International Political Science

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International Political Science
The distinctions between structure and agency as well as between material and ideological interest form the major divides in international relations theory. Structure refers to the recurrent organized measures that impact or impede the opportunities available for individuals to act freely. On the hand, agency refers to the ability of individuals to be free and determine their own actions. Conversely material interests refer to material forces that explain behavior geared towards acquisition of material terms like money, wealth, and power whereas ideological interests refer to those actions motivated by altruism and tend to go against the individual’s material interests. These concepts describe human knowledge in the sense that what we know could be the result of continuous influence by the environment we are in or are our culture and societies. At the same time, what an individual knows could be the product of his own adoptions and personal agency. Conversely, human knowledge could be directed towards material desired such as wealth, prestige, or power. At the same time, human knowledge could be driven by altruistic forces. Neoliberalism is a theory that stresses the importance of market competition and advocates for minimal government interference in social and economic affairs. This theory relates to the ideas of agency and idealism interests since it holds that free markets are the most-efficient way of distributing resources and that markets can govern themselves without state interference. On the other neorealism is a theory that stresses the importance of power politics in global relations and views war as an imminent possibility. The theory relates to structure and materialism because it views the international system as socially constructed and focuses on power and interest.
The difference between absolute and relative gains as well as that between high and low politics are critical to distinguishing between realism and liberalism. High politics refers to politics that addresses the most pertinent issues critical to the survival of the state while low politics denotes politics that revolves around issues that are not crucial to the survival of the state. High politics deals with such matters as national security, military strength, and diplomacy whereas low politics covers such domestic issues as economic and social concerns. On the other hand, absolute gains refer to all state cooperating together in order to profit without giving importance to how much one state gains over others as long as all states gain whereas relative gains gives less importance to cooperation between states and focuses on the relative gains between states. These two differences help differentiate between realism and liberalism because they speak to the central ideas of each. For instance, realism is more concerned with high politics and argues that high politics tends to dominate interstate relations, resulting in states concentrating on security as well as the inevitable security dilemma. On the other hand, liberalism focuses less on power struggles between states and more on economic interdependence and financial interest by promoting cooperative interactions between states....