Course Title: History of International Relations / Credits:8
Code: BMNTÖ31300M
Type of course (lecture/seminar) and hours per week/semester: 2/30
Method of assessment (exam/practical grade):practical
Suggested semester:
Prerequisites(if any):
Course description:
The objective of the course is to give an introduction to students into the contemporary history of international relations. Emphasis will be put on the study of the last two hundred years of European interstate relations, especially of the Franco-German and Franco-Central-European relations. The course will address the sources of diplomatic history, its main notions and methods, enabling the students to interpret international events and processes and to analyse them in the light of correlations that are rooted in the past. Taking a chronological approach, the course will be divided into two main parts:
  1. After a short theoretical introduction, the first course will look into the main events of the period between the Vienna Congress (1815) and the end of the First World War (1918). It will present the diplomatic negotiations, concepts and facts that were in the background of this era’s wars of independence, unifications, armed conflicts, systems of alliance and great power aspirations. Besides looking at the events of international relations of the 19th century, the course would also like to draw attention to the cultural, social, economic and religious aspects.
  2. The second part of the course will be about the main events of international relations from the end of the First World War until the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Besides the diplomatic skirmishes and (disarmament, reparations and ideological) disputes that were in the background of conflicts and crises (armed confrontations) stemming from the controversies of the aims and realization of the Versailles peace treaties, the most significant foreign policy concepts and strategies of this era will also be presented. Special emphasis will be put on the analysis of the Second World War and on the international relations of the following decades, showing its consequences that have an effect until today. Besides classic bilateral relations, multilateral institutions, integration processes, paradiplomatic channels (e.g. secret services), and the role of this period’s determining personalities will also be presented.
The language of the course is French or English.
Required and recommended reading:
  • Black, Jeremy: A History of Diplomacy, London, Reaktion Books, 2010.
  • Bitsch, Marie-Thérèse: Histoire de la construction européenne, Bruxelles, Complexe, 2007.
  • Davies, Norman: Európa története, Budapest, Osiris, 2000.
  • Duchhardt, Heinz und Kinipping, Franz (Hrsg.): Handbuch der Geschicte der internationalen Beziehungen, band 6.: Baumgart, Winfried: Europäisches Konzert und Nationale Bewegung, Internationale beziehungen (1830-1878), Paderborn, Münich, Wien, Zürich, Ferdinand Schöningh, 1999. (második kiadás 2007.)
  • Duroselle, Jean-Baptiste, Kaspi André: Histoire des relations internationales de 1919-1945, Paris, Armand Colin, 2001, (12e edition).
  • Elman, Colin, Elman, Miriam: Bridges and Bonderies, Historians, Political Scientists, and the Study of International Relations, London, MIT Presse, 2001.
  • Gaddis, John, Lewis: We now know. Rethinking Cold War History, Calerdon Press, 1997.
  • Gray S., Colin: War, Peace and International Relations. An Introduction to Strategic History, New York, Routledge, 2011. (2 kiadás).
  • Frank, Robert (szerk.): Pour l’histoire des relations internationales, Paris, PUF, 2012.
  • Horel, Catherine: Középnek mondott Európa. A Habsburgoktól az európai integrációig, 1815–2004. Budapest, Akadémia, 2011.
  • Kennedy Paul: The rise and fall of the great powers: economic change and military conflict from 1500 to 2000, Vintage Book, 1989.
  • Kissinger, Henry: Diplomacy, Simon and Schuster, 2011 (first edition 1994).
  • Leffler, Melvyn, Painter, David (Szerk.): Origins of the Cold War: An International History, New York, Routledge, 2005. (2-dik kiadás)
  • Macmillan, Margaret: Paris 1919, Six months that changed the World, Random House, 2002.
  • Puchala Donald J.: Théory and History in International Relations, London, Routledge, 2003.
  • Renouvin, Pierre: Histoire des Relations internationales, Paris, Hachette, 1994.
  • Soutou, Georges-Henri: La guerre de Cinquant Ans, Paris, Fayard, 2001.
  • Soutou, Georges-Henri: L’Europe de 1815 à nos jours, Paris, PUF, 2007.
  • Vaisse, Maurice: Les relations internationales depuis 1945, Paris, Armand Colin, 2008.

Lecturers participating in teaching: Gergely FEJERDY (Ph.D.) Associated Professor of Contemporary History