IR 422 Ecological Security and Global Politics
Course Time: Tuesday 5-7:50 PM
Course Location: VKC 206
Professor Jonathan Markowitz
Office VKC: 341
Office Hours: Thursdays 1-3 PM
Description of the Course and Goals:
The goal of this course is to teach students to think about the relationship between environmental
change and the allocation and management of natural resources. This course will focus in
particular on the politics of resource competition, climate change and the governance of the global
commons. We will focus on unearthing the theoretical assumptions upon which contemporary
policy positions rest. This course will not only familiarize students with key theories in each of
these issue areas, but also in how to evaluate their empirical validity. For this reason, many course
readings and discussions will also incorporate basic principles of causal inference and research
design.
Grading Policy:
Grades will be based on participation (10%), summaries and presentation (40%) and a final paper
(50%). Details of the homework and final paper will be distributed and discussed in class. The
final paper is due on the final day of this class. No late papers will be accepted without proper
medical documentation. Participation will be based on summaries of the readings and general
participation in class discussions. Note that the quizzes will cover not only the reading, but also
international news. To stay up to date on global developments, students are encouraged to read the
following news sites:
New York Times Online (http://www.nytimes.com)
Economist Online (http://www.economist.com)
Financial Times (http://www.ft.com)
BBC News (http://news.bbc.co.uk)
Assignments:
Class Participation 10%
Homework: Summaries and Presentations 40%
I will assign various homework assignments and presentations. Assignments will consist mainly
of summarizing, illustrating and critiquing existing research designs. Students will also be
responsible for presenting their own research designs at the end of the term and discussing the
designs of their peers. Each week we will discuss several designs: each design will have a
presenter that that is in charge of summarizing and critiquing the theory and design from the
assigned readings. Homework will be assigned in class and will be due at the beginning of class
on the due date. Late homework is not accepted.
Final Paper 50%
The final paper will be no more than 10 pages, double-spaced with size 12 font. Details about the
final paper will be covered in class.
Students with Disabilities
Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register
with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved
accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me (or to TA)
as early in the semester as possible. The phone number for DSP is 213-740-0776. If you need
assistance with the process, please contact me at the phone number or e-mail address above.
Academic Dishonesty
I take academic dishonesty EXTREMELY seriously. Any student violating USC’s Academic
Dishonesty or Student Conduct policies will earn an ‘F’ in the course and will be reported to the
appropriate administrators for investigation. You are responsible for reviewing the Trojan
Integrity Guide: http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/SJACS/forms/tio.pdf and the guide for
avoiding plagiarism: http://www.usc.edu/student- affairs/SJACS/forms/tig.pdf
Class Schedule
January 12: Basic Expectations—How to Evaluate Theory and Basic Concepts
January 19: Deductive Validity and Basic Concepts
Wagner, R. Harrison. War and the State: The Theory of International Politics. Ann Arbor, MI:
University of Michigan Press, 2007. (Chapter 1)
Gartzke, Erik. "War is in the Error Term." International Organization 53, no. 03 (1999): 567587.
Tullock, Gordon. "The origin of the rent-seeking concept." International Journal of Business and
Economics 2, no. 1 (2003): 1-8.
Olson, Mancur. "Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development." American Political Science
Review 87, no. 03 (1993): 567-576
John Orme, "The Utility of Force in a World of Scarcity." International Security 22, no. 3
(1997): 138-67.
January 26: Construct Validity, Measuring Environmental Resources and Governing the
Commons
UNU-IHDP and UNEP (2014). Inclusive Wealth Report 2014. Measuring progress toward
sustainability. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Read Preface and Page 1-44)
Trochim—Construct Validity. http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/constval.php
Geddes, B. Paradigms and Sand Castles: Theory Building and Research Design in Comparative
Politics: University of Michigan Press, 2003, Chapter 4, “How the Evidence you Use Affects the
Answers you Get”
Thomas Dietz, Elinor Ostrom, and Paul C Stern. "The Struggle to Govern the Commons.
Science 302, no. 5652 (2003): 1907-12.
Elinor Ostrom, "Coping with Tragedies of the Commons." Annual Review of Political Science
2, no. 1 (1999): 493-535.
February 2: Construct Validity and The Resource Curse
Geddes, B. Paradigms and Sand Castles: Theory Building and Research Design in Comparative
Politics: University of Michigan Press, 2003, Chapter 2, “Big Questions, Little Answers. How
the Questions you Choose Affect the Anwers you Get”
Michael L. Ross. What Have We Learned about the Resource Curse?
Annual Review of Political Science, Vol. 18: 239 -259 (Volume publication date May 2015)
“The curse of oil The paradox of plenty” Dec 20th 2005
http://www.economist.com/node/5323394
Haber, Stephen, and Victor Menaldo. "Do natural resources fuel authoritarianism? A reappraisal
of the resource curse." American political science Review 105, no. 01 (2011): 1-26.
Andersen, Jørgen J., and Michael L. Ross. "The Big Oil Change A Closer Look at the Haber–
Menaldo Analysis." Comparative Political Studies (2013): 0010414013488557
February 9: NO CLASS (Professor at Conference)
February 16:
Internal Validity--The Relationship Between Conflict and Environmental Scarcity and
Abundance
Trochim, “Internal Validity” http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/intval.php
Le Billon, P., 2001. The political ecology of war: natural resources and armed
conflicts. Political Geography 20 (5), 561–584.’
Hvid, Anna K. "Fighting for rents: agricultural windfall gains and social change in land-abundant
developing countries." Journal of Reviews on Global Economics 2 (2013): 375-389.
Geddes, Barbara. "How the Cases You Choose Affect the Answers You Get: Selection Bias in
Comparative Politics." Political Analysis 2, no. 1 (1990): 131-50
Thomas F. Homer-Dixon, "Environmental Scarcities and Violent Conflict: Evidence from
Cases." International Security 19, no. 1 (1994): 5--40
February 23: Internal Validity, Natural Experiments, As if Randomization—The Resource
Curse and the Institutions Curse
Ramsay, Kristopher W. "Revisiting the Resource Curse: Natural Disasters, the Price of Oil, and
Democracy." International Organization (2011): pp. 507–29.
Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson. "The Colonial Origins of
Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation." American Economic Review 91, no. 5
(2001): 1369-401
Kenneth L. Sokoloff and Stanley L. Engerman, "History Lessons: Institutions, Factors
Endowments, and Paths of Development in the New World," The Journal of Economic
Perspectives 14, no. 3 (2000).
Sarsons, Heather. "Rainfall and conflict: A cautionary tale." Journal of Development
Economics 115 (2015): 62-72.
Alcoholics Anonymous and the Challenge of Evidence-Based Medicine.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/07/upshot/alcoholics-anonymous-and-the-challenge-ofevidence-based medicine.html
March 1: Internal Validity—Comparing Across Units
Levy, Jack S. "Case Studies: Types, Designs, and Logics of Inference." Conflict Management
and Peace Science 25, no. 1 (2008): 1-18.
Ostrom, Elinor. Governing the Commons. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Chapters 1-3
Mitchell, Ronald B. "Regime Design Matters: Intentional Oil Pollution and Treaty Compliance."
International Organization 48, no. 3 (1994): 425-58.
March 8: External Validity, Climate Change and Conflict
Trochim, “External Validity” http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/external.php
Buhaug, Halvard. "Climate–conflict research: some reflections on the way forward." Wiley
Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 6, no. 3 (2015): 269-275.
Gleditsch, Nils Petter. "Whither the weather? Climate change and conflict." Journal of
Peace Research 49, no. 1 (2012): 3-9.
Hsiang, Solomon M., Kyle C. Meng, and Mark A. Cane. "Civil conflicts are associated with the
global climate." Nature 476, no. 7361 (2011): 438-441.
Levy, Marc A. "Is the environment a national security issue?." International security (1995): 3562.
Theisen, Ole Magnus, Helge Holtermann, and Halvard Buhaug. "Climate wars? Assessing
the claim that drought breeds conflict." (2011).
March 15: NO CLASS (Spring Break)
March 22: Energy Security
Hughes, Llewelyn, and Austin Long. "Is There an Oil Weapon?: Security Implications of
Changes in the Structure of the International Oil Market." International Security 39, no. 3
(2015): 152-189
Eugene Gholz and Daryl Press. "Protecting the Prize: Oil and the Us National Interest." Security
Studies 19, no. 3 (2010): 453-85.
Duane Chapman. "Gulf Oil and International Security." In Energy Security and Global Politics:
The Militarization of Resource Management, edited by D. Moran and J.A. Russell: Taylor &
Francis, 2008
Levi, Michael. "The Enduring Vulnerabilities of Oil Markets." Security Studies 22, no. 1 (2013):
132-138
March 29: Interstate Resource Competition
Koubi, Vally, Gabriele Spilker, Tobias Böhmelt, and Thomas Bernauer. "Do natural resources
matter for interstate and intrastate armed conflict?." Journal of Peace Research 51, no. 2 (2014):
227-243.
Nazli Choucri and Robert C. North, "Dynamics of International Conflict: Some Policy
Implications of Population, Resources, and Technology," World Politics 24, no. 1 (1972
Caselli, Francesco, Massimo Morelli, and Dominic Rohner. The geography of inter-state
resource wars. No. w18978. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2013.
Reuveny, Rafael, and Katherine Barbieri. "On the effect of natural resources on interstate war."
Progress in Physical Geography 38, no. 6 (2014): 786-806.
Van der Ploeg, Frederick, and Dominic Rohner. "War and natural resource
exploitation." European Economic Review 56, no. 8 (2012): 1714-1729
April 5: The Resource Cure and Its Implications for Civil and International Conflict
Fearon, James D. "Counterfactuals and Hypothesis Testing in Political Science." World Politics
43, no. 2 (1991): 169-95.
Ross, Michael L. "How Do Natural Resources Influence Civil War? Evidence from Thirteen
Cases." International Organization 58, no. 1 (2004): 35-67.
Humphreys, Macartan. "Natural resources, conflict, and conflict resolution uncovering the
mechanisms." Journal of conflict resolution 49, no. 4 (2005): 508-537.
Bennett, Andrew, and Jeffrey T. Checkel, eds. Process tracing. Cambridge
University Press, 2014. (Chapter 7 by J. Lyall)
Ross, Michael L., and Erik Voeten. "Oil and international cooperation."
International Studies Quarterly (2015): sqv003
April 12: Arctic Climate Change and Resource Competition
Oran R. Young, "Governance: A peaceful Arctic," Nature 478, no. 7368 (201
Elana Wilson Rowe & Helge Blakkisrud (2014) “A New Kind of Arctic Power?
Russia's Policy Discourses and Diplomatic Practices in the Circumpolar North,” Geopolitics,
19:1,66-85
Marlene Laruelle (2014) “Resource, state reassertion and international
recognition: locating the drivers of Russia’s Arctic policy,” The Polar Journal, 4:2, 253-270
Hubach, Joseph Long, Kellen Minteer, Shane Young
SAIS Review of International Affairs, Volume 33, Number 2, Summer-Fall
2013, pp. 21-43 (Article)
Heather Exner-Pirot (2013) “What is the Arctic a case of? The Arctic as a
regional environmental security complex and the implications for policy,” The Polar Journal,
3:1,
120-135
Betsy Baker, "Law, Science, and the Continental Shelf: The Russian Federation and the Promise
of Arctic Cooperation," American University International Law Review 25, no. 2
April 19 & 26 CLASS PRESENTATIONS