Understanding global security - Peter Hough

GLOSSARY
nihilistic extremely sceptical to the point of denying the existence of morality
altogether.
non-combatant immunity principle that civilians should not be targeted in warfare.
non-state actor an organization with international political significance other than
a state. A generic term for both INGOs and IGOs.
normative moral-based.
ontological enquiry into ‘what there is’ (ontology).
overpopulation condition whereby a given state has a population in excess of its
capacity to support them to an optimal level.
pandemic widespread international outbreak of disease.
paradigm general perspective on International Relations. A set of assumptions
on how and why international political events occur in the way that they
do.
power capabilities resources and attributes of a state which serve to determine
how influential it can be. Include natural resources, geographical location,
population and level of economic development.
proxy war war in which the participants are largely sponsored from afar.
realpolitik amoral, self-serving political practice by states.
relativism the assumption that something (such as morality) has no objective
meaning and exists only in relation to another’s interpretation of it.
renewable resources natural resources which are inexhaustable, such as wind
power.
satellite state a technically independent but effectively colonized state.
secular description of a state where religion is separated from government.
social construct something which can be defined only in the subjective terms of
the participants rather than by objective, empirical analysis.
social contract the ‘deal’ in political theory whereby government legitimacy is
maintained through the trade-off of them granting rights to their citizens
in exchange for the imposition on them of certain duties.
social movement broad societal movement seeking political change through mass
activism rather than the party political process.
sovereignty status of legal autonomy enjoyed by states so that their government has
exclusive authority within its borders and enjoys the rights of membership of
the international community.
spillover the tendency for political integration in one area to provide the momentum
for integration to occur in other, related areas.
statecentricism analysis which is biased towards the roles and motivations of states
over other actors in international relations.
statist focused on the state.
structural adjustment the package of conditions accompanying a loan given
to a state, such as by the IMF. Such conditions typically entail monetarily
conservative measures such as public spending cuts.
Structuralist perspective which considers that individual behaviour is largely
determined by the system in which the individual operates (as, for example, the
behaviour of actors in the international system). Most (but not exclusively)
associated with the Marxist paradigm of International Relations.
superpower term applied to the USA and USSR during the Cold War because of
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