Overview of Course

This course introduces students to the main principles, concepts and theories of international relations. It combines study of diverse theoretical approaches to understanding international politics with application to historical cases and current issues and events. We will simultaneously engage with abstract analytical ideas and with detailed empirical cases. We will begin with an overview of International Relations (IR) as a field of study, followed by a review of the major theoretical approaches to the subject. Next, we will consider several broad traditional issue areas of IR—war and peace, international political economy and development, and international law and governance. The last section of the class will examine some contemporary issues including human rights, terrorism, technology, environmental issues, and future trends. Throughout, we will be interested in the dynamics of power, conflict and cooperation, not only among states but also international organizations, non-state actors and even individuals. Students will learn how to understand complex affairs from different points of view and wrestle with the dilemmas inherent in foreign affairs. The port regions of our voyage will provide a variety of current issues and we will apply theoretical explanations to our observations on the ground.