Chapter 1 Review questions

  1. How valid is the assumption that human life inside properly organized and well managed states is better than human life outside such states or without states at all?
  2. What was involved in the political change from the medieval to modern period?
  3. What were the driving forces behind Western imperial expansion?
  4. What were the driving forces behind decolonization and the emergence of new states in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East?
  5. What is the distinction between juridical statehood and empirical statehood? How important is it?
  6. How did res publica christiana become a system of sovereign states? Which role did the Catholic Church play in this transformation?
  7. What is international law? How effective is it?
  8. What are the main links between the global state system and the world economy?
  9. Could there truly be international relations if there were no sovereign states?
  10. In the future relationship between globalization and state sovereignty, do you expect one side to prevail over the other side, or do you expect the relationship of mutual adjustment to continue at least for the foreseeable future? Explain.
  11. What are the most important costs and the most important benefits of the state system?
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