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Chapter 1: Introduction

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Chapter 1: Powerpoint Slides

Culture

Multiple Choice

  1. Stuart Hall defines culture as “a set of_______.”
    1. things
    2. people
    3. practices
  2. Clifford Geertz defined culture as:
    1. art, music and theatre
    2. a set of stories we tell about ourselves
    3. the production and exchange of meanings
  3. Cultural stories composed of common sense are:
    1. conscious
    2. unconscious

Short Answer

  1. List two subcultures that demonstrate the contradictions in using the term “US Culture.”
  2. How did Barthes define common sense?

Essay

  1. Compare and contrast Hall’s notion of culture with Geertz’s. 

Ideology

Multiple Choice

  1. Ball and Dagger’s definition of ideology assumes that:
    1. all ideologies are consciously held
    2. all ideologies are unconsciously held
    3. ideologies are both consciously and unconsciously held
  2. Conscious ideologies are:
    1. hard to identify
    2. easily identifiable
  3. Unconscious ideologies are:
    1. programs for political action
    2. debated in political arena
    3. foundations of our political thinking

Short Answer

  1. What is the most common way of defining ideology?
  2. Give two examples of conscious ideology.
  3. What are unconscious ideologies?

Essay

  1. How is ideology related to culture?

Myth function in IR theory

Multiple Choice

  1. IR traditions are:
    1. unconscious ideologies
    2. conscious ideologies
  2. Transforming the cultural into the natural is a highly ________ act.
    1. political
    2. unbiased
    3. scientific
  3. Barthes refers to myths as “__________ speech”.
    1. politicized
    2. depoliticized
    3. culturalized
    4. deculturalized

Short Answer

  1. Define what is meant by an “IR myth”?
  2. What is the myth function in IR theory?
  3. Why is it important to study the myth function in IR?
  4. What are the three questions you should always ask about IR myths?

Essay

  1. What is the difference between ideologies and myths in IR?

Chapter 2: Realism: Is international anarchy the permissive cause of war?

 

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Chapter 2: Powerpoint Slides

The myth

Multiple choice

  1. The overriding goal of states in the environment of international anarchy is to:
    1. survive
    2. cooperate
    3. help weaker states
  2. Do realists think there is a way out of international anarchy?
    1. yes
    2. no
  3. Realists such as Hans Morgenthau think that the nature of man is:
    1. good
    2. evil
    3. flawed
    4. innocent
  4. Neorealists argue that the causes of conflict are:
    1. social
    2. human nature
    3. religious
    4. cultural
  5. In which level of analysis did Waltz find the cause of war:
    1. the individual
    2. the state
    3. the state system
    4. none of them on their own
  6. The second  image, of states, is a ______________ cause of war
    1. permissive
    2. immediate
  7. Which of Waltz’s books marks the break between realism and neorealism:
    1. Theory of International Politics
    2. Man, the State and War
  8. Which arrangement does Waltz think is most likely to ensure a “balance of power”?
    1. unipolarity
    2. bipolarity
    3. multipolarity

Short answer

  1. What are the three assumptions of the anarchy myth?
  2. What is the neorealist anarchy myth according to Kenneth Waltz?
  3. What three levels of analysis does Waltz use to answer the question “what causes wars?”
  4. Describe Rousseau’s parable of the stag hunt used by Waltz.
  5. According to Waltz, the two major forms of organisation that explain politics are:
  6. In a situation of structural anarchy as defined by Waltz, what is the best chance states have to survive?
  7. What is Waltz’s “security dilemma”?
  8. What does Waltz believe prevents competition among states leading to war?

Essay

  1. Compare and contrast the realist view of human nature with the neorealist view. What are the implications for how they conceptualise international anarchy?

Lord of the Flies

Multiple Choice

  1. In the Lord of the Flies, adults represent the _________ in a realist system.
    1. orderers
    2. the man
    3. the international
  2. The island world is:
    1. hierarchical
    2. anarchical
  3. Piggy is the voice of:
    1. hierarchical reason
    2. anarchy
    3. survival
  4. What key aspect of Waltz’s myth does the film Lord of the Flies make evident?
    1. fear
    2. isolation
    3. loss of authority
    4. conflict

Short Answer

  1. The film Lord of the Flies suggest that rules mean nothing without __________.
  2. What does the conch symbolise?
  3. What are the five moves in the film Lord of the Flies that support Waltz’s anarchy myth?
  4. If Ralph represents hierarchy, what does Jack represent?
  5. Describe how fear of the beast allows Jack to challenge Ralph’s leadership.

The function of fear in Waltz’s anarchy myth

Multiple Choice

  1. What does anarchy require to cause, or allow for, conflict?
    1. fear
    2. lack of authority
    3. poor organisation
    4. bad individuals
  2. For Waltz fear is always:
    1. cooperative
    2. divisive
    3. uniting
  3. Conflict amongst the boys occurs _________ they embrace the fear of the beast.
    1. before
    2. after
  4. The fear created in the film Lord of the Flies is fear of:
    1. human nature
    2. bad social and political organizations
    3. international anarchy
    4. fear itself

Short answer

  1. Why does anarchy require fear to be conflictual?
  2. Where does the film Lord of the Flies locate fear, outside of Waltz’s three images?
  3. Name two effects that Waltz attributes to anarchy:
  4. How does Waltz characterize fear?

Essay

  1. How does the film Lord of the Flies demonstrate how fear is necessary for Waltz’s anarchy myth to function?

Chapter 3: Idealism: Is there an international society?

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Chapter 3: Powerpoint Slides

The myth

Multiple Choice

  1. What does the international society myth say needs to mediate anarchy in order to move from conflict to cooperation?
    1. community
    2. hierarchy
    3. an orderer
    4. world government
  2. Which IR tradition is international community most commonly associated with?
    1. realism
    2. idealism
    3. constructivism
    4. Marxism
  3. What do Idealists believe about human nature:
    1. basically bad
    2. basically good
    3. evil
  4. According to idealists, what does “good organization” require to produce good states and societies?
    1. communication
    2. power
    3. military
    4. single leader
  5. Which event was crucial to the re-emergence of idealism through neoidealism?
    1. end of Cold War
    2. World War One
    3. World War Two
  6. Kegley argues that the behavior of states immediately after the post-Cold War was:
    1. conflictual
    2. cooperative

Short Answer

  1. Define “international community.”
  2. What is the “domestic analogy”?
  3. What two reasons did Kegley give for rejecting orthodox realism after the end of the Cold War?
  4. Give two things Kegley argued that idealism could explain (and realism couldn’t) about post-Cold War cooperation among sovereign states.
  5. What are the six core principles with which Kegley sums up Idealism?
  6. What is the seventh, post-Cold War, neoidealist principle that Kegley adds to Woodrow Wilson’s six principles of idealism?
  7. What do neoidealists consider the best form of governmental organisation?
  8. Explain Kegley’s domestic analogy.

Essay

  1. Compare and contrast Kegley’s and Waltz’s characterizations of international politics.

Independence Day

Short answer

  1. Name the four heroes of Independence Day.
  2. What are the key virtues shown by each of the four heroes in Independence Day?
  3. What is the new evil introduced into the post-Cold War world of Independence Day?
  4. What are the three moral assumptions in the world of Independence Day?
  5. What is deviant in the world of Independence Day?
  6. What are the key neoidealist messages of Independence Day?

Fear and Leadership in Independence Day

Multiple Choice

Short Answer

Essay

  1. What mediates international anarchy in a neoidealist reading of Independence Day?
    1. international society
    2. hierarchy
    3. military
  2. What role does fear play in the international society myth?
    1. divides people
    2. creates conflict
    3. unites people
    4. makes people act badly
    1. Why is the US setting of Independence Day crucial to the neoidealist principles it shows?
    2. What pure form of communication unites the sovereign nation states around the world into one just military mission against the evil aliens?
    3. What are the two vital elements that Independence Day adds to the neoidealist story?
    4. Does Independence Day prove that an international society can exist without fear?
    1. Discuss the different role fear plays in the realist myth “anarchy is the permissive cause of war” and the neoidealist myth “there is an international society”.
    2. Independence Day really shows an international hierarchy under US leadership rather than an “international society.”  What are the implications of this claim for the neoidealist myth?

Chapter 4: Constructivism: Is anarchy what states make of it?

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Chapter 4: Powerpoint Slides

The myth

Multiple choice

  1. Constructivism argues that identities and interests in international politics:
    • change
    • have a pre-given nature
    • are fixed
  2. In constructivism, international anarchy is:
    • conflictual
    • cooperative
    • what states make of it
  3. Constructivism is a bridge between:
    • neorealism and neoliberalism
    • neoliberalism and Marxism
    • neorealism and gender
  4. “Identities are the basis of __.” (Wendt, 1992)
    • states
    • interests
    • anarchy
    • conflict
  5. Name the fourth term:  Actors – identities – interests -- ________
    • institutions
    • states
    • NGOs
  6. Identities and institutions are:
    • cooperative
    • conflictual
    • mutually constitutive

Short Answer

  1. What does constructivism say is the important thing to look at in understanding international politics?
    • How identities and interests are constructed
  2. Constructivism’s definition of international anarchy depends on the identity of the state as:
    • Decision-maker
  3. What are the two key aspects of anarchy stressed by theorists in the debate?
    • Structure
    • Process
  4. What are the three things Wendt argues that neorealists and neoliberals have in common?
    • States as dominant actors
    • Rationalism
    • Security defined as self-interest
  5. What is Wendt’s problem with rationalism?
    • Only rationalises behaviour
    • Takes identities and interests as given, therefore the system can’t be changed
    • Limits theoretical understandings of and excludes changes to identities and interests
  6. Wendt challenges the neorealist logic of anarchy by reclaiming a place for ________ in international politics:
    • Practice
  7. What are the two structures that Wendt argues explain state behavior in international politics?
    • International anarchy
    • Intersubjectively constituted structure of identities and interests
  8. What are the three fundamental principles of constructivist social theory?
    • Social knowledge
    • Social practice
    • Social identities and interests

Essay

  1. How does Wendt defend his state-centerism, and is his defence justified?
    • Wendt’s state-centerism:
      • “anarchy is what states make of it” (emphasis)
      • States as key actors in international politics
      • State is the decision-maker
      • Focus on changing identities and interests of states
    • How does Wendt defend this:
      • “Authorship” of human world mustn’t be forgotten therefore need to keep “author” (state) central
      • Only way to hold states and their actions accountable
      • Keeping states central reduces risk of reification of the world
      • Anarchy is a product of state activities: if reified (as by realists)then the security dilemma treated as (unchangeable) reality
    • Justified?
      • Yes:
        • Still live in a world of states – states are key actor
        • Very real actions are directed and taken by states
        • Important to study as can encourage change in behavior
      • No:
        • Misses key critique of realism
        • Doesn’t move debate forward, as still uses same assumption
        • States are not the dominant actors
        • Focus on states missed need for change elsewhere (i.e. transnational companies)

Wag the Dog

Multiple choice

  1. Who defines reality in the world of Wag the Dog?
    • Government
    • UN
    • media
    • CIA
  2. Who is the author of the tale in Wag the Dog?
    • politics/media
    • CIA
    • US Public
  3. Production only functions when it is truly:
    • powerful
    • seductive
    • original
    • believable

Short answer

  1. What is typical and deviant in Wag the Dog?
    • Typical: for the tail (spin-doctors) to wag the dog (US public)
    • Deviant: for the dog (US public) to wag the tail (spin-doctors)
  2. What are the three roles Stanley attributes to producing in Wag the Dog?
    • Problem-solving
    • Heroic
    • Invisible
  3. Define “seductive” as used by Stanley and Wendt in relation to production.
    • Withholds its own acts of production from view

Practice, seduction, and dead authorship

Multiple choice

  1. What set of practices does Wendt ignore:
    • what states do
    • stories that construct states as authors
    • culture that makes states what they look like
  2. Wendt’s theory of anarchy ends up reifying the:
    • state
    • international anarchy
    • conflict

Short answer

  1. What is production driven by?
  2. What is the relationship of “tale,” “tail” and “dog” in Wag the Dog?
  3. What are the 2 key disadvantages of the Wendtian compromise?

Essay

  1. Take the three key characters in Wag the Dog (President, Connie and Stanley) and explain why they aren’t the decision-maker.  What does this reveal about who is the decision maker in international politics?
    • Character:
      • President: no – hires Connie as a response to the media
      • Connie: no – hired by the President
      • Stanley: no – Connie orders him to be killed
    • Who is the decision-maker?
      • Media/tale
    • What does this reveal about international politics:
      • States are not the decision-makers
      • They respond to the “tale” or the media
      • Therefore states themselves are produced
      • There is not necessarily a decision-maker in international politics

Chapter 5: Gender: Is gender a variable?

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Chapter 5: Powerpoint Slides

The myth

Multiple choice

  1. Jones argues that the gender variable needs to be:
    1. reduced
    2. expanded
    3. removed
  2. What is the 4th “essential feature” of feminism that Jones identifies?
    1. men as an international ruling class
    2. gender neutrality
    3. femininity
    4. queer rights
  3. Jones accuses feminist scholarship of being suspect because feminists are:
    1. neutral
    2. irrational
    3. partisans for women
  4. Feminism claims that “the personal ___________.”
    1. cultural
    2. political
    3. social
    4. empirical
  5. Jones suggests a solution to the problems he identifies in feminist IR scholarship by focusing on:
    1. men and masculinities
    2. queer issues
    3. exclusively on women
    4. children

Short answer

  1. What is needed for gender to be a variable?
  2. What does Jones argue needs to be included in the gender variable?
  3. What are the three essential features of feminism that Jones identifies?
  4. Jones identifies two areas where feminism engages with realism.  What are they?

Essay

  1. Compare and contrast Jones’ and Peterson’s characterizations of feminism.

Fatal Attraction

Multiple choice

  1. Fatal Attraction makes sense of the world by valuing:
    1. sex
    2. single women
    3. the heterosexual nuclear family
    4. infidelity
  2. In Fatal Attraction, Alex represents a _______  woman:
    1. illegitimate
    2. legitimate
  3. Alex’s behavior is portrayed as:
    1. rational
    2. irrational

Short answer

  1. What is typical and deviant in the world of Fatal Attraction?
  2. What does Fatal Attraction tell us about the place of femininity?

Placing feminism in IR?

Multiple choice

  1. Where does Jones locate legitimate meaning in IR?
    1. classical tradition of realist/idealist questions of war and peace
    2. gender including men and masculinities
    3. constructivism
  2. What would feminists argue does the normative agenda of the classical approach to IR privilege?
    1. queer identities
    2. women and femininity
    3. “normal” subjects and sexualities
  3. From a feminist perspective, does classical IR theory have a gendered point of view?
    1. yes
    2. no
  4. Feminists say it is possible to have a gender-neutral point of view:
    1. false
    2. true
  5. Which female character in Fatal Attraction represents feminism?
    1. Beth
    2. Alex
    3. Ellen

Short answer

  1. For Jones, what is the gendered perspective of feminism in IR?
  2. Give two ways Jones suggests managing feminist “excesses.”
  3. Name three of the “wrong questions” that feminism asks of traditional IR theory:
  4. What does Jones claim about feminism in IR in order not to have to take it seriously?

Essay

  1. Does Fatal Attraction support Jones’ claim that gender has a place in IR theory?  

Chapter 6: Globalisation: Are we at the end of history?

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Chapter 6: Powerpoint Slides

The myth

Multiple choice:

  1. In what philosophical tradition does a Historical Materialist explanation of globalization have its roots?
    1. Marxism
    2. liberalism
    3. realism
    4. constructivism
  2. For Historical Materialists, what process drives all others?
    1. political
    2. cultural
    3. economic
  3. Historical Materialists regard international economic processes as:
    1. conflictual
    2. unifying
  4. Who claimed that liberalism was “the end of history”?
    1. Kant
    2. Fukuyama
    3. Marx
    4. Hegel
  5. What aspect of liberalism does Fukuyama claim has already won in the “victory of liberalism”?
    1. politics
    2. ideology
    3. economics
  6. In a dialectical process, what is the term used for “a higher truth”:
    1. synthesis
    2. antithesis
    3. thesis
  7. In Hegel’s dialectic, what are in conflict?
    1. classes
    2. ideologies
    3. cultures
    4. religions

Short answer:

  1. What three processes occur simultaneously in neoliberal globalization?
  2. Where does conflict occur for Historical Materialists?
  3. For Historical Materialists, history is the history of:
  4. What are the two ways in which Fukuyama put liberalism beyond debate?
  5. How does Fukuyama understand history?
  6. In the dialectical process, when do we reach an end of history?
  7. What does Fukuyama argue were the two main challengers to liberalism in the 20th Century?
  8. What does Fukuyama identify as two future challenges to liberalism and why does he think they will fail?

Essay:

  1. Compare and contrast neoliberal and historical materialist understandings of globalization.

The Truman Show

Multiple Choice

  1. In The Truman Show what ideology does Truman represent?
    1. totalitarianism
    2. Marxism
    3. liberalism
    4. realism
  2. What does Truman want that he can’t have in Seahaven?
    1. money
    2. freedom
    3. love
    4. fame
  3. How does “The Truman Show” make sense of the world?
    1. celebrating history
    2. looking to the future
  4. What is deviant for Truman in the world of “The Truman Show”?
    1. become aware and stay
    2. be unaware
    3. become aware and leave

Short

  1. What is typical in the world of “The Truman Show”?
  2. How does Christof contain Truman’s desires in “The Truman Show”?
  3. What leads to Truman’s awakening?
  4. Is the world of The Truman Show historical or post-historical?
  5. What is deviant in the world of The Truman Show?

Liberalism’s internal contradiction, or is the end ever really the end?

Multiple choice

  1. What does liberalism require to function as a contradiction-free ideology?
    1. prosperity for everyone
    2. a safe space for people to project their desires
    3. democracy

Short answer

  1. What is the unresolvable contradiction within the ideology of liberalism that The Truman Show reveals?

Essay

  1. How does The Truman Show reveal and illustrate the unresolvable contradiction within the ideology of liberalism?

Chapter 7: NeoMarxism: Is Empire the new world order?

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Chapter 7: Powerpoint Slides

The Myth

Multiple choice

  1. Hardt and Negri argue which of the following best describes their Empire?
    1. USA hegemony
    2. colonial imperialism
    3. a mixed character of certain and elusive attributes
  2. Deleuze and Guattari say that power:
    1. flows through states, societies and international orders
    2. is located in one place
    3. can be described in territorial terms
  3. Hardt and Negri describe Empire as having a ___________ center.
    1. material
    2. territorial
    3. virtual
    4. true
  4. The agency/ontology of Empire is:
    1. Marxist
    2. postmodern
    3. liberal
    4. realist
  5. What is the new world order for Hardt and Negri?
    1. Empire
    2. liberalism
    3. globalization
    4. communism
  6. Empire is about __________ the new world order.
    1. explaining
    2. resisting
    3. mastering
    4. succeeding in

Short answer

  1. What has enabled the materialization of Empire?
  2. How do Hardt and Negri define Empire?
  3. Briefly summarise Foucault’s concept of biopower.
  4. Does Empire have a foundation?
  5. What are the three intellectual debts that Hardt and Negri owe to postmodernism?
  6. What are the two things the disparate parts of the multitude share?

Essay

  1. How do Hardt and Negri combine postmodernism and neoMarxism in their theory of Empire?

Memento

Multiple choice

  1. Memento’s world is:
    1. modern
    2. postmodern
    3. neoMarxist
  2. What is typical in the world of Memento?
    1. people have the ability to make new memories
    2. people to be unable to make new memories
    3. people to forget
  3. In which direction does time move for Leonard in Memento?
    1. forwards
    2. stays still
    3. backwards
  4. In Memento, the color film sequences represent the:
    1. factual
    2. fantastical
    3. no difference

Short answer

  1. What are the two things that make the world of Memento uncertain?
  2. What are the two things Leonard supplements his life with in order to survive the meaningless present?
  3. What is Leonard’s motive for reordering his world?
  4. Why do the color sequences in Memento make the audience identify with Leonard?
  5. What three things make the black and white sequences in Memento make sense?
  6. What are the differences between Sammy and Leonard’s memory loss?
  7. Why couldn’t Sammy will himself to behave differently?

Truth, Ontology, and Desire

Multiple choice

  1. Hardt and Negri construct the enemy of the multitude (Empire) into a __________ tale.
    1. fragmented
    2. coherent
    3. fluid
    4. multiple
  2. Do postmodernists think that coherent agents/ontologies need to exist in order to have meaningful global resistances to objectionable uses of power?
    1. no
    2. yes

Short answer

  1. What two things does Leonard firmly believe throughout Memento?
  2. Explain how Leonard is caught between truth and desire in Memento.
  3. In addition to posing the problem of ontology – the idea that things are fragmented, fluid and foundationless  – what  two further arguments about the problem of ontology do postmodernists make?              

Essay

  1. What does Leonard’s desire and strategy for becoming a coherent ontology/agent reveal about Hardt and Negri’s myth of Empire?

Chapter 8: Modernisation and development theory: Is there a clash of civilizations?

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Chapter 8: Powerpoint Slides

The Myth

Multiple choice

  1. When did the modernization and development tradition emerge?
    1. pre Cold War
    2. post-Cold War
    3. 1990s
    4. during the Cold War
  2. What was the modernization and development tradition a response to managing?
    1. former colonial territories
    2. the Soviet bloc
    3. post World War II Europe
  3. What does Huntington argue is lacking in the modernization and development tradition?
    1. economics
    2. political order
    3. religion
    4. culture
  4. Huntington’s clash of civilizations thesis claims to account for the evolution of _______ in the modern world.
    1. economics
    2. religion
    3. conflict
    4. culture
  5. Which historical event marked the key moment for the creation of Huntington’s thesis?
    1. end of the Cold War
    2. World War Two
    3. September 11th
    4. Hiroshima
  6. Which fault line between civilisations does Huntington devote the majority of his attention to?
    1. Islamic and Western Christianity
    2. Japanese and Confucian
    3. Hindu and Islamic
  7. What does Huntington assume causes conflict?
    1. politics
    2. ideology
    3. difference
    4. power
  8. The post-Cold War world will be a battle between the West and:
    1. the rest
    2. itself
    3. Russia
    4. terrorists

Short answer

  1. What was the modernization and development tradition conceived as an alternative to?
  2. What four general conclusions did modernization and development theorists draw about the development process for states?
  3. What two core principles of modernization and development theory does Huntington reject?
  4. How does Huntington define civilization?
  5. How can civilizations be identified?
  6. What are the eight civilizations that Huntington identifies?
  7. Where does Huntington identify the civilizational fault lines in Europe?
  8. Where does Huntington locate conflict?
  9. What does Huntington argue is the best way to manage difference?

East is East

Multiple Choice

  1. How does East is East cast identity?
    1. religious and national terms
    2. cultural terms
    3. ideological terms
  2. If the Khans represent Islam, which other family in the film do they civilizationally “clash” with?
    1. Khan’s family in Pakistan
    2. Ella’s family
    3. Moorhouses
    4. Shahs
  3. When does the conflict occur in East is East?
    1. from the beginning, with cultural differences
    2. when George turns difference into identity
    3. when George marries Ella
    4. when the children are born
  4. Where is the fundamental fault line in East is East?
    1. in religion
    2. in ethnicity
    3. within George’s identity
    4. within the family

Short Answer

  1. What is typical in the world of East is East?
  2. What does Huntington argue for instead of transforming difference into identity?
  3. What is George’s solution to his children’s lack of a unified identity?

Essay

  1. Do the Khan children represent Huntington’s fault line between civilizations, or do they foreshadow multicultural Britain? Justify your choice.

Identity, desire, and culture

Multiple choice

  1. Huntington’s idea of culture is:
    1. moving
    2. changing
    3. stagnant
    4. declining
  2. From Huntington’s perspective, culture provides individuals with:
    1. security
    2. family
    3. stories
    4. conflict
  3. In East is East post World War II Britain identifies itself as:
    1. one culture
    2. multicultural
    3. no culture
    4. post culture

Short answer

  1. How does culture provide individuals with political security?
  2. How does Huntington solve the problem of cultural difference within states and civilizations?
  3. Equating identity with culture is a contemporary response to the problem of:

Essay

  1. Do events post September 11th support or contradict Huntington’s thesis that identity is a source of stability and security?

Chapter 9: Environmentalism: Is human-made climate change an inconvenient truth?

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Chapter 9: Powerpoint Slides

The Myth

Multiple Choice

  1. Ecocenterism places humans as:
    1. above nature
    2. below nature
    3. part of nature
    4. outside nature
  2. Who popularised the “limits-to-growth” argument in the 1970s?
    1. Medows
    2. Malthus
    3. Paterson
    4. Gore
  3. What type of film is An Inconvenient Truth?
    1. romance
    2. short
    3. documentary
    4. comedy
  4. What does Gore’s 1992 book Earth in the Balance propose?
    1. Strategic Environment Initiative
    2. Global Marshall Plan
    3. Green Security Strategy
  5. An Inconvenient Truth was designed to forge a:
    1. common purpose
    2. policy paper
    3. new political party
  6. An Inconvenient Truth focuses on the actions of:
    1. global corporations
    2. governments
    3. individuals
    4. societies
  7. Does Gore think we need world government to address climate change?
    1. yes
    2. no
  8. Does Gore think that economic growth and a healthy sustainable environment are compatible?
    1. yes
    2. no

Short answer

  1. What is the core premise of environmental/green theory?
  2. What three points does Paterson claim are key bringing about a positive change in the human-nature relationship?
  3. What are the two things that Paterson argues has pushed the earth to its environmental limits?
  4. What is the key message of An Inconvenient Truth?
  5. What are the three key parts of Gore’s Strategic Environment Initiative (SEI) (1989)?
  6. In Earth in the Balance (1992) what does Gore want to make “our new organizing principle”?
  7. What are two key things that An Inconvenient Truth does not include?

Essay

  1. How Idealist is Gore?

WALL-E

Multiple Choice

  1. The film WALL-E is set in the:
    1. past
    2. present
    3. future
  2. What is the character WALL-E nostalgic for?
    1. love
    2. humans
    3. the earth
    4. dogs
    3. Buy N Large is a:
    1. state
    2. culture
    3. religion
    4. global corporation
  4. What do the space-bound humans seem programmed to do?
    1. love
    2. consume
    3. exercise
    4. fight
  5. What central character does the film WALL-E introduce that is missing in Gore’s work on the environment?
    1. robots
    2. space captain
    3. Buy N Large corporation

Short answer

  1. How does the film WALL-E make sense of the world?
  2. What constitutes the bulk of space-bound human engagements?
  3. What is typical in the world of the film WALL-E?
  4. What goes without saying in order for Gore’s myth to appear to be true?

Essay

  1. What does the film WALL-E’s depiction of the Buy N Large Corporation reveal about Gore’s approach to the environment?

It’s not easy being Gore’s shade of green

Multiple Choice

  1. What is the contribution to tackling climate change that Gore asks of corporations?
    1. reduce growth
    2. create new technology
    3. change the profit economic model
    4. prioritize environment over consumption
  2. For Gore, corporate profit is:
    1. an unproblematic universally accepted principle
    2. problematic
    3. incompatible with the environment
    4. morally wrong
  3. What is the ontology of green politics?
    1. anthropocentric
    2. ecocentric
    3. biocentric
    4. aquacentric

Short answer

  1. What are the self-evident truths that Gore’s environmentalism relies on?
  2. What two theories does Gore mix in his approach to environmental issues?
  3. What are some potential problems with relying on technology to solve the environmental crisis?

Essay

  1. How green is Gore really?

Chapter 10: Anarchism: Are we the 99%?

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Chapter 10: Powerpoint Slides

The myth

Multiple choice

  1. Which philosophical tradition does OWS have its roots in?
    1. liberalism
    2. realism
    3. anarchism
    4. feminism    
  2. IR theorists view anarchy as:
    1. good
    2. bad
  3. Anarchy is the absence of:
    1. an orderer
    2. order
  4. Anarchism is a type of:
    1. Marxism
    2. libertarianism
    3. conservatism
  5. Anarchists believe that “the system is ________ .”
    1. going to save us
    2. not going to save us
  6. Graeber’s ‘new anarchism’ is:
    1. local
    2. individual
    3. national
    4. global
  7. Graeber’s Ethical Common Decency requires working out what each us really:
    1. knows
    2. owes each other
    3. believes
    4. cares about
  8. Genuine friendships are premised on:
    1. incalculable obligations
    2. quantifiable obligations
    3. external obligations
    4. state obligations
  9. “Debt is a promise corrupted by both _____and violence.’”(Graeber, 2011)
    1. society
    2. people
    3. math
    4. money

Short answer

  1. What are the three basic assumptions anarchists make about liberty, human capacities for self-organization, and power?
  2. What is the fundamental question anarchists ask about the relationship between authority and morality?
  3. Describe Graeber’s concept of Horizontal Direct Democracies.
  4. How does Graeber define debt?
  5. What is “baseline communism” as defined by Graeber?
  6. What are two ways violence can be part of debt?
  7. Debt bondage has its roots in:

Essay

  1. Compare and contrast IR scholars’ and anarchists’ approach to anarchy.

The Hunger Games

Multiple choice

  1. In The Hunger Games, the Capitol is the:
    1. debtor
    2. creditor
    3. loan
    4. Interest
  2. In the film The Hunger Games, what is the cost of freedom?
    1. money
    2. territory
    3. The Hunger Games
  3. What is the only form of currency acceptable to the Capitol for debt servicing?
    1. district children
    2. obedience
    3. television
    4. money
  4. Panem is a:
    1. anarchy
    2. hierarchy
    3. communism
    4. democracy
  5. Which character drives the movement from what is typical to what is deviant in the world of The Hunger Games?
    1. Katniss Everdeen
    2. Prim Everdeen
    3. Seneca Crane
    4. Gale
  6. What is the key skill needed by a Tribute to survive in The Arena?
    1. weapons
    2. fitness
    3. social
    4. languages
  7. What does Katniss learn is the key to true liberty?
    1. money
    2. being debt-free
    3. power
    4. social relationships
  8. What anarchical gesture does Katniss make at the end of The Hunger Games?
    1. suicide pact with Peeta
    2. pretending to love Peeta
    3. winning the Games

Short answer

  1. What is typical in the world of The Hunger Games?
  2. What has the Capitol loaned residents of the Districts?
  3. Why are The Hunger Games a debt and not just a general form of penance?
  4. In the film The Hunger Games, how do The Hunger Games safeguard the future of Panem?
  5. How does Panem demonstrate what Graeber claims is wrong with sovereign states?
  6. What drives Katniss Everdeen?
  7. What are the two obligations that Katniss is caught between, that leads her to volunteer for The Hunger Games?
  8. What are two key reasons that Katniss struggles to survive in The Arena?
  9. Why is Katniss socially awkward?
  10. What is Katniss Everdeen’s (nearly) fatal flaw?

Are we the 99%?

Multiple choice

  1. OWS is an example of which sort of anarchism?
    1. individualist
    2. collectivist

Short answer

  1. What is the difference between communitarian and Individualist anarchism?
  2. What goes without saying in order for the myth ‘We are the 99%’ to appear to be true?
  3. Why is it so easy to confuse individualist anarchists with collectivist anarchists?

Essay

  1. Is Katniss a communitarian anarchist or an individualist anarchist?

Chapter 11: Conclusion: What does it all mean?

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Chapter 11: Powerpoint Slides

How IR theory makes sense of the world

Multiple choice

  1. Who or what are the fundamental actors in international politics for mainstream IR theory?
    1. individuals
    2. societies
    3. states
    4. ideologies
  2. Of the theorists in this list, who is/are the only one(s) to examine war and peace in a non-traditional way?
    1. Kegley
    2. Hardt and Negri
    3. Fukuyama
    4. Huntingdon
  3. Mainstream IR theory is ___________-centric.
    1. North American
    2. European
    3. Asian
    4. African
  4. Mainstream IR theory is primarily:
    1. feminine
    2. masculine
    3. queer
    4. neutral

Short answer

  1. What three things does mainstream IR theory focus on in order to make sense of the world?
  2. What international interactions are important for mainstream IR theorists?
  3. Name two concepts or issues that drop out of or are ignored by mainstream IR theory.

Essay

  1. Choose two theories outside of the main three (realism, idealism and constructivism) that fit the criteria for mainstream IR theory and justify your choice.

Making sense of IR theory

Multiple choice

  1. When found in IR theory, unconscious or unnamed ideologies are called:
    1. IR theories
    2. IR myths
    3. IR ideologies
  2. What does IR theory defer and displace?
    1. the myth function itself
    2. ideologies
    3. narratives of international politics
  3. What is the effect on traditional IR theory of exposing the myth function in IR theory?
    1. strengthens it
    2. finishes it
    3. disrupts it

Short answer

  1. Name two ideological practices at work in IR theory.      
  2. If IR myths work at the level of stories, what level does IR theory work at?
  3. What “goes without saying” in IR theory?

The politics of the popular

Multiple choice

  1. Pairing popular films with IR theory exposes IR theory as:
    1. true
    2. false
    3. a mythologized mix of fact and fiction

Short answer

  1. What are two reasons for using popular films to rethink IR theory?
  2. Why have the chosen films and IR myths been paired up?

Essay

  1. Why are investigations of popular films so often relegated to the margins by IR theorists?

Where does all of this leave us?

Multiple choice

  1. Reading IR theories and myths through popular films shows us that culture is:
    1. political
    2. anti-political
    3. apolitical