POLI 603/802 Graduate International Relations Theory Survey

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POLI 603/802
GRADUATE COLLOQUIUM IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Poli 603/802
Fall 2010
Monday – 12:05-14:35
Office Hours: Monday 20:15-23:15
Professor Schofield
julian.schofield@sympatico.ca
Office: H-1225-65
Course Description
By global systems theory we mean those theories that explain the behavioral outcomes of
the system and its constituent states. The colloquium seeks to acquaint students with the
basic theoretical issues in international relations, as well as select substantive issues,
some of which are of current or recent interest to policy decision-makers. The emphasis
of the course is on understanding and applying social scientific techniques of analysis to
ongoing problems that are of interest to you. Theory is viewed within four general areas
of study: security, institutional politics, constructivist approaches, and political economy.
The colloquium is focused around the preparation of a major term paper, which is
ultimately presented before the other students for critique.
Required Texts (available at Concordia’s Downtown bookstore)
Reader, POLI 603.
Course requirements
Critique Presentation
In Class Participation
Mid-Term Exam (take-home)
Paper Proposal
Course Paper
Paper presentation
Paper critiques
5%
10%
25%
10%
35%
5%
10%
Circulated Sign-up Sheet
Due Lect 6 (handed out a week earlier)
Due Lect 7
Due Lect 13
Circulated Sign-up Sheet
Each student will be required to deliver a single 5-minute critique on a reading of a given
week (presenters will adhere to the time limit). The presentation is not a summary – I
will assume everyone has read the piece. You must also provide me a point form
outline of your presentation, as well as a short list of discussion questions that could be of
interest to the class. You must get approval of your topic from me the week prior to the
presentation. A sign-up sheet will be circulated the first day of class.
The mid-term exam is a take-home (you will have one week to hand it in). The exam will
be comprised of a list of essay questions from which you will choose two you wish to
answer. If you do the readings each week, the exam should present no difficulty.
You will be required to write a major 20-page (MA students) to 30-page (PhD students)
paper. You must get approval for your topic by submitting a three-page proposal. The
proposals may be resubmitted for reevaluation to a higher grade an unlimited number of
times before the due date of the paper. In the remaining five-weeks of class, each student
is to prepare and deliver a 10-minute presentation before the class outlining the argument
contained in their paper, and then be prepared to answer questions from the class. A week
before their talk the presenting student must provide the other members of the class an
early draft of their paper for their review. Each student in the audience is expected to
submit a constructive critique of the presenter’s argument to the professor (which will be
forwarded to the presenter the subsequent week). Each of these critiques will be worth
10% subdivided by the total number of presenters.
The paper itself must be handed in during class by Lecture 13. Late submissions will be
penalized and will not receive comments. I am constrained by Departmental Policy not to
permit incomplete grades without serious cause.
Know that in the course of your paper research that many of the books are not at
Concordia, but they may be inter-library loaned with a delay of about three weeks, so
plan ahead. The Concordia inter-library loan website is at:
http://library.concordia.ca/flexmail/books.html
Administrative Issues: Current university policy is that there is no professorial
discretion with regard to incomplete assignments – assignments not received before a
reasonable time before the required date of grade submission must proceed through
regular grade change channels. Late assignments will not receive comments. I cannot
replace one poorly done assignment with another assignment arrived through a private
arrangement with a student – I am required by the university to apply the syllabus.
Significant changes to the syllabus require unanimous consent of students and professor.
Please do not bombard the professor with twitter-like emails. For letters of
recommendation, drop the required pre-filled forms (including my name, title, etc),
stamped and addressed envelopes (including return address), your transcript, letter of
intent, and instructions. I will not do online recommendations unless they don’t require
an institutional email. You will receive a much better letter of recommendation if I know
who you are. I will only mail out letters of recommendation, and not hand them back to
students, nor will I produce letters for non-specific purposes.
PLAGIARISM
Department of Political Science Statement on Plagiarism
The Department has zero tolerance for plagiarism.
1. What is plagiarism? The University defines plagiarism as “The presentation of the
work of another person as one’s own or without proper acknowledgment.” (Concordia
Undergraduate Calendar 2006-2007, page 66). Plagiarism is an academic offence
governed by the Code of Conduct (Academic). To find out more about how to avoid
plagiarism, see the Concordia University Student Learning Services guidelines at:
http://cdev.concordia.ca/CnD/studentlearn/Help/handouts/WritingHO/AvoidingPlagiaris
m.html
2. What are the consequences of getting caught? One of the following sanctions may be
imposed:
(a) a written reprimand; (b) a piece of work be re-submitted; (c) specified community
service at the University of up to ten (10) hours per week for a specified period of time;
(d) a failing grade for the piece of work in question or for the course if applicable; (e) a
failing grade and ineligibility for a supplemental examination or any other evaluative
exercise for the course; (f) the obligation to take and pass courses of up to twenty-four
(24) credit in addition to the total number of credits required for the student’s program as
specified by the Academic Hearing Board. If the student is registered as an Independent
student, the sanction will be imposed only if he or she applied and is accepted into a
program; (g) suspension for a period not to exceed six (6) academic terms. Suspensions
shall entail the withdrawal of all University privileges, including the right to enter and be
upon University premises; (h) expulsion from the University. Expulsion entails the
permanent termination of all University privileges (Undergraduate Calendar, p. 69.).
Complete regulations can be found on page 69 of the Undergraduate Calendar.
See also the Political Science Department’s Resources on Avoiding Plagiarism at:
http://politicalscience.concordia.ca/plagiarism/
Of vital importance is good behavior in the classroom. For example, students must never
insult another person in a classroom. Please see the Code of Rights and Responsibilities.
Students not respecting these rules will be asked to leave.
Lecture Topics and Reading Assignments
1. Introduction and Review of Methodology – September 13.
2. Methods and Approaches – September 20.
 Markus Fischer, “Feudal Europe, 800-1300: Communal Discourse and
Conflictual Practices,” International Organization 46, 2 (Spring 1992), 427-66.
missing pp.55-56
 Rodney Bruce Hall and Friedrich Kratochwil, “Medieval Tales: Neorealist
‘Science’ and the Abuse of History,” International Organization 47, 3 (Summer
1993), 479-91.
 Markus Fischer, “On Context, Facts, and Norms: Response to Hall and
Kratochwil,” International Organization 47, 3 (Summer 1993), 493-500.

Jennifer Milliken, “Discourse Study: Bringing Rigor to Critical Theory,” pp. 136159 in Karin M. Fierke and Knud Erik Jorgensen, eds., Constructing International
Relations: The Next Generation.
3. Constructivism – September 27.
 Edmund Beard, “Warfare Among Eskimos”, in Cordier (ed.), Columbia Essays in
International Affairs (1969), 28-50
 Huntington, Samuel P., “The Clash of Civilizations.”
 James Lee Ray, “Slavery and War,” International Organization 43.
 Emanuel Adler, “Seizing the Middle Ground: Constructivism in World Politics,”
European Journal of International Relations vol. 3, no. 3 (1997), pp. 319-363.
 Jeffrey Checkel, “Ideas, Institutions, and the Gorbachev Foreign Policy
Revolution,” World Politics, vol. 45 #2 (1993), pp. 271-300.
4. Classics of Realism – October 4.
 Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War (New York: Norton Critical Edition, 1998),
Book I 1-99, 139-146 (pp. 4-39, 54-57); Book II 34-54 (pp. 71-79); Book III 3650, 70-85 (pp. 113-119, 127-132); Book V 84-116 (pp. 227-231); Book VI, 6-31
(pp. 235-244).
 Hans Morgenthau and Kenneth W. Thompson, Politics among Nations: The
Struggle for Power and Peace (New York: Knopf, 1985), pp. 3-17, 198-240.
 Kenneth Waltz, Theory of International Politics (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley,
1979) Chapters 4 & 6.
 Robert Jervis, “Cooperation Under the Security Dilemma,” World Politics, vol.
30, no. 2 (January 1978), pp. 167-214.
5. Realism – October 18.
 Joseph M. Grieco, Cooperation Among Nations (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1990), 2750.
 Inis L. Claude, “The Balance of Power Revisited”, Review of International
Studies 15 (1989), 77-85.
 Robert Powell, “Absolute and Relative Gains in International Relations Theory,”
American Political Science Review, vol. 85, no. (December 1991), pp. 1303-20.
 John J. Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (New York: Norton,
2001), Chapters 1 and 2.
 Jeffrey W. Taliaferro, “Security Seeking under Anarchy: Defensive Realism
Reconsidered,” International Security, Vol. 25, No. 3 (Winter 2000/2001), pp.
152-186.
6. War – October 25.
 A. F. K. Organski and Jacek Kugler, The War Ledger (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1980), Chapter 1.
 Robert Powell, “Stability and the Distribution of Power,” World Politics, vol 48,
no. 2 (January 1996), pp. 239-267.



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James D. Fearon, “Rationalist Explanations for War,” International Organization,
vol. 49, No. 3 (Summer, 1995), pp. 379-414.
Jack S. Levy, “The Offensive/Defensive Balance of Military Technology: A
Theoretical and Historical Analysis,” International Studies Quarterly, vol. 28, no.
2 (June 1984) pp. 219-238.
Sean M. Lynn-Jones, “Offense Defense Theory and Its Critics,” Security Studies
vol. 4, no. 4 (Summer 1995), pp. 660-691.
Jack S. Levy, “Preventive War and Democratic Politics,” International Studies
Quarterly, vol. 52, no. 1 (March 2008), pp. 1-24.
Mid-term due (October 25)
7. Political Economy – November 1.
 Robert Gilpin, “Three Ideologies of Political Economy,” The Political Economy
of International Relations (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987), 25-64.
 Immanuel Wallerstein, “The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist
System: Concepts for Comparative Analysis,” The Capitalist World Economy
(London: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 1-36
 Charles Kindleberger, The World in Depression 1929-1939 (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1973), 19-30, 291-308.*
 Jack Levy, “Long Cycles, Hegemonic Transitions, and the Long Peace,” in
Charles Kegley (ed.) The Long Postwar Peace (New York: Harper Collins, 1991),
147-176
 Jack Levy, “Theories of General War,” World Politics (April 1985), 344-374
Paper Proposal due
8. International Institutions – November 8.
 Mancur Olson, The Logic of Collective Action (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1971), pp. 5-22, 33-52.
 Kenneth A. Oye, “Explaining Cooperation Under Anarchy: Hypotheses and
Strategies,” in Kenneth Oye (ed.), Cooperation Under Anarchy (Princeton:
Princeton UP, 19), 1-24.
 Joanne Gowa, “Rational Hegemons, Excludable Goods, and Small Groups: An
Epitaph for Hegemonic Stability Theory?” World Politics, vol. 41 (April 1989),
pp. 307-324.
 John J. Mearsheimer, “The False Promise of International Institutions,”
International Security 19/3 (Winter 1994/1995), 5-49.
9. Domestic Politics and the International System – November 15.
 John M. Owen, “How Liberalism Produces the Democratic Peace,” International
Security, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Fall 1994), pp. 87-125.
 Christopher Layne, "Kant or Cant: The Myth of the Democratic Peace,"
International Security, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Fall 1994), pp. 5-49.
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Robert D. Putnam, “Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: the Logic of Two-Level
Games,” International Organization 42, 3 (Summer 1988), 427-60.
Jack Snyder, Myths of Empire – Domestic Politics and International Ambition,
(Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1991), 112-152
Stephen Walt, Revolution and War (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1996), 210-268
10. Paper Presentations – November 22.
11. Paper Presentations – November 29.
12. Paper Presentations – December 6.
13. Paper Presentations – December 7.
Term paper due (December 7).
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