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International Relations: Theories and Concepts
Course leader:
Dr Raouf Tajvidi (economics@buckingham.ac.uk)
One term (15 units)
Aims of the course
This course provides a survey of contemporary international relations theories and their major components, in the context of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. It also examines the role of international organisations, regional associations and transnational movements (Islam) and separatist movements with political implications in the international setting.
Objectives of the course
To stimulate an awareness and interest in international relations, while enhancing knowledge and understanding of the complexities of modern international politics. Students will be able by the end of the course to consider discuss and evaluate competing explanations and interpretations as to the forces underlying international relations processes. Students will develop analytical and critical approaches both in debates in class and in writing. Throughout the course emphasis is put on the need to examine unique circumstances in analysing specific events and individual countries, without neglecting the general lessons and implications for the entire international system.
Study programme
Recent and far-reaching changes in the international system present a challenge to practitioners in charge of international politics, as well as to those who study international relations. Students examine the domestic and external sources of international relations and foreign policy, which are the main actors and agencies in the process of forming policy, and how decisions and capabilities are translated into actions. The class will review, analyse and evaluate a number of the most significant theoretical and analytical themes in the study of international affairs. Phenomena such as International System, Balance of Power, Diplomacy, Foreign Policy, War, Crisis and Revolution are examined closely. One of the principal objectives of this course is to analyse the nature of the international system, both in terms of theoretical accounts of its workings and a historical examination of its continuity and change in the world arena during the 20th century and 21st century world politics.
Key text:
-
Baylis, John & Smith, Steve (eds).
The globalization of
world politics: an introduction to international relations
(2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
ISBN
:
0-19-878263-2.