POLITICAL SCIENCE 104

International Politics

Fall2014

Dr. Samuel S. Stanton, Jr.

Office: HAL 303E

Office Hours: MWF 9am-12pm; TTh 1-2pm; By Appointment

Phone: 724.458.3854

Email:

Webpage:

Overview:

This is an introductory course in the study of international relations. The goal of this course is to acquaint you with the concepts, ideas, and analytical tools necessary to understand state behavior and relationships among actors in the international system. In this class we will look at the major concerns, issues, and actors that characterize world politics. We will examine various theoretical explanations for state behaviors, such as realism, liberalism, and constructivism. We will use these theories to analyze the forces that affect state behavior and address some of the most pressing questions in international relations. In order to understand connections among states, we will explore vital topics such as war, cooperation, international law, political economy, terrorism, human rights, and the forms of conflict that characterize the international system. The primary aim of this class is to develop critically engaged citizens with an interest in world politics!

Goals:

  • To aid students in development of an understanding of International Relations that is firmly rooted in a Christian worldview.
  • To help students examine the application of this knowledge to their futures.
  • To assist students in living lives glorifying and honoring God through the advancement of knowledge.

Outcomes:

  • Students will demonstrate understanding of various theories of state behavior that are applied to understanding past, current, and future international political behavior. (Dept. Obj. 1,2, 5, 6)
  • Students will gain knowledge of causes of political conflict. (Dept. Obj. 1, 2, 5, 6)
  • Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze and synthesize readings and online lectures. (Dept. Obj. 2, 4,5, 6, 7)
  • Students will demonstrate the ability to engage in research pertinent to the field of study (Dept. Obj. 2, 4, 6, 7, 8)

General Objectives for Students Majoring in Political Science

  1. Have acquired knowledge of the four major subject areas (American Politics, Political Theory, International Relations, and Comparative Politics) of political science
  1. Be Competitive for graduate and professional school opportunities. Political science majors with strong academic records will be competitive for both master’s and Ph.D. programs in political science and other professional programs and will be competitive for financial stipends.
  1. Be familiar with entry level jobs suitable for political science majors.
  1. Be competitive for entry level jobs suitable for political science majors.
  1. Have the ability to read, comprehend, and evaluate content in professional political science journals, scholarly books, and websites.
  1. Show familiarity with, and the ability to critically evaluate, information sources in the Social Sciences.
  1. Demonstrate a mastery of research and writing skills in the field of political science.
  1. Develop and capacity to apply a Christian moral principles to issues and topics within political science, including using a Christian perspective to evaluate critically political ideas, public policies, and political figures. Simply stated, our aim is that students will seek to understand the field of politics as individuals who are committed to historic Christian thought.

Measurement of Outcomes

Explanation of materials and ability to analyze readings will be determined by course examinations. Ability to understand critical contemporary issues will be determined by examinations. The course paper will demonstrate student ability to analyze and develop a research report.

Course Requirements: This course requires student participation, the completion of two in class exams and a final exam. Also students are required to write an8-10 page research document.

Participation: You cannot participate if you are not present. Participation is more than simply being in the room, participation is discussion, questioning, and answering. I understand that emergencies do occur and that university sponsored events may require students to miss class, please inform me one class prior to sanctioned absences and as soon as possible in the case of emergencies. Participation represents 10% of the course grade.

Research Document: Student must write an8-10 page paper that examines a topic of the student’s choice that is pertinent to the material covered in the introduction of international relations. The paper is due October 14, so do not procrastinate. See paper guidelines at end of syllabus.

Exams: You will have two (2) in class exams and a final exam.Exams will be multiple choice and short answer format. The final exam will be comprehensive per GCC requirements.

Grades:

Participation10%

Research Document20%

Exam 125%

Exam 225%

Final Exam20%

Grading Scale:

90-100A

80-89B

70-79C

60-69D

Below 60F

Academic Dishonesty Policy

Plagiarism:Plagiarism is a serious violation of moral and academic principles. It involves claiming as one’s own original work the ideas, phrasing, or creative work of another person. As such, plagiarism is a direct violation of the biblical commandments against stealing, bearing false witness, and covetousness; thus, the Grove City College policy. I encourage our students to think seriously about the demands of their Christian faith in regards to this issue.

We remind students that plagiarism includes the following:

1)any direct quotation of another’s words, from simple phrasing to longer passages, without using quotation marks and properly citing the source of those words;

2)any summary or paraphrase of another’s ideas without properly citing the source of those ideas;

3)any information that is not common knowledge —including facts, statistics, graphics, drawings—without proper citation of sources;

4)any cutting and pasting of verbal or graphic materials from another source—including books, databases, web sites, journals, newspapers, etc.—without the proper citation for each of the sources of those materials; this includes any copyrighted artwork, graphics, or photography downloaded from the Internet without proper citation;

5)any wholesale “borrowing,” theft, or purchasing of another’s work and presenting it as one’s own, whether from the Internet or from another source;

6)any presentation of “ghost-written” papers—whether paid for or not—as one’s own original work;

7)making one’s work available for copying by others, as well as copying work posted on the Internet or otherwise made available by another.

The above statement is taken from the Grove City College Bulletin and The Crimson. Plagiarism in written work in this course will result in a grade of 0 being assigned to that work. Opportunity to correct and resubmit the work is based on time remaining in the course, nature of the plagiarism (is it simply forgotten or improper citation or is it cutting and pasting entire sections of someone else’s work), and whether or not this is a repeat offense for the individual student.

Cheating on Examinations:

1) Rules of Plagiarism do apply to the essay section of examinations.

2) Discussion of material and sharing of notes, readings, etc. with classmates taking the same exam is NOT cheating.

3) Cheating is defined as:

a)copying portions of any other student’s answer and claiming it as your own

b)paraphrasing portions of any other student’s answer and claiming it as your own

c)obvious sharing of answers that while not copied or paraphrased show exacting and distinctive sharing of ideas, logical thought processes, and craftsmanship of the answer

PENALTY:

1) violations of cheating defined as type a or b will receive a 0 for the answer that exhibits cheating occurred.

2) violations of cheating defined by type c mean that the violation involves more than one person. In this case the parties involved will share the grade earned by the answer. For example if the answer earned a possible 30 points out of 33 1/3 points possible, the grade of 30 will be divided among each party to the cheating.

3) The penalty if applied will be reported to the Student Faculty Review Committee for their review and recommendation of any further action.

Communication: I will communicate with you as much information as possible in a class. Check your email regularly, though, as important information will be shared as necessary throughout the course. Always include a subject line when sending an email to Dr. Stanton, Dr. Stanton has set up his email account to auto-delete any incoming messages without a subject line and Dr. Stanton does not want to miss any important emails from his students.

Text:

Goldstein, Joshua and Jon Pevehouse. 2014. International Relations, 2013-2014 Update, 10/E, Pearson Longman. ISBN-13: 9780205971367

Other readings will be assigned throughout the course. These readings will be available on-line or will be available in the course folder.

Course Outline: Readings listed in Parentheses (GP = Goldstein and Pevehouse text)

August 26: Intro to the Course

August 28: No Class, Dr. Stanton at APSA Meetings (Do Some Reading)

September 2-16: Concepts, Actors, Theories (GP Chps 1-3)

--What is IR and Why Study IR

--Actors, Globalization, Wars

--Realism (Read: Thucydides, ‘The Melian Dialogue’@

and

Watch:

--Liberalism and Social Theories (Read: Woodrow Wilson, ‘The Fourteen Points’ and

Alexander Wendt, “Anarchy is What States Make of It”

Watch:

September 18-October 2:Foreign Policy and Conflict (GP Chps 4-6) (1st Exam)

--Foreign Policy (watch:

--International Conflict (watch: and

--Military Force Structures, Terrorism, WMDs (watch:

and

--First Exam: In Class October 2

October 7-November 6: International Organizations, Law, Human Rights, Integration (GP Chps 7 & 10)

--International Organizations (Read: Eric Voeten, 2005. “The political origins of the UN Security Council’s Ability to Legitimize the Use of Force,” International Organization 59, 3: 527-557)

--Human Rights

--International Integration

--Papers are Due at start of class October 14

November 11-18: International/Global Trade, Finance, Business (GP Chps 8-9)

--International Trade: (watch:

--Global Finance and Business (watch:

--Second Exam: In Class November 20

December 2-9: Issues in International Development(GP Chps 11-13)

--Environmental/Resource Issues (watch:

and

--Population Change

--North-South Gap?

--Foreign Aid Issues (watch:

--Growth of China (watch:

Final Exam: Friday December 12, 2 pm

STYLE GUIDELINE FOR COURSE PAPER:

In Political Science, two styles are prevalent in the scholarly literature—APSA, which is a revised form of APA and Turabian. I require use of APSA! Since the purpose of this course is in part to correctly train you in appropriate writing technique for professional political science work, you will find provided for you in the space below, examples of proper citation, and proper bibliographical citations. Consult a style manual for issues of page numbering, sectioning and sub-sectioning a paper, etc. An electronic copy of the APSA style manual is available in the course folder on the ED server.

Paper Grading:

30% Style and Composition (grammar anyone?)

70% Content (are your statements logical, do you discuss the major points, did you do an

analysis or a report?)

TWO IMPORTANT POINTS:

POINT 1:

When I grade a paper, I will make numerical marks that correspond to the “Rules for Writing” that follow. If on any page I am forced to make more than 5 numerical notations, I will quit reading the paper. This is not a grammar and composition course, if you have problems writing, get help. I do not have the time when grading papers to spend 2 to 3 hours on an individual paper because of poor writing quality. Poor writing quality makes it impossible to understand the content, which means you not only lose the style and composition points, but the content as well. If you follow the “Rules” and use the appropriate style, 30% of your grade is, to be cliché, “in the bag”.

POINT 2:

Even if a paper is stylistically and grammatically correct, and even if you make logical arguments, discuss major points, and actually do an analytical critique rather than a report, you may still only earn a C or B on the assignment. Some arguments are simply better than others. Well written papers make readers think and possibly raise arguments that a reader might not have thought about before reading this paper. Do not confuse making the reader baffled with making the reader think. At the end of the day, a paper meriting an A has met all of the technical challenges of the assignment and has shown a high degree of intellectual aptitude. A high degree of intellectual aptitude is displayed by clarity, sharpness of wit and critique, and by how much it makes the reader think. In short, A papers are special and rare.

RUBRIC FOR GRADING:

Introduction: 14 pts. Possible.

--good, well written intro, easily understood and explained overall purpose and organization of the paper (11-14 pts)

--ok intro, some minor issues with details (8-10 pts)

--poor intro, numerous issues with details (4-7 pts)

--inadequate intro (0-3 pts)

Literature Review/Research of Existent Literature: 14 pts. Possible

--sound examination of relevant literature, well researched (11-14 pts)

--ok or not quite there in either literature or quality of research (8-10 pts)

--poor work (4-7 pts)

--inadequate work (0-3 pts)

Examination and Explanation of Subject Matter: 28 pts. Possible

--Solid coverage of all relevant areas of foreign policy, easily understandable, explains origins and purposes of the foreign policies in solid detail (24-28 pts)

--Coverage and detail of issues is ok, but not outstanding, some gaps exist in explanations of the policies (14-24 pts)

--Missing some area(s) of foreign policy coverage, poorly crafted examination of the policies that are examined (7-13 pts)

--inadequate work (0-6 pts)

Findings and Conclusions: 14 pts. Possible

--Carefully examines and explains potential conclusions based on research (11-14 pts)

--adequately examines potential conclusions (8-10 pts)

--poor examination with illogical conclusions (4-7 pts)

--inadequate examination, missing conlcusions (0-3 pts)

Style and Grammar: 30 pts. Possible

--pts based on adherence to Rules of Writing attached to this syllabus and requirement of no more than 5 style and grammar mistakes on any one page as stated previously in this syllabus.

Dr. Stanton’s Rules for Writing

Built upon the work of a long line of mentors and colleagues

Sentence Rules:

  1. Do not begin sentences in any of the following ways: “There are/is…”, “This is…”, “It is…,” etc.
  2. Do not use “this,” “these,” “that,” “those,” “which,” or “it” unless the word has a clear and unmistakable antecedent nearby. Never begin a sentence with “this” unless you follow it immediately with a noun that re-identifies the idea to which you are referring.
  3. Never publicly dangle a participle or misplace a modifier: write “Showing unmistakable signs of ignorance, the student did not persuade his professor;” NOT> “The student did not persuade his professor, showing unmistakable signs of ignorance.”
  4. Never write an incomplete sentence (participles -- “ing” words -- cannot stand as verbs). A verb must agree with its subject in person and number.
  5. Know these three rules about commas:

a. Join independent clauses (clauses with a subject and a verb) either by using (1) a comma with a conjunction (“Right-handers predominantly use the left side of the brain, so left-handers are the only ones in their right minds.”) or (2) a semicolon without a conjunction (“Right-handers predominantly use the left side of the brain; left-handers are the only ones in their right minds.”)

b. Separate items in a series by using a comma after every item before the

conjunction (“The professor was arbitrary, arrogant, and heartless.”)

c. Never use a comma between the subject and the verb or between the verb and its object (except for interrupting clauses that use two (2) commas).

  1. Bury words like “however,” “furthermore,” “moreover,” “indeed,” etc. (conjunctive adverbs) in the clause or sentence; do not put them at the beginning. (E.g. “The students, however, learned something.”)
  2. Be consistent when you have two or more parallel structures. With adjectives: “He was pompous, picky, and terrorized freshmen” is wrong. “He was pompous, picky, and fond of terrorizing freshmen” is right. With prepositions: “A student could count on his bad temper and arbitrariness” is wrong. “A student could count on his bad temper and on his arbitrariness” is right. With correlatives: “He graded a paper not only for content but for style” is wrong. “He graded a paper not only for content but also for style” is right.
  3. Do not end a sentence with a preposition.
  4. Do not use the passive voice (“Careless students are failed by the ruthless professor”); use the active voice (“The ruthless professor fails careless students”). Because the active voice is direct and clear, this rule is the most important of style, but it has serious consequences for your meaning as well. Politicians, administrators, and those foolishly trying to avoid the consequences of their actions love the passive voice because it protects them from facts and responsibility: “Mistakes were made.”
  5. Adverbs should be adverbs. Do not do it different – if you know what I am saying.
  6. Walker’s Rule for Pronouns: every pronoun should have a clear antecedent to which it agrees in person, number, and gender.

Paragraph and Thesis Rules:

  1. Each paragraph must stick to the subject introduced by its first sentence. Most importantly, the first sentence of the first paragraph must establish the context of your paper. “John Wayne first appears in Stagecoach with a rifle in his hand.” NOT> “Duke has a gun.”
  2. Do not use one or two sentences as a paragraph.
  3. Make the transition between your sentences and your paragraphs clear and logical. This task is the most difficult in writing, but, as you know, life is hard.
  4. Give your paper a clear thesis sentence at the end of your first paragraph. If you can remember only one rule, this rule is the one you must remember. The first paragraph should also demonstrate how the rest of the paper is organized.
  5. Avoid using quotations to begin or end a paragraph or a paper. Your own words are most important in those places.
  6. In longer papers remind the reader of your thesis throughout the body of your paper.

Rules concerning Argumentation:

  1. Never just summarize or paraphrase. Assume your reader has read/seen it. I do not want to know what happened. I want to know your ideas about what happened.
  2. Support your assertions and ideas with concrete examples, with brief quotes from the story, book, or film you are discussing, or with a short citation from some reliable authority.
  3. Do not hedge. Words like “maybe,” “seem,” “perhaps,” and “might” do not keep you from being wrong; they merely alert the reader to the fact that you are worried about it.
  4. Avoid vague generalizations: “as we all know,” “people say,” “since the beginning of time,” etc. Obvious claims such as “mankind would not exist without the heart” are equally lamentable.
  5. Write about works of art in the present tense, since Hamlet will be stabbing Polonius and Roy Hobbs will be knocking the lights out with his home runs long after your grandchildren have forgotten your name.
  6. Avoid rhetorical questions.
  7. Delete the phrase “in the past” from your writing as well as any hint of chronological snobbery. Chronological snobbery is the erroneous assumption that, with the passage of time, mankind has gotten progressively wiser. In the past such a pedantic list of writing rules would have been unnecessary for undergraduates.
  8. When citing a dictionary refer to the Oxford English Dictionary whenever possible.

Diction Rules: