| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Rational Choice | decision making procedures guided by careful definition of problems, specification of goals, weighing the costs, risks and benefits of all alternative, and selection of optimal alternative. |
| Sovereignty | under international law, the principle that no higher authority is above the state. |
| Nation State | implies a convergence between territorial states and the psychological identification of people within |
| Polarity | the degree to which military and economic capabilities are concentrated among the major powers in the state system |
| Polarization | the degree to which states cluster in alliances around the most powerful members of the state system |
| Geopolitics | a school of thought claiming that state's foreign policies are determined by their location, natural resources, and physical environment |
| Four Factors of Capacity of States to Act | 1.Military Capabilities 2. Economic Conditions 3. Type of Government 4. Organizational Processes |
| Constitutional Democracy | a governmental system in which political leader's power is limited by a body of fundamental principles and leaders are held accountable to citizens through regular, fair, and competitive elections |
| Autocratic Rule | a governmental system where unlimited power is concentrated in the hangs of a single person |
| Diversionary War Theory | the contention that leaders initiate conflict abroad as a way of steering public opinion at home away form controversial domestic issues |
| Democratic Peace | the theory that although democratic states sometimes wage wars against other states, they do not fight each other |
| Standard Operating Procedures | rules for reaching decisions about particular types of situations |
| Bureaucratic politics Model | a description of decision making that sees foreign policy choices as based on bargaining and compromises among government agencies. |
| Political Efficacy | the extent to which a policy maker believes in his or her ability to control events politically |
| Unitary Actor | an agent in world politics(usually a sovereign state) assumed to be internally united, so that changes in its internal circumstance do not influence its foreign policy as much as do the decision that the actor's leaders make to cope with changes in its global environment |
| Two Level Game | a concept that refers to the interaction between international bargaining and domestic politics |
| Satisficing | the tendency for decision makers to chose the first available alternative that meets minimally acceptable standards |
| Prospect Theory | a behavioral decision theory that contends decision makers assess policy options in comparison to a reference point and that they take greater risks to prevent losses than to achieve gains. |
| Procedural Rationality | a method of decision making based on having perfect information with which all possible courses of action are carefully evaluated |
| Group Think | the propensity for members of small, cohesive groups to accept the group's prevailing attitudes in the interest of group harmony, rather than speak out for what they believe. |
Combine with other sets
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace