Syllabus for GOVT 006: Introduction to International Relations Summer 2013

Transcription

1 Syllabus for GOVT 006: Introduction to International Relations Summer 2013 Course Information Instructor Information Office Hours MTWRF Paul Musgrave 10:30 AM - 11 AM daily June 3 July 5 rpm47@georgetown.edu (except after exams) ICC 104 m: or by appointment 8:30 a.m. 10:00 a.m. Introduction The field of international relations studies the interactions of political units that do not answer to a common authority. As a result, the questions that IR scholars ask about the world are almost always different than those asked by scholars of American or comparative politics. Instead of studying individuals voting behavior or the evolution of a country s political institutions, IR scholars ask: Why do states make war? Why do states sometimes choose protectionism and sometimes choose free trade? Is war more or less likely if there are one, two, or many powerful states in the world? Did the advent of nuclear weapons fundamentally change world politics? Will the twenty-first century be as bloody as the twentieth? In this course, we will talk about how theories help us understand the world. This is a different and more powerful way of thinking about the subject than journalistic or policy-driven accounts that hinge on contingent and limited factors. One consequence of this approach is that you may find it somewhat difficult to think in abstract and causal terms at first. That is natural (literally so our brains are not designed to handle chains of abstract reasoning!). But thinking theoretically will become easier for you as the course progresses, and you will finish the course with the tools necessary to understand your world in a more profound way than when you began. Together, we will explore the major theories of international relations, investigate a variety of applications of these theories, and discuss topics that seem likely to grow in importance in the future. Thinking through the structure of international politics in general will help us understand more immediate questions, like the consequences of a given U.S. foreign policy or the relationship between global trade and domestic politics. Of course, in examining any individual policy choice or foreign policy action, a number of idiosyncratic or accidental factors could matter. But over time, our bet is that theories will yield more explanatory power than the mere accumulation of facts. A Note on the Syllabus I do not expect any major changes to be made to the syllabus after the course begins, but if any changes should become necessary, I will notify the class in a timely manner. Class Meetings The class will begin on time. I will usually begin the day by referring to either a current event in the news or a major event from history before beginning the lecture. During the lecture, you should feel free to ask questions. There will be time for discussion at the end of most class sections. GOVT 006, Summer 2013, Paul Musgrave 1

2 Headlines don t set the agenda for International Relations, but scholars certainly do react to events in the world. Consequently, you should keep up to date with the news, ideally by reading the New York Times or the Financial Times. Office Hours I will hold one half-hour of office hours daily, except on days that we have an exam in class. You should also feel comfortable ing or contacting me to schedule additional meetings if you need them or if you can t meet during the time I have scheduled. Take advantage of office hours. You can also me questions; I try to respond to all within 24 hours, although I generally avoid work-related s on weekends and so I may not reply to an on a Friday evening or a Saturday until Monday. Evaluation Participation/Attendance: 15% In-Class Reading Quizzes: 15% Midterm Exam: 25% Final Exam: 25% Weekly Papers: 20% Grading Scale A B C D A B C F <60 A B C The midterm and final will be mixes of short-answer, identification, and essay questions. The final exam will be comprehensive. You will write four papers throughout the course. Each paper will be two to four pages of 12-point, double-spaced, Garamond font, with 1 margins throughout, on a prompt that I will choose for you. One paper will be due each Friday of the class except for the final Friday. The paper must be printed and stapled or I will mark off. I will deduct one letter grade if the paper is turned in after the end of class (yes, at 10:01 a.m., it s a letter grade off!) and one full letter grade for each day the paper is late thereafter. Expect a minimum of six and a maximum of twelve short quizzes over material from the reading. I will drop your lowest score. Participation and attendance are both important to the course. Good participation doesn t require you to put your hand up every time I ask for questions. I will evaluate the quality of your participation as well as the quantity. You should also feel free to come to my office hours if you do not like participating in the informal discussion part of the course. From time to time, we will have in-class activities that require your participation. Absences without an excuse will count as a zero for participation. You will have one free absence. Official documentation, such as a medical excuse or the official GU form for university-related extracurricular activities, is required for an absence to be excused and not counted against your participation grade. I am strict about this, because it s fairest to everyone. GOVT 006, Summer 2013, Paul Musgrave 2

3 You may not appeal a grade until 24 hours after you have received the work. All grade appeals must be accompanied by a written explanation of why you think the grade should be changed. I reserve the right to raise or lower the grade on re-examination. Academic Integrity All university policy regarding academic integrity applies in this course and will be strictly enforced. Violations include, but are not limited to, 1) cheating of any kind and 2) providing false or misleading information to receive a postponement or extension on a test, quiz, or assignment. For a full review of university policy, see Students with Disabilities Students with disabilities should contact the Academic Resource Center (Leavey Center, Suite 335; ; arc@georgetown.edu; before the start of classes to allow their office time to review the documentation and make recommendations for appropriate accommodations. If accommodations are recommended, you will be given a letter from ARC to share with your professors. You are personally responsible for completing this process officially and in a timely manner. Neither accommodations nor exceptions to policies can be permitted to students who have not completed this process in advance. Classroom Etiquette and Student Conduct Students should turn off all cell phones, pagers, laptop computers, and other electronic devices while in class. (There are studies backing up instructors intuitions that students do not retain information as well if their laptops are open during teaching time, even if they are using their computers to take notes.) I will make a limited exception for ipads, Kindles, Surfaces, and similar tablets if they are used for reading electronic versions of course texts only. Failure to comply will forfeit your tablet privileges for the semester (yes, even if your only copy of the book is electronic). I will post lecture notes and other material on Blackboard after each class session. Course Readings This course is reading intensive. I strongly suggest that you form reading groups to lighten the load. Course readings not drawn from the required texts will be posted on Blackboard. Required Texts: Jeffry Frieden, David Lake, and Kenneth Schultz, World Politics: Interests, Interactions, Institutions (Norton, 2012). (Henceforward FLS.) ISBN Daniel Drezner, Theories of International Politics and Zombies (Princeton University Press, 2011) ISBN13: Karen A. Mingst and Jack A. Snyder, Essential Readings in World Politics ( ). (Henceforward ER.) Please note: Make sure you acquire the FOURTH edition. GOVT 006, Summer 2013, Paul Musgrave 3

4 SECTION 1: Grand Theories. 1. Introduction What distinguishes the study of politics among nations from the study of politics within nations? How do social scientists think about the world? What is the difference between a theoretical and a historical approach to the study of international relations? Thucydides. The Melian Dialogue. ER pp Jack Synder, One World, Rival Theories, ER pp FLS, Introduction and Chapter 1. Timothy Burke, How to Read in College. 2. Realism (I) What is realism? On what topics do scholars who call themselves realists agree about the world? How do their theories about state and systemic behavior differ? FLS, Chapter 2 Hans Morgenthau, A Realist Theory of International Politics and Political Power. ER pp Drezner, Zombies, Realism (II) What is the security dilemma? How do technological and structural factors condition state behavior? Can states credibly reassure each other about their benign intentions or are great power politics always tragic? FLS, Chapter 3. (Please make sure to read the Special Topic about game theory on pages ) Robert Jervis, Cooperation under the Security Dilemma. ER John Mearsheimer, Anarchy and the Struggle for Power. ER Liberalism Can states avoid conflict through cooperation? What is the nature of state power and preferences? Can states create institutions that allow them to avoid destructive, negative-sum conflict? Do states act to pursue absolute gains or relative gains? FLS, Chapter 5 Michael Doyle, Liberalism and World Politics. ER Drezner, Zombies, Constructivism What is the relationship between interest and identity? Of what stuff is the social world constructed? How do actors ideas affect their behavior? Alexander Wendt, Anarchy is what states make of it, in ER. Drezner, Zombies, 67-76, (You can read the other chapters as well.) GOVT 006, Summer 2013, Paul Musgrave 4

5 SECTION 2: Cooperation and conflict 6. Polarity How does the number of powers in a given system affect the politics of that system? Is there anything special about unipolarity? How does hegemony emerge and what do transitions between hegemonic orders look like? Charles Krauthammer, The Unipolar Moment, Foreign Affairs (1990) ONLINE Christopher Layne, The Unipolar Illusion: Why New Great Powers Will Rise, International Security (1993) ONLINE Ikenberry et al. Unipolarity, state behavior and systemic consequences, ER Why do states sometimes cooperate? Can states use international organizations to overcome their uncertainty about others intentions? Or is such reassurance impossible, thereby making conflict inevitable? John Mearsheimer, The False Promise of International Institutions. ER Robert O. Keohane, After Hegemony. ER Thomas J. Christensen and Jack Snyder. Chain Gangs and Passed Bucks. International Organization (1990). 8. Why don t states always cooperate? Why do states make war? Why doesn t the weaker side simply back down and submit, allowing both the aggressor and the victim to avoid the costs of war itself? James Fearon, Rationalist Explanations for War, ER FLS Chapter Why do states sometimes cooperate and sometimes fail to cooperate? Why can t states cooperate in the presence of potential major losses from inaction, as in environmental politics? FLS, Chapter 13 Garrett Hardin, The Tragedy of the Commons, ER Elinor Ostrom, Nobel Prize Lecture: David G. Victor, Charles F. Kennel, and Veerabhadran Ramanathan, The Climate Threat We Can Beat, Foreign Affairs May/June Who makes foreign policy? A state s foreign policy represents its choices among contending strategies of cooperation and conflict. How do states institutions affect those choices? Do individual leaders matter? Elizabeth Saunders, Transformative Choices: Leaders and the Origins of Intervention Strategy, ER Margaret G. Hermann and Charles F. Hermann. Who Makes Foreign Policy Decisions and How: An Empirical Inquiry. International Studies Quarterly 33.4 (December 1989) ONLINE GOVT 006, Summer 2013, Paul Musgrave 5

6 Kurt Taylor Gaubatz, Election Cycles and War. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 35.4 (June 1991) ONLINE SECTION 3: Security and International Relations 11. Did nuclear weapons change the world? Some have claimed that the introduction of nuclear weapons in 1945 forever altered world politics. Others are more skeptical, and believe that nuclear weapons are just another tool that states can use in pursuit of their objectives. To what, if any degree, did the invention of nuclear weapons and the development of a world with multiple nuclear powers remake the texture of international life? Schelling, The Threat That Leaves Something to Chance, from The Strategy of Conflict (1960) ONLINE Schelling, The Diplomacy of Violence, ER John Mueller, The Essential Irrelevance of Nuclear Weapons, International Security (Autumn 1988) ONLINE Keir Lieber and Daryl Press, The Nukes We Need, Foreign Affairs (November/December 2009) ONLINE Is Nuclear Zero the Best Option? A debate between Ken Waltz and Scott Sagan in The National Interest (2010). ONLINE *Doctor Strangelove [Film Screening TBA] 12. How do terrorists affect world politics? What do terrorists want? How can terrorist tactics affect whether terrorists succeed? How important are terrorists in the international system? Robert Pape, The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, American Political Science Review (2003) ONLINE Max Abrahms, What Terrorists Really Want: Terrorist Motives and Counterterrorism Strategy, International Security (2008) ONLINE Kydd and Walter, The Strategies of Terrorism, ER FLS, Chapter Should we protect the victims of domestic violence? (Guest Lecture) Why is state breakdown often accompanied by the outbreak of ethnic violence? What can the international community do in these cases? Barry Posen, The Security Dilemma and Ethnic Conflict ONLINE Samantha Power, Bystanders to Genocide, in ER How do non-governmental organizations affect world politics? Non-governmental organizations have become increasingly visible in international life in the past thirty years, but are they important? Does their influence vary by issue? And has their influence always lived up to its moral billing? Transnational Advocacy Networks in International Politics and Human Rights Advocacy Networks in Latin America, ER Pandolfi and Fassin, Introduction, from Contemporary States of Emergency ONLINE GOVT 006, Summer 2013, Paul Musgrave 6

7 Alexander Cooley and James Ron, The NGO Scramble: Organizational Insecurity and the Political Economy of Transnational Action International Security (2002) ONLINE 15. Midterm SECTION 4: International Political Economy 16. Introduction to International Political Economy Can states control trade? Does allowing capital to move across borders significantly change the nature of international and domestic politics? Who makes the rules in the world economic system? FLS, Chapters 7 and International Trade, Finance, and Domestic Politics How can domestic interest groups organize to affect international settlements? How do international arrangements affect domestic interest groups? Robert Gilpin, The Nature of Political Economy, ER Selections from Ronald Rogowski, Commerce and Coalitions (1989), from International Political Economy ONLINE Alt and Gilligan, The Political Economy of Trading States ONLINE 18. International Political Economy: Development What makes some countries rich and others poor? FLS, Chapter 9 and 10 Martin Wolf, Why Globalization Works, ER Helen Milner, Globalization, Development, and International Institutions, ER 19. State Authority in a Time of Globalization How can political leaders use foreign affairs to influence domestic outcomes and how can they use obstacles at home to bolster their position in international organizations? Moises Naim, The Five Wars of Globalization, ER Tom Mueller, Slippery Business: The Trade in Adulterated Olive Oil. New Yorker (2007) ONLINE James Verini, Arming the Drug Wars, Portfolio (2008) ONLINE Finnegan, William. The Kingpins. New Yorker (2012) ONLINE 20. International Political Economy: Political Comes First What are the limits to the influence of governments over economics? How do shifting political arrangements transform international economic structures? Scheve and Slaughter, A New Deal for Globalization, IPE (On Blackboard.) ONLINE Rodrik, How to Save Globalization from Its Cheerleaders, IPE (On Blackboard.) ONLINE GOVT 006, Summer 2013, Paul Musgrave 7

8 SECTION 5: The future of international relations 21. Can unipolarity last? The United States has been the most powerful state in the world system for at least the past 65 years. Since the end of the Cold War, it has not even had a real challenger. But will this happy condition persist? And what will happen if the era of unipolarity ends? Robert Jervis, International Primacy: Is the Game Worth the Candle? International Security (1993) ONLINE John Mearsheimer, The Future of the American Pacifier, Foreign Affairs (September/October 2001). ONLINE Michael Mastanduno, System Maker and Privilege Taker. World Politics (2009) ONLINE 22. The rise of China What does the growing power of China signify for the world system? Andrew J. Nathan and Andrew Scobell. (2012) How China Sees America. Foreign Affairs ONLINE Kenneth Lieberthal. (2011) The American Pivot to Asia, Foreign Policy. ONLINE Aaron Friedberg. (2012) Bucking Beiijng, Foreign Affairs. ONLINE Minxin Pei, The Loneliest Superpower, Foreign Policy ONLINE o Optional: Christensen, Thomas. Fostering Stability or Creating a Monster? The Rise of China and U.S. Policy Toward East Asia, International Security (2006). ONLINE 23. Does the future belong to the United States or any state at all? We have largely taken the dominance of the state for granted in this survey of IR theory. But where did the state come from? Is the state here to stay? And what does this portend for the post-american century? FLS, Chapter 14 John Rapley, The New Middle Ages, Foreign Affairs (2006) ONLINE Robert Neuwirth, The Shadow Superpower, Foreign Policy (2011) ONLINE Richard Haass, The Age of Nonpolarity, Foreign Affairs (2008) ONLINE Selections from Robert Lieber (2012), Power and Willpower in the American Future. ONLINE 24. The Fourth of July Celebrate American independence with fireworks and studying. 25. Final Exam. GOVT 006, Summer 2013, Paul Musgrave 8