Korea Diplomat Candidate Exam cheat sheet

Realism (Morgenthau, Waltz): states pursue power and security in an anarchic system; survival is the core interest, cooperation is fragile and relative gains matter.

Liberalism (Keohane, Nye): institutions reduce transaction costs and uncertainty; complex interdependence means military force is less usable among trading democracies.

Constructivism (Wendt): anarchy is what states make of it; identities and norms, not only material power, shape interests and behavior.

Democratic peace: democracies rarely fight each other, but the causal mechanism (normative or institutional) remains contested; dyadic, not monadic, claim.

Balance of power vs. bandwagoning: weaker states balance against a rising threat or bandwagon with it; buck-passing shifts containment costs to allies.

Security dilemma: defensive measures appear offensive to others, triggering spirals; reassurance and transparency measures mitigate it.

Hegemonic stability theory: a dominant power supplies open trade and stable money; decline of the hegemon predicts fragmentation of the liberal order.

Two-level game (Putnam): leaders negotiate internationally and domestically at once; win-sets determine whether an agreement ratifies.

Nuclear deterrence: mutual assured destruction rests on second-strike capability; credibility, not just capability, drives extended deterrence.

Sources under ICJ Statute Art. 38: treaties, customary international law, general principles, then judicial decisions and scholarly writings as subsidiary means.

Treaty law (VCLT): pacta sunt servanda; a state may invoke internal law to invalidate consent only for a manifest violation of a fundamental rule on competence.

Jus cogens: peremptory norms (genocide, torture, slavery, aggression) void conflicting treaties; no derogation permitted.

State responsibility (ILC Articles): breach of an international obligation triggers cessation and reparation - restitution, compensation, satisfaction, in that preference order.

Jurisdiction: territorial, nationality, passive personality, protective, and universal; universal jurisdiction is limited to piracy, genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity.

Immunity: state immunity covers sovereign acts (jure imperii) but not commercial acts (jure gestionis); diplomatic immunity is functional and absolute for official acts.

Use of force: UN Charter Art. 2(4) prohibits force; exceptions are self-defense (Art. 51, including anticipatory) and Security Council authorization under Chapter VII.

Law of the sea (UNCLOS): territorial sea 12 nm, contiguous zone 24 nm, EEZ 200 nm, continental shelf up to 350 nm; innocent passage applies in the territorial sea.

Diplomatic law (Vienna Convention 1961): inviolability of mission and archives, personal inviolability of agents, immunity from criminal jurisdiction, waiver only by sending state.

GDP = C + I + G + (X − M); nominal vs. real GDP deflated by the GDP deflator; per-capita GDP is a rough welfare proxy only.

Comparative advantage (Ricardo): gains from trade arise from lower opportunity cost, not absolute productivity; terms of trade determine the division of gains.

Tariffs and quotas: a tariff raises domestic price, creates deadweight loss (consumption and production distortion); a quota transfers quota rent to license holders.

Mundell-Fleming: with perfect capital mobility, monetary policy is effective under floating rates, fiscal policy under fixed rates.

Interest rate parity: i − i* ≈ expected depreciation; carry trade profits persist only with risk premia or limits to arbitrage.

Purchasing power parity holds in the long run weakly; deviations reflect Balassa-Samuelson productivity effects in non-tradables.

Phillips curve: short-run trade-off between inflation and unemployment; long-run curve vertical at the natural rate (Friedman-Phelps).

Balance of payments identity: current account + capital/financial account + statistical discrepancy = 0; a current-account deficit is financed by net capital inflows.

Exchange-rate regimes: hard peg (dollarization, currency board), soft peg, managed float, free float; the trilemma permits only two of fixed rate, free capital, independent money.

Montesquieu's separation of powers: legislative, executive, judicial functions balanced by checks; Madison adds ambition counteracting ambition (Federalist 51).

Rule of law (Dicey): no punishment without legal basis, equality before the law, rights grounded in ordinary courts rather than special prerogative.

Korean constitutional structure: unicameral National Assembly (300 seats), president elected to a single five-year term, Constitutional Court with nine justices.

Korean Constitutional Court: reviews constitutionality of statutes, impeachments, dissolution of political parties, and constitutional complaints; nine-year renewable terms.

Administrative law: proportionality, legitimate expectation, due process (notice and hearing), and ultra vires review of agency action.

Weberian bureaucracy: hierarchy, written rules, merit appointment, impersonal office; contrasted with New Public Management's market orientation and performance contracts.

Key Korean history: 1948 Republic founded; 1950-53 Korean War armistice (not a peace treaty); 1987 democratization and direct presidential elections; 1991 simultaneous UN membership with North Korea.

Westphalian sovereignty (1648): territoriality, non-interference, legal equality of states; challenged by humanitarian intervention and R2P.

Public choice: bureaucratic budget maximization (Niskanen), rent-seeking, and agency capture explain regulatory failure.

Syllogism validity: check whether the conclusion follows necessarily; a valid argument with false premises can have a false conclusion, but truth of premises plus validity guarantees truth.

Contrapositive is logically equivalent (P→Q ≡ ¬Q→¬P); converse and inverse are not equivalent.

Necessary vs. sufficient: P is necessary for Q if Q→P; sufficient if P→Q; confusing the two is the most common distractor.

Quantifier negation: ¬(all A are B) = some A is not B; ¬(some A are B) = no A is B.

Correlation is not causation; look for confounders, reverse causation, and selection bias before accepting a causal claim.

Base-rate neglect: apply Bayes' rule - posterior odds = prior odds × likelihood ratio - before judging diagnostic accuracy.

Situation judgment priority order: life safety, legal compliance, institutional protocol, then efficiency; document the reasoning and escalate to the responsible authority.

Stakeholder analysis: identify decision authority, affected parties, and information asymmetry; choose the option that preserves due process and transparency.

Argument structure: separate claim, evidence, and assumption; the weakest link is usually an unstated assumption the conclusion depends on.

Listening: track discourse markers (however, in contrast, that said) because the answer often follows a contrast or correction, not the first mention.

Listening: numbers, dates, and names are frequent distractors; the speaker often revises an earlier figure, so hold the last stated value.

Reading: main-idea questions require scope matching - reject options that are too narrow (detail) or too broad (beyond the passage).

Reading: inference answers must be supported by the text; an option that is true in the world but absent from the passage is wrong.

Vocabulary in context: substitute each option into the sentence and check grammatical and semantic fit, not dictionary frequency.

Writing: formal register - avoid contractions, slang, and second person; use hedging (may, appears to) for uncertain claims.

Writing: cohesion via referencing (this policy, such measures) and signposting (first, moreover, consequently) rather than repeated keywords.

Sentence correction: check subject-verb agreement across intervening phrases, parallel structure in lists, and pronoun antecedent clarity.

Diplomatic English: prefer precise, neutral verbs (urge, note, welcome, express concern) over emotive ones; distinguish 'shall' (obligation) from 'should' (recommendation).

한글 맞춤법: ‘되/돼’ 구분은 ‘되어’로 치환해 자연스러우면 ‘돼’; ‘안/않’은 ‘아니’로 치환해 판단한다.

띄어쓰기: 조사는 앞말에 붙이고, 의존명사(것, 수, 바, 줄, 데)는 띄어 쓴다; 단위명사는 앞 숫자와 띄어 쓴다.

‘로서/로써’: 자격은 ‘로서’, 수단·도구는 ‘로써’; ‘므로/음으로’는 이유와 수단을 구분한다.

높임법: 주체 높임은 ‘-시-’, 객체 높임은 ‘모시다/뵙다/드리다’; ‘할머니께서 진지를 잡수신다’처럼 어휘 높임을 함께 쓴다.

문장 호응: ‘금방’과 ‘-ㄹ 것이다’처럼 시제·양태를 일치시키고, 주어와 서술어의 의미 자질을 맞춘다.

공문서 문체: ‘-하도록 하겠습니다’보다 ‘-하겠습니다’가 간결하며, 개조식 보고서는 명사형 종결(추진, 완료, 검토)을 쓴다.

외래어 표기: ‘리더십, 커뮤니케이션, 콘퍼런스’처럼 관용 표기를 따르고, 된소리 표기는 관용을 우선한다.

논술 구성: 서론-본론-결론에서 논지 문장을 첫 문단에 제시하고, 근거마다 출처와 인과를 명시하며 반론을 선제적으로 반박한다.

사자성어 활용: ‘괄목상대(刮目相對)’는 재능의 발전, ‘수구초심(首丘初心)’은 고향 그리움으로, 문맥에 맞게 쓴다.