Can be individuals or groups of individuals that share some common purpose or collective identity. They are often differentiated by their interests, identity, or capabilities in international relations. In the international system, the most prominent actors are states, firms, international organizations, and groups of nonstate actors such as transnational activists or political parties.
Refers to the absence of a supranational organization that possesses authority over states. It is described as an important source of international political structure.
Enables some actors to direct the behavior of others, even against their interests. It rests on the physical capacity to coerce compliance with some directive and a general acceptance by others that an actor with authority legitimately holds that capacity to direct the behavior of others.
The military, political, and economic resources a state can draw on in any bargaining or negotiating situation with other international actors. The capabilities of states rest on many factors, including national income, the size of the military, population, their moral authority, and domestic political cohesion.
The official currency of the European Union. It is used by 19 member states of the E.U.
An international organization consisting of 28 countries in Europe. It is a successor organization to the European Coal and Steel Community and, subsequently, to the European Economic Community (ECC) that was created in 1958. Today, it consists of a series of political and economic agreements that support a single market for the exchange of goods, services, people, and capital. Its governance structures include a directly elected European Parliament, the European Council, the Council of the European Union, and the Court of Justice of the European Union.
A unique subgroup of states that possess disproportionately more economic and military resources than the other states in the international system. These resources enable them to project military and political influence beyond their territorial boundaries, even shaping political outcomes and institutions within weaker states around the world.
The most powerful state within the international system.
Refers to nonmaterial aspects of our social world, such as ideas, norms, and social identities.
An actor’s goals. Variation in interests helps to differentiate actors in the international system.
Formal intergovernmental bodies generally born out of cooperative arrangements among states. They also have agency—that is, the capability to make decisions and issue directives—independent from their members. This attribute makes IOs important actors in the international system. Among other things, they regulate international trade, coordinate joint military missions among states, deter military aggression, promote important principles like respect for human rights, and help to settle disputes among states. Prominent international organizations include the United Nations, the European Union, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Refers to physical characteristics that might shape international outcomes, such as the distribution of military power among states, the distribution of income among people, or a state’s possession of nuclear weapons.
A larger economic enterprise, often employing thousands of people, that operates in multiple countries.
The broad political, economic, and social goals that motivate the policies pursued by the government of some state relative to all other actors in the international system. These interests can be set by the political leadership of the state, often in reaction to external constraints, or they can emerge through domestic pressure from different societal groups residing in the state.
Groups of citizens who voluntarily work together, independent of governments, to pursue some goal that is generally driven by normative or moral imperatives rather than economic self-interest.
Tacit or unstated, but widely understood, standards or principles that shape actors’ behavior and their expectations about the interests and actions of others.
Domestic groups that help organize individuals with similar political interests into a relatively coherent organization. Political parties operate in both autocracies and democracies. They offer vast networks of people that run for political office, serve in the state bureaucracy, and secure financial resources to support the party’s political interests.
The creation or generation of effects on actors that limit their ability to make independent choices and control what happens to them. An actor (or actors) uses some set of resources to alter the behavior of others, pressuring them to do something that they might not otherwise want to do.
A simple modeling tool often used in the field of international relations to illustrate some of the political challenges associated with sustaining cooperation under anarchy. It is a two-player stylized game of strategic interaction defined by the distribution of actor preferences over four possible outcomes. The equilibrium expectation is that the players in the game will frequently fail to reach a cooperative agreement that leaves both in a better situation.
China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They each have permanent membership on the United Nations Security Council and the legal right to veto any resolution before that committee.
The idea, which carries both normative and legal weight in international politics, that states have political authority over the citizens that live within a state’s internationally recognized borders. This political authority empowers the governments presiding over states to influence the lives of its people by making and enforcing laws that define internal political orders. It acts as an important source of international political order among states because of its associated norms that include nonintervention and mutual recognition.
Collections of political officials—like a president—and bureaucratic agencies—like the military—responsible for regulating the political, social, and economic interactions of its citizenry. States possess political authority over their citizens, directing their behavior by writing and enforcing laws. States oversee a defined territorial jurisdiction that limits the geographic range of their political authority. These borders are simultaneously exclusionary, limiting the authority of other states over the people that reside within them. States must be recognized as sovereign political entities by other states in the system to achieve statehood.
The set of properties or arrangements that connect and order the actors in a system. Structure allocates power among actors and shapes how they interact with each other, often by rewarding or penalizing certain types of behavior.
An actor who engages in terrorism, which can be defined analytically as the use of violence against noncombatants in pursuit of some political goal. Such acts simultaneously provoke fear in a wider audience beyond the immediate victims.
Nonstate groups that seek to influence important international events. Their membership is generally drawn from multiple countries. They may pressure multiple governments and multinational corporations to respect human rights, coordinate and provide aid in the midst of natural disasters, support refugees, and advocate on behalf of important social goals like poverty alleviation. These activists are often mobilized and coordinated through nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The political and social activities of transnational activists differ from other nonstate actors like firms in that they are generally driven by normative or moral imperatives rather than economic self-interest.
An international organization created in 1945 as a successor to the League of Nations. It was created as a forum for international cooperation—especially security cooperation—with the hopes of preventing war among states. Today it is composed of 193 member states, but there are 15 member states of the U.N. Security Council (5 permanent, known as the P5, and 10 rotating members). It also promotes cooperation on other global issues including climate change, humanitarian emergencies, development, disarmament, governance, and human rights.