Spring 2007

GOV 388K • Study of International Relations

Course Description

This graduate course on the study of international relations will survey some of the most prominent contributions to the field during the past thirty years. It will be conceptually organized around the question of how social order is constructed in a political system made unique by the absence of a centralized structure of political authority. While exploring questions of research design, methodology, and ontology, our discussions of theory will focus on the following sources of order: balance of power, hegemony, technology, ideas, norms, international organizations, globalization, nation states, and domestic regime type.

Grading Policy

Class participation 15% Reading Journal 10% 4 Short reaction papers (approx. 1000 words each) 35% Final Exam 40%

Texts

Robert Gilpin. 1981. War and Change in World Politics. Cambridge University Press. Martha Finnemore. 1996. National Interests in International Society. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Helen V. Milner. 1997. Interests, Institutions, and Information: Domestic Politics and International Relations. Princeton University Press. Alexander Wendt. 1999. Social Theory of International Politics. Cambridge University Press. David A. Lake and Robert Powell, eds. 1999. Strategic Choice and International Relations. Princeton UP G. John Ikenberry. 2001. After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Rebuilding of Order After Major Wars. Princeton UP.

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