Theories of International Relations



Theories of International Relations

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)

Johns Hopkins University

Fall 2008

Wednesday, 2:15pm, N517

Jakub Grygiel

Nitze 506

Office Hours: by appointment

jgrygiel@jhu.edu

TA: Brian Norris

brian.norris@jhu.edu

Description:

This course is an introduction to IR theories, and is intended to prepare students to pass the IR core examination. The fundamental assumption behind the course is that a broad knowledge of IR theories will enhance your understanding of international politics, and above all, will help you in your policymaking career.

The course has two parts. First, we will examine several schools of IR theory, from Realism to Liberalism. In particular, we will look at the assumptions underpinning these theories, their hypotheses concerning state behavior and the international system, and their predictive claims.

Second, we will look at a select number of historical cases and apply the tools of IR theory to understand why states acted the way they did, how these actions impacted the balance of power and the international system, and what we can learn from them. We will also “test” the theories, that is, analyze how each theoretical school would have predicted the historical cases. In other words, we will examine the explanatory and predictive power of the theories using historical cases.

Note:  This course fulfills only the Core Examination requirement; it will not count as an IR class credit.  Students must select a regular course from the IR program to fulfill that requirement.

Requirements

The course demands intensive reading of theoretical, and in the second part, historical material. There is no substitute for doing the readings! Come to class prepared to answer questions and discuss the assigned readings.

Grading:

Class participation: 10%

Midterm: 40%

Final Exam: 50% (December 18, 1:30pm, R203)

COURSE OUTLINE

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1) Theory: Importance and Limitations

2) Classical Realism and the Balance of Power

PART II: SYSTEMIC THEORIES OF WORLD POLITICS

3) Neo-realism: Anarchy, Polarity, and Structure

4) Liberalism Institutionalism: Regimes and Interdependence

5) Hegemonic Stability Theory/ Power Cycle Theory and Technology and Use of Force

6) The Constructivist Response to Anarchy, Power and Ideology

PART III: INTERNATIONAL POLITICS AND DOMESTIC POLITICS

7) Liberalism: Domestic Institutions and Foreign Policy

8) MIDTERM EXAM

9) Organizational Procedures and Bureaucratic Politics

(10) Psychology of IR: Rationality, Misperception, & Deterrence

PART IV: INTERNATIONAL ORDER, OLD AND NEW

(11) Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna

(12) Origins and Consequences of World Wars I and II

(13)The Post-Cold War System: Continuities and Discontinuities

PART I. INTRODUCTION TO THE FIELD

(1)Theory: Importance and Limitations September 3rd

Stephen M. Walt, “International Relations: One World, Many Theories,” Foreign Policy (Spring 1998), pp. 29-47. (19 pages)

Raymond Aron, "What is a Theory of International Relations?" Journal of International Affairs, XXI, 1967, pp. 185-206. (22 pages)

Stanley Hoffmann, "An American Social Science: International Relations," Daedalus 106/3 (1977): 41-60. (20 pages)

Martin. Wight, ‘Why is There No International Theory?” in Diplomatic Investigations, ed. M. Wight and H. Butterfield, (London: G. Allen and Unwin, 1966).

Kenneth Waltz, Theory of International Politics, (New York: Random House, 1979), pp. 1-17. (17 pages)

J. David Singer, "The Levels of Analysis Problem in International Relations," World Politics 14 (October 1961): 77-92.

(2) Classical Realism and Balance of Power September 10th

Thucydides, “The Melian Dialogue,” in Richard K. Betts, Conflict After the Cold War: Arguments on Causes of War and Peace (New York: Longman, 2002), pp. 37-41. (5 pages)

Or

Robert B. Strassler, ed. The Landmark Thucydides (New York: Free Press, 1996), pp. 350-57. (N.B. this is the Melian Dialogue, from Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War, 5.83-5.116)

Niccolo Machiavelli, “Doing Evil in Order to Do Good,” in Betts, Conflict After the Cold War, pp. 42-46. (5 pages)

Thomas Hobbes, “The State of Nature and the State of War,” in Betts, Conflict After the Cold War, pp. 47-50. (4 pages)

Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace (New York: Knopf, 1954), pp. 3-13, 35-40. (17 pages)

Edward Hallett Carr, The Twenty Years’ Crisis, 1919-1939 (any edition), chapters 3-6.

Edward Vose Gulick, Europe’s Classical Balance of Power (New York: W.W. Norton, 1955). (chapter on balance of power)

Suggested readings:

Michael Doyle, Ways of War and Peace (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1997), Part One, chapters 1 & 2 (Thucydides and Machiavelli) and Conclusion (Realists: Explaining Differences), 41-110, and 195-204.

John Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (New York: W.W. Norton, 2001).

Martin Wight, Power Politics, edited by Hedley Bull and Carsten Holbrand (London: Holmes & Meier, 1978.

Jonathan Haslam, No Virtue Like Necessity: Realist Thought in International Relations Since Machiavelli (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002).

Ernst B. Haas, "The Balance of Power: Prescription, Concept or Propaganda?" World Politics 5 (July 1953), 442-77.

Stephen Walt, "Alliance Formation and the Balance of World Power," International Security, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Spring 1985).

PART II. SYSTEMIC THEORIES AND ALTERNATIVE RESPONSES TO WORLD POLITICS

(3) Neorealism: Anarchy, Polarity and Structure September 17th

Kenneth Waltz, Theory of International Politics, pp. 79-128; 161-193.

Karl Deutsch and J. David Singer, "Multipolar Power Systems and International Stability," World Politics 16 (April 1964).

Richard Rosecrance, "Bipolarity, Multipolarity, and the Future," Journal of Conflict Resolution 10 (September 1966).

Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1977) Chaps. 2-3.

Randall Schweller, “Bandwagoning for Profit: Bringing the Revisionist State Back In,” International Security, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Summer 1994).

Suggested Readings:

Kenneth Waltz, "The Stability of a Bipolar World," Daedalus 93 (Summer 1964), 881-909.

Joseph Nye, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: Perseus, 2005).

Robert Powell, “Absolute and Relative Gains in IR Theory,” American Political Science Review 85 4:1303-20 (Dec. 91).

(4) Liberalism Institutionalism: Regimes and Interdependence September 24th

Joseph Nye & Robert Keohane, Power and Interdependence (Little Brown, 2nd ed, 1989), Chaps 1, 2, afterword, pp. 1-38, 245-69.

Stephen Krasner. “Structural Causes and Regime Consequences: Regimes as Intervening Variables,” International Organization, Vol. 36, No. 2 (1982), pp. 1-21.

G. J. Ikenberry, After Victory (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001), 50-79, 257-73.

A. Hasenclever, P. Mayer and V. Rittberger, «Interests, Power, Knowledge: The Study of International Regimes», Mershon International Studies Review, vol. 40, suppl. 2, 1996, pp. 177-228.

Robert Keohane, After Hegemony, Princeton, 1984, pp. 49-109.

John J. Mearsheimer, "The False Promise of International Institutions," International Security, 19:3 (Winter 1994/95), 5-49.

Suggested Readings:

Donald Puchala & Raymond Hopkins, “International Regimes: Lessons from Inductive Analysis,” International Organization Vol. 36, No. 2 (Spring 1982).

(5) Hegemonic Stability Theory/Power Cycle Theory & Technology and Use of Force October 1st

Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), Chs. 1-5.

Charles Doran, Systems in Crisis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 44-90, 104-107, 125-132, 166-190.

William Wohlforth, “Stability in a Unipolar World,” International Security, Summer, 1999.

Christopher Layne, “The Unipolar Illusion: Why New Great Powers Will Rise,” International Security, 1993, pp. 5-51.

Audrey Kurth Cronin, “Behind the Curve: Globalization and International Terrorism,” International Security - Volume 27, Number 3, Winter 2002/03, pp. 30-58

Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), Chapter 1, pp. 1-42

Stephen Van Evera, “Offense, Defense, and the Causes of War,” International Security 22 (Spring 1998): 5-43.

Suggested Readings:

Franz Kohout, “Cyclical, Hegemonic, and Pluralistic Theories of International Relations: Some Comparative Reflections on War Causation,” International Political Science Review, January, 2003.

Greg Cashman, What Causes War? Lexington, 2000, pp. 269-278.

Charles Doran, "Economics, Philosophy of History and the "Single Dynamic" of Power Cycle Theory: Expectations, Competition, and Statecraft," International Political Science Review, Vol. 24, No. 1, January, 2003, pp. 13-50.

Robert Gilpin, “The Theory of Hegemonic Wars,” in R.I. Rotberg and T.K. Rabb (eds.), The Origin and Prevention of Major Wars (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 1989, 15-38.

Bernard and Fawn M. Brody, From Crossbow to the H-Bomb: The Evolution of the Weapons and Tactics of Warfare (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973), pp. 233-267.

Robert Pape, “The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism,” APSR, Vol. 97, No.  3 (August 2003). 

Fred Ikle, Annihilation from Within, New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.

(6) The Constructivist Response to Anarchy, Power and Ideology October 8th

John Ruggie. 1998. "What makes the world hang together? Neo-utilitarianism and the social constructivist challenge." International Organization 52(4): 855-885.

Alexander Wendt. "Anarchy is what states make of it," International Organization 46(2), 1992: 391-425.

Alexander Wendt, “Constructing International Politics,” International Security, 20 (1), 1995: 71-81.

David Dessler, “What’s at Stake in the Agent-Structure Debate?” International Organization 43, 1989, pp. 441-474.

Goldstein, Judith and Robert O. Keohane, “Ideas and Foreign Policy: An Analytical Framework,” in Judith Goldstein and Robert O. Keohane, eds., Ideas and Foreign Policy: Beliefs, Institutions, and Political Change (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993), pp. 3-30. (28 pages)

Thomas U. Berger, “Norms, Identity, and National Security in Germany and Japan," in Peter J. Katzenstein, ed., The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), pp. 317-56. (40 pages)

Suggested Readings:

Ted Hopf, "The Promise of Constructivism in International Relations Theory," International Security 23 (Summer 1998): 171-200.

Jeremy Bentham, excerpts in A. Wolfers and L. Martin (eds.), The Anglo-American Tradition in Foreign Affairs (Yale University Press, 1956), pp. 180-191.

Nicholas Greenwood Onuf, World of Our Making: Rules and Rule in Social Theory and International Relations (Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1989), pp. 35-65.

Jutta Weldes, "Constructing National Interests," European Journal of International Relations, vol. 2, no. 3 (1996), pp. 275-318.

Martha Finnemore, National Interests in International Society (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996), chapters 1 and either 3 or 4.

Risse, Thomas, ""Let's Argue!": Communicative Action in World Politics." International Organization 54, no. 1 (2000), pp. 1-39.

PART III. INTERNATIONAL POLITICS AND DOMESTIC POLITICS

(7) Liberalism: Domestic Institutions and Foreign Policy October 15th

Immanuel Kant, Perpetual Peace [found in an Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West, (Columbia University Press, 1946), pp. 878-90]. Any edition is fine.

Michael Doyle, “Liberalism and world-politics.” American Political Science Review 80, no. 4: 1151-1169.

J. Owen, “How Liberalism Produces Democratic Peace,” International Security, XIX, 2, 1994, pp. 87-125.

Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder, “Prone to Violence,” The National Interest, Winter 2005/06.

Jack Snyder, Myths of Empire, Cornell University Press, 1991, pp. 1-65; 305-322.

Suggested Readings:

Andrew Moravcsik, “Taking Preferences Seriously: A Liberal Theory of International Politics,” International Organization, Vol. 51, No. 4 (Autumn 1997), 513-553.

Michael Doyle, Ways of War and Peace, Part Two, chapters 6 & 8. (“Rights and Interests” and “Internationalism”), New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 1997, 213-250.

Bruce Russett, Grasping the Democratic Peace: Principles for a Post-Cold War World, Princeton, 1994

Arnold Wolfers, “Statesmanship and Moral Choice,” World Politics I 2:175-95 (Jan. 1949).

Peter Gourevitch, "The Second Image Reversed: The International Sources of Domestic Politics," International Organization, vol. 32, no. 4 (Autumn 1978), pp. 881-912.

J.A. Frieden and R. Rogowski, "The Impact of the International Economy on National Policies: An Analytical Overview," in R.O. Keohane and H.V. Milner, eds., Internationalization and Domestic Politics, Chapter 2.

Robert Putnam, "Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two-Level Games," International Organization, vol. 42, no. 3 (Summer 1988): 427-60.

(8) MIDTERM October 22th

There will be a review before the midterm. Time and place TBA.

(9) Organizational Procedures and Bureaucratic Politics October 29th

Graham Allison, “Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” American Political Science Association, LXIII, 3, pp. 689-718.

B. Bernstein, “Understanding Decision-making, U.S. Foreign Policy and Cuban Missile Crisis: A Review Essay,” International Security, XXV, 1, 2000, pp. 134-164.

Barry Posen, The Sources of Military Doctrine (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984), pp. 34-80; 220-244.

(10) Psychology of IR: Rationality, Misperception, & Deterrence November 5th

Robert Jervis, "Hypotheses on Misperception," World Politics, Vol. 20, No. 3 (April, 1968), pp. 454-79. (26 pages)

Thomas Schelling, Arms and Influence (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966), Chapter 1, “The Diplomacy of Violence,” pp. 1-34. (34 pages)

Kenneth N. Waltz, “The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: More May Be Better,” in Betts, Conflict After the Cold War, pp. 451-61. (11 pages)

I. Janis, Groupthink (Houghton Mifflin, 1982, 2nd ed.), pp. 2-13; 174-197.

Suggested Readings:

Daniel Byman and Kenneth Pollack, “Let Us Now Praise Great Men: Bringing the Statesman Back In,” International Security, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Spring 2001).

Y. Khong, “Vietnam, the Gulf, and US Choices: A Comparison,” Security Studies, II, 1, 1992, pp. 74-95.

Richard Ned Lebow, “Thucydides and Deterrence,” Security Studies, Vol. 16, Issue 2, 163-188.

IV. INTERNATIONAL ORDER, OLD AND NEW

(11) Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna November 12th

Kissinger, Diplomacy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), chapter 4, 78-102.

Edward Vose Gulick, Europe’s Classical Balance of Power (New York: W.W. Norton, 1955), chapters 7-12, pp. 184-296.

Paul W. Schroeder, “The 19th-Century International System: Changes in the Structure,” World Politics, Vol. 39, No. 1. (Oct., 1986), pp. 1-26.

Robert Jervis, “From Balance to Concert: A Study of International Security Cooperation,” World Politics, Vol. 38, No. 1 (October 1985), 58-79.

Suggested Reading:

Harold Nicolson, The Congress of Vienna (New York: Grove Press, 2001)

Henry Kissinger, A World Restored (New York: Houghton Mifflin Co, September 1973)

(12)The Origins and Aftermath of World Wars I & II November 19th

Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy, Chapter 7 & 8, pp. 168-217), Chapter 12, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994, pp. 288-318.

Donald Kagan, On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace (New York: Doubleday, 1995), chapter 2, pp. 81-231, chapter 4, pp. 281-436.

A. J. P. Taylor, “War by Time-Table.” In From the Boer War to the Cold War (New York: Penguin Books, 1996), 116-181.

Robert J. Beck, “Munich's Lessons Reconsidered,” International Security, Vol. 14, No. 2. (Autumn, 1989), pp. 161-191.

Jeffrey W. Legro, “Accidents Waiting to Happen - Military Culture and Inadvertent Escalation in World War II,” International Security, Vol. 18, No. 4. (Spring, 1994), pp. 108-142.

Suggested Reading:

Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, August 23, 2004.



Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August (New York: Dell, 1962).

Marc Trachtenberg, "The Meaning of Mobilization in 1914," International Security, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Winter 1990/91), pp. 120-150.

Scott Sagan, "1914 Revisited: Allies, Offense, and Instability," International Security, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Fall 1986), pp. 151-176.

THANKSGIVING BREAK

(13)The Post Cold-War System: Continuities and Discontinuities December 3rd

Samuel Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations," Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993, pp. 22-49.

Francis Fukuyama, «The End of History?», The National Interest, 16, Summer 1989, pp. 3-16.

Aaron Friedberg, “The Future of U.S.-China Relations: Is Conflict Inevitable?” International Security, Vol. 30, No 2 (Fall 2005), 7-45.

Robert Kaplan, February 1994, “The Coming Anarchy,” Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 273, No. 2, pp. 44-76.

Robert Kagan, "Power and Weakness," Policy Review, June-July 2002

Francis Fukuyama, "The Neoconservative Moment,” National Interest, 76, Summer, 2004.

Suggested Reading:

Albert Hirschman, “The Search for Paradigms as a Hindrance to Understanding,” World Politics, Vol. 22, No. (April 1970), 329-343 (required in DC).

John Lewis Gaddis, We Now Know (New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 281-295.

K. Waltz, “Globalization and American Power”, The National Interest, n. 59, Spring 2000, pp. 46-56.

S. Sagan and K. Waltz, The Spread of Nuclear Weapons, Norton, 2003, pp. 3-87.

Robert Pape, “Soft Balancing against the United States”, International Security, XXX, 1, 2005, pp. 7-45.

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