WORLD AFFAIRS
Temple University
Political Science 866
World Societies Theme
Prof. J.S. Masker
429 Gladfelter Hall, telephone: 1-7796
jsmasker@temple.edu
Office hours MW12:30-1:30 pm; F by appt.
Course Grader:
Stefanie Kasparek (stefanie.ines.kasparek@temple.edu)
Fall Term 2013
Class Time: MWF 2:00 pm
Class meets in Gladfelter 21
Description: This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to major themes in international
studies. It explores the history and evolution of major international trends from different
disciplinary perspectives, including political science, economics, law, history, the humanities and
the natural sciences. Particular attention is given to trends in the nature of war, political and
economic development, international law, human rights, disease and health, and governance of
the global commons.
The course is organized in three parts. Part I briefly introduces major trends in world affairs,
including the nature of war, trade, disease, international law, and the environment, and explores
explanations of these trends from several disciplinary perspectives, ranging from the natural
sciences to the social sciences and the humanities.
Part II builds on the conceptual work in the previous sections to explore the causes and
consequences of inter-state war; emerging forms of global violence in the 21st century, including
terrorism and civil wars; the origins of democracy and the prospects for democratization; the
emergence of human rights and new norms on humanitarian intervention; the origins and effects
of differences in wealth and poverty; variations in health around the world and the global combat
against diseases; developments in the protection of the global commons, and the effects of
globalization in national societies.
Part III concludes the course with a review of primary challenges for the future of world affairs
and conclusions.
About GenEd: World Affairs satisfies the World Societies requirement in the General
Education Program. Gen-Ed classes do not count towards a major, but are designed to help
students build critical thinking and communication skills, help you develop ‘information literacy’
and promote curiosity and life-long learning. World Societies courses are designed to help you
understand the global processes that shape and link world societies. Specifically, World Societies
courses are developed to help you access and analyze information about the world, develop
observations and reach tentative conclusions about global processes; interpret evidence and
critically analyze what you read and hear; and communicate and defend your interpretations.
World Affairs Fall 2013
1
Course requirements: The requirements for this course are:
 three essays on the weekly readings. These essays in response either to the study
questions below or the questions found in Global Politics: A Reader. Each essay should
be in the range of 550 to 650 words. These essays are due at the start of class on the first
day of the week for which they are assigned. I will not accept late papers. (30% of the
grade);
 two quizzes, to be administered on the dates found below (40% of the grade);
 a research assignment due on December 2, 2013 (30% of the grade); and
Required readings: Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the course, we will draw readings
from a number of sources – including a textbook, scholarly books and articles, historical primary
sources, and newspaper and magazine articles – drawn from a variety of disciplines and
perspectives.
Book to purchase: Introduction to Global Politics: A Reader, Masker, (ISBN: 978-0-19979625-0)
You will find rest of the required readings on the class Blackboard site.
Disability policy: Any student who has a need for accommodation based on the impact of a
disability should contact me privately to discuss the specific situation as soon as possible.
Contact Disability Resources and Services at 215-204-1280 or 100 Ritter Annex to coordinate
reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities.
Plagiarism: Please remember that all work must conform to the university’s policy on academic
honesty found in the Temple University Bulletin. All work that you submit to me must be the
result of your own efforts. Do not cheat. For more information go to
http://www.temple.edu/bulletin/Responsibilities_rights/responsibilities/responsibilities.shtm honesty. All students should, in all assignments, fully and unambiguously cite sources from
which they are drawing important ideas and/or sizable quotations (for example, more than eight
consecutive words or more than 50% of a given sentence or paragraph). Failure to do so
constitutes plagiarism, which is a serious act of academic misconduct and will result in a failing
grade for the course and notification of the infraction to the Dean of Students. Similarly, cheating
during in-class exercises, copying written assignments from other students, or providing answers
to others during in-class exercises are considered acts of academic misconduct. If you are
unfamiliar with policies about plagiarism or other types of academic misconduct, you may wish
to consult the on-line guide to “Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Acknowledging Sources,” available
at the Temple Writing Center or if you still have remaining doubts or specific questions, raise
them directly with your teaching assistant or me.
Temple University policy on the freedom to teach and learn: Freedom to teach and freedom
to learn are inseparable facets of academic freedom. The University has adopted a policy on
Student and Faculty Academic Rights and Responsibilities (Policy # 03.70.02) which can be
accessed through the following link: http://policies.temple.edu/getdoc.asp?policy_no=03.70.02.
World Affairs Fall 2013
2
Late Work Policy
You must submit all work on time. If for a major, significant, or highly unusual reason you
cannot take one of the quizzes, you must request an extension at least twenty-four hours in
advance. You must supply me with proof of the major, significant, or highly unusual nature of
the situation. The decision to grant an extension rests with me. You cannot expect any form of
makeup event for the quizzes.
Polite Behavior Policy
Please be polite to each other – and me – in class. Examples of impolite behavior during class
include, but are not limited to, yelling, eating food, checking your text messages, and sleeping. I
reserve – and the university supports -- the right to ask you to leave the room if you are impolite.
If you must use a computer to take notes, please sit in the first 3 rooms of the class room.
Course Outline
(NB: dates subject to change with notice)
Week of August 26
Introduction
Week of September 2
Disciplinary Perspectives of the World
Weeks of September 9 & 16
War and Peace
September 20
Quiz One, last day to submit first response essay
Weeks of September 23 & 30
Unconventional War and Violence
Week of October 7
Democracy and Democratization
Week of October 14
Human Rights and Humanitarian Intervention
Week of October 21
Global and National Economies
Week of October 28
Wealth and Poverty
Week of November 4
Global Health
November 6
Last day to submit second response essay
Weeks of November 11 & 18
Global Commons
November 22
Quiz Two
Week of November 25
Local and Global Culture
December 2 & 4
Challenges and Priorities
December 2
Research Project Due & last day to submit third
response essay
World Affairs Fall 2013
3
Part I. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on World Affairs
Course Assignments
Week 1
Introduction
Readings
Reader, pp 1 - 54
(Week of August 26)
Study questions
What are the ways in which you are linked to globalization?
How do ideas about globalization shape our understanding of the trend?
Week 2
Disciplinary Perspectives of the World
(Week of September 2)
Readings
Sheldon Anderson, Jeanne A.K. Hey, Mark Allen Peterson, Stanley W. Toops, and Charles
Stevens, International Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Global Issues (Boulder:
Westview Press, 2008), “Introduction,” pp. 1-8.
Michael Seipel, “Interdisciplinarity: An Introduction,” Truman State University,
http://www2.truman.edu/~mseipel/Interdisciplinarity.pdf, accessed on 18 January 2008.
Bjorn Lomborg, How to Spend $50 Billion to Make the World a Better Place (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. xi-xxi.
Mark Allen Peterson, “Intercultural Relations: Anthropology for International
Communication,” in International Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Global
Issues (Boulder: Westview Press, 2008), pp. 107-129.
Stanley W. Toops, “People, Places and Patterns: Geography in International Affairs,” in
International Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Global Issues (Boulder:
Westview Press, 2008), pp. 53-73.
Study question
While the field of “international relations” is often identified as a subfield of political science,
every social-science discipline has had something to say about world affairs, including the
disciplines of political science, economics, geography and anthropology reviewed in this
week’s readings – and others like psychology and sociology not covered in the readings.
Based on your reading, which approach do you find most interesting and useful for
understanding world affairs? What questions does this discipline ask about world affairs?
What categories of analysis does it use, and what insights does it generate about world
affairs?
World Affairs Fall 2013
4
Part Two – Issues in World Affairs
Weeks 3 & 4 War and Peace
(Weeks of September 9 & 16)
(September 9 is the last day to drop a class)
First quiz: September 20
Readings
Reader, pp 54 – 88; essays by Ferguson, Amir, Enloe, Manjikian, Alagappa
Study Questions – in Global Politics: A Reader, with each essay
Week 5
Unconventional War and Violence (Weeks of September 23 & 30)
Readings
Reader, pp 203-251, essays by Huntington and Anderlini
Study Questions -- Please answer one of the following questions. How is gender important in
understanding war?
1. Why is linking terrorism with globalization so difficult to do theoretically? What does
this difficulty suggest about the limits of political theory?
2. When did terrorism become a truly global phenomenon, and what enabled it to do so?
3. In what ways are the technologies and processes associated with globalization more
beneficial to states? To terrorists?
Week 6
Democracy and Democratization
(Week of October 7)
Readings
Richard J. Payne, Global Issues: Politics, Economics, Culture (New York: PearsonLongman, 2007), Chapter 4, “Promoting Democracy,” pp. 108-147.
Guy Dinmore, “A Uniform Trend? How Democracy Worldwide is on the Back Foot,”
Financial Times, 17 January 2007, p. 9.
Study Questions -- Please answer one of the following questions:
1. What do we mean by democracy? Is democracy making gains in today’s world, as many
scholars of the “third and fourth waves” have suggested? Or is democracy in retreat
throughout the world?
2. What is the relationship between democracy and peace? Why do some scholars believe
in the notion of a democratic peace, and what evidence do they put forward? Why do
some other scholars suggest that there is no relationship, or even a negative relationship,
between democratization and peace? What do you think, and why?
World Affairs Fall 2013
5
Week 7
Human Rights and Intervention
(Week of October 14)
Readings
Reader, essays by Keck, De Waal & Hafner-Burton
Study Questions -- Please answer one of the following questions
1. Which can protect human rights better: states or NGOs?
2. What is the relationship between rights and duties?
3. What are the problems involved in assigning rights to peoples as opposed to individuals?
4. In what ways can gender bias be identified in the modern human rights regime?
5. What is the relationship between democracy and human rights? Is it always the case that
democracies are more likely to respect human rights than authoritarian regimes?
6. Can the compromising of human rights in the face of the threat of terrorism ever be
justified as the lesser of two evils?
7. What is human security? How is it different from the concept of national security?
Week 8
Global and National Economies
(Week of October 21)
(October 22 is the last day to withdraw from a class)
Readings
Reader, pp 312 - 334
Study Questions -- Please answer one of the following questions
1. Did a loss of US hegemony cause the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system?
2. Are there any issues on which mercantilists agree with liberals?
3. Does rational choice theory explain more about outcomes than actors’ preferences?
4. Why do skeptics doubt that globalization is transforming IPE?
5. What vulnerabilities faced by states in the globalizing economy did the 2008–13 financial
crisis demonstrate?
6. How can we explain the different impact that globalization has on different states?
World Affairs Fall 2013
6
Week 9
Wealth and Poverty
(Week of October 28)
Readings
Reader, pp 334-361;
Peter Katel, “Ending Poverty in Africa,” CQ Researcher, Vol. 15, No. 31 (September
2005)
Peter Singer, One World: The Ethics of Globalization (New Haven: Yale University
Press 2002), Chapter 5: “One Community?” pp. 150-195.
Andrew Kuper, “More than Charity: Cosmopolitan Alternatives to the ‘Singer
Solution’,” Ethics & International Affairs, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 107-120; and the subsequent
debate between Singer and Kuper, pp. 121-128.
Study Questions -- Please answer one of the following questions
1. What does poverty mean?
2. Explain the orthodox approach to development and outline the criteria by which it
measures development.
3. Compare and contrast the orthodox and alternative explanations of hunger.
4. Account for the increasing gap between rich and poor states and people after 50 years of
official development policies.
5. Use a gendered lens to explore the nature of poverty.
6. Which development pathway—the reformist or the alternative—do you regard as the more
likely to contribute to global peace in the 21st century?
7. Are national poverty-reduction strategies contributing to national ownership of
development policies in the Third World?
World Affairs Fall 2013
7
Week 10
Global Health
(Week of November 4)
Readings
Gian Luca Burci, “Health and Infectious Disease,” in Thomas G. Weiss and Sam Daws, eds.,
The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007),
pp. 582-591.
Laurie Garrett, “The Challenge of Global Health,” Foreign Affairs, January/February 2007,
available on-line at: http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070101faessay86103/lauriegarrett/the-challenge-of-global-health.html.
“How to Promote Global Health: A Foreign Affairs Roundtable,” available on-line at:
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/special/global_health/ -- read essays by Sachs, Farmer, and
Garrett only.
Anne Mills and Sam Shillcut, “Communicable Diseases,” in Bjorn Lomborg, ed., How to
Spend $50 Billion to Make the World a Better Place (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2006), pp. 19-37.
Michael Specter, “What Money Can Buy,” The New Yorker, 24 October 2005, pp. 57-71.
Study Questions -- Please answer one of the following questions
1. All of this week’s readings, in different ways, review the problems of posed by
communicable diseases, as well as the more general problems of promoting global health,
and discuss the most promising and cost-effective ways of addressing these challenges.
Based on your reading of these sources, what (if anything) do you think that wealthy
countries like the United States should do to promote global health?
2. If you were sick in the United States, where would you go for treatment? Compare the
quality, availability, and cost of the care you receive with that discussed in the readings.
World Affairs Fall 2013
8
Week 11
Global Commons
Readings
Reader, pp 362 -- 393
(Weeks of November 11 & 18)
Study Questions -- Please answer one of the following questions. The essay is due on April 9.
1. What precisely is a global commons (define and give examples)? Why are commons so
difficult to protect, according to economists and political scientists (see “the tragedy of
the commons”), and what can be done to protect them? Can we point to any success
stories so far in the effort to protect the commons, and do these suggest hope for the issue
of climate change?
2. It can be argued that the amount of disagreement among scientists about climate change
is decreasing (see the IPPC 4th assessment report), but economists still appear
fundamentally at odds about whether the benefits of tackling climate change outweigh the
costs? Why do the economists in this week’s readings disagree on these questions?
Which arguments do you find most convincing, and why?
3. What are the normative issues raised by climate change, according to Singer and others?
What specifically should we in the United States be prepared to do to fend off climate
change, and why?
World Affairs Fall 2013
9
Week 12
Readings
Local and Global Culture
(Week of November 25)
Reader, pp 111-177
Study Questions -- Please answer one of the following questions.
1. In the readings for this week, Martin Wolf argues that “liberal” economic
globalization “works.” What does he mean by this claim, and how does he justify this
claim? By contrast, Joseph Stiglitz is critical of globalization as it has unfolded in the
past several decades, and argues that “another world” is possible. What does Stiglitz
think is wrong with globalization today, and what kind of policies would lead to his
proposed “better world?” Which author makes the better arguments, in your view, and
why?
2. Is the United States losing its ability to control global events? Give examples to
support your answer. If you answered yes, what do you think caused this change?
3. What does the growing global assertiveness mean for the United States?
4. The concept of globalization implies different kinds of power. How have international
power relationships changed since 1945? 1989? 2001? 2011?
5. Do NGOs have a valuable role in global politics?
Part Three – The Future(s) of World Affairs
Week 13
Challenges and Priorities
Research Project Due December 2
World Affairs Fall 2013
10
(December 2 & 4)