POL208Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Democratic Peace Theory, A Question Of Balance, Al-Qaeda
Document Summary
Theories are to be treated a serious ways of explaining why things are the way they are: just as single maps cannot de ne a territory, theories cannot de ne reality. If a map includes everything, it will become too confusing to read. If a theory includes too much, it will be incapable to being applicable. Realism example: george w. bush invading iraq on the grounds of democratic. Liberalism example: john keynes" belief that practical people who think they are exempt from the need for theories are ultimately slaves to defunct economists. Many scenarios in international politics, particularly war, resemble the prisoner"s dilemma. Thucydides: the strong do what they can and the weak must suffer what they must. In realist theory, the world is inherently con ictual and war-prone: people are scared and suspicious, realists are concerned with national power, states thus exist in a world of anarchy.
