PSC 103
Sample Exam Questions
The following is a sample of questions you may find in the the first midterm exam. Its purpose is to give
you an idea of the questions’ format. This is NOT a study guide. All lecture material and the material
covered in the Introduction and chapters 1-2 of the FLS book are potential exam topics. If you want the
answer key to these questions, send me your answers —or, even better, come to see me in person— and I
will go over them.
Multiple Choice Questions
Each of the following questions is worth one point. On your scantron, please mark clearly one answer
for each of the questions below. There are no multiple correct answers: Only one of the four options is the
correct answer. Multiple marks or unclear marks will count as zero points. There is no partial credit for
multiple choice answers.
1. The assumption that human beings are “evil” belongs to
(a) Realism
(b) Liberalism
(c) Neorealism
(d) Constructivism
2. In international politics, the “security dilemma” emerges because
(a) States generally cannot identify the source of the threats they face
(b) By trying to make themselves more secure, states become threatening to to other states
(c) Decision-makers get re-elected only if they manage to provide security to their own people
(d) States care more about economic wealth than they care about security
3. According to the FLS book, which of the following intellectuals contributed to the development of
liberalism?
(a) Thucydides, Nicolo Machiavelli, and Thomas Hobbes
(b) Otto Von Bismark and Henry Kissinger
(c) John Locke, Immanuel Kant, Adam Smith and David Ricardo
(d) Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and the Dalai Lama
4. The period known as Pax Britannica was marked by
(a) British hegemony
(b) Bipolarty between the United States and the Soviet Union
(c) Major instability due to the Great Depression and the rise to power of fascist regimes
(d) The slow emergence of the principle of sovereignty and the modern state system
5. According to realists, the creation of an alliance is an instance of
(a) Internal balance of power
(b) Coordination
(c) External balance of power
(d) Iteration
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