SUBJECTS, READING ASSIGNMENTS
AND EXAMINATION SCHEDULE
Wednesday, August 27 -Friday, September 26
"Why the world wags and what wags it"
Understanding "...why the world wags and what wags it."
A realistic picture of the players and forces in 2020 international relations
How COVID has revealed the weaknesses of this era.
A paradigm shift?
The end of the Great War, the Peace of Versailles
The Post-Cold War World: From bipolarism to unipolarism, and now nonpolarity?
Realities of the New World Order
September 11, 2001 in Perspective
War in Afghanistan and the Gulf Wars
The Fall of the Great Powers, The End of History or a Clash of Civilizations?
Preventive War
Globalism, National Localism, and Monoculture
Still a Hostile World Arena…It’s a jungle out there (Thomas Hobbes).
The Imperatives of National Interest, National Security, and Sovereignty
Putin's War in Ukraine/Netanyahu and the Gaza Crisis
Grim realities of the cyber-age
The end of World War II and the failures of 1944: Bretton Woods and Dumbarton Oaks
Readings
Kissinger, World Order, Introduction.
Hass, The World, Preface, and pay attention to his endnotes.
Stoessinger, Why Nations Go to War, Preface and Introduction.
The International Territorial, Nation-State System
The End of the Cold War and Bipolarity
The Persistence of the Territorial State
The Birth of the State and the Modern State System
The Thirty Years War, from a medieval war of religion to a modern one of national interests
The vital role Cardinal Richelieu of France and his notion of raison d'état or reasons of state
National Interest, National Security, and National Sovereignty
Failed States: Afghanistan and Somalia, and Nation Building
Stanley Hoffmann's Ideologies of Violent Conflict, Nationalism, and Religious Fundamentalism
An Orderly System or an Anarchical Society?
Stanley Hoffmann's First and Second Tiers, and the Domain of Chaos
The end of American leadership and successful diplomacy-or multilateralism
The failure of cooperation and the renewal of nationalism
International Law and Organization
International Economic Institutions and Potential Economic Crisis
The Politics of Poverty or Development
Third World, Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs), or Developing Countries
The price of desperation
Readings
Kissinger, World Order, Chapter 2.
Haass, The World, Part I. and Part IV.
Friday, September 26-Exam 1
Monday, September 29-Friday, November 14
The Nature of Power in the Post-Cold War World
International Relations as a Struggle for Power
Limiting National Power
The Elements of National Power
The Future of the Superpower/The paradigm of imperial decline
Readings
Huntington, "The U.S.-Decline or Renewal?"
Stathis, Quo Vadis Pace Americana?
Kissinger, World Order, Chapter 3.
Basic Theories of International Relations
Realpolitik, Realism, Idealism, and Neorealism
Readings
Kissinger, World Order, Chapter 4.
Stoessinger, Why Nations Go to War, Chapters 1, 4, 7 and 8.
Haass, The World, Part II
Statecraft or Statesmanship
The Dilemma of Statecraft: diplomacy or force, soft power or hard power?
Great Statesmen
Crisis Management and Crisis Resolution
Preventing the escalation of a crisis geographically and in levels of violence
Causes of the Great War: World War I
The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Second Gulf War
Readings
Stoessinger, Why Nations Go to War, Chapters 1, 4, 7 and 8.
Kissinger, World Order, Chapter 5.
Haass, The World, Part III.
Friday, November 14-Exam #2
Monday, November 17-Friday, December 6
War
War: Policy by Other Means (Clausewitz)…Good God y’all, what is it good for? (Edwin Starr)
Conventional and Unconventional Warfare
The Era of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)
Nuclear War/The New Nuclear Threat: Nuclear Proliferation
Chemical and Biological Weapons
The realities of cyber-warfare
Thomas L. Friedman's Golden Arches Theory of International Conflict.
The demise of international order
Readings
Stoessinger, Why Nations Go to War, Chaps. 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10.
Kissinger, World Order, Chapter 6.
Regional, Traditional Conflicts
The Arab-Israeli Conflict
India and Pakistan
The Persian Gulf: The Gulf Wars and the rise of ISIS/Da'ish
Terrorism
The Arab Spring and after: ISIS/Da'ish and the issue of nuclear weapons and Iran
Ukraine and the Russian Federation
Readings
Kissinger, World Order, Chapter 7.
Human Rights and International Relations
The Issue of Human Rights
The Use of Rape and Sexual Degradation as State Policy
Sovereign Rights vs. Human Rights
Peoples Without States: Nations and Refugees
The Problem of International Peace
Peace Through Limitation (International Law, Arms Control, Treaties, etc.)
Peace Through Transformation (A world state by conquest or federation/a world community by cultural and economic globalization)
Peace Through Accommodation (Through diplomacy until change happens)
Diplomacy and Compromise
Moderation and Fanaticism-The Legacy of Raymond Aron
Morgenthau’s Ultimate Admonishment:
The first lesson the student of international politics must learn and never
forget is that the complexities of international affairs make simple
solutions and trustworthy prophesies impossible.
Alexander and Cosmopolis (oikoumene), a well-ordered universal community
Dickens' A Christmas Carol: Ignorance, Want, and Doom.
Henry Kissinger and world order.
Readings
Kissinger, World Order, Chapters 8 and 9, and Conclusion.
Haass, The World," Where to Go for More."
Conclusions
Friday, December 5-Exam #3