1. lessons from the secret defense budget game
2. minimax strategy
3. international studies, relations, and politics
4. nations and nation-states
5. nonaligned nations
6. fundamental question in defense policy
7. terrorists and freedom fighters
8. components of the UN
9. nuclear club
10. Vladimir Putin
11. nuclear proliferation
12. first, second, third, and fourth worlds
13. types of actors in international politics, including NGO's, IGO's, and MNC's
14. bipolar and unipolar
15. North-South conflicts in the world
16. catch-22 situations
17. revolution of rising expectations
18. ecological fallacy of overgeneralization
19. individualist fallacy
20. Robert McNamara and nuclear deterrence
21. Bush Doctrine
22. Cuban Missile Crisis
23. nuclear freeze movement
24. Weinberger Rules for military intervention
25. SLBM
26. MAD
27. MIRV
28. NAFTA
29. GATT and WTO
30. responsibility for Pyle’s death
31. the history of Vietnam (in-class lecture) -- know which countries fought there and about for how long
32. lessons from the Vietnam War -- see link on the day of discussion of The Quiet American
33. lessons from The Quiet American
34. supersystem of nations
35. structural functional approach
36. processes that all societies must perform and what they mean (socialization, recruitment, communication, interest articulation; interest aggregation; policy implementation; policy adjudication)
37. comparative U.S. government expenditures
38. comparative quality of life measures
39. political culture
40. participant/subject/parochial
41. confederal/federal/unitary systems
42. bilateral relations
43. infrastructure of a nation
44. military industrial complex
45. U.S. and foreign aid, how much compared to other nations and why given
46. Napoleon and total war
47. Tallyrand and balance of power
48. development and modernization
49. comparison between international politics and politics within a state
50. arguments for and against war with Iraq

Essay areas -- be prepared to write an essay on one of these two areas.

1) components of a nation’s power and how applied to the new government in Iraq

2) the five crises of development for a nation and how applied to the new government in Iraq

3) lessons of The Quiet American applied to Iraq

Sample Questions:

T/F The Secret Defense Budget game shows that nations are more secure if they keep their military activities completely secret.

T/F There are about 200 nation states in the world.

T/F The Kurds are a nation within the state of Iraq.

T/F Deciding whether to support corrupt dictatorships because they supply us with oil or help in the fight against extreme terrorist groups is a catch-22 situation for the US.

T/F In the late 1770s, the British regarded the American revolutionaries as terrorists.

T/F The "nuclear club" refers to those nations who have agreed to limit nuclear proliferation.

T/F The International Red Cross is an example of an individual actor in international relations. 

T/F Oil companies (that made about $30 billion in extra profits in the third quarter from 2004 to the thrid quarter of 2005 -- this part is definitely true!) are examples of MNC's in international relations.

China is clearly an example of a nation that would be classified as in which world?

1. first world
2. second world
3. third world
4. fourth world

If you meet really cool person from Nigeria and conclude that all people from Nigeria are really cool people, you have made what mistake?

1. the fallacy of overgeneralization
2. the individualist fallacy
3. cultural ethnocentrism
4. none of the above

T/F Despite the fact that the US spends a lot of money on health care compared to other western industrial democracies, our health statistics are relatively poor in such areas as longevity and infant mortality. 

T/F SLBM refers to sub-atmospheric launched ballistic missiles. 

T/F The reason Americans so hate taxes is that they pay a far higher proportion of their earnings in taxes than in most other western industrial democratic nations.

American political culture is best understood as a  _________ culture.

1. participant
2. subject
3. parochial
4. all of the above

T/F The General Assembly is the most powerful part of the United Nations.

T/F While both Canada and the US have confederal systems, states in the US have far more power than provinces in the Canadian system. 

T/F Halliburton is an example of the military industrial complex. 

T/F Tallyrand would argue that creating a Shia dominated Iraq government that allied with Shia dominated Iran would create a serious imbalance of power in the Middle East. 

T/F Germany and Japan created the idea of total war in mobilizing their entire nations for WWII and in making the entire populations of other nations their targets.

T/F More developed nations are always more industrialized. 

T/F Applying Weinberger's rules to the Iraq war, one danger is that the US did not go in with overwhelming force.