International Relations Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Both the assertion and the reason are true, but the reason does not explain the assertion. Modern technology, such as nuclear weapons and missiles, has raised the importance of war and the threat of war. It is also true that war is no longer just a contest of strength and has become more a contest of nerve and risk taking, as in nuclear deterrence and brinkmanship. But the second statement describes a feature of the new kind of war and is not the reason why technology enhances the importance of war. Option B is correct, and not option A.

Answer: A

A quasi-state is a state that possesses juridical statehood but is severely deficient in empirical statehood. The idea is Robert Jackson's: such states are recognised by others as sovereign and have a seat in the international community, but lack the capacity to govern their territory and provide services. The second option describes a state with actual capacity, the third a state with neither feature, and the fourth only a social problem of loyalty. Option A is correct.

Answer: D

The statement that economic globalisation is an uneven and hierarchical process that benefits only a tiny minority is associated with the neo-Marxist approach. Neo-Marxists see globalisation as a continuation of capitalist expansion in which the core gains and the periphery is exploited. Economic liberals hold that globalisation benefits all through trade and growth, mercantilists and economic realists see economic relations as a matter of state power and competition, and none of them frames the process as a hierarchy that favours a minority. Option D is correct.

Answer: C

The matching is a-iii, b-iv, c-i, d-ii. The Foreign Policy Institute is a think tank of Turkey. The Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses is the Indian body in New Delhi. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is in the United States, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies is in London, in the United Kingdom. The code iii, iv, i, ii is option C. Options A, B and D each put at least two of the institutes in the wrong country.

Answer: B

The matching is a-iv, b-iii, c-ii, d-i. The LTTE, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, fought in Sri Lanka. Hizbullah is the Shia movement and party based in Lebanon with its backing from Iran, and in this list is matched with Iran. Boko Haram is the insurgent group of Nigeria, and the Shining Path is the Maoist movement of Peru. That pairing, iv, iii, ii, i, is option B, and the others disturb at least two of the pairs.

Answer: C

The Panel on United Nations Peace Operations, set up by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2000 and chaired by Lakhdar Brahimi, produced the Brahimi Report. It made recommendations on the clarity of mandates, the strength of forces and the planning and support of missions. The Hammarskjold Report and the Rajeshwar Dayal Report relate to the earlier operations in the Congo in the 1960s, and there is no Kofi Annan Report of this kind. Option C is correct.

Answer: C

The matching is a-ii, b-iii, c-i, d-iv. The Rohingyas are the Muslim minority of Myanmar. In Malaysia the Tamils are a minority, mostly of Indian origin. In Indonesia the Hindus (as in Bali) are a minority in a mainly Muslim state. In Laos the Vietnamese form a minority. The code ii, iii, i, iv is option C, and the others misplace at least two of the minorities.

Answer: C

Toyota is a Japanese corporation (ii), General Electric is American (i), and Nestle is Swiss (iii). The key matches Electrolux with Canada (iv) as printed in the list, although Electrolux is in fact a Swedish firm, so the matching is made by elimination: a-ii, b-i, c-iii, d-iv, which is code C. The other codes give Toyota to Canada or the USA, and General Electric to Switzerland or Japan, which are clearly wrong.

Answer: A

The Economic Commission for Europe is based at Geneva in Switzerland (i). The Economic Commission for Africa is based in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia (ii). The Economic Commission for Latin America is at Santiago in Chile (iii). The Economic Commission for West Asia is listed with Iraq (iv), as the commission's seat was for some years Baghdad, before it returned to Beirut. So the matching is a-i, b-ii, c-iii, d-iv, which is code A. The other codes mix these headquarters.

Answer: D

Social constructivism is the approach of Alexander Wendt.

Wendt, in Social Theory of International Politics, argues that anarchy is what states make of it and that identities and interests are shaped by shared ideas. He is not a post-modernist, critical theorist or neo-Marxist.

Post-modernism and critical theory belong to other schools of international relations, and neo-Marxism is the dependency and world-systems tradition. Wendt's argument that ideas and norms constitute state identity places him with the constructivists.