Hist.I.R.Theory(0040)/04/5.doc                                                                                                          September 17, 2004

 

 

UNIVERSITY OF BATH

 

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department of Economics and International Development

 

A History of International Relations Theory

(EC)  0040)

 

 

"The farther backward you look, the farther forward you are likely to see."

 

Sir Winston Churchill

 

"Past things shed light on future ones; the world was always of a kind; what is and will be was at some other time; the same things come back, but under different names and colors; not everybody recognises them, but only he who is wise and considers them diligently."

 

Francesco Guicciardini (1483-1540)

 

"Anyone wishing to see what is to be must consider what has been: all the things of this world in every era have their counterparts in ancient times."

- Machiavelli

 

"Ancient history .... is the surest guide to what we are likely to face in the early decades of the twenty-first century."

 

- Robert D. Kaplan, Warrior Politics (2002)

 

 

Dr. Scott  M. Thomas                                                                                    Telephone: (office) 826805

Office: 3-E, Room 4.41                                                                                (home) 461489

 

INTRODUCTION

This course exists because you are beginning your study of international relations in unsettling and uncertain times. Rapid political, economic, technological, social, and cultural changes have altered the intellectual frameworks through which we interpret, explain, and understand the world. Therefore, this course has been constructed as a challenging intellectual journey that introduces students to the main, enduring ideas about international relations as they have emerged in history. It course covers the main philosophers Prime Minister Tony Blair mentioned in his speech to the Global Ethics Foundation in Tubigen, Germany, including Dante, Erasmus, Hugo Grotius, William Penn, Rousseau, and Kant.[1]

 

Without the Cold War to frame our inquiry and understanding of international relations there is no longer any agreement on what dimensions of international relations will be important in the twenty-first century. As James Rosenau states, in the Forward to Mark Kauppi and Paul Viotti's textbook, The Global Philosophers  (1992):

 

"In our time of restless, pervasive change it is useful to be reminded that not all is new, that historical context matters, that the creative mind can sort out the important from the trivial, and that those who do the sorting - the global philosophers - leave a trail of ideas that guide subsequent generations" (p. xi).

 

Although the ideas of the main global philosophers are examined in their historical context, this is not a introductory course on political philosophy nor is it a survey of world history. What is important about history for this course is how different types of international systems existed in the past for only in this way can we gain an understanding of how the contemporary international system came to exist as it is, and how it may develop in the future (Adam Watson). Unless we can uncover the continuities in world politics and differentiate them from the changes, we will be unable to give an accurate evaluation of the impact of globalisation on international relations. 

 

 

Aims of this course

This course aims to:

 

1.            distinguish between 'world affairs', 'contemporary history' from the academic study of             International Relations or World Politics

 

2.            introduce and provide an overview of the main images, perspectives, paradigms, or             traditions of thought scholars use to explain/examine/understand International Relations

 

3.            examine why human beings decided to organise themselves into geographically separate             political communities (called 'states'), and to distinguish between the idea of             'international     society', 'international system', 'world society', and 'global international society'

 

4.            examine the development of the main 'institutions' of international society, focusing particularly on the procedures of international law (regarding state sovereignty, treaties),             the mechanisms of diplomacy, the working of international organisations, and the             customs and conventions of war.

 

5.            examine the origins and development of some of the different historical state systems or             systems of states out of which emerged European international society and contemporary             global international society or world society

 

6.            examine the main thinkers, concepts, and theories in international thought as they             emerged in the context of different historical state systems 

 

7.            examine what factors in different historical state systems contributed to order, stability,             and international cooperation, and what factors contributed to disorder, instability, war or international conflict

 

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course students should be able to:

 

1.         identify and explain the main perspectives of International Relations

 

2.         identify the key Western thinkers in International Relations and explain how their ideas             have contributed to the main perspectives on International Relations

 

3.         explain how some of the key thinkers in international thought and their ideas are related to             the development the main historical state systems.

 

4.         explain what factors, particularly cultural, religious, political, and economic, contributed             to international order and cooperation and international conflict in different historical state systems

 

5.         explain the development of international ideas relating to international law, the ethics of             war, diplomacy, and international cooperation

 

 

Course Requirements:

The course consists of lectures for two hours each week, although in some weeks in one of the time  slots there may be a video accompanying the lecture. Students are also required to  submit one Essay  chosen from the Essay List OR they may write a critical Book Review of Robert D. Kaplan's Warrior Politics  (2002), Henry Kissinger's Diplomacy (1994), or possibly another book of your choosing that covers the key thinkers in international relations. Alternatively, you may come up with an essay title of your own but it should be agreed with me in advance. The essay is due on Monday, 13 December  2004, 12:00 pm (NOON) date stamped, and in the appropriate essay box with my name on it. If you complete the essay in advance put it in the box early; do not hand your essay to me. The essay should be 2,500 words in length (maximum), including footnotes, The total number of words should be indicated on the appropriate essay cover sheet from your department. Please note that it is your responsibility to ensure that your essay reaches me on time. 

 

Assessment

One essay or book review of 2,500 words accounts for 50% of the total mark, and the written examination accounts for the other 50% of the mark.

 

Textbooks (available for purchase)

Michael Doyle, Ways of War and Peace: Realism, Liberalism, and Socialism (W.W. Norton, 1997).

 

Torbjorn L. Knutsen, A History of International Relations Theory (Manchester University Press, 1992).

 

Joseph Nye, Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (Harper?Collins, 1993, second edition, 1997, or later edition).

 

Recommended Reading

Stephen Howe, Empire: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2002).

 

Robert Kaplan, Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos (Vintage Books, 2002).

 

John Baylis and Steve Smith (eds.), The Globalisation of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations (Oxford, 1997).

 

Margaret Macmillan, The Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and its Attempt to End War (Macmillan, 2003).

 

Joshua Goldstein, International Relations (any edition).

 

Supplementary books - to be consulted throughout the course (catalogue mark 327)

David Boucher, Political Theories of International Relations (Oxford, 1998).

 

Adda B. Bozeman, Politics & Culture in International History (1994).

 

Ian Clark and Ivor Neumann, Classical Theories of International Relations (Macmillan, 1998).

 

Hedley Bull and Adam Watson (eds.) The Expansion of International Society (Oxford, 1984).

 

J. Baylis andN.J. Rengger (eds.), Dilemmas  of World Politics (1992).

 

Adam Watson, The Evolution of International Society  (Routledge, 1992).

 

Anthologies - to be consulted throughout the course

James Der Derian (ed.), International Theory: Critical Perspectives (Macmillan, 1995).

 

Mark V. Kauppi & Paul R. Viotti (eds.), International Relations Theory: Realism, Pluralism, Globalism (Macmillan, 1992)

 

Evan Luard (ed.), Basic Texts in International Relations (1992).

 

John Vasquez (ed.) Classics of International Relations  (1990).

 

Howard Williams, Moorhead Wright, and Tony Evans (eds.) A Reader in International Relations and Political Theory (Open University Press, 1993).

 

Howard Williams, International Relations in Political Theory (Open University Press, 1992).

 

Reference Books

Walter Carlsnaes, Thomas Risse and Beth A. Simmons (eds.), Handbook of International Relations (Sage, 2002).

 

Graham Evans and Jeffrey Newham, The Dictionary of International Relations (Penguin,  1997).

 

Edmund J. Osmanczyk (ed.), Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Relations (1990, second edition).

 

International Relations Journals

Students should acquire the habit of looking selectively through the last five years of the main journals in international relations. They contain original articles, literature surveys, and book reviews  which will help you to understand how ideas are developed, how they are applied, and how they are succinctly summarized. The main journals include the following: The World Today, International Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Millennium, Review of International Studies, World Politics, Journal of International Studies, European Journal of International Relations, International Security, Current History, and Survival.

 

 

Course Outline

 

Teaching Week

Week 1(a)            What is International Relations?

This lecture answers the question, 'what is international relations?', by examining the 'boundary problem' in international relations: what kind of phenomena does the subject include, and what is the purpose of the subject? Is it a discipline like Economics with it own methodology, or is it a field of knowledge that covers many disciplines and can use many different methodologies? If the subject matter of International Relations is potentially so wide-ranging,  does it include the economic relations between states as well as the causes of war, the environment as well as the impact of Islamic fundamentalism, MTV, the BBC, and CNN as well as the changing technology of weapons systems, and if so, on what basis are they included? International Relations (capitalized) refers to the area of academic study that is trying to understand world affairs, and international relations (small case) refers to those political and economic events and social and technological processes that occur outside a country's borders but still influence its domestic affairs.

 

Introductory reading:

Goldstein, International Relations, Chapters 1.

 

Kauppi & Viotti, The Global Philosophers, Chapters 1 (Introduction).

 

Knutsen, A History of International Relations Theory, Introduction.

 

Nye, Understanding International Conflicts, Chapter 1, pp. 1-7.

 

Doyle, Ways of War and Peace, Preface

 

Fred Halliday, "International Relations: is there a new agenda?", Millennium, 20, 1 (Spring 1991): 57-72.

 

Fred Halliday, "International relations and its discontents," International Affairs., 71, 4 (1995): 733-746.

 

Fred Halliday, Rethinking International Relations (Macmillan, 1994).

 

Martin Wight, "Why there is no International Theory", in James Der Derian (ed.), International Theory: Critical Perspectives (Macmillan, 1995), Chapter 2.

 

Arnold Wolfers, "Political Theory and International Relations," in A. Wolfers, Discord and Collaboration (1962), pp. 233-251.

 

Week 1(b)            Images, Perspectives, Paradigms, and Traditions of Thought

 

The study of International Relations as a separate academic discipline or body of knowledge is often approached through variously termed images, perspectives, paradigms or traditions of thought in international relations: Realism, Pluralism, and Globalism. Although we will not examine why this has occurred in detail, the main reason for the competing paradigms approach  to the study of International Relations is the general breakdown in the social sciences in the belief in Positivism, a philosophy of knowledge that says it is possible to obtain objective, value-free knowledge about the world. However defined, these perspectives are based on different competing underlying assumptions about the nature of international relations, and they are rooted in different basic assumptions about human nature, society, and the reasons or causes of human action. Therefore, the different perspectives of international relations are rooted in different basic assumptions about  humankind and about the world.

 

Introductory reading

Doyle, Ways of War and Peace, Part One, Introduction (Realism); Part Tw,o  Introduction (Liberalism); Part Three, Introduction (Socialism).

 

Clark and Neumann, Classical Theories of International Relations, Chapter 1.

 

M. Kauppi & P. Viotti, The Global Philosophers, Chapter 2, pp. 17-20.

 

Paul R. Viotti and Mark V. Kauppi, International Relations and World Politics: Security, Economy, Identity (Prentice Hall, 1997), Chapter 2.

 

*Martin Wight, 'An Anatomy of international thought', Review of International Studies, 13 (1987), pp. 221-227.

 

Howard Williams, et. al. (eds.), International Relations and Political Theory (1993), Introduction.

 

Dennis Kavanagh, "Why Political Science Needs History," Political Studies (1991): 479-495.

 

Caroline Kennedy-Pipe, "International History and International Relations Theory: a dialogue between the Cold War," International Affairs, 76, 4 (2000): 755-770.

 

 

The English School and International Society

Barry Buzan, "From international system to international society: structural realism and regime theory meet the English school", International Organisation  (1993): 327-352.

 

T. Evans and P. Wilson, 'Regime Theory and the English School of IR: A Comparison', Millennium, 21, 3 (1992).

 

Brian Porter (ed.), The Aberystwyth Papers: international politics, 1919-1969 (Oxford, 1972).

 

B.A. Roberson (ed.), International Society and the Development of International Relations Theory (Pinter, 1998).

 

Scott M. Thomas, "Faith, History, and Martin Wight: the role of religion in the historical sociology of the English School of International Relations," International Affairs, 77, 4 (October 2001): 905-930.

 

Nicholas J. Wheeler, 'Pluralist or Solidarist Conceptions of International Society', Millennium, 21, 3 (1992), pp. 463-487.

 

Scott M. Thomas, 'Taking Religious and Cultural Pluralism Seriously: the global resurgence of religion and the transformation of international society', Millennium, 29, 3 (2000): 815-841.

 

RJ Vincent, "Hedley Bull and Order in International Politics Millennium, 17, 2 (1998)

 

S. Hoffmann, "Hedley Bull and his contribution to international relations", International Affairs, (April, 1986).

 

Chris Brown, "World Society and the English School: an 'international society' Perspective on World Society," European Journal of International Relations, 7, 4 (2001): 423-441.

 

C. Reus-Smit, "International Society and the nature of fundamental institutions," International Organization, 51 (1997): 555-589.

 

Paul Sharp, "Herbert Butterfield, the English School and the civilizing virtues of diplomacy," International Affairs, 79, 4 (2003): 855-878.

 

Social Constructivism and Sociological Institutionalism

Martha Finnemore, National Interests in International Society (Cornell, 1996).

 

Martha Finnemore, "Norms, culture, and world politics: insights from sociology's institutionalism," International Organization, 50, 2 (1996): 325-347.

 

Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink, "International Norm Dynamics and Political Change," International Organization, 52, 4 (1998: 887-917.

 

Ted Hopf, "The Promise of Constructivism in IR Theory," International Security, 23 (1998): 171-200

 

Albert S. Yee, "The causal effects of ideas on policies," International Organization, 50, 1 (1996): 69-108.

 

A. Wendt, 'The agent-structure problem in international relations theory', International Organisation, 41, 3 (1987), 335-370.

 

A. Wendt, "Anarchy is what states make of it: the social construction of power politics", International Organisation, 46, 2 (1992), or reprinted in Viotti & Kauppi, International Relations Theory (1999, Third Edition), pp. 434-458, and James Der Derian (ed.), International Theroy: Critical Investigations (1995), pp. 129-180.

 

A. Wendt, 'Collective Identity Formation and the International State', American Political Science Review, 88, 2 (June 1994), pp. 384-396.

 

Alexander Wendt, 'Constructing International Politics', International Security, 20, 1 (1995), pp. 71-81.

E.  Nadelman, 'Global prohibition regimes: the evolution of norms in international society', International Organisation (1990).

 

Goertz, 'The norm of decolonisation', in Judith Goldstein and Robert O. Keohane  (eds.), in Ideas in Foreign Policy (Cornell, 1993).

 

Roger Pape, Chaim Kaufmann "Costly International Moral Action: Britain's Sixty-Year Campaign against the Atlantic Slave Trade," co-authored with Chaim Kaufmann, International Organization, 53 (1999): 631-68.

 

James Lee Ray, "The Abolition of Slavery and the End of International War," International Organization, 43, (1989): 405-39.

 

Oded Löwenheim ,"Do Ourselves Credit and Render a Lasting Service to Mankind": British Moral Prestige, Humanitarian Intervention, and the Barbary Pirates, International Studies Quarterly, 47 (2003): 23-48.

 

Jeffrey Checkel, "The Constuctivist Turn in International Relations Theory," World Politics, (1998):324-348.

 

Week 2(a)            The development of International Society in World History

This lecture discusses the concept of 'system'  and 'society' as they are applied to the development of the concepts in International Relations theory of international systems, international society, global international society, world society, and systems of states or historical state systems. An international system is defined as a set of states with repeated, regular contact, and whose actions and reactions must be taken into account by the other states  in the system in the formulation of their foreign policy. International society or the society of states is defined as an association of sovereign states based on common interests, values, and norms.

 

Introductory reading

Adam Watson, The Evolution of International Society, Introduction, Scope and Definitions, pp. 1-18.

 

Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society (Macmillan, 1977), esp. chapters 1-3.

 

Hedley Bull and Adam Watson (eds.) The Expansion of International Society (Oxford, 1984), Introduction.

 

'Hedley Bull' (1977), in Howard Williams, et. al. (eds.), International Relations and Political Theory (1993), Chapter 20 (extract from Bull's book, The Anarchical Society).

 

James Der Derian (ed.), International Theory: Critical Perspectives (Macmillan, 1995), Forward (by Adam Watson), Introduction.

 

Roger Morgan, "A European 'society of states' - but only states of mind?," International Affairs, 76, 3 (2000): 559-574.

 

 

Week 2(b)            Historical State Systems

We will be examining some of its historical manifestations and the emergence of today's global international society. Some, but not all,  historical systems of states also formed an international society or society of states and we will examining them because of what they tell about today's global international society. Since historical international societies have been based on a common cultural foundation, one of the key questions for the future is how order can be maintained in today's global multicultural international society, or whether the resurgence of religion, ethnicity, and nationalism are eroding the basis of international society.

 

Some of these state systems we will be examining in greater detail: the Greek city-state system, the city-state system of the Renaissance, the classic 'balance of power' system in the nineteenth century, and the Cold War in  the twentieth century. We will distinguish the boundaries  that set the state system apart from the larger environment, we will distinguish the main political units of the system (empires, city-states, national states, nation-states, international organisations, and most recently, even individuals), the international structure, i.e.  the configuration, or pattern of power among the political units (unipolarity, bipolarity, or multipolarity), and the main forms of interaction  among the political units: war, trade, diplomacy, and culture).

 

Introductory reading

Joshua Goldstein, International Relations, Chapter 1 (History), pp. 23-49.

 

Richard W. Mansbach, The Global Puzzle, Chapter 2 (Richness of Historical Experience).

 

James Der Derian (ed.), International Theory: Critical Perspectives (Macmillan, 1995), Forward (by Adam Watson), Introduction.

 

Robert Jackson, "The Evolution of International Society", in John Baylis and Steve Smith (ed.), The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations (Oxford, 1997), Chapter 2, pp 33-48.

 

*Martin Wight, "De systematibus civitatum," in Martin Wight, Systems of States (Leicester, 1977), pp. 21-45.

 

 

Further reading

Hedley Bull, "Society and Anarchy in International Relations", in James Der Derian (ed.), International Theory: Critical Perspectives (Macmillan, 1995), Chapter 5

 

Martin Wight, International Theory: the Three Great Traditions (1991).

 

 

Week 3                       Realism, Thucydides, the Greek city-states system, and the Peloponnesian War

The realist perspective has its origins in Greek antiquity.  Thucydides' account of the  Peloponnesian War between the city-states of Athens and Sparta illustrates the on-going relevance of key realist concepts: the security dilemma, the underlying cause of war being the insecurity, fear of the ascendancy of the other state of the system, the need for alliances, the maintenance of stability and peace through the balance of power, and power transition theory, which argues changes in the balance of power is often a cause of war.

 

Introductory reading:

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book Five, Melian Dialogue (Penguin); selection in Viotti & Kauppi (eds.), International Relations Theory (1993), pp. 37-38; 84-90 (Melian Dialogue).

 

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, trans. R. Crawley (1994). http://classics.mit.edu/Thucydides/pelopwar.html

 

Plato & Aristotle extracts in Howard Williams, et. al. (eds.), International Relations and Political Theory (1993), Chapters 1, 2.

 

Nye, Understanding International Conflicts, Chapter 1, pp. 8-25.

 

Doyle, Ways of War and Peace, Chapter 1.

 

*M. Kauppi & P. Viotti, The Global Philosophers, Chapters 3-5.

 

Adam Watson, The Evolution of International Society, esp. chapters 4- 6, 9-12.

 

Holsti, International Politics, Chapter 2 (Chou Dynasty in China, Greek City-State System).

 

*Martin Wight, "The state-system of Hellas," in M. Wight, Systems of States (1977), pp. 46-72.

 

Contemporary relevance

Roger Kimball, "Freedom and Duty: Pericles and Our Times," National Interest, Spring 2002, pp. 81-88.

 

Larry Pratt, "War and Empire: "Thucydides and International Politics", in David K. Hawes (ed.), World Politics: Power, Interdependence & Dependence  (Toronto: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,1990).

 

*Mark V. Kauppi, "Contemporary International Relations Theory and the Peloponnesian War", in Richard Ned Lebow & Barry S. Strauss (eds.) Hegemonic Rivalry: From Thucydides to the Nuclear Age  (Westview, 1991).

 

A. Kemos, "The Influence of Thucydides in the Modern World:  the father of political realism playa key role in current balance of power theories" (http://www.hri.org/por/thucydides.html)

 

Robert Keohane, "The Theory of Hegemonic Stability and Change in International Economic Regimes, 1967-1977," in Holsti, Stiverston, and George (eds.), Change in the International System (Westview, 1980), pp.

 

Lewis H. Lapham, "The Road to Babylon: searching for targets in Iraq," Harper's magazine December 2002 (www.harpers.org/online).

 

Laurie M. Johnson Bagby, "The Use and Abuse of Thcuydides in International Relations," International Organization, 48, 1 (1994), pp.

 

Stanfield Turner, "Hubris repeats itself ... in Iraq," The Christian Science Monitor, September 4, 2003 (www.csmonitor.com).

 

 

Week 4                       The Middle Ages: anticipation of the realist & pluralist perspectives

The 'middle ages' (roughly 500-1400 A.D.) covers the decline of the Roman empire in the Fifth century to the rise of the modern state in the Sixteenth century. This period, as Knutsen explains, includes the rise of three medieval civilisations: Latin Christendom (Roman Catholicism, Protestant Christianity - and Judaism as the minority religion and culture), the Byzantine Empire (Greek Orthodox Christianity), and the Islamic world. What all three of these civilisations were and what they have become is part of a process of cultural, political, and economic interaction which is an essential part of our understanding of international relations. The former Yugoslavia, for example, comprised all three of these civilisations, and more broadly, the identity and meaning of 'Europe' was worked out in history through the interaction of these civilisations.

 

Another reason for examining the Middle Ages is that one of Hedley Bull's scenarios for the future of international relations is a 'neo-medieval' or 'post-modern' international system, moving away from a world of nation-states to one of a 'jagged-glass' pattern of states and other international actors,  based on the integration and fragmentation of states, and the rise of transnational organisations, the technical unification of the world through globalisation, and the restoration of private international violence by nonstate groups rather tha by the armies of nation-states, which arguably, is what characterises the conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Somalia, Rwanda, and in other regions of the Third world, and indicates what some analysts are now calling the rise of  'post-modern' war. These topics are examined in SOSC 110, Contemporary International Relations, but the historical antecedents of these developments are introduced in this course.

 

Introductory reading

Augustine & Aquinas in Williams, Wright, and Evans Reader & Williams chapters

 

J Caporaso, "The EU and Forms of State: Westphalian, Regulatory, or Most-Modern?," Journal of Common Market Studies, 34, 1 (1996).

 

D. Croxton, Peacemaking in Early Modern Europe (1999).

 

J. Friedrichs, "The Meaning of New Medievalism," European Journal of International Relations, 7, 4 (2001), pp. 475-502.

 

Leo Gross, "The Peace of Westphalia, 1648-1848," American Journal of International Law, 53 (1959), pp. 1-29.

 

*Kauppi & Viotti, The Global Philosophers, Chapter 7.

 

Knutsen, A History of International Relations Theory, Chapter 1.

 

Stephen  Kobrin, "Back to the Future:  Neo-Medievalism and the Post-Modern Digital World Economy," Journal of International Affairs (1998), pp. 351-386.

 

Daniel Philpott, "Westphalia and Sovereignty in International Society," Political Studies, 47, 3 (1999), pp. 566-589.

 

Watson, The Evolution of International Society, Chapter 13.

 

*"The New Middle Ages" (video of BBC TV programme, December 1, 1995).

 

*Michael Loriaux, "The Realists and Saint Augustine: Skepticism, Psychology, and Moral Action in International Relations Thought," International Studies Quarterly, 4, 36 (December 1992), pp. 401-420.

 

Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society, Chapters 2 & 11 (esp. on "A New Medievalism", pp. 264-276).

 

John G. Ruggie, "Continuity and Transformation in the World Polity", in Robert O. Keohane (ed.), Neorealism and Its Critics  (1986), pp. 131-157.

 

Mansbach, The Global Puzzle, Chapter 10, pp. 347-352 (on postmodern war).

 

*Norman Stone, "A plague on the West: The new Dark Ages are upon us", Sunday Times, 17 April, 1994. Critique of Alain Minc, Le nouveau Moyen Age (Paris: Gallimard, 1993).

 

Umberto Eco, "The Return of the Middle Ages", in U. Eco, Travels in Hyperreality  (1986).

 

*"The chances of a new plague", The Economist, 17 December, 1995.

 

Markus Fischer, "Feudal Europe, 800-1300: communal discourse and conflictual practices", International Organisation, 46, 2 (1992), pp. 427-466.

 

Barry Smart, Postmodernity  (Routledge, 1993), pp. 29-31, 109-116. (commentary on Umberto Eco's idea of a return to the Middle Ages in a post-modern world).

 

Joshua B. Forrest, "Asynchronic Comparisions: Weak States in Post-colonial Africa and Medieval Europe", in Mattei Dogan and Ali Kazancigil (ed.), Comparing Nations  (Blackwell, 1994), Chapter 7, pp. 260-296.

 

C. Berzins, "The Frontier-less War: Security in the Neo-Medieval Age" Security Policy Group International (Washingtion, D.C., 2002), www.spgi.org/articles/berzins_FrontierlessWar.shtml

 

Richard Falk, "Neo-medievalism," in Greg Fry and Jacinta O'Hagan (eds.), Contending Images of World Politics (Macmillan, 2000).

 

J. Friedrichs, "The Meaning of New Medievalism," The European Journal of International Relations, 7, 4 (2001): 475-502.

 

Jan Zielonka, "How Neo Enlarged Border will Reshape the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, 39, 3 (2001), pp. 507-536.

 

Andrew Gamble, "Regional Blocs, World Order, and the New Medievalism," in Mario Telo (ed.), European Union and the New Regionalism (Ashgate, 2001), pp. 21-38.

 

S. Kobrin, "Back to the Future: Neomedievalism and the Postmodern Digital World Economy," Journal of International Affairs, 51 (1998), pp. 361-386.

 

 

Week 5                       Renaissance Europe and the Origin of the Modern State System

The Renaissance (roughly 1350-1650) is a period of transition from the unity of medieval Christendom to the rise of the modern European state system. It can be characterised as a type of international change which Robert Gilpin has called a 'systems change', which occurs when there is a change in the actors that make up the system (empires, nation-states, city-states). This is different from a 'systemic change', a change within the system, such as the shift from bipolarity to multipolarity which characterises the recent shift from the Cold War to the post-Cold War world.

 

The Renaissance indicates the transition to an entirely different type of international system, and this week's lectures examine the the political, economic, and technological aspects of this transformation. The particular focus is the city-state system of the Italian Renaissance because of its similarity to other periods of multipolarity (the Greek city-states system and the European state system of the nineteenth century).  Many aspects of what we call 'modern' politics and diplomacy originated at this time.

 

Introductory reading:

Machiavelli, On Princes and the Security of Their States, in Viotti & Kauppi (eds.), International Relations Theory (1993), pp. 39-40; 91-94, and extracts in Howard Williams, et. al. (eds.), International Relations and Political Theory (1993), chapter 5.

 

*Kauppi & Viotti, The Global Philosophers, Chapter 8, pp. 147-163.

 

Knutsen, A History of International Relations Theory, Chapter 2.

 

Watson, The Evolution of International Society, Chapters 14, 15.

 

*Holsti, International Politics, on the City-State System of Renaissance Italy (1988, Fifth edition), pp. 47-55.

 

Doyle, Ways of War and Peace, Chapter 2.

 

Contemporary relevance

Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics (1981), pp. 1-15, 39-44.

 

Viotti and Kauppi (eds.), International Relations Theory (1993), Chapter 2, pp. 142-153 (on Giplin's theory of international change).

 

 

Week 6                       The Rise of the Modern State System: sixteenth & seventeenth centuries

When we study the rise of the modern state system (roughly 1648-1815) we are examining a world that is not yet our world because the actors and the political, social, economic, and cultural forces that make up our world were only starting to form, but it is a world that more closely  resembles our world than any other we have studied so far. The main type of international actors, with the fragmentation of medieval Christendom, were increasingly nation-states with new bureaucratic and fiscal powers, the 'new monarchies' of England, France, Spain, and Prussia.

 

The cultural, political, and social changes that give meaning to our  understanding of  'modern' political development were brought about by the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation: the emphasis on the individual, the declining authority of the Roman Catholic Church, the secularisation of society, and the separation of religion and from politics. As the political unity and constraints of medieval Christendom disappeared there was a need for new laws and rules to regulate the relations between states. They were built on the common cultural foundation of Western civilisation, Latin Christendom, and formed the basis of the emerging global international society. The technological changes in transportation and communications helped make this an 'age of exploration' as well as an age of global commerce. As Watson explains, European international society was starting to become a global international society. Non-Western regions of the world were brought into the European state system through commerce, colonialism and imperialism, and were regulated according to what were effectively Western laws and rules of international relations. It is only now that states with non-Western cultures and civilisations are challenging the Western construction of laws, rules, and norms of international society.

 

Introductory reading:

Grotius and Hobbes extracts in Howard Williams, et. al. (eds.), International Relations and Political Theory (1993),

 

Clark and Neumann, Classical Theories of International Relations, Chapters 2 (Hobbes), 3 (Grotius), 5 (Vitoria).

 

Doyle, Ways of War and Peace, Chapter 3, 4

 

*Tim Dunne, "Colonial Encounters in International Relations," Australian Journal of International Relations, 51, 3 (1977), pp. 309-323.

 

*Iver B. Neumann and Jennifer M. Welsh, "The Other in European Self-Definition: an addendum to the literature  on international society," Review  of International Affairs, 17 (1991), pp. 327-348.

 

*Viotti & Kauppi, The Global Philosophers, Chapter 8.

 

Knutsen, A History of International Relations Theory, Chapters 3, 4.

 

Holsti, International Politics, Chapter 2 (European States System since 1648).

 

Watson, The Evolution of International Society, Chapters 16, 17.

 

*Martin Wight, "Western Values in International Relations," in H. Butterfield and M. Wight (eds.), Diplomatic Investigations (1966), pp. 89-131.

 

*Martin Wight, "The origins of our state-system: geographic limits?," in M. Wight, Systems of States (1977), pp. 110-128.

 

*Martin Wight, "The origins of our state-system: chronological limits?," in M. Wight, Systems of States (1977), pp. 129-152.

 

Stephen Krasner, "Westphalia and All That", in Judith Goldstein and Robert Keohane (eds.), Ideas and Foreign Policy (Cornell, 1993). 

 

Contemporary Relevance

Mark Zacher, "The decaying pillars of the Westphalian temple: implications for international order and governance," in James Rosenau and E. Czempiel (eds.) Governance without Government: order and change in world politics (Cambridge, 1992).

 

C. Harding and C. Lim (ed.), Renegotiating Westphalia (1999).

 

Stephen Krasner, "Compromising Westphalia," International Security, 20, 3 (1995), pp. 115-151.

 

G.M. Lyons and M. Mastanduno (eds.), Beyond Westphalia: State Sovereignty and International Intervention (John Hopkins, 1995).

 

H. Bull, B. Kingsbury, A. Roberts (eds.) Hugo Grotius and International Relations (Oxford, 1992).

 

R.J. Vincent, "The Hobbesian Tradition in Twentieth Century International Thought", Millennium, 10, 2 (Summer 1981).

 

*H. Bull, "The Grotian Conception of International Society", in H. Butterfield and M. Wight (eds.) Diplomatic Investigations  (1966). 

 

F.H. Hinsley, "The Concept of Sovereignty and the Relations Between States", Journal of International Affairs, 21, 2 (1967), pp. 242-252.  Short Loan

 

F.H. Hinsley, Sovereignty (Cambridge University Press, second edition, 1986).

 

A. Osiander, "Sovereignty, International Relations, and the Westphalian Myth," International Organization, 55, 2 (2001), pp. 251-287.

 

B. Teschke, "Theorizing the Westphalian System of States: international relations from absolutism to capitalism," European Journal of International Relations, 8, 1 (2002): 5-48.

 

B. Teschke, "The Non-modenity of the Westphalian System of States: dynasticism, territoriality, and equilibrium" (http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/groups/ccsa/benno.pdf)

 

 

Week 7           Kant, the Enlightenment & the Triumph of Pluralism: perpetual peace and international cooperation

 

The ideas of the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, its faith in the power of reason to investigate both nature and man and society, its doctrine of progress, and to some extent, particularly in France, its hostility toward religion, strongly influenced the development of the Pluralist paradigm of international relations. One of the most powerful theories, advanced by Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Kant, was the notion there is a relationship between regime type and war: democracies are less likely to go to war with other democracies. This is one of the most influential theories among Western governments in the post-Cold War world. We will examine its historical antecedents in this course, and subsequent courses will examine the contemporary evaluations of this theory and its use as a basis for Western foreign policy. A number of writers and scholars during the Enlightenment also advanced plans for the peace of Europe that influenced the development of the League of Nations, the United Nations, and the project for European integration, and we will also examine them.

 

Introductory reading:

*Daniel Archibugi, "Models of international organization in perpetual peace projects," Review of International Studies, 18 (1992), pp. 295-317.

 

Rousseau and Kant extracts in Howard Williams, et. al. (eds.), International Relations and Political Theory (1993).

 

Doyle, Ways of War and Peace, Chapters 4, 6, 8.

 

Clark and Neumann, Classical Theories of International Relations, Chapter 4 (Kant), 6 (Rousseau), 7 (Adam Smith), 8 (Edmund Burke).

 

*Kauppi & Viotti, The Global Philosophers, Chapter 9.

 

Knutsen, A History of International Relations Theory, Chapter 5.

 

Watson, The Evolution of International Society, Chapters 18-20.

 

"Crimes of reason", The Economist, 16 March, 1996, pp. 113-115.

 

Contemporary relevance

Doyle, Ways of War and Peace, Part Two, Conclusion

 

K. Waltz, "Kant, Liberalism, and War", American Political Science Review, 56 (1962), pp.

 

Michael Doyle, "Kant, Liberal Legacies, and Foreign Affairs, Parts I & II, Philosophy & Public Affairs, 12, 3 (1983), pp. 205-235; 12, 4 (1983), pp. 323-353.

 

Stanley Hoffmann & David P. Fidler (eds.) Rousseau on International Relations (Clarendon Press, 1991).

 

S. Hoffmann, "Rousseau on War and Peace", The American Political Science Review, 57, 2 (June 1973), pp.

 

*Andrew Hurrell, "Kant and the Kantian Paradigm in International Relations," Review of International Studies, 16 (1990), pp. 183-205.

 

*R.J. Vincent, "Edmund Burke and the Theory of International Relations", Review of International Studies, 10 (1984), pp. 205-218.

 

K. Waltz, "Kant, Liberalism, and War", American Political Science Review, 56 (1962), pp.

 

 

Week 8                       The Nineteenth century: nations, the state, nationalism, and war

The period from the Congress of Vienna ending the Napoleonic wars in Europe (1815) to the outbreak of WWI (1914) is commonly known as the classic multipolar balance of power system. Many of the theoretical arguments about the relationship between the balance of power and international order stem from an evaluation of the breakdown of the balance of power and the onset of WWI and so we will evaluate this system.  Nationalism was one of the most destabilising factors to the balance of power, particularly in the Balkans, and so we begin a discussion of nationalism, national self-determination, and international stability which will be continued in Contemporary World Politics (0042).

 

Introductory reading:

Hegel, Clausewitz, Marx & Engels, and Lenin extracts in extracts in Howard Williams, et. al. (eds.), International Relations and Political Theory (1993).

 

Doyle, Ways of War and Peace, Part One, Chapter 5, Conclusion; Part Two, Chapter 7, Conclusion

 

Ian Clark, Globalisation and Fragmentation: International Relations in the Twentieth Century (Oxford, 1997), Chapter 2.

 

Clark and Neumann, Classical Theories of International Relations, Chapter 9 (Hegel), 11 (Vattel).

 

Joseph Nye, Understanding International Relations (1993), Chapters 2, 3.

 

Kauppi & Viotti, The Global Philosophers, Chapter 9.

 

Knutsen, A History of International Relations Theory, Chapters 6, 7.

 

Watson, The Evolution of International Society, Chapters 21, 22.

 

Contemporary relevance:

Geoffrey Best, "Peace conferences and the century of total war: the 1899 Hague Conference and what came after," International Affairs, 75, 3 (1999): 619-634.

 

Craig and Alexander L. George, Force and Statecraft: Diplomatic Problems of Our Time (second edition, 1990), Chapters 3.

 

Doyle, Ways of War and Peace, Part One, Conclusion; Part Two, Conclusion

 

Michael Doyle, "Liberalism and World Politics", American Political Science Review, 80, 4 (December 1986); excerpted in Viotti & Kauppi (eds.), International Relations Theory (1993), pp. 262-285.

 

Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy (Simon & Schuster, 1994).           

 

 

Week 9             World War I, the League of Nations, and the 'twenty-years' crisis, 1919-1939'

The inter-war period, 1919-1939, has been commonly called the twenty-years' crisis (E.H. Carr) because the balance of power that collapsed in 1919 was replaced after the war with a system of collective security that not only failed to produce international order but contributed to WWII. In this week we will examine the causes of  World War I, what the breakdown of the balance of power may tell us about the stability of any balance of power system, and the problems which any system of collective security must confront - even the one devised by the United Nations that is in operation today.

 

Introductory reading

Knutsen, A History of International Relations Theory, Chapter 8

 

Watson, The Evolution of International Society, Chapter 23.

 

C. Kegley & E. Wittkopf, World Politics: Trend and Transformation (sixth edition, 1997), Chapter 4.

 

*Cornelia Navari, "The great illusion revisited: the international theory of Norman Angell," Review of International Studies, 15 (1989), pp. 341-358.

 

Joseph Nye, Understanding International Relations (1993), Chapter 4.

 

Doyle, Ways of War and Peace, Part One, Chapter 5, Conclusion; Part III (Socialism).

 

Susan L Carruthers, "International History 1900-1945", in John Baylis and Steve Smith (ed.), The Globalization of World Politics (Oxford, 1997), Chapter 3, pp. 49-70.

 

Ian Clark, Globalisation and Fragmentation: International Relations in the Twentieth Century (Oxford, 1997), Chapters 3-5.

 

Arnold Wolfers, "Policies of Peace and Security After World War I," in A. Wolfers, Discord and Collaboration (1962), pp. 253-273.

 

Further reading

David Armstrong, Thr Rise of International Organisation (1982), Chatper 1 (League of Nations).

 

A. LeRoy Bennett, International Organisations (Fifth edition, 1992), Chapter 2 (The Great Experiment-the League of Nations).

 

E.H. Carr, The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1919-1939 (1939, revised 1945, 1966).

 

Michael Cox, "Will the real E.H. Carr please stand up?," International Affairs, 75, 3 (1999): 643-653.

 

Gordon A. Craig and Alexander L. George, Force and Statecraft: Diplomatic Problems of Our Time (second edition, 1990), Chapters 4 (System-Building, 1919-1939).

 

F.H. Hinsley, Power and the Pursuit of Peace (1963), esp. Chapters 13, 14.

 

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, "Was Woodrow Wilson Right?." Commentary, May 1974.

 

Louis W. Pauly, The League of Nations and the foreshadowing of the International Monetary Fund (Princeton, 1996).

 

Martin Wight, Power Politics (1979), Chapter 19 (League of Nations).

 

J. Joll, The Origins of the First World War (1984).

 

Fred Halliday, "Three concepts of internationalism", International Affairs, 64, 2  (Spring 1988), pp 187-198.

 

 

Week 10            The Cold War (1945-1990): from bipolarity to multi-polarity

The two main axes of world division after the Second World War have been the East-West conflict, commonly called the Cold War, and the North-South conflict, the relations between the industrialised Northern countries and the Southern, developing ones. This week examines the two sets of rivalries, the East-West rivalry between the superpowers, and the rivalry between the Communist powers, the Soviet Union and China. We examine the meaning of the Cold War because only in this way can we understand what it is about this conflict that ended with the  collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and what it is about this conflict that has continued with the shift to a multipolarity in the post-Cold War world.

            This lecture on international relations in the post-Cold War world. is really the conclusion of this course and a prelude to Contemporary World Politics (ECOI 0041) It draws together our understanding of those concepts, issues, and processes that have influenced different historical state systems, and will inform our understanding of the future of international relations.  By examining how different types of historical international systems have existed in the past, what caused wars to occur and what helped maintain the peace, we will have a better idea of the causes of conflict and cooperation today.

 

Introductory reading:

Peter Calvocoressi, "World power 1920-1990", International Affairs, 60, 4  (October 1990): 663-674.

Kauppi & Viotti, The Global Philosophers, Chapter 10.

 

Knutsen, A History of International Relations Theory, Chapter 9, pp. 222-239;  Chapter 10.

 

Watson, The Evolution of International Society, Chapter 24, 25, Conclusion, Epilogue.

 

Joseph Nye, Understanding International Relations (1993), Chapter 5.

 

Len Scott, "International History 1945-1990", John Baylis and Steve Smith (ed.), The Globalization of World Politics (Oxford, 1997), Chapter 4, pp. 71-88.

 

Richard Crockatt, "The End of the Cold War", John Baylis and Steve Smith (ed.), The Globalization of World Politics (Oxford, 1997), Chapter 5, pp. 89-106.

 

Further reading:

"International order: situation, mission, execution," The Economist, December 24, 1994.

Survey of the Twentieth Century, The Economist, 11 September, 1999.

Survey of the New Geopolitics, The Economist, 31 July, 1999.

 

Mike Bowker and Robin Brown (eds.) From Cold War to collapse: theory and world politics in the 1980s (Cambridge, 1993).

 

Adda B. Bozeman, "Politics and Culture at the Threshold of the Twenty-first Century", in Adda B. Bozeman, Politics & Culture in International History (1994).

 

Ian Clark, Globalisation and Fragmentation: International Relations in the Twentieth Century (Oxford, 1997).

 

William H. McNeill, "Winds of Change", Foreign Affairs, 69, 4 (1990): 152-175.

 

Michael Howard, "The Springtime of Nations", Foreign Affairs, 69, 1 (1990): 17-32.

 

John Louis Gaddis, 'Toward the Post-Cold War World," Foreign Affairs , 70, 2 (1991): 102-122.

 

Adam Roberts, "A New Age in International Relations?", International Affairs, 67, 3 (1991): 509-520.

 

Richard Falk, "In Search of a New World Model," Current History  (April 1993).

 

Charles Krauthammer, "The Unipolar Moment", Foreign Affairs, 70, 1 (1990): 23-33.

 

Lawrence Freedman, "Order and Disorder in the New World", Foreign Affairs, 71, 1 (1992): 20-37.

 

Joseph Nye, "What New World Order?, " Foreign Affairs, 70, 2 (1991)

 

Richard Rosencrance, "A New Concept of Powers, " Foreign Affairs, 71, 2 (1991).

 

Z. Brezezinski, "The Cold War and its Aftermath", Foreign Affairs, 71, 4 (1992): 31-49.

 

A. Slaughter, "The Real World Order, " Foreign Affairs, 76 (1997): 183-197.

 

 

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND REVISION

 

·         What do we learn about  Realism and about the causes of war from the Peloponnesian War?

 

·         What do we learn about Realism and the nature of international relations from Machiavelli and the city-state system of the Italian Renaissance?

 

 

·         How do Realism & Pluralism represent conflicting visions of the rise of modern international society?

 

·         How does the Eighteenth century represent the triumph of Pluralism in international relations theory: peace and cooperation between states?

 

·         How are the different paradigms of international relations used to explain the failure of the League of Nations and collective security? Does this say any thing relevant to our understanding of collective security today?

 

 

WRITTEN ASSESSMENT

 

1.         Critical book review  of one of the recommended books that covers the main ideas, thinkers, and events in the history of international relations theory, OR write an essay from the Essay List below:

 

Essay List

 

2.         What is the relation  between  the international  economy  and  the  international  political             system in different historical state systems? 

 

3.         What  have  been  the main causes  or sources  of order and stability  in different  historical  state systems?

 

4.         What  is a 'neo-medieval'  conception   of  international    relations  (e.g. Hedley Bull)?  Are      we  moving  towards  this  conception  of  international  order  in  the post-Cold War world?

 

5.            According  to many  of the key  thinkers  in the  history of international  theory  evaluate the  main  causes  of war  and peace in the different historic state systems? 

 

6.         Discuss  the  origins  of the Peace of Westphalia  as a  new  stage in  the  evolution  of             international society.  Are there pressures  moving  us  toward a  'post-Westphalian'             international  order   today?

 

7.         What  has been the  role of religion  in the  'ways of war  and  peace' (Michael Doyle) in             different   historical  state  systems?

 

8.         'If Thucydides  were  plopped  down  in  the Middle East,  he  would  probably  recognise the  situation  quite  quickly.  But  if he were set down in Western Europe,  he would probably have a more difficult time understanding the relations between France and Germany'  (Nye). Do you agree?

 

8.         Compare  and  contrast  the  Prime Minister's  'Doctrine  of  the International  Community',             which  he explained  in his speech  to the Global  Ethics  Foundation,  with  the international             theory  of the main  Western  thinkers  we have  studied  throughout  this  course.

 

10.        Critically   evaluate  the  development  of Kantian or 'cosmopolitan'  theories  of international  relations in different  historic  state  systems. In what ways is, or might, this approach be relevant to international relations today?

 

11.        Are Pericles and Thucydides Really Relevant to Our Times? Critically evaluate Roger Kimball's Argument in The National Interest  in order to indicate some of the key themes of this course.

 

12.        "Idealism in statecraft is based on an abdication of responsibility - to govern the world as it is." Do you agree? Support your answer by making reference to some of the key thinkers, events, and historic state-systems studied this semester.


[1]  Tony Blair, 'Values and the Power of Community', Global Ethics Foundation, Tubigen, Germany, 30 June, 2000. www.number-10.gov.uk/news.asp?Sectionld=32; Hugo Young, "While Blair seeks the truth, Hague searches for votes," The Guardian, June 29, 2000.