spring 2012 STV-3005 International Politics - 10 ECTS

Type of course

Theoretical.
The course is an elective, i.e., open to students enrolled in the Master¿s Programme in Political Science as well as interested Master¿s students from other fields.

Course overlap

If you pass the examination in this course, you will get an reduction in credits (as stated below), if you previously have passed the following courses:

STATSV-304 International Politics 10 stp

Course content

The course examines theoretical approaches to international politics in historical perspective, and considers important contemporary debates. Under consideration are both the more traditional approaches - broadly realist and liberal - which dominate the field, and newer approaches, which criticise and oppose them. The course builds directly on the foundations of STV-1005: International Politics, and aims to provide deeper insight into the central assumptions of, and disagreements between, the major theoretical approaches, as well their implications for the study of international relation.

Objectives of the course

Students who have successfully completed the course should have achieved the following learning outcomes:

Knowledge and understanding:
- Solid grounding in the discipline¿s central theoretical ideas and approaches and how to apply them to the study of international politics.

Analytical abilities:
- Able to work independently - and employ relevant scholarly foundations - to address a variety of analytical challenges .
- Able to critically evaluate existing theories, methods and interpretations within the study of international politics
- Able to apply scholarly knowledge critically, including reflection on his or her own scholarly practice.
- Able to take the initiative to apply knowledge to new domains.
- Able to formulate and structure complex scholarly arguments.

Competencies:
- Able to continue systematically the development of his or her own scholarly grounding and specialisation.
- Able to communicate research issues, questions, analyses and conclusions pertaining to his or her field with both specialists and lay-people.
- Able to participate in public debate on the basis of relevant knowledge from his or her field.

Language of instruction and examination

Engelsk.

Teaching methods

Classes
The teaching takes the form of 10 lecture-seminars coming to a total of 20 in-class hours.

Quality control
The course is assessed once every programme-period with both in-progress and final evaluations. Evaluation is normally undertaken orally to allow students and teacher to establish a dialogue concerning the possibility and/or need for changes and improvements.

Assessment

The exam has two components:

- A take-home exam on an assigned topic of up to 2.000 words to be completed in the course of a week. Students may take the opportunity to write the exam together in which case the maximum word-count will be 3000.

- A three-hour University-based, closed-book examination.

The two components are give equal weight in evaluation and the assignement of the final grade. The grade will be on a scale from A to F, where F is a fail. The course allows students the opportunity to re-sit their examination in the following semester.

Recommended reading/syllabus

Spring 2012

STV 3005 - International Politics

Required readings

Emanuel Adler, ¿Security Communities in Theoretical Perspective¿, in Adler and Michael Barnet (eds.), Security Communities (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 3-28. (26 pp.)

Douglas Brommesson and Henrik Friberg Fernros, ¿Individualisation and Destabilisation of the International Order: The Case of the Responsibility to Protect¿, International Review of Sociology 19:2 (July 2009), 315-330. (16 pp.)

Hedley Bull, 'Society and Anarchy in International Relations', in Herbert Butterfield and Martin Wight (eds.), Diplomatic Investigations (London: Allen and Unwin, 1966), 35-50. (16 pp.)

Simon Collard-Wexler, ¿Integration Under Anarchy: Neorealism and the European Union¿, European Journal of International Relations 12:2 (2006), 397-432. (36 pp.)

Robert Cox, 'Social Forces, States and World Orders: Beyond International Relations Theory', in Robert Cox and Timothy J. Sinclair (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 85-123. (39 pp.)

Audrey Kurth Cronin, ¿Behind the Curve: Globalization and International Terrorism¿, International Security 27:3 (Winter 2002/03), 30-58. (29 pp.)

James Der Derian, ¿The Boundaries of Knowledge and Power in International Relations¿, in Der Derian and M. Shapiro (eds.), International/Intertextual Relations (Toronto: Lexington Books, 1989), 3-10. (7 pp.)

Mark Duffield, ¿Post-modern Conflict: Warlords, Post-adjustment States and Private Protection¿, Civil Wars 1:1 (Spring 1998), 65-102. (38 pp.)

Anthony Giddens, ¿The Globalizing of Modernity¿, in David Held and Anthony McGrew (eds.), The Global Transformations Reader (Cambridge: Polity, 2003), 60-66. (7 pp.)

Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Empire, (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000), Preface, xi-xvii, Ch. 1: ¿World Order¿, 3-21. (26 pp.)

David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989): Chapter 17: ¿Time-space Compression and the Postmodern Condition¿, 284-307. (24 pp.)

David Held, ¿The Transformation of Political Community: Rethinking Democracy in the Context of Globalization¿ in I. Shapiro and C. Hacker-Cordón (ed.), Democracy¿s Edges (Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 1999), 84-111. (28 pp.)

Samuel Huntington, ¿The Clash of Civilizations¿, Foreign Affairs (1993) 72:3, 22-50. (29 pp.)

Ida Hydle, ¿The Development of Restorative Practices in a Human Security Perspective in Northern Europe¿, Paper presented to the International Conference on Restorative Practices, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 15-17 June, 2011. (15 pp.)

Alan James, Sovereign Statehood: The Basis of International Society (London: Allen and Unwin, 1986), Ch. 2, 13-36. (14 pp.)

Darryl Jarvis, ¿Postmodernism: A Critical Typology¿, Politics and Society 26:1 (1998), 95-142. (48 pp.)

Robert Keohane, ¿Institutional Theory and the Realist Challenge After the Cold War¿, in David A. Baldwin (ed.), Neorealism and Neoliberalism: The Contemporary Debate (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), 269-300. (32 pp.)

Robert O. Keohane, 'International Institutions: Two Approaches', International Studies Quarterly 32 (1988), 379-396. (18 pp.)

Charles A. Kupchan, ¿Life After Pax Americana¿, World Policy Journal 16:3 (Fall 1999), 20-27. (8 pp.)

Andrew Linklater, 'Men and Citizens in International Relations', in H.Williams (ed.), A Reader in International Relations and Political Theory (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1993), 309-325. (17 pp.)

Matthew.Paterson, ¿Green Politics¿, in S. Burchill, R. Devetak, J. Donnelly, A. Linklater, M. Paterson, C. Reus-Smit and J. True, Theories of International Relations, Second Edition (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 277-307. (31 pp.)

V. S. Peterson and A. S. Runyan, 'The Gender of World Politics', in M.A. Genest (ed.), Conflict and Cooperation (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1996), 533-544. (12 pp.)

Sabrina P. Ramet, ¿Kosovo: A Liberal Approach¿, Society 36:6 (1999), 1-9. (9 pp.)

Adam Roberts, ¿Humanitarian War: Military Intervention and Human Rights¿, International Affairs 69:3 (1993), 429-449. (21 pp.)

John Gerrard Ruggie, ¿Territoriality and Beyond: Problematizing Modernity in International Relations¿, International Organization 47:1 (1993), 139-174. (36 pp.)

Jan Aart Scholte, ¿Globalization and Inequality¿, in Globalization: A Critical Introduction (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 316-347. (32 pp.)

Michael J. Shapiro, ¿Textualizing Global Politics¿, in Der Derian and Shapiro, 11-22. (12 pp.)

Clifford Shearing and Jennifer Wood, ¿Nodal Governance, Democracy, and the New "Denizens"¿, Journal of Law and Society 30:3 (2003), 400-419. (20 pp.)

Heather Strang, ¿Restorative Justice Research on Crime Victims: What Can We Learn from Peace and Conflict Studies?¿, CPS Working Papers 11 (2008), 10-22. (13 pp.)

R.B.J. Walker, Inside/Outside: International Relations as Political Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), Ch. 4: ¿History, Structure, Reification', 81-103. (23 pp.)

R.B.J. Walker, 'The Prince and the "The Pauper": Tradition, Modernity, and Practice in the Theory of International Relations', in J. Der Derian and M. Shapiro (eds.), International/lntertextual Relations: Postmodern Readings of World Politics (Toronto: Lexington Books, 1989), 25-48. (24 pp.)

Kenneth Waltz, ¿Political Structures¿ and ¿Anarchic Orders and Balances of Power¿, in R. Keohane (ed.), Neorealism and its Critics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986), 70-130. (61 pp.)

Kenneth Waltz, Theory of International Politics (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979), ch. 7: ¿Structural Causes and Economic Effects¿, Part I (pp. 129-138); ch. 8: ¿Structural Causes and Military Effects¿, Parts I-III (161-176). (16 pp.)

Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations, ch. 6, 'Interventions' (New York: Basic Books, 1992), pp. 86-108. (23 pp.)

Alexander Wendt, ¿Anarchy is what States Make of it: The Social Construction of Power Politics¿, International Organization 46:2 (1992), 391-425. (35 pp.)

Martin Wight, "Western Values in International Relations," in Butterfield andWight, 89-131. (43 pp.)

Øyvind Østerud, ¿Antinomies of Postmodernism in International Studies¿, Journal of Peace Research 33:4 (1996), 385-390. (6 pp.)

Error rendering component

  • About the course
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  • ECTS: 10
  • Course code: STV-3005