Address: http://socsci.colorado.edu/~parisr/IAFS_1000/syllabus.htm
Last updated: 12/10/2002; click here to view
updates
Welcome to the Fall 2002 edition of International Affairs
1000
at the University of Colorado at
Boulder
Office: Ketchum Room 102
E-mail: parisr@colorado.edu
|
Course Time and Location |
Professor’s Office Hours |
|
Tuesday
and Thursday |
Tuesday 1-3 p.m. |
|
11:00 a.m.–12:15 p.m. |
Thursday 1-3 p.m. |
|
MCDB Room A2B70 |
or by appointment |
Teaching Assistants
|
Matt Hirschland (head TA) |
|
|
Julian Ouellet |
|
|
Uri Fisher |
|
|
Orion Lewis |
|
|
Shane Smith |
|
|
Wojtek Mackiewicz-Wolfe |
Click here
for a printer-friendly version of this syllabus.
Course Description
How did states become the predominant actors in international affairs? Do contemporary global issues such as environmental degradation, transnational terrorism, or economic globalization pose a challenge to the sovereignty of states? Are non-state actors now supplanting the authority of the state in international affairs? What role are states likely to play in the twenty-first century?
This course investigates the “fate of the state” and in so doing introduces students to the multidisciplinary program in International Affairs (IA) at the University of Colorado, Boulder. We will explore the rise of the modern territorial state from the Middle Ages to the present, the principle and practice of state sovereignty, and contemporary challenges to the state’s supremacy in international affairs, including the transnational flow of goods, services, money and ideas, the continuing problem of poverty in the developing world, civil wars and terrorism in the post-Cold War period, international human rights concerns, and the rise of transnational social activist groups. You should emerge from the course with improved research, writing and analytical skills, a firm grasp of several substantive issues in contemporary world politics and familiarity with fundamental concepts in the study of international politics, history and economics – in short, skills and knowledge that will help you flourish in the IA program and beyond.
Enrollment
Enrollment is capped at 240 students. If you wish to enroll in the course, please contact Sheila Grotzky in the International Affairs office (Ketchum basement). IAFS majors will have priority on the waiting list. This course will also be offered in the Spring 2003 semester.
Requirements
Surgeon-General’s Warning: This is a four-credit course with substantial work
requirements. In addition to weekly
reading assignments, discussion questions, mid-term and final exams, students
will also be required to complete a major research essay (see below for
details). This will demand considerable
time and effort from each student.
There are more students who want to enroll in the IA program than there
are spots to accommodate them, so please familiarize yourself with the course
requirements, and be sure you are willing to commit the necessary time and
effort before continuing in the course.
1. Required Reading
Weekly required readings are set out in the course
schedule below. You will be expected to
demonstrate familiarity with the contents of the required readings in your
recitation discussions and in the mid-term and final exams. (The readings identified as “related
documents” are optional and will not be tested.)
2. Recitations
Attendance at weekly recitations is mandatory and
will be recorded. You are expected to
participate actively in the discussion of each week’s required reading. Be prepared to summarize and, more
importantly, to evaluate the argument of each of the required readings
in your weekly meetings. In addition,
be prepared to answer each week’s discussion question (see the course schedule
below). Teaching Assistants will assign
grades for attendance and participation in the recitation.
Click here
for a list of recitation sections, times and locations.
3. Research Essay
The research essay is a major component of the
course. Detailed instructions are
available at the following Internet address:
http://socsci.colorado.edu/~parisr/IAFS_1000/essay.htm. Be sure to read the instructions carefully,
including the lateness policy, and make note of the following due dates:
A brief essay proposal is due at your
recitation during the week of Sept. 23-27.
A first draft of the essay is due at your
recitation during the week of Nov. 4-8.
The final version is due at the start of
the lecture on Tuesday, Dec. 10.
4. Mid-Term Exam
The mid-term exam on Thursday, October 3 will
examine your knowledge and understanding of the lectures and required readings
assigned up to that date.
5. Final Exam
The final exam on Saturday, December 14 from 7:30
p.m. to 10:00 p.m. will examine your knowledge and understanding of the
entire course, including lectures and required readings. Students must write the final exam in order
to pass this course.
Grading
|
Recitation (attendance, understanding of readings, participation in discussion) |
20 points |
|
Mid-term exam |
10 points |
|
Research essay |
30 points |
|
Final exam |
30 points |
|
TOTAL |
90 points |
Course Readings
The following course text is available for purchase at
the CU bookstore (or click on the title to buy the book online):
David Held and Anthony McGrew, eds., The Global
Transformations Reader (Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press, 2000). Click here
to order this book from Amazon.
Robert M. Jackson, ed., Global Issues 02/03
(Guilford, Conn.: McGraw-Hill Dushkin, 2002).
Click here
to order this book from Amazon.
Other readings are directly linked to the course
schedule below. To gain access to certain
readings, you will need a password that will be provided to you in class. You will also need a copy of Adobe Acrobat
Reader, which may be pre-installed on your computer. If it is not pre-installed, you can download a copy for free from
the following website: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. For questions about downloading course
readings, please contact the head TA for the course, Matt Hirschland.
You may also use the free computers in the library.
Paper copies of some readings will be placed on
reserve at Norlin Library’s circulation desk.
Click here
to check availability.
Accessing the Internet and E-Mail
To set up a University of Colorado e-mail/computing
account (if you don’t have one already), click here.
For general help from the University’s Information
and Technology Service (ITS), click here.
Students With Disabilities
If you have specific disabilities that require accommodation, please
let me know early in the semester so that your learning needs may be
appropriately met. You will be required to provide documentation of your
disability to the Disability Services Office
in Willard 322 (telephone: 303-492-8671).
Cheating and Plagiarism
Cheating (using unauthorized materials or giving unauthorized
assistance during an examination or other academic exercise) and plagiarism
(using another's ideas or words without acknowledgment) are serious offenses in
a university, and may result in a failing grade for a particular assignment, a
failing grade for the course, and/or suspension for various lengths of time or
permanent expulsion from the university. See the University of Colorado at
Boulder Catalog for details.
Course Announcements and
News (updated during the semester)
Web address: http://socsci.colorado.edu/~parisr/IAFS_1000/news.htm. This page will list any changes in the
course syllabus after August 27, 2002.
Part A: Introduction
Week 1, August 26-30
No recitations this week.
Tuesday: Welcome and Introduction to the Course
Thursday: What is ‘International Affairs’? [outline]
Required reading:
“How to Read Critically”
http://socsci.colorado.edu/~parisr/IAFS_1000/critical_reading.htm
Part B: Development of the
Modern States System
Week 2, September 2-6
Recitations start this week.
Tuesday: The Peace of Westphalia [outline]
Thursday: The Idea of State Sovereignty [outline]
Required reading:
Alexander B. Murphy, “The Sovereign State
System as Political-Territorial Ideal,” in Thomas J. Biersteker and Cynthia
Weber, eds., State Sovereignty as a Social Construct (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 81-120.
“The Treaty of Westphalia Remains Relevant
Today,” The Times (London), December 30, 1999.
Related documents:
Peace of Westphalia, 1648
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/westphal.htm
Overhead slide, comparing
the feudal and Westphalian systems of governance.
http://socsci.colorado.edu/~parisr/IAFS_1000/feudalism_vs_westphalian.jpg
Discussion
questions:
What does the title of
Murphy’s article mean exactly? What is
Murphy’s main argument? Do you agree
with this argument? What counter-arguments
or rebuttals to his argument would you offer?
Week 3, September 9-13
Tuesday: Imperialism and the Spread of the
Westphalian Model [outline]
Thursday: Europe’s Classical Balance of Power [outline]
Required reading:
Gordon A. Craig and
Alexander L. George, Force and
Statecraft: Diplomatic Problems of Our Time (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1995), chapter 3.
Inis L. Claude, Jr.,
“Balance of Power: An Ambiguous Concept,” in Claude, Power and International
Relations (New York: Random House, 1962), pp. 11-25 (on the various
meanings of ‘balance of power’).
Related documents
Overhead
slide from lecture: What is the
‘Balance of Power”?
http://socsci.colorado.edu/~parisr/IAFS_1000/What_is_the_Balance_of_Power.htm
Letter from
Chinese ruler Qian Long to King George III of Britain, 1793 (will be discussed
in lecture)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1793qianlong.html
Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden,”
1899 (will be discussed in lecture)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/Kipling.html
The Levée en Masse, August 23, 1793
http://socsci.colorado.edu/~parisr/IAFS_1000/Levee_en_Masse.htm
Discussion
questions:
How do Craig and George use
the term “balance of power”? Why did
the balance of power system work best in the early part of the 19th century,
according to Craig and George? What are
the general preconditions for a balance of power system to work well, in your
view? Was the Cold War a balance of
power system? Is the balance of power
concept relevant today?
Week 4, September 16-20
Tuesday: world war i, world war II, and The total
state [outline]
Thursday: The league of nations and The United Nations [outline]
Required reading:
Gordon Wright, The Ordeal
of Total War (New York: Harper & Row, 1968), chapter 11.
George Orwell, Nineteen
Eighty-Four (London: Secker & Warburg, 1949), pp. 1-31.
Related documents:
Map of Europe in 1914
http://www.scs.unr.edu/~kvidoni/1914euro.html
Nationalist Aspirations in
the Balkans, 1914
http://socsci.colorado.edu/~parisr/IAFS_1000/Balkans_1914.htm
Map of Central and Eastern
Europe After World War I
http://socsci.colorado.edu/~parisr/IAFS_1000/Europe_After_WWI.htm
Quote from George Orwell, on
why he wrote 1984
http://socsci.colorado.edu/~parisr/IAFS_1000/Orwell_quote.htm
“The Second Coming,” a poem by
William Butler Yeats, 1920 (will be discussed in lecture)
http://socsci.colorado.edu/~parisr/yeats.htm
“Attack,” by Siegfried Sassoon (1918)
http://socsci.colorado.edu/~parisr/IAFS_1000/Attack.htm
Definition of
“totalitarianism”
http://socsci.colorado.edu/~parisr/IAFS_1000/Totalitarianism_definition.htm
“Trenches on the Web”
(extensive information of World War I)
Excerpts from the Covenant
of the League of Nations
http://socsci.colorado.edu/~parisr/IAFS_1000/Covenant_excerpts.htm
Full text of the Covenant of
the League of Nations
http://www.tufts.edu/departments/fletcher/multi/www/league-covenant.html
Excerpts from the United
Nations Charter
http://socsci.colorado.edu/~parisr/IAFS_1000/Charter_excerpts.htm
Full text of the United
Nations Charter
http://www.un.org/Overview/Charter/contents.html
Discussion
questions:
In what ways did “total war”
shape the modern state? To what extent
did Orwell’s nightmare vision of the future state come true?
Week 5, September 23-27
Essay proposal due in your recitation this week.
Tuesday: The Cold War and The nuclear balance of
Terror
Thursday: documentary film: “MAD, 1960-72”
Required reading:
Richard Crockatt, “The
Nuclear Arms Race,” chapter 7 of The Fifty Years War (New York:
Routledge, 1995).
Former US Secretary of
Defense Robert McNamara’s speech on mutual nuclear deterrence (September 1967).
President George W. Bush’s
statement on missile defense (May 1, 2001).
Steven Weinberg, “Can
Missile Defense Work?” New York Review of Books (February 14, 2002).
Related documents:
More information on the
documentary film and “mutually assured destruction”
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/12/
Robert Jervis, “The Utility
of Nuclear Deterrence,” Robert J. Art and Kenneth N. Waltz, eds., The Use of
Force: Military Power and International Politics (Rowman and Littlefield, 1999), pp. 89-94.
Cold War timeline
http://library.thinkquest.org/10826/timeline.htm
Discussion
questions:
Have nuclear weapon changed
the nature of international politics?
Have nuclear weapons diminished or enhanced the power of states? Is missile defense a good idea?
Week 6, September 30-October 4
Tuesday: The end of The cold war
Required reading:
Richard Crockatt, “Gorbachev
and the New World Disorder,” chapter 13 of The Fifty Years War (New
York: Routledge, 1995).
Thursday: Mid-Term EXAM [questions]
Discussion
questions:
To be announced
by your TA. Recitations will meet at
their normal time this week.
Part C: Post-Cold War Challenges to the Westphalian
System
Week 7, October 7-11
Monday-Wednesday recitations
will meet at their normal time.
Thursday-Friday recitations are cancelled.
Tuesday: What is ‘Globalization’? [outline]
Thursday: Fall Break: NO
lecture
Required reading:
David Held and Anthony
McGrew, “The Great Globalization Debate: An Introduction,” in Global
Transformations reader, pp. 1-45.
James N. Rosenau, “The
Complexities and Contradictions of Globalization,” in Global Issues
reader, pp. 68-72.
Discussion questions:
What is
“globalization”? In what ways does
“globalization” produce greater integration across societies, and in what ways
does it produce greater division and fragmentation?
Week 8, October 14-18
Tuesday: Liberal Economic Theory [outline]
Thursday: Economic Globalization and The welfare state
(guest lecture
by Prof. Sven Steinmo)
Required reading:
“A Global Economy?” in Global
Transformations reader, pp. 249-50.
Peter Dicken, “A New
Geo-Economy,” in Global Transformations reader, pp. 251-57.
Jonathan Perraton et al.,
“Economic Activity in a Globalizing World,” in Global Transformations
reader, pp. 287-99.
Geoffrey Garrett, “Global
Markets and National Politics,” in Global Transformations reader, pp.
301-314.
John Gray, “The Passing of
Social Democracy,” in Global Transformations reader, pp. 328-30.
Related documents:
“Comparative Advantage,” an
example of Ricardo’s trade theory
http://socsci.colorado.edu/~parisr/IAFS_1000/Comparative_Advantage.htm
“Economies of Scale,” an
example
http://socsci.colorado.edu/~parisr/IAFS_1000/Economies_of_Scale.htm
Discussion
questions:
What is economic
globalization? Is economic
globalization reducing the importance of national borders and governments? Is it eroding the “welfare state” in the
developed world?
Week 9, October 21-25
Thursday: Multinational Corporations and Capital
Flows [outline]
Thursday: The Asian Financial Crisis and its
aftermath [outline]
Required reading:
Thomas L. Friedman, The
Lexus and the Olive Tree (Farrer, Straus, Giroux, 1999), chapters 5-6.
“Will the Corporation
Survive? Yes, But Not As We Know It,” in Global Issues reader, pp.
211-16.
Related documents: