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PROF. ROBERT J. ARTPhone: 6-2754
ffice Hours: Tuesdays 5-6PM,
Office: Olin-Sang 109Fridays 12:30-2:00PM & by aptt.
POLITICS 15A--INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
FALL 2016
Description. This course -- an introduction to International Politics -- is divided into three parts: theory, history, and contemporary problems. Part 1 introduces the main topics, approaches, and theories in the study of world politics. Part 2 provides an overview of great power politics during the last one hundredor so years. Part 3 focuses on contemporary problems and their possible solutions. We will spend about 6weeks on Part I;4weeks on Part II; and 3 weeks on Part III.
Requirements. Course requirements are:(1)a midterm examTuesday, October 14on Part 1; (2) a prospectus for an8-page paper due October 21, withthe 8-page paperdue Tuesday, November 22; (3) a final examon December 12 at 9:15AM (tentative) -- please make your winter break travel plans accordingly;and (4) attendance at the fourth hourweekly discussion sections.
Work Load: Success in this 4 credit hour course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class (readings, papers, discussion sections, preparation for exams, etc).
Grading. The course grade is weighted as follows: 10% for discussion section performance, 20% for the midterm, 35% for the paper, and 35% for the final exam.
Two Important Notes: (1) I will not accept late papers unless you have a valid medical excuse or personal emergency; (2) a required fourth hour for discussion will take place every week and will be scheduled during the second week of classes. Review sessions will be held before the midterm and final exams.
Disability Accommodation: If you are a student who needs academic accommodations because of a documented disability, please contact me and present your letter of accommodation as soon as possible.
Learning Goals: learn how to think critically about arguments; learn how to present arguments clearly and convincingly both orally and in writing; understand the underlying features of international relations that motivate and constrain state, non-state, and international organizational actors; appreciate the difficulties in altering the status quo and figure out the levers by which to alter the status quo.
Academic Integrity: You are expected to be honest in all of your academic work. Please consult Brandeis University Rights and Responsibilities for all policies and procedures related to academic integrity. Students may be required to submit work to TurnItIn.com software to verify originality. All allegations of academic dishonesty will be forwarded to the Director of Academic Integrity. Sanctions for academic dishonesty can include failing grades and/or suspension from the university.
Communications: It is best to contact me via email, which I read frequently every day. I will generally communicate with you via email through LATTE, detailing your weekly reading assignments, distributing the weekly questions for discussion sections, and the like. All such communications will be retained on the LATTE website, as will the reading list course handouts, powerpoint slides, and the like.
Suggested Purchases. Copies of the three required books below are on reserve. In addition, chapter selections from books and all articles are on electronic reserve at the course LATTE website. The following three books are the core texts; I strongly recommend you purchase them -- at the Brandeis bookstore or elsewhere:
- Robert Art and Robert Jervis, eds, International Politics, 13th edition, Pearson
- J. S. Nye and David Welch, Understanding Global Conflict and Cooperation, 9thed. Pearson
- Paul Lauren, et al, Force and Statecraft 5th edition, Oxford
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COURSE OUTLINE
PART 1 HOW TO ANALYZE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS(6weeks)
TOPIC 1 PARADIGMS: REALISM, LIBERALISM, INSTITUTIONALISM,
AND CONSTRUCTIVISM
TOPIC 2 NATIONAL INTEREST AND THE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS
TOPIC 3 ANARCHY: CONFLICT AND COOPERATION
TOPIC 4 THE USES OF FORCE -- NUCLEAR AND CONVENTIONAL
TOPIC 5 INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY
PART 2 GREAT POWER POLITICS, 1870-2013(4 weeks)
TOPIC 6 THE HEYDAY OF EUROPEAN POWER POLITICS, 1870-1919
TOPIC 7 APPEASEMENT, AGGRESSORS, & WORLD WAR II, 1920-1945
TOPIC 8 THE COLD WAR, UNIPOLARITY, & MULTIPOLARITY, 1945-2016
PART 3 CONTEMPORARY ISSUES(2-3 weeks)
TOPIC 9 "FUTUREOLOGY": PLAYERS, TRENDS, PROGNOSTICATIONS
TOPIC 10 THE EUROPEAN UNION: A (DIS) UNITED STATES OF EUROPE?
TOPIC 11 CIVIL WARS, ETHNIC CONFLICT, AND THE UNITED NATIONS
TOPIC 12 COMMONS PROBLEMS: NBC WEAPONS SPREAD, TERRORISM,
GLOBAL WARMING, AND GLOBAL HEALTH
TOPIC 13 GLOBALIZATION: ECONOMIC GROWTH AND INEQUALITY
COURSE READINGS:
NOTE: NOT all the readings below are required. I will announce in class what are you required to read for the next class.
I. READINGS FOR TOPICS #1 AND #2 (PARADIGMS, LEVELS, INTERESTS)
Michael Waltzer, “The Problem of Dirty Hands,” Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Winter 1973), pp. 160-180.
Paul Gordon Lauren, Gordon A. Craig, and Alexander L. George, Force and Statecraft: Diplomatic Challenges of Our Time, chaps 7 & 12.
Art and Jervis, International Politics, selections by Thucydides, Morgenthau (“SixPrinciples”), Tickner, Hurd, Wendt, Doyle, and Keohane.
J. S. Nye D.Welch, Understanding Global Conflict and Cooperation, chaps. 1 & 2.
Stephen Walt, "International Relations: One World, Many Theories," Foreign Policy, Spring 1998, pp. 29-48.
Francis Fukuyama, “What If Women Ran the World?” Foreign Affairs, September/October 1998, pp. 24-40.
E. H. Carr, The Twenty Years’ Crisis, chaps. 4-6 (suggested).
II. READINGS FOR TOPICS #3, #4, AND #5(ANARCHY, FORCE, IPE)
Art and Jervis, International Politics,
a. For Anarchy, selections by Waltz (anarchic structure), Fearon, Oye, Jervis and Jervis (Part 1), Schelling (Part 1),Walt, Morgenthau (diplomacy), Hoffmann, Kang, and Ratner.
b. For Use of Force, selections by Art (functions of force), Schelling (Diplomacy of Violence), Hoffman, Chenoweth/Stephan, World Bank, Art (fungibility), Sokolski, Jervis, and Schelling (no nukes).
c. For IPE, selections by Gilpin, Copeland, Rodrick (essay on free trade), Frankel, Brynjolfsson et al., and Naim.
Richard Betts, “The Lost Logic of Deterrence,” Foreign Affairs, March/April 2013, pp. 887-100.
Nye and Welch, Understanding Global Conflict and Cooperation, pp. 77-94.
Paul Lauren, Force and Statecraft, chaps. 8-11.
Inis L. Claude, Jr., Swords into Plowshares, 4th edition, chaps. 12 required and 18 suggested.
Michael Doyle, “Dialectics of a Global Constitution: The Struggle over the UN Charter,” European Journal of International Relations, (2011), pp. 1-24.
III. READINGS FOR TOPICS #6, #7, AND #8(GREAT POWER POLITICS)
Nye, and Welch, UnderstandingGlobal Conflict Cooperation, pp. 94-192.
Paul Lauren et al, Force and Statecraft, chaps.1-6.
John Lewis Gaddis, "The Long Peace," International Security, Spring 1986, pp. 99-142.
William Wohlforth, "Realism and the End of the Cold War," International Security, Vol. 19 (Winter 1994-95), pp. 91-129.
Graham Allison, “The Cuban Missile Crisis at 50,” Foreign Affairs, July-August 2012, pp. 11-17.
Lawrence Freedman, “The War That Didn’t End All Wars,” Foreign Affairs, November/December 2014, pp. 148-154.
Robert Jervis, “Was the Cold War a Security Dilemma?” Journal of Cold War Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Winter 2001), pp. 36-60 (suggested).
IV. READINGS FOR TOPICS #9-#13 (CONTEMPORARY ISSUES)
(1) FUTUREOLOGY: PLAYERS, PROGNOSTICATIONS, TRENDS
Art and Jervis, International Politics, selections by Roberts and Zaum, Waltz (Governance), Ikenberry, Patrick, Jervis (Era), Art (China), Keck/Sikkink, Lin, Posen (Multipolarity), Cox, Kirshner, Walt (European Union).
National Intelligence Council, Global Trends 2035, online at
Nye and Welch, Understanding Global Conflict and Cooperation, chaps. 8-9.
John Mueller, “War Has Almost Ceased to Exist,” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 124 (Summer2009), pp. 297-323.
Randall Schweller, Maxwell’s Demon and the Golden Apple: Global Discord in the New Millennium.
Walter Russell Mead, “The Return of Geopolitics”; and G. John Ikenberry, “The Illusion of Geopolitics,” both in Foreign Affairs, May/June 2014, pp. 69-92.
Jacob Heilbrunn, “Kissinger’s Counsel,” The National Interest,” September/October 2014, pp. 67-75.
John J. Mearsheimer, “Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault,” Foreign Affairs, September/October 2014, pp. 77-89.
(2) A UNITED STATES OF EUROPE?
Mark Kesselman, et. al., European Politics in Transition, pp. 571-594.
Alec Sweet and Wayne Sandholtz, European Integration and Supranational Governance, chap. 7 (188-217), suggested.
Thomas Wright, “Europe’s Lost Decade”; and Charles Kupchan, “Europe’s Make or Break Moment,” both in Survival, December 2013/January 2014, pp. 7-49.
David Art, “The German Rescue of the Eurozone: How Germany is Getting the Europe It Always Wanted,” Political Science Quarterly, Vol.130, No. 2, pp.181-212.
Survival, June-July 2016, articles by Freedman, Heisbourg, Harries, and Jones.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, “Germany’s New Global Role,” Foreign Affaris, July/August 2016, pp. 106-114.
(3) CIVIL WARS AND ETHNIC CONFLICT
Art and Jervis, International Politics, selections by Howard/Donnelly, Annan, Western/Goldstein, Valentino, Downes, and Hartzell/Hoddie.
Nye and Welch, Understanding Global Conflict and Cooperation, chap. 6.
Monica Duffy Toft, “Ending Civil Wars: A Case for Rebel Victory?” International Security, Spring 2010, pp. 7-37.
(4) COMMONS PROBLEMS
---- NBC Spread and Terrorism
Art and Jervis, selections by Jervis (Part 2) and Cronin.
James E. Doyle, “Why Eliminate Nuclear Weapons?” Survival, February/March 2013, pp. 7-35.
Graham Allison, Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe, chaps. 5 & 8 (suggested).
John Mueller, Atomic Obsession, chapters 3, 4, 7, 13, and Epilogue.
Gregory Koblentz, “Biosecurity Reconsidered: Calibrating Biological Threats and Responses,” International Security, Vol. 34, No. 4 (March 2010), pp. 96-132.
---The Environment and Global Warming
Art and Jervis, International Politics, selections by Hardin, Pope Francis, and Dupont.
The International Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Fifth Assessment Report, Working Groups I (Mitigation of Climate Change and II (Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability), online at and
---Epidemics, Pandemics, and Collective Action
Andrew Lakoff. Two regimes of global health.Humanity: AnInternationalJournal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Developmen, Vol.1, #1., pp. 59–79.
Stephen Walt, 2009. What Swine Flu Tells us about Global Cooperation. Foreign Policy Blogs. Available from cooperation.
Richard A. Cash and Vasant Narasimhan, “Impediments to Global Surveillance of Infectious Diseases: Consequences of Open Reporting in a Global Economy,” Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Vol. 78, #11 (2000), pp. 1358-67.
Jeremy Youde, “MERS and Global Health Governance,” International Journal: Canada’s Journal of Global Policy Analysis, Vol. 70, #1 (December 2014), ppp. 119-36.
(5) THE WORLD POLITICAL ECONOMY
Art and Jervis, International Politics, selections byBrynjollfsson et al., Heillner, Stiglitz, Rodrik.
Stephen Roach, “The Globalization Discontent,” Project Syndicate, 25 July 2016, online.
Douglas Irwin, “The Truth about Trade,” Foreign Affairs, July/August 2016, pp. 84-95.
Nye and Welch, Understanding Global Conflict and Cooperation, chap. 7.
Joseph E. Stiglitz, Globalization and Its Discontents, chaps. 3 & 9.
Joseph Grieco and G. John Ikenberry, State Power and World Markets, chaps. 7 and conclusion.