2023/2024
The Theory of International Relations
Type:
Optional course (faculty)
Delivered by:
Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs
When:
3, 4 module
Open to:
students of one campus
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
3
Contact hours:
42
Course Syllabus
Abstract
Welcome to International Relations Theory! In this course, we will examine the different ways in which international politics is understood, explained, interpreted and judged by different theoretical traditions and paradigms. We will be exploring different frameworks for thinking about why and how international politics works in the way that it does, but also for thinking about how international politics ought to be. The course will focus primarily on theoretical texts and concepts, rather than on empirical or historical knowledge, though we will try to relate the ideas discussed in to the empirical and real world examples from international politics.
Learning Objectives
- This course will allow you to develop a broad knowledge of the tools used in studying international relations and of the debates between different theoretical perspectives. We will acquaint you with ideas, concepts and texts in international political theory (both classical and modern) in their historical context, introduce you to issues of methodology in IR, and enable you to think critically about alternative ways of explaining, understanding and judging international politics.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- Students will be able to describe major trends in IR and categories of analysis in IR, scope and limitations of IR theory.
- Students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of different frameworks for thinking about international politics
- Students will be able to talk about liberal thinkers such as H. Grotius, J-J. Rousseau, J. Locke, I. Kant.
- Students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of a range of ideas, concepts and texts in international political theory and the historical contexts in which they arose
- Distinguish and evaluate different methodological approaches within the study of international politics
Course Contents
- Introduction to IR Theory
- Realism and the main concepts
- Liberalism
- Marxism
- Interwar ‘internationalism’
- Realism as an intellectual project
- The international thought of the Cold War: modernisation theory and dependency theory
- Decolonisation
- 21st century Marxist thought: violence, dispossession and the new imperialism
- Biopolitics and the state of exception
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- International relations in political thought : texts from the Ancient Greeks to the First World War, , 2003
- Puchala D. J. Theory and history in international relations. – Routledge, 2013.
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Theories of international relations, Burchill, S., 2005
- Theories of international relations, Burchill, S., 2009