COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES:

An examination of historical and contemporary theories in international relations; the role of political, economic, ethnic, religious and other belief systems or philosophical approaches of sufficient coherence, to be termed ideologies, within the global system.

BOOK LIST:

Baradat, Leon P. 2006. Political Ideologies: Their Origins and Impact., 9th ed. New Jersey: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

Sterling-Folker, Jennifer., ed. 2006. Making Sense of International Relations Theory. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.

Wendt, Alexander. 1999. Social Theory of International Relations. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Williams, Michael C. 2005. The Realist Tradition and the Limits of International Relations. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Additional readings will be online or in the form of hand-outs.

GRADING:

Research project

Proposal 5%

Presentation 5%

Paper 40%

Final Exam 40%

Class Participation 10%

------

100%

Each student will be required to lead a portion of discussion of the reading. Each student will further be expected to be ready to discuss all readings assigned for a given class meeting.

Each student will write a 25-30 page research paper that examines a specific foreign policy problem and analyzes that problem from three different ideological/theoretical perspectives. Each student must present a proposal to Dr. Taylor that includes an annotated bibliography of at least ten scholarly sources by the date noted below.

Each student will present their findings in a 10-15 minute presentation in class.

The paper and the proposal needs to be submitted to Turnitin.com (course #2556892, password=splosion)

CLASS SCHEDULE:

1/7 Course intro and overview

1/9 No class: Dr. Taylor will be attending the Southern Political Science Association Annual Meeting

I. REVIEWING CONTEMPORARY IDEOLOGIES

1/12 & 1/14 Baradat, c1 & c2

1/16 Baradat, c3 (Nationalism)

1/19 MLK Day

1/21-1/28 Classical Liberalism and Basic Democratic Theory

Baradat c4-c5 plus additional readings

Additional on Readings on Liberalism and Capitalism

French National Assembly (August 1789): Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.

Hobbes. Leviathan. Chapters 13 and 14. (updated from original posting)

Locke. The Second Treatise on Government. Excerpt. (updated from original posting)

Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations: Book I, C2, “Of the Principle Which Gives Occasion to the Division of Labor”

Additional Readings on Conservatism

Burke, Edmund. Reflections on the Revolution in France: excerpt.

1/30-2/2 Fascism

Baradat, c10

Additional Readings on Fascism:

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil: excerpt.

Mussolini, Benito. “What is Fascism”

The 25 Points of Hitler's Nazi Party

Selection from Mein Kampf (handout)

2/4 Socialism: Baradat c8 and c9

2/6 Other ideological approaches: Baradat c7, c11 and c12

II. THE THREE MAJOR SCHOOLS

A. Realism (2/9-2/20)

Sterling-Folker, C1 & C2 (updated)

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. Chapters 17-20. (updated)

Rousseau: Discourse on the Origin of Inequality.

Excerpt from Morgenthau (handout) + Six Principles of Political Realism

Excerpt from Waltz (handout)

Williams, complete.

B. Liberalism (2/23-3/6)

Sterling-Folker, c3

Kant, Perpetual Peace.

Locke, John. The Second Treatise on Government. Excerpt.

Doyle, Michael W. 1986. Liberalism and World Politics. American Political Science Review, 80,4 (December): 1151-1169. [JSTOR]

Keohane, Robert O. 1988. International Institutions: Two Approaches. International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Dec., 1988), pp. 379-396 [JSTOR]

Keohane, Robert O. 1998. International Institutions: Can Interdependence Work? Source: Foreign Policy, No. 110, Special Edition: Frontiers of Knowledge (Spring, 1998), pp. 82-96+194

3/9-3/13: SPRING BREAK

C. Constructivism (3/16-3/30)

Sterling-Folker, c5

Wendt, complete

III. ADDITIONAL THEORIES

A. Marxist/Neomarxist Theories (4/1-4/6)

Sterling-Folker, c7

excerpt from Lenin, Imperialism

Dos Santos, Theotonio. 1970. “The Structure of Dependence .” The American Economic Review, Vol. 60, 2: 231-236. (via JSTOR)

excerpt from Hardt and Negri (chapter 1—downloadable here).

B. Other Theories (4/8-4/17)

Sterling-Folker, c4, c6, c8, c9, c10 and c11

Additional handouts on misc additional theories

4/20-4/27: Student Presentations

4/29: Dead Day

5/4: Final Exam (Monday, 2-4)