EVOLUTION OF EUROPEAN POLITICAL ORDER
ALEXANDER ASTROV
ASTROVA@CEU.HU
MA (IRES)
The course aims at providing students with an understanding of the evolution of European political order from antiquity
up to the dissolution of the ancien régime. Still, this is not a ‘history’ course. Rather, the objective is to familiarise
students with the ways of theorising international political order which, instead of focusing on some ahistorical,
unchanging patterns, pay attention to the historically-acquired, contextually specific differences. This emphasis on
differences and change, rather than continuity, also applies to the choice of approaches to the subject. Thus various
conceptions of historiography - from materialist to the history of ideas - are presented. In the second term this course
will be followed up with another one - Evolution of Global Political Order - tracing the transformation of European
political order into a global arrangement since the First World War. Students thinking of taking that course are not
required, and yet strongly encouraged, to take the current one.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
By the end of the course students are expected to
• acquire an appreciation of the role of historical understanding in international relations theorising
• familiarise themselves with the various approaches to the study of international history
• develop an understanding of the main nodal points in the evolution of European political order
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Since, to repeat, this is not a ‘history’ course, students are not expected to learn any straightforward sequence of events.
Nor are they expected to be equally interested in all the specific historical ‘moments’ discussed throughout the course.
Rather, the main outcomes of the course should be as follows:
• an understanding of the mutually constitutive (and paradoxical) character of the relationship between ‘politics’,
‘public sphere’ and ‘freedom’: there is no human freedom outside of the public sphere; there is no public sphere
without (or prior to) politics; there is no politics without (or prior to) public sphere; politics is freedom
• an understanding of the relationship between ‘politics’ and ‘power’: power acquired or maintained by means which
are not ‘political’ is no longer ‘power’ but ‘force’ and force alone is never enough for the protection or enlargement
of the public sphere
• an understanding of the relation between political power and political order, especially on the European scale where a
variety of differently construed public spheres coexist and interact with each other, often drawing on force in these
coexistence and interaction
• an appreciation of the historical dynamics of the evolution of these coexistence and interaction leading to the
formation(s) and dissolution(s) of a ‘European political order’
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
-
Active participation in the seminars - 10%
Presentation - 15%
3 position-papers - 10% each, 30% overall
Final essay (circa 5.000 words) - 45%
COURSE OUTLINE
WEEK 1
SEMINARS 1-2 - INTRODUCTION, ALLOCATION OF ASSIGNMENTS, GENERAL DISCUSSION
WEEK 2 – WHICH HISTORY?
SEMINAR 3 – HISTORY AND/OR THEORY
ALBERT HIRSCHMAN, ‘THE SEARCH FOR PARADIGMS AS A HINDRANCE TO UNDERSTANDING’, WORLD POLITICS, 3, 1970: 329-343.
ANDREAS OSIANDER, ‘HISTORY AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY’ IN ANJA V. HARTMANN AND BEATRICE HEUSER, EDS, WAR,
PEACE AND WORLD ORDERS IN EUROPEAN HISTORY (LONDON: ROUTLEDGE, 2001): 14-24.
SEMINAR 4 – IDEAS AND/OR MATERIAL STRUCTURES
DAVID BOUCHER, POLITICAL THEORIES OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: FROM THUCYDIDES TO THE PRESENT (OXFORD: OXFROD
UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1998), CHAPTERS 1 AND 2.
MANUEL DE LANDA, A THOUSAND YEARS OF NONLINEAR HISTORY (NEW YORK: ZOON BOOKS, 2000), INTRODUCTION.
WEEK 3 – ANTIQUITY AS THE ORIGIN (AND THE IDEAL)
SEMINAR 5 – THE QUESTION OF POLITICS
HANNAH ARENDT, ‘INTRODUCTION INTO POLITICS’, IN JEROME KOHN ED. THE PROMISE OF POLITICS (NEW YORK: SCHOCKEN BOOKS,
2005): 93-153.
SEMINAR 6 – THE QUESTION OF WAR
HANNAH ARENDT, ‘INTRODUCTION INTO POLITICS’: 153-200.
WEEK 4 – WAR AND PEACE IN ANTIQUITY
SEMINAR 7 – POLITICS AND WAR
DANIEL GARST, ‘THUCYDIDES AND NEOREALISM’, INTERNATIONAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, 1, 1989: 3-27.
RICHARD NED LEBOW, ‘THUCYDIDES THE CONSTRUCTIVIST’, THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW, 3, 2001: 547-560.
SEMINAR 8 – ENCOUNTERING OTHERNESS
SIMON HORNBLOWER, ‘GREEKS AND PERSIANS: WEST AGAINST EAST’, IN WAR, PEACE AND WORLD ORDERS: 48-61.
ANDREW STEWART, ‘IMAG(IN)ING THE OTHER: AMAZONS AND ETHNICITY IN FIFTH-CENTURY ATHENS’, POETICS TODAY, 4, 1995: 571597.
RUTH STEPPER, ‘ROMAN-CARTHAGINIAN RELATIONS: FROM CO-OPERATION TO ANNIHILATION’ IN WAR, PEACE AND WORLD ORDERS: 7283.
WEEK 5 – MEDIEVAL EUROPE
SEMINAR 9
MANUEL DE LANDA, ‘GEOLOGICAL HISTORY 1000-1700 A.D.’ IN A THOUSAND YEARS OF NONLINEAR HISTORY: 25-56.
JAN WILLEM HONIG, ‘WARFARE IN THE MIDDLE AGES’ IN WAR, PEACE AND WORLD ORDERS: 113-126.
SEMINAR 10
JONATHAN RILEY-SMITH, ‘THE CRUSADING MOVEMENT’ IN WAR, PEACE AND WORLD ORDERS: 127-140.
FERNAND BRAUDEL, ‘THE FORMS OF WAR’ IN THE MEDITERRANEAN AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IN THE AGE OF PHILIP II (LONDON:
HARPER COLLINS, 1972): 597-656.
WEEK 6 – THE MACHIAVELLIAN MOMENT
SEMINAR 11
QUENTIN SKINNER, THE FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN POLITICAL THOUGHT (CAMBRIDGE: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1978), VOL. 1,
PART 1: 3-65.
GARRETT MATTINGLY, RENAISSANCE DIPLOMACY (LONDON: JONATHAN CAPE, 1955), PART 1: 17-51.
SEMINAR 12
FRIEDRICH MEINECKE, MACHIAVELLISM: THE DOCTRINE OF RAISON D’ETAT AND ITS PLACE IN MODERN HISTORY (LONDON: TRANSACTION
PUBLISHERS, 1998), CHAPTER 1: 25-48.
R.B.J. WALKER, ‘THE PRINCE AND “THE PAUPER”’ IN INSIDE/OUTSIDE: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AS POLITICAL THEORY (CAMBRIDGE:
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1993): 26-49.
WEEK 7 – DISCOVERY AND CONQUEST
SEMINAR 13 – NASCENT IMPERIALISM
RICHARD TUCK, THE RIGHTS OF WAR AND PEACE (OXFORD: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1999), CHAPTER 1: 16-50.
MARTIN C. ORTEGA, ‘VITORIA AND THE UNIVERSALIST CONCEPTION OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS’ IN IAN CLARK AND IVER B.
NEUMANN EDS, CLASSICAL THEORIES OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (LONDON: MACMILLAN, 1996): 99-119.
SEMINAR 14 – DISCOVERY AND CONQUEST
TSVETAN TODOROV, THE CONQUEST OF AMERICA: THE QUESTION OF THE OTHER (NEW YORK: HARPER PERENNIAL, 1992): 51-123.
MICHAEL HARDT AND ANTONIO NEGRI, EMPIRE (CAMBRIDGE: HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2000): 114-136.
WEEK 8 RELIGION AND WAR
SEMINAR 15 THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR
ALINE GOOSENS, ‘WARS OF RELIGION: THE EXAMPLES OF FRANCE, SPAIN AND THE LOW COUNTRIES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY’, IN
WAR, PEACE AND WORLD ORDERS: 160-173.
ANJA V. HARTMANN, ‘IDENTITIES AND MENTALITIES IN THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR’, IN WAR, PEACE AND WORLD ORDERS: 174-184.
ERIC RINGMAR, IDENTITY, INTEREST AND ACTION: A CULTURAL EXPLANATION OF SWEDEN’S INTERVENTION IN THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR
(CAMBRIDGE: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1996): 145-186.
SEMINAR 16 RESTORING AUTHORITY
MICHAEL C. WILLIAMS, ‘HOBBES AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: A RECONSIDERATION’, INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION, 2, 1996: 21336.
PAT MOLONEY, ‘LEAVING THE GARDEN OF EDEN: LINGUISTIC AND POLITICAL AUTHORITY IN THOMAS HOBBES’, HISTORY OF POLITICAL
THOUGHT, 2, 1997: 242-66.
WEEK 9 THE WESTPHALIAN MOMENT
SEMINAR 17 EMPIRES AND UNIONS
JOHN ROBERTSON, ‘EMPIRE AND UNION: TWO CONCEPTS OF THE EARLY MODERN EUROPEAN POLITICAL ORDER’ IN A UNION FOR
EMPIRE: POLITICAL THOUGHT AND THE BRITISH UNION OF 1707 (CAMBRIDGE: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1995): 3-35.
DAVID BOUCHER, ‘RESURRECTING PUFENDORF AND CAPTURING THE WESTPHALIAN MOMENT’ IN REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, 27,
2001: 557-77.
SEMINAR 18 MERCANTILISM AND FREE TRADE
H.F. KEARNEY, ‘THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND TO ENGLISH MERCANTILISM’, ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, 3, 1959: 485-496.
ISTVAN HONT, ‘FREE TRADE AND THE ECONOMIC LIMITS TO NATIONAL POLITICS; NEO-MACHIAVELLIAN POLITICAL ECONOMY
RECONSIDERED’ IN JOHN DUNN ED. THE ECONOMIC LIMITS TO MODERN POLITICS (CAMBRIDGE: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1990):
41-120.
WEEK 10 WAR AND WEALTH
SEMINAR 19 THE FISCAL-MILITARY STATE
IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN, THE MODERN WORLD-SYSTEM (BOSTON: ACADEMIC PRESS, 1980), VOL.2, CHAPTER 2: 37-71.
JOHN BREWER, THE SINEWS OF POWER: WAR, MONEY AND THE ENGLISH STATE 1688-1783 (LONDON: UNWIN HYMAN, 1989) PART 3: 13761
SEMINAR 20 COMMERCIAL EMPIRE
JOHN ROBERTSON, ‘UNIVERSAL MONARCHY AND THE LIBERTIES OF EUROPE: DAVID HUME’S CRITIQUE OF AN ENGLISH WHIG
DOCTRINE’, IN NICHOLAS PHILLIPSON AND QUENTIN SKINNER EDS, POLITICAL DISCOURSE IN EARLY MODERN BRITAIN (CAMBRIDGE:
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1993): 349-73.
ANDREW WALTER, ‘ADAM SMITH AND THE LIBERAL TRADITION IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS’, IN CLASSICAL THEORIES: 142-72.
WEEK 11 THE END OF ANCIEN RÉGIME
SEMINAR 21 REVOLUTION AND WAR
MICHAEL C. WILLIAMS, ‘ROUSSEAU, REALISM AND REALPOLITIK’, MILLENNIUM: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, 2, 1998: 185-203.
MARC BELISSA AND PATRICE LECLERCQ, ‘THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD, 1789-1802’ IN WAR, PEACE AND WORLD ORDERS: 203-13.
SEMINAR 22 CONSERVATISM AND WAR
JENNIFER M. WELSH, ‘EDMUND BURKE AND THE COMMONWEALTH OF EUROPE: THE CULTURAL BASES OF INTERNATIONAL ORDER’ IN
CLASSICAL THEORIES: 173-92.
HENRY KISSINGER, ‘THE CONSERVATIVE DILEMMA: REFLECTIONS ON THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF METTERNICH’, THE AMERICAN
POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW, 4, 1954: 1017-30.
WEEK 12 REALPOLITIK
SEMINAR 23 ‘CONSERVATIVE REVOLUTION’
HENRY KISSINGER, ‘THE WHITE REVOLUTIONARY: REFLECTIONS ON BISMARCK’, DŒDALUS: JOURNAL OF AMERICAN ACADEMY OF
ARTS AND SCIENCES, 97, 3: 888-924.
SEMINAR 24
CONCLUDING DISCUSSION