Week 14 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Political Science Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 14 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 11 items (5 readings and 6 videos). Allow 53–71 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more depth, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (17–22 min total)

① If no one is in charge, why do states fear each other?

Chapter 14, Section “Trace the security dilemma: a spiral no one wanted” · Session 1, Segment 2, “The security dilemma” · Remember: one state's defense can look like a threat to its neighbor, and the spiral can leave both sides less safe with no villain at all.

What is a Security Dilemma? — Oh My World — a two-minute animated explainer of how building up your own forces to feel safe can push a neighbor to do the same; use it while working through the Week-14 module overview, and pause to name the step where defense starts to look like a threat. (video, 2 min) (captions: automatic)

② What does a realist see?

Chapter 14, Section “Meet realism: self-help and the balance of power” · Session 1, Segment 3, “Realism” · Remember: realism treats states as the main actors pursuing security and power, because nothing above them guarantees their safety.

Political Realism in International Relations — online Encyclopedia of Philosophy (reference entry) — a scholarly reference entry; read the section on Thucydides and the importance of power, and notice how it finds the realist tradition in Thucydides' speeches, the Melian Dialogue among them. It may quote a different translation, so use the course's Crawley wording when you cite the line. (reading, 10–15 min)
On The Melian Dialogue — vlogbrothers — a lively retelling of the Athenian envoys' argument at Melos and what happened next; it closes with the speaker's own case against seeing power as a zero-sum contest, so treat that ending as one side of the realism-or-liberalism debate, not as the verdict. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)

③ How do liberals and constructivists answer?

Chapter 14, Section “Meet liberalism as an international relations theory” · Session 1, Segment 4, “Liberalism as an international relations theory” · Remember: institutions, interdependence, and regime type can make lasting cooperation possible, and this liberalism is not the ideology or the party label.

Top 3 Theories in International Relations Explained — International Relations Explained — a short animated tour of realism, liberalism, and constructivism side by side; as you watch, write one sentence each paradigm would say about the same event, and keep in mind that none of the three is ranked the winner. (video, 3 min) (captions: creator)
Democratic Peace Theory - A short Introduction — MinuteVideos — a two-minute introduction to the finding and the reasons offered for it; check its wording against the precise version, that established democracies rarely if ever fight one another and that the mechanism is debated. This builds on Week 13's work with comparing political systems and the explanations of political development. (video, 2 min) (captions: creator)
Constructivism Explained (International Relations Theory) — International Relations Explained — a three-minute explainer on how ideas, identities, and norms shape what anarchy means; afterward, restate the main idea in your own words without using the word realism. (video, 3 min) (captions: automatic)

④ Who keeps order without a world government?

Chapter 14, Section “Read the U.N. Charter: the United Nations in outline” · Session 2, Segment 7, “The United Nations in outline” · Remember: the U.N. gives every member one vote in the General Assembly, gives five permanent members a veto in the Security Council, and has no army of its own.

Balance of Power vs Collective Security — The Learning Studio — a four-minute comparison of two ways states seek security, one built on competition and one on shared commitment; as you watch, add the alliance to the picture and ask of each arrangement whom it is aimed at. (video, 4 min) (captions: creator)
Main Bodies — United Nations — the organization's own one-page overview of its six principal organs; read the paragraphs on the General Assembly and the Security Council, and match each to the design you counted in the chapter. (reading, 4–6 min)
The Court — International Court of Justice — the Court's own short description of what it is and what it does; find the two kinds of work it says it takes on, and ask whether either one comes with a police force to carry out its rulings. (reading, 3–5 min)
The Covenant of the League of Nations — Avalon Project — the founding text of an earlier organization of states, an older attempt at keeping order among them; skim it for the articles in which members promise to respond to aggression, and test this week's question on them: is each promise aimed at any aggressor or at a named threat? (reading, 8–12 min)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Chapter I: Purposes and Principles — United Nations Charter — the opening chapter of the founding treaty, where Article 2(1) and Article 2(4) sit; read both articles letter by letter, and skip the later chapters on trusteeship and amendment, which this course does not cover. (reading, 10–15 min)

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