International Politics: Concepts and Theories
New York University
Department of Politics
POL-GA 1700
Spring 2014
Professor Shinasi A. Rama
Teaching Assistant: Sukwon Lee
Office Hours: Wed 4-6 and Thur 2-4 and by appt.
Phone # (212) 998-8528
Emails: sl2647@nyu.edu
Thursday: 16:20-18:10
Seminar Room: 217, 19 West 4th St.
Recitations: Thursday 8:30-9:45
Friday 10:00-11:15
shinasi.rama@nyu.edu
Course Description and Objectives:
This course offers a graduate-level introduction to theories of international politics and to some
of the important aspects of international politics. The class explores a variety of debates and
findings in the subfield of international relations. Coverage does not include every issue and
approach, but it addresses the core problems and perspectives animating mainstream IR in the
United States today. Students can expect to develop a sufficient understanding of the subfield to
prepare for further study and specialization, while advancing their knowledge of the substantive
issues under consideration.
The course is divided into two parts, though a sustained focus on theories, concepts, and central
debates extends throughout the semester. After an introduction to the broader debates and basic
epistemological questions, we begin with a critical examination of the leading theoretical
paradigms in IR. The remainder of the course is devoted to contemporary applications in various
areas of international security and political economy, weighted heavily toward the former. While
no explicit policymaking component is offered, students are encouraged to draw connections
between the course material and ongoing policy debates in world affairs.
Recitation is an important part of the course. Participation is required. Students will get the
opportunity to discuss readings for a particular week and they would develop skills to criticize
theories and approaches from the Selectorate Theory perspective and other approaches.
Requirements and Grading:
You are expected to carefully read all the assigned material. Beyond that, you are required to
attend classes regularly, both the class and the recitation and to participate actively in
discussions. More than three absences will gravely affect your grade. Participation in the class
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discussions and the recitations is mandatory. It also counts for 20% of your grade. You also are
required to write four short papers, 1500 words each (each counts for 20% of your grade). Three
short take-home assignments ask you to explain a historical or current IR event or problem with
reference to the theories presented in class and in the course readings. The fourth assignment is a
policy paper on a topic of your choice. In this paper you present your views on a given policy.
Readings:
There are a few books and many articles required for this course. The following books are
required. Aside from the books listed below, which could be bought at the NYU Bookstore, most
of articles are accessible through the Bobst Library Electronic Journals.
BOOKS:
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Alastair Smith, Randolph M. Siverson and James D. Morrow. The
Logic of Political Survival. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press, 2004.
Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society New York: Columbia University Press, 2003
Kenneth N. Waltz, Theory of International Politics, Addison-Wesley Press: Reading MA, 1979.
Edward Hallett Carr, The Twenty Years Crisis, 1919-1939 London: Macmillan, 1946 (we will be
using the most recent edition by Palgrave: London, 2001).
Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Power and Interdependence, 4rd edition New York:
Longman, 2011.
Jack Lewis Snyder, Myths of Empire, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991.
Robert Gilpin. Global Political Economy: Understanding the International Economic Order.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.
Scott D. Sagan and Kenneth N. Waltz. The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: A Debate Renewed. 2d
ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2003.
Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, New York:
Simon and Schuster, 1996.
Course Schedule:
Week 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE CLASS AND TO THE IR THEORIES:
In addition:
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Ashley Tellis, “Balancing Without Containment: An American Strategy for Managing China.”
Available at: http://carnegieendowment.org/2014/01/22/balancing-without-containmentamerican-strategy-for-managing-china/gz2z
Guest Lecture: Huan Wang, “A New Type of Great Power Relations.” Dr. Huan Wang is an
Associate Researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
1. APPROACHES TO INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
Week 2: COMPETING ASSUMPTIONS AND THE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS PROBLEM
IN IR THEORY
Thucydides, “The Melian Dialogue,” excerpt from The History of the Peloponnesian War, in
Richard K. Betts, ed., Conflict After the Cold War, 2nd ed., New York: Longman, 2008: 56-61.
Available at: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/melian.htm
Niccolo Machiavelli, “Doing Evil in Order to Do Good,” excerpt from The Prince, in Richard K.
Betts, ed., Conflict After the Cold War, 2nd edition New York: Longman, 2008: 61-66. and “On
the Duty of a Prince in Respect of Military Affairs” From The Prince Translated by N.H.
Thompson, New York: Collier, 1910: 48-51 and 57-59.
Thomas Hobbes, “The State of Nature and the State of War,” excerpt from Leviathan, in Richard
K. Betts, ed., Conflict After the Cold War, 2nd edition New York: Longman, 2002: 65-69.
Hugo Grotius, The Rights of War and Peace Translated by A.C. Campbell. New York: M.
Walter Dunne, 1901:55-57 and 62.
Immanuel Kant, “Perpetual Peace” in Richard K. Betts, ed., Conflict After the Cold War, 2nd
edition New York: Longman, 2008: 122-129.
Sigmund Freud, “Letter to Albert Einstein” The Collected Papers of Sigmund Freud edited by
James Strachey Volume 5 New York: Basic Books, 273-287. in Richard K. Betts, ed., Conflict
After the Cold War, 2nd edition New York: Longman, 2008: 171-179.
Woodrow Wilson, "Fourteen Points" Address to Congress, January 8, 1918 in
http://www.lib.byu.edu/rdh/wwi/
Francis Fukuyama, "The End of History,” National Interest, No. 16 Summer 1989:3-18.
Arnold Wolfers, Discord and Collaboration: Essays on International Politics Baltimore: The
Johns Hopkins Press, 1962: 3-24.
Robert Jervis, “Perception and the Level of Analysis Problem” Perception and Misperception in
International Politics Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976: 13-31.
Scott Sagan, “Why Do States Build Nuclear Weapons? Three Models in Search of a Bomb”
International Security Volume 21 Winter 1996-1997:54-86.
Recommended:
Stanley Hoffmann, "An American Social Science: International Relations," Daedalus 106/3
1977: 41-60. http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/20024493.pdf?acceptTC=true
Martin Wight, ‘Why is There No International Theory?” in Diplomatic Investigations, ed. M.
Wight and H. Butterfield, London: G. Allen and Unwin, 1966.
http://ire.sagepub.com/content/2/1/35.full.pdf+html
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Hedley Bull, “The Theory of International Politics, 1919-1969,” in James Der Derian, editor,
International Theory: Critical Investigations, London: Macmillan, 19995.
Steve Smith, “The discipline of international relations: still an American social science?” The
British Journal of Politics & International Relations, 2 2000: 374–402.
http://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/people/knicolaidis/Smith.pdf
Brian C. Schmidt, “On the History and Historiography of International Relations” Handbook of
International Relations, Sage, 2012.
Week 3: CLASSICAL REALISM
Edward Hallett Carr, “The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1919-1939, London: Palgrave 2001.
Hans Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations, 5th Ed., New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973: 1-55.
William C. Wohlforth, “Realism and the End of the Cold War,” International Security Volume
19 Number 3 Winter 1994-95: 91-129.
Gideon Rose. October 1998. “Neoclassical Realism and Theories of Foreign Policy,” World
Politics, Vol. 51, No. 1, pp. 144-172.
Stephen G. Brooks. Summer 1997. “Dueling Realisms,” International Organization, Vol. 51,
No. 3, pp. 445-477
Week 4: NEOREALISM AND THE STRUCTURE OF INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM
Kenneth N. Waltz, Theory of International Politics, Addison-Wesley Press: Reading MA, 1979.
Chapter 5-9.
John Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics New York: Norton, 2003.
Robert Keohane, “Realism, Neorealism and the Study of World Politics” and “Theory of World
Politics: Structural Realism and Beyond,” in Keohane, ed., Neorealism and Its Critics. New
York: Columbia University Press, 1986, chs. 1, 7.
Week 5: LIBERALISM, NEO-LIBERALISM, NEOLIBERAL INSTITUTIONALISM:
INTERDEPENDENCE, REGIMES, & INSTITUTIONS
Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Power and Interdependence, 4rd edition AddisonWesley, 2011 (chapter 1-3 and 7-10).
Michael Doyle, “Liberalism and World Politics,” from American Political Science Review
Volume 80, Number 4, December 1986: 1151-1169
Helen Milner, “The Assumption of Anarchy in International Relations Theory: A Critique.”
Review of International Studies Volume 17 January 1991:67-85.
Robert Jervis, “Realism, Neoliberalism, and Cooperation: Understanding the Debate,”
International Security, Vol. 24, No. 1, Summer 1999: 42-63
Tony Smith, “National Security Liberalism and American Foreign Policy” in G. John Ikenberry,
American Foreign Policy 4th edition New York: Longman, 2004: 258-274.
Donald J. Puchala, “The Integration Theorists and the Study of International Relations” in
Charles W. Kegley and Eugene Wittkopf eds., The Global Agenda, 2nd ed. 1988:198-215
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Week 6: CONSTRUCTIVISM AND THE ENGLISH SCHOOL
Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society New York: Columbia University Press, 2003 (chapters 1-2
and 5-10, and the conclusion).
Alexander Wendt, “Constructing International Politics,” International Security, Vol. 20, No. 1
Summer 1995: 71-81.
John Gerard Ruggie, “What Makes the World Hang Together? Neo-Utilitarianism and the
Social Constructivist Challenge,” International Organization Volume 54, Number 4, Autumn
1998: 855-888.
Jeffrey Checkel, “The Constructivist Turn in International Relations Theory” World Politics
Volume 50, Number 2, 1998: 324-348.
Ronald Jepperson, Alexander Wendt, and Peter J. Katzenstein, "Norms, Identity, and Culture in
National Security," chap. 2 in Peter J. Katzenstein, ed., The Culture of National Security: Norms
and Identity in World Politics New York: Columbia University Press, 1996.
IMPORTANT: THE FIRST MIDTERM IS ASSIGNED
II. STRUCTURES, ISSUES AND PROCESSES OF THE
INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM
WEEK 7: SOVEREIGNTY AND THE STATE
Gianfranco Poggi, The State: Its Nature, Development and Progress Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1990: 1-69.4
Steven D. Krasner, “Sovereignty and Its Discontents” in Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999:3-43.
Hendrick Spruyt, “The Origins, Development and Possible Decline of the Modern State” in
Annual Review of Political Science Number 5 2002:127-149.
Charles Tilly, “War Making and State Making as Organized Crime” in Bringing the State Back
In. Edited by Theda Skocpol, Peter Evans, and Dietrich Rueschemeyer. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1985:169-192.
Edward Carr, “States and Nationalism: The Nation in European History” in David Held et al.,
States and Societies London: Blackwell, 1985: 181-195.
Robert Kaplan, “The Coming Anarchy” The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 273, Number 2, February
1994: 44-76.
Robert Rotberg, Failed States, Collapsed States, Weak States: Causes and Indicators” Brookings
Institution Press, 2003: 1-25. (Chapter 1) available at:
http://www.brookings.edu/press/books/chapter_1/statefailureandstateweaknessinatimeofterror.pd
f
Week 8: ALLIANCES AND THE BALANCE OF POWER
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Robert Jervis, "Cooperation Under the Security Dilemma," World Politics, 1978: 167-214.
Hans Morgenthau, “Balance of Power” Politics Among Nations, Fifth Edition, New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, 1973: 165-225
Stephen M. Walt, “Alliance formation and the balance of power.” International Security Volume
9 Spring 1985: 3–43.
A.F.K. Organski, ‘Criticism of Balance of Power Theory” in World Politics, 2nd ed. New York;
Knopf, 1968: 282-290.
Robert A. Pape, “Soft Balancing against the United States”, International Security Volume 30,
Issue 1, Summer 2005: 7-47.
T. V. Paul, “Soft Balancing in the Age of U.S. Primacy” International Security Volume 30, Issue
1, Summer 2005: 47-71.
Week 9: CAUSES OF WAR AND PEACE AND ORDER IN THE SYSTEM
Bruce Bueno De Mesquita, “Two Structural Theories of War” “Strategic Theories of War” and
Domestic Origins of Foreign Policy” in Principles of International Politics 4th Edition
Washington D.C., CQ Press, 2010:108-201
Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1981: 1-49; and 156-244.
Ronald Tammen, et al., Power Transitions New York: Chattam House, 2000: 3-63.
Robert Jervis, “Theories of War in an Era of Leading-Power Peace,” American Political Science
Review 96, no. 1 March 2002: 1-14.
Sun Tzu, The Art of War Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963:77-80
IMPORTANT: THE SECOND MIDTERM IS ASSIGNED
Week 10: THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS
Ann Swidler, “Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies,” American Sociological Review
Volume 51 1986: 273-286.
Huntington, Samuel P. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, New York:
Simon and Schuster, 1996.
Week 11: GROUPS, IDEOLOGY, and NATIONALISM DECISION-MAKING AND
FOREIGN POLICY
Jack Snyder, Myths of Empire, Ithaca: Cornell, 1991. chapters 1, 2, 3, 8.
George F. Kennan, "The Sources of Soviet Conduct," in George Kennan, American Diplomacy,
1900-1950 Mentor Books, 1951: 89-105; reprinted in Foreign Affairs, Spring 1987: 852-68.
Graham Allison, Conceptual models and the Cuban Missile Crisis. American Political Science
Review Volume 63, September 1969:689–718.
Week 12: NUCLEAR WEAPONS, STRATEGY, DETERRENCE, AND
PROLIFERATION
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Bruce Bueno De Mesquita “Perceptions and Deterrence” in Bruce Bueno De Mesquita,
Principles of International Politics, Washington DC: CQ, 2006: 373-395
Scott D. Sagan and Kenneth N. Waltz, The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: A Debate Renewed, 2d
ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2003.
Moedd Youssef, Predicting the Future of Nuclear Weapons:
http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2009/01_nuclear_proliferation_yusuf.aspx
Thomas Schelling, “The Diplomacy of Violence,” from Arms and Influence, New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1966-1-35.
George Downs, "The Rational Deterrence Debate," World Politics Volume 41 1989: 225-239.
IMPORTANT: YOUR POLICY PAPER IS DUE TODAY
Week 13: INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY
Robert Gilpin, International Political Economy Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.
Bruce Bueno De Mesquita “The International Political Economy of Trade” in Bruce Bueno De
Mesquita, Principles of International Politics, Washington DC: CQ, 2010: 273-315.
Week 14: OTHER ACTORS IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
Bruce Bueno De Mesquita “International Organizations And International Law” in Bruce Bueno
De Mesquita, Principles of International Politics, Washington DC: CQ, 2010: 315-360.
Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in
International Politics Ithaca: Cornell, 1998.
Richard Price, "Reversing the Gun Sights: Transnational Civil Society Targets Land Mines,"
International Organization Volume 52, Number 3, Summer 1998: 613-44.
Peter M. Haas, "Introduction: Epistemic Communities and International Policy Coordination,"
International Organization Volume 46, Number 1, Winter 1992: 1-36.
David Held, “Democracy, the Nation-State, and the Global System,” Economy and Society
Volume 20, 1991: 138-171.
IMPORTANT: THE THIRD MIDTERM IS ASSIGNED
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