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GOVT 102 Introduction to International Politics
Spring 2010 MW 11:00am-12:15pm
Kirby 204 Professor Seo-Hyun Park Office hours: MW 1:00-3:00pm Office: Kirby 102 and by appointment Phone: (610) 330-5412 Email: [email protected] Course description: This course provides an introduction to the systematic study of international politics. It introduces students to the major theoretical approaches to the analysis of international relations and applies them to various historical and contemporary issues. The first section of the course surveys key concepts and theories. The second section explores the causes and consequences of international conflict and war. The third section turns to important issues in global economic relations, such as the politics of free trade, financial liberalization, development and inequality. The final section addresses the question of change in the current international system by critically examining newly emerging topics, including terrorism, environmental cooperation, and the role of transnational actors. Course objectives: Through the completion of this course, students are expected to have achieved the following learning outcomes:
• identify and distinguish between the different types of explanations of international politics;
• evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of theoretical arguments through the logical examination of evidence;
• think critically about world events and develop clearly articulated arguments; and • apply theoretical knowledge to various policy issues in international relations.
Course requirements: The grading criteria for this course are as follows: Mid-term exam #1 (25%) Mid-term exam #2 (25%) Final exam (40%)
Class attendance and participation (10%) Students are expected to attend all sessions, to have carefully read and considered the required readings, and to actively participate in class discussions. Students who are unable to attend class must notify the instructor in advance or bring appropriate written
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documentation (from a physician, etc). More than two unexplained absences may result in a lower final grade. Students are strongly encouraged to raise questions or concerns about difficult concepts from the lecture material and assigned readings both during classroom discussions and during office hours. Each student must also act as a discussant for one discussion session at least once during the semester. The job of the discussant is to prepare and circulate in advance a one page handout which briefly summarizes the assigned group of readings and raises two or three questions that engage and/or critique the authors’ arguments. It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that s/he is available to take the final exam on the date and time assigned for the course. Students with special needs due to disability should make requests for accommodation in the first week of classes so that arrangements can be made. Students are responsible for the content and integrity of all academic work. Please consult the Student Handbook for College policies on academic honesty (http://www.lafayette.edu/student_life/StudentHandbook_0910_FINAL.pdf). Course readings: The following books are required for purchase and will be made available at the campus bookstore. They will also be placed on reserve at the library. Other course readings and additional material will be made available through Moodle.
Henry R. Nau, Perspectives on International Relations, Second Edition (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2009) Robert Gilpin, Global Political Economy: Understanding the International Economic Order (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001)
Scott D. Sagan and Kenneth N. Waltz, The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: A Debate
Renewed (New York: W.W. Norton, 2003)
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Course Schedule
Part I. Concepts and Theories Lecture 1 (Jan 25) Introduction Week 1 Lecture 2 (Jan 27) Course Overview □ Nau, Perspectives on International Relations, pp. 1-10; 28-64. □ Steven M. Walt, “International Relations: One World, Many Theories,” Foreign Policy (Spring 1998): 29-46. Lecture 3 (Feb 1) Realism Week 2 □ Kenneth N. Waltz, Theory of International Politics (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1979), pp. 79-101. □ John J. Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (New York: W. W. Norton, 2003), chapter 2 (“Anarchy and the Struggle for Power”), pp. 29-54. Lecture 4 (Feb 3) Realism □ Robert Jervis, “Cooperation under the Security Dilemma,” World Politics 30, 2 (January 1978): 167-214. □ Robert Gilpin, “The Theory of Hegemonic War,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 18, 4 (Spring 1988): 591-613. Lecture 5 (Feb 8) Liberalism Week 3 □ Michael W. Doyle, “Kant, Liberal Legacies and Foreign Affairs,” Philosophy and Public Affairs 12, 3 (Summer 1983): 205-235. □ Edward Mansfield and Jack Snyder, “Democratization and the Danger of War,” International Security 20, 1 (Summer 1995), pp. 5-12; 19-38. Lecture 6 (Feb 10) Liberalism □ Richard Rosecrance, The Rise of the Trading State: Commerce and Conquest in the Modern World (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1986), chapter 2 (“The Worlds of International Relations: The Military-Political World, the Trading World”), pp. 22-43. □ Dale C. Copeland, “Economic Interdependence and War,” International Security 20, 4 (Spring 1996): 5-41. Lecture 7 (Feb 15) Constructivism Week 4 □ Alexander Wendt, “Anarchy Is What States Make of It,” International Organization 46, 2 (Spring 1992): 391-425. □ Samuel P. Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs 72, 3 (Summer 1993): 22-49. Lecture 8 (Feb 17) Domestic Politics □ Matthew Evangelista, “Domestic Structure and International Change,” in Michael Doyle and John Ikenberry, eds., New Thinking in International Relations (Boulder: Westview, 1997), pp. 202-228.
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□ M. Taylor Fravel, “Regime Insecurity and International Cooperation: Explaining China’s Compromises in Territorial Disputes,” International Security 30, 2 (Fall 2005), pp. 46-64.
Part II. International Conflict and War
Lecture 9 (Feb 22) World War I Week 5 □ Nau, Perspectives on International Relations, pp. 109-134. □ Robert Jervis, Perception and Misperception in International Politics (Princeton University Press, 1976), chapter 3 (“Deterrence, the Spiral Model, and Intentions of the Adversary”), pp. 58-67; 76-100. Lecture 10 (Feb 24) World War I □ Jack Snyder, “Civil-Military Relations and the Cult of the Offensive, 1914 and 1984,” International Security 9, 1 (Summer 1984), pp. 108-129. □ Marc Trachtenberg, “The Meaning of Mobilization in 1914,” International Security 15, 3 (Winter 1990/91), pp. 120-129; 146-150. Lecture 11 (Mar 1) World War II Week 6 □ Nau, Perspectives on International Relations, pp. 136-165. □ Scott D. Sagan, “Origins of the Pacific War,” in Robert I. Rotberg and Theodore K. Rabb, eds., The Origin and Prevention of Major Wars (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 323-352.
Mid-term #1: March 3, 2010 (in-class) Lecture 12 (Mar 8) The Cold War Week 7 □ Nau, Perspectives on International Relations, pp. 167-182. □ John Mueller, “The Essential Irrelevance of Nuclear Weapons,” International Security 13, 2 (Fall 1988): 55-79. □ Robert Jervis, “The Political Effects of Nuclear Deterrence,” International Security 13, 2 (Fall 1988): 80-90. * □ X, “The Sources of Soviet conduct,” Foreign Affairs, XXV (July 1947): 575-576. Lecture 13 (Mar 10) The Cuban Missile Crisis □ Graham T. Allison, “Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” American Political Science Review 63, 3 (September 1969): 689-718. □ Stephen D. Krasner, “Are Bureaucrats Important? (Or Allison Wonderland),” Foreign Policy 7 (Summer 1972): 159-179.
***** Spring Break *****
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Lecture 14 (Mar 22) End of the Cold War Week 8 □ William C. Wohlforth, “Realism and the End of the Cold War,” International Security 19, 3 (Winter 1994/5), pp. 96-115. □ Rey Koslowski and Friedrich V. Kratochwil, “Understanding Change in International Politics: The Soviet Empire’s Demise and the International System,” in Richard Ned Lebow and Thomas Risse-Kappen, eds., International Relations Theory and the End of the Cold War (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995), pp. 127-165.
Part III. International Political Economy Lecture 15 (Mar 24) The Expansion of the International Economy: States, Markets,
and Globalization □ Nau, Perspectives on International Relations, pp. 277-319. □ Gilpin, Global Political Economy, pp. 3-24. Lecture 16 (Mar 29) International Trade Week 9 □ Gilpin, Global Political Economy, pp. 196-233. □ Dani Rodrik, “Trading in Illusions,” Foreign Policy (March/April 2001): 55-62. □ Michael J. Hiscox, “The Domestic Sources of Foreign Economic Policies,” in John Ravenhill, ed., Global Political Economy, second edition (Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 95-119. Lecture 17 (Mar 31) International Finance □ Gilpin, Global Political Economy, pp. 261-277; 289-304. □ Jonathan Kirshner, “The Study of Money,” World Politics 52, 3 (April 2000), pp. 407-428. Lecture 18 (Apr 5) Economic Development and Global Inequality Week 10 □ Robert Gilpin, Global Political Economy, pp. 305-321. □ Bruce R. Scott, “The Great Divide in the Global Village,” Foreign Affairs 80, 1 (January/February 2001): 160-77.
Mid-term #2: April 7, 2010 (in-class) Lecture 19 (Apr 12) Globalization and Its Discontents Week 11 □ David Held et al., Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999), pp. 1-31. □ John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, “The Globalization Backlash,” Foreign Policy (September/October 2001): 16-26. □ Benjamin R. Barber, Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism are Reshaping the World (New York: Ballantine Books, 1995), pp. 3-20.
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Part IV. Change and Continuity in World Politics Lecture 20 (Apr 14) Ethnic Conflict and Civil Wars □ Nau, Perspectives on International Relations, pp. 252-262. □ Chaim Kaufmann, “Possible and Impossible Solutions to Ethnic Civil Wars,” International Security 20, 4 (Spring 1996): 136-175. Lecture 21 (Apr 19) Interventions and Sanctions Week 12 □ Martha Finnemore, “Constructing Norms of Humanitarian Intervention,” in Peter J. Katzenstein, ed., The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), pp. 153-85. □ Edward Luttwak, “Give War a Chance,” Foreign Affairs (July/August 1999): 36-44. Lecture 22 (Apr 21) Nuclear Proliferation □ Scott D. Sagan and Kenneth N. Waltz, The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: A Debate Renewed (New York: W.W. Norton, 2003), pp. 3-37; 46-82. □ Alexander H. Montgomery, “Ringing in Proliferation: How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb Network,” International Security 30, 2 (Fall 2005): 153-187. Lecture 23 (Apr 26) Environment Week 13 □ Garrett Hardin, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” Science, Vol. 162 (December 1968): 1243-1267. □ Robert O. Keohane, After Hegemony (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), chapter 6 (“A Functional Theory of Regimes”), pp. 85-109. □ Joseph M. Grieco, “Anarchy and the Limits of Cooperation: A Realist Critique of the Newest Liberal Institutionalism,” International Organization 42, 3 (Summer 1988): 485-500.
Lecture 24 (Apr 28) Human Rights and the Role of Transnational Actors □ Nau, Perspectives on International Relations, pp. 483-509. □ Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), chapter 1 (“Transnational Activists Networks”), pp. 8-24. Lecture 25 (May 3) 9/11 and Terrorism Week 14 □ Audrey Kurth Cronin, “Behind the Curve: Globalization and International Terrorism,” International Security 27, 3 (Winter 2002/03): 30-58. □ Francis Fukuyama, “History and September 11,” in Ken Booth and Tim Dunne, eds., Worlds in Collision: Terror and the Future of Global Order (New York: Palgrave, 2002, pp. 27-36. □ Mahmood Mamdani, “Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: A Political Perspective on Culture and Terrorism,” in Eric Hershberg and Kevin W. Moore, eds., Critical Views of September 11: Analyses from around the World (New York: New Press, 2002), pp. 44-60.
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Lecture 26 (May 5) The U.S. in a Changing World □ William C. Wohlforth, “U.S. Strategy in a Unipolar World,” in G. John Ikenberry, ed., America Unrivaled: The Future of the Balance of Power (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002), pp. 98-118. □ Joseph S. Nye, Jr., “U.S. Power and Strategy after Iraq,” Foreign Affairs (July/August 2003): 60-73.
Final Exam: TBA (Week of May 10, 2010)
