Theories of international relations
Etablissement : ESPOL European School of Political and Social Sciences
Langue : Anglais
Formation(s) dans laquelle/lesquelles le cours apparait :
- Licence de Relations Internationales [ECTS : 6,00]
Période : S3
Assignments and grades
(1) TDs (50% of the course grade), including, apart from mandatory participation:
a) Presentation (20%) of 15-20 minutes by two (or three) students: the presentation should present on the topic of the session and draw on the additional reading assigned for this purpose. Specific details will be discussed in the TDs. A 1-page outline of the presentation should be sent to your TD lecturer two days before the presentation.
b) Research paper (30%) of 1,500 – 2,000 words: the research paper aims to use two chosen IR theories to analyze a concrete case of the student’s choice and compare the explanatory power of the two theories. Details about the methodology and the submission deadline will be provided in the TDs.
(2) Final exam (50%) based on the compulsory class readings and the lecture.
The course introduces students to theories of international politics in the academic (sub-)discipline of International Relations (IR). While both practices and theories of ‘international relations’ are older, IR as a separate academic field of knowledge has been formally institutionalized in the interwar period, spreading and gaining further traction after World War II. Ever since, it has been a discipline in conflict over interpretations of world politics, over the status of theory between tradition, science, and critique, and over the links between knowledge, power, and society. The course presents major theories of IR, from realism, liberalism, and Marxism to critical theory, constructivism, feminism, and postcolonialism. In so doing, it taps into debates over the prospects for peace between power politics and multilateral institutions, questions of enmity, friendship, and change, and critiques of structures of exploitation, difference, and (mis)representation. As a field divided by many perspectives, IR reflects the stakes of thinking about world politics. It its theories, we always find both, different ways of interpreting the world and different models for acting in it.
