The focus of this course is on the central question of international politics: What causes conflict and cooperation between states. This course addresses these questions in both their historical and contemporary contexts. That is, it seeks to understand (1) How the international system evolved, and (2) How political and economic forces shape the functioning of that system today. In order to fully understand these questions, this course will operate on three different, yet related levels. We will be concerned with the philosophical foundations of conflictual and cooperative behavior as they are played out in the scholarship of international politics. On a second level, we will develop some theoretical tools to analyze developments in the international system. Finally, we will examine some concrete cases of where there is cooperation and conflict between states