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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.
Material Type:
Student Guide
Author:
Dr Ben Holland