Test Bank

Introduction: Why We Disagree about International Relations

Multiple choice

1. The ______ level of analysis links domestic politics and international relations.

a. systemic

b. individual

c. foreign policy

d. domestic

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer location: The Roles of Perspectives, Levels of Analysis, and Causal Arrows

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. What is a perspective?

a. a hypothesis that explains the primary cause of an event

b. a proven theory about which facts cause other facts

c. an estimation about which facts cause other facts

d. a level of analysis of the primary cause of an event

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. The level of analysis tells us ______.

a. the primary cause of an event, such as conflicts and wars

b. the direction the primary cause of an event comes from

c. who is responsible for a primary cause of an event

d. how an event influences different actors involved

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. What concept tells us which level of analysis and perspective drives other perspectives and levels of analysis?

a. theoretical directions

b. external or systemic analysis

c. hypotheses

d. causal arrows

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. An example of a domestic-level force that caused the conflict with ISIS to start is ______.

a. religious crusades

b. the actions of Saddam Hussein in Iraq

c. the Sunni–Shiite conflict

d. Western colonialism

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. An example of an interactive force that is driving the outcomes of the conflict with ISIS is ______.

a. weak trade relations

b. religious beliefs

c. competition for control over resources

d. power struggles

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts

Difficulty Level: Medium

7. Why are perspectives and levels of analysis referred to as ideal types?

a. They help us organize facts and ideas into theories.

b. They emphasize utopian versions of reality.

c. They only present facts that are favorable to us.

d. They present simplified characterizations of reality that help us see important relationships among facts.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Roles of Perspectives, Levels of Analysis, and Causal Arrows

Difficulty Level: Medium

8. The individual level of analysis emphasizes ______.

a. the way countries are positioned and interact with respect to one another

b. the internal characteristics of a country as a whole

c. the leaders and decision-making institutions within a country

d. links between domestic politics and international relations

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Roles of Perspectives, Levels of Analysis, and Causal Arrows

Difficulty Level: Medium

9. The ______ level of analysis emphasizes the way countries are positioned and interact with respect to one another.

a. systemic

b. transnational

c. foreign policy

d. domestic

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Roles of Perspectives, Levels of Analysis, and Causal Arrows

Difficulty Level: Medium

10. The ______ perspective hypothesizes that a struggle for power is the primary cause of what happens in international affairs.

a. realist

b. liberal

c. identity

d. critical theory

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Roles of Perspectives, Levels of Analysis, and Causal Arrows

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. The critical theory perspective ______.

a. emphasizes a struggle for power as the primary cause of events in international affairs

b. asserts that ideas are more important than power or institutions in shaping political outcomes

c. argues that interactions, interdependence, and institutions exert the primary influence on world events

d. seeks to expose the deep roots of injustice in past political life and sometimes encourages radical, revolutionary solutions to problems

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Roles of Perspectives, Levels of Analysis, and Causal Arrows

Difficulty Level: Medium

12. The argument that the rise of ISIS was the outcome of problems in communication and negotiation among actors is an example of the ______ perspective.

a. realist

b. liberal

c. identity

d. critical theory

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Roles of Perspectives, Levels of Analysis, and Causal Arrows

Difficulty Level: Medium

13. Which of the following contributed to the rise of ISIS from the liberal perspective?

a. a struggle for power between the weak and the strong

b. the removal of Saddam Hussein and Yasser Arafat from power

c. democratic reforms in Arab governments that made them less adversarial toward Israel

d. unresolved diplomatic disputes, such as the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. According to the identity perspective, who are included as important actors underlying the rise of ISIS at the domestic level of analysis?

a. religious conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims

b. individual terrorists plotting against the United States

c. Muslim countries opposing U.S. oppression in the region

d. specific leaders opposing international negotiations

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts

Difficulty Level: Medium

15. According to the critical theory perspective, what is the cause of much of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East?

a. divergent identities generating conflict and converging identities generating cooperation

b. ineffective domestic governments impeding international negotiations

c. pervasive and deep-seated violence in the international system

d. exclusion of weak or aggrieved actors

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Critical Theory: Pervasive Violence at Different Levels of Analysis

Difficulty Level: Medium

16. What are methods?

a. theories that explain forces that affect outcomes in the international system

b. situations in which one fact occurs in the same context as another fact

c. explanations of events in terms of one another

d. formal rules of reason or appropriateness for testing perspectives against facts

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Role of Methods

Difficulty Level: Easy

17. The ______ method disaggregates and explains events sequentially as one event preceding and causing a second event.

a. rationalist

b. scientific

c. constructivist

d. causal

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Rationalist versus Constructivist

Difficulty Level: Medium

18. What is the difference between rationalist methods and constructivist methods?

a. Rationalist methods see causation as mutual, while constructivist methods see causation as sequential.

b. Rationalist methods apply labels to facts, while constructivist methods do not.

c. Rationalist methods see causation as sequential, while constructivist methods see causation as mutual.

d. Rationalist methods posit that events are caused by external factors, while constructivist methods assert that events are caused by both external and internal factors.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Rationalist versus Constructivist

Difficulty Level: Medium

19. Social scientists using rationalist methods hypothesize that sovereignty was caused by ______.

a. an independent and preceding event—the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648

b. a change in the basic structure of property rights as a result of a newly interdependent international society

c. population pressures, diminishing returns on land, and a widening of trade

d. accelerated growth of international social relationships

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Role of Methods

Difficulty Level: Medium

20. What are endogenous variables?

a. autonomous factors that come from outside a theoretical model or system

b. causal variables that are included in a theoretical model or framework

c. variables that are all highly correlated with one another

d. causal variables that are not included in a theoretical model and cannot be explained by the model

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Correlation, Causation, and Process Tracing

Difficulty Level: Easy

21. Which perspective (or perspectives) generally uses rationalist methods?

a. the realist perspective

b. the liberal perspective

c. both; the realist and liberal perspectives

d. the identity perspective

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Rationalist versus Constructivist

Difficulty Level: Medium

22. Which perspective (or perspectives) uses both rationalist and constructivist methods?

a. the identity perspective

b. the realist perspective

c. the liberal perspective

d. both; the identity and liberal perspectives

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Rationalist versus Constructivist

Difficulty Level: Medium

23. The ______ methods assume that we cannot separate variables in sequence or time and that we have to substantiate all facts through a thick description of the repetitive practices and interactions through which they emerge.

a. rationalist

b. constructivist

c. realist

d. liberal

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Correlation, Causation, and Process Tracing

Difficulty Level: Medium

24. Which term describes a method that connects events in sequence to identify cause and effect?

a. correlation

b. causation

c. process tracing

d. multicollinearity

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Correlation, Causation, and Process Tracing

Difficulty Level: Medium

25. Why would we use counterfactual reasoning?

a. to determine the level of correlation between facts

b. to understand facts that occur in the same context but may not be necessarily linked

c. to connect events in sequence to identify cause and effect

d. to test claims for causality by asking what might have happened if one event had not occurred

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Counterfactual Reasoning

Difficulty Level: Medium

26. The ______ perspective may be more useful in finding better ways to cooperate.

a. liberal

b. realist

c. critical theory

d. identity

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts

Difficulty Level: Medium

27. What are ethics and morality?

a. standards of good conduct for human behavior

b. broad assessments of what makes sense after one accumulates as many facts as possible

c. the process of determining right from wrong

d. an explanation of truth as relative to individuals and cultures

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Role of Ethics and Morality

Difficulty Level: Easy

28. In international affairs, which of the following are the three broad views about ethics and morality?

a. relativism, universalism, and individualism

b. relativism, universalism, and pragmatism

c. relativism, universalism, and rationalism

d. relativism, universalism, and practicality

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Role of Ethics and Morality

Difficulty Level: Easy

29. Asking if World War I would have occurred if Archduke Franz Ferdinand had not been assassinated is an example of which of the following elements of analysis?

a. judgment

b. the constructivist method

c. relativist ethics

d. counterfactual reasoning

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Counterfactual Reasoning

Difficulty Level: Easy

30. For which of the following reasons is judgment important for examining international relations?

a. Analysts must draw conclusions in the absence of perfect, complete information.

b. Analysts are often not smart enough to come to proper conclusions.

c. Analysts are often too busy to come to proper conclusions.

d. Analysts need some standard for deciding who is right and who is wrong.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Role of Judgment

Difficulty Level: Medium

31. Relativism is a position that holds that truth and morality ______.

a. cannot be adjusted to specific circumstances

b. are relative to each individual and culture

c. do not impact international relations

d. are universal

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Relativist Values

Difficulty Level: Medium

32. Which view of ethics and morality holds that truth and morality cannot be adjusted to specific circumstances?

a. pragmatism

b. rationalism

c. relativism

d. universalism

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Universal Values

Difficulty Level: Medium

33. The United Nations’ standard of humanitarian intervention, based on the obligation to defend human rights even when doing so intervenes in the domestic affairs of a state, is an example of which type of ethics?

a. pragmatism

b. relativism

c. universalism

d. rationalism

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Universal Values

Difficulty Level: Medium

34. Which of the following statements would a pragmatist support?

a. Everyone is entitled to his or her own view of moral truth.

b. Absolute moral truth exists, but they should not always be obeyed.

c. Absolute moral truth exists and applies to everyone.

d. Absolute moral truth does not exist.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Pragmatic Values

Difficulty Level: Medium

Multiple Response

1. SELECT ALL THAT APPLY. Which of the following is considered a research method in international relations?

a. rationalist methods

b. scientific methods

c. constructivist methods

d. casual methods

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer location: The Roles of Perspectives, Levels of Analysis, and Causal Arrows

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. SELECT ALL THAT APPLY. Which of the following constitute the main levels of analysis?

a. domestic

b. structural

c. individual

d. intergovernmental

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. SELECT ALL THAT APPLY. Which of the following do scholarly theories attempt to do?

a. Describe events

b. Explain events

c. Predict events

d. Prevent events

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Role of Methods

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. SELECT ALL THAT APPLY. Which of the following is a fundamental component to understanding process tracing?

a. correlation

b. perspectives

c. variables

d. causation

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Correlation, Causation, and Process Tracing

Difficulty Level: Medium

True/False

1. A causal arrow is useful in identifying the direction or level from which the primary cause of an event is coming.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. We can understand levels of analysis as operating at the systemic, domestic, or individual level.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. The conflict between Sunnis and Shiites is an example of when ideology is a main driver behind an outcome.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. The realist perspective argues that interactions, interdependence, and institutions exert the primary influence on world events.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Marxism is an example of critical theory, which emphasizes deep-seated causes of human events that unfold within historical processes and obscure vast inequalities that marginalize weak and minority peoples.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Roles of Perspectives, Levels of Analysis, and Causal Arrows

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. The individual level of analysis is sometimes known as the decision-making level since it emphasizes leaders and decision-making institutions within a country.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Roles of Perspectives, Levels of Analysis, and Causal Arrows

Difficulty Level: Medium

7. The foreign policy level of analysis involves the interactions of nongovernmental groups across national boundaries that operate to a significant extent independent of relations among governments.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Roles of Perspectives, Levels of Analysis, and Causal Arrows

Difficulty Level: Medium

8. The critical theory perspective adopts a holistic interpretation of reality that cannot be broken down into separate causes and effects or tested by rationalist methods against alternative hypotheses.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts

Difficulty Level: Medium

9. A realist interpretation of the causes of the September 11 attacks emphasizes the ideas that define actors and guide their use of power and institutions.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts

Difficulty Level: Medium

10. The social sciences differ from the natural sciences in that the natural sciences depend on theories to explain phenomena while the social sciences do not.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Role of Methods

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. Constructivist methods see causation as sequential.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Rationalist versus Constructivist

Difficulty Level: Medium

12. Correlation explains events in terms of one another rather than just describing them.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Correlation, Causation, and Process Tracing

Difficulty Level: Easy

13. That wars seldom occur among democracies is an example of correlation.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Correlation, Causation, and Process Tracing

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. Process tracing is a method by which scholars test causality by asking, “If event A had not happened, would event B have happened?”

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Difficulty Level: Medium

Answer Location: Correlation, Causation, and Process Tracing

15. Relativism argues that some absolute moral principles apply to all people in all countries at all times.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Relativist Values

Difficulty Level: Medium

16. The liberal perspective claims that a struggle for power is the primary cause of what happens in international affairs.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts

Difficulty Level: Easy

17. Constructivist methods rely on the logic of consequence while rationalist methods rely on the logic of appropriateness.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Rationalist versus Constructivist

Difficulty Level: Easy

18. Ethics and morality, or the standards of right conduct and behavior, are not useful concepts in international relations because they go beyond facts and perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Role of Ethics and Morality

Difficulty Level: Easy

Short Answer

1. ______ help us determine what underlies or constitutes forces that drive outcomes.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. A ______ level of analysis is characterized by forces or facts that come from outside a region and the countries or individuals involved in an event.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. The three kinds of substantive forces causing outcomes include power, ideologies, and ______.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. The ______ level of analysis involves the interactions of non-governmental groups across national boundaries.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Roles of Perspectives, Levels of Analysis, and Causal Arrows

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. The ______ perspective questions the basic Western, rationalist assumption that we can break up reality, separate causes and effects from historical circumstances, and use this knowledge of the past to engineer the future.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Roles of Perspectives, Levels of Analysis, and Causal Arrows

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. The ______ sees the world largely in terms of a struggle for relative power in which strong actors seek to dominate and weak actors seek to resist.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts

Difficulty Level: Medium

7. ______ provide rules for testing theories against facts.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Role of Methods

Difficulty Level: Medium

8. There are two general types of methods: rationalist and ______.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Rationalist versus Constructivist

Difficulty Level: Easy

9. The rationalist method follows the logic of ______.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Rationalist versus Constructivist

Difficulty Level: Medium

10. The logic of ______ prevails when two facts fit together within a given context, rather than one fact causing another.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Rationalist versus Constructivist

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. ______ are autonomous factors that come from outside a theoretical model or system and that cannot be explained by the system.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Difficulty Level: Easy

12. ______ finds causal relationships between events by connecting them in sequence.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Correlation, Causation, and Process Tracing

Difficulty Level: Easy

13. ______ describes the broader assessment of what makes sense after one accumulates as many facts and tests as possible.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Role of Judgment

Difficulty Level: Easy

14. ______ deal with standards of right conduct and behavior—what we ought to do, not what we need, can, or prefer to do.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Role of Ethics and Morality

Difficulty Level: Easy

15. ______ holds that there is no absolute moral truth and that we should “live and let live.”

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Relativist Values

Difficulty Level: Easy

16. While ______ does not abandon a notion of universal morality, it opposes the application of a single morality at all times in all places.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Pragmatic Values

Difficulty Level: Medium

Essay

1. What is the main emphasis of the realist perspective?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts | The Roles of Perspectives, Levels of Analysis, and Causal Arrows

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. What is the main emphasis of the liberal perspective?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts | The Roles of Perspectives, Levels of Analysis, and Causal Arrows

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. What is the main emphasis of the identity perspective?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts | The Roles of Perspectives, Levels of Analysis, and Causal Arrows

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. How does the critical theory perspective differ from the three mainstream perspectives?

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Sorting Out the Facts | The Roles of Perspectives, Levels of Analysis, and Causal Arrows

Difficulty Level: Hard

5. What are the main differences between the rationalist and constructivist methods?

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Rationalist versus Constructivist

Difficulty Level: Hard