Sounds like fun. Here are a few of my favourite Puzzles:
The Political
Security
State
Sovereignty
Peace
War
Terrorism
Evil
Democracy
Empire
Power
Authority
Force
Society
International Law
Identity
Here are just a few off the top of my head, I'll think about this more. Some of it is boilerplate. It'd also be interesting to challenge them to make a conceptual map to represent the information graphically in the end. I know I'd like to see the result posted here 
--politics (see conflict)
--theory
--logic or maybe Logic (what are "logics" and how many are there? I wish I could find a solid definition. I think there's just one Logic, hehe)
--system
--state
--non-state
--nation
--power (this one is kind of cruel)
--irrationality (as opposed to going straight at "rationality")
--conflict (getting away from the seemingly "natural" distinction between "war and peace" that every student comes into that they must unlearn to think in more general terms about just what it is they're supposed to be studying)
1 - Democracy
2 - Nation
3 - State
4 - Self-interest
5 - Cold War
6 - Globalization
7 - Non-State
8 - Barnett's Old Core/New Core/Gap
9 - Intergovernmental Organizations
10 - Nongovernmental Organizations
11 - Positive vs. Normative
12 - Realism
13 - Liberalism
13 - NeoRealism
14 - NeoLiberalism
15 - Hegemony
16 - Polarity,
18 - Sanctions
19 - Politics
20 - Clausewitz on War
I wish my profs had done this - getting the concepts, definitions, names, and dates down right away is so important. You need a framework to build upon.
Intro IR class, right? I think most of the terms above are important, but a bit advanced for an intro class. I'll toss a few suggestions into the mix:
Practical:
United Nations
Security Council
Six Party Talks
European Union
Balance of Power/Bandwagoning
IAEA/NPT
Theoretical:
Realism
Liberalism
Domestic Politics/Two-Level Games
Hegemony
Identity
Nationalism
Culture
If this sparks discussion, I can try to find a few more.
First, welcome back Professor.
Here's some terms:
1. Offshore balancing.
2. Proxy war
3. Hegemony
4. Force multiplier
5. Black swan
6. 4GW
7. 5GW
8. Global guerrilla
9. Blowback
10.Effects Based Operations (EBO)
11.Soft power/hard power
Also, "HUMINT" and "SIGINT"
War
Nation
State --- gah people not understanding that these two are different and that this non-equivalence is a major cause of conflict is a HUGE pet peeve
Power
Sovereignty
Theory - as in positive vs normative
In practical terms -
War Powers Act (US foreign policy fundamental issue of division of powers)
GATT/WTO
UN/League of Nations
I'd even start the discussion by providing (myself) the definitions of empirical and conceptual as a way to demonstrate what you're looking for for each type of word. Heaven only knows, I hadn't heard the word 'empirical' before I got here and was too embarrased to ask what it meant until late my first year.
Here's my list. Yeah, in many ways these are contested. But I'm pulling them by scanning the books on my bookshelf from the "IR Canon," and I think they're terms that you at least need to think about if you're dealing in IR terms.
1 Power
2 Polarity
3 War
4 Peace
5 Security
6 Wealth
7 Hegemony (empire, unipolarity, Gramscian, whatever)
8 Balancing (in the power/threat context)
9 Cooperation
10 Norms
11 Identity
12 Democracy
13 Deterrence
14 International Law
15 Threat
16 Anarchy
17 State
18 International System
19 Culture
20 Sovereignty
What's really fun is to try and think of serious titles in IR that don't have one of these twenty words in the title; many (if not most) do, and if we were to expand the list a bit (to include terms like "great power" or "credibility") the list grows even longer. Then again, there may be a selection effect based on my particular library...
What about national, transnational and international...pretty basic, but for an intro course, it might be useful to have clear distinctions.
A lot of good ones already listed. My personal bias leaves me with these as the basis of any understading of IntPol
Nation State
Non-State Actor
Hinterland
Projection of power
Geopolitics
Foreign Policy
Are we meant to know things before wading in with opinions??
Well, you could consider adding:
- normative
- essentialism
- ontological
-epistemiology
- and, um, Orientalism!
Well, most have ticked off the main ones, but for the sake of redundancy and validation, here goes:
1. Inter-subjective
2. Reification
3. Ontology
4. Epistemomolgy
5. Constructionism
6. Buck-passing
7. Balancing
8. Perception/Misperception
9. Agency
10. Structure
11. Classical ealism
12. Liberal institutionalism
13. Identity
14. Neo-anything
15. Post-everything
16. Legitmacy
17. Worldview
18. Lifeworld
19. Unit of analysis
20. Democratic peace
21. Communicative action
22. Behavioralism
23. Hegemony
24. Power
25. Just war
26. Norms
27. Dependency
28. Systemic
ok, I will stop now....
Quite amazing that no one so far has listed "globalization" -- finding a consensus definition is unlikely if not impossible, but it should still probably be on the list.
btw, no one in an introductory course needs to know what "reification" means (ditto for "ontology," ditto for "lifeworld"). Actually the best place to start with "reification" (& maybe certain other words too) is probably an ordinary dictionary, but
that would be a whole other discussion.
And a few extra (non-reiterative) suggestions from Copenhagen (not in any particular order):
- Securitization
- Referent object
- Values (as in "shared...")
- Alliance
- Liberty/freedom
- Axis (as in "...of evil" or "... Powers")
- NATO
- Community
- Regional Security
- Anarchical Society
well, since I teach the same class, here's my syllabus from last semester as a list of terms.
I guess that would constitute the top things I think students need to know.
of course, patrick, this list will already be very familiar to you, but perhaps others might find it interesting.
level of analysis
civilization
state
sovereignty
realism
war
hegemony
liberalism
democracy
cooperation
constructivism
security
power
international law
international organization / regime
international political economy
trade
Bretton Woods Institutions / System
Global Commons / collective goods
North - South Gap
Globalization
Development
And what about 'trope'? It comes up in books and people always have to ask what the hell it means.
Mostly re-treads, but here are some suggestions from the perspective of a grad student who wrestled with the definition of some of these terms only after arriving at grad school:
1. International Relations (vs. international relations)
2. Realism
3. Neo-realism
4. Liberalism
5. Neo-liberalism
6. Constructivism
7. Critical theory
8. Politics
9. Identity
10. Power
11. Interest
12. State
13. Nation
14. Nationalism
15. Bretton Woods
16. Cold War
17. Regional Economic blocs
18. United Nations
19. War
20. Peace
21. Democracy
22. Anarchy
23. Hegemony
24. Balance of Power
25. Non-state actor
26. Structuralism
27. Globalization
28. Political Economy
29. International law
30. Rationality
I also heartily agree that discussions of epistemology, ontology, normative/positive distinction, etc. should be there from the outset. This is a great exercise!
Concepts:
International Regime
Power vs Force
Opportunity
Willingness
Credibility
Uncertainty
Bargaining Power
Outside options (very important in Keohane and Nye 1978, though in archaic terms)
Collective Action Problem
Prisoners' Dilemma
Commons Problem
and I beg you: Rationality
Empirical:
Bretton Woods system
NATO
European Union
interesting idea .. as a student of IR theory, i have to say that at the moment, i'm wondering if there are indeed any consensual definitions of any of the terms listed by the various persons above .. :p
1. Territory
2. Sovereignty
3. Security
4. Power
5. Stability
6. Coordination
7. Worldview
8. Enforcement
9. Alliance
10. Industry
11. Values
12. Future
13. Organization
14. Plan
15. Policy
16. Commerce
17. Wealth
18. Citizen
19. Belligerence
20. Negotiation
as well as:
National Aspiration
Anglo-Saxon Culture
Special Relationship
Meeting of horizons
Hegemony
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