international relations comprehensive examination, August 1998
Please answer one question from each part below. Theoretical or empirical overlap between your answers will diminish the quality of your exam. You have six hours.
Part 1. Theory of international relations
A. Issues such as war and peace imply a zero-sum game with a potential opponent, but issues such as trade and the global environment appear to imply different patterns of interaction. Does everything reduce to the zero-sum world of security, or does the reasonable state act differently in different contexts?
B. If global markets advantage the strong, then how do cycles occur that change the configuration of economic power? If global markets do not advantage the strong, then why do the strong create and maintain them?
C. William Graham Sumner said, "if you want war, nourish a doctrine." What is the effect of ideology on war and peace, and how does ideology relate to the dispute between realism and idealism?
Part 2. Application to issues
A. Even slaveholders have proclaimed the universality of human rights, but
human rights have become a sensitive and complex issue of contemporary international relations. Who or what determines a violation of human rights? What are the advantages and disadvantages of sanctions in human rights diplomacy?
B. Article One, section one of the UN Charter begins, "The purposes of the United Nations are: 1. To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace ...." To what extent was collective security important during the Cold War and how has its salience changed in the post-Cold War era?
C. Why did the Cold War end? Does your answer settle the question of why it started? Why or why not?
D. In what respects is the United States an exceptional country in terms of its foreign policy making? Do general theories of foreign policy making reflect American exceptionalism?
Part 3. Regional and area international relations
A. Consider the following passage from President John Adams.
"The commerce of the United Slates is essential, if not to their existence, at least to their
comfort, their growth, prosperity, and happiness 1 should hold myself guilty of a neglect of
duty, if I forebore to recommend that we should make every exertion to protect our commerce, and to place our country in a suitable posture of defense, as the only sure means of preserving both (Nov 23, 7797)."
At that time the United States did not have the responsibilities and interests of world power that it came to possess in the twentieth century. To what extent has the protection of commerce remained a cornerstone of American foreign policy, and how has commercial policy been affected by the larger global role?
8. Do bureaucracies matter in US foreign policy? Answer with reference to at least two cases.
C. Consider the transformation of Russia's role vis-a-vis Europe over the past ten years. To what extent does Russia remain a cardinal concern for Europe?
D. Discuss and explain the different responses of Japan and China to external pressure from the United States.
E. The Asian financial crisis has completely replaced the "Asian miracle" as the focus of analytic attention, almost as if they had occurred in different places and in different eras. Using one Asian case as a focal point, discuss the political economic continuity between the miracle and the crisis.
F. Ethnonationalism is often assumed to be a premordial constant, submerged by other concerns but not necessarily affected by them. Has ethnonationalism been a constant in the Balkan conflicts? To what extent is it a product of other factors rather than a source?
G. Assess the significance of the end of apartheid on the regional politics of sub-Saharan Africa.
H. How has Israel's virtually unique multi-level access to American politics shaped its regional posture?
I. Discuss the utility and limitations of the concept of balance of power with regards to one of the following cases: The relationship of Russia to the other states of the CIS. The relationship of Latin America to the United States. . The relationship of China to Southeast Asia.
J. Assess the relative contributions of endogenous and exogenous factors in the process of European unification.