2/24-2/26 Free Trade!

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Robert Gilpin, “The Nature of Political Economy”!
1. What is the relationship between politics and economics for liberals, Marxists, and
Mercantilists (and who are the mercantilists?)? !
• Liberals - relatively separable and autonomous spheres of activities; economics should
be separate from politics; cosmopolitan economic interests and national state
interests; unplanned economy - laws of economics (supply and demand)!
• Marxists - economics determines politics and political structure; economics determines
politics !
• Mercantilists - subservience of economy to the state and its interests; politics
determines economics; planned economy - tool of the state to serve the state’s best
interests!
2. How and why do the three approaches differ over the nature of the international system, the
goal of economic activity, the nature of the actors, and the nature of the state?!
• Nature of the international system!
• L: harmonious; cooperative; positive-sum !
• Ma: conflictual; zero-sum; competitive !
• Me: conflictual; zero-sum; competitive !
• Goal of economic activity!
• L: Maximization of global welfare; to most efficiently make use of scarce resources !
• Ma: Maximization of class interests; redistribution of wealth and power!
• Me: Maximization of national interests;!
• Nature of the actors!
• L: Households and firms; consumers!
• Ma: Economic classes; dominant classes determine the foreign policy of the state!
• Me: Nation-states; national interest determines foreign policy !
3. What do you think best characterizes international politics: equilibrium or disequilibrium?
Why? How does this question depend on one’s view of the relationship between politics and
economics?!
• Disequilibrium, because class conflict continues and will always exist under capitalism.
Economics has to determine politics for this to be true!
4. Interdependence leads to what.. harmony, conflict?!
• L: harmony!
• M: since conflicts of class or national interests are the norm, interdependence will
always result in conflict !
5. Why does Gilpin view power as zero-sum? In what way is the essence of politics about
distribution?!
• He says that power is always relative; one state’s gain in power is by necessity
another’s loss. !
• In a world in which power rests on wealth, changes in the relative distribution of wealth
imply changes in the distraction of power and in the political system itself. !
6. “… international economic relations are in reality political relations.” Means what?!
• Economics determines politics according to Marxists, so anything in the political realm
is driven by economics and money!
7. To paraphrase Carr: “Is the current economic system, which is based on the free trade,
natural and inevitable or does it reflect the economic and political interests of the US?” Any
chalenges to this system?!
• !
8. Toward which two theoretical approaches is Gilpin most sympathetic?!
• Marxist and mercantilist !
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John Cassidy, “Winners and Losers”!
1. How might outsourcing just be a new way of doing international trade? How might it be
something different?!
• No country should produce anything it could import more cheaply from abroad - new
way of efficient international trade - profitable !
2. What is comparative advantage and how does it explain outsourcing?!
• Absolute advantage - who can make the most and best of something!
• Comparative advantage - who can make something the must efficiently compared to
making other goods, so even if US can make more of something doesn't mean it is the
most efficient that they be the ones making that good; consider the opportunity cost
and what is more productive !
• The US shouldn't try to keep hold of low-value businesses, such as insurance
processing and telephone-call centers, even if its workers could operate them more
efficiently than their counterparts in developing countries. Instead, it should
concentrate on building up businesses like publishing and entertainment, where the
displaced workers can be employed more productively. !
3. If an economic policy benefits some and disadvantages others, why not just compensate the
“losers” with the gains from the “winners”? Does everyone view this as sensible?!
• In a capitalist system, jobs are eliminated all the time, as a result of ethnical progress
and shifting consumer tastes. Why should the victims of trade get a better deal than
the victims of a robot? !
• willing to give up part of your income to pay for someone whose job has been
outsourced? !
4. Is there a difference between outsourcing to a robot (or machine) and outsourcing to another
country?!
• In another country, other humans are able to get the jobs being outsourced and this
can treaty help developing countries. Outsourcing to robots, on the other hand, doesn't
give any new person a job - only takes from the person currently holding the job - so
this is not beneficial to human-life!
5. Were Cassidy’s prediction about jobs likely to be outsourced correct (what are travel
agents?), and how accurate were his prediction about jobs likely to be safe?!
• His prediction is primarily accurate !
6. What is the “factor-price equalization theorem”? !
• when two countries start out with similar technology and skills but different wage rates,
trade between them will reduce wages in the high-paying country and increase wages
in the low-paying country until, eventually, workers in both places end up earning the
same amount!
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2/29-3/2 Globalization & North-South Relations!
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Jagdish Bhagwati “Banned Aid”!
1. Why does Moyo think it is a problem that rock starts are prominent in the public discussion
of foreign aid?!
• rock stars dominate the conversation to a point of exclusion of Africans with expertise
and experience!
• result: honest, critical, and serious dialogue and debate on the merits and demerits of
aid have atrophied !
2. “Africa has actually regressed, rather than progressed, since shedding colonial rule several
decades ago.” What are the traditional explanations for this economic regression? What is
Moyo’s explanation?!
• Traditional explanations: geography, history, social cleavages, and civil wars!
• Moyo: aid itself has been the crucial factor in holding Africa back!
3. What was cosmopolitan altruism? What was the motivation behind it? Did it work?!
• common sense of humanity that cut across national boundaries !
• progressive taxation ought to be extended across international borders—> proposals
of a target aid playing of religious principles of giving!
• outside of the Scandinavian countries, this was not a good enough argument !
4. Where would liberals, realists, and Marxists align themselves in the debate between the
altruism and the national interest arguments? Which argument is at the forefront of foreign
aid discussions today?!
• Liberals - altruism!
• Realists - national interests !
• Marxists - !
• altruism reigns today!
5. What strategy did economists in the 1970s recommend for giving aid?!
• raising global demand for goods and services through aid to the poor countries would
reduce unemployment in the rich countries and would reduce illegal immigration!
6. Why were 1970s economists wrong in their estimates of what foreign aid could achieve?!
• spending that money in the rich countries would actually reduce unemployment even
more!
• economists also assumed that aid recipients would use fiscal policy to steadily
increase their own domestic savings rates over time, thus elimination the need for aid
entirely in the long run — in practice this led to reduced domestic savings !
7. What is the moral hazard faced by the World Bank? How does it affect the provision of
foreign aid?!
• the World Bank was judged by how much money it disbursed, not by how well that
money was spent !
8. What should be the chief weapon in the “war on poverty” according to Bhagwati/Moyo?
What would be the risks or downsides of using this “weapon”?!
• liberal policy reforms should be the chief weapon in the war on poverty !
• if the conditions for aid’s proper use do not prevail, that aid is more likely to harm than
help the worlds poorest nations !
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Nicholas Kristof, “Where Sweatshops are a Dream”!
1. What negative effects might result from labor rights restrictions?!
• closing sweatshops closes off one route out of poverty!
2. What does Kristof suggest Western countries and consumers should do to help those in
developing countries?!
• don’t campaign against sweatshops, but promote manufacturing there!
• strengthen the program to encourage African imports !
3. What would a Realist, Liberal, and Marxist have to say about ‘international labor standards’?!
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Ken Silverstein, “Shopping for Sweat”!
1. What were the terms of Cambodia’s 1999 bilateral trade agreement with the US?!
• Cambodia would be allowed to export a quota of textile products to the US. In
exchange, Cambodia agreed to improve labor conditions and submit to factory
inspections by the International Labor Organization; if better conditions were
documented, the country’s quota was raised.!
2. What happened to Cambodia’s textile sector when global textile quotas were phased out in
2005?!
• the garment industry continued to grow — country’s largest sector, employing many
people and exporting much of their goods to the US !
3. What effect did the agreement have on wages?!
• no effect - raising wages would cause the whole model to collapse !
• no benefit to workers wages !
4. What kind of benefits does the Cambodian government offer to US corporations?!
• will allow garment factories to keep workers on short-term renewable contracts for as
long as they like —> less pay out of benefits than companies using permanent
employees and scourges short-term workers from complaining about pay because
they have no job security !
• government offers a number of subsidies tot the factories — tax holiday of up to 8
years, followed by a low corporate tax rate, duty-free import of machinery and raw
materials!
5. How did the recent global economic downturn affect textile companies in Cambodia?!
• almost led to their shut-down and many people were laid off!
6. How did it affect workers and labor unions?!
• labor unions became weaker and more cooperative !
7. What is the Fair Labor Association? How has it affected labor conditions in developing
countries?!
• a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending sweatshop conditions in factories
worldwide — Reebok and Nike !
• labor conditions stagnated or deteriorated !
8. What role do US corporations play in encouraging low labor standards? Promoting higher
labor standards?!
•!
9. How is the US’s own history of child labor laws relevant to the current debate on labor
standards abroad?!
• child labor was justified by the same reasons sweatshops are being justified now -
people were dependent on children for part of the family’s income and child labor was
claimed as a requisite stage of industrialization - now people say the people living in
sweatshops have no better alternative so stripping them of this option leaves them in a
worse situation, just like the American family whose child quit working !
10. According to Silverstein, how did Japan and Singapore “use apparel manufacturing as a
route to prosperity”?!
 • through massive interference with the free market - tariffs on imports, subsidies for
local firms, tough capital controls, restrictions on foreign ownership!
11. How might Marx thoughts on a “reserve army of labor” fit with Silverstein’s discussion on
labor wages?!
•!
12. What is Richard Duncan’s “trickle up” strategy?!
• wages rise in Asia, then is raised by $1 every year for 10 years ($15) — simple to
implement because could put steep tariffs on imports made by workers earning less
than the minimum — raising the price by $1 won’t even be noticed by Westerners !
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Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn “The Women’s Crusade”!
1. Why is the status of girls and women so important to the developing world?!
• in an economic and geopolitical sense the opportunity they represent is even greater !
• in places where girls are uneducated and women marginalized, poverty is rampant and
these areas are riven by fundamentalism and chaos!
• focusing on women and girls is the most effective way to fight global poverty and
extremism!
2. Why should women’s issues no longer be a “soft” or marginal issue in international politics,
according to the authors?!
• China example: 400 to 800 lives taken in Tiananmen Square makes headlines as a
massacre, while this many baby girls die there every week but no news goes to them !
• bride burning in India takes place once every two hours - not news!
• prominent dissident arrested in china - news; 100,000 girls kidnapped and trafficked
into brothels - not news !
3. “More than 100 million women are missing.” Who are these women? Why are they missing?
What is “gendercide”?!
• women who weren't vaccinated and not given the same health care, babies aborted
because they are female, women in societies that oppress them because they are
female, women dying from childbirth in poor countries !
• gendercide is the mass killing of people because of their gender !
4. What is the effect of sweatshops on women in Asia?!
• benefitted and empowered women, as they were able to make a living in a way that
does not require brute force !
5. Why do microfinanace organizations usually focus their assistance on women? What is
Kristof and WuDunn’s argument about why it’s important to focus on women and girls in the
fight against poverty?!
• some of the most wretched suffering is caused not just by low incomes but also by
unwise spending by the poor - especially by men !
• one way to reallocate family expenditures is to put more money in the hands of women
— a series of studies has found that when women hold assets or gain incomes, family
money is more likely to be spent on nutrition, medicine and housing, and consequently
children are healthier!
6. What is Kristof and WuDunn’s response to Moyo’s criticism on foreign aid?!
• they say that Moyo’s criticism is somewhat valid, but there is also evidence of aid
being extremely helpful (health, education, and micro finance)!
7. What is the link between women empowerment and extremism?!
• Greater female involvement in society and the economy appears to undermine
extremism and terrorism !
8. What are Kristof and WuDunn’s policy recommendation for President Obama?!
 • a $10 billion effort over five years to educate girls around the world !
9. What do you think is the role of NGO’s domestic governments, and international
governments in addressing issues of development? What are the potential strengths and
weaknesses of each?!
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The Girl Effect!
1. What is the girl effect? What are its intended goals?!
• girls will use their money to profit, build a business, show men that women are
capable, and empower other women!
2. Who is behind The Girl Effect? Provide san explanation of the origins and intentions of this
movement from the perspective of realists, liberals, and Marxists/!
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3. Do you think this movement can make a difference in contributing to long run change? What
are its potential downsides and risks?!
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3/4-3/7 North-South Relations and the Environment!
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Marvin S. Soroos “The Tragedy of the Commons in Global Perspective”!
1. What are/have been the key environmental concerns since the 1970s?!
• atmospheric pollutants, depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer (hole in ozone
layer), global warming (climate change)!
2. What types of institutions have been created to address these concerns?!
• UNEP, GEMS, IMO, WHO, IAEA, FAO, ILO!
3. What is the theory behind the “tragedy of the commons”?!
• people will use the available (common) environment until all of its resources are used
up. they recognize the eventual tragedy, but they assume there cannot be a collective
action to stop this, so they choose to continue benefitting from the earth’s resources
until they no longer can. !
4. What are some environmental concerns that might qualify as “tragedy of the commons”
problems?!
• the depletion of living resources in the ocean (we are taking all of the fish because it’s
easy to do so with technology)!
• pollution of the ocean and atmosphere!
• population growth !
5. Why is it so challenging to address these problems? In what way are these problems
relevant to international relations?!
• Strong financial incentives are present for continuing the polluting activity.!
• Any restraint that is exercised out of concern for the quality of the environment is likely
to be futile and self-defeating if other polluters, including one’s competitors, do not
exercise similar responsibility !
6. What four strategies does Soros suggest for addressing the problems of the commons?!
• Voluntary restraint: possibly through education about the ecological consequences of
irresponsible actions and by bringing social pressures to bear on members of the
community who have not moderated their actions!
• Regulations: limit the number of cattle each villager can graze on the pasture — must
be sufficiently strong inducements for compliance !
• partitions: fenced-in plots, each assigned to an individual villager — receives all the
benefits but must pay the cost if they allow it to be overgrazed !
• Community ownership: publicly owned herd where profits are distributed among
villagers!
7. What mechanisms are needed to make international regulations effective?!
• detecting violations and sanctioning the violators !
8. Is there necessarily a tradeoff between conservation and economic growth?!
• there will be, at least in the short-run; however, long-term it would pay off !
9. In your opinion, should the question of equality shape international environmental
agreements? How?!
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Barry Schwartz “Tyranny for the Commons Man”!
1. To what does Thomas Schelling’s “tyranny of small decisions” refer?!
• when deciding whether to add another cow to your herd, you are not choosing to
destroy a common resource in order to get a little more milk!
• faced with THAT choice, you might refrain!
• the choice you see is a little more milk in exchange for a little less grass — good deal!
2. What two approaches to dealing with the “tragedy of the commons” does Schwartz discuss?
Which does he find most likely to succeed? Do you agree?!
• appealing to the morality of people — educate people on the environment and ask
them to hold everyone accountable — not likely to be effective!
• appealing to self-interest — offering incentives for good behavior and punishments for
bad — promising strategies !
3. What is the Prisoner’s Dilemma and how might it be applied to environmental issues?!
• both inmates do better collectively over the long term but cooperating with one another
and staying silent, but in any one-shot game, there will be no trust between the two of
them and so they will both rat out one another !
• all the climate-change treaties will be useless without real costs for defections and real
incentives for cooperation !
4. What does Schwartz mean by “naive realism” and “reactive devaluation”? How might such
behavior stifle international environmental negotiation?!
• naive realism: parties to a conflict tend to think that while they see the issue
“objectively” the other side is biased!
• reactive devaluation: we seem to assume that if someone is willing to give something
up, it must be worth less than we think it is!
5. What is Daniel Kahneman’s “prospect theory” and how does it affect negotiations?!
• If each thing you give up hurts more than each thing you acquire, the feeling of loss
multiplies more than the feeling of gain does. So you conduct a successful, complex
deal and you feel like a failure. All you can think about is what you left on the table.!
• the participants may do better, but they feel worse, because they leave the negotiation
thinking about all they things they gave up!
6. According to Schwartz, how do the notions of relative gains and relative sacrifices play into
environmental decision-making and negotiations?!
• people care about their gains and losses relative to those of their competitors!
• we need highly iterative negotiations, where all sides relinquish something, parties talk
to one another and start out cooperating, and manageable tasks are settled over a
long period of time !
7. How does Schwartz suggest environmental issues should be “reframed” so as to promote
greater public interest?!
• scale down behavioral change to manageable pieces !
• focus on what will be lost, not what will be gained!
• focus on the fact that people (their children or grandchildren) will die!
• make the visuals of the future vivid!
• make the dialogue about welfare, not wealth !
8. In what ways does Schwartz believe that “American exceptionalism” is problematic? Do you
agree?!
• it makes it harder to acknowledge that there really is no justification for having an
ecological footprint that is larger than other developed and developing countries.!
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3/9 Identities: Conflict and Cooperation!
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Huntington “The Clash of Civilizations?”!
1. Huntington’s article created a sensation when it was published over 20 years ago. How
accurate was his vision of the future?!
• !
2. What’s his argument and who is he arguing against?!
• conflicts will be driven by the cultural, historic, ethnic, and religious difference that
make civilizations unique!
• Western, Orthodox (Greece, Russia, part of Ukraine), confucian, Islamic,
Japanese, African, Hindu, and Latin America!
• he’s arguing against liberals and realists !
• cultural values date much farther back than political or economic systems;
civilization ties go deeper than power and nation-states !
3. What are civilizations and what are a few reasons they will clash?!
• the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people
have short of what distinguishes humans from other species!
• defined by both common objective elements (language, history, religion, customs,
institutions) and by the subjective self-identification of people!
• Reasons for clash:!
• differences among civilization (especially religion) — production of centuries and
will not soon disappear !
• world is becoming a smaller place — interactions increasing leading to more
consciousness and awareness of differences between civilizations and
commonalities within civilizations !
• the processes of economic modernization and social change throughout the world
are separating people from longstanding local identities — weaken the nation state
as a source of identity, religion moves in as identity !
• the growth of civilization-consciousness is enhanced by the dual role of the West
— the West at the peak of its power confronts non-Wests that increasingly have
the desire, the will and the resources to shape the world in non-Western ways!
• cultural characteristics and differences are less mutable and hence less easily
compromised and resolved than political and economic ones !
• economic regionalism is increasing !
4. Does the EC (EU) rest on a Christian foundation?!
• yes, along with European culture !
5. Why hasn't Turkey been admitted to the EU? Is it because it’s a Muslim country?!
• because the civilians of Turkey identify more with the Middle East than they do with
Europe, because they are Muslim, yes!
6. Huntington predicted a clash of civilizations between Islam and the West. Why did he
suspect a clash? Is that what we have today?!
• history of confrontation !
• Islamic values are trying to find a place in the modern secular world and this is difficult
because the modern secular world wants to separate the church from the state, but
according to the principles of Islam you cannot separate the church and the state !
7. Huntington says US concern with Japan was not racial but cultural. Is he right?!
• Perhaps — the basic values, attitudes, behavioral patterns of the two societies could
not be more different !
8. How does Huntington use kin-country syndrome to explain German, American, Russian,
Iranian policy toward the break-up of Yugoslavia? Does this explain German support for
Slovenian and Croatian sovereignty, and why little was done to help Bosnian Muslims?!
• kin-country syndrome: civilization commonality — members will use one standard for
countries from the same civilization, but if they are from a different civilization there will
be a different set of standards !
• people acted on the side of their religion!
• Bosnian muslims were not helped because of their cultural differences while Croats
were helped because of their European values !
9. Are Liberal values universal or this belief an example of human rights imperialism?!
• example of human rights imperialism!
10. Huntington viewed Russia as a torn country. Was he right about that? He says a liberal and
a Marxist can have an intellectual debate, but impossible for a liberal and a Russian
traditionalist to do that. Why?!
• yes he was right!
• Russian traditionalists would reject liberal democracy and begin behaving like
Russians but not like Westerners and relations could decline !
11. If Huntington is right, is this IR course stuck in a Cold War time warp? It’s not about realism,
liberalism, and Marxism - it’s all about civilizations. !
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Huntington “A head-on collision of alien cultures?”!
1. Did Huntington view 9/11 as an example of the clash of civilizations?!
• not quite, but could turn into one!
• Osama bin Laden wants one, but we can prevent it unless we attack other terrorist
groups and states that support terrorist groups !
2. He worries about pressures for the US to attack other terrorist groups and stats that might
support them. What did he have in mind?!
• any type of war with the Middle East?!
3. Does he think Islam is more violent than Christianity?!
• no, it is no violent than any other religion !
4. What is the paradox that the US confront in promoting democracy and human rights in the
Middle East?!
• many of the groups arguing against repression in the Middle East are fundamentalists
and anti-American !
5. In general, do post 9/11 developments support Huntington’s theory or contradict it?!
• support it!
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3/11 Justice and Human Rights!
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Katzenstein and Snyder “Expediency of the Angels”!
1. What types of approaches have human rights advocates used to influence state behavior?
Have they been effective?!
• treaty signing, legal accountability, naming and shaming!
• little demonstrable positive effect !
2. What commitment does US public opinion display towards human rights?!
• US public opinion is committed to human-rights ideals but has become way of pushing
this agenda with reflective zeal — from very important to somewhat important !
3. What two social dilemmas tend to undermine human rights efforts?!
• spoilers can stymie rights-reform movements in order to preserve their power!
• abuses are sometimes so engrained into local social practices that a society can fall
into a perverse-equilibrum trap!
4. Does the pragmatic approach appeal to realists and idealists? How so?!
• appeals to realists - recognize that winning the hearts and minds of the world’s abused
and oppressed has never been more important in the struggle to make the world more
secure and to help restore America’s good name; can help redefine realism’s moral
stance !
• appeals to liberals - this approach does help bring an end to human-rights abuses !
5. What are the classic tools of human rights advocacy? To what extent are they effective,
according to the author?!
• naming and shaming, signing treaties that promise to end abuse, criminal trials for the
tyrannical and even some grassroots activism!
• they do not work because of their one-size-fits-all philosophy !
6. What is “naming and shaming” and to what extent is it effective?!
• ominous faces of dictators would flash on tv screens, Human Rights Watch would
issue denunciations in attempts at ostracism and sometimes this would lead to
dictators agreeing to sign toothless human-rights traits!
• all this does is cause dictators to restrain themselves only from the most publicized
cruelties but they would increase other abuses to maintain the same overall level of
repression !
7. What is the impact of international and domestic courts on criminal accountability and
human rights? !
• not much impact at all — too late in the game for this !
8. What are “spoilers”? What are some examples? How should they be dealt with?!
• powerful interests that have a stake in continuing these practices, particularly when
they are seen as indispensable for a person’s or a group’s security !
• examples!
• dictators dependent on torture, extrajudicial killing, and imprisonment to maintain
power!
• rebels dependent on targeted killings and reprisals to intimidate civilian populations!
• employers dependent on child labor to stay in the market !
9. Why does the author think that human-rights promoters need to consider more than military
might when dealing with spoilers?!
• when spoilers’ power depends on popular ideological support rather than just military
muscle, human-rights activists need to avoid provoking a backlash that strengthens
opposition to reforms !
10. What is a “perverse-equlibrium trap”? Can you cite a few examples?!
 • individuals who want to switch to better practices cannot change their behavior unless
everyone else does so at the same time !
• examples!
• genital mutilation - even those who might want to give up the practice fear that will
make the daughters unmarriage-able !
• child labor - families can only survive by sending their children to work, creating
another generation of uneducated adults and the parents may know this is
undesirable, but need the income to live !
11. How can human rights activists attempt to get communities out of these traps? What are
some examples that the author cites?!
• align individuals’ short-run incentives with systematic change, relying on both
normative and material strategies that are precisely targeted to fit specific
circumstances !
• examples!
• genital mutilation — use health information and community dialogue to change
individual preferences, and then follow up with public pledging not to cut girls and
not to marry girls who have been cut !
• child labor — economic development and universal education are the key!
12. Is realism compatible with the promotion of human rights? Why/why not?!
• Yes, because realists have always understood the value of a country’s international
reputation and of effectively supporting the interests of people it might someday need
as allies !
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