Political Science 857 Fall 2011 Tuesday 2-4 PM 422 North Hall

Transcription

1 THEORIES OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Political Science 857 Fall 2011 Tuesday 2-4 PM 422 North Hall Mark Copelovitch Assistant Professor 306 North Hall Office hours: Wednesday Course overview This course is a graduate-level review of the subfield of international relations within political science. It is intended primarily for first-year doctoral students in Political Science, although more advanced graduate students are also welcome. The primary purpose is to understand the development of the field, and to understand and be able to evaluate the main theoretical approaches in the sub-discipline. The course covers many of what have come to be known as classic works in the field, as well as some more recent theoretical and empirical applications. While it is not designed as a research course, it is useful preparation for more specialized courses of study emphasizing IR research. Another important purpose is to prepare PhD students in Political Science for the preliminary examination in international relations. Throughout the course, we will focus primarily on alternative theoretical approaches and perspectives, although we will also explore some empirical work. Our goal will be to engage, discuss, and wrestle with the following questions: What do the authors want to explain? What are the critical concepts? How are cause and effect observed? What kind of research design is employed? From what theoretical perspective does the argument originate? With whom are the authors engaged in debate? Course requirements 1. Participation (1/3 of total grade): All students should come to class having done the readings and prepared to discuss them in depth each week. I will circulate discussion questions prior to class to guide your reading and organize class discussion. 2. Reading response papers (1/3 of total grade): Each student will be required to write seven short response papers (no more than 2 pages) based on the weekly readings or some subset thereof. A copy of the essay should be ed to me by noon the day before class (Monday). The papers should not just re-present the readings, but rather must analyze, compare, and/or critique the quality of the theory and/or evidence, as appropriate.

2 3. Oral examination (1/3 of total grade): Each student will be required to take a 30-minute oral examination with me during the last two scheduled weeks of class. I will ask you to identify three topics in which you would like to be examined. We will make arrangements for the exact timing of this exam later in the semester. Readings Nearly all of the articles are available online, either through public sources or UW s library. Books that I recommend you purchase are marked on the syllabus with **; we will be reading substantial portions of these books and/or they are classics that should be part of any IR scholar s library. Readings indicated with ## are smaller portions of books; I will make.pdfs of these readings available on LearnUW. For each reading, we will summarize the argument, discuss its contribution to IR, and probe the argument and evidence for strengths and weaknesses. The following questions are examples of the sorts of questions that can guide your reading of each piece and will shape our discussion: What is the question or puzzle? What is the argument? What are the explicit or implicit assumptions? Who are the relevant actors? What are their preferences and interests and where do they come from? At what level of analysis is the argument? Where does the argument fit into the theoretical landscape of IR and who would disagree? What is the relative importance of agency versus structure? What evidence is provided in support of the argument and is it convincing?

3 September 6 Introduction and overview of the field Brian Schmidt, On the History and Historiography of International Relations, in Handbook of International Relations, Walter Carlsnaes, Beth Simmons, and Thomas Risse, eds. London: Sage, Ole Weaver, The Sociology of a Not So International Discipline: American and European Developments in International Relations. International Organization 52(4): Peter Katzenstein, Robert Keohane, and Stephen Krasner International Organization and the Study of World Politics. International Organization 52(4): September 13 Classic approaches to world politics Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War (Book I, 1-88; Book II, 1-65; Book III, 36-50; Book V ; Book VI, 6-32). Kant, To Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch. Hans Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace, 3-13 (Ch. I, and pp (Ch. XV). E.H. Carr, The Twenty Years Crisis. London: MacMillan. Introduction and Chapters 1, 5-8. ##Kenneth N. Waltz, Man, the State, and War, chapter 1 (Introduction). September 20 Neorealism: structure, power, and anarchy [Lisa Martin] **Robert O. Keohane, ed., Neorealism and its Critics, chs. 1-7, 9, 10. **Robert Gilpin, War and Change in International Politics. pp. 9-49, Jeff Legro and Andrew Moravcsik, Is Anybody Still a Realist? International Security, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Fall 1999), pp. 5-55, and the correspondence, Brother Can You Spare a Paradigm (Or Was Anybody Ever a Realist), International Security (Vol. 25 (2000), September 27 Neoliberalism: cooperation and regime theory

4 Robert Jervis, Cooperation Under the Security Dilemma, World Politics, vol. 30 #2, pp **Robert Axelrod, The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books. Chs. 1-4 (3-87). Keohane, After Hegemony, Chs. 1, 4-7 (5-17, ) Joseph Grieco, Anarchy and the Limits of Cooperation, International Organization 42: John J. Mearsheimer, The False Promise of International Institutions, International Security, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Winter 1994/95), pp October 4 Domestic politics: interests and institutions Andrew Moravcsik, Taking Preferences Seriously: A Liberal Theory of International Politics, International Organization, vol. 51(4): Jeffry Frieden, Actors and Preferences in International Relations, in Lake and Powell, eds., Strategic Choice and International Relations. Andrew Moravcsik, The New Liberalism, in The Oxford Handbook of International Relations, ed. Christian Reus-Smit and Duncan Snidal ( Robert Putnam Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two-Level Games. International Organization 42(3): Ronald Rogowski, Institutions as Constraints on Strategic Choice, in Lake and Powell, eds., Strategic Choice and International Relations, Lisa Martin Democratic Commitments: Legislatures and International Commitments. Chs. 2 (21-52) & 7 ( ). October 11 Domestic politics: democracy, peace, and conflict [Jon Pevehouse] James Fearon, "Domestic Political Audiences and the Escalation of International Disputes," American Political Science Review 88(3): Kenneth Schultz, Do Domestic Institutions Constrain or Inform? Contrasting Two Institutional Perspectives on Democracy and War. International Organization, 53(2):

5 Sebastian Rosato, The Flawed Logic of Democratic Peace Theory. American Political Science Review 97: Edward D. Mansfield and Jon C. Pevehouse Democratization and International Organizations. International Organization 60(1): Erik Gartzke, The Capitalist Peace. American Journal of Political Science 51(1): Jessica Weeks, Autocratic Audience Costs: Regime Type and Signaling Resolve. International Organization 62(1): October 18: International institutions: design, effects, and compliance George Downs, David Rocke, and Peter Barsoom Is the Good News About Compliance Good News About Cooperation International Organization 50(3): Barbara Koremenos, Charles Lipson, and Duncan Snidal, The Rational Design of International Institutions. International Organization (Autumn 2001): Helen Milner and Peter Rosendorff The Optimal Design of International Trade Institutions; Uncertainty and Escape. International Organization 55: Jana von Stein Do Treaties Constrain or Screen? Selection Bias and Treaty Compliance. American Political Science Review 99(4): Beth A. Simmons and Daniel J. Hopkins, The Constraining Power of International Treaties: Theory and Methods. American Political Science Review 99(4): October 25: Constructivism I: international society **Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics. New York: Columbia University Press, Chapters 1-3. **Alexander Wendt, Social Theory of International Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Chapters 1-6. Ian Hurd, Legitimacy and Authority in International Politics, International Organization 59(1): Michael Barnett and Raymond Duvall, Power in International Relations, International Organization 59(1): November 3: Constructivism II: norms and communication

6 Thomas Risse, Let s Argue: Communicative Action in World Politics. International Organization 54: Ian Johnston Treating International Institutions as Social Environments. International Studies Quarterly 45(4): Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink International Norm Dynamics and Political Change. International Organization 52(4): Nina Tannenwald, The Nuclear Taboo: The United States and the Normative Basis of Nuclear Non-use. International Organization 53: Jennifer Mitzen, Reading Habermas in Anarchy: Multilateral Diplomacy and Global Public Spheres. American Political Science Review 99(3): November 10 Bargaining, conflict, and cooperation James D. Fearon, Rationalist Explanations for War. International Organization 49(3): David A. Lake Anarchy, Hierarchy, and the Variety of International Relations. International Organization 50(1): James D. Fearon Bargaining, Enforcement, and International Cooperation. International Organization 52(2): Andrew Kydd, Trust Building, Trust Breaking: the Dilemma of NATO Enlargement. International Organization, 55(4): Branislav L. Slantchev The Power to Hurt: Costly Conflict with Completely Informed States. American Political Science Review 47(1): Jack S. Levy Prospect Theory, Rational Choice, and International Relations. International Studies Quarterly 41(1): November 25 Civil wars, ethnic conflict, and terror James Fearon and David Laitin, Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War. American Political Science Review 97(1): Andrew Kydd and Barbara Walter, Strategies of Terrorism. International Security 31(1):

7 Lars-Erik Cederman and Luc Girardin, Beyond Fractionalization: Mapping Ethnicity Onto Nationalist Insurgencies. American Political Science Review 101: Jeremy Weinstein and Macartan Humphreys, Who Fights? The Determinants of Participation in Civil Wars. American Journal of Political Science 52(2): Kenneth Schultz, The Enforcement Problem in Coercive Bargaining: Interstate Conflict over Rebel Support in Civil Wars. International Organization 64(2): November 25 International trade and globalization Rogowski, Ronald Political Cleavages and Changing Exposure to Trade." American Political Science Review 81(4): Joanne S. Gowa and Edward D. Mansfield Power Politics and International Trade, American Political Science Review 87(2): Peter Alexis Gourevitch, The Second Image Reversed: The International Sources of Domestic Politics. International Organization 32(4): Jeffry Frieden Invested Interests: The Politics of National Economic Policies in a World of International Finance. International Organization 45:4 (Autumn), pp Layna Mosley International Financial Markets and National Welfare States. International Organization 54: 4 (Autumn), pp December 1 Moving forward: theory testing and synthesis James Fearon and Alexander Wendt Rationalism vs. Constructivism: A Skeptical View, in Handbook of International Relations, Peter Katzenstein and Rudra Sil Eclectic Theorizing in the Study and Practice of International Relations. In Reus-Smit and Snidal, eds., Oxford Handbook of International Relations, pp Oxford University Press. December 8 and 15: oral examinations to be scheduled