Office hours: Tuesday 12:00-1:30, Thursday 1:30-3:00, Eggers Hall 529, x 1749, jbennett@syr.edu

Purpose of the course: This is an introduction to contemporary analyses of international relations. Students will learn three highly influential approaches to analyzing and understanding some of the most important processes in the world today. They will also learn how to argue for and against foreign policy options utilizing each of these approaches. They will reach an informed personal judgment about whether world politics are, indeed, "globalizing," or whether sovereign and autonomous states will continue, individually and in alliance, to control most outcomes as they have done for the past 300 years.

Determination of one's grade in this course:

Feb 3 - 23 April inclusive: On eight days chosen randomly, a 10-minute pop quiz will be given. It will consist of two questions about material covered the preceding class meeting. The student's five highest scores will be averaged to derive 40% of the course grade. Books and one's own notes may be consulted during the pop quizzes.

Final Examination: Throughout the semester approximately 35 important questions will be posed in class (and listed at this web site). The final exam will consist of four of these questions, all four of which must be answered. No books or notes will be permitted at the final exam. This exam determines 40% of the course grade.

Twenty minutes of each class meeting is allocated to discussing the relevance of the required readings to current developments in the world. Each student is expected to follow current events -- through media of his or her choice (e.g., newspaper, news magazines, television news) -- and participate in these discussions. The quality of one's participation contributes 20% to the course grade.

John Baylis and Steve Smith, eds., The Globalization of World Politics. Oxford University Press, 1997. (Fifty copies available for purchase at Follett's Orange Bookstore; one copy on 24-hour reserve at Bird Library.)

Random House Compact World Atlas, 2nd ed., Times Books, 1997. (Fifty copies available for purchase at Follett's Orange Bookstore.)

1. January 13,

Introduction and motivation

Part I: Competing world views, contested values and objectives

The Westphalian system of states -- It had a beginning; will it also have an end?

"Globalism;" "global governance" -- does "post-Cold War" mean a "post-Westphalian international system"?

What else can happen?

4. January 22, [2] Is "globalization" something which is new, or just something which has happened several times before on a slightly smaller scale?

5.January 27, [3]

WWI: Failure of the 'balance of power' or 'European civil war' (phase 1) or inter-capitalist war?

1930s and WW2: Failure of Idealism and 'collective security' or first global inter-capitalist war or 'European civil war' (phase 2)

The Cold War

Imperial disintegrations and the Non-Aligned Movement

Realism, World Systems Theory, Liberalism: which best explains the end of the Cold War?

Varieties of Political Realism, and their 'model of man'

Marxism extrapolated to a global scale (Lenin)

World System Theory: an analysis of global capitalism inspired by Marxism

Liberalism 1: laissez faire capitalism + free trade

Liberalism 2: Capitalism + institutionalism + the welfare state

Other 'new' approaches and problems of collective action

'National security,' 'international security,' and the realization of human potentials

Part II, Tools for the (more or less) practical management of international affairs

IPE: Jeckyll and Hyde together again?

Diplomacy and statecraft

Do 'cookie pushers' pull their own weight?

Partial international order: International organizations

Is the UN (for instance) an extravagance or a bargain?

Partial international order: Regimes

If we can't achieve an international rule of law, is an informal, partial rule good enough?

Transnational processes and actors

How the Boy Scouts subvert the inter-state system

Part III: Challenges and Opportunities: one view of the policy payoffs

Integration and disintegration of states: becoming more common? more peaceful or more violent?

(Mis-)Managing the global economy?

Is global financial stability possible? even desirable?

The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction

NBC is not only a network

Can the state system solve global environmental problems?

The rise of exclusivist, ethno-linguistic nationalisms

The 'nationalisms' of Africa and Asia: strangers in a strange land?

Clash of civilizations

Do 'cultures' offer benefits that nation-states cannot?

'Failed states' and international responses

Human rights, humanitarian intervention, and the erosion of state sovereignty

Final Exam: Four questions, selected from here, on May 5, 12:30-2:30 in our familiar old Bowne Hall 111. (No books or notes permitted.)

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