Spring 2022  |  POL 3835 Section 001: International Relations (53101)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Lecture
Credits:
3 Credits
Grading Basis:
Student Option
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person Term Based
Class Attributes:
UMNTC Liberal Education Requirement
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
01/18/2022 - 05/02/2022
Tue, Thu 04:00PM - 05:15PM
UMTC, West Bank
Anderson Hall 330
Enrollment Status:
Open (76 of 85 seats filled)
Also Offered:
Course Catalog Description:
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? These questions are central to the study of international relations, yet different theoretical approaches have been developed in an attempt to answer them. Often these approaches disagree with one another, leading to markedly different policy prescriptions and predictions for future events. 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 and neorealism, liberalism and liberal institutionalism, constructivism, feminism, Marxism, and critical theory. A special effort is made to relate the course material to world events, developments, or conflicts in the past decade or so.
Class Notes:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?ccreamer+POL3835+Spring2022
Class Description:

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? These questions are central to the study of international relations, yet different theoretical approaches have been developed in an attempt to answer them. Often these approaches disagree with one another, leading to markedly different policy prescriptions and predictions for future events.


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, critical security studies, feminist theory, queer IR theory, post-colonial theory, indigenous approaches to international relations, and neo-Marxism.


A special effort is made to relate the course material to world events, developments, or conflicts in the past decade or so. Specific topics covered include: the ascendance of China and great power politics in an age of economic rivalries; new technologies and national security; gender-based violence during conflict; multilateral cooperation and its disintegration; the future of the human rights movement and backlash against global governance; the internationalization of the Movement for Black Lives; trade wars, weaponized interdependence, and pandemic politics; and the global politics of climate change.

Who Should Take This Class?:

Students from all concentrations are welcome to enroll. This is an upper-level course that surveys competing theories or approaches in the field of international relations through readings and assignments that are more intellectually demanding than 1xxx-level courses. While there are no formal prerequisites for this course, it is recommended that you have previously taken POL 1025: Global Politics or POL 1026: U.S. Foreign Policy.

Learning Objectives:


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
Grading:
  • MINI-ANALYTICAL PAPERS: 30% (two, each worth 15 points)
  • MIDTERM EXAM: 25%
  • FINAL TAKE-HOME Paper: 30%
  • ATTENDANCE & PARTICIPATION: 15%
Exam Format:

Written closed-book, closed-notes in-class midterm exam

Class Format:
In-person lectures, two times per week
Workload:

· 45-80 Pages Reading Per Week

· 3 Take-Home Papers

Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/53101/1223
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
24 November 2021

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