INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

This course is an introduction to the study of international relations. It has three principal goals:
1. To introduce several major theoretical approaches to world politics.
2. To explore important problems in world politics from the past, the present, and the future.
3. To teach students to think and argue critically about issues in international relations.
I will begin the course by defining exactly what the study of international relations is about. I will look at some of the tools and concepts that we use to study it. I will then discuss several major theoretical approaches to international relations. In the second half of the course, I apply these approaches to a number of historical and contemporary issues. The world always forces us to rethink our understandings of how international politics works. The objective of this course is to develop that knowledge, and use it to ask smart questions about how international politics is likely to work in the coming decade.

Readings: The readings for this course contain conflicting interpretations of both theory and history. It is important that you read actively and critically. There is no single accepted "truth" in most of the problems we will discuss. Your job is to learn to identify, and then to compare and evaluate, contending arguments.

The readings for this course complement the lectures; neither can substitute effectively for the other. You will learn the most from this class if you do the reading on each topic before coming to lecture. Because it is important for you to assimilate from the reading not just facts but concepts, ideas, and arguments, do not put off reading until the end of the semester.

These texts are available in the bookstore:

Hedley Bull, THE ANARCHICAL SOCIETY Alexander George and Gordon Craig, FORCE AND STATECRAFT V. I. Lenin, IMPERIALISM

The other readings are available for purchase in a Xerox package, at COPY CENTRAL on Bancroft.

There will typically be two lectures a week, and one discussion section.

LOGISTICS

Registration for this class: PLEASE READ CAREFULLY. If you are currently registered for the class and wish to remain so, you MUST attend your first assigned discussion section. Students who do not attend may be dropped. If you are not now registered and would like to add the class, you need to do two things: put yourself on the Tele-Bears waiting list, and go to a discussion section that you would be able to attend regularly if you were enrolled. Ask the T.A. to place your name on the waiting list. During the second and third weeks of class, we will accept as many students from the waiting list as we can to bring the course up to its maximum enrollment.

Discussion Sections: Discussion sections are important and they can also be fun. Sometimes, the Teaching Assistants will present new material; sometimes they will clarify ideas from the lectures and from the readings; they will always be ready to take questions. The key to making the most out of a discussion section is to do what you can't really do effectively in a lecture hall: participate. The Teaching Assistants for this class are excellent, and you should take the initiative to make the discussion sections excellent as well.

Office Hours: We will announce office hours for the professor and the T.A.s as well as the location of the T.A.'s offices during the first week of class. We will provide a handout during the second week with all the T.A.'s offices and hours, and we encourage you to talk with T.A.s other than your own, if you wish. Prof. Weber's office is 740 Barrows, phone 642-4654, e-mail sweber@socrates.berkeley.edu. Because of seismic retrofit work at Barrows, we may have to make some alternative arrangements for office hours.

Grading: Grading for this course will be based on two exams (a midterm and a final) as well as on participation and writing assignments in section. The midterm and section work will together count for 1/2 the grade, and the final will count for 1/2. Check the final examination schedule now! We will not excuse students from the final exam because of time conflicts. We will not grant incompletes for this reason.

A final note: The study of international relations can be difficult. But it is challenging intellectually and extremely rewarding, as well as exciting and fun. This course covers a large set of issues that are critically important to each of our lives. It is worth devoting serious effort to trying to understand them better.

PART I: INTRODUCTION

Visions of the Future of World Politics

Schwartz and Leyden, "The Long Boom"
Kaplan, "The Coming Anarchy"


International Relations and Social Science Theory

Bull, Chapter 1.
Gould, Wonderful Life pp. 277-291..
Hawthorn, "Explanation, Understanding and Theory"
Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, Chapter 1.


States, Power, and World Politics

Craig and George, Chapters 1 and 2.
Baldwin, "Power Analysis and World Politics"
Blainey, "Power, Culprits, and Arms"
Friedman, "Microchip Immune Deficiency"
Wolfers, Discord and Collaboration, Chapter 7.
Bull, Chapter 2.

PART II: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

Levels of Analysis and Systemic Arguments

Spanier, "Levels of Analysis"
Bull, Chapter 3
Smith, "Modern Realism in Context"
Carr, "Peaceful Change" (Chapter 13 of Twenty YearsCrisis)
Cox, "Production, the State, and Change in World Order"
Ohmae, "The Rise of The Region State"


Driving Forces of State Behavior

Z, "To the Stalin Mausoleum"
Lenin, Imperialism
Russett, Grasping the Democratic Peace Chapters 1 and 2.
Mueller, Retreat from Doomsday, pp. 7-12 and 251-257
Fukuyama, "The End of History"
Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations"
Bull, Chapter 11.
Janus, Groupthink Chapters 1 and 2 ("Why So Many Miscalculations?" and "A Perfect Failure")


Part III: THE ISSUES OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Security Issues: War and Peace

Craig and George, Chapters 12-17.
Bull, Chapters 6 and 7.
Blainey, "The Myth of Pearl Harbors"


Economic Issues: Poverty and Prosperity

Viner, "Power vs. Plenty"
Rosecrance, "The Trading World".
Gunder Frank, "The Development of Underdevelopment"
Borrus, Weber, and Zysman, "Mercantilism and Global Security"
Hirschman, National Power and the Structure of Foreign Trade, Chapters 1 and 2.
Nelson, "Beyond Conditionality"


Ethical Issues

Bull, Chapter 4.
Beitz, "Recent International Thought"
Hehir, "Intervention: From Theory to Cases"
Rieff, "The Precarious Triumph of Human Rights"


PART IV: HISTORICAL CASES

World War I and the Great Depression

Kennedy, "The First World War and the International Power System"
Kindleberger, "An Explanation of the 1929 Depression"


World War II and Bipolarity

Kennan, "Sources of Soviet Conduct"
Yergin, "The End of the Peace"
Schlesinger, "Origins of the Cold War"


"Pax Americana" and The Rise of International Organization

Wohlstetter, "The Delicate Balance of Terror"
Gilpin, "The Bretton Woods System" and "The Dollar and American Hegemony"
Hunt, "Crises in US Foreign Policy," selections.
Kahn and Mann, "Game Theory"
Weber, "Cooperation and Interdependence"


Crisis and Detente

Ambrose, "Kennedy and the New Frontiers"
Kissinger, "The Soviet Riddle"


The Diffusion of Power

Kennedy, "Relative Decline"
Gaddis, "How the Cold War Might End"
Gilpin, "American Policy in the Post-Reagan Era"
Fallows, "Containing Japan"


Where Do We Go Now? The Future(s) of World Politics

Kristoff, "The Rise of China"
Weber, "The End of the Business Cycle?"
World Bank, "Is International Integration an Opportunity or a Threat to Workers?"
Strange, "The Defective State"
Weber, "International Organizations and the Pursuit of Justice", and comment by Zacher
Go back and re-read Giddens piece from the second week of class