Current Issues in World Affairs
Question Bank
Course Introduction
This course provides an in-depth exploration of the most pressing contemporary issues shaping global affairs today. Students will analyze and discuss topics such as international conflict, global security, human rights, environmental challenges, migration, global health, and the impact of technology on world politics. Through case studies, current events, and scholarly texts, the course encourages critical thinking about the complex interplay of political, economic, social, and cultural forces influencing international relations. The course aims to equip students with the analytical tools needed to understand and evaluate current developments in world affairs, fostering informed global citizenship.
Recommended Textbook
World Politics 4th Edition by Jeffry A. Frieden
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17 Chapters
1269 Verified Questions
1269 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: What Shaped Our World
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of these countries had global hegemonic influence in the nineteenth century?
A)Japan
B)Great Britain
C)The United States
D)France
Answer: B
Q2) Which of the following factors aided global trade during the Pax Britannica?
A)Creation of the railroad
B)Creation of the steamship
C)Adoption of the gold standard
D)All of these are correct.
Answer: D
Q3) What effect did World War I have on the international system?
A)It spurred economic integration in Europe.
B)It led to the collapse of empires.
C)It created the United Nations.
D)It ended European imperialism.
Answer: B
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Chapter 2: Understanding Interests, interactions, and Institutions
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Q1) When an actor can get a better deal through alternatives to reaching a bargain,this is sometimes referred to as:
A)the reversion outcome.
B)an outside option.
C)negotiation.
D)iterative retaliation.
Answer: B
Q2) When states comply with international institutions,such as complying with the United Nations under conditions of peacekeeping,does this constitute a dilution of sovereignty?
Answer: The principle of nonintervention is a principle that should not be understood as an immutable law,but more as a norm of the international system.In this way,states can cede some of their sovereignty to international institutions in order to cooperate with other countries.
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Chapter 3: Why Are There Wars
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which is the best definition of total war?
A)A state mobilizes its entire military and economic resources.
B)Most of the states in the world are involved in the war.
C)Most of the states in one region are involved in the war.
D)The war results in at least 1,000 battle deaths.
Answer: A
Q2) How can we make war less likely? In your answer,make sure to include a discussion of the costs of war,the credibility of commitments,and the divisibility of goods.
Answer: War can be made less likely by helping states prefer peace settlements to war.Some potential ways this can be done are by increasing the costs of war for both sides,helping states generate credible commitments,and helping states overcome issue indivisibilities.Institutions,for example,can help do all three of these things by increasing the costs of war and by providing security guarantees.Third parties can also help states with issue indivisibilities by creating a forum that enables issue linkages,allowing states to bargain across multiple dimensions.
Q3) Describe three mechanisms that states can use to make their threats more credible. Answer: Three mechanisms are brinkmanship,tying hands,and paying for power.
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Chapter 4: Domestic Politics and War
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is a reason that democracies may be less likely than autocracies to gamble for resurrection?
A)Democratic accountability
B)Democratic peace
C)Domestic law
D)The rally-'round-the-flag effect
Q2) Which of the following is a reason we might expect members of the military to advocate for more aggressive foreign policies?
A)Military leaders like to feel important.
B)Military leaders often lack information that would help them prevent war.
C)The military does not often suffer the costs of war.
D)States may increase the military's budget in the face of conflict.
Q3) What is the rally effect? What causes it? Do you believe leaders purposefully change their behavior to cause a rally effect? Why might they or might they not do so?
Q4) Explain why a world full of democracies would not necessarily be a world without war.
Q5) How does the Kargil War between India and Pakistan demonstrate the limitations of democratic peace theory?
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Chapter 5: International Institutions and War
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Sample Questions
Q1) Before World War I,which countries were in the Triple Alliance?
A)Germany,Austria-Hungary,Italy
B)France,the Soviet Union,Britain
C)Germany,Austria,Russia
D)Prussia,Russia,France
Q2) What is the trade-off between the credibility of alliances and keeping control of alliance partners?
A)The more control an ally has in forcing compliance,the less credible the alliance is.
B)The more discretion an ally has in honoring the alliance,the less credibility the alliance has.
C)The greater the integrity of the alliance partners,the less control the alliance has over those allies.
D)The more standing the alliance has internationally,the more control the alliance has.
Q3) How do collective security organizations reduce costs associated with joint decision making and commitment problems?
Q4) What is the difference between peace enforcement and peacekeeping? Which one is more likely to be successful and why?
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Chapter 6: Violence by Nonstate Actors: Civil War and Terrorism
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Q1) What are thought to be some of the causal factors driving the Arab Spring?
A)Religious and cultural differences with the state
B)Unemployment and high food prices
C)Social media
D)Dissatisfaction with international intervention
Q2) Which of the following would be an example of an irredentist rebel group?
A)A band of Texans of Mexican descent seeking to return Texas to Mexico
B)Canada declaring that it owns Minnesota
C)Californians voting to secede from the United States and form their own country
D)A rebel group of Californians trying to take over the statehouse in an effort to secede from the United States
Q3) The Islamic State was largely formed:
A)by a group of Islamic clerics hundreds of years ago.
B)shortly after the 9/11 attacks to continue the campaign against the United States.
C)shortly after the 2003 U.S.invasion of Iraq.
D)during the 1980s,while the Soviet Union was fighting in Afghanistan.
Q4) When and how should foreign countries intervene under conditions of domestic conflict in other countries?
Page 8
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Chapter 7: International Trade
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Sample Questions
Q1) Explain how domestic political interests,institutions,and interactions affect the likelihood of trade liberalization or trade restriction.
Q2) Why do economists believe that free trade would be beneficial for the world economy? Why do nations still erect barriers in the face of those arguments?
Q3) Why would transparency affect trade cooperation?
A)A country would be more reluctant to enter into a free-trade agreement if it has little information about another country's subsidies to domestic producers.
B)Two countries with too much information about each other's tax policies would find it difficult to negotiate a free-trade agreement.
C)Countries that negotiate simpler trade agreements are more likely to suspect the other side of cheating.
D)Countries try to conceal information about their domestic policies to improve the likelihood of negotiating an effective free-trade agreement.
Q4) How do compensation programs create a Pareto improvement in trade policy? Why might they create more support for trade?
Q5) Explain how trade bargaining problems can resemble a Prisoner's Dilemma.
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Chapter 8: International Financial Relations
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is a reason international finance is controversial?
A)International organizations cannot require restrictions or standards on governments that borrow money.
B)Sovereign states are beholden to foreign investors and international organizations.
C)Lenders in capital-rich countries rarely make sufficient profit on loans,because interest rates are too low.
D)Borrowers in developing countries rarely pay back their loans.
Q2) What type of international investment is the World Bank involved in?
A)Portfolio investment
B)Foreign direct investment
C)Austerity finance
D)Concessional finance
Q3) Which of the following is an austerity measure?
A)The United States lowered interest rates in response to the financial crisis.
B)Brazil increased spending on health care for the poor.
C)Mexico raised interest rates to 50 percent in 1994.
D)Venezuela reduced the price of bus fares.
Q4) Why is international migration controversial? Who tends to support it and who opposes it?
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Chapter 9: International Monetary Relations
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Sample Questions
Q1) What did the classical gold standard era and the Bretton Woods System have in common?
A)They shared the flexibility to adjust exchange rates when currency crises occurred.
B)The world's major powers cooperated in maintaining the system.
C)In both cases a major power (the United States and Soviet Union,respectively)opted out of the system.
D)Both were created in response to devastating wars.
Q2) Why do small countries that trade a lot generally prefer to fix their exchange rates?
A)Fixed exchange rates limit the inflation small countries are prone to.
B)Fixed exchange rates provide more price stability and reduce risks for exports.
C)Small countries do not have enough market size to adequately control their own flexible exchange rates when trade flows change.
D)Small countries are unable to resist pressure from the United States to fix their currency to the dollar.
Q3) Explain how an international monetary regime depends on interactions among the governments of the world's major economies.
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Chapter 10: Development: Causes of the Wealth and Poverty of Nations
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Q1) How are less developed countries harmed by the protectionist policies of developed countries,such as subsidies for farmers?
A)Less developed countries have to pay more for agricultural goods.
B)Less developed countries are unable to import cheaper agricultural products from developed countries.
C)Less developed countries are unable to sell their cheaper products on developed country markets.
D)Developed countries are less likely to purchase agricultural goods from less developed countries because they are more expensive.
Q2) Why do most industrialized countries subsidize and protect their farmers?
A)Farmers are a politically important domestic interest group.
B)More developed countries want to hurt the economies of less developed countries.
C)Economic theory supports the idea that food should be protected.
D)The countries need lower-priced food to sustain industrialization.
Q3) What did development prospects look like in Zambia and South Korea in 1964? What explains the divergence in their development stories?
Q4) What are some ways governments can encourage economic growth?
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Chapter 11: International Law and Norms
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Q1) Which of the following is an example of international law?
A)International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty
B)UN Convention on the Law of the Sea
C)The Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
D)Arusha Accords
Q2) How are norms created in the international system?
A)By two states establishing a treaty
B)When an international institution proposes a set of radical procedures for states to follow
C)When a sufficiently large number of states agree upon expectations of behavior
D)When a hegemon declares something to be morally right or justified
Q3) How are TANs effective in acting as monitors for international norms and agreements?
A)TANs can provide information about compliance to concerned parties.
B)TANs are composed of media bodies that can widely distribute information about bad practices.
C)TANs can punish states for not adhering to a norm.
D)TANs typically act as judicial bodies,where acts of noncompliance are brought to them to be verified.
Q4) How do transnational advocacy networks (TANs)enforce compliance with norms?
Page 13
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Chapter 12: Human Rights
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why does the self-interest of protectionist groups increase the effectiveness of RTAs in enforcing human rights law?
A)Protectionist groups would prefer to have free-trade agreements revoked,which makes them more vigilant in examining the human rights records of other member states.
B)Since protectionist groups approve of free-trade agreements only with democratic states,their governments tend to sign treaties with states that already have good human rights records.
C)Protectionist groups want trade agreements to succeed,so they advocate for more aid to help other countries avoid human rights abuses that would jeopardize their trading status.
D)Protectionist unions promote free-trade agreements so that other countries will become wealthier,which will lead to greater democracy and thus better political conditions for their fellow workers.
Q2) The ICC is a court established to:
A)coordinate prosecution of international criminal networks.
B)try individuals accused of committing serious human rights abuses.
C)try states accused of genocide.
D)craft a universal human rights law.
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Chapter 13: The Global Environment
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Sample Questions
Q1) How has globalization affected environmental issues?
A)The spread of global media has increased awareness of global warming and has led to the reduction of carbon emissions in developing countries.
B)Poor countries have more access to environmentally friendly technologies because of the spread of the Internet.
C)Transit costs have declined,which has decreased the environmental impact of trade.
D)The increased competition resulting from economic globalization makes firms more likely to reduce costs by evading environmental regulations.
Q2) Which of the following is an example of a negative externality?
A)Your roommate does not study and fails his exam.
B)A power plant purchases water for its cooling towers.
C)A neighbor landscapes his front lawn,raising property values.
D)An airport directs inbound jets over a residential neighborhood to an adjacent runway.
Q3) Explain how interests and interactions make international environmental cooperation difficult to achieve,even when major actors have a shared interest in preserving the environment.
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Chapter 14: The Future of International Politics
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Q1) Which of the following strategies would a country use to ensure that it has a survivable second-strike force?
A)Devote a large portion of its budget to training soldiers
B)Put weapons on submarines
C)Create fallout shelters in major cities
D)Build strong defenses on its borders
Q2) According to the textbook,which country is likely to become the next global superpower in the twenty-first century?
A)Russia
B)India
C)Brazil
D)China
Q3) The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)is a treaty that:
A)allows countries that already have nuclear weapons to keep them indefinitely.
B)has required countries to eliminate their nuclear weapons before signing the treaty.
C)prohibits aboveground testing of nuclear weapons.
D)bans the transfer of all nuclear technology.
Q4) How should U.S.policy makers respond to growing Chinese power?
Q5) How does the postwar order represent U.S.interests?
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Chapter 15: Introduction
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Q1) Is realism realistic? Explain why you think the framework is suitable for international relations,or,if you do not think it is,does liberalism or constructivism make more sense?
Q2) Which of the following is an example of an interest?
A)A politician is elected president.
B)A politician collects campaign donations to be elected president.
C)A politician is put on the ballot in all the districts in which he or she is running.
D)A politician wants to be president.
Q3) Who are the primary actors in realism?
A)Individuals
B)Bureaucracies
C)States
D)International organizations
Q4) Which of the three paradigms (i.e. ,realism,liberalism,or constructivism)seems to most closely resemble the world we live in? Consider the assumptions and predictions made by each school of thought when constructing your answer.
Q5) Describe the primary assumptions of realism.What would occur if those predictions were relaxed?
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Chapter 16: Foundations, War, and Peace
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Q1) Democratic leaders have greater accountability than autocratic leaders because:
A)autocrats do not require any support from within the state.
B)autocratic states do not have elections.
C)autocratic states do not incur any costs during war.
D)autocratic states do not have the same mechanisms to diminish the influence of particularistic interests.
Q2) What is one of the ways in which the United States attempted to contain the Soviet Union?
A)Expanding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to Balkan countries
B)Distributing Marshall Plan aid in Poland
C)Participating in proxy wars against the Soviet Union in Africa
D)Tightly controlling economic growth in West Germany
Q3) Which of the following is an example of a war driven by a commitment problem?
A)Iraq invades Kuwait in order to obtain total control of its oil fields.
B)Germany invades France because it has changed its draft laws to increase its army's size.
C)The United States invades the Philippines because Spain's navy is weak.
D)The Soviets and Germans invade Poland and divide the territory.
Q4) What is the distinction between alliances and collective security organizations? Give two examples of each.
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Chapter 17: International Political Economy, Transnational
Politics, and Looking Ahead
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Q1) Why are established democracies sometimes reluctant to sign international human rights treaties?
A)Reliance on internal processes to protect human rights
B)Lack of concern for the protection of human rights in other countries
C)Interest in maintaining freedom of action to suppress domestic dissent
D)Fear of coercive power of international institutions enforcing agreements
Q2) Why is international finance desirable for borrowing countries?
A)International finance allows capital-abundant societies to fetch higher rates of return on the provision of capital.
B)International finance allows capital-starved societies to achieve better bargains than what is available domestically.
C)International finance can force borrowing countries to privatize their industries.
D)International finance can encourage borrowing countries to liberalize trade,despite domestic pressure.
Q3) What is the primary function of a transnational advocacy network in encouraging the adoption or change of international law?
Q4) Why do environmental agreements typically use soft law rather than hard law?
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