Government 241: Introduction to International Politics
Spring 2006 Syllabus (version of 1/23/08)
Course time: Tues-Thurs 10:30-11:50
Place: Seelye Hall 201
Professor: Jacques E. C. Hymans (jhymans@email.smith.edu)
Office: Wright Hall 105. Office Tel: 413-585-3677.
Office Hours: W 2-4, and by appointment.
Course description: In this lecture course we focus on the actors that make up the core
of international politics: great powers and, in the contemporary world, business firms.
We ask the following questions: in what ways is international politics like or unlike
domestic politics? When do great powers work together, and when do they fight? When
do business firms serve the interests of their home countries, and when do they
undermine those interests? And what is the relative importance of ideas and material
factors on the individual, national and international levels?
Grading:
(a) Self-scheduled final exam (40%)
(b) Take-home mid-term essay (20%)
(b) 3 1-page “book reviews” of recommended readings (each worth 4%: total: 12%).
N.B. Write up as many “book reviews” as you like and I will count the top 3 scores.
(c) 2 in-class map quizzes (each worth 3%: total: 6%)
(d) Top 12 scores of 16 in-class reading quizzes (each worth 1%: total: 12%)
(d) Class participation (10%)
Requirements:
 There are no prerequisites for this course.
 Attendance is not mandatory, but on most lecture days there are in-class quizzes
at the start of class which count toward your final grade.
 The reading quizzes test the student’s reading of the required reading assignment
for that day. The quizzes will focus on the main names, dates, events and places
from the day’s reading. Quizzes contain 4 questions, each worth 1 point each for
a maximum possible score of 3 points. The quizzes will be corrected in class.
 The map quizzes will involve filling in a blank map with correct information. All
information required for the map quizzes will be handed out in the class prior to
the quiz day. Map quizzes will also be corrected in class.
 Your 1-page “book reviews” will cover the recommended readings. These will be
due in hard copy (no electronic submissions) at the start of the class in which the
syllabus states that we are to be discussing the reading that your memo reviews.
You choose which days to turn in a memo. Note that in the final third of the
semester there are few recommended readings. The memos must be no longer
than a single page, 1.5 or double spaced, 12 point font, 1-inch margins. Their
organization should be as follows. At the top of the page, put your name, the
date, the name of the author, and the title/page numbers of the reading. Then
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directly answer the following questions, in this order (number your answers): (1)
What is the primary question or puzzle that the author is addressing? This should
be a maximum of two sentences long and phrased as a question, with a question
mark. (2) What is the core answer the author proposes to the question/puzzle?
Does the answer primarily stress the power of ideas or of material forces? Be
explicit! (3) In what way(s) does this author’s answer differ from the one offered
by Kissinger on the same puzzle in the reading for the day?
The midterm essay will involve one general essay question to be answered in a
paper of no fewer than 5 and no more than 7 pages (8 ½ x 11 paper, Times New
Roman 12 Point Font, 1 inch margins on all sides, double or 1 ½ spaced).
Specific advice on the form and substance of the essay will be given in class. The
essays are due, in hard copy only, at the start of class. Up until 11:59 PM the day
before the midterm is due, students may apply for an extension until the start of
the following class day, but no further extensions will be granted. Late papers
will be graded down one letter grade for every 24 hours they are late.
The final exam will be a self-scheduled exam. It will combine ID’s and a longer
essay question. You will get a “cheat sheet” for the exam on the last day of class.
Basic required texts (purchase at the campus bookstore):
Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy (Simon and Schuster, 1994).
Suzanne Berger, How We Compete (Currency, 2005).
The other readings are available online.
Class Meeting Topics and Reading Assignments:
Class meeting 1 (1/29). Introduction to the course.
Readings: no readings.
Class meeting 2 (1/31): Theoretical Framework: Causal Approaches.
Required reading: Jack Snyder, “One World, Rival Theories,” Foreign Policy No. 145
(Nov./Dec. 2004), pp. 52-62. (EBSCO)
No reading quiz today!
No recommended reading today!
Class meeting 3 (2/5): The birth of the European states-system.
Required reading: Kissinger, Chapter 3 (pp. 56-77).
Practice in-class reading quiz today.
No recommended reading today!
Class meeting 4 (2/7): Peace and war in the modern states-system, 1648-1854.
Required reading: Kissinger, Chapter 4 (pp. 78-102). In-class reading quiz #1 today.
Recommended reading: Paul W. Schroeder, “The Nineteenth Century International
System: Changes in the Structure,” World Politics, Vol. 39, No. 1 (October 1986), pp. 126. (JSTOR)
Class meeting 5 (2/12). The rise of Prussia/Germany, 1848-1871.
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Required reading: Kissinger, Chapter 5 (pp. 103-136). In-class reading quiz #2 today.
Recommended reading: Daniel Ziblatt, “Rethinking the Origins of Federalism: Puzzle,
Theory, and Evidence from 19th Century Europe,” World Politics 57 (October 2004), pp.
70-98 (Project MUSE).
Class meeting 6 (2/14). 19th century imperialism.
Required reading: Rajan Menon and John R. Oneal, “Explaining Imperialism: The State
of the Art as Reflected in Three Theories,” Polity Vol. 19, No. 2 (Winter 1986), pp. 169193 (JSTOR). In-class reading quiz #3 today.
Recommended reading: Kissinger, Chapter 6 (pp. 137-167).
NOTE: In this case, 1-page memos should focus on the required reading, Menon and
Oneal.
Maps for upcoming map quiz (WWI alliances) will be passed out in class.
Class meeting 7 (2/19): The long fuse to World War I.
Required reading: Kissinger, Chapter 7 (pp. 168-200). In-class reading quiz #4 today.
Recommended reading: Niall Ferguson, “Public Finance and National Security: The
Domestic Origins of the First World War Revisited,” Past and Present, No. 142
(February 1994), pp. 141-168. (JSTOR)
Class meeting 8 (2/21): The triggering of World War I.
In-class map quiz #1 today.
Required reading: Kissinger, Chapter 8 (pp. 201-217). No reading quiz today.
Recommended reading: Richard Ned Lebow, "Contingency, Catalysts, and International
System Change," Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 115, No. 4 (Winter 2000/2001), pp.
591-616. (JSTOR)
Class meeting 9 (2/26): The emergence of the United States.
Required reading: Kissinger, Chapter 2 (pp. 29-55). In-class reading quiz #5 today.
Recommended reading: Thomas Bender, “The American Way of Empire,” World Policy
Journal Vol. 30, No. 2 (Spring 2006), pp. 45-61 (EBSCO)
Class meeting 10 (2/28): The Versailles Conference.
Required reading: Kissinger, Chapter 9 (pp. 218-245). In-class reading quiz #6 today.
Recommended reading: Marc Trachtenberg, “Reparation at the Paris Peace Conference,”
The Journal of Modern History Vol. 51, No. 1 (March 1979), pp. 24-55.
Mid-term essay question will be passed out at the end of class today.
Class meeting 11 (3/4): The western powers’ policy of appeasement.
Required reading: Kissinger, Chapters 11 and 12 (pp. 266-318). In-class reading quiz #7
today.
Recommended reading: Robert J. Beck, “Munich’s Lessons Reconsidered,” International
Security, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Autumn, 1989), pp. 161-191. (JSTOR)
Class meeting 12 (3/6): The emergence of the Soviet Union.
Required reading: Kissinger, Chapter 13 (pp. 332-349). In-class reading quiz #8 today.
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Recommended reading: Jonathan Haslam, “The Making of Soviet Foreign Policy under
Stalin,” in T. Hara and K. Matsuzato, eds, Empire and Society: New Approaches to
Russian History (Sapporo, Japan: Slavic Research Center of Hokkaido University, 1997),
pp. 167-180, available at http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/sympo/94summer/chapter9.pdf .
Class meeting 13 (3/11): The emergence of Japan.
Mid-term essays are due at the start of class today.
Required reading: Kenneth B. Pyle, “Profound Forces in the Making of Modern Japan,”
Journal of Japanese Studies Vol. 32, No. 2 (Summer 2006), pp. 393-418 (PROJECT
MUSE). No reading quiz today.
Recommended reading: Jung-Sun N. Han, “Empire of Comic Visions: Japanese Cartoon
Journalism and its Pictorial Statements on Korea, 1876-1910,” Japanese Studies, Vol. 26,
No. 3 (December 2006), pp. 283-302 (EBSCO).
Class meeting 14 (3/13): World War II, the birth of the nuclear age and the onset of the
Cold War.
Required reading: Kissinger, Chapter 17 (pp. 423-445). In-class reading quiz #9 today.
Recommended reading: Gar Alperovitz, “Hiroshima: Historians Reassess,” Foreign
Policy No. 99 (Summer 1995), pp. 15-34. (JSTOR)
Have a great spring break March 15-23! EXTENDED BREAK: NO CLASS ON 3/25!
Class meeting 15 (3/27): GUEST LECTURER: Dr. Mikulas Fabry, Smith College:
“Explaining decolonization.”
Write a 1-page response memo on his talk as extra credit (worth 1 quiz grade).
Class meeting 16 (4/1): The American strategy of containment.
Required reading: Kissinger, Chapters 18 and 19 (pp. 446-492). In-class reading quiz
#10 today.
Recommended reading: Robert Jervis, “The Impact of the Korean War on the Cold War,”
Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 24, No. 4 (December 1980), pp. 563-592. (JSTOR)
Class meeting 17 (4/3): Vietnam.
Required reading: Kissinger, Chapters 25, 26 and 27 (pp. 620-702). In-class reading quiz
#11 today.
Recommended reading: Jeffrey Kimball, “How Wars End: The Vietnam War,” Peace
and Change, Vol. 20, No. 2 (April 1995), pp. 183-202 (EBSCO)
Maps for map quiz #2 (2004 world GDP/capita, from http://www.ucatlas.ucsc.edu) will
be passed out in class today.
SPECIAL EVENING LECTURE: Professor Gilles Pécout, Ecole Normale
Supérieure (Paris, France): “Fighting for Ideas: International Military Volunteers
from the 19th century to today.”
Write a 1-page response memo on his talk as extra credit (worth 1 quiz grade).
Class meeting 18 (4/8): The end of the Cold War.
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Required reading: Kissinger, Chapter 30 (pp. 762-803). In-class reading quiz #12 today.
Recommended reading: Matthew J. Evangelista, “The Paradox of State Strength:
Transnational Relations, Domestic Structures, and Security Policy in Russia and the
Soviet Union,” International Organization Vol. 49, No. 1 (Winter, 1995), pp. 1-38.
(JSTOR)
Class meeting 19 (4/10): CLASS MOVED TO EVENING FOR SPECIAL MOVIE
PRESENTATION: “Dr. Strangelove.”
Write a 1-page response memo on the movie as extra credit (worth 1 quiz grade).
Class meeting 20 (4/15): States and markets in the globalized world.
In-class map quiz #2 today. No in-class reading quiz today.
Required reading: Nancy Brune and Geoffrey Garrett, “The Globalization Rohrschach
Test: International Economic Integration, Inequality, and the Role of Government,”
Annual Review of Political Science Vol. 8 (2005), pp 399-423 (EBSCO).
Recommended reading: David Landes, “Clocks and the Wealth of Nations,” Daedalus
Vol. 132, No. 2 (Spring 2003), pp. 20-26 (LITERATURE ONLINE). No in-class reading
quiz today.
Class meeting 21 (4/17): Managing in the contemporary global economy, 1.
Required reading: Suzanne Berger, How We Compete, chs. 1-2
In-class reading quiz #13 today. No recommended reading.
Class meeting 22 (4/22): Managing in the contemporary global economy, 2.
Required reading: Suzanne Berger, How We Compete, chs. 3-5
In-class reading quiz #14 today. No recommended reading.
Class meeting 23 (4/24): Managing in the contemporary global economy, 3.
Required reading: Suzanne Berger, How We Compete, chs. 6-8
In-class reading quiz #15 today. No recommended reading.
Class meeting 24 (4/29). Guest Lecturer: Professor Daniel Ziblatt, Harvard
University, “Failed States and Statebuilding from the 19th Century to Today.”
Write a 1-page response memo on his talk as extra credit (worth 1 quiz grade).
Recommended reading: see class meeting 5.
Class meeting 25 (5/1): Managing in the contemporary global economy, 4.
Required reading: Suzanne Berger, How We Compete, chs. 9-12
In-class reading quiz #16 today. No recommended reading.
Plus: In-class discussion and handing out of “cheat sheets” for final exam.
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