ClassInfo

Why do countries go to war? Are individuals, organizations, and states driven by their interests or their ideas? What role does power play in international relations and is there any role for justice in global politics? Do international laws and transnational advocacy groups matter in a world dominated by powerful states? Whose interests are served by a globalizing world economy? This course provides the conceptual and theoretical means for analyzing these issues, processes, and events in international politics. By the end of this class, you will be able to understand the assumptions, the logics, and the implications of major theories and concepts of international relations. These include realism, liberalism, institutionalism, constructivism, feminism, post-colonial theory, and neo-Marxism. A special effort is made to relate the course material to world events and developments in the past decade or so. Specific topics covered include: the ascendance of China; new technologies and national security; the future of the human rights movement and backlash against global governance; trade wars, weaponized interdependence, and pandemic politics.

This course places special emphasis on helping you - as a global citizen - learn to:

• synthesize and evaluate existing theoretical approaches within international relations


• identify their strengths and weaknesses


• construct an argument for why we observe particular outcomes in world politics

• In-person lectures followed by online comprehension quizzes
• Simulation participation

· 45-80 Pages Reading Per Week

· Weekly Quizzes

· 2 Take-Home Papers

· Simulation participation