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Interpreting Power: A Levels of Analysis Approach
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The bulk of the state's administrative structure that continues to serve the public even when political leaders change.
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A type of international system with two roughly equal actors or coalitions of actors that divide the international system into two "poles" or power centers.
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A systemic arrangement whereby one predominantly powerful actor possesses both the disproportionate material capabilities and the will to enforce a set of rules to lend order and structure to that system.
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A discordant psychological state in which an individual attempts to process information contradicting his or her prevailing understanding of a subject.
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The idea that power of one type (e.g., military power) is not necessarily transferable or applicable to other policy areas. Thus, military power might not prove helpful in the financial or environmental sector.
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The tendency of individuals to hold fast to prevailing views of the world and to discount contradictory ideas and information in the process.
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The use or threatened use of material power assets by an actor to compel one or more other actors to undertake or not undertake a desired action. Hard power relies on coercion.
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A concept that rational choices of individuals are bound or limited by time pressures, imperfect information, and biases that influence those choices.
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The difference in attitudes on various issues between those identifying as male and those identifying as female along any one of a number of dimensions, including foreign policy preferences.
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A term used to describe the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union from about 1945 to about 1990. During that period, the two countries avoided direct warfare but remained engaged in very hostile interactions.
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A strand of intellectual study of global politics that focused on employing scientific methods to the study of social phenomena. Behavioral analysts believe that social science can be studied in ways similar to those employed in the biological and physical sciences.
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In foreign policy, a term used to describe individuals and/or attitudes that favor a more aggressive, coercive, "hard-line" position and approach often predicated on military strength.