POL 240: Introduction to International Politics

Syllabus updated 2009-08-30

Prof. Alex Montgomery

ahm@reed.edu

(503) 517-7395

Class

Office
MWF 3:10-4:00 (F01) 2:10-3:00 (F02)

MWF 4:00-5:00 or by appointment
Eliot 414

Eliot 204B
https://moodle.reed.edu/course/view.php?id=399

http://www.reed.edu/~ahm

Course Description and Goals

Full course for one semester. This course introduces the study of international relations. It examines central questions in world politics from a variety of different theoretical perspectives–including realism, liberalism, and feminism–with an emphasis on being able to critique or defend each of these worldviews through comparing their explanations or predictions with actual international events.

Students will learn to perform basic research and analysis through writing and thinking about events in world politics from multiple different perspectives. Readings are drawn from historic and contemporary scholars of international relations, cover a wide variety of issues, and are grouped together in conflicting pairs where possible. Assignments are a mixture of analysis, research, and experiential learning.

Requirements

Class Participation

Students are required to actively participate in the class; they will have the opportunity to do so both during and outside of classroom hours. Beginning the second week of class, each student will be assigned to three days during the semester in which they will do two things. First, each student will author a short reaction memo (300-400 words) expressing an opinion about that day’s readings. These are NOT summaries; rather, they should attempt to agree or disagree with or compare and contrast the readings. Second, the students will collectively post a short newspaper article on a current or historical international event that they feel is relevant to the day’s readings. Both should be posted in the forums on the course website by 8 PM the day before the readings are to be discussed. ALL students are required to read the memos and the newspaper articles from BOTH sections and be prepared to respond to them the next day in class. Students are encouraged to respond to the postings online as part of their participation.

Readings

Readings for the course are drawn from one book (a collection of condensed articles) and E-Readings, which can be downloaded directly from the links on the syllabus. Students are expected to bring a copy of the readings to class every day for reference. Laptops are not permitted in class. Readings marked “Further” on the syllabus are other relevant articles; they are not required for class. Students who have a particular interest in the topics in question are encouraged to read these articles and to incorporate them into their assignments. The book is required for the course; it is for sale at the bookstore and is also on reserve at the library. It can be bought online as well.

Required Books

  • Robert J. Art and Robert Jervis, editors (2007) International Politics: Enduring Concepts and Contemporary Issues.  8th edition. New York, NY: Pearson/Longman, ISBN 0321436032

While this is not a course on current topics in international politics (any one of which could provide material for an entire course), students are also expected to keep up with world events through daily reading of international news. Recommended news sites will be posted on the course web site and on the online library research guide, available at <http://guides.library.reed.edu/course-guide/8-Pol240>.

Course Website

Frequent reading of the course website will be helpful for success in the class. Discussion and collaboration with your peers in both sections of the class is available to you through the website; supplemental and core readings will be made available there; and assignments will be turned in electronically using the site.

Simulations

Two of the three assignments will center around simulations. The first will take place during class hours on September 18th on the front lawn of Eliot. The second will take place from November 19-21 and will take a total of about eighteen hours. Participating in these simulations is required for completing the first and second assignments and therefore the course. If you cannot participate in these simulations, you must come talk to me immediately.

Assignments

There are four formal assignments for this course. Except for the short proposal, a sheet explaining each assignment will be passed out in class. In general, I look for four things in an essay: A clear argument in the introductory paragraph, an explanation of the theories that you will be using, an illustration of your argument with direct examples, and a conclusion that discusses the implications of your findings.

Citation and Plagiarism

A major goal of this course is to encourage good reading, research, and citation habits. Good research requires good documentation of sources and the ability to put one’s own analysis and thoughts into a paper rather than relying on others. When in doubt as to whether you should cite something, always do it. Citations are required for ideas as well as facts, and are imperative even if you are not directly quoting authors. Make sure that you provide as specific a citation as possible; if an author discusses an idea in one section or one page, cite the specific section or page instead of the full article or book. I usually recommend that students use in-text author-date citation with full Chicago Manual of Style citations; see their Citation Quick Guide: <http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools˙citationguide.html>. However, style is less important than the cites being present. If you use an idea or a fact without attribution, you are plagiarizing someone else’s work. Plagiarism and cheating are violations of academic integrity and thus violations of Reed’s Honor Principle. As specified by Reed’s academic conduct policy, such violations will result in disciplinary actions, including suspension or permanent dismissal from the College. Plagiarism is submitting a piece of work which in part or in whole is not entirely the student’s own work without attributing those same portions to their correct source. For examples of plagiarism and how to avoid it, see <http://www.csub.edu/ssric-trd/howto/plagiarism.htm> For more information on Reed’s policies see: <http://www.reed.edu/academic/gbook/comm˙pol/acad˙conduct.html>.

Accommodations

If you’d like to request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Learning Resources Director Libby Rapkoch, Psy.D., Dorothy Johansen House, 503-517-7921, rapkoche@reed.edu. If you have a letter from Student Services, please let me know so we can discuss those accommodations.

Week 1: Power and Morality

8/31/09: 01.1. Introduction

9/2/09: 01.2. Power and Morality (31 Pages)

9/4/09: 01.3. Anarchy (55 Pages)

Further

Week 2: Realism

9/7/09: 02.1. Labor Day - No Class

9/9/09: 02.2. Realism and Levels of Analysis (68 Pages)

9/11/09: 02.3. Dena Hutto: Research

Week 3: Mitigating Anarchy

9/14/09: 03.1. Bandwagoning and Balancing (44 Pages)

9/16/09: 03.2. Cooperation (37 Pages)

9/18/09: 03.3. Anarchy in Practice: Croquet (12 Pages)

Week 4: Structural Critiques of Realism

9/21/09: 04.1. Discussion; Assignment 1 due at the beginning of class

9/23/09: 04.2. Institutions (66 Pages)

9/25/09: 04.3. Constructivism (49 Pages)

Week 5: Broader Critiques of Realism

9/28/09: 05.1. Feminism (50 Pages)

Further

9/30/09: 05.2. Democratic Peace (31 Pages)

Further

10/2/09: 05.3. Organizations (30 Pages)

Further

Week 6: World Wars

10/5/09: 06.1. The Political Use of Force (56 Pages)

10/7/09: 06.2. World War I (75 Pages)

Further

10/9/09: 06.3. World War II (61 Pages)

Week 7: Cold War

10/12/09: 07.1. The Bomb and the Cold War (35 Pages)

10/14/09: 07.2. Atomic Strategy (66 Pages)

10/16/09: 07.3. End of the Cold War (68 Pages)

Week 8: Fall Break - No Class

Week 9: Empire

10/26/09: 09.1. American Empire (45 Pages)

Further

10/28/09: 09.2. Clash of Civilizations (64 Pages)

10/30/09: 09.3. Failed States and Civil War (44 Pages)

Week 10: IPE

11/2/09: 10.1. Intro to IPE (39 Pages)

11/4/09: 10.2. International Law (31 Pages)

11/6/09: 10.3. The Cost of Iraq (40 Pages)

Further

Week 11: Globalization

11/9/09: 11.1. What is Globalization? (47 Pages)

11/11/09: 11.2. Globalization: Good or Bad? (49 Pages)

11/13/09: 11.3. Global Ecological Politics (55 Pages)

Week 12: Nuclear Weapons

11/16/09: 12.1. Spread of Nuclear Weapons (65 Pages)

Further

11/18/09: 12.2. Diplomacy and Nonproliferation (20 Pages)

11/20/09: 12.3. Simulation

Week 13: Networks and Weapons

11/23/09: 13.1. Discussion

11/25/09: 13.2. Proliferation Networks (60 Pages)

Further

11/27/09: 13.3. Thanksgiving Break - No Class

Week 14: Networked Politics

11/30/09: 14.1. Human Rights (42 Pages)

Further

12/2/09: 14.2. Terrorism (35 Pages)

12/4/09: 14.3. Crime (37 Pages)

Week 15: Morality and Power Redux

12/7/09: 15.1. Genocide (39 Pages)

12/9/09: 15.2. Just War (54 Pages)