POL 240: Introduction to International Relations

Syllabus updated 2015-08-28; Total Pages: 1589

Prof. Alex Montgomery

ahm@reed.edu

(503) 517-7395




Class

Office



MWF 10:00-10:50 (F01) 11:00-11:50 (F02)

M 1:30-3:30 or by appointment
Eliot 416

Vollum 317
https://moodle.reed.edu/course/view.php?id=1095

http://alexmontgomery.com



Course Description and Goals

Full course for one semester. This course introduces the theoretical study of international relations, with a focus on structures, systems, and strategies. Students will learn to perform basic research and analysis through writing and thinking about events in world politics from different perspectives, including realism, liberalism, and feminism. 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. Conference.

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. Good participation involves—among other things—listening carefully to others, referring or responding to the previous speaker’s comments, and asking questions in addition to or instead of making statements. There is such a thing as bad participation.This includes—but is not limited to—interrupting others, dominating conversations, and conducting ad hominem attacks.

Starting Wednesday, every student should have a question or observation about at least one of the authors assigned for a given day. I may call on you at any time during class to start a conversation with your question/observation. You may want to print it out or write it down if you frequently can’t remember the brilliant observation you had. Students are encouraged, but not required, to turn in their questions/observations to Moodle prior to the class; this is a very good way of demonstrating participation in the event that you tend to listen more than speak in class. You may also participate by discussing the material online before or after the class.

Class will typically start with an interruptible mini-lecture on my part; only after we’ve covered the basics of the articles and how they relate to each other will we move to discussion. I do this to ensure that you understood the basic assumptions, mechanisms, and implications of each theory, and will consequently often contain a Socratic component. This is also a good time to ask one of your questions! Sometimes this will take up almost the entire class period. This is another reason to post your question/observation to Moodle in advance so I can get a sense of where you are stuck or what you are interested in and incorporate that into the mini lecture part. As the class progresses and as we move from theory to practice, we will dedicate more time to the discussion portion of class. Sometimes we will not get to all of the readings or very far in the discussion. This is deliberate; you will still benefit from the context provided by those pieces even if we don’t discuss them. If we miss something in class, you are most welcome to post (or re-post) your question/observation to Moodle after the class.

If you miss a day of class for any reason whatsoever, you may make it up by posting a summary of each of the readings for that day to Moodle. In order to make up missed days from the first half of the semester, these must be posted before the first day of classes after the break; from the second half, by the end of reading period. If you are sick, do NOT come to class and spread it to the rest of us. Instead, stay home, write your summaries up (which all of you should be doing every day in any case), and get better.

Readings

Readings for the course are drawn from two books (a collection of condensed articles and a textbook) and E-Readings, which can be downloaded directly from the links on Moodle. These are best used in conjunction with Zotero, which is supported by the library. Students are expected to bring a copy of the readings to class every day for reference. Laptops are not permitted in class; tablet devices may be used. Readings marked “Further” on the syllabus are other relevant articles or books; they are not required for class. Students who have a particular interest in the topics in question are encouraged to read these pieces and to incorporate them into their assignments. Both books are required for the course; they are for sale at the bookstore, and the Drezner book is on reserve at the library as well. The Drezner book also is available to be checked out as an ebook.

Required Books

While this is not a course on current topics in international politics (any one of which could provide material for an entire course) or how to be a politician, 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.

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 and exams will be turned in electronically using the site.

Simulations

Two of the three major pieces of work for this course will center around simulations. The first will take place during class hours on September 16 on the south lawn in front of Eliot Hall. The second will take place from November 10–12 and will take a total of about eighteen hours. Participating in these simulations is required for completing these two assignments and therefore the course. If you cannot participate in these simulations, you must come talk to me immediately.

Assignments

There are three formal pieces of work for this course. A sheet explaining each will be passed out in class. In general, for the essay assignments, I look for four things: 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. Please note that bibliographies are required and do count towards the word count.

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>. If nothing else, you should avoid “sinister buttocks” syndrome. For more information on Reed’s policies see: <http://www.reed.edu/academic/gbook/comm˙pol/acad˙conduct.html>.

Plagiarism often comes as the result of a student being up against a deadline without being able to meet it. If you are having trouble meeting a deadline for whatever reason, please contact me. Because every assignment is a paper that will be handed out well in advance, I have no problem giving extensions. It is always better to ask for more time than to plagiarize. When you ask for an extension, you should a)explain what events are causing you to miss the deadline and b)request an amount of time proportional to the interfering events. You may ask for an extension up to, but not exceeding, the amount of time remaining for the assignment, except for cases of emergencies or unanticipatable circumstances.

Accommodations

If you’d like to request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Disability Support Services. If you have a letter from Student Services, please let me know so we can discuss those accommodations.

Power and Morality

8/29/16: 01.1. Introduction

8/31/16: 01.2. Power and Morality (28 Pages)

9/2/16: 01.3. Research Session with Joe Marquez - MEET IN LIBRARY 17

Anarchy and Realism

9/5/16: 02.1. No Class (Labor Day)

9/7/16: 02.2. Anarchy (55 Pages)

Further

9/9/16: 02.3. Realism and Levels of Analysis (64 Pages)

The Threat and Use of Force

9/12/16: 03.1. Bandwagoning and Balancing (44 Pages)

9/14/16: 03.2. The Political Use of Force (61 Pages)

Further

9/16/16: 03.3. Anarchy in Practice: Croquet (12 Pages)

Critiques of Realism

9/19/16: 04.1. Discussion; Assignment 1 due at the beginning of class

9/21/16: 04.2. Liberalism and Cooperation (51 Pages)

9/23/16: 04.3. Institutions (67 Pages)

Critiques of IR

9/26/16: 05.1. Constructivist (60 Pages)

9/28/16: 05.2. Feminist (56 Pages)

Further

9/30/16: 05.3. Racial (47 Pages)

Further

Sub-State Theories

10/3/16: 06.1. Democratic Peace (45 Pages)

Further

10/5/16: 06.2. Organizations (41 Pages)

Further

10/7/16: 06.3. Theoretical Review

World Wars

10/10/16: 07.1. The Psychology of World War I (57 Pages)

10/12/16: 07.2. The Cult of the Offensive and World War I (77 Pages)

Further

10/14/16: 07.3. The Bomb and the Cold War (67 Pages)

Fall Break - No Class

Transnational Networks

10/24/16: 09.1. Human Rights (45 Pages)

Further

10/26/16: 09.2. Terrorism (53 Pages)

Further

10/28/16: 09.3. Crime (39 Pages)

Contemporary Problems

10/31/16: 10.1. Clash of Civilizations (60 Pages)

Further

11/2/16: 10.2. American Empire (43 Pages)

Further

11/4/16: 10.3. Proliferation Networks (60 Pages)

Further

Simulation

11/7/16: 11.1. Spread of WMD (57 Pages)

Further

11/9/16: 11.2. Diplomacy and Nonproliferation (20 Pages)

11/10/16: 11.3. Simulation, 8–10 PM

11/11/16: 11.3. No Class at regular time

11/11/16: 11.3. Simulation, 3 PM–

11/12/16: 11.3. Simulation, 12 PM–

A Problem From Hell

11/14/16: 12.1. Simulation Discussion

11/16/16: 12.2. Genocide (50 Pages)

Further

11/18/16: 12.3. Intervention (53 Pages)

Further

Thanksgiving Break

11/21/16: 13.1. No Class

11/23/16: 13.2. No Class

11/25/16: 13.3. No Class

International Political Economy

11/28/16: 14.1. Intro to IPE (50 Pages)

11/30/16: 14.2. What is Globalization? (46 Pages)

12/2/16: 14.3. Globalization: Good or Bad? (55 Pages)

Post-Cold War Security

12/5/16: 15.1. International Environmental Politics (55 Pages)

12/7/16: 15.2. International Law (31 Pages)

Winter Break: 15.3. Future Developments (40 Pages)