POLS 3490 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Rationality, Collective Action, Blood Diamond
Document Summary
Power: whoever is bigger or stronger is the one that wins, where there is power there is order. The way to peace is to look after your own security, the government cannot do it all for you. The mechanism for peace is to be sovereign, to have your own state. Individual: there are good and evil people out there. Progress: there is change and progress, the world is getting better, the key to change is democracy and freedom. Intervention is possible, outsiders can make things better. Mechanisms for peace are the un and other such organizations. People engage in war not because they have a grievance but because there is financial/ material gains to be had. Two general explanations (paul collier: explanations that are based in grievances (injustices, revenge, inequality, explanations which are based on greed and predation (and therefore have an economic basis.