Deck 4: Great Power Relations and Rivalries

Question 1

Which term describes a movement by an ethnic group aiming to recover control of lost territory by force so that the new state boundaries no longer divide the group?

A)fascism
B)irredentism
C)appeasement
D)hypernationalism

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Who argued that there is a strong probability that rivalry between great powers is cyclical in nature?

A)Alexander Wendt
B)John Mearsheimer
C)Arnold Toynbee
D)Hand Morgenthau

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which is the most recent hegemony?

A)Spanish
B)Portuguese
C)American
D)French

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Which of the following refers to a strategy of making concessions to another state in the hope that, when satisfied, it will not make additional demands?

A)deterrence
B)appeasement
C)coalition building
D)bandwagoning

Question 5

Which event triggered a series of great power actions leading to the eruption of World War I?

A)the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany
B)the breaking of the Treaty of Versailles
C)the breaking of the Treaty of Paris
D)the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand

Question 6

What does the long-cycle theory focus on?

A)the rise and fall of leading global powers
B)international deterrence
C)hegemonic dominance of the international system
D)the quest for world dominance

Question 7

Which of the following superpowers did the Cold War engulf?

A)France and Germany
B)Germany and the Soviet Union
C)the United States and Germany
D)the United States and the Soviet Union

Question 8

Which of the following may have been an underlying cause of World War I?

A)colonialism
B)socialism
C)nationalism
D)capitalism

Question 9

Where did Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin meet at the end of World War II to design a new world order?

A)Munich
B)Dayton, OHOhio
C)Yalta
D)Warsaw

Question 10

Which term would describe a future distribution of power in which China's economic and military power matched that of the United States?

A)unipolarity
B)bipolarity
C)multipolarity
D)hegemony

Question 11

Which concept describes a situation in which a region is ruled by an external sovereign power?

A)colonialism
B)nationalism
C)irredentism
D)totalitarianism

Question 12

One cause of World War II was appeasement. Adolf Hitler was infamously appeased by which of the following countries?

A)Poland and Czechoslovakia
B)Britain and France
C)the Ottoman Empire and the Soviet Union
D)Belgium and France

Question 13

Which of the following is a necessary characteristic of a hegemonic state?

A)A hegemon dominates all of its neighbors.
B)A hegemon acts multilaterally.
C)A hegemon acts unilaterally.
D)A hegemon has preponderant power.

Question 14

What is a common criticism of long-cycle theory?

A)that it does not allow for the actions of policy makers
B)that it does not pay attention to distinct phases through which power transitions unfold
C)that isit operates at the domestic level of analysis
D)that it operates at the individual level of analysis

Question 15

Which theoretical perspective argues that power is always threatening and that any state bent on survival must be suspicious of other states?

A)liberalism
B)realism
C)constructivism
D)the long-cycle theory

Question 16

Which of the following variables would a structural realist likely emphasize in an attempt to explain the outbreak of World War II?

A)the reemergence of multipolarity
B)the failure of the Treaty of Versailles
C)the appeasement of Adolf Hitler
D)the Russian Revolution

Question 17

Which variable(s)would a structuralist emphasize in an attempt to explain states' behavior?

A)leaders' personalities
B)balance of power
C)economic conditions
D)strength of domestic opposition

Question 18

Which idea assumes that Soviet communism was inherently expansionistic?

A)the Cold War
B)the domino theory
C)hegemony
D)structural realism

Question 19

The Treaty of Versailles grew out of a desire for retribution. To which country was the treaty punitive?

A)Germany
B)Poland
C)The United Kingdom
D)France

Question 20

How would a realist explain the outbreak of World War I?

A)A realist would argue that the war was inadvertent, not the result of any master plan.
B)A realist would argue that the war was rooted in the failure of the League of Nations.
C)A realist would argue that the war was due to insufficient interdependence in Europe.
D)A realist would argue that Nazi Germany was solely responsible for the war.

Question 21

Underlying causes of World War II included all but which of the following?

A)German and Japanese imperialism abroad
B)the failure of the United States to exercise leadership over the global economy
C)the reemergence of a bipolar global power distribution
D)the failure of the League of Nations to protect its members against invasion by stronger states

Question 22

Which of the following refers to the relaxation of tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States?

A)détente
B)extended deterrence
C)the Reagan Doctrine
D)containment

Question 23

Which of the following often results in stability of international politics and economic relations?

A)the existence of a global hegemon
B)the existence of bipolar distribution of power
C)the existence of multipolar distribution of power
D)the existence of common international currency

Question 24

Which Cold War Soviet leader pursued a doctrine of peaceful coexistence, in which competition between communism and capitalism could be free of conflict?

A)Nikita Krushchev
B)Joseph Stalin
C)Mikhail Gorbachev
D)Vladimir Putin

Question 25

What event led to the demise of détente?

A)the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979
B)the Soviet blockade of West Berlin in 1948
C)the communist coup d'état in Czechoslovakia in 1948
D)the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962

Question 26

Which of the following is true of a hegemon?

A)A hegemon must bear no costs to maintain worldwide political order.
B)A hegemon must not be concerned about upholding its position.
C)A hegemon must realize it has unrivaled power and can reshape the global system.
D)A hegemon must never worry about overextending itself.

Question 27

Fascism can be defined as which of the following?

A)a far-left ideology that promotes extreme democracy and voting rights for all
B)an attempt to recover lost territory to re-unite separated ethnic nationalities
C)the intersection of politics and economics in international relations
D)a far-right ideology that promotes extreme nationalism and the establishment of an authoritarian society

Question 28

From World War II to the Cold War, how did the distribution of power in the global system change?

A)It shifted from multipolarity to bipolarity.
B)It shifted from hegemony to multipolarity.
C)It shifted from bipolarity to hegemony.
D)It shifted from bipolarity to multipolarity.

Question 29

Which of the following best describes a structuralist explanation of the causes of World War I?

A)The great powers did not share values, identities, and norms, which made an outbreak of war inevitable.
B)World leaders made deliberate choices in a quest for power that led to the outbreak of the war.
C)The changing global distribution of power and the way the great powers were aligned against each other created an environment conducive to armed conflict.
D)The absence of powerful international institutions made diplomacy difficult and cooperation impossible as states sought their own self-interest.

Question 30

What did Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf urge the Germans to do?

A)to let the Allies keep all territories taken under the Treaty of Versailles
B)to colonize Eastern Europe and recover territories taken under the Treaty of Versailles
C)to provide citizenship to Germans living in neighboring lands
D)to totally comply with the Treaty of Versailles

Question 31

What did the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 outlaw?

A)the use of weapons of mass destruction
B)war as a method for settling interstate conflicts
C)the use of trade barriers to promote the wealth of one state at the expense of another
D)torture and other forms of abuse against prisoners of war

Question 32

Which policy called for supporting peoples who allied with the United States against communist external subjugation?

A)the Bush Doctrine
B)the Truman Doctrine
C)the Trump Doctrine
D)the Eisenhower Doctrine

Question 33

Whom is the policy of détente is associated with?

A)George Kennan
B)Richard Nixon
C)John F. Kennedy
D)Ronald Reagan

Question 34

Which event(s)led to an end of American isolationism?

A)the Cold War
B)the Vietnam War
C)the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
D)Hitler's annexation of Sudetenland

Question 35

How did British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and other world leaders use appeasement in their strategy of dealing with Hitler and Nazi Germany?

A)They sent French troops into Germany to occupy the industrial Ruhr district.
B)They insisted that Hitler return his troops to Germany and discontinue his expansionary plans.
C)They agreed to allow Hitler to invade and control Poland.
D)They ignored Hitler's annexation of Austria and agreed to allow Germany to control a region of Czechoslovakia called Sudetenland.

Question 36

The idea that nationalism contributed to the outbreak of World War I focuses on which level of analysis?

A)individual
B)state
C)international
D)global

Question 37

Which of the following refers to the doctrine that war between capitalist and communist states is not inevitable and that inter-bloc competition could be peaceful?

A)the Cold War
B)peaceful coexistence
C)the domino theory
D)perestroika

Question 38

What do the majority of scholars believe about the Treaty of Versailles?

A)that it ended World War II
B)that it was too punitive
C)that it was fair and equitable
D)that it was irrelevant in its impact on Germany

Question 39

What institution was to provide peace after World War I?

A)the United Nations
B)the League of Nations
C)the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
D)the European Union

Question 40

The leaders of what three states met at the Yalta Conference to design a new world order?

A)Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union
B)the Soviet Union, Germany, and Italy
C)Great Britain, the United States, and France
D)Germany, Italy, and Japan

Question 41

Which of the following best defines the idea of imperial overstretch?

A)when a country becomes geographically too big to rule
B)when a country strikes a balance between being isolationist and highly interventionist
C)an approach that relies on self-help and independent strategies in foreign policy
D)the historic tendency for superpowers to overspend militarily and weaken their economies leaving them vulnerable to rivals

Question 42

Describe the Treaty of Versailles. Why did it fail at achieving peace? How did the Treaty of Versailles lead to conflict and, eventually, to World War II?

Question 43

Great-power war is not unique to the twentieth century. Long-cycle theorists assert that a rhythmic pattern of war and world leadership change has existed for the past 500 years. Long-cycle theory is disarmingly simple, and for this reason it is not without its critics. Write an essay in which you critically evaluate long-cycle theory as a tool for understanding world politics.

Question 44

When American foreign policy relies on independent, self-help strategies to the extent of not cooperating with other counties, the United States engages in what type of foreign policy?

A)selective engagement
B)détente
C)unilateral foreign policy
D)multilateral foreign policy

Question 45

Which country recently overtook the United States as the world's leading economy in terms of gross domestic product (GDP)when measured in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP)?

A)Japan
B)China
C)The European Union
D)Germany

Question 46

Evaluate the idea that a world hegemon creates stability in the global system. What are the pros and cons of this theory? If, as some political scientists predict, U.S. hegemony is coming to an end, what does this mean for the global community as a whole?

Question 47

Which event is commonly accepted as signifying the end of the Cold War?

A)the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis
B)the election of Ronald Reagan
C)the achievement of détente and rapprochement
D)the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union

Question 48

In addition to the strongest military in the world, the United States wields enormous soft power. Define soft power. What factors make the United States powerful when it comes to soft power?

Question 49

What prompted President Carter to suspend the export of grain to the Soviet Union and boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics?

A)terrorist threats at the 1980 Moscow Olympics
B)threats to U.S. oil tankers in the Persian Gulf
C)the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
D)the capture of American hostages in Iran

Question 50

Describe the contending interpretations of the causes of the Cold War's end using the realist and liberal perspectives. Be sure to identify which level of analysis you are suing in your answer.
(a)Which interpretation would fit best with the realist theory of world politics?
(b)Which would align with liberalism?
(c)Which interpretation do you think is more accurate? Why?