.

Question 7

The Roman Empire provided all of the following EXCEPT

A) internal stability.
B) two common languages.
C) equal citizenship to all persons.
D) international law.

Question 8

The universal image of humanity that transcends the boundaries of a city -state or other political units can be traced in the writing and thought of the

A) Hedonists.
B) Stoics.
C) Realists.
D) Aristotelians.

Question 9

Islamic scholarship drew over time on the philosophical and scientific heritage of

A) Greece and Persia.
B) India and China.
C) both A and B.
D) neither A nor B.

Question 10

A defining characteristic of feudalism was

A) public authority predominantly in private hands-the owners of land estates.
B) chaos, given the absence of any authority outside of the feudal community.
C) a system of independent states, each claiming sovereignty.
D) religious authority clearly superior to that of any king or duke.

Question 11

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries

A) literacy expanded and universities were established.
B) the idea of written contracts was relatively unknown.
C) there was hardly any economic activity of any kind.
D) the sacred and temporal authorities were always in agreement.

Question 12

The rise of an independent state system in Europe was associated with all of the following EXCEPT

A) an increase in the religious authority of the Pope.
B) the decline of feudalism and the rise of market capitalism.
C) an increase in the power of kings.
D) increasing trade.

Question 13

In Europe, the sixteenth century was a period of

A) the emergence of feudalism.
B) conflict and resistance to monarchical state building.
C) general agreement between religious and temporal authorities.
D) increasing power and importance of parliamentary institutions.

Question 14

Niccolo Machiavelli contended that the purpose of politics was to

A) pursue ethical and religious goals.
B) stabilize the economy and provide for the welfare of the least able citizen.
C) enhance nationalism.
D) provide both internal and external security.

Question 15

By the late seventeenth century, the primary political unit in Europe had become the

A) church.
B) territorial state.
C) feudal kingdom.
D) Concert of Europe.

Question 16

Thomas Hobbes drew an analogy between the anarchy of the international state system and a

A) labyrinth or complex web of relations in society.
B) person in a state of nature-one without central authority.
C) chemical balance one can observe in nature.
D) chaotic social system one finds in revolutionary periods.

Question 17

The doctrine of mercantilism supported the idea that the state

A) has a major role to play in the economy.
B) should stay out of the domestic economy.
C) has a moral responsibility to redistribute income to support the most vulnerable persons in the society.
D) should own and operate companies (such as the Dutch East India Company), using profits for the benefit of the population as a whole.

Question 18

The Dutch legal theorist sometimes called the ?father? of international law is

A) Thomas Hobbes.
B) Immanuel Kant.
C) Niccolo Machiavelli.
D) Hugo Grotius.

Question 19

Immanuel Kant?s ideas included

A) advocacy of an international federation.
B) the impossibility of peace due to the unchanging nature of human beings.
C) the eventuality of world government combining church and state.
D) a commitment to realism-power and power politics.

Question 20

The Concert of Europe refers to

A) a treaty signed in 1648 to end thirty years of warfare in Europe.
B) the collective hegemony of the five major European powers that emerged after defeat of Napoleon in 1815.
C) the leaders of the major European countries subsequent to World War I.
D) a musical event in 1750 that marked the high point of Bourbon rule in France.

Question 21

The European system of independent states

A) confined territorial competition to Europe.
B) confined economic competition to Europe and the United States.
C) eventually spread throughout the world.
D) collapsed in the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Question 22

As indicated in the writings of Richard Cobden, early liberals claimed all of the following EXCEPT

A) pursuing mercantilist goals historically has resulted in war.
B) free trade is a peaceful means of achieving national wealth.
C) communication and friendship expand as a result of free trade.
D) free trade results in domestic inequality.

Question 23

Karl Marx focused his analysis on

A) economic class struggle.
B) the inherent instability of the state.
C) a repudiation of Adam Smith and capitalism.
D) the impossibility of free trade.

Question 24

European colonial expansion in the nineteenth century was directed toward

A) the Middle East.
B) Africa.
C) Asia.
D) all of the above.

Question 25

The idea that states have a legal right to enforce international law against aggression by taking collective action to stop it is called

A) alliance systems.
B) international cooperation.
C) collective sanctions.
D) collective security.

Question 26

Sovereignty refers to all of the following EXCEPT

A) legal authority (or legal rights) states claim.
B) legal right to intervene diplomatically or militarily in other states.
C) a legal right to exercise complete jurisdiction over the state?s territory.
D) a legal right to be independent or autonomous in the conduct of foreign relations.

Question 27

The Peace of Westphalia (1648)

A) ended warfare in Europe until the twentieth century, when two world wars occurred.
B) established formally the authority of princes over their own territories, thus contributing to the development of sovereign states.
C) ended the Hundred Years? War, which had such devastating consequences in France.
D) was imposed on German princes by the Pope.

Question 28

An independent-state system is characterized by

A) no states with superior or dominant power over other states.
B) dominance typically by one or more states.
C) supremacy by one state, as in an empire.
D) a balance between two major powers.

Question 29

Balance of power among a large number of states is most closely associated with which historical forms or systems of international relations and world politics?

A) independent-state
B) hegemonic-state
C) imperial
D) feudal

Question 30

Ideal or pure types of international systems are

A) near-perfect matches with real-world cases.
B) categories against which real-world cases can be compared.
C) ideal in the sense that they are preferred forms diplomats seek to establish.
D) pure or refined in the real world in an effort to eliminate imperfections.

Question 31

The global expansion of capitalism was accompanied by colonialism.

Question 32

The first global international system was in place by the end of the fourteenth century.

Question 33

The balance-of-power concept is rarely used in modern interpretations of international relations.

Question 34

Feudal Europe was essentially an imperial system.

Question 35

The Persian Empire allowed a significant degree of autonomy for the regions under its control.

Question 36

Sparta?s main goal in the sixth century B.C. was domination of all of ancient Greece.

Question 37

The Christian Church was a significant power in feudal Europe.

Question 38

Machiavelli and Hobbes had radically different views of the nature of international politics.

Question 39

The Concert of Europe provided a mechanism for maintaining peace and the balance of power in Europe.

Question 40

Mikhail Gorbachev?s actions in the late 1980s intensified East-West conflict, thus producing a renewed arms race and prolonging the Cold War.

Question 41

Discuss how historical knowledge contributes to present-day understandings of international relations and world politics.

Question 42

Discuss how ideas about politics have contributed to the development and present -day practice of international relations and world politics.

Question 43

Using the concepts of economy, security, and identity, assess how the lives and welfare of people were affected by different empires in the ancient world.

Question 44

Trace the development of realism using the ideas of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and other political thinkers.

Question 45

Identify the intellectual sources of pluralist or liberal thinking, assessing their impact on present day conduct in international relations and world politics.

Question 46

Compare and contrast the views of classical liberals such as Richard Cobden with the perspective of Karl Marx on the benefits, costs, and impact of free international trade.

Question 47

Does international law work? In what situations is it most effective? In what situations is it least effective?

Question 48

Write an essay in which you discuss and analyze the important characteristics of the Persian Empire, classical Greece, and the Roman Empire, including reasons that these empires eventually failed. What relevance, if any, does a study of ancient empires have to understanding present-day international relations and world politics?

Question 49

Discuss the legacy and impact of European colonialism and imperialism on present -day international relations and world politics.

Question 50

Discuss how European wars since the seventeenth century have affected the balance of power
-the relative power of states in relation to each other.

Question 51

Discuss the historical development of the concepts of sovereignty and the sovereign state, assessing the relevance of these concepts to understanding present -day international relations and world politics.

Question 52

Compare and contrast the different historical forms or systems of international relations and world politics-independent-state, hegemonic-state, imperial, and feudal, identifying their defining characteristics and using historical examples.