International Relations

2 tions. Economic relations are a part of almost all international societies and have become increasingly important over the past half century. “Societal” is a broad and vague category that is nonetheless essential, including such important spheres as religion and culture. Some might question including a separate environmental sector. Nonetheless, the idea of political-military, economic, and “other” sectors is a common organizing framework among both analysts and practitioners.

LEVELS OF ANALYSIS refers to where we look for explanations. IR typically uses a three level framework: individuals, STATES, and the international system.

(Theories at these three levels are sometimes called first image, second image, and third image theories.)

Individuals sometimes are the decisive determinant of international behavior.

Hitler started World War II. Jimmy Carter introduced human rights into the mainstream of American foreign policy. Deng Xiaoping opened China and its economy to the outside world.

Sometimes, though, states have corporate interests that are not reducible to those of their leaders or even the sum of the interests of their people. Thus we regularly talk about “the national interest.” India, throughout its history as an independent state, has seen itself as a leader of the non-aligned movement, the Third World, or the Global South. (The interest is much more constant than the terminology we use to refer to those India aims to lead.) Russia has a “permanent national interest” in securing access to a warm water port. Britain and the United States have a “special relationship” rooted in shared cultural and historical ties. Obama’s Afghanistan policy, for all the talk of change, closely resembles Bush’s; it is an American policy.

At still other times, international relations is driven by systemic forces “above” states and individuals. This is most evident in talk of “the balance of power.”

The structure of the international system as a whole, rather than any features of its parts, explains behavior. One of the most common patterns in international relations, especially in military and political affairs, is for states to balance against threatening powers, especially rising powers. (See §4.1) In most international events of significance, important causal forces operate at all three levels of analysis. For example, the U.S. went to war against Iraq in 2003 in part because of President Bush and Vice-President Cheney; in part because of American national interests (including Iraq’s oil reserves, its strategic location, and the threat of Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction); and in part because the system was “unipolar” – that is, it had just one great military power – and thus there was no realistic possibility of effective international resistance.

It is important to distinguish levels of analysis (where we look for explanations) from UNITS OF ANALYSIS (the actors whose behavior is being explained). For all the talk of globalization, states remain the principal actor in much of international relations, and thus will often be a central unit of analysis. But the behav-