CSS International Relations chapter 2: Theories of IR MCQs with answers

By Team Megalecture · Updated 4 Nov 2026

47 exam-style questions on Theories of IR, each with the answer and a short explanation. Ten of them are below to try. The chapter test draws ten fresh questions each time and is marked the moment you finish, with your score by topic.

47 questions · 3 topics · 10 per test

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What chapter 2 covers

Ten Theories of IR questions with answers

Try each one, then open the answer. These ten stay the same; the test draws new ones every time.

1. Wilson's plan for the League rested on the principle of

  1. A
    balance of power
  2. B
    spheres of influence
  3. C
    collective security
  4. D
    armed neutrality
Show answer

Answer: C. Collective security means that members act together against any aggressor. Wilson wanted it to replace the balance of power and secret alliances.

2. Two economies depend heavily on each other's trade, so a dispute would hurt both. Keohane and Nye would call the relationship one of

  1. A
    bipolarity
  2. B
    imperialism
  3. C
    interdependence
  4. D
    isolationism
Show answer

Answer: C. Mutual dependence with costs for both sides is the meaning of interdependence.

3. In institutionalist writing, an international 'regime' means

  1. A
    a government that came to power through force and has not been recognised
  2. B
    a set of principles, norms, rules and procedures around which states' expectations meet in an issue area
  3. C
    a permanent alliance of great powers that guarantees order
  4. D
    the body of staff who work for an international organisation
Show answer

Answer: B. Regimes, such as those for trade or nuclear safeguards, give states shared expectations and rules for a particular issue.

4. Edward Said's 'Orientalism' (1978) is a foundation of post-colonial thought because it argues that

  1. A
    the East has always been richer and more powerful than the West, as its trade routes show
  2. B
    Western writing created an image of the East that served to dominate it
  3. C
    colonial rule helped the colonised peoples to modernise and gave them lasting benefit
  4. D
    culture has no importance in international politics, which is shaped by armies and trade alone
Show answer

Answer: B. Said showed how Western scholarship represented the Orient as inferior and different, justifying colonial power.

5. The democratic peace thesis claims that

  1. A
    democracies never fight any wars
  2. B
    democracies are always peaceful in dealing with non-democracies
  3. C
    wars cannot occur between countries with free markets
  4. D
    democracies rarely, if ever, go to war with one another
Show answer

Answer: D. The claim concerns relations between democracies; democratic states have fought wars with non-democracies.

6. In a self-help system, a state

  1. A
    relies on an international police force to protect it from any attacker
  2. B
    hands its defence over to the strongest state in the region in return for loyalty
  3. C
    cannot count on others for protection and must rely on its own means
  4. D
    expects the United Nations to guarantee its survival and defend its borders
Show answer

Answer: C. In an anarchic system no one is obliged to protect a state, so states must provide their own security.

7. Which scholar is associated with the phrase 'the development of underdevelopment'?

  1. A
    Andre Gunder Frank
  2. B
    W. W. Rostow
  3. C
    Robert Keohane
  4. D
    Kenneth Waltz
Show answer

Answer: A. Frank argued that the poverty of the periphery was produced by its ties to the rich core. Rostow's stages of growth is the modernisation view that Frank attacked.

8. Kenneth Waltz differed from Mearsheimer in holding that states are mainly

  1. A
    power maximisers that seek to become the dominant state in the system
  2. B
    pursuers of ideological conquest whatever the cost to security
  3. C
    security seekers that prefer to keep an appropriate balance
  4. D
    indifferent to the balance of power so long as trade is free
Show answer

Answer: C. Waltz is a defensive realist: states aim at survival and security, and too much power provokes balancing against them.

9. Stephen Walt's 'balance of threat' theory holds that states balance against

  1. A
    only the single most powerful state in the system, whatever its location and whatever its intentions are
  2. B
    states whose political ideology and form of government differ from its own, whatever their strength or location
  3. C
    the states with which it has the largest volume of trade, since trade ties create the greatest danger
  4. D
    the state that poses the greatest threat, judged by power, proximity, offensive capability and intentions
Show answer

Answer: D. Walt refined Waltz: states react to threat, not power alone, so a strong but distant and unaggressive state may not be balanced against.

10. The behavioural revolution in IR urged scholars to

  1. A
    rely only on the legal analysis of treaties and diplomatic documents
  2. B
    study philosophy and history rather than collect and test data
  3. C
    concentrate on the personal diaries and memoirs of diplomats
  4. D
    use scientific, quantitative methods to test hypotheses
Show answer

Answer: D. Behaviouralists such as Morton Kaplan and J. David Singer wanted IR to resemble a science. Hedley Bull defended the traditional approach in the 'second great debate'.

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How many Theories of IR MCQs are there?

47, each with the answer and a short explanation, across 3 topics: Realism and neorealism, Liberalism, idealism and institutionalism, Constructivism, English school and critical theories. Every chapter test draws ten of them, so you can take it many times.

Is the CSS International Relations chapter 2 test free?

Yes. The test, the answers and the explanations are free and need no sign-up. Sign in only if you want your scores kept across devices.

How is the chapter test marked?

The moment you press Finish: your score, the right answer and an explanation for every question, and the ones you got wrong saved in My mistakes to retry.

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