Canvas Course Shell for C-ID POLS 140 Introduction to International Relations: an introduction to international relations theory with an examination of national, international, transnational, and sub-national actors and their institutions, interactions and processes as they relate to global issues.

Conversations with History Host Harry Kreisler welcomes Professor Michael Hardt of Duke University.Ę They discuss his joint work with Antonio Negri on Empire. Professor Hardt reflects on his own intellectual odyssey and how his political activism shaped his thinking about radical consciousness in an age of Empire. (57 min)

Foreign policy analyst Sherle Schwenninger of the New America Foundation joins host Harry Kreisler for a conversation on U.S. efforts to formulate a grand strategy in light of the new realities of world politics.(59 min)

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Daniel Benjamin, a former counterterrorism official in the Clinton administration, for a discussion of the forces shaping terrorism in an era when the boundaries between religion and politics are blurred. He articulates a strategy for protecting the homeland while addressing the root causes of terrorism in todayŐs world. (59 min)

UC Berkeley's Harry Kreisler welcomes author and columnist William Pfaff for a discussion of U.S. foreign policy, U.S.- European relations and the end of the Cold War. Pfaff reflects on hisĘ intellectual odyssey and comments on the role of the press in shaping U.S.opinion toward world politics. (60 min)

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Harold P. Smith, Jr, former Pentagon official and Professor of Public Policy at Berkeley, for a discussion of the nuclear terrorism threat in the post 911 world. (58 min)

This course examines cyber dynamics and processes in international relations from different theoretical perspectives. It considers alternative theoretical and empirical frameworks consistent with characteristic features of cyberspace and emergent transformations at all levels of international interaction. Theories examined include realism and neorealism, institutionalism and liberalism, constructivism, and systems theory and lateral pressure. The course also highlights relevant features and proposes customized international relations theory for the cyber age.
Students taking the graduate version are expected to pursue the subject in greater depth through reading and individual research.

The aim of this course is to introduce and analyze the international relations of East Asia. With four great powers, three nuclear weapons states, and two of the world’s largest economies, East Asia is one of the most dynamic and consequential regions in world politics. This course will examine the sources of conflict and cooperation in both periods, assessing competing explanations for key events in East Asia’s international relations. Readings will be drawn from international relations theory, political science and history.

This course provides an introduction to the politics and theories surrounding the proliferation of nuclear weapons. It introduces the basics of nuclear weapons, nuclear strategy, and deterrence theory. It also examines the historical record during the Cold War as well as the proliferation of nuclear weapons to regional powers and the resulting deterrence consequences.

This edited collection brings together cutting edge insights from a range of key thinkers working in the area of popular culture and world politics (PCWP). Offering a holistic approach to this exciting field of research, it contributes to the establishment of PCWP as a sub-discipline of International Relations. Canvassing issues such as geopolitics, political identities, the War on Terror and political communication – and drawing from sources such as film, videogames, art and music – this collection is an invaluable reader for anyone interested in popular culture and world politics.

This is a module framework. It can be viewed online or downloaded as a zip file

As taught in Autumn Semester 2009/10

The War on Iraq and the US and British invasion of the country in 2003 has led to huge tensions in geopolitics. At the same time, the supposed ‘threat’ of international terrorism and continuing financial turmoil in the world economy have both brought to the fore the global politics of co-operation and confrontation. Whilst it might be possible to agree on the significance of these events, the explanation and/or understanding of them is dependent on prior theoretical choices.

The purpose of this module is to make students aware of the diversity of approaches to international theory. Within International Relations (IR) theory there exist highly divergent interpretations and applications of key concepts (e.g. power, the state, agency, structure, and world order) as well as contested views about the practical purpose underpinning theories of world politics. The overall aim of the module is to provide students with a solid theoretical and conceptual grounding of this diversity. As a result, it will be possible to recognise not only how international theory informs policy-making and practice but also, perhaps, how truly contested the underlying assumptions of world politics are.

Suitable for Postgraduate Level

Dr Adam D. Morton, School of Politics and International Relations

Dr. Adam D. Morton is Associate Professor of Political Economy within the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ) in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham. His research specialises in the themes of political economy, state theory, historical sociology and development in relation to the making of modern Mexico. His next book is Revolution and State in Modern Mexico: The Political Economy of Uneven Development (Rowman & Littlefield, 2011) and he has published peer-reviewed journal articles on various dimensions of the political economy of Mexico in Third World Quarterly (2003); Bulletin of Latin American Research (2003); New Political Economy (2005); Journal of Peasant Studies (2007); and Latin American Perspectives (2010). He has also published in many of the major peer-reviewed journals in International Relations and International Political Economy (IPE), including European Journal of International Relations (2001); Review of International Political Economy (2003); Review of International Studies (2005); and International Studies Quarterly (2008). Email: Adam.Morton@nottingham.ac.uk

As taught Spring Semester 2011.

This is an advanced module in the history of international political thought for MA students. It is structured in two parts. The first, comprising sessions 2-7, is concerned with an approach to the history of international theory, influential in the field, which insists on placing theorists in one of three ‘traditions’. We interrogate the integrity of these traditions, in each case, by analysing the work of at least two writers who are said to belong squarely to the tradition, or indeed to have founded it. In the second part of the module, we examine a number of ways in which international relations theorists and political theorists are turning their attention to the history of political theory or international thought in order to illuminate or evaluate some aspect of contemporary global politics. The module therefore complements and reinforces at least two others on the MA programme: it gives some historical grounding to ‘Theories and Concepts in International Relations’; and it introduces methods and perspectives in political theory that supplement those that students of ‘Justice Beyond Borders’ will become practised in.

Module Codes: M14136 (20 credits), M14137 (15 credits)

Suitable for study at: Postgraduate Level

Dr Ben Holland, School of Politics and International Relations

Ben Holland joined the staff of the School of Politics and International Relations in September 2010. He read Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge. After some time working for a human rights organisation in Caracas, Venezuela, he went on to complete a MSc and PhD in International Relations at the LSE. His thesis traced the history of an appellation sometimes applied to the state in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries -- that it is a 'moral person' -- and showed how this played a crucial role in the evolution of the modern international system and of its law. His research interests are in intellectual history, particularly in respect of ideas about inter-state relations, as well as contemporary international relations theory.

A resource list compiled by compiled by David Goldberg for the course World Politics at the College of DuPage, which serves as an introduction to the major issues across international relations. Resources are licensed as indicated in the source material. Some entries may require an institutuional login.