Graduate Institute of Political and International Studies
University of Reading, 2013-14
International Relations
(PIM09)
Module Handbook
Course Convenors:
Dr Adam Humphreys & Dr Burak Kadercan
International Relations
Course Aims




To introduce students to the principal concepts and theories associated with the
academic discipline of international relations;
To enable students to gain an understanding of the major issues and debates in
contemporary world politics and the relevance of international relations theory to
these questions;
To strengthen students’ critical and analytical skills through engagement with a
diverse literature (theoretical, historical and empirical); the giving of oral
presentations and participation in seminar discussions; and the writing of essays
and exams;
To provide the analytic and intellectual basis for further academic research in
international relations or for careers which require a sound understanding of
international relations.
Organization of Teaching
The course is organized on the basis of weekly two-hour seminars in the Autumn and
Spring terms. There are no lectures. The seminars will consist of student presentations
followed by discussion of the week’s topic led by the course convenors.
Course Requirements
1. Students must attend all seminars and have completed the required reading for each
seminar. Students are also expected to engage the further reading, especially for topics
on which they are making presentations and on which they intend to write essays.
2. Students should expect to make at least one presentation each term (topics to be
allocated by the course convenors). Presentations should be 10-15 minutes long and
address one of the questions set for the week. All presentations must be accompanied
by a one-page handout, which summarizes the main points of the presentation.
3. Students will also write two 3500-word essays: the first will be due 11 December 2013
and the second essay will be due 19 March 2014. Students will also submit a 500-word
essay proposal on 13 November 2013.
4. Students will also sit a three-hour final exam.
Readings
For the first part of the module, we will regularly use two volumes:
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Tim Dunne, Milja Kurki, and Steve Smith, eds., International Relations Theories:
Discipline and Diversity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
Chris Reus-Smit and Duncan Snidal (eds.) Oxford Handbook of International
Relations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008) (available online via University of
Reading library).
Students should ensure they have access to these volumes, either by purchasing their
own copies, by borrowing them from the course collection, or by ensuring that they can
access them online. A detailed reading list for each topic can be found below. Articles
are normally in the library or can be accessed electronically through the university's
electronic journals portal.
Course Assessment
Final assessment for the course is calculated on the following basis:
Two long essays
Final exam
50%
50%
Essays must be submitted by the deadline; late work will be penalized in accordance with
Department and University regulations.
The final exam will be a closed-book three-hour examination in which candidates will
have to answer three questions.
Essay Topics
In Autumn term, students must write an essay on ONE of the following:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
How, if at all, does anarchy shape world politics?
Is co-operation amongst states possible? Explain.
In what sense is international politics a social realm?
What impact do norms have on world politics?
Is justice possible in international relations?
Do mainstream theories of international relations serve to legitimate inequality?
In Spring term, students must write an essay on ONE of the following:
1. How do territoriality and nationalism play into our understanding of sovereignty
in the modern state system?
2. Can the threat of use of force be considered an essential component of
diplomacy? Elaborate.
3. "The UN is what great powers make of it". Evaluate this claim in the context of
the UN's track record in Syria.
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4. Where does Huntington's "clash of civilizations" thesis stand vis-à-vis neorealism
and constructivism?
5. What is the relationship between globalization and environmental challenges
such as global warming? Is globalization helping us better cope with these
challenges, making no difference, or making things worse? Why?
Seminars
Autumn Term
Week 1
Week 2
Introductory Lecture
Business meeting
International Relations Theory:
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Classical realism and modern realisms
Classical liberalism and modern liberalisms
The English School
Constructivism
Normative theory and the just war tradition
Critical theory and Marxism
Post-structuralism, post-colonialism, and feminism
Spring Term
International Order and its Institutions:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Sovereignty
Hierarchy in International Politics
The rule of law in international politics
The UN and international organizations
Challenges to Contemporary International Order:
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Globalization
Culture and "The Clash of Civilizations"
The use of force
International cooperation and the environment
Nationalism and Self-determination
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Autumn Term
Week 1
Lecture: "Why International Relations Theory?"
Required readings (helpful to read in roughly this order):
Reus-Smit & Snidal, 'Between Utopia and Reality: The Practical Discourses of
International Relations', in Reus-Smit & Snidal (eds.), Oxford Handbook of
International Relations (2008), ch.1, sections 2-5.
Keohane, 'Big Questions in the Study of World Politics', in Reus-Smit & Snidal (eds.),
Oxford Handbook of International Relations (2008), ch.42.
Nau, 'Scholarship and Policy-Making: Who Speaks Truth to Whom?', in Reus-Smit &
Snidal (eds.), Oxford Handbook of International Relations (2008), ch.36.
Week 2
Introductory Meeting
Required readings (helpful to read in roughly this order):
Smith, 'Introduction: Diversity and Disciplinarity in International Relations Theory', in
Dunne, Kurki & Smith (eds.) International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity
(2007), ch.1.
Lake, 'The State and International Relations', in Reus-Smit & Snidal (eds.), Oxford
Handbook of International Relations (2008), ch.2.
Barnett & Sikkink, 'From International Relations to Global Society', in Reus-Smit &
Snidal (eds.), Oxford Handbook of International Relations (2008), ch.3.
Darby, 'A Disabling Discipline', in Reus-Smit & Snidal (eds.), Oxford Handbook of
International Relations (2008), ch.5.
PART I: International Relations Theory
Week 3
1)
2)
3)
Classical realism and modern realisms
Why, according to classical realists, is international politics dominated by power?
Why do neorealists make anarchy their central concept?
How relevant is realism today?
Required readings (helpful to read in roughly this order):
Wohlforth, William, 'Realism', in Reus-Smit & Snidal (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of
International Relations (2008), ch.7.
Lebow, ‘Classical Realism’, in Dunne, Kurki & Smith (eds.), International Relations Theories:
Discipline and Diversity (2007), ch.3.
Mearsheimer, ‘Structural Realism’, in Dunne, Kurki & Smith (eds.), International Relations
Theories: Discipline and Diversity (2007), ch.4.
Morgenthau, Hans, Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace, 5th ed. (1973),
Part I (=chs.1-2, pp.3-24).
Legro, Jeffrey & Andrew Moravcsik, ‘Is Anybody Still a Realist’? International Security,
Vol.24, No.2, Fall 1999, pp.5-55 [see also discussion in International Security, Vol.
25, No. 1, Summer 2000, pp. 165-93].
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Waltz, Kenneth, 'Structural Realism after the Cold War', International Security, Vol. 25, No.
1, Summer 2000, pp.5-41.
Further reading:
Beitz, Charles, Political Theory and International Relations (1979).
Brooks, Stephen, “Duelling Realisms”, International Organization, Vol. 51, No. 3, 1997, pp.
445-477.
Carr, E. H., The Twenty Years Crisis, 1919-1939: An Introduction to the Study of International
Relations (2001, with intro by Michael Cox).
Copeland, Dale, The Origins of Major War (2000).
Cox, Michael, Tim Dunne & Kenneth Booth (eds.), The Eighty Years’ Crisis: International
Relations 1919-1999 (1998).
Donnelly, Jack, Realism and International Relations (2000).
Doyle, Michael, Ways of War and Peace (1997), esp. Intro. and Part 1.
Gilpin, Robert, War and Change in World Politics (1981).
Guilhot, Nicolas (ed.), The Invention of International Relations Theory: Realism, the Rockefeller
Foundation and the 1954 Conference on Theory (2011).
Guzzini, Stefano, Realism in International Relations and International Political Economy: The
Continuing Story of a Death Foretold (1998).
Hadfield, Amelia, British Foreign Policy, National Identity, and Neoclassical Realism (2010).
Haslam, Jonathan, No Virtue Like Necessity: Realist Thought in International Relations since
Machiavelli (2002).
Jervis, Robert, 'Realism in the Study of World Politics', International Organization, Vol. 52,
No. 4, 1998, pp.971-991.
Johnson Bagby, “The Use and Abuse of Thucydides in International Relations”
International Organization, Vol. 48, No. 1, Winter 1994, pp. 131-153.
Keohane, Robert (ed.), Neorealism and its Critics (1986).
Koskenniemi, Martti, 'Carl Schmitt, Hans Morgenthau, and the Image of Law in
International Relations', in Michael Byers (ed.), The Role of Law in International
Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
Lebow, Ned, The Tragic Vision of Politics: Ethics, Interests and Orders (2003).
Lobell, Steven et al (eds.) Neoclassical Realism, the State, and Foreign Policy (2009).
Malcolm, Noel, “Hobbes’s Theory of International Relations”, in Malcolm, Aspects of
Hobbes (2002).
Mearsheimer, John, “The False Promise of International Institutions”, International
Security, Vol. 19, No. 3, Winter 1994-95, pp.5- 49 [see also the subsequent debate
in International Security, Vol. 20, No. 1].
Mearsheimer, John, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001), esp. chs. 1, 2, 10.
Milner, Helen, ‘The Assumption of Anarchy in International Relations Theory: A
Critique’, Review of International Studies, vol. 17, no.1 (1991).
Niebuhr, Reinhold, Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932), esp. ch.4.
Rose, Gideon, 'Neoclassical Realism and Theories of Foreign Policy', World Politics,
Vol.51, No. 1, Oct 1998, pp. 144-72.
Rosenberg, Justin, The Empire of Civil Society (1994).
Schweller, Randall, ‘Managing the Rise of Great Powers: Theory and History’, in
Johnston & Ross (eds.), Engaging China: The Management of an Emerging Power
(1999).
Schweller, Randall & David Priess, 'A Tale of Two Realisms: Expanding the Institutions
Debate', Mershon International Studies Review, Vol. 41, No. 1, May 1997, pp. 1-32.
Schweller, Randall & William C. Wohlforth, 'Power Test: Evaluating Realism in
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Response to the End of the Cold War', Security Studies, Vol. 9, No. 3, 2000, pp.
60-107.
Shimko, Keith, ‘Realism, Neorealism and American Liberalism’, Review of Politics, Vol. 54,
No. 2, Spring 1992.
Smith, Michael, Realist Thought from Weber to Kissinger (1986).
Taliaferro, Jeffrey et al (eds.), The Challenge of Grand Strategy: The Great Powers and the Broken
Balance between the World Wars (2013).
Toje, Asle and Barbara Kunz, Neoclassical Realism in European Politics: Bringing Power Back In
(2012).
Walker, R B J, 'Realism, Change, and International Political Theory', International Studies
Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 1, March 1987, pp. 65-86.
Walt, Stephen, The Origins of Alliances (1987).
Waltz, Kenneth, Theory of International Politics (1979).
Wight, Martin, Power Politics (1979).
Williams, Michael, The Realist Tradition and the Limits of International Relations (2005).
Williams, Michael, Realism Reconsidered: The Legacy of Hans Morgenthau in International
Relations (2007).
Wohlforth, 'The Stability of a Unipolar World', International Security, Vol. 24, No. 1,
Summer 1999, pp. 5-41.
Wohlforth, 'Unipolarity, Status Competition and Great Power War', World Politics, Vol.
61, No. 1, Jan 2009, pp. 28-57.
Week 4
1)
2)
3)
Classical liberalism and modern liberalisms
What, if anything, unites the various strands of liberal theory in International
Relations?
How do (neoliberal) institutionalists explain cooperation?
Is Moravcsik right to claim that his approach effectively supersedes realism?
Required Reading (helpful to read roughly in this order):
Zacher, Mark and Richard Matthew, 'Liberal International Theory: Common Threats,
Divergent Strands', in Kegley (ed.), Controversies in International Relations Theory: The
Neorealist-Neoliberal Debate (1995).
Stein, ‘Neoliberal Institutionalism’, in Reus-Smit & Snidal (eds.), Oxford Handbook of
International Relations (2008), ch.11.
Richardson, ‘The Ethics of Neoliberal Institutionalism’, in Reus-Smit & Snidal (eds.),
Oxford Handbook of International Relations (2008), ch.12.
Moravcsik, ‘The New Liberalism’, in Reus-Smit & Snidal (eds.), Oxford Handbook of
International Relations (2008), ch.13.
Abbott, Kenneth and Duncan Snidal, 'Why States Act through Formal International
Organizations', Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 42, No. 1, Feb 1998, pp. 3-32.
Keohane, Robert, Power and Governance in a Partially Globalized World (2002), chs.2-3.
Further reading:
Angell, Norman, The Great Illusion: A Study of the Relation of Military Power to National
Advantage (1912).
Ashworth, Lucian, Creating International Studies: Angell, Mitrany and the Liberal Tradition
(1995).
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Baldwin, David (ed.), Neorealism and Neoliberalism: The Contemporary Debate (1995), esp. chs.
by Baldwin, Stein, Axelrod & Keohane, and Milner.
Barnett, Michael and Martha Finnemore, Rules for the World: International Organizations in
Global Politics (2004).
Brown, Michael, Sean Lynn-Jones and Steven Miller (eds.), Debating the Democratic Peace
(1996).
Doyle, Michael, ‘Kant, Liberal Legacies and Foreign Affairs’, Philosophy and Public Affairs,
vol. 12, nos. 3 & 4 (Summer & Fall 1983).
Doyle, Michael, Ways of War and Peace (1997), Part II.
Drezner, Daniel, All Politics is Global (2007).
Gruber, Lloyd, Ruling the World: Power Politics and the Rise of Supranational Institutions (2000).
Hoffman, Stanley, “Liberalism and International Affairs”, in Hoffman, Janus and Minerva:
Essays in the Theory and Practice of International Politics (1987), pp. 394-417.
Keohane, Robert, After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy
(1984).
Keohane, Robert and Joseph Nye, Power and Interdependence, 4th ed. (2011).
Koremenos, Barbara et al, 'The Rational Design of International Institutions', International
Organization, Vol. 55, No. 4, 2001, pp.761-99.
Long, David, 'The Harvard School of Liberal International Theory: A Case for Closure',
Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 24, No. 3,1995, pp. 489-505.
Milner, Helen, ‘International Theories of Co-operation among Nations: Strengths and
Weaknesses’, World Politics, Vol. 44, No. 3, April 1992, pp. 466-96.
Moravcsik, Andrew, ‘Taking Preferences Seriously: A Liberal Theory of International
Politics’, International Organization, Vol. 51, No. 4, 1997, pp. 513-53.
Richardson, James, 'Contending Liberalisms: Past and Present', European Journal of
International Relations, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1997.
Russett, Bruce, Grasping the Democratic Peace: Principles for a Post Cold War World (1993).
Powell, Robert, 'Absolute and Relative Gains in International Relations Theory',
American Political Science Review, Vol. 85, 1991, pp.1303-20.
Powell, Robert, 'Anarchy in International Relations: The Neoliberal-Neorealist Debate',
International Organization, Vol. 48, 1994, pp.313-34.
Simpson, Gerry, “Two Liberalisms”, European Journal of International Law, Vol. 12, No. 3,
2001.
Simpson, Gerry, ‘The Ethics of the New Liberalism’, in Reus-Smit & Snidal (eds.),
Oxford Handbook of International Relations (2008), ch.14.
Smith, M.J., ‘Liberalism and International Reform’, in Nardin & Mapel (eds.), Traditions of
International Ethics (1992).
Week 5
1)
2)
3)
The English School
Is the English School closer to realism or liberalism?
What role do institutions play in English School thought? How do they differ
from neoliberal institutionalist understandings of the role of institutions?
What are the main differences between pluralists and solidarists within the
English School?
Required Reading (helpful to read in roughly this order):
Dunne, Tim, ‘The English School’, in Reus-Smit & Snidal (eds.), Oxford Handbook of
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International Relations (2008), ch.15.
Cochran, Molly, ‘The Ethics of the English School’, in Reus-Smit & Snidal (eds.), Oxford
Handbook of International Relations (2008), ch.16.
Bull, Hedley, The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics, 3rd ed. (2002),
Forewords by Hurrell and Hoffmann, Introduction, and Ch.1.
Hurrell, Andrew, On Global Order: Power, Values, and the constitution of International Society
(2007), esp. chs.2-3.
Recommended readings:
Alderson, Kai and Hurrell, Andrew (eds.), Hedley Bull and International Society (2000).
Armstrong, David, Revolution and World Order: The Revolutionary State in International Society
(1993).
Bellamy, Alex (ed.), The English School and its Critics (2004).
Brown, Chris, ‘International Theory and International Society: The Viability of the
Middle Way?’ Review of International Studies, Vol. 21, No. 2, 1995, pp. 183-96.
Bull, Hedley and Adam Watson (eds.), The Expansion of International Society (1985).
Butterfield, Herbert and Martin Wight, Diplomatic Investigations (1966).
Buzan, Barry, ‘From International System to International Society: Structural Realism
and Regime Theory Meet the English School,’ International Organization, Vol. 47,
No. 3, 1993, pp. 327-352.
Buzan, Barry, From International to World Society? English School Theory and the Social Structure
of Globalization (2004)
Buzan, Barry, and Little, Richard, International systems in world history: remaking the study of
International Relations (2000).
Clark, Ian, Legitimacy in International Society (2005).
Clark, Ian, International Legitimacy and World Society (2007).
Cochran, Molly, ‘Charting the Ethics of the English School: What “Good” is there in a
Middle-Ground Ethics’, International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 53, 2009, pp. 203-225.
Dunne, Tim, 'The Social Construction of International Society', European Journal of
International Relations, Vol. 1, No. 3, 1995, pp. 367-89.
Dunne, Tim, Inventing international society: a history of the English school (1998).
Fawn, Rick & Jeremy Larkins (eds.), International Society after the Cold War: Anarchy and
Order Reconsidered (1996).
Griffith, Martin, ‘Order and International Society: The Real Realism’, Review of
International Studies Vol. 18 (1992).
Gong, Gerrit, The Standard of “Civilization” in International Society (1984).
Hall, Ian, “Still the English Patient? Closures and Inventions in the English School”,
International Affairs, vol. 77, no. 4 (2001) pp. 931-942.
Jackson, Robert, The Global Covenant: Human Conduct In a World of States (2000).
Keene, Edward, Beyond the Anarchical Society: Grotius, Colonialism and Order in World Politics
(2002).
Linklater, Andrew and Hidemi Suganami, The English School of International Relations: A
Contemporary Reassessment (2006).
Little, Richard, ‘The English School’s Contribution to the Study of International
Relations’, European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 6, 2000, pp. 395-422.
Reus-Smit, Christian, 'Imagining Society: Constructivism and the English School', British
Journal of Politics and International Relations, Vol. 4, No. 3, 2002, pp. 487-509.
Vincent, John, “The Hobbesian Tradition in Twentieth-Century International Thought”,
Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 10, No. 1, 1981, pp. 89-101.
Vincent, John, Human Rights and International Relations (1986).
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Watson, Adam, The Evolution of International Society (1992).
Wheeler, Nick, “Pluralist and Solidarist Conceptions of International Society: Bull and
Vincent on Humanitarian Intervention”, Millennium: Journal of International Studies,
Vol. 21, No. 3, 1992, pp. 463-87.
Wheeler, Nick, Saving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention in International Society (2000).
Wight, Martin, Systems of States (1977).
Wight, Martin, International Theory: Three Traditions (1991).
Week 6
1)
2)
3)
Constructivism
What is the significance of the claim that ‘anarchy is what states make of it’?
Do norms matter in international relations? If so, how?
What are the limits of a constructivist analysis of international relations?
Required Reading (helpful to read in roughly this order):
Fierke, K. M., ‘Constructivism’, in Dunne, Kurki & Smith (eds.), International Relations
Theories: Discipline and Diversity (2007), ch.9.
Wendt, Alexander, 'Anarchy is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of
Power Politics', International Organization, Vol. 46, No. 2, 1992, pp. 391-426.
Price, Richard & Nina Tannenwald, ‘Norms and Deterrence: The Nuclear and Chemical
Weapons Taboos’, in Katzenstein (ed.), The Culture of National Security: Norms and
Identity in World Politics (1996), ch.4.
Finnemore, Martha, ‘Constructing Norms of Humanitarian Intervention’, in Katzenstein
(ed.), The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics (1996), ch.5.
Price, Richard, ‘The Ethics of Constructivism’, in Reus-Smit & Snidal (eds.), Oxford
Handbook of International Relations (2008), ch.18.
Risse, Thomas, '"Let's Argue!": Communicative Action in World Politics', International
Organization, Vol. 54, No. 1 (Winter, 2000), pp. 1-39.
Further reading:
Adler, Emanuel, ‘Seizing the Middle Ground: Constructivism in World Politics’, European
Journal of International Relations, Vol. 3, No. 3, 1997, pp. 319-63.
Andrews, Bruce, ‘Social Rules and the State as a Social Actor’, World Politics, Vol. 27, No.
4 (1975).
Barkin, J. Samuel and Bruce Cronin, ‘The State and the Nation: Changing Norms and
the Rules of Sovereignty in International Relations’, International Organization, Vol.
48, No. 1 (1994).
Biersteker, Thomas, and Weber, Cynthia (eds.), State Sovereignty as Social Construct (1996).
Checkel, Jeffrey, ‘The Constructivist Turn in International Relations Theory,’ World
Politics, Vol. 50, No. 2, 1998, pp. 324-348.
Checkel, Jeffrey (ed.), International Institutions and Socialization in Europe (2007).
Crawford, Neta, Argument and Change in World Politics (2003).
Fierke, K.M., ‘Multiple Identities, Interfacing Games: The Social Construction of
Western Action in Bosnia,’ European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 2, No. 4,
1996, pp. 467-98.
Fierke, K.M. and Knud Erik Jorgensen, Constructing International Relations: The Next
Generation (2001), esp. introduction and chapters 1, 3 or 6.
Fierke, K.M. and Antje Wiener, ‘Constructing Institutional Interests: NATO and the EU
Enlargement, ’ Journal of European Public Policy, Vol. 6, No. 3 (1999), pp. 721-42.
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Finnemore, Martha, National Interests and International Society (1996).
Finnemore, Martha and Kathryn Sikkink, ‘International Norm Dynamics and Political
Change’, International Organization, Vol. 52, No. 4 (1998).
Foot, Rosemary, Rights Beyond Borders: The Global Community and the Struggle for Human
Rights in China (2000).
Forum on Alexander Wendt’s Social Theory of International Politics, Review of International
Studies, Vol. 26, No. 1, 2000, pp. 123-80.
Guzzini, Stefano, 'A Reconstruction of Constructivism in International Relations’
European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 6, No. 2, 2000, pp. 147-182.
Guzzini, Stefano and Anna Leander (eds.), Constructivism in International Relations:
Alexander Wendt and His Critics (2006).
Hopf, Ted, ‘The Promise of Constructivism in International Relations Theory,’
International Security, Vol. 23, No. 1, 1998, pp. 171-200.
Klotz, Audie, “Norms Reconstituting Interests: Global Racial Equality and U.S.
Sanctions Against South Africa,” International Organization, Vol. 49, No. 3, 1995,
pp. 451-78.
Kratochwil, Freidrich, Rules, Norms, and Decisions: On the Conditions of Practical and Legal
Reasoning in International Relations and Domestic Affairs (1989).
Kratochwil, Friedrich, ‘Constructing a New Orthodoxy? Wendt’s Social Theory of
International Politics and the Constructivist Challenge’ Millennium: Journal of
International Studies, Vol. 29, No. 1, 2000, pp. 73-101.
Kratochwil, Friedrich, ‘How Do Norms Matter?’ in Michael Byers (ed.), The Role of Law
in International Politics: Essays in International Relations and International Law (2000),
ch. 3.
Kratochwil, Friedrich and John Ruggie, ‘International Organisation: A State of the Art
on an Art of the State,’ International Organization, Vol. 40, No. 4, 1986.
Onuf, Nicholas, World of our Making? Rules and Rule in International Relations (1989).
Palan, Roland, ‘A World of their Making: An Evaluation of the Constructivist Critique in
International Relations’, Review of International Studies, Vol. 26, No. 4 (2000).
Price, Richard, The Chemical Weapons Taboo (1997).
Price, Richard, ‘Reversing the Gunsights: Transnational Civil Society targets Landmines’,
International Organization, Vol. 52, No. 3 (1998).
Price, Richard and Chris Reus-Smit, ‘Dangerous Liaisons: Critical International Theory
and Constructivism’, European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 4, No. 3, 1998.
Reus-Smit, Christian, The Moral Purpose of the State (1999).
Risse-Kappen, Thomas, ‘Collective Identity in a Democratic Community: The Case of
NATO’, in Katzenstein (ed.), The Culture of National Security (1996), ch.10.
Risse-Kappen, Thomas, Steve Ropp, and Kathryn Sikkink, The Power of Human Rights:
International Norms and Domestic Change (1999).
Ruggie, John, Constructing the World Polity: Essays on International Institutionalization (1998),
especially chapters 1, 2, 3, and 7.
Sending, Ole, ‘Constitution, Choice and Change: Problems with the ‘Logic of
Appropriateness’ and its Use in Constructivist Theory,’ European Journal of
International Relations, Vol. 8, No. 4, 2002, pp. 443-470.
Sikkink, Kathryn (2011) The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions Are Changing
World Politics.
Tannenwald, Nina, The Nuclear Taboo: The United States and the non-use of nuclear weapons since
1945 (2007).
Weldes, Jutta, ‘Constructing National Interests,’ European Journal of International Relations,
Vol. 2, No. 3, 1996, pp. 275-318.
Wendt, A. (1999) Social Theory of International Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University
11
Press)
Wiener, Antje, The Invisible Constitution of World Politics: Contested Norms and International
Encounters (2008).
Wiener, Antje, ‘Enacting Meaning in Use: Qualitative Research on Norms in
International Relations’, Review of International Studies, Vol. 35, No. 1 (2009).
Zehfuss, Maja, ‘Constructivism and Identity: A Dangerous Liaison’, European Journal of
International Relations, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2001.
Zehfuss, Maja, Constructivism in International Relations: The Politics of Reality (2002).
Week 7
1)
2)
3)
Normative theory and the just war tradition
What is the place of ethics within International Relations theory?
What does 'justice' entail in the international context?
When can the use of force be considered just?
Required reading (helpful to read in roughly this order):
Hurrell, Andrew, ‘Norms and Ethics in International Relations’ in Carlsnaes, Risse and
Simmons (eds.), Handbook of International Relations (2002).
Nardin, Terry, ‘International Ethics’, in Reus-Smit & Snidal (eds.), Oxford Handbook of
International Relations (2008), ch.34.
Brown, Chris, 'International Relations as Political Theory', in Dunne, Kurki & Smith
(eds.), International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity
Price, Richard, ‘Moral Limit and Possibility in World Politics’, International Organization,
Vol. 62, No. 2, 2008, pp. 191-220.
Beitz, Charles, “Cosmopolitan Ideals and National Sentiment”, Journal of Philosophy, Vol.
80, No. 10, Part 1, 1983: 591-601.
Walzer, Michael, Arguing about War (2004), esp. Part I.
Bellamy, Alex, “Is the War on Terror Just?” International Relations, Vol. 19, No. 3,
September 2005, pp.275-296.
Recommended reading:
Atack, Iain, The Ethics of Peace and War (2005).
Beardsworth, Richard, Cosmopolitanism and International Relations Theory (2011).
Beitz, Charles, Political Theory and International Relations (1999, with a new afterword).
Bell, Duncan (ed.), Ethics and World Politics (2010).
Bellamy, Alex, Just Wars: From Cicero to Iraq (2006).
Boucher, David, The Limits of Ethics in International Relations (2009).
Brown, Chris, International Relations Theory: New Normative Approaches (1992).
Brown, Chris, Sovereignty, Rights and Justice: International Political Theory Today (2002).
Caney, Simon, Justice Beyond Borders: A Global Political Theory (2005).
Cochran, Molly, Normative Theory in International Relations: A Pragmatic Approach (1999).
Crawford, Neta, “Just War Theory and the U. S. Counterterror War”, Perspectives on
Politics, Vol. 1, No. 1, March 2003, pp. 5-25.
Elshtain, Jean, Just War against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World
(2003).
Evans, Mark, Just War Theory: A Reappraisal (2005).
Foot, Rosemary, John Gaddis, Andrew Hurrell (eds.), Order and Justice in International
Relations (2003).
Frost, Mervyn, Towards a Normative Theory of International relations, (1986).
12
Frost, Mervyn, Ethics in International Relations (1996).
Forsythe, David, Human Rights in International Relations (2006), Part 1.
Grotius, Hugo, On the Law of War and Peace (2012, ed. Stephen Neff).
Hurrell, Andrew, On Global Order: Power, Values and the Constitution of International Society
(2007), Chapter 12.
Hutchings, Kim, International Political Theory: Rethinking Ethics in a Global Era (1999).
Johnson, James, Just War Tradition and the Restraint of War: A Moral and Historical Inquiry
(1981).
Johnson, James, Morality and Contemporary Warfare (2001).
Lang, Tony, Albert Pierce and Joel Rosenthal (eds.), Ethics and the Future of Conflict: Lessons
from the 1990s (2004).
Linklater, Andrew, Men and Citizens in the Theory of International Relations (1990).
McMahan, Jeff, “Just Cause for War” Ethics & International Affairs, Vol. 19, No. 3,
December 2005, pp. 1-21.
Nardin, Terry, Law, Morality and the Relations of States (1983).
Nardin and Mapel (eds.) Traditions of International Ethics (1993).
O’Donovan, Oliver, The Just War Revisited (2003).
O’Neill, Onora, ‘Bounded and Cosmopolitan Justice’, Review of International Studies, Vol.
26, No.5, (Special Issue), 2000, pp.45-60.
Pogge, Thomas, World Poverty and Human Rights (2002).
Price, Richard (ed.), Moral Limit and Possibility in World Politics (2008).
Rawls, John, The Law of Peoples (1999).
Reed, Charles and David Ryall (eds.), The Price of Peace: Just War in the 21st Century (2007).
Rengger, Nick, 'A City which sustains all Things? Communitarianism and International
Society', Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3, 1992, pp. 353-70.
Rengger, N., Political Theory, Modernity and Post-Modernity: beyond Enlightenment and Critique
(1995).
Rengger, Nicholas, “On the Just War Tradition in the Twenty-First Century”,
International Affairs, Vol. 78, No. 2, 2002 pp. 353-363.
Tuck, Richard, The Rights of War and Peace: Political Thought and the International Order from
Grotius to Kant (1999).
Sandel, Michael, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (1982).
Shue, Henry, Basic Rights: Subsistence, Affluence and American Foreign Policy (1980).
Vincent, R.J., Human Rights and International Relations (Cambridge University Press, 1986).
Walker, R.B.J., Inside/Outside: International Relations as Political Theory (1992).
Walzer, Michael, ‘The Moral Standing of States: A Response to 4 Critics’, Philosophy and
Public Affairs, Vol. 9, No. 3, 1980, pp. 209-229.
Walzer, Michael, Thick and Thin: Moral Arguments at Home and Abroad (1994).
Walzer, Michael, Just and Unjust Wars 4th ed. (Basic Books, 2006).
Week 8
1)
2)
3)
Critical Theory and Marxism
What is the significance of Cox’s claim that theory is always 'for someone and for
some purpose'?
What do Marxist approaches bring to International Relations that mainstream
approaches miss?
How can critical theory contribute to the transformation of world politics?
Required reading (helpful to read in roughly this order):
13
Robert Cox, “Social Forces, States and World Orders: Beyond International Relations
Theory, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 10, No.2, 1981, pp. 126-55
[reprinted in Keohane (ed.), Neorealism and its Critics (1986)].
Rupert, ‘Marxism and Critical Theory’, in Dunne, Kurki & Smith (eds.), International
Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity (2007), ch.8.
Shapcott, ‘Critical Theory’, in Reus-Smit & Snidal (eds.), Oxford Handbook of International
Relations (2008), ch.19.
Eckersley, ‘The Ethics of Critical Theory’, in Reus-Smit & Snidal (eds.), Oxford Handbook
of International Relations (2008), ch.20.
Linklater, Andrew, 'The Question of the Next Stage in International Relations Theory: A
Critical Theoretic Approach', Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 21,
No.1, 1992, pp. 77-98.
Linklater, Andrew, The Transformation of Political Community: Ethical Foundations of the PostWestphalian World (1998), esp. ch. 3 (‘The Dialogic Ethic and the Transformation
of Political Community’).
Recommended reading:
Budd, Adrian, ‘Gramsci’s Marxism and international relations’, International Socialism,
Issue 114, 2007.
Cox, Robert, “Gramsci, Hegemony and International Relations: An Essay in Method”,
Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 12, No. 2, 1983, pp.162-75.
'Critical International Relations Theory after 25 Years', Special Issue of Review of
International Studies, Vol. 33, April 2007.
Fluck, Matthew, ‘The Best There Is? Communication, Objectivity and the Future of
Critical International Relations Theory’, European Journal of International Relations,
OnlineFirst (2012).
Gale, Fred, '"Cave! Hic dragones": a neo-Gramscian deconstruction and reconstruction
of international regime theory', Review of International Political Economy, Vol. 5, No.
2, 1998.
Germain, Randall and Michael Kenny ‘Engaging Gramsci: International Relations
Theory and the New Gramscians’, Review of International Studies, vol. 24, no. 1,
1998.
Gill Stephen, 'Globalisation, Market Civilisation and Disciplinary Neoliberalism',
Millennium: Journal of International Studies, vol. 24, no. 3, 1995.
Gill, Stephen, Power and Resistance in the New World Order (2003).
Gill, Stephen, Global Crises and the Crisis of Global Leadership (2011).
Gilpin, Robert, The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), ch. 2 ('Three
Ideologies of Political Economy').
Hoffman, Mark, ‘Critical Theory and the Inter-Paradigm Debate’, Millennium: Journal of
International Studies, Vol. 16, No. 2, 1987, pp. 231-49.
Jahn, Beate, ‘One Step Forwards, Two Steps Back: Critical Theory as the Latest Edition
of Liberal Idealism’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 27, No. 3, 1998,
pp. 613-41.
Linklater, Andrew, Men and Citizens in the Theory of International Relations, 2nd edn (1990).
Linklater, Andrew, Beyond Realism and Marxism: Critical Theory and International Relations
(1990).
Linklater, Andrew, 'The Transformation of Political Community: E. H. Carr, Critical
Theory and International Relations', Review of International Studies, Vol. 23, No. 3,
1997, pp. 321-38.
14
Morton, Adam, ‘Social Forces in the Struggle over Hegemony: Neo-Gramscian
Perspectives in International Political Economy’, Rethinking Marxism, vol. 15, no.
2, 2003.
Murphy, Craig, “Understanding IR: Understanding Gramsci”, Review of International
Studies, vol. 24, no. 3, 1998.
Neufeld, Mark, The Restructuring of International Relations Theory (1995).
Polanyi, Karl, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time (2001).
Price, R. & Reus-Smit, C., ‘Dangerous Liaisons: Critical International Theory and
Constructivism’, European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 4, No. 3, 1998, pp.
259-94.
Rosenberg, Justin, The Empire of Civil Society (1994).
Teschke, Benno, The Myth of 1648: Class, Geopolitics and the Making of Modern International
Relations (2003).
Wallerstein, Immanuel, The Capitalist World Economy (1979).
Weber, Martin, ‘The critical social theory of the Frankfurt School, and the ‘social turn’ in
IR’, Review of International Studies, vol. 31, no.1, 2005, pp. 195-209.
Wyn Jones, R. (ed.) Critical Theory and World Politics (2001).
Week 9
1)
2)
3)
Post-structuralism, post-colonialism and feminism
What lies at the heart of the post-structuralist critique of mainstream
International Relations?
How is colonialism still relevant to the study of in world politics?
Why is feminism necessary in International Relations?
Required reading (helpful to read in roughly this order)
Post-structuralism:
Campbell, David, ‘Poststructuralism’, in Dunne, Kurki & Smith (eds.), International
Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity (2007), ch.11.
Zehfuss, Maja, 'Forget September 11', Third World Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 3, 2003, pp.
513-28.
Brown, Chris, '"Turtles All the Way Down": Antifoundationalism, Critical Theory, and
International Relations', Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 23, No. 2,
1994, pp. 213-36.
Lawler, Peter, ‘The Ethics of Postmodernism’, in Reus-Smit & Snidal (eds.), Oxford
Handbook of International Relations (2008), ch. 22.
Post-colonialism:
Grovogui, Siba, ‘Postcolonialism’, in Dunne, Kurki & Smith (eds.), International Relations
Theories: Discipline and Diversity (2007), ch.12.
Barkawi, Tarak & Mark Laffey, 'The Postcolonial Moment in Security Studies', Review of
International Studies, Vol. 32, 2006, pp. 329-52.
Feminism:
Tickner, Ann and Laura Sjoberg, ‘Feminism’, in Dunne, Kurki & Smith (eds.),
International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity (2007), ch.10.
Tickner, Ann, ‘You Just Don’t Understand: Troubled Engagements between Feminists
and International Relations Theorists’, International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 4
(1997), pp. 611-32 [see also the debate in Vol. 42, No. 1 (1998)].
15
Recommended readings
Ashley, Richard, ‘Untying the Sovereign State: A Double Reading of the Anarchy
Problematique’, Millennium, Vol. 17, No. 2 (1988).
Baines, Erin K., ‘Gender Research in Violently Divided Societies: Methods and Ethics of
“International” Researchers in Rwanda,’ in Porter (ed.), Researching Conflict in
Africa: Insights and Experiences (2005), pp.140-55.
Barkawi, Tarak & Mark Laffey, 'The Imperial Peace: Democracy, Force and
Globalization', European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 5, No. 4, 1999, pp.
403-34.
Bartelson, Jens, A Genealogy of Sovereignty (1995).
Bleiker, Roland, Popular Dissent, Human Agency and Global Politics (2000).
Brigg, M., ‘Post-Development, Foucault and the Colonisation of Metaphor’, Third World
Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 2, 2002, pp. 421-36.
Burke, Anthony, ‘Postmodernism’, in Reus-Smit & Snidal (eds.), Oxford Handbook of
International Relations (2008), ch.21.
Campbell, David, Writing Security: US Foreign policy and the politics of identity (1992).
Campbell, David, National Reconstruction: Violence, Identity, and Justice in Bosnia (1998).
Chakrabarty, Dipesh, Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference
(2000).
Coulter, Chris, ‘Female Fighters in the Sierra Leone War: Challenging the Assumptions?’
Feminist Review, Vol. 88, 2008, pp.54-73.
Craven, M, The Decolonization of International Law: State Succession and the Law of Treaties
(2007).
Darby, Phillip, ‘Pursuing the Political: A Postcolonial Rethinking of Relations
International’ Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 33, No. 1, 2004, pp. 134.
Der Derian, James, On Diplomacy: A Genealogy of Western Estrangement (1987).
Edkins, Jenny, Poststructuralism and International Relations: Bringing the Political Back In (1999).
Edkins, Jenny, Whose Hunger? Concepts of Famine, Practices of Aid (2000).
Enloe, Cynthia, Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics
(1990).
Enloe, Cynthia, Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women’s Lives (2000).
Fanon, F, The Wretched of the Earth (1967).
'Forum: Edward W. Said and International Relations', Millennium: Journal of International
Studies, Vol. 36, No. 1, Dec 2007.
George, Jim, Discourses of Global Politics: A Critical (Re) Introduction to International Relations
(1994).
Goss, J, ‘Postcolonialism: Subverting Whose Empire?’ Third World Quarterly, Vol. 17, No.
2, 1996, pp. 239-50.
Hansen, Lene, Security as Practice: Discourse Analysis and the Bosnian War (2006).
Hardt, M & A Negri, Empire (2001).
Hardt, M & A Negri, Multitude (2005).
Hobson, John, The Eurocentric Conception of World Politics: Western International Relations
Theory, 1760-2010 (2012).
Inayatullah, Naeem and David Blaney, International Relations and the Problem of Difference
(2004).
Jones, Branwen (ed.), Decolonizing International Relations (2006).
Maggio, J, ‘“Can the Subaltern Be Heard?” Political Theory, Translation, Representation,
and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’ Alternatives, Vol. 32, No. 4, 2007, pp. 419-43.
16
Mehta, P B ‘Empire and Moral Identity’, Ethics and International Affairs, Vol. 17, No. 2,
2003, pp. 49-62.
Mgbeoji, I, ‘The Civilised Self and the Barbaric Other: Imperial Delusions of Order and
the Challenges of Human Security’, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 5, 2006,
pp. 855-69.
Nandy, A, The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self Under Colonialism (1983).
Nesiah, V. ‘Resistance in the Age of Empire: Occupied Discourse Pending Investigation’
Third World Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 5, 2006, pp. 903-22.
Pahuja, S, ‘The Postcoloniality of International Law’ Harvard International Law Journal,
Vol. 46, No. 2, 2005, pp. 459-70.
Rengger, Nicholas, Political Theory, Modernity and Postmodernity: Beyond Enlightenment and
Critique (1995).
Robinson, A & S Tormey, 'Resisting Global Justice: Disrupting the Colonial
Emancipatory Logic of the West', Third World Quarterly, Vol. 30, 2009, pp. 139Said, Edward, Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient (1978).
Shepherd, Laura, ‘Loud Voices Behind the Wall: Gender Violence and the Violent
Reproduction of the International,’ Millennium: Journal of International Studies,
Vol.34, No.2, February 2006, pp.377-401.
Shepherd, Laura J. (ed.), Gender Matters in Global Politics: A Feminist Introduction to
International Relations (2010).
Sjoberg, Laura and Caron Gentry, Mothers, Monsters, and Whores: Women’s Violence in Global
Politics (2007).
Spivak, Gayatri, 'Can the Subaltern Speak?', in Nelson & Grossberg (eds.), Marxism and
the Interpretation of Culture (1988).
Sylvester, Christine, ‘Development Studies and Postcolonial Studies: Disparate Tales of
the Third World’, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 4, 1999, pp. 703-21.
Sylvester, Christine Feminist International Relations: An Unfinished Journey (2001).
True, Jacqui, ‘The Ethics of Feminism’, in in Reus-Smit & Snidal (eds.), Oxford Handbook
of International Relations (2008), ch.24,
Turshen, M. and C. Twagiramariya, What Women Do in Wartime: Gender and Conflict in
Africa (1998).
Vucetic, Srdjan, The Anglosphere: A Genealogy of a Racialized Identity in International Relations
(2011).
Walker, R. B. J. (1993) Inside/Outside: International Relations as Political Theory (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press).
Whitworth, Sandra, ‘Feminism’, in Reus-Smit & Snidal (eds.), Oxford Handbook of
International Relations (2008), ch.23.
Williams, A, ‘The Postcolonial Flaneur and Other Fellow-Travellers: Conceits for a
Narrative of Redemption’, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 5, 1997, pp. 821-41.
17
Spring Term
PART II: International Order and its Institutions
Week 1
1)
2)
Sovereignty
Can there be 'International Relations' without sovereignty?
Does state sovereignty protect or undermine international order?
Required Reading:
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan. Part II, chapters 17 and 18.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, On the Social Contract. Book I, chapters 3, 6, 7, 8; Book II, chaps.
1, 2, 4, 5, 6.
Carl Schmitt, Concept of the Political.
Krasner, Stephen, Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy (Princeton University Press 1999),
chapter 1.
Biersteker, Thomas, and Cynthia Weber (eds.), State Sovereignty as Social Construct
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), chapter 1.
Robert H. Jackson, ‘Sovereignty in World Politics: A Glance at the Conceptual and
Historical Landscape’, Political Studies, 47/3 (1999)
Further Reading:
Ayoob, Mohammed, ‘Humanitarian Intervention and State Sovereignty’, The International
Journal of Human Rights, 6/1 (2002)
Barkin, J. Samuel, ‘The Evolution of the Constitution of Sovereignty and the Emergence
of Human Rights Norms’, Millennium, 27/2 (1998)
Bartelson, Jens, A Genealogy of Sovereignty (CUP, 1995).
Biersteker, Thomas and Cynthia Weber (eds.), State Sovereignty as Social Construct
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996)
Clapham, Christopher, ‘Degrees of Statehood’, Review of International Studies, 24/2 (1998)
Donelly, Jack, ‘Human Rights: A New Standard of Civilization?’, International Affairs,
74/1 (1998)
Gong, Gerrit W., The Standard of ‘Civilization’ in International Society (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1984).
Keohane, Robert, ‘Political authority after intervention: gradations in sovereignty’, in
Robert Keohane and J.L Holzgrefe (eds.), Humanitarian Intervention: ethical, legal, and
political dilemmas (CUP 2003).
Kingsbury, Benedict, ‘Sovereignty and Inequality’, European Journal of International Law,
9/4 (1998)
Thomson, Janice E., ‘State Sovereignty in International Relations: Bridging the Gap
Between Theory and Theoretical Research’, International Studies Quarterly, 39/2 (1995)
Walker, Robert, ‘State Sovereignty and the Articulation of Political Space/Time’,
Millennium, 20/3 (1991)
Wheeler, Nicholas J., ‘The Humanitarian Responsibilities of Sovereignty: Explaining the
Development of a New Norm of Military Intervention for Humanitarian Purposes in
International Society’, in JenniferWelsh (ed.), Humanitarian Intervention and International
Relations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004),
18
Williams, David, ‘Aid and Sovereignty: Quasi-States and the International Financial
Institutions’, Review of International Studies, 24/4 (2000)
Zacher, Mark W., ‘The Territorial Integrity Norm: International Boundaries and the Use
of Force’, International Organization, 55/2 (2001)
Zaum, Dominik, The Sovereignty Paradox: The Norms and Politics of International Statebuilding
(OUP 2007), esp. chapter 1.
Week 2
1)
2)
Hierarchy in International Politics
Is hierarchy in international relations a predominantly social concept?
Does hierarchy pose a fundamental challenge to an international order of
sovereign states?
Required Reading:
Lake, David, ‘Escape from the State-of-Nature: Authority and Hierarchy in World
Politics’, International Security Vol. 32, No. 1 (Summer 2007)
Krisch, Nico, 'Great Powers and the Security Council', in Vaughan Lowe, Afam Roberts,
Jennifer Welsh, and Dominik Zaum (eds.), The United Nations Security Council and War:
The Evolution of Thought and Practice since 1945 9Oxford: OUP, 2008).
Simpson, Gerry, Great Powers and Outlaw States: Unequal Sovereigns in the International Legal
Order (Cambridge: CUP, 2003), chapters 1 and 3.
Further Reading:
Clark, Ian, The Hierarchy of States: Reform and Resistance in the International Order
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989)
Donnelly, Jack, ‘Sovereign Inequalities and Hierarchy in Anarchy: American Power and
International Society’ European Journal of International Relations 12/2 (2006)
Dunne, Tim ‘Society and Hierarchy in International Relations’ International Relations 17/3
(2003)
Gong, Gerrit, The Standard of “Civilization” in International Society (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1984)
Hobson, John M., and J. C. Sharman 'The Enduring Place of Hierarchy in World
Politics: Tracing the Social Logics of Hierarchy and Political Change’ European Journal
of International Relations 11/1 (2006)
Keene, Edward, ‘A case study of the construction of international hierarchy: British
Treaty-Making against the Slave Trade in the Early Nineteenth Century’, International
Organization, 61/2 (2007)
Krisch, Nico, ‘More equal than the rest: Hierarchy, equality, and US dominance in
international law’, in Michael Byers and Georg Nolte (eds.), United States Hegemony and
the Foundations of International Law (Cambridge: CUP, 2003)
Lake, David, ‘Anarchy, Hierarchy and the Variety of International Relations’, International
Organization, 50, 1 (Winter 1996)
Wendt, Alexander and Daniel Friedheim, ‘Hierarchy under Anarchy: Informal Empire
and the East German State’, International Organization, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Autumn 1995)
Wight, Martin, Systems of States (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1977)
19
Week 3
1)
2)
The Role of Law in International Politics
Why do most states obey most law most of the time?
Does law tame power, or is it a source of power, in international relations?
Required Reading:
Bull Hedley, The Anarchical Society (1995), chapter on International law and international
order.
Hugo Grotius,
Higgins, Rosalyn, Problems and Processes: International Law and How We Use It (1995),
chapters 1, 2, and 3
Reus-Smit, Christian, The Politics of International Law (Cambridge: CUP, 2004), chapter 2.
Recommended Reading:
Allott, Philip, ‘The Concept of International Law’, in Michael Byers (ed.), The Role of Law
in International Politics: Essays in International Relations and International Law (2000), 69-89
Cassese, Antonio, International Law (2001)
D’Amato, Anthony, ‘Is International Las Really ‘Law’? Northwestern University Law Review,
79, 1985.
Franck, Thomas, The Power of Legitimacy among Nations (1990), especially first two chapters
Goldstein, Judith, Robert Keohane, and Anne Marie Slaughter, Legalization and World
Politics (2001). [See also the review of this book by Finnemore and Toope in
International Organization 55/3 (2001)]
Hart, H.L.A., The concept of law (1961), esp. final chapter.
Joyner, Christopher, ‘International Law is, as International Relations Theory
does?’American Journal of International Law 100/1 (2006), 248-58.
Koskenniemi, Martti, The Gentle Civilizer of Nations: The Rise and Fall of International Law
1870-1960 (2001).
Lowe, Vaughan, International Law (2007).
Reus-Smit, Christian (ed.), The Politics of International Law (Cambridge: CUP, 2004)
Slaughter-Burley, Anne-Marie, ‘International Law and International Relations Theory: A
Dual Agenda’, American Journal of International Law 87/2 (1993), 205-39.
Week 4
1)
2)
The UN and International Organisations
Which theoretical approach can best explain the role of international
organizations in the contemporary international order?
Is the United Nations an effective or ineffective organisation for the purpose of
maintaining international peace and security?
Required Reading:
Barnett, Michael N. and Martha Finnemore, ‘The Politics, Power, and Pathologies of
International Organizations’, International Organization vol.53, no. 4 (Autumn 1999),
699-732.
Claude, Inis L.,
‘Peace and Security: Prospective Roles for the Two United
Nations’, Global Governance, vol. 2, no. 3, (Sept.-Dec. 1996).
20
Lowe, Vaughan et.al., ‘Introduction’, in Vaughan Lowe, Adam Roberts, Jennifer Welsh,
and Dominik Zaum (eds.), The United Nations Security Council and War: The Evolution of
Thought and Practice since 1945 (2008).
Recommended Reading:
Baehr, Peter; Leon Gordenker, The United Nations in the 1990s (Macmillan: 1994)
Bailey, S; Sam Daws, The United Nations: A Concise Political Guide (Macmillan:
1995)
Barnett, Michael and Martha Finnemore, Rules for the World: International Organizations and
Global Politics (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004).
Claude, I.L., Swords into Plowshares (McGraw-Hill, 1984)
Claude, Inis L., ‘Peace and Security: Prospective Roles for the Two United Nations’,
Global Governance, vol. 2, no. 3, (Sept.-Dec. 1996).
Claude, Inis L., ‘Collective Legitimization as a Political Function of the United Nations’,
International Organization vol.20, no. 3 (summer 1966), pp.337-67.
Goulding, M., ‘The Evolution of United Nations Peacekeeping’, International Affairs (July
1993)
Howard, M., ‘The Historical Development of the UN’s Role in International Security’ in
Roberts, A. & Kingsbury, B., United Nations, Divided World (1983)
Karns, Margaret, and Karen Mingst, International Organizations: The Politics and Processes of
Global Governance (2009).
Krasno, Jean E., ‘Founding the United Nations: An Evolutionary Process’, in Jean E.
Krasno (ed.), The United Nations: Confronting the Challenges of Global Society (Boulder:
Lynne Rienner, 2004), pp.19-45.
Lowe, Vaughan, Adam Roberts, Jennifer Welsh, and Dominik Zaum (eds.),The United
Nations Security Council and War: The Evolution of Thought and Practice since 1945 (Oxford:
OUP, 2008), especially chapters 2, 5, and 10.
Mayall, J. (ed.), The New Interventionism 1991-1994 (Cambridge: 1996)
Murphy, Craig, ‘Global Governance: Poorly Done and Poorly Understood’, International
Affairs, Vol.76/4 (2000).
Roberts, Adam and Dominik Zaum, Selective Security: War and the UN Security Council Since
1945, Adelphi Paper (London: Routledge and IISS, 2008).
Rosenau, James, ‘Governance, Order, and Change in world Politics’, in James Rosenau
and Ernst-Otto Czempiel (eds.), Governance without government: order and change in world
politics (Cambridge: CUP, 1992).
Roberts, A., ‘From San Francisco to Sarajevo, The UN and the Use of Force’, Survival
(1993)
Roberts, Adam and Benedict Kingsbury, United Nations, Divided World (Oxford: 1983)
Schlesinger, Stephen C., Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations (Cambridge MA:
Westview, 2003).
Simma, B (ed.), The Charter of the United Nations: A Commentary (Oxford: 1995)
Tharoor, S., ‘Should UN Peacekeeping Go Back to Basics?’ Survival (1995)
Weiss, T., Forsythe, D. & Coate, R., The United Nations and Changing World Politics, 3rd
edn. (Westview: 2001, or more recent editions), chapters 1-4.
PART III: Challenges to Contemporary International Order
Week 5
1)
Globalisation
How has globalisation affected the role of the state in international society?
21
2)
Has globalization only benefitted the already powerful?
Required Reading:
Evans, Peter, ‘The Eclipse of the State?’, World Politics 50 (October 1997).
Scholte, Jan Aart, Globalization: A Critical Introduction (2000), introduction, chaps. 1 and 3.
Woods, Ngaire (ed.), The Political Economy of Globalisation (2000), eps.ch.1
Recommended Reading:
Barber, Benjamin (1995) Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalization and Tribalism are Reshaping
the World (New York: Crown).
Beeson, Mark (2007) Regionalism, and Globalization in East Asia: Politics, Security, and
Economic Development (New York: Palgrave Macmillan)
Bhagwati, Jagdish (2004) In Defense of Globalization (New York: Oxford University Press).
Clark, Ian (1999) Globalization and International Relations Theory (New York: Oxford
University Press).
Collier, Paul (2007) The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be
Done About It (New York: Oxford University Press).
Held, David (ed.), Global Transformations (1999)
Hirst, P. and Thompson, G. Globalization in Question (2nd edition, 2005).
Landes, David S. (1998) The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some are So Rich and Some
So Poor (New York: W.W. Norton).
Rivoli, Pietra (2009) The Travels of a T-Shirt In the Global Economy: An Economist Explains the
Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade, 2nd ed. (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley).
Scholte, Jan Aart, Globalization: A Critical Introduction (2000).
Steger, Manfred (2009) Globalization: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford
University Press).
Steger, Manfred (2009) Globalisms: The Great Ideological Struggle of the Twenty-First Century,
3rd ed. (Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield).
Stiglitz, Joseph E. (2002) Globalization and Its Discontents (New York: W.W. Norton).
Week 6
1)
2)
Culture and the ‘Clash of Civilisations’
Is the ‘clash of civilizations’ an overstated claim? If so, why? If not, why not?
To what extent do relations between the West and the Islamic world suggest that
culture is a cause of conflict in world politics?
Required Readings:
Baylis, Smith, and Owens, chapter 24.
Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (Simon & Schuster,
1996).
Huntington, S. “The Clash of Civilizations?’ Foreign Affairs, 72(3), Summer 1993. (to be
read as a summative and digestible version of, and not as a substitute for,
the book).
Further Readings:
22
Agnew, John; Stuart Corbridge, Mastering Space: Hegemony, Territory and International Political
Economy (Routledge, 1995)
Axford, Barrie, The Global System: Economics, Politics and Culture (Polity, 1995)
Watson, A. “European International Society and its Expansion’ in Bull, Hedley; Adam
Watson (eds.), The Expansion of International Society (1984)
Howard, M. ‘The Military Factor in European Expansion’ in Bull, Hedley; Adam Watson
(eds.), The Expansion of International Society (1984).
Esposito, John, The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality? (Oxford, 1996)
Frank, Thomas, ‘Is Personal Freedom a Western Value?’ American Journal of International
Law (October 1997)
Fukuyama, Francis, The End of History and the Last Man (Penguin, 1992)
Gerges, Fawaz, America and Political Islam: Clash of Cultures or Clash of Interests? (Cambridge,
1999)
Halliday, Fred, ‘The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order’ (book
review), New Statesman, 4 April 1997.
Halliday, Fred, Islam and the Myth of Confrontation: Religion and Politics in the Middle East
(Tauris, 1996)
Hasenclever, A.; V. Rittberger, ‘Does Religion Make a Difference? Theoretical
Approaches to the Impact of Faith on Political Conflict’, Millennium: Journal of
International Studies, vol. 29, no. 3 (2000)
Huntington, Samuel, ‘The Clash of Civilizations?’ vol. 72, no. 3 Foreign Affairs (Summer
1993); see also following issue (vol. 72, no. 4) for responses
Huntington, Samuel, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (Simon &
Schuster, 1996)
Mazrui, A.A., ‘Islamic and Western Values’, Foreign Affairs, vol. 76, no. 5 (Sept/Oct 1997)
Midlarsky, M.I., ‘Democracy and Islam: Implications for Civilizational Conflict and the
Democratic Peace’, International Studies Quarterly (September 1998)
Piscatori, John, Islam in a World of Nation-States (Cambridge, 1986)
Said, Edward, Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient (Penguin, 1995)
Sardar, Ziauddin, Postmodernism and the Other: The New Imperialism of Western Culture (Pluto
Press, 1997)
Week 7
1)
2)
Violence and the use of force
Why have the rules restricting the use of force by states been increasingly
undermined?
How ‘new’ are ‘new’ wars?
Required Reading:
Gray, Christine, International Law and the Use of Force, 3rd ed. (Oxford: OUP, 2008),
chapters 2, 4, and 6.
Kaldor, Mary, New and Old Wars: Organised Violence in a Global Era (1999), esp. chapters 2
and 4.
Kalyvas, Stathis, ‘”New”and “Old” Civil Wars: A Valid Distinction?’ World Politics 54/1
(2001).
Roberts, Adam, ‘Law and the Use of Force after Iraq’, Survival, vol.45, no.2 (summer
2003), pp.31-55.
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Further Reading:
Bellamy, Alex and Paul Williams, ‘Who's Keeping the Peace? Regionalization and
Contemporary Peace Operations’, International Security Vol. 29/4 (Spring 2005), pp.
157-195
Berdal, Mats, ‘Beyond greed and grievance – and not too soon…’, Review of International
Studies, 31 (2005), 687-698.
Cockayne, James, and Adam Lupel, ‘Rethinking the Relationship between Peace
Operations and Organized Crime’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.16/1 (20099). See also
the case studies in this special issue.
Gray, Christine, ‘The Charter Limitations on the Use of Force: Theory and Practice’, in
Vaughan Lowe, Adam Roberts, Jennifer Welsh, and Dominik Zaum (eds.), The United
Nations Security Council and War: The Evolution of Thought and Practice since 1945 (Oxford:
OUP, 2008), pp.86-98.
Howard, Michael ‘Temperamenta Belli: Can War be Controlled?’, in Michael
Howard, Restraints on War, OUP, 1979, pp. 1-15.
Lowe, Vaughan, International Law (Oxford: OUP, 2007), chapter 8.
Morris, Justin with Hilaire McCoubrey, ‘Law, Politics, and the Use of Force’, in
Baylis, Wirtz, Cohen, Gray (eds), Strategy in the Contemporary World, 2002, pp. 4565.
Reus-Smit, Christian, The Politics of International Law (Cambridge: CUP, 2004), chapters 3
and 8.
Walzer Michael, Just and Unjust Wars, Penguin, 1977.
Welsh, Jennifer, ‘The Security Council and Humanitarian Intervention’, in Vaughan
Lowe, Adam Roberts, Jennifer Welsh, and Dominik Zaum (eds.), The United Nations
Security Council and War: The Evolution of Thought and Practice since 1945 (Oxford: OUP,
2008), pp. 535-62.
Week 8
1)
2)
International Cooperation and the Environment
‘Little or no progress has been made in the past 40 years in addressing the most
pressing problems of the environment’. Do you agree or disagree and why?
What particular challenges does the study of international environmental issues
pose for international relations theory?
Required Reading:
M. Beeson and N. Bisley, Issues in 21st Century World Politics, chapter 3 by Neil Carter.
J. Baylis, S. Smith and P. Owens, Globalization of World Politics, 4th Ed. (2008), chapter by
J. Vogler.
T. Salmon and M. Imber (Eds) Issues in International Relations (2008), chapters by
Brown and Kutting, also Imber.
Further Reading:
Hurrell, A. and Kingsbury, B. (eds), The International Politics of the Environment (Oxford:
1992)
Pickering, K.T. and Owen, L.A., An Introduction to Global Environmental Issues (Routledge:
1997)
P. Christoff, “Post-Kyoto, Post Bush ? Towards and effective climate change ‘coalition
24
of the willing’ “International Affairs, 82, 5, September 2006.
B. Darkin and C. Paskal, ‘The geopolitics of climate change’ International Affairs, 82, 4,
September 2006.
M. Betshill and H. Bulkery, “Cities and multi-level governance of global climate change”,
Global Governance, 12, 2006, pp. 141-159.
M. Lisowski, ‘The two level game; Bush’s decision to repudiate the Kyoto Protocol’
Environmental Politics,11, 4, 2002, 101-119.
Multiple authors, International Affairs, 77, 2, 2001, Special Issue on Climate Change.
Rice, C. “Promoting the national interest”, Foreign Affairs, 79, 1, 2000. L. D. Danny
Harvey, Climate and Global Environmental Change, 2000. Jacoby, Prinn &
Schmalensee, “Kyoto’s unfinished business”, Foreign Affairs, 77, 4, 1998, pp. 54-66.
Rowlands, “International fairness in global climate change” Environmental
Politics. 6, 3, 1997.
UN sites in administration of the global commons include:
www.un.org the gateway into entire UN site.
www.isa.org.jm the website of the international sea-bed authority.
www.ipcc.ch/ is the website of the intergovernmental panel on climate change
www.fccc.int/ is the website of the framework convention secretariat administration of
Kyoto protocol etc.
NGO sites include;
www.greenpeace.org
www.foe.co.uk www.earthisland.org www.igc.org www.oneworld.org
Week 9
1)
2)
Nationalism self-determination vs. Sovereignty
In what ways has the idea of national self-determination shaped international
relations?
Does it stand in contradiction to the principle of the sovereign state?
Required Readings:
Chapter 2, `Self-Determination’; John Stuart Mill, ‘Of nationality, as connected with
representative government’, Representative Government, Chapter XVI –
in: Utilitarianism, On Liberty and Considerations on Representative Government, J.M. Dent
& Sons ltd, 1972;
John Bayliss, et.al (eds), The Globalisation of World Politics. Chapter 21.
James Mayall, Nationalism and International Society, CUP 1990, Chapter 4;
Rosalyn Higgins, Problems and Process. International Law and How We Use It. Clarendon
Press, Oxford, 1994, Chapter 7, `Self-Determination’.
Further Readings:
Bishai, Linda S. Forgetting Ourselves : Secession and the (Im)possibility of Territorial
Identity (Lexington Books, 2004)
Brown and Ainley, Michael E., Ethnic Conflict and International Society (Princeton, 1993),
esp. Posen, Barry, ‘The Security Dilemma and Ethnic Conflict’
25
Brown and Ainley, Michael E., Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict (MIT: 1997)
Clark, Donald; Williamson (ed.), Robert, Self-Determination: International Perspectives
(Macmillan: 1996)
Alfred Cobban, The Nation State and National Self-Determination, Fontana, 1969, Part II –
The Theory, pp. 101-149;
Gurr, Ted Robert, ‘Peoples Against States: Ethnopolitical Conflict and the Changing
World System’, International Studies Quarterly, vol. 38 (1994)
Halperin, Morton, et al., Self-Determination in the New World Order (Carnegie Endowment,
1993)
Heraclides, Alexis, The Self-Determination of Minorities in International Politics (Cass: 1991)
Higgins, Rosalyn, Problems and Process: International Law and How We Use It (Clarendon:
1994), Chapter 7 (‘Self-determination’)
Hobsbawm, E.J., Nations and Nationalism since 1780 (Cambridge: 1992)
Hutchinson, John; Anthony Smith (eds.), Nationalism (Oxford, 1994)
Ignatieff, Michael, Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism (Vintage, 1994), esp
Introduction.
International Affairs, July 1996: special issue on ethnicity and international relations
Elie Kedourie, Nationalism, Fourth Expanded Edition, Blackwell, 1993.
Margaret Moore (Ed.), National Self-Determination and Secession. OUP, 1998
Mayall, James, Nationalism and International Society (Cambridge, 1990)
McWhinney, Edward, The United Nations and a New World Order for a New Millennium: SelfDetermination, State Succession and Humanitarian Intervention (Kluwer, 2000)
Mortimer, Edward; Robert Fine (eds.), People, Nation and State (Tauris, 1999)
Schöpflin, George, Nations, Identity, Power: The New Politics of Europe (Hurst, 2000)
Shehadi, Kemal, Ethnic Self-Determination and the Break-up of States, Adelphi Paper no. 283
(Oxford/IISS, 1993)
Smith, A., Nations and Nationalism in a Global Era (1995)
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