HU Credits: 3

Degree/Cycle: 1st degree (Bachelor)

Responsible Department: International Relations

Semester: 1st Semester

Teaching Languages: Hebrew

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Galia Press-Barnathan

Coordinator Email: galia.press-barnathan@mail.huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours:

Teaching Staff:
Prof Galia Press-Barnathan,
Ms. Noa Molato,
Ms. Leah Rabinovitch,
Ms. Daniella Shalev,
Ms. Lina Chubukin,
Mr. Yahav Tavasi,
Mr. Noam Vatarescu,
Ms. Sol Dadon,
Mr. Guy Nisenzon

Course/Module description:
This course, together with the follow-up course Introduction to International Relations II, will present to you the wide world of research on international politics as an academic discipline. This course reviews the core concepts of the field and surveys the main approaches. The second course will focus on specific issue areas and the debates surrounding them.

Course/Module aims:
Expose students to the core concepts of the discipline of International relations, and present to them in a comparative and critical manner the main theoretical approaches in the field.

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
1. Define and understand the main concepts in the literature on IR.
2. Define and understand the main paradigms in the study of International relations
3. Critically compare the different approaches.
4. Examien empirical cases and identify the main theoretical dynamics studied inthe class.

Attendance requirements(%):
100%

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: One weekly class lecture and one weekly section (60 minutes) in which smaller groups study with a TA, discuss readings and apply the theoretical concepts learned. A central component of the section is to introduce and practice the foundations of scientific writing and reading more broadly.

Course/Module Content:
1.Introduction and Levels of Analysis (weeks 1 &2)
2. The actors in global politics
3. Power and influence
4. The Realist paradigm
5. Neorealism
6. The Liberal paragidm
7. Neoliberalism
8. The English School
9. Marxism
10. Constructivism
11.Critical, Post-modern, post-strucutural approaches and Feminism.
12. Foreign policy analysis I- decision making models
13. Foreign policy analysisII- Domestic politics and foreign policy

Required Reading:
Background readings assigned from: Charles W. Kegley, Jr., World Politics: Trend and Transformation , 11th edition (Belmont, CA: Thomson, 2007

Core readings include excerpts from scientific articles, which appear in: Phil Williams, Donald M. Goldstein and Jay M. Shafritz (eds.,) Classic Readings of International Relations, 2nd edition (Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1999) ; articles and selected chapters from various academic sources- those are either on Reservers or e-reserves in the main library.
Students of IR are also expected to follow current global events in the major daily newspapers.

Week 1: Levels of analysis

Karen Mingst, Essentials of International Relations ( NY: Norton, 2003)
Ch.1 "Approaches to International Relations" pp.1-16
Ch.3 "Contending Perspectives: How to Think about International
Relations Theoretically", pp. 57-62.
Stephen Walt, “One world, many theories” Foreign Policy, No. 110, Special Edition: Frontiers of Knowledge. (Spring, 1998), pp.29-32+34-46.-בעצם סקירה גורפת של רוב הקורס. קצת ישן אך עדין נותן תמונה כללית טובה [רשות]


Week 2: Actors: States and non-state actors

Bruce Russett and Harvey Starr, World Politics: The Menu for Choice, 7th edition (Belmont, Wadsworth, 2004), Chapter 3- “International Actors- States and Other Players on the World Stage,” pp. 47-63. [ERESERVE]Kegley, World Politics- Trend and Transformation, Chapter 6, -Non-State Actors in a System of States,- pp. 168-217.[חובה]Week

3- Power and influence

Nye, Joseph S., Jr. 2004. Soft Power- The Means to Success in World Politics. New York- Public Affairs. Ch.1 (1-32). Andrew Mack, “Why Big Nations Lose Small Wars- The Politics of Asymmetric Conflict”, World Politics 27(2) 1975.


4. Political Realism:
John J. Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (NY: Norton, 2001), Chapter 2 (pp.29-54).

Edward H. Carr, "The Realist Critique and the Limitations of Realism", in Williams et al., Classic Readings, pp.39-43.


5. Structural Realism and the international system:

Kenneth Waltz, "The Anarchic Structure of World Politics," in: Art and Jervis (eds.,) International Politics, pp.49-68. [ERESERVE]

Kegley, World Politics, Chapter 4: “Great Power Rivalries and Relations,” pp. 92-128.

John J. Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (NY: Norton, 2001), pp. 17-22, pp.29-36.


6. The Liberal approach to international relations
Bruce Russett, Grasping the Democratic Peace: Principles for a Post-Cold War World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993) , Chapter 2 (“Why Democratic Peace?”), pp. 24-42. [ERESERVES]

7. The Neo-Liberal Institutional Approach: International Institutions and International Regimes


Robert Keohane, After Hegemony, Chapter 6 (“A Functional Theory of International Regimes”)



8. The Grotian Approach (the English school)

Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics, (London: Macmillan, 1977), pp.3-27, and 77-98 [ERESERVE]


Galia Press-Barnathan (June 2004). “The War in Iraq and International Order – From
Bull to Bush”. International Studies Review Vol. 6(2), pp. 195-212.

9. The Marxist Approach


Stephen Hobden and Richard Wyn Jones, "Marxist theories of International Relations", in: John Baylis & Steve Smith (eds.,) The Globalization of World Politics – An Introduction to international relations (pages may vary in different editions)

Immanuel Wallerstein, “The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist System” Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol.16, 1974.
[short version]


10. The Constructivist Approach: The Ideational dimension of international relations


Alexander Wendt, “Anarchy is What States Make of It” in: Robert Art and Robert Jervis (eds.,), International Politics- Enduring Concepts and Contemporary Issues (5th edition), pp.75-82 [short version]

Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink, "International Norms and Political Change," International Organization, Vol. 52, No. 4, Autumn 1998, pp. 887-917

11. Critical, Post-Modern, and Feminist approaches to international relations:

J. Ann Tickner, "You Just Don't Understand: Troubled Engagement between Feminist and IR Theorists," International Studies Quarterly (1997), Vol. 41, pp. 611-632.

Steve Smith, "Singing Our World into Existence: International Relations Theory and September 11," International Studies Quarterly (2004), Vol. 48, pp. 499-515.

12. Foreign Policy I: Decision-Making Models

Graham T. Allison, "Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis," in Williams et al., Classic Readings, pp. 160-190.


13. Foreign Policy II: Domestic Factors and their impact upon foreign policy: regime type, state-society relations, interest groups, and public opinion.


Michael Mastanduno, “The United States Political System and International Leadership: A ‘Decidedly Inferior’ Form of Government?”, in G. John Ikenberry (ed.,), American Foreign Policy- Theoretical Essays (Longman, 2002), pp.238-255.

Additional Reading Material:
See Hebrew version. All readings are in English

Grading Scheme :

Additional information:
** Final and most accurate information will appear on the course sylabus on moodle at the begining of the school year**
1. active participation (reports on Moodle +class participation).20%
2. Scientific writing assignment 10%
3. Short essay (3 pages)- applying theory and scientific writing skills) 30%
4. Final exam 40%