Theories of International Relations - Spring 2009

Description

World politics is full of dramatic singular events: wars, financial crises, terrorist attacks, peace talks, revolutions, popular campaigns for human rights. International Relations (IR) theory helps us explain and understand those events by equipping us with the appropriate conceptual tools to use in placing these events into context. This course will consider some of the major theoretical alternatives on offer in contemporary IR scholarship, with an eye to clarifying their similarities and differences. Since many of the perennial issues at stake in IR theoretical debates have their roots in classical questions of political philosophy, the course will begin with discussion of some of those classical authors. After this foundation has been established, we will move to a more direct discussion of IR theoretical schools like realism, liberalism, constructivism, feminism, and critical theory.