Political Science 130---World Politics

Office hours: Monday 1:30-5 p.m., Tuesday 10:45-12 p.m. and 4:15-5 p.m., Thursday 10:45-12 p.m., and by appointment

World Politics studies not only relations between states or governments, but also the interactions in the international sphere of economic entities, non-governmental organizations and social movements, and international institutions. This course particularly focuses on the theoretical ways of understanding how international relations work, and how we can best explain the interactions that occur in the world arena. We will especially focus on discovering alternative explanations for international phenomena. This includes perspectives focusing on the power of states, domestic political explanations for foreign policy, economically-oriented approaches, and gender and other more recent viewpoints on international relations. The first part of the semester will consist of looking at such theoretical viewpoints and important concepts, and the second part will consist of applying these theories and concepts to concrete aspects of world politics, such as terrorism, violence and war, cultural issues, human rights, the environment, and the international political economy.

In order to promote your understanding of international relations, as well as to apply course discussions to daily world events, I am requiring reading of the daily New York Times. This will help us to assess the relationship between real world events and the more theoretical views we will be discussing in class. This will also be an important part of course discussion and will be used in the course paper assignments.

Goals and objectives:

• Utilizing critical thinking skills in considering important issues in world politics.
  
• Considering alternative explanations for international political events and issues.
  
• Examining how individuals are affected by world politics through reading journalists' accounts of the war in Iraq and globalization in South Asia.
  
• Developing an active interest in world politics and current events.
  

Books (available for purchase at the campus bookstore)
Karen Mingst, Essentials of International Relations (4th edition)
Among Nations: Readings in International Relations (custom textbook)
Anne Garrels, Naked in Baghdad: The Iraq War and the Aftermath as Seen by NPR's Correspondent
Pankaj Mishra, Temptations of the West: How to be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond
The New York Times

• the Mingst text features an interactive website which can be found at
  http://www.wwnorton.com/college/polisci/irmingst4/

Requirements

Midterm exam: 20%
Class participation/notecards: 20%
In-class group presentation: 10%
Short papers (two): 20%
Final exam (comprehensive): 30%

While this is a fairly large class, I encourage your class participation. In part, this will be measured through your active joining into class discussions. It will also be measured through notecard responses.

• For each class, bring 3x5" notecards to class. They will be used to respond to a question that I ask at some point during class. These questions will not be a test, but an opportunity to reflect on course readings (both in the books and in the New York Times) and on class discussion. I will collect notecards at the end of each class. You are permitted to skip three notecard responses through the semester. Each additional missed card will result in a 1/3rd of a grade reduction in your class participation grade.

Additionally, there will be an in-class group presentation which will tie together current issues found in the New York Times with class readings. I will provide more information on these presentations shortly.

You should do required readings prior to the class for which they are assigned.

Any late assignments--papers or exams--will have three points deducted from their grade for each day they are late. Unless there are extenuating circumstances, I will not give make-up exams.

Also, please be sure to turn your cell phones off and put them away during class.

SCHEDULE AND ASSIGNMENTS (subject to change!)

Thursday, August 28th--- introductory class

Week 1-September 2 and 4
Tuesday: Introducing International Relations
read Mingst, Chapter 1
Thursday: More on the International System
read Mingst, Chapter 2

Part I---Theoretical Approaches to World Politics

Week 2---September 9 and 11
Tuesday: Introduction to Theoretical Perspectives; Realism 1
read Mingst, Chapter 3
Thursday: Realism 2
read Mingst, Chapter 4

Week 3---September 16 and 18
Tuesday: Liberalism 1
read Mingst, Chapter 5
Thursday: Liberalism 2
read Mingst, Chapter 6

Week 4---September 23
Tuesday: Marxism and other Alternative Theoretical Approaches
review Mingst, pp. 68-78

Part II---Issues in World Politics

Week 4 (continued)---September 25
Thursday: One approach to the "New World Order"
read Huntington "The Clash of Civilizations" and Ajami, "The Summoning" (in Among Nations)

Week 5---September 30 and October 2
Tuesday: The role of non-state actors
read Mingst, Chapter 7
Thursday: Human rights (Part 1)
read Zakaria, "Culture is Destiny" (in Among Nations)
Kim, "Is Culture Destiny?" (in Among Nations)

Week 6---October 7 and 9
Tuesday: Human rights (Part 2)
read Power, "Bystanders to Genocide" (in Among Nations)
Thursday: midterm exam

Week 7---October 16
Tuesday: fall break
Thursday: Globalization (Part 1)-----paper #1 due today
read Mishra, "Prologue", "Benares", and "Allahabad" (pp. 3-79)

Week 8---October 21 and 23
Tuesday: Globalization (Part 2)
read Mishra, "Ayodhya" and "Bollywood" (pp. 80-143)
Thursday: War and peace issues
read Mingst, Chapter 8

Week 9---October 28 and 30
Tuesday: American post 9/11 foreign policy and the "war on terrorism"
read Ikenberry, "America's Imperial Ambition" (in Among Nations)
Gause, "Can Democracy Stop Terrorism?"
Thursday: The War in Iraq 1
read Garrels, Naked in Baghdad
(finish entire by today…)

Week 10---November 4 and 6
Tuesday: The War in Iraq 2
no reading-watch "The War Behind Closed Doors" today
Thursday: no class-professor at conference

Week 11---November 11 and 13
Tuesday: Nuclear proliferation
read Pollack and Takeyh, "Taking on Tehran" (in Among Nations)
Thursday: Globalization and nationalism
read Mishra, "Kashmir" (pp. 147-211)

Week 12---November 18 and 20
Tuesday: Islam and world politics
read Mishra, "Pakistan" and "Afghanistan" (pp. 212-282)
Thursday: Assessing foreign policy, post 9/11
read "What to Do in Iraq: A Roundtable" and Gordon, "The End of the Bush Revolution" (in Among Nations)

Week 13---November 25
Tuesday: International political economy (Part 1)
read Mingst, Chapter 9
Thursday: Thanksgiving!

Week 14---December 2 and 4
Tuesday: International political economy (Part 2)
read Sachs, "The Development Challenge" (in Among Nations)
Thursday: Thinking about development----paper #2 due today
read Mishra, "Nepal" and "Tibet"(pp. 285-323)

Week 15---December 9
Tuesday: Environmental issues and concluding thoughts
read Mingst, Chapter 10
Bell, "What to Do About Climate Change" (in Among Nations)

Saturday, December 13th final exam at 7 p.m.

Newspaper reading

You are required to read the daily version (Monday-Friday) of the New York Times. Papers are available for pick-up in the post office and around campus. Required reading is the International Pages in the paper's front section (Section A)--these are usually the first 6-12 pages or so of that section. At least skim the National News and editorials as well (reading the first couple paragraphs of each article is a good technique). Also, please carefully read any articles on the Op-Ed page (next-to-last page of Section A) that pertain to world politics.

There are a number of ways we will be employing this reading in class. First, we will frequently refer to recent events in the news in class lectures and discussions, as well as sometimes in the notecard responses. Second, brief questions pertaining to news events will be found on the midterm and final exams.

Third, twice during the semester, I will assign questions for a short paper to be written on issues occurring in the international system today. In order to be prepared for this, I would advise reading the paper on a daily basis, and keeping some clippings and notes on important events that are occurring. You may want to choose to focus on 3 or 4 of the issues listed below, or other important events/issues that are of interest to you. Later, you can refer back to these clippings and notes to write your paper, as well as use them to find back articles you may need on the website of the New York Times (www.nytimes.com) or on Lexis-Nexis (found under "Databases and Indexes" on Allegheny's Pelletier Library website). In other words, I don't expect you to keep a whole semester's worth of newspapers at home!

Finally, this reading will be utilized in the in-class group presentations.

Some issues to focus upon in reading the newspaper:

American actions in the "war against terrorism"
reconstruction in Iraq
Iran's nuclear program
the Russian-Georgian conflict
other countries' views of the United States
the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
relations between India and Pakistan
the new regime and continued resistance in Afghanistan
genocide in Darfur
American relations with Russia and China
trade issues and conflicts
environmental issues
issues relating to development and economic growth

Guidelines for class participation

A An A grade for class participation is awarded when students regularly initiate discussion. This means coming to class thoroughly familiar with the assigned reading and, therefore, prepared to raise questions, to open discussion, to identify topics of interest in the reading, and to actively engage other students in the discussion. (Obviously, this does not mean monopolizing a discussion, or shutting others out, or talking for its own sake rather than to make a point about the topic under discussion.)

B A B grade for class participation is awarded to students who participate regularly and productively in class discussion, who are prepared, and who are willing to engage. B discussants differ from A students in that the latter are self-starters who do not rely on the instructor's questions to set the agenda for discussion.

C A C grade for class participation is awarded to those who participate on a regular basis, though less frequently than the B student. C discussants' participation may be indicative that they are not well-prepared for class, or have not given thought to assigned materials.

D A D grade for class participation is given to those who contribute only infrequently to the discussion.

F An F grade results from non-participation in class discussion. Of course, participation is impossible if the putative participant is not in class. Frequent absences mandate F grades.

Guidelines for Essay-Grading
(Written by Ben Slote and modified slightly by Ann Bomberger)

A An essay in the A range is based on an original, logical and coherently organized set of ideas; it makes a clear and persuasive argument (even if the reader disagrees with its argument); it brings in specific, relevant examples to back up its assertions; its points, at each turn, are clearly articulated: the words carry precise meaning, they don't obscure it; its sentences use only the words their ideas require, not any more; its paragraphs have distinct though related roles in the essay's cohesion as a whole, each holding one thoroughly asserted idea (not two competing ideas, not one idea half-asserted); if appropriate it accurately and thoughtfully uses other sources; and its sentences are without the grammatical, spelling, or typographical mistakes that exacting proof-reading would catch. (All of this takes a lot of work. If it is all very nearly accomplished, the essay usually earns an A-.)

B An essay in the B range: a very good paper, the writing of which is clearly, thoughtfully, and effectively executed. What sometimes prevents an "A" is a lack of originality, thorough thinking or careful proofreading. If two of these virtues are absent and the other areas of the paper are strong, the essay will usually earn a B-.

C An essay in the C range: some conspicuous flaw usually earns an essay a C; its argument is really underdeveloped, it contains only minimal textual support, it has problems with organization and/or sentence clarity, it is in dire need of proofreading.

D A D essay either contains more than one of the large problems cited in the "C" description or finds another way to convince its reader that the author has not spent nearly enough time on the thinking or writing in the essay.

F An F essay misses on all criteria (originality, articulateness, persuasiveness, organization, the absence of mechanical mistakes).