Howard H. Lentner
Office: Room 1574, Grace Building
Office hours: Thurs. 2:30 - 4:00 p.m.
Other hours by appointment
Telephone: (GS) 642-2373 or (Baruch) 387-1665
E-mail: HHLBB@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Spring 1997
This course examines various attempts to understand the contemporary international system, drawing upon available conceptions in realist and liberal approaches as well as contributions from newer ideas presented by critical theorists. Both prevailing constraints and policy choices will be treated; and emphasis will be given both to the nature and sources of change and to structure and stability.
The first half of the course will concentrate on common reading and weekly discussions. An outline of topics and required readings is included in this syllabus. All participants in the seminar are expected to do the reading in advance and to take part in the discussions. In the second half, students will make oral presentations of their research papers and discuss the work of others. All participants are expected to read short assignments made by presenters, and all are encouraged to question and comment on the presentation.
Each student is required to develop a research project in stages, instructions for which are attached to this syllabus. In addition, each student should confer with the instructor as often as necessary for the successful completion of the research project. Some class time will be devoted to the problems of designing these projects.
Grades will be based upon participation in seminar discussions, written assignments, oral presentation of project, and final papers.
Reading assignments are drawn from both books and periodical literature. All required reading is on reserve at the Graduate School's Mina Rees Library, and the books are stocked at Barnes & Noble Bookstore, 18th Street and Fifth Avenue. Selected chapters and articles are gathered in a "Course Pak," which is available for sale in the library. Books to be read in their entirety are:
Suzanne Berger and Ronald Dore, eds., National Diversity and Global
Capitalism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996)
Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking
of World Order (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996)
Peter J. Katzenstein, ed., The Culture of National Security: Norms
and Identity in World Politics (New York: Columbia University Press,
1996)
Michael Mandelbaum, The Dawn of Peace in Europe (New York: The
20th Century Fund Press, 1996)
Political Science U865.1/Spring 1997, Syllabus and Reading Assignments 2
John Gerard Ruggie, Winning the Peace: America and World Order in
the New Era (New York: olumbia University Press, 1996)
Saskia Sassen, Losing Control? Sovereignty in an Age of Globalization
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1996)
1 - 1/30 - Introduction: Conceptual Wrestling with Historical Events-The Cold War and Its End and Aftermath
2 - 2/6 - Security and Economics in the Post-Cold War System
Assigned reading:
From International Security 20 (Summer 1995): Robert O. Keohane
& Lisa L. Martin, "The Promise of Institutionalist Theory," 39-51;
John Gerard Ruggie, "The False Promise of Realism," 62-70; and Alexander
Wendt, "Constructing International Politics," 71-81
Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994),
Chapters 1 and 31
John J. Mearsheimer, "The False Promise of International Institutions,"
International Security 19 (Winter 1994/95): 5-49
John Gerard Ruggie, "Territoriality and Beyond: Problematizing Modernity
in International Relations," International Organization 47 (Winter
1993): 139-74
Kenneth N. Waltz, "The Emerging Structure of International Politics,"
International Security 18 (Fall 1993): 44-79
William C. Wohlforth, "Realism and the End of the Cold War," International
Security 19 (Winter 1994/95): 91-129
Suggested reading:
Charles W. Kegley, Jr., ed., Controversies in International Relations Theory: Realism and the Neoliberal Challenge (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995)
3 - 2/13 - The Phenomenon of Globalization
Assigned reading:
Saskia Sassen, Losing Control? Sovereignty in an Age of Globalization (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996
Suggested reading:
Zbigniew Brzezinski, Global Turmoil on the Eve of the 21st Century (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1996)
John H. Dunning, The Globalization of Business: The Challenge of the 1990s (London: Routledge, 1993)
Barry Eichengreen, Globalizing Capital: A History of the International Monetary System (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996)
Political Science U865.1/Spring 1997, Syllabus and Reading Assignments 3
Mike Featherstone, ed., Global Culture: Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity (London: Sage Publications, 1990)
Paul Hirst and Grahame Thompson, Globalization in Question: The International Economy and the Possibilities of Governance (Cambridge: Policy Press, 1996)
Ethan B. Kapstein, Governing the Global Economy: International Finance and the State (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994)
Paul Kennedy, Preparing for the Twenty-First Century (New York: Random House, 1993)
Evan Luard, The Globalization of Politics: The Changed Focus of Political Action in the Modern World (London: Macmillan, 1 9 90 )
James H. Mittleman, ed., Globalization: Critical Reflections (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1996)
Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1944)
Roland Robertson, Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture (London: Sage Publications, 1992)
James N. Rosenau, Turbulence in World Politics: A Theory of Change and Continuity (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1 9 90 )
Yosshikazu Sakamoto, Global Transformation: Challenges to the State System (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 1994)
Malcolm Waters, Globalization (London: Routledge, 1995)
Erich Weede, Economic Development, Social Order, and World Politics: with special emphasis on War, Freedom, the Rise and Decline of the West, and the Future of East Asia (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1996)
4 - 2/27 - Global Capitalism and the State
Assigned reading:
Suzanne Berger and Ronald Dore, eds., National Diversity and Global Capitalism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996
Suggested reading:
Joseph A. Camilleri, Anthony P. Jarvis, Albert J. Paolini, The State in Transition: Reimagining Political Space (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1995)
Robert Gilpin, The Political Economy of International Relations (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1987)
Paul Kennedy, Preparing for the Twenty-First Century (New York: Random House, 1993)
Kenichi Ohmae, The Borderless World: Power and Strategy in the Interlinked Economy (New York: Harper Perennial, 1991)
Robert Reich, The Work of Nations (New York: Knopf, 1991)
Susan Strange, The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996)
Political Science U865.1/Spring 1997, Syllabus and Reading Assignments 4
5 - 3/6 - States and Their Roles in International Politics
Assigned reading:
Philip G. Cerny, "Globalization and the changing logic of collective action," International Organization 49 (Autumn 1995): 595-625
Michael C. Desch, "War and strong states, peace and weak states?" International Organization 50 (Spring 1996): 237-68
Ethan B. Kapstein, "We Are Us," National Interest No. 26 (Winter 1991/92):
Jessica T. Matthews, "Power Shift," Foreign Affairs 76 (January/ February 1997): 50-66
Janice E. Thomson and Stephen D. Krasner, "Global Transactions and the Consolidation of Sovereignty," in Global Changes and Theoretical Challenges by Ernst-Oho Czempiel and James N. Rosenau (New York: Lexington Books, 1989)
Suggested reading:
Peter Evans, Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995
Joanne Gowa, Allies, Adversaries, and International Trade (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994)
Paul Krugman, Peddling Prosperity (New York: W.W. Norton, 1994)
6 - 3/13 - Nations, Nationalism, and Ethnic Identities
Assigned reading:
John Coakley, "The Resolution of Ethnic Conflict: Towards a Typology," International Political Science Review 13 (October 1992): 343-58
Robert Cooper and Mats Berdal, "Outside Intervention in Ethnic Conflicts," in Ethnic Conflict and International Security, ed. by Michael E. Brown (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993)
Paul F. Diehl, Jennifer Reifachneider, and Paul R. Hensel, "United Nations intervention and recurring conflict," International Organization 50 (Autumn 1996): 683-700
V.P. Gagnon, Jr., "Ethnic Nationalism and International Conflict: The Case of Serbia," International Security 19 (Winter 1994/95): 130-166
Ernest Gellner, "Nations and Nationalism," in Conflict After the Cold War, ed. by Richard K. Betts (New York: Macmillan, 1994)
F. Stephen Larrabee, "Long Memories and Short Fuses: Change and Instability in the Balkans," in Conflict After the Cold War
Conor Cruise O'Brien, "The Wrath of Ages," Foreign Affairs 72 (November/December 1993): 142-49
Barry R. Posen, "Nationalism, the Mass Army, and Military Power," International Security 18 (Fall 1993): 80-124
Political Science U865.1/Spring 1997, Syllabus and Reading Assignments
Suggested reading: Liah Greenfeld, Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992)
7 - 3/20 - Culture, Norms, and Identity in International Politics
Assigned reading:
Peter J. Katzenstein, ed., The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996)
Suggested reading:
Thomas Risse-Kappen, ed., Bringing Transnational Relations Back In: Non-State Actors, Domestic Structures, and International Institutions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995)
Thomas Risse-Kappen and Richard Ned Lebow, eds., International Relations Theory and the End of the Cold War (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995)
Robert O. Keohane and Helen Milner, eds., Internationalization and Domestic Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996)
John Mueller, Quiet Cataclysm: Reflections on the Recent Transformation of World Politics (New York: HarperCollins, 1995)
8 - 4/3 - Civilization and World Order
Assigned reading:
Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996)
William H. McNeill, "Decline of the West?" The New York Review of Books ( January 9, 1997): 18-22
Suggested reading:
Akbar S. Ahmed and Hastings Donnan, Islam, Globalization and Postmodernity (London: Routledge, 1994)
9 - 4/10 - Europe
Assigned reading:
Michael Mandelbaum, The Dawn of Peace in Europe (New York: The 20th Century Press, 1996)
10- 4/17 - United States
Assigned reading:
John Gerard Ruggie, Winning the Peace: America and World Order in the New Era (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996)
11-13 - 5/1, 8, 15 - Oral presentations
Political Science U865.1/Spring 1997, Syllabus and Reading Assignments 6
As part of the requirements of this seminar, a research project must be designed and completed. Each participant should confer individually with the instructor concerning his/her project. In addition, we will devote some class time to a discussion of the problems of devising research projects, with a focus on the specific work of the students in this course. The process of designing the work will be facilitated by breaking the endeavor into discrete assignments, as outlined below.
1. Identify the problem to be investigated.
Within the context of this course, identify a topic or an area of investigation that you would like to examine. Your project should have two characteristics: it should be theoretically interesting, and it should be researchable. Submit a one-paragraph statement of the problem by February 27.
2. Prepare a preliminary bibliography.
Prepare a brief preliminary bibliography and a description of the materials to be researched, including
A. three items of conceptual or policy literature that treat the problem (one of these should be an article or chapter that may be assigned to the rest of the class for reading in preparation for your oral presentation); and
B. a description of the materials to be researched, including documents and other primary (direct, first hand) sources.
Submit this document by March 13.
3. Devise a conceptualization and hypothesis.
Submit by April 3 a one-page conceptualization of what you plan to study and your hypothesis. A conceptualization is a clear statement of your topic in the form of an idea or concept. A hypothesis is a succinct statement of that which you wish to explain--the dependent variable--and its causes--the independent variables. In addition, a hypothesis should include a statement of the logic of the causal inferences you wish to make.
4. Confer with your discussant.
Meet a week ahead of your presentation with the discussant of your paper and inform him or her of the main ideas you plan to present.
5. Make oral presentation.
Present in class your research proposal and a preliminary report on the results of your project. To be scheduled.
6. Write and submit final paper.
Prepare a final written paper of not more than 20 double-spaced pages by the end of the semester.
7. Pick up graded paper.
Papers will be returned with comments and grades, to student mailboxes, within ten days after their timely submission.
Political Science U865.1/Spring 1997, Syllabus and Reading Assignments 7
The following sources may be of use at various stages of project
preparation:
Research and Writing Guides:
David Beasley, How to Use a Research Library (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1988)
Teresa Pelton Johnson, "Writing for International Security: A Contributors'
Guide," International Security 16 (Fall 1991): 171-80
Gary King, Robert O. Keohane, and Sidney Verba, Designing Social
Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1994)
Gregory M. Scott and Stephen M. Garrison, The Political Science
Student Writer's Manual (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1995)
Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and
Dissertations, fifth ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987)