International Relations

This course is an introduction to International Relations with a focus on the '91global'92 dimension of politics. It gives an overview of the history and theory of international relations, paying attention to enduring concepts and contemporary issues of global politics. Students will study concepts and issues such as the role of the state, the nation and sovereignty in the international system; how the international relations theories conceptualize power; what are the conditions for peace and the causes of war. The knowledge of these concepts and the debates they shape in the IR field form the foundation of any understanding of past and current international affairs.

This course examines the international relations of the Middle East, focusing on questions of how states developed, what drives conflict, and how the regional order has shifted over time. The course draws on theories of International Relations, and applies them to the politics of the Middle East. The course analyzes the interplay of levels of analyses, with specific attention to the role of ideology, identity, and the interaction between domestic and international politics, in the formulation of foreign policy. The course analyzes the development of the '93nation-state'94 system in the Middle East, and examines the nature of transnational identities and ideologies. We will consider a number of frameworks for understanding the region'92s international politics and Great Power involvement, roughly characterized as Realist, Liberal and Constructivist approaches, but we will always focus on how these approaches can help us understand real-world decisions and outcomes.

This course explores contemporary relations between the United States and the world. The primary goal is to give students conceptual and critical tools to understand and analyze how international relations theory, U.S. foreign policy outcomes, and current events fit together, especially in the post 9/11 world. It is designed to develop students'92 capacity both to explain the foreign policy-making process in the United States, and to better understand the underlying patterns, logic, and implications of American foreign policy in the world at large.

This course will examine the issue of European foreign policy through the lens of EU integration. To what extent have EU member states constructed a coherent foreign and security policy? Is the European Union as a whole becoming a credible security actor with the ability not only to defend its common borders, but also to contribute to global security? We will also look on how forward-looking European leaders sought to end the possibility of another war by pooling the production of key military resources. Since then, despite the predominance of European economic, trade, and monetary issues and their global impact, the European Union has always been, explicitly or not, about security integration. There is much debate about whether the EU can even achieve this goal, especially in light of the recent financial crisis, declining defense budgets, division over the Iraq war, disagreement on the recognition of Kosovo, and so on. Nonetheless, some scholars have already labeled Europe a second superpower. Naturally, such developments have a strong bearing on the EU'92s relationship with the rest of the world.

This course will introduce students to the international relations of Asia-Pacific (A-P) region and help them to think critically about the challenges facing actors in this region including the United States. This course will highlight the region'92s history, the latest developments in IR theory, and a healthy respect for the complexity of the region. It will also look into the impact of the region'92s history on contemporary politics, asking how imperialism, World War II, decolonization, the Cold War, and more recently the war on terror have influenced developments in the Asia-Pacific

This course of Foreign Policy of Russia, Eastern Europe, and the Eurasia brings together two political regions '96Europe and the former Soviet Union. This merger is a product of the end of the Cold War and the reuniting of Europe. It is also a result of the convergence of different intellectual traditions that developed around the study of Europe, East and West. Students in this course will think critically about the histories, cultures, religions, politics and economies of the region of the former Soviet Union, as well the often-competing ideas and interests that have shaped these histories and cultures for the past thousand years.

This course examines theories of conflict and cooperation in contemporary world politics. During the first half of the semester we will examine the core concepts and assumptions of several (but not all) contemporary theories of international relations. Specifically, we will examine basic and advanced theoretical approaches to understanding the changing nature of the state system and state behavior, the instruments of national power, the role of international regimes and institutions, and the emerging role of non-state actors in global politics. During the second half of the semester, we will evaluate these concepts, assumptions and theories by asking how well these approaches help us understand contemporary international policy issues.