Exercise 1 Many important international relations approaches exist to explain why conflict, cooperation, integration, and other phenomena occur. For instance, the "realist" school of thought has been a dominant approach to the study of international relations. It assumes sovereign equality among states (all are equal when signing treaties, for instance), but recognizes some states are more powerful than others in economic, military, diplomatic, and other measures. Realists also assume states cooperate only to the extent it serves their national interests. When they do cooperate, states will try to protect their interests by maximizing their power. This is often reflected in voting patterns within international organizations, where the more powerful states attempt to use such bodies to obtain desired foreign policy objectives. Let’s examine how equality and power are distributed in some key international organizations, beginning with the United Nations, so we can evaluate the realist claims. Within the United Nations, the General Assembly and Security Council are the most important decision-making bodies. Both bodies pass resolutions about major international issues, but real power is in the hands of the members of the United Nations Security Council. If a resolution does not gain approval in the Security Council, it is very unlikely to be effective. Exercise 2 Let’s continue examining some important international relations theories that claim to explain why conflict, cooperation, integration, and other phenomena occur. It is possible to evaluate these theories by examining patterns in data. For instance, if two variables seem to be associated with each other (both of them increase, decrease, or move in opposite directions simultaneously), it is possible that one is causing the other to change. However, great care should be exercised when evaluating data because although two variables are associated, they might not be causally related (i.e., one variable might not be causing changes in the second variable). With that limitation in mind, let’s begin. The international relations literature focusing on interdependence includes the argument that as democratic freedoms increase economic well being also increases. Let’s examine this claim by evaluating the levels of freedom and gross domestic product per capita in regions around the world.