| anarchical international system | The traditional structure of world politics in which there is no central authority to set and enforce rules and resolve disputes.
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| Classic liberalism | A subdivision of liberal thought that is optimistic about human nature and believes that people can achieve more collectively than individually, that people understand this; and, therefore, given the opportunity, people will seek to work together in their common, long-term interests.
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| Classic realism | A subdivision of realist thought that believes the root cause of conflict is the aggressive nature of humans.
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| Constructivism | The view that the course of international relations is an interactive process in which the ideas of and communications among agents (or actors: individuals, groups, and social structures, including states) serve to create structures (treaties, laws, international organizations, and other aspects of the international system), which, in turn influence the ideas and communications of the agents.
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| Economic internationalism | The belief that international economic relations should and can be conducted cooperatively because the international economy is a non-zero-sum game in which prosperity is available to all.
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| Economic nationalism | The belief that the state should use its economic strength to further national interests, and that a state should use its power to build its economic strength.
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| intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) | International/transnational actors that are composed of member countries.
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| international investment capital | The flow of money in and out of a country to buy companies, stocks, bonds, real estate, and other assets.
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| Multinational corporations (MNCs) | Private enterprises that have production subsidiaries or branches in more than one country.
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| Neoliberals | Analysts who believe that conflict and other ills resulting from the anarchical international system can be eased by building global and regional organizations and processes that will allow people, groups, countries, and other international actors to cooperate for their mutual benefit.
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| nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) | International (transnational) organizations with private memberships.
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| political theory | An idea or connected set of ideas about why things happen and how events relate to one another.
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| postmodernism | This theory holds that reality does not exist as such. Rather, reality is created by how we think and our discourse (writing, talking). As applied to world politics, postmodernism is the belief that we have become trapped by stale ways of conceiving of how we organize and conduct ourselves. Postmodernists wish, therefore, to deconstruct discourse.
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