Course Instructor: Dr. Neal M. Rosendorf
Hoxie Hall, room 310
Office Hours: M11.25am-12.25pm, W 5-6pm, or by apptmt.
(516) 299-2407 neal.rosendorf@liu.edu
COURSE OVERVIEW:
This course provides a narrative and thematic examination of major events and trends in international relations history from the end of the Napoleonic era through the post-Cold War period and up to the present. Although much attention will be focused on traditional great power state-to-state relations, we will also examine other dimensions of modern/contemporary international relations as well, such as culture, economics, international organizations and nonstate actors, the environment, immigration, and the role of technology.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
For this upper-level course, it is expected that students will acquire a range of undergraduate attributes . These include: 1) in-depth knowledge of this field of study; 2) enhanced understanding of historical methodologies; 3) enhanced skills in verbal and written communication; and, related to this, 4) enhanced critical thinking and analysis. Students will enlarge their sense of the breadth of thinking and writing about modern international relations history and will hone their capacity to analyze and critique historical events and trends, and scholars’ analyses thereof. Ultimately, this course will add to students’ capacity to function as
“critical citizens,” both of their native countries and of the world—a capacity that is always important, but especially so in the current global political climate.
CLASS MEETINGS:
Mondays and Wednesday, 3.30-4.50 pm, Hum 122
TEXTS:
Required Books: (All books are available through Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, and other sellers. Please note that you may be able to find a less-expensive used copyof some texts online via www.abebooks.com
)
Erich Eyck, Bismarck and the German Empire (Norton, 1964)
Niall Ferguson, The War of the World: Twentieth Century Conflict and the Descent of the West
(Penguin, 2006)
Akira Iriye, Global Community: The Role of International Organizations in the Making of the
Contemporary World (University of California Press, 2002)
Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (Vintage, 1989)
Barbara Keys, Globalizing Sport : National Rivalry and International Community in the 1930s
(Harvard University Press, 2006)
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Westad, Odd Arne, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our
Times (Cambridge University Press, 2005)
In addition, there will be documents and/or articles each week, all available on the Web, that are part of the required reading load. There are also suggested supplementary texts related to each week’s topics for those who wish to read in greater depth, and as a source of ideas and material for assigned essays.
Some Useful Web Sites for International Relations Primary Sources:
Internet Modern History Sourcebook, at www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.html
The Avalon Project at Yale Law School: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy, at www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/
Professor Vincent Ferraro’s Documents Webpage (Mount Holyoke College), at www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/feros-pg.htm#documents
H-Diplo: Diplomatic and International History, at www.h-net.org/~diplo/
Cold War International History Project, at http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=topics.home&topic_id=1409
ASSESSMENT:
There will be three writing assignments. First, there will be a short essay of around 750 words
(about 3 pp.), topic chosen from list provided by Instructor, in week seven (20%), prepared on the basis of assigned readings and documents. Second, there will be a take-home mid-term examination essay of around 1100 words (about 4-4.5 pp.), topic to be assigned by Instructor, in week nine (25%). Finally, students will prepare a research essay that employs a mix of assigned and additional secondary texts and original documents, topic of student’s choice, of around 2000 words (about 8 pp.), which will be due on the second-to-last day of final exams (35%). Wellinformed class participation is mandatory and will count for 20% of final grades. There will be no in-class exams, unless the Instructor chooses to give pop quizzes on documents—which he may.
Assigned essays aim to:

Familiarize students with key topics in the history of international relations since the early
19 th
century

Encourage students to be aware of and bring a critical perspective to bear on various types of source materials, both primary and secondary

To give students enhanced skills in the art and mechanics of quality historical writing

To familiarize students with the LIU-CW Post Library catalogue and Web-based facilities

To encourage students to make full and judicious use of appropriate Web-based search tools and data bases and audiovisual materials
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All essays must conform to the Turabian Guide or the Chicago Manual of Style for footnote/endnote notation. (Here is a useful link: http://www.bridgew.edu/Library/turabian.cfm
) All essays must have a title which clearly indicates to the reader the topic of the essay (e.g., “Essay
One” is NOT satisfactory; but “Bismarck, His Successors, and Germany’s Metamorphosis from
Strategic Anchor to Strategic Threat” IS satisfactory). Only the final research paper requires a bibliography, which should also be in Turabian/ Chicago Manual of Style format.
Students will be expected to stay current from week to week on readings to facilitate informed class participation. Students will be expected to clear their final research essay topics with the instructor. They will also be expected to incorporate into their final essay research readings beyond those assigned as “required” for the course. The supplementary readings provide a useful starting point, but students should look beyond this list as appropriate to their chosen topics. The same is true of the list of required primary document readings: they provide a useful starting point and may suffice for some research essay topics, but students are encouraged to seek additional documents as needed in the course of preparing their final essays.
Please note that this syllabus may be subject to modification during the course of the semester as the Instructor sees fit.
SYLLABUS
Week 1 (9/5): Introduction: Course Overview
Week 2 (9/10—no meeting 9/12): Defining “International Relations”; Methodologies of IR
Historians versus IR Theorists
Week 3 (9/17—9/19):
State of the World in 1815; The “Concert of Europe,” 1815-1848, Rise of
Nationalism and Internationalism
Documents:
Treaty of Paris, 1815, at http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/government/diplomatic/c_paris2.html
Metternich’s Secret Memorandum to Czar Alexander I, 1820, at http://www.wise.virginia.edu/history/wciv2/metter.html
Richard Guest on the Steam Loom, 1823, at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1823cotton.html
Monroe Doctrine, 1823, at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/monroe.htm
Weeks 4,5 (9/24, 9/26, 10/1): The End of the Concert; Napoleon III and Bismarck, Architects of
European Instability
Reading:
Eyck: introduction; chapter I, parts 1,8; chapter II, section A, parts 6-8; section B, parts 9-
11, 16; chapter III, parts 7-9; chapter IV, parts 1, 8, 10-15
Documents:
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Communist Manifesto , 1848 (excerpts), at www.wwnorton.com/college/history/ralph/workbook/ralprs31.htm
Giuseppi Mazzini on Nationalism, 1852, at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1852mazzini.html
Poem: Alfred Lord Tennyson, “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” 1864, at http://www.nationalcenter.org/ChargeoftheLightBrigade.html
Painting: Edouard Manet, “Execution of the Emperor Maximilian [of Mexico],” 1867, at http://www.artchive.com/artchive/m/manet/maximilian.jpg
Treaty of Berlin, 1878, at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1878berlin.html
Russo-Austrian-German Three Emperors’ League, 1881, at http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1914m/liga3.html
Document: Russo-German Reinsurance Treaty, 1887, at http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1914m/reinsure.html
Supplementary Readings:
Michelle Cunningham, Mexico and the Foreign Policy of Napoleon III
Eric Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780 , chapters 1, 3-4
A.J.P. Taylor, Bismarck: The Man and the Statesman
Weeks 5-6 (10/3, 10/10): Britain: 19 th Century Global Power; The United States: The New
Colossus Stirs [NO MEETING 10/8—Columbus Day]
Readings:
Kennedy, chapter 4
Michael Hunt, “1898: The Onset of America’s Troubled Asian Century,”
OAH Magazine of History , spring 1998, at www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/1898/hunt.pdf
Documents:
J. F. Shaw, “The World’s Great Assembly,” (essay on the London Crystal Palace
Exhibition), 1851, at http://www.victorianweb.org/history/1851/crystal1.html
Josiah Strong on Anglo-Saxon Predominance, 1891, at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/protected/strong.htm
Punch Political Cartoon—Venezuela Boundary Crisis, 1896, at http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/british/images/75vc.jpg
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William T. Stead, The Americanization of the World
, 1902, “Preface,” online at Google
Books
The (Theodore) Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, 1904, at http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/us-relations/roosevelt-corollary.htm
Supplementary Readings:
William Roger Louis, The Ends of Empire: the Scramble for Empire, Suez, and
Decolonization (preface-chapter 5)
Karl Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac, Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and
Race for Empire in Central Asia
Daniel T. Rodgers, Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age
Fareed Zakaria,
From Wealth to Power: the Unusual Origins of America’s World Role
Warren Zimmermann, First Great Triumph: How Five Americans Made Their Country a
World Power
Week 7 (10/15, 10/17): China and Japan in the Late 19 th
-Early 20 th
Centuries: Staggered Giant,
Rising Sun
Documents:
Anglo-Chinese Treaty of Nanjing, 1842, at http://www.isop.ucla.edu/eas/documents/nanjing.htm
Japan-US Treaty of Kanagawa, 1854, at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/japan/japan002.htm
Sino-Japanese Treaty of Shimonoseki, 1895, at http://www.isop.ucla.edu/eas/documents/1895shimonoseki-treaty.htm
Great Power-China Boxer Protocol, 1901, at http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob26.html
Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 1902/05, at http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob31.html
Russo-Japanese Treaty of Portsmouth, 1905, at http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1914m/portsmouth.html
Japanese Woodblock Prints Depicting Modernization and Westernization, 1870s-1912, at http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027j/throwing_off_asia_01/visnav_i_d.html
Supplementary Readings:
W.G. Beasley, The Rise of Modern Japan , 2d ed. (through World War I)
Henrietta Harrison, China: Inventing the Nation , chapters 2-5, 7
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S. C. M. Paine, The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895: Perceptions, Power, and Primacy
**Brief EssayAssignment—Due in class 10/24**
Week 8 (10/22, 10/24): As the Century Turns: Imperialism, Immigration, and Economics
Readings:
Mike Davis, “A World’s End: Drought, Famine and Imperialism (1896-1902),”
Capitalism, Nature, Socialist , June 1999, online at ProQuest
Ferguson, TBA
Documents:
Final Act of the Conference of Berlin on Africa, 1885, at http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob45.html
Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden,” 1899, at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/Kipling.html
Mark Twain,
King Leopold’s Soliloquy
, 1905, chapter 1, online at http://diglib1.amnh.org/articles/kls/twain1.pdf
William Z. Ripley, “The European Population of the United States
,”
The Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland , Vol. 38. (Jul. - Dec., 1908), pp. 221-240, online at JSTOR
Supplementary Readings:
Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in
Colonial Africa
Daniel Headrick, The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the
Nineteenth Century
Kevin O’Rourke and Jeffrey Williamson,
Globalization and History: The Evolution of a
Nineteenth Century Atlantic Economy
Week 9 (10/29, 10/31): A World Transformed: Hope, Glory, Carnage, and New Masters
Readings:
Kennedy, chapter 5
Ferguson, TBA
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Neal M. Rosendorf, “International Expositions” (from Akira Iriye and Pierre-Yves
Saunier, eds., The Palgrave Dictionary of Transnational History , forthcoming in 2008), e-handout
Documents:
“A Trip to the Moon,” 1902 (film; Georges Melies, director), at http://www.moviesfoundonline.com/trip_to_the_moon.htm
Kaiser Wilhelm II’s “Place in the Sun” Speech, 1901 (excerpt), at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1901kaiser.html
Anglo-French Entente Cordiale, 1904, at www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/entecord.htm
Norman Angell, The Great Illusion , 1910 (excerpt), online at http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/1914m/illusion.html
Jay Henry Mowbray, The Sinking of the Titanic, 1912 (introduction), at http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/titnintr.htm
German-Turkish Alliance, 1914, at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/turkgerm.htm
Balfour Declaration, 1917, at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/balfour.htm
Wilson’s “Fourteen Points,” at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wilson14.htm
V. I. Lenin Speech on Foreign Affairs, 1918, at http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/foreign/1918/May/14.htm
Rudyard Kipling, “Common Form,” 1918, and “A Dead Statesman,” 1924, at http://www.roozemond.org/poems/Kipling.html
Supplementary Readings:
Stephen Kern, The Culture of Time and Space, 1880-1918
Norman Angell, The Great Illusion , 1910, available online at Google Books
James Joll and Gordon Martel, The Origins of the First World War , 3 rd
ed.
N. Gordon Levin, Woodrow Wilson and World Politics: America's Response to War and
Revolution
Amos Perlmutter, Making the World Safe for Democracy: A Century of Wilsonianism and Its Totalitarian Challengers (introduction-chapter 3)
Week 10 (11/5, 11/7): The Interwar Period: From Optimistic Internationalism to a Slow Descent into the Pit
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Reading:
Barbara Keys, Globalizing Sport , chapters TBA
Documents:
League of Nations Covenant, 1919 [preamble, articles 1, 7-8, 10-14, 22], at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/leagcov.htm#art14
Washington Naval Treaty, 1922 [preamble, articles 1-7], at http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/pre-war/1922/nav_lim.html
Locarno Pact, 1925 [preamble, articles 1-3], at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/intdip/formulti/locarno_001.htm
Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928), at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/kbpact/kbpact.htm
“Uchida Doctrine,”
Time , 1933, at http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,745021,00.html
Munich Pact, 1938, at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/document/munich1.htm
Supplementary Readings:
Ferguson, War of the World, TBA
Kennedy, chapter 6
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (available on-line at various Web sites—unfortunately mainly
Neo-Nazi in character)
**Take-Home Mid-Term Exam Essay—Topic to be Assigned—Due in class, 11/11**
Week 11 (11/12, 11/14): World War II and the Forging of a New Global Order
Readings:
Ferguson, TBA
Kennedy, chapter 7, pp. 347-357
Documents:
German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, 1939, at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/nazsov/nonagres.htm
German-Japanese-Italian Tripartite Pact, 1940, at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wwii/triparti.htm
Document: US-Britain Atlantic Charter, 1941, at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/eurdipl/angrusen.htm
Document: International Monetary Fund Articles of Agreement, 1944 [Introduction,
Articles I and II, at http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/aa/aa00.htm
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Document: United Nations Charter, 1945 [preamble, articles 1-11, 13-14, 18, 23,-24, 27,
33, 39, 41-42, 51], at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/un/unchart.htm
Hiroshima After the Atom Bomb, newsreel film, 1946, at http://www.videojug.com/film/hiroshima-after-the-atom-bomb-1946
Supplementary Readings:
Akira Iriye, The Origins of the Second World War in Asia and the Pacific
Gordon Martel, The Origins of the Second World War Reconsidered: The A.J.P. Taylor
Debate After Twenty-Five Years
Gerhard Weinberg, Visions of Victory: The Hopes of Eight World War II Leaders
Week 12 (11/19, 11/21): The Cold War: Balance of Terror or Long Peace?
Ferguson, TBA
Kennedy, chapter 7, pp. 395-437
Westad, Introduction, chapters 1-2
Document: Novikov Telegram, 1946, at http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/02/documents/novikov/
Document: George F. Kennan, The “Long Telegram, 1946 (excerpts), at http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?documentprint=505
Document: North Atlantic Treaty, 1949, at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/nato.htm
Document: John F. Kennedy Cuban Missile Crisis TV Address, 1962, at http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkcubanmissilecrisis.html
(view video via link on webpage)
Document: John F. Kennedy, TV-Radio Address on the Atmospheric Nuclear Test Ban
Treaty,1963 (audio and transcript), at http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/JFK+in+History/Nuclear+Test+Ban+Treaty.htm
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, 1970, at http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Infcircs/Others/infcirc140.pdf
Soviet Politburo Memorandum on Amnesty International, 1980, at http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Infcircs/Others/infcirc140.pdf
Frankie Goes To Hollywood, “Two Tribes,” 1984 (music video), at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFtfSpn7PNU
Supplementary Readings:
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Vladislov Zubok and Constantine Pleshakov,
Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War: From
Stalin to Khrushchev
Melvyn Leffler and David Painter, eds, Origins of the Cold War: An International
History
**Devise Research Paper Topics—clear with Prof. Rosendorf,
either during office hours or via e-mail**
Week 13 (11/26, 11/28): The Developing World Since 1945: Decolonization, Economic and
Political Winners and Losers, Intractable Conflicts
Readings:
Westad, chapters 3-5, 8
Ricardo Hausmann, “Prisoners of Geography,”
Foreign Policy , Jan-Feb 2001 [at
ProQuest]
United Nations Development Program, “The Arab Human Development Report Series,
2002-2005: An Overview,” at http://www.undp.org/arabstates/PDF2005/AHDR4_04.pdf
Documents:
Mao Zedong Proclaims the Peoples’ Republic of China, 1949, at http://www.isop.ucla.edu/eas/documents/mao490921.htm
Indian PM Nehru’s Bandung Conference “Non-Alignment” Speech, 1955, at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1955nehru-bandung2.html
Kwame Nkrumah Declares Ghanian Independence, 1957, film clip, at http://ghana50.gov.gh/
CBC Television Interview with Fidel Castro, 8/2/59, at http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/cuba/ (link is on right side of Webpage, in box, “Media”)
Khartoum resolutions, 1967, at http://www.israelipalestinianprocon.org/Documentlistpdf/1967KhartoumResolution.pdf
Interview with former Singapore leader Lee Kwan Yew, International Herald-Tribune ,
August 29, 2007, at http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/29/asia/lee-excerpts.php?page=1
Supplementary Readings:
Michael Yahuda, The International Politics of Asia-Pacific, 1945-1995
Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed with Our
Families: Stories from Rwanda
Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World
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Week 14 (12/3, 12/5): International Organizations and Non-State Actors; Culture and (Soft)
Power since the Early 20 th Century
Readings:
Iriye, chapters 2-6
Neal Rosendorf, “Social and Cultural Globalization: Concepts, History, and America’s
Role” (chapter from Joseph Nye and John Donahue, eds.,
Governance in a Globalizing
World
—online at Prof. Rosendorf’s Webpage)
Documents:
Hague Convention Final Act, 1899, at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/lawofwar/final99.htm
Andrew Carnegie on International Peace (excerpt—read paragraphs 5-12), 1920, at http://www.wordowner.com/carnegie/chapter21.htm
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, at http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
Helsinki Final Act, 1975 (excerpt re human rights), at http://www.legislationline.org/view.php?document=59305
Doctors Without Borders Website: “What Is Doctors Without Borders?” at http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/about/
Supplementary Readings:
Richard Pells, Not Like Us: How Europeans Have Loved, Hated, and Transformed
American Culture Since World War II
James Watson,
Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia
Week 15 (12/10-12/12): International Relations since the End of the Cold War: A Unipolar
World or the Impending Decline of the US?
Readings:
Kennedy, chapter 8 (from p. 514), Epilogue
Samuel Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations,”
Foreign Affairs , summer 1993 (at
ProQuest)
Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye, “Globalization: What’s New, What’s Not, So What?”
Foreign Policy , spring 2000 (at ProQuest)
Amy Chua, “A World on the Edge,” 2003, at http://foster.20megsfree.com/301.htm
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Josef Joffe, “Gulliver Unbound: Can America Rule the World?” John Bonython Lecture,
Sydney, AU, August 5, 2003, at www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/05/1060064182993.html?oneclick=true
James F. Hoge, Jr., “A Global Power Shift in the Making,” Foreign Affairs , July/August
2004, at www.foreignaffairs.org/20040701facomment83401-p0/james-f-hoge-jr/a-global-power-shift-inthe-making.html
Cullen Murphy, Are We Rome? The Fall of an Empire and the fate of America, 2007, excerpt, at http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=cullen+murphy+%22are+we+rome%22+excerpt&btnG=Search
**Final Research Paper Due Second-to-Last Day of Exam Period, by 3pm **
--------------------------------
A NOTE ON PLAGIARISM: the appropriation without citation of other writers’ words or ideas as one’s own, is, of course, a cardinal academic offence and will be severely penalized. Offenders will, at the
Instructor’s discretion, automatically fail the course and may be subject to additional administrative action.
A basic, easy-to-remember rule is: Don’t Do It. Another such rule is, When in Doubt, Cite. This is equally true for Web-based sources as for books, articles, and other printed materials.
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