Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 1 session / week, 2 hours / session

Organization and Contents

Part I: Foundations and Contexts

  1. Introduction: The Classics – Concepts and Contexts
  2. Realism and Neo-realism
  3. Liberalism and Neo-liberalism
  4. Institutionalism and Neo-institutionalism
  5. Constructivism and Contentions
  6. Gaps in Theory: What’s Missing?

    Part II: New Challenges and Critical Applications

  7. Environmental Perspectives
  8. Emergent and Evolutionary Dynamics
  9. International Conflict and Warfare
  10. Transformations of Structures and Processes
  11. Globalization and IR Theory
  12. Normative and Empirical Challenges – 21st Century

Course Requirements

  1. Active Seminar Participation;
  2. Class Presentation – format to be announced; and
  3. Final Examination (take home format) or Review/Research Paper.

Course Books

Beitz, Charles R. Political Theory and International Relations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1999.

Choucri, Nazli, ed. Global Accord: Environmental Challenges and International Responses. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1995.

Katzenstein, Peter J., Robert O. Keohane, and Stephen D. Krasner, eds. Exploration and Contestation in the Study of World Politics. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999.

Mingst, Karen., and Jack Snyder, eds. Essential Readings in World Politics. NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 2001.

Waltz, Kenneth N. Theory of International Politics. Reading, Mass. Addison Wesley, 1979.

Rawls, John. The Law of Peoples. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001.