Classical and Neo Theories of IR MCQs 2026

Classical realism in IR emphasizes

1. A power politics, human nature and the struggle for security ✓
2. B perpetual peace through commerce only ✓
3. C abolition of the state ✓
4. D technological determinism only ✓

Hans Morgenthau's realism is grounded in

1. A human nature and the pursuit of power ✓
2. B perfect rational markets ✓
3. C Kantian perpetual peace ✓
4. D postmodern discourse only ✓

For Morgenthau, the key test of a sound foreign policy is

1. A whether it wins popularity polls only ✓
2. B whether it serves the national interest defined in terms of power ✓
3. C whether it eliminates all ethics ✓
4. D whether it copies allies exactly ✓

E.H. Carr criticized interwar idealism for

1. A being too cynical about law ✓
2. B rejecting all diplomacy ✓
3. C opposing science ✓
4. D ignoring power and the realities of international politics ✓

Carr argued that morality in international politics

1. A is always absolute and identical everywhere ✓
2. B must be related to political context and power realities ✓
3. C has no role whatsoever ✓
4. D replaces military capability ✓

Idealism (liberal internationalism) in the interwar period stressed

1. A international law, disarmament and collective security ✓
2. B balance of power alliances only ✓
3. C imperial expansion ✓
4. D isolation from all institutions ✓

Immanuel Kant's Perpetual Peace proposed

1. A permanent war among states ✓
2. B republican constitutions, federation of states and cosmopolitan law ✓
3. C absolute monarchy as peace formula ✓
4. D colonial conquest for order ✓

Kant argued republics are less war-prone because

1. A citizens bear the costs of war ✓
2. B monarchs always love peace ✓
3. C armies become unnecessary ✓
4. D trade ends all conflict automatically ✓

Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points emphasized

1. A self-determination, open diplomacy and a league of nations ✓
2. B secret treaties and annexations ✓
3. C permanent colonial empires ✓
4. D unlimited reparations only ✓

Liberalism in IR holds that

1. A war is the only outcome always ✓
2. B cooperation is possible through institutions, democracy and interdependence ✓
3. C states are identical billiard balls only ✓
4. D ideas never matter ✓

Democratic peace theory claims

1. A all states fight democracies constantly ✓
2. B autocracies never fight ✓
3. C war is random only ✓
4. D liberal democracies rarely fight each other ✓

Commercial liberalism argues trade

1. A always causes war directly ✓
2. B eliminates states ✓
3. C raises the opportunity cost of war and fosters cooperation ✓
4. D ends sovereignty ✓

Institutional liberalism focuses on

1. A international organizations reducing uncertainty and facilitating cooperation ✓
2. B abolishing all treaties ✓
3. C rejecting diplomacy ✓
4. D pure power politics only ✓

Neorealism (structural realism) is chiefly associated with

1. A Immanuel Kant ✓
2. B Kenneth Waltz ✓
3. C Woodrow Wilson ✓
4. D Edward Said ✓

Waltz argues the primary cause of state behaviour is

1. A individual leaders' psychology only ✓
2. B the structure of the international system ✓
3. C domestic culture only ✓
4. D random accidents only ✓

In neorealism, anarchy forces states to

1. A worry about survival and relative power ✓
2. B ignore security completely ✓
3. C disband all militaries ✓
4. D trust all neighbours blindly ✓

Waltz distinguishes causes as

1. A only economic and cultural ✓
2. B only legal and illegal ✓
3. C first-image (individual), second-image (domestic), third-image (systemic) ✓
4. D only ancient and modern ✓

Neorealism treats states as

1. A unique cultural actors only ✓
2. B non-sovereign cities ✓
3. C purely ideological movements ✓
4. D functionally similar unitary actors (like units) ✓

Defensive realism (e.g., Waltz) suggests states seek

1. A global domination always ✓
2. B zero military capability ✓
3. C security rather than unlimited power ✓
4. D complete trust in rivals ✓

Offensive realism (Mearsheimer) argues great powers

1. A are satisfied with minimal power ✓
2. B never compete ✓
3. C reject all alliances ✓
4. D seek regional hegemony when possible ✓

The security dilemma in realism arises because

1. A measures one state takes for defense appear offensive to others ✓
2. B states always intend aggression ✓
3. C law eliminates fear ✓
4. D alliances end all rivalry ✓

Balance of power theory predicts

1. A permanent unipolar stability always ✓
2. B no alliances ever form ✓
3. C states align or arm against a threatening hegemon ✓
4. D automatic world government ✓

Bandwagoning means

1. A forming a coalition against a threat ✓
2. B ignoring all power shifts ✓
3. C dissolving the state ✓
4. D aligning with a stronger threatening power rather than balancing ✓

Neoliberal institutionalism is associated with

1. A Morgenthau and Carr only ✓
2. B Wendt only ✓
3. C Foucault only ✓
4. D Keohane and Nye ✓

Keohane's After Hegemony argues institutions

1. A require eternal US dominance only ✓
2. B are useless after one day ✓
3. C can sustain cooperation even without a hegemon ✓
4. D prevent all conflict permanently ✓

Neoliberal institutionalism accepts

1. A that world government exists ✓
2. B that states are not rational ✓
3. C anarchy but emphasizes institutions and reciprocity ✓
4. D that power is irrelevant ✓

Complex interdependence (Keohane/Nye) features

1. A single military channel dominance only ✓
2. B multiple channels, issue fragmentation and reduced military salience ✓
3. C zero transnational contacts ✓
4. D complete autarky ✓

Soft power in Nye's formulation is

1. A coercion through military force only ✓
2. B payoffs through sanctions only ✓
3. C the ability to shape others' preferences through attraction ✓
4. D territorial annexation only ✓

Hard power relies on

1. A only public diplomacy ✓
2. B military and economic coercion or inducements ✓
3. C only educational exchange ✓
4. D only moral suasion ✓

Reciprocity in neoliberal theory supports

1. A permanent betrayal as optimal ✓
2. B one-shot games only ✓
3. C abolition of treaties ✓
4. D tit-for-tat cooperation in repeated interactions ✓

Absolute gains concern

1. A total benefits from cooperation regardless of relative shares ✓
2. B only relative advantage over rivals ✓
3. C only military rank ✓
4. D only colonial prestige ✓

Relative gains concern

1. A only absolute welfare increases ✓
2. B only domestic GDP growth ✓
3. C only cultural exchange ✓
4. D how much one state gains compared to a partner ✓

Classical liberalism in IR links peace to

1. A republican government, commerce and international law ✓
2. B secret alliances and autocracy ✓
3. C permanent imperial rivalry ✓
4. D isolation from trade ✓

Wilsonian collective security envisions

1. A each state fighting alone always ✓
2. B rewarding aggression ✓
3. C ignoring breaches of peace ✓
4. D joint action against aggressors through an international organization ✓

Morgenthau distinguished political power from

1. A all power being identical ✓
2. B power being irrelevant ✓
3. C law replacing power ✓
4. D social power, economic power and military power as related but distinct ✓

The six principles of political realism (Morgenthau) include

1. A utopian faith in perfect harmony ✓
2. B denial of national interest ✓
3. C politics governed by objective laws rooted in human nature ✓
4. D rejection of prudence ✓

Carr's "utopian realism" pairing means

1. A moral purpose must be joined with power analysis ✓
2. B morality should be abandoned entirely ✓
3. C power alone suffices ✓
4. D ideals need no politics ✓

Idealists after WWI supported

1. A renewed secret military alliances only ✓
2. B the League of Nations and legal disarmament ✓
3. C unlimited arms races ✓
4. D colonial partition wars ✓

Neo-realism differs from classical realism by

1. A emphasizing systemic structure over human nature alone ✓
2. B rejecting anarchy ✓
3. C focusing only on leaders' biography ✓
4. D denying power ✓

Waltz's three images correspond to

1. A economic, cultural and religious only ✓
2. B individual, domestic and international system causes of war ✓
3. C land, sea and air only ✓
4. D past, present and future only ✓

Neoliberalism differs from neorealism by

1. A denying anarchy ✓
2. B highlighting institutions and absolute gains more ✓
3. C rejecting all science ✓
4. D ignoring states ✓

Functionalism in liberal thought stresses

1. A technical cooperation spillover into political integration ✓
2. B military conquest as integrator ✓
3. C isolation of economies ✓
4. D rejection of IOs ✓

Neofunctionalism (Haas) argued

1. A sector integration creates pressures for further integration ✓
2. B integration always fails instantly ✓
3. C states never delegate authority ✓
4. D war is unrelated to economics ✓

The "Hobbesian" metaphor in IR suggests

1. A perfect perpetual peace ✓
2. B international life without Leviathan is insecure self-help ✓
3. C world government already exists ✓
4. D domestic law governs all ✓

Thucydides is often cited by realists for

1. A democratic peace proofs ✓
2. B commercial pacifism ✓
3. C postcolonial theory ✓
4. D the Melian Dialogue and power-politics lessons ✓

Grotius contributed to IR by

1. A founding neorealism ✓
2. B inventing the UN ✓
3. C writing Perpetual Peace ✓
4. D developing systematic international law on war, peace and trade ✓

Collective security in liberal theory requires

1. A each state staying neutral always ✓
2. B identifying aggression and mobilizing united response ✓
3. C rewarding the aggressor ✓
4. D abolishing the UN ✓

Arms control agreements illustrate

1. A pure bandwagoning only ✓
2. B end of diplomacy ✓
3. C liberal-institutional cooperation to manage security competition ✓
4. D denial of sovereignty ✓

Economic interdependence (liberal view) can

1. A guarantee zero conflict always ✓
2. B increase costs of conflict and encourage diplomacy ✓
3. C eliminate all states ✓
4. D remove need for strategy ✓

Mearsheimer's "tragedy of great power politics" argues

1. A peace is easy and automatic ✓
2. B weak states dominate ✓
3. C IOs end rivalry ✓
4. D great-power competition is endemic under anarchy ✓

Waltz's bipolarity argument is that

1. A multipolarity is always most stable ✓
2. B unipolarity never exists ✓
3. C bipolar systems may be more stable than multipolar ones ✓
4. D small states dominate ✓

Keohane's "international regimes" are

1. A domestic criminal codes only ✓
2. B military units only ✓
3. C principles, norms, rules and decision procedures around issue-areas ✓
4. D random customs without expectations ✓

Nye's three dimensions of power include

1. A military, economic and soft power ✓
2. B only legal power ✓
3. C only religious power ✓
4. D only geographic power ✓

Liberal institutionalists argue institutions matter because they

1. A eliminate state interest ✓
2. B abolish anarchy formally ✓
3. C end all cheating permanently ✓
4. D reduce transaction costs and increase information ✓

Realists are skeptical of international law because

1. A law never exists ✓
2. B treaties are never signed ✓
3. C enforcement is weak without a sovereign ✓
4. D states never comply at all ✓

Wilson opposed secret diplomacy because

1. A secrecy always wins wars ✓
2. B public opinion is irrelevant ✓
3. C open covenants openly arrived at build trust and public accountability ✓
4. D alliances are illegal ✓

Carr's realist lesson for policymakers is

1. A ignore power completely ✓
2. B pursue ideals without limits ✓
3. C reject all negotiation ✓
4. D combine utopian goals with realistic means ✓

Neorealism predicts balancing against

1. A every small state equally ✓
2. B all international law ✓
3. C a rising or hegemonic power threatening others ✓
4. D all trade agreements ✓

Neoliberalism predicts cooperation when

1. A there is only one interaction ✓
2. B shadow of the future is long and cheating can be punished ✓
3. C institutions never exist ✓
4. D states are irrational ✓

Morgenthau warned against

1. A any ethical reasoning ✓
2. B all diplomacy ✓
3. C moralism and crusading that ignore national interest ✓
4. D scientific study ✓