International Relations Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The match is a-ii, b-iii, c-iv, d-i.

William Cohen is linked with the Revolution in Military Affairs (ii), Martin Shaw with Degenerate Wars (iii), Raymond Aron with Hyperbolic Wars (iv), and Mary Kaldor with New Wars (i).

Code (A) gives these. The other codes put New Wars with the wrong writer.

Answer: D

The World Bank created the Global Environment Facility.

The GEF was set up in 1991 under the World Bank as a mechanism to fund environmental projects in developing countries, with UNDP and UNEP as partners.

The IMF has no such role, and UNDP and UNEP implement GEF projects, so the key picks the Bank.

Answer: C

The chronological order is Treaty of Westphalia, Treaties of Utrecht, Treaty of Paris, Charter of the UN.

Westphalia was in 1648, Utrecht in 1713, the Treaty of Paris closed a war of the eighteenth or nineteenth century, and the UN Charter was signed in 1945.

The other options put the Charter before the earlier treaties.

Answer: A

The four defining elements of a regime are principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedures.

Stephen Krasner's definition of a regime in international relations is a set of implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedures around which actor expectations converge.

Regulations, precedents and practices are not in the standard definition. A regime in international relations is more than a treaty. Principles are beliefs of fact and causation, norms are standards of behaviour, rules are specific prescriptions and decision-making procedures are the practices for making and implementing collective choice.

Answer: B

The chronological order is Mexico City, Copenhagen, Nairobi, Beijing.

The UN women's conferences were held in Mexico City in 1975, Copenhagen in 1980, Nairobi in 1985 and Beijing in 1995.

The other options mix the sequence, for example putting Beijing before Nairobi. The sequence follows the UN Decade for Women: the first world conference in Mexico City opened the decade, Copenhagen reviewed it midway, Nairobi closed it with the forward-looking strategies, and Beijing in 1995 adopted the Platform for Action.

Answer: D

ASEAN Plus Three includes China, Japan and South Korea.

ASEAN Plus Three is the cooperation between the ten ASEAN members and the three East Asian states China, Japan and South Korea.

India and Russia are not members of the grouping, which rules out the other options. The grouping began in 1997 after the Asian financial crisis, when the ASEAN leaders met their counterparts from the three East Asian states. India, Russia and the other states appear in the East Asia Summit and other forums, not in the Plus Three.

Answer: A

The 'Democratic Peace Theory' is associated with Michael Doyle.

Doyle's work on liberalism and world politics argued that liberal democracies do not fight one another. James Rosenau is known for linkage and turbulence in world politics, Richard Falk for world order studies, and Michael Walzer for just war theory. The claim is usually put as an empirical regularity, that established liberal democracies have almost never gone to war with each other, and it is explained by shared norms and institutional constraints on leaders. This is why it is counted as a liberal theory of international relations.

Answer: B

Both statements are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).

Regimes, the sets of rules and norms that govern an issue area, are a feature of a globalised world. The reason correctly says that detente, the loss of American hegemony and growing environmental awareness sensitised scholars to regimes. It explains why scholars took up the study of regimes, not why regimes are a feature of globalisation, so the second code applies.

Answer: C

The remark comparing power to the weather is by Joseph Nye.

Nye used the comparison in his writing on soft power and the changing nature of power: everyone talks about it, but few understand it. Morgenthau, Kissinger and Strange wrote on power as well but the remark is credited to Nye. The other names are tempting but wrong: Morgenthau is the founder of classical realism and wrote on power as the central concept of politics, Kissinger is a practitioner and writer on diplomacy, and Susan Strange wrote on structural power in the world economy, yet the line itself belongs to Nye, who gave the idea of soft power its modern form.

Answer: A

The correct matching is a-ii, b-iv, c-i, d-iii, the first code.

Tribal conflict is the failure of Somalia, endless violence for non-political purposes is that of Liberia, ethnic genocide is the Rwanda case and the transnational war belongs to Congo. The other codes assign at least one failed state to the wrong reason, such as giving the genocide to Congo. In the standard account, Somalia is the example of a collapsed state through clan and tribal conflict, Liberia of endless violence among armed groups for no political aim, Rwanda of ethnic genocide in 1994, and Congo of war across borders that drew in several neighbours.