Theories of International Relations

G6801x Office hours: W, F, 2-3 Fall 1997 Rm. 1333 IAB

Professor Robert Jervis rlj1@columbia.edu

TA: Leslie Vinjamuri Wright (lvw2@columbia.edu)

This course is an introduction to theories of international politics. it reviews the main strands of the theoretical literature, which necessitates covering a lot of ground quite quickly and omitting many specialized topics. To provide a common empirical ground for examining many of the alternative theories, I have selected a reading on the end of the Cold War for each section when this was feasible.

There will be a weekly discussion section in addition to the lecture. For the 10-page take-home exam, due on the last day of class, you will apply 2 or 3 theories to a case.

1. THEORIES IN SCIENCE AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES (9/8)

Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

2. THE LEVEL-OF-ANALYSIS QUESTION (9/15)

Arnold Wolfers, Discord and Collaboration, chapter 1.

J. David Singer, "The Level-of-Analysis Problems in International Relations," in Klaus Knorr and Sidney Verba, eds., The International System, pp. 77-92 (also published in World Politics, vol. 14, October 1961).

Kenneth Waltz, Man, the State and War.

Jervis, "Perceptions and the Level-of-Analysis Problem," ch. 1, in Perception and Misperception in International Politics.

James Rosenau, "Pre-Theories and Theories of Foreign Policy," in Barry Farrell, ed., Approach to Comparative and International Politics, pp. 88-92.

Graham Allison, "Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis," American Political Science Review, vol. 63, September 1969, pp. 689-718,
or Jonathan Bendor and Thomas Hammond, "Rethinking Allison's Models," APSR, vol. 86, June 1992, pp. 301-22.

Alexander Wendt, "The Agent-Structure Problem in International Relations Theory," International Organization, vol. 41, Summer 1987, pp. 35-73.

Scott Sagan, "Why Do States Build Nuclear Weapons? Three Models in Search of a Bomb," International Security, vol. 21, Winter 1996/97, pp. 54-86.

L.L. Farrar, "The Limits of Choice: July 1914 Reconsidered," Journal of Conflict Resolution, March 1972, vol. 16, pp. 1-24.

Paul Kennedy, "The Kaiser and German Weltpolitik: reflections on Wilhelm II's place in the making of German foreign policy," in John C.G. Rohl and Nicolaus Sombart, eds., Kaiser Wilhelm II: New Interpretations, pp. 143-168 or Alonzo Hamby, "An American Democrat: A Reevaluation of the Personality of Harry S Truman," Political Science Quarterly, vol. 106, Spring 1991, pp. 33-56.

3. POWER AND CLASSICAL REALISM (9/22)

Stephen Jones, "Gauging Power in the Western State System," World Politics, vol. 6, July 1954, pp. 421-52 (reprinted in Joel Larus, ed., Comparative World Politics, pp. 76-99).

Robert Dahl, "Power," International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, vol. 12, pp. 405-415.

David Baldwin, Paradoxes of Power, chapter 2.

George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant."

Donald Searing, "The Psychology of Political Authority: A Causal Mechanism of Political Learning Through Persuasion and Manipulation," Political Psychology, vol. 16, December 1995, pp. 677-96.

Hans Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations, chapters 1 and 3 (also excerpted in Stanley Hoffmann, Contemporary Theories in International Relations, pp. 54-73).

E.H. Carr, The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1919-1939, chapters 5-8.

Robert Gilpin, "No One Loves a Political Realist," Security Studies, vol. 5, Spring 1996, pp. 3-26.

Keith Shimko, "Realism, Neorealism, and American Liberalism," Review of Politics, vol. 54, Spring 1992, pp. 281-301.

Kenneth Waltz, "Realist Thought and Neorealist Theory," Journal of International Affairs, vol. 44, Spring 1990, pp. 21-37. (Also in Robert Rothstein, ed. The Evolution of Theory on International Relations.)

Stephen Krasner, "State Power and the Structure of International Trade," World Politics, vol. 28, April 1976, pp. 317-48.

Hans Morgenthau, "World Politics and the Politics of Oil," in Gary Eppen, ed., Energy, especially pp. 49-51.

Michael Mastanduno, David Lake, and John Ikenberry, "Toward a Realist Theory of State Action," International Studies Quarterly, vol. 33, December 1989, pp. 457-74.

Albert Hirschman, National Power and the Structure of Foreign Trade, pp. 3-52.

Robert Art, "American Foreign Policy and the Fungibility of Force," Security Studies, vol. 5, Summer 1996, pp. 7-42.

D. Scott Bennett, "Security, Bargaining, and the End of Interstate Rivalry," International Studies Quarterly, vol. 40, June 1996, pp. 157-84.

William Wohlforth, "Realism and the End of the Cold War," International Security, vol. 19, Winter 1994/95, pp. 91-129.

Thomas Risse, "The Cold War's Endgame and German Unification (A Review Essay)," International Security, vol. 21, Spring 1997, pp. 159-85.

Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye, Power and Interdependence, ch. 2.

Susan Strange, "Toward a Theory of Transnational Empire," in Ernst-Otto Czempiel and James Rosenau, eds., Global Changes and Theoretical Challenges, pp. 161-76.

Andrew Moravcsik, "Taking Preferences Seriously: A Positive Liberal Theory of International Politics," draft MS.

4. NEOREALISM AND ITS COMPETITORS (9/29)

Kennth Waltz, Theory of International Politics.

C.R. Mitchell, "World Society as Cobweb: States, Actors and Systemic Processes," in Michael Banks, ed., Conflict in World Society: A New Perspective on International Relations, pp. 59-77.

Robert Cox, "Social Forces, States, and World Orders: Beyond International Relations Theory," in Robert Keohane, ed., Neo-Realism and its Critics, pp. 204-54.

Daniel Garst, "Thucydides and Neo-Realism," International StudiesQuarterly, vol. 33, March 1989, pp. 3-28.

Barry Buzan, Charles Jones, and Richard Little, The Logic of Anarchy, pp. 66-80, 119-54.

John Ruggie, "What Makes the World Hang Together? Neo- Utilitarianism and the Social Constructivist Challenge," introducttion to Ruggie, Constructing the World Polity: Essays on International Institutionalization, draft MS.

J. Ann Tickner, Gender in International Relations, chapters 1-2, 5.

Paul Schroeder, "Historical Reality versus Neorealist Theory," International Security, vol. 19, Summer 1994, pp. 108-48.

John Mearsheimer, "The False Promise of International Institutions," International Security, vol. 19, Winter 1995/96, pp. 5-49.

"Promises, Promises: Can Institutions Deliver?" (replies to Mearsheimer), International Security, vol. 20, Summer 1995, pp. 39-93.

Gunther Hellmann and Reinhard Wolf, "Neorealism, Neoliberal Institutionalism, and the Future of NATO," Security Studies, vol. 3, Autumn 1993, pp. 3-43.

Randall Schweller and David Priess, "A Tale of Two Realisms: Expanding the Institutions Debate," Mershon International Studies Review, vol. 41, May 1997, pp. 1-32.

4. THEORIES, EVIDENCE, and INFERENCES (10/6 and 10/13)

Kenneth Waltz, Theory of International Politics, chapter 1.

Henry Cooper, Jr., The Search for Life on Mars, any section of part 2.

Lawrence Stone, "The Revolution over the Revolution," New York Review of Books, June 11, 1992, pp. 47-52.

Hugh Stretton, The Political Sciences, pp. 52-72 ("Why Histories Happen").

J.H. Hexter, The History Primer, ch. VI, "The Pennant Race and the Baseball Season, or Historical Story and Narrative Explanation."

Gabriel Almond and Stephen Genco, "Clouds, Clocks and the Study of Politics," World Politics, vol. 29, July 1977, pp. 489-522.

Stephen Jay Gould, Wonderful Life, pp. 277-91.

John Gaddis, "International Relations Theory and the End of the Cold War," International Security, vol. 17, Winter 1992/93, pp. 5-58.

Stephen Walt, "The Gorbachev Interlude and International Relations Theory," (review essay) Diplomatic History, vol. 21, Summer 1997, pp. 473-79.

Julian Simon, Basic Research Methods in Social Sciences, (1st edition) pp. 152-65; 292-300; 333-55; 447-60; (2d ed) pp. 219-34, 314-53, 362-90, 485-98, or Arthur Stinchcombe, Constructing Social Theories, pp. 15-56.

Gary King, Sydney Verba, Robert Keohane, Designing Social Inquiry, pp. 1-49, 100-14, 124-49.

Barbara Geddes, "How the Cases You Choose Affect the Answers You Get: Selection Bias in Comparative Politics," in James Stimson, ed. Political Analysis, vol. 2, 1990, pp. 131-150; or David Collier and James Mahoney, "Insights and Pitfalls: Selection Bias in Qualitative Research," World Politics, vol. 49, October 1996, pp. 56-91.

James Fearon, "Counterfactuals and Hypothesis Testing in Political Science", World Politics, vol. 43, January 1991, pp. 169-95.

Arend Lijphart, "Comparative Politics and the Comparative Method," American Political Science Review, September 1971, vol. 65, pp. 682-93.

John Platt, "Strong Inference," Science, October 19, 1964.

Ernst May, American Imperialism, pp. 3-16.

David Matza, Delinquency and Drift, pp. 1-4; 21-30.

Alfred Eichner, The Emergence of Oligopoly, pp. 1-10.

James Richardson, "Cold War Revisionism: A Critique," World Politics, vol. 24, July 1972, pp. 579-612.

Chaim Kaufmann, "Out of the Lab and Into the Archives: A Method for Testing Psychological Explanations of Political Decision Making," International Studies Quarterly, vol. 38, December 1994, pp. 557-86.

James Kurth, "U.S. Policies, Latin American Politics, and Praetorian Rule," in Phillippe Schmitter, ed., Military Rule in Latin America, pp. 244-58.

Robert Dahl, "The Concept of Power," Behavioral Science, June 1957, vol. 2, pp. 201-15.

Peter Bachrach and Morton Baratz, "The Two Faces of Power," American Political Science Review, 1962, vol. 56, pp. 947-52.

Mimeographed pages of problems and errors to be distributed.

5. SYSTEMS: BALANCE OF POWER (10/30)

Inis Claude, Power and International Relations, chs. 2-4, and

last sections of ch. 5 (pp. 2-149; 190-204).

Robert Jervis, System Effects, pp. 131-46.

Randall Schweller, "Bandwagoning for Profit: Bringing the Revisionist State Back In," International Security, vol. 19, Summer 1994, pp. 72-107.

Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, pp. xv-xxv.

Douglas Lemke and Jacek Kugler, "The Evolution of the Power Transition Perspective" and John Vasquez, "When Are Power Transitions Dangerous?" both in Jacek Kugler and Douglas Lemke, eds., Parity and War.

R. Harrison Wagner, "The Theory of Games and the Balance of Power," World Politics, vol. 38, July l968, pp. 546-76.

Crowe and Sanderson memoranda, in G.P. Gooch and Harold Temperley eds., British Documents on the Origins of the War, vol. 3, pp. 397-431 (skim).

Edward Gullick, Europe's Classical Balance of Power, chs. 1-3, and 12 (skim).

Richard Elrod, "The Concert of Europe," World Politics, vol. 28, January 1976, pp. 159-74.

Paul Schroeder, "The 19th-Century International System: Changes in the Structure," in World Politics, vol. 39, October 1986, pp. 1-26.

Paul Schroeder, "The 19th-Century System: Balance of Power or Political Equilibrium?" Review of International Studies, vol. 15, April 1989, pp. 135-53.

7. SYSTEMS: GENERAL THEORIES (11/3: University Holiday but we meet anyway)

Jervis, System Effects, chapters 1-3, 7.

Glenn Snyder and Paul Diesing, Conflict Among Nations, ch. 6.

8. SYSTEMS: ANARCHY (11/10)

Roger Masters, "World Politics as a Primitive Political System," World Politics, vol. 16, July 1964, pp. 595-619.

Hedley Bull, "Society and Anarchy in International Relations," in Herbert Butterfield and Martin Wight, eds., Diplomatic Investigations, pp. 35-50.

Jervis, Perception and Misperception in International Politics, pp. 62-90.

Jervis, "Cooperation Under the Security Dilemma," World Politics, January 1978.

Robert Axelrod, The Evolution of Cooperation, chs. 2 and 9.

Kenneth Oye, "Explaining Cooperation Under Anarchy," in Oye, ed., Cooperation Under Anarchy, pp. 1-24 (also World Politics, vol. 38, October 1985).

Helen Milner, "The Assumption of Anarchy in International Relations Theory: A Critique," Review of International Studies, vol. 17, January 1991, pp. 67-85.

Alexander Wendt, "Anarchy is What States Make of It," International Organization, vol. 46, Spring 1992, pp. 391-426.

Daniel Deudney, "The Philadelphian System: Sovereignty, Arms Control, and Balance of Power in the American States-Union, circa 1787-1961," International Organization, vol. 49, Spring 1995, pp. 191-228.

Stephen Krasner, "Global Communications and National Power," in David Baldwin, ed., Neorealism and Neoliberalism, pp. 234-49.

Helen Milner, "International Theories of Cooperation Among Nations: Strengths and Weaknesses," World Politics, vol. 44, April 1992, pp. 466-96.

Jervis, "Realism, Game Theory, and Cooperation," World Politics, vol. 40, April 1988, pp. 317-49.

Robert Keohane, After Hegemony, chapters 1, 6, 7.

9. Domestic Politics 1: Political Institutions, Processes, and Culture (11/17)

Peter Katzenstein, ed., Between Power and Plenty, chs. 1, 9.

John Ikenberry et al., eds., The State and American Foreign Policy, special issue, International Organization vol. 42, winter 1988, introduction, Chapter 5 (Stephan Haggard), and Chapter 9 (John Ikenberry--conclusion).

Theodore Lowi, The End of Liberalism, ch. 6 (also in James Rosenau, ed., Domestic Sources of Foreign Policy, pp. 295-332).

Michael Mastanduno, David Lake, and John Ikenberry, "Toward a Realist Theory of State Action," International Studies Quarterly, vol. 33, December 1989, pp. 457-74.

Richard Ned Lebow, Between Peace and War, pp. 169-92.

Morton Halperin, "The Decision to Deploy the ABM," World Politics, vol. 25, October 1972, pp. 62-95.

Jack Matlock, Autopsy on an Empire, chapters 7-8.

Gary Sick, All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter with Iran, ch. 6 ("The End of a Bad Year").

Paul Kennedy, "Strategy versus Finance in Twentieth-Century Great Britain," International History Review, vol. 3, January 1981, pp. 45-61.

Michael Blaker, Japanese International Negotiating Style, ch. 1.

Lucian Pye, "Political Culture Revisited," Political Psychology, vol. 12, September 1991, pp. 487-508.

Jeffrey Legro, "Culture and Preferences in the International Cooperation Two-Step," APSR, vol. 90, March 1996, pp. 118-37.

Mlada Bukovansky, "American Identity and Neutral Rights from Independence to the War of 1812," International Organization, vol. 51, Spring 1997, pp. 173-208.

Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America, chapter 11.

Arnold Wolfers, Discord and Collaboration, chapter 15.

10. Domestic Politics 2: Societal Actors and Coalitions (11/24)

James Kurth, "The Political Consequences of the Product Cycle," International Organization, vol. 33, Winter 1978, pp. 1-34.

Volker Berghan, "Naval Armaments and Social Crisis: Germany Before 1914," in Geoffrey Best and Andrew Wheatcroft, eds., War, Economy, and the Military Mind, pp. 61-88.

Josiah Ober, "Classical Greek Times," in Michael Howard, George Andreopoulus, and Mark Shulman, eds., The Laws of War, pp. 12-26.

Jeffry Frieden, "The Economics of Intervention: Overseas Investments and Relations With Underdeveloped Areas, 1890-1950," Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 31, January 1989, pp. 55-80.

Helen Milner, Resisting Protectionism, chapters 1-2, 6, 8.

Ronald Rogowski, Commerce and Coalitions chapters 1, 4, 6.

Jack Snyder, Myths of Empire chapters 1-2, 8.

Michael Gordon, "Domestic Conflict and the Origins of the First World War", Journal Of Modern History, vol. 46, June 1974, pp. 191-226.

Peter Evans, Harold Jacobson, and Robert Putnam, eds., Double-Edged Diplomacy, chapters 1, 4, 11, 13.

Helen Milner, Interests, Institutions, and Information, chapters 1, 9.

Jeffry Frieden, "Invested Interests," International Organization, vol. 45, Autumn 1991, 425-52.

Philip Stewart, Margaret Hermann, and Charles Hermann, "Modeling the 1973 Soviet Decision to Support Egypt," American Political Science Review, vol. 83, March 1989, pp. 35-60.

Michael Doyle, "Liberalism and War," APSR, vol. 80, December 1986, pp. 1151-70.

Bruce Russett, Grasping the Democratic Peace, chapters 1-2.

Peter Gourevitch, "The Second Image Reversed", International Organization, vol. 32, Autumn 1978, pp. 881-912.

Ronald Rogowski, "Trade and the Variety of Democratic Institutions," International Organization, vol. 41, Spring 1987, pp. 203-24.

Jeffry Frieden and Ronald Rogowski, "The Impact of the International Economy on National Policies," in Robert Keohane and Helen Milner, eds., Internationalization and Domestic Politics, chapter 2.

Myron Weiner, "The Macedonian Syndrome: An Historical Model of International Relations and Political Development," World Politics, July 1971, vol. 23, pp. 665-83.

Theotonio Dos Santos, "The Structure of Dependence," American Economic Review, vol. 60, May 1970, pp. 231-36.

11. DECISION-MAKING AND IDEAS (12/1)

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, vol. 7, pp. 157- 61, 1242-49, 1323-34.

"White House Tapes and Minutes of the Cuban Missile Crisis," International Security, vol. 10, Summer 1985, pp. 164-203.

Morton Halperin and Tang Tsou, "U.S. Policy Toward the Offshore Islands," Public Policy, vol. 15, 1966, pp. 119-38.

Graham Allison and Morton Halperin, "Bureaucratic Politics," in Raymond Tanter and Richard Ullman, eds., Theory and Policy in International Relations (also in the supplement to World Politics, vol. 24, Spring 1972, pp. 40-79) or Richard Neustadt, "The Skybolt Affair: Report to the President".

Fred Greenstein and Richard Immerman, "History as Rashomon: Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Vietnam," unpublished MS. John Burke and Fred Greenstein, How Presidents Test Reality, chs. 12-13.

Alexander L. George, Presidential Decisionmaking in Foreign Policy: The Effective Use of Information and Advice, ch. 2.

Barbara Farnham, "Political Cognition and Decision-Making," Political Psychology, vol. 11, March 1990, pp. 83-112.

Philip Tetlock and McGuire, "Cognitive Perspectives on Foreign Policy," Political Behavior Annual, vol. 1, pp. 147-79.

Jack Levy, "Learning and Foreign Policy: Sweeping a Conceptual Minefield," International Organization, vol. 48, Spring 1994, pp. 279-312.

Philip Tetlock, Faye Crosby, and Travis Crosby, "Political Psychobiography," Micropolitics, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 191-213.

Shelley Taylor and Jonathon Brown, "Illusion and Well-Being: A Social Psychological Perspective on Mental Health,"Psychological Bulletin, vol. 103, 1988, pp. 193-210.

John Odell, U.S. International Monetary Policy, pp. 58-78.

Peter Haas, "Regimes and Epistemic Communities," International Organization, vol. 44, Summer 1989, pp. 377-403.

Judith Goldstein and Robert Keohane, eds., Ideas and Foreign Policy, chapters 1 (Goldstein and Keohane), 3 (Ikenberry), 6 (Sikkink).

Robert Jervis, "Ideas and Foreign Policy," unpublished MS.

Edward Rhodes, "Sea Change: Inerest-Based vs. Cultural-Cognitive Accounts of Strategic Choice in the 1890s," Strategic Studies, vol. 5, Summer 1996, pp. 73-124.

Martha Finnemore, "Constructing Norms of Humanitarian Intervention," in Peter Katzenstein, ed., The Culture of National Security, chapter 5.

Robert Herman, "Identity, Norms, and National Security: The Soviet Foreign Policy Revolution and the End of the Cold War," in Katzenstein, ed., Culture of National Security, chapter 8.

Hosoya Chihiro, "Miscalculations in Deterrence Policy: Japanese-

U.S. Relations, 1938-41," Journal of Peace Research, 1968,

no. 2, pp. 97-115.

12. RATIONAL CHOICE (12/8)

Neil Smelser, "The Rational Choice Perspective," Rationality and Society, vol. 4, October 1992, pp. 381-410.

Samuel Popkin, The Rational Peasant, pp. 1-31.

Beth Yarborough and Robert Yarborough, "The New Economics of Organization," International Organization, vol. 44, Spring 1990, pp. 235-59.

George Downs and David Rocke, Optimal Imperfection? Domestic Uncertainty and Institutions in International Relations, chapter 3.

Kenneth A. Shepsle, "Studying Institutions: Some Lessons from the Rational Choice Approach," Journal of Theoretical Politics, vol. 1, April 1989, pp. 131-47.

Barry Schwartz, The Battle for Human Nature, pp. 152-70.

James Q. Wilson, "The Moral Sense," APSR, vol. 87, March 1993, pp. 1-11.

Thomas Schelling, "What is Game Theory?" in Schelling, Choice and Consequence, pp. 213-42 (skim after page 229).

David Kreps, Game Thoery and Economic Modelling.

James Fearon, "Rationalist Explanations for War," International Organization, vol. 49, Summer 1995, pp. 379-414.

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, The War Trap, chapter 3.

Robert Jervis, "Rational Deterrence: Theory and Evidence," World

Politics, vol. 41, January 1989, pp. 143-207.

George Downs, "The Rational Deterrence Debate," World Politics,

vol. 41, January 1989, pp. 225-38.