Master of Arts (M.A.) in International Relations Program Course Code Course Name Course Credit Compulsory Elective INRL 501 Theories of International Relations (ECTS: 8) INRL 502 Current Issues in International Relations and Theoretical Approaches (ECTS: 8) INRL 503 Research Methods in International Relations (ECTS: 8) INRL 504 Seminar Course 0,0,0 (ECTS: 8) INRL 505 State and Society in the European Union INRL 506 European Political History INRL 507 Contemporary Balkan Politics INRL 508 Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict INRL 509 International Peace and Stability INRL 510 Post-Conflict Peace Building INRL 511 European Security
INRL 512 Theories of European Integration INRL 513 Critical Approaches to Security: Rethinking National, Regional and Global Security INRL 514 Turkish Domestic and Foreign Policy INRL 515 International Law and Current Problems INRL 516 Issues in Turco-Greek Relations INRL 517 Religion and World Politics INRL 518 Small States and World Politics INRL 519 Politics of Transformation in Southeast Europe and the Balkans INRL 520 Small Wars and Insurgencies INRL 521 International Peace Operations INRL 522 International Security and Current Issues INRL 523 Politics of International Oil INRL 524 American Foreign Policy towards the Middle East
INRL 525 Turkey and the Middle East INRL 526 European Union-Turkey Relations INRL 527 Emerging Powers and World Politics INRL 528 International Migration and European Union INRL 529 International Organizations and World Politics INRL 530 The Cyprus Question: Past and the Present INRL 531 Globalization and Governance INRL 532 International Political Economy and Global Crisis SEMESTER I INRL 501 Theories of International Relations (ECTS: 8) INRL 503 Research Methods in International Relations (ECTS: 8) INRL 5XX Elective Course INRL 5XX Elective Course SEMESTER II INRL 502 Current Issues in International Relations and Theoretical Approaches (ECTS: 8) INRL 504 Seminar Course 0,0,0 (ECTS: 8) INRL 5XX Elective Course INRL 5XX Elective Course SEMESTER III INRL 533 Thesis 0,0,0 (ECTS: 30) SEMESTER IV INRL 534 Thesis 0,0,0 (ECTS: 30)
COURSES INRL 501 Theories of International Relations ECTS: 8 The last three decades have witnessed a vastly ardent and fertile debate within almost all social science disciplines. In tandem with the claims of modern social disciplines to objectivity and universality, the modernity itself was problematized and opened to perpetual discussion. The field of International Relations Theory has also been drastically influenced from this modernity versus post-modernity debate. The basic tenets of state-centric Realist and neo-realist paradigms of International Relations were put into question and challenged by various critical theories. The social constructivist, poststructuralist, feminist, neo-marist and post-colonialist approaches have all presented novel, eciting opportunities to better comprehend and problematize conventional paradigms of International Relations. This course is designed to provide students with a postgraduate level of understanding of mainstream and positivist and post-positivist critical theories of International Relations. Doing this, the course will encourage students to think critically about issues of international politics and to analyze these issues from diverse theoretical perspectives. This course presents a unique opportunity for the students aspiring to gain the necessary knowledge and skill for an in-depth and critical analysis of theory and practice of international politics. INRL 502 Current Issues in International Relations and Theoretical Approaches ECTS: 8 In tandem with the 1980s, the Realist and Neo-Realist schools have begun to lose their hegemonic status within the International Relations Theory (IRT) through the increase of Neo-Marist, post-structuralist, feminist, post-colonialist and other critical discourses. The end of the Cold War era and the acceleration and deepening of the globalisation process also rendered debatable the capacity and adequacy of Realist and Neo-Realist IR theories in analysing the nature and direction of change in international politics. As such, a theoretical revival and prosperity appeared through which not only international politics but also the IR theory itself was put into question. This course is designed to familiarise students with the major debates within the IRT on selected topics. In this respect, such issues as different conceptualisations of state, foreign policy and international politics within IRT, identity/difference problematique, the role of international institutions in regional/global politics, war on terror and humanitarian interventions will be covered throughout the course. Unlike the conventional method, in which different theoretical positions are introduced and discussed in a definite order, the course will be delivered on a subject basis. At the end of the course, students will not only be informed about the debates on the major questions of IRT, but also conceive the necessity and significance of critical thinking about international politics and its theorisation. INRL 503 Research Methods in International Relations ECTS: 8
The course is designed to equip graduate students with the tools necessary for doing scientific research in the field of international relations (/ and comparative politics). Following a brief introduction to the philosophy of science and a discussion of scientific method, the students will learn about formulating research questions, developing hypotheses, collecting data, as well as operationalization, measurement, analysis of data and the interpretation of results. The final part of the course will eamine both quantitative and qualitative research methods. At the end of the course, students will gain first-hand eperience by writing their own original research paper. INRL 504 Seminar Course 0,0,0 ECTS: 8 In the masters program with thesis, this is a compulsory course for the students. The students will conduct research on a topic to be determined with their professor and present a seminar paper at the end of the course. This course is designed also to encourage the students to prepare papers that would be a preliminary study for their thesis and thus is offered by a relevant professor in the field. INRL 505 State and Society in the European Union ECTS: 7 This course is in general, about the state and society relations in some European Union states such as Germany, France, Ireland, Belgium, Italy. In particular, the course deals with the separatist movements in these countries and their implications for the regional and international level. It also aims at introducing the students how the issues as separatism is tackled in legal and political terms at the European Union level in greater detail through the case studies. INRL 506 European Political History, ECTS: 7 The course aims at analyzing the basic dynamics behind the evolution of the international political order in the 20th century with reference to the political history of Europe. It covers topics in a chronological order, the birth of the Westphalian state system in Europe, the French Revolution, the industrial revolution, the 19 th century revolutions, the causes and consequences of the First World War, the interwar period, the Second World War, the Cold War and post-cold War period. The chronological design of the course will revolve around the main topics of European political history within the relevant periods, such as imperialism, nationalism, liberalism, fascism. INRL 507 Contemporary Balkan Politics ECTS: 7 Since the beginning of the 1990s, the Balkans has turned into one of the hottest spot in the world. Particularly the conflicts following the collapse of the Socialist Yugoslavia were taken as serious threat to the proclaimed normative principles and moral values of the post-cold War order thereby driving the Atlantic community which had so far assumed the pivotal role in stabilizing the international system to adopt a vivid diplomacy. There available many academic studies on the establishment of stable peace among the former protagonists and on the implications of dynamic Western engagement in the region led by the US and the European Union as well as on the processes destined to end the conflicts. This course aims at discussing the socio-political changes the Balkans region underwent with their relevant implications on the global affairs as well as the European continent under the light of the major approaches regarding international relations. Another purpose of the course is to unfold
the characteristic of the Turkish foreign policy towards the region, to discuss the priorities of the Turkish state in the regional politics and the strategies it must pursue to achieve its objectives. INRL 508 Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict ECTS: 7 Nationalism and ethnic belonging are one of the major reasons behind inter-state as well as intra-state disagreements and conflicts with outstanding humanitarian costs, that occasionally require international intervention. Especially the conflict resolution approaches put forth a variety of views that purport to solve the conflicts between communities divided along ethnic, religious and cultural differences, which are based not only on the material but also on political, institutional, socio-economic and cognitive disagreements. This course, with the help of the relevant literature, aims to analyse primarily why, with the help of which dynamics and in what forms national and ethnic differences turn out manifest conflicts. In addition, it purports to discuss the political formulas which have already been tested or are anticipated theoreticaly to be succesful in preventing, transforming or resolving this kind of conflicts. The course also elaborates the involved case studies under the light of the views synthesizing the approaches referring to the sociological, political and international dimensions of the ethnic conflicts. INRL 509 International Peace and Stability ECTS: 7 This course aims at discussing the settings beyond negative peace which refers simply to the absence of war. Peace studies contain the academic debate regarding the processes and dynamics that drive the states to rule out resorting to force, reconcile with each other, internalize common norms and values, and even develop collective identities (positive peace). In this contet, the course analyzes in detail positive and stable peace between states on a large spectrum spanning from classical democratic peace approach to security communities, from diplomatic rapprochement to reconciliation, and discusses the validity of the involved approaches in the light of the case studies. INRL 510 Post-Conflict Peace Building ECTS: 7 The course aims at elaborating the fundamental political and socio-economic reforms that are vitally needed after the settlement of the conflicts between the warring parties, and the contributions of international or non-governmental mediator to the peace processes. Hence, the course contains the academic work analysing the peace-building processes particularly under the aegis of the United Nations in the conflict ridden regions of the world. INRL 511 European Security ECTS: 7 This course is designed to provide students with a postgraduate level of understanding of recent issues, questions and institutions of post-cold War European security with new analytical tools introduced by contemporary security studies. In this respect, after problematising the concepts of security and Europe, the course will first present a critical overview of the history of European security from World War II up to the present time. The course will secondly epatiate mainstream and critical security studies by particularly focusing on their in-depth analyses on the issues of and challenges to post-cold War European security. In the third stage, some crucial institutions and policies of the European security system such as NATO, WEU and the EU s Common Foreign and Security Policy will be eamined. The course will then eplore new issues of and challenges to European
security, i.e. environmental degradation, climate change, energy security, human trafficking and immigration. The course will end with a general critical overview of the post-cold War European security issues by appreciating the insights provided by recent critical approaches to security. INRL 512 Theories of European Integration ECTS: 7 The process of European integration, which can be traced back to the end of World War II, has hitherto been the subject of intense academic and intellectual debates. Different theoretical perspectives have striven to understand and re-shape the nature and direction of this process of integration. This course is designed to discuss and problematise the main theoretical approaches to European integration covering the three phases of integration theory. The first part of the course will address the theories eplaining the European integration such as federalism, neo-functionalism and liberal inter-governmentalism. The course will secondly introduce and discuss the theoretical positions analysing the nature of European governance such as multi-governance and policy network approaches. In the final section it will focus on those more recent and critical approaches mentioning the discursively constructed nature of European integration and governance, i.e. social constructivism, discursive approaches and gender perspectives. How and to what etent these theoretical approaches are relevant and helpful to understand the European integration and what their contributions and short comings are will constitute our main question throughout the course. INRL 513 Critical Approaches to Security: Rethinking National, Regional and Global Security ECTS: 7 Since the end of the 1980s, and especially in the post-cold War period, there have been a great deal of changes in the meaning assigned to security and in the parameters of being (in)secure. These remarkable changes have eerted a path-breaking impact on Security Studies as well. The conventional state-centric and military-based approaches to security have been critically questioned and challenged from a variety of new perspectives. Various critical studies, such as the Copenhagen School, dedicated themselves to posit a more comprehensive and adequate conceptualisation of security. The central aim of this course is to introduce students to contemporary debates in Security Studies in order to encourage them to reflect on national, regional and global security with new analytical tools provided by recent studies. In this respect, the course will first provide a critical overview of traditional Realist and neo- Realist paradigms of security and will secondly introduce and discuss the recent critical literature on the issue. Having provided students with an appreciation of the different theoretical approaches, the course will then apply these insights through the cases of culture and practice of national security in Turkey, European security and (in)security in a globalising world. INRL 514 Turkish Domestic and Foreign Policy ECTS: 7 Foreign policy has conventionally been conceived as detached from the domestic policy environment. This is sourced from the Realist presumption that the spheres of internal and international politics are clearly demarcated from each other. Yet this assumption has been questioned by theoretical analyses as well as practical developments in recent years. This course aims at eploring and discussing the interactions and interrelatedness among domestic politics and foreign policy within the contet of crucial Turkish foreign policy issues. The course departs from two main hypotheses: 1) foreign political discourses, performances and actions of the state are integral part of maintaining domestic political order; and 2) the
structure of and power relations within domestic politics, intra-elite and institutional balances have a crucial role to play in the making and conduct of foreign policy. Drawing on this interactional approach, this course aims at developing an in-depth analysis of some major issues of Turkish foreign policy such as the Cyprus issue, Turco-Greek relations and Turkish/Euro-Atlantic relations by associating them with relevant domestic debates in Turkey. INRL 515 International Law and Current Issues ECTS: 7 This course focuses in depth of some current issues and challenges in international relations such as the international use of force, international humanitarian law, and the relationship between international law and border disputes. While considering these issues, the course eplores the relationship of law, policy, and politics in the foreign policy-making process and looks in particular at the role of international law in the foreign policy making process. INRL 516 Issues in Turco-Greek Relations ECTS: 7 Turco-Greek relations have always occupied a central place in shaping foreign policy formulations and security/strategic calculations in these two immediate neighbours. The main aim of this course is to provide students with etensive, historical knowledge and deeper understanding of these relations and make them familiar with the current debates on the issue. In this respect, this course will first eamine the historical evaluation of the Turco-Greek relations from the 19 th century up to the present time. Then, it will move on to eplore different aspects of critically important issues of these relations such as the Cyprus question, the Aegean dispute and the Turkish and Greek minorities. Beyond the national stereotypes and clichés, this course will encourage students to critically reflect on the Turco-Greek relations and to analyze the relevant issues from diverse theoretical perspectives. INRL 517 Religion and World Politics ECTS: 7 The course surveys the influence of religion in individual behaviour and public life, as well as domestic and international politics. Classical theories and contemporary research on religion are covered in order to provide a more comprehensive understanding of religion and how it affects social and political life. Topics surveyed in the course cover the role of religion at various levels: The influence of religion as a belief system on personal attitudes and behaviour; religion as an institution and its effects on collective action, political participation, and group dynamics; religious traditions and effects on economic development, democratization; religion in international affairs including religious based mass movements, religious fundamentalism, and religious conflicts. INRL 518 Small States and World Politics ECTS: 7 Classical state centric international relations approaches to a great etend take the great powers to the very centre of their perception while shaping their understanding of international relations. Within this framework there has been a tendency to analyse the international arena as structure composed of great power dominancy. Despite the fact that the majority of the international actors are consist of the small states they are rarely taken to the centre of study of the international relations. This course aims to conceptualise and analyse the small states from the international relations theoretical point of view as well as elaborate
on their general characteristics, economic structures, foreign policy orientations, specific problems that they face and the roles that they play in the international arena. INRL 519 Politics of Transformation in Southeast Europe and the Balkans ECTS: 7 After the end of the Cold War the Balkans has been through important political, social and economic transformations. During this period while the countries that had been ruled by the communist party regimes eperience transition to democracy and free market economy, the others have also shared part of the transformation problems. The course aims to analyse the transition eperiences of the Balkan countries and successes and failures. In particular the Yugoslavia s dissolution process and the emerged conflicts will be studied in addition to the Balkan countries European Union and NATO integration attempts as well as other integration processes and sources of competition in the region. INRL 520 Small Wars and Insurgecies ECTS: 7 Today most of the armed conflicts and fighting comprised of small wars and insurgencies that are caused either by the domestic instabilities or the inter-state issues. In this course it aimed to analyse small wars and insurgencies from the point of their emergence and historical development as well as the features of the unconventional conflicts, asymmetric and guerrilla wars, which etend to the global scale. In line with the development of the ways to counter those conflicts as are small war fighting and counterinsurgency strategies will also be analysed within the framework of contemporary and historical cases of colonial wars, Cold War political rivalries and post-cold War conflicts. INRL 521 International Peace Operations ECTS: 7 International peace operations are part of the actions taken under the Charter of the United Nation s chapter for the purpose of peaceful settlement of international disputes and conflicts, and they are important part of the international agenda. Within this framework the course covers the period from the post-second World War era until contemporary period, with reference to transformation of the characteristics of peace operations from traditional peacekeeping missions to peace building and peace enforcement as response to emerging comple emergencies and ever intensifying international interventions with the aim to analyse them from theoretical perspectives and historical contet. INRL 522 International Security and Current Issues 3,0, 3 ECTS: 7 Security problems that have already been widespread in the international arena became more intense, comple and multidimensional in the 21 st Century. In this course, in addition to the theoretical eplanations, and information about the contemporary sources of threats to the international security there will be discussions about other sources of insecurity like terrorism, transnational crimes, energy security, environmental security, cyber security, human security, maritime security, weapons of mass destruction and nuclear security which would contribute to the epanding the students perspectives about contemporary security issues. INRL 523 International Politics of Oil ECTS: 7 Oil has been playing a very central role in the contemporary energy politics as a strategic raw
material that provides majority of the world s daily energy needs. Within the framework of the course, the evolution of the oil s growing impact on the world politics, significant state and non-state actors in the sector, international energy markets and trade s impact on the international economy, as well as oil centred international crises and conflicts will be elaborated together with the analyses on the part of the producing states and related economies that will be addressed from a political economy point of view with reference to various processes and case studies. INRL 524 American Foreign Policy toward the Middle East ECTS: 7 The USA has been an important player in the shaping of the political, economic and social order in the Middle East especially in the second half of the twentieth century. In this course, the American foreign policy towards the Middle East will be eamined in this period up until the present. Especially the Cold War, the post-cold War and the post-9/11 periods will be dealt with a specific reference to the impact of the US foreign policy towards the domestic politics of the states in the region. In addition, the US foreign policy towards the so-called Arab Spring will be elaborated. INRL 525 Turkey and the Middle East ECTS: 7 This course aims at eamining the political and economic relations between Turkey and the Middle Eastern countries through focusing the challenges facing these relations. The scope will cover countries such as Syria, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan. The course is divided into three periods: the 1923-1945 period, the 1945-1990 Cold War period, and the post-cold War period since 1990. INRL 526 European Union-Turkey Relations ECTS: 7 The relations between Turkey and the European Union that lasted for more than half a century have passed through important turning points. This course, will analyze the Turkey-EU relations with specific reference to these turning points in the historical process and anaylze the historical causes of the main challenges that both sides have been facing. After providing with the students a historical background of the relations, the course, in the first part, will deal with the issues in the post-1999 Helsinki Summit period, when the process of Turkey s candidacy has started until 3 October 2005 when the accession negotiations started between the two parties. In the second part of the course, the main challenges facing the relationship will be elaborated with special focus on its economic, political and social dimensions. INRL 527 Emerging Powers and World Politics ECTS: 7 There have been tremendous changes in the last decades of the 20th and the first decades of the 21st century in the international power balances. In this period, the so-called BRIC countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India and China have emerged as new rising powers. In this course, the economic and political causes of the rise of these powers will be elaborated and the possible implications of this phenomena upon international relations and especially world politics will be eamined.
INRL 528 International Migration and the European Union ECTS: 7 This course will eamine the economic, political and social dimensions of international migration within the framework of EU integration theories. It also aims at analysing EU s migration policies through the countries that receive and send migrants. In this way, it elaborates on the economic, political and social causes and consequences of migration, illegal immigration, refugees, transit migration, migration and security, migration and development. INRL 529 International Organizations and World Politics ECTS: 7 Being one of the most important actors in international politics, the international organizations have been undergoing a transformation in transition from the 20th to 21st century. The main aim of this course is to analyze especially these transformations in the post-cold War period when world politics is being reshaped. In this regard, some international organizations sucha as the United Nations, NATO, Council of Europe, OECD, MERCOSUR and Arab Union will be eamined. INRL 530 The Cyprus Problem: Past and the Present ECTS: 7 The main aim of this course, in general is to encourage the students for an analytical and critical thinking about the Cyprys problem through focusing on the historical development of the Cyprus problem, its impact on the international relations of Turkey, main points of dispute and the ways in which it effected Turkish domestic politics. In this regards, the content of the course will cover the historical turning points of the problem the historical development of the Cyprus problem, the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus, the Turkish intervention, the establishment of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, the ongoing intercommunal talks with intervals and Annan Plan. Then, the course will focus on how the Cyprus issue has effected Turkey s relations with the USA, Greece, England and international organizations as the European Union and NATO. Third, the main themes of conflict such as the property rights, division of powers, security and guaratorship will be dealt. Lastly, the course will elaborate on how the Cyprus problem has effected the domestic political debates in Turkey and how it is effected by them in return. INRL 531 Globalization and Governance ECTS: 7 In our globaling world, the transnational connections in fact inevitably effect and shape the social, cultural and political events at the local level. Especially the economic dimension of globalization is no longer an issue at hand for the governments, but of governance. This course aims at eploring how contemporary economic and political system has been effected by the phenomena of globalization. INRL 532 International Political Economy and Global Crisis ECTS: 7 This course aims at eplaining the relationship between international politics and economy in regard to the global crisis that occurred in the 20th century. The course will first dwell on the evolution of the economic relations between the states starting from the siteenth century when mercantilism came into eistence. The Great Depression in the beginning of the century with the widespread effects, the dollar crisis in the 1960s and the oil crisis in the 1970s will be elaborated. In addition, the economic crisis in 2008 that spread to the other parts of the world
and the current crisis as the 2011 debt crisis in the European Union will be elaborated with special focus on how they impact world politicsa nd international relations. INRL 533 Thesis 0,0,0 ECTS: 30 In this course, the students are required to prepare the masters thesis that they will defend at the end of the program under the supervision of their advisors. INRL 534 Thesis 0,0,0 ECTS: 30 In this course, the students are required to prepare the masters thesis that they will defend at the end of the program under the supervision of their advisors.