Course Manual

International Relations: Theory and Praxis

2020

Course Instructor: Dr. Sriparna Pathak

Office Hours: Wednesdays, 1.30-2.30/By Appointment

E-mail: spathak@jgu.edu.in

Part-I

Course Title: International Relations: Theory and Praxis

Course Duration: One Semester

Level: M.A.

Medium of Instruction: English

Pre-requisites: None

Pre-cursors: None

Equivalent Courses: None

Part-II

Course Description: This course is designed to equip students with conceptual tools

necessary to efficiently comprehend the fundamental forces, processes and actors, operating

within the international system. The course will endeavour to introduce students to principal

theoretical debates and analytical tools, imperative to an effusive study of International

Relations. Both, mainstream theoretical traditions and pertinent critical perspectives are

intended to be examined. An abiding goal of this course is to equip students with prevailing

Western as well as non-Western theories of international relations along with an

understanding on application to understand prevailing international politics. The course will

subject the foundational assumptions of the classical realism and neorealism to critical

scrutiny. Lastly, the course seeks to demonstrate, using case studies and examples, the

applications of international relations theory in real life.

Course Aims:

● Introduce the fundamental ideas of international relations—actors, levels, system,

structure, core, periphery, realism, neorealism, liberalism, Marxism, feminism,

constructivism and globalisation etc.

● Articulate as clearly as possible the assumptions and presuppositions behind every

theoretical claim made.

● Demonstrate the usage of international relations theory learned in real life

applications, say in standard government negotiations with other state and non-state

actors.

Course Requirements:

This is primarily a reading and discussion course. Students are expected to come to class fully

prepared and to have thoroughly completed the assigned readings and to actively participate

in class discussions. Regular attendance goes without saying. Required readings will be

discussed in class. Mugging up is not encouraged, instead understanding and application as

per one’s own comprehension would be laudable. Students are also expected to be abreast of

important international developments.

Please get well-acquainted with the library resources at JGU.

It is also advisable to get used to following debates in major academic journals and

newspapers. Academic journals with a particular interest for the theory of IR are Alternatives,

European Journal of International Relations, International Organization, International Studies

Quarterly, Millennium, Review of International Studies, World Politics, and International

Security. Major newspapers and magazines include The New York Times, The Washington

Post, The Economist, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, al Jazeera, Project Syndicate, among

others; this list does not include Indian newspapers, as students are expected to already be

following these on a regular basis.

Student Responsibilities:

1. Check JGU email daily.

2. Complete assigned readings and read beyond them, i.e., newspapers etc., prior to

class.

3. Attend class on time. There is a 15-minute grace period after which you will be

allowed to enter but be marked absent.

4. Make notes during lectures and presentations; ask questions to resolve them; mobile

phones are not to be used in class; computers for only note taking, only after taking

prior permission.

5. Complete all assignments on time. Late submissions will not be accepted.

6. Be an active member of the class, while being respectful of others.

Course Intended Learning Outcomes:

Course Intending Learning

Outcomes

Teaching and Learning

Activities

Assessment

Tasks/Activities

By the end of the course

students should be able to:

➢ Express the

basic principles

of international

relations.

40%

Lecture, class participation,

class presentations and

involvement.

● Students will get

introduced to the

basic principles of

international

relations. Through

class participation,

students will get

familiar to and

understand the subject

matter. Solving

problem sets,

discussions and

presentations at

tutorials will bring in

thorough grounding

of the subject matter.

Midterm exam

One time end semester

written exam

Discussion in class.

➢ Understand the

principles

behind foreign

policy making

and their

application to

the real world.

40%

Lecture, class participation

and involvement, distribution

of topic wise problem sets,

tutorials

Students will get introduced

to the concept of market

imperfections. Through class

participation, students will

get familiar to and

understand the subject

matter. Solving problem sets,

discussions and presentations

during tutorials will bring in

thorough grounding of the

subject matter.

End Semester Written Exam

Short assignment and/or

presentation in class.

➢ Analytically

understand the

contemporary

critical

international

political issues

and employ

political tools

learnt in this

course.

20% Lecture, class participation

and involvement, tutorials

● Students in group will

give presentation on

selected topic

● Students appear for

viva-voce

Short assignment

submission.

Grading of Students’ Achievement

● 50 marks: 3 hours closed book end term exam

● 20 marks: Class Test in the end of seventh week

● 10 marks: Short assignment submission, tentatively at the end of the ninth week

● 10 marks: Book review, tentatively at the end of the eleventh week

● 5 marks: Class Participation

Please note the grades and their values below

COURSE LETTER GRADES AND THEIR INTERPRETATION

Letter

Grade

Percentage of

Marks

Grade

Points

O 80 and above 8

Outstanding: Exceptional knowledge of the subject matter,

thorough understanding of issues; ability to synthesize ideas,

rules and principles and extraordinary critical and analytical

ability.

A+ 75 - 79 7.5

Excellent: Sound knowledge of the subject matter, thorough

understanding of issues; ability to synthesize ideas,

rules and principles and critical and analytical ability.

A 70 - 74 7

Very Good: Sound knowledge of the subject matter,

excellent organizational capacity, ability to synthesize ideas,

rules and principles, critically analyse existing material and

originality in thinking and presentation.

A- 65 -69 6

Good: Good understanding of the subject matter, ability to

identify issues and provide balanced solutions to

problems and good critical and analytical skills.

B+ 60 - 64 5

Fair: Average understanding of the subject matter, limited

ability to identify issues and provide solutions to

problems and reasonable critical and analytical skills.

B 55 - 59 4

Acceptable: Adequate knowledge of the subject matter to go

to the next level of the study and reasonable

critical and analytical skills.

B- 50 - 54 3

Marginal: Limited knowledge of the subject

matter and irrelevant use of materials, and

poor critical and analytical skills.

P1 45 - 49 2 Pass 1: Pass with Basic understanding of the subject matter .

P2 40 - 44 1 Pass 2: Pass with Rudimentary understanding of the subject

matter.

F Below 40 0

Fail: Poor comprehension of the subject matter; poor

critical and analytical skills and marginal use of the relevant

materials. Will require repeating the course.

Plagiarism

Any idea, sentence or paragraph you cull from a web source must be credited with the

original source. If you paraphrase or directly quote from a web source in the exam,

presentation or essays, the source must be explicitly mentioned. You SHOULD NOT

plagiarise content, be it from scholarly sources (i.e. books and journal articles) or from the

Internet. The university has strict rules with consequences for students involved in

plagiarism. This is an issue of academic integrity on which no compromise will be made,

especially as students have already been trained in the perils of lifting sentences or

paragraphs from others and claiming authorship of them.

Part-III

Key words: state, actor, structure, system, interests, rational, anarchy, self-interests, core,

periphery, dependency, Marxism, contradiction, feminism, liberalism, rights, constructivism,

ideas, globalisation, clash of civilisations, liberal world order.

Readings:

The major readings outside of lectures and handouts would be from the following books:

1) John Baylis, Steve Smith & Patricia Owens, The Globalization of World Politics: An

Introduction to World Politics, Oxford University Press, 2011 (5th ed.)

2) Tim Dunne et al., International Relations Theory: Discipline and Diversity’, Oxford

University Press, 2010

Part-IV

Broad Lecture Outline

Teaching Week Lecture Title

1-2 Tracing the Beginnings of International relations

3 Classical Realism

4 Structuralism, Offensive and Defensive Realism

5 Liberalism

6 Marxism and Dependency Theory

7 Social constructivism

8 Midterm exams

10 Feminism in International Relations

11 International Security

12 International Organizations in World Politics

13 Norms, Ethics, and Justice in International Relations

14 The Asian Century in International Relations

15 Revision

Part V

Details on Week-Wise Lecture Outline and Readings:

Teachin

g Week Lecture Title

Readings except books

will be circulated by

email

1-2

Tracing the Beginnings of International relations: Treaty of

Westphalia, concept of sovereignty, Origins of World War

I, Treaty of Versailles, Origins of World War II, Beginning

of the Cold War, Units of analysis in IR, level of analysis

problems in IR

1) Richard Falk,

Revisiting Westphalia,

Discovering Post-

Westphalia Source: The

Journal of Ethics, Vol. 6,

No. 4 (2002), pp. 311-

352

2) Baylis and Smith:

International History

1900-1945.

3) Daud Hassan, The

Rise of the Territorial

State and the Treaty of

Westphalia, 2006,

Yearbook of New

Zealand Jurisprudence,

Vol. 9. Pp 62- 70

4) Taku Tamaki, Levels

of Analysis of the

International System

5) David A. Lake, The

State and International

Relations

3

Classical Realism: sources of conflict; anarchy; security of

dilemma; balance of power and balance of threat; power

and influence; national interest

1) Bayliss et al.,

Globalization of World

Politics, Chapter 5

2)‘Realism’ Dunne et al.,

Discipline and Diversity,

Chapter 3 ‘Classical

Realism’ & Chapter 4 ‘

Structural Realism’.

3)Keith Shimko,

‘Realism, Neorealism

and American

Liberalism’, Review of

Politics, vol 5:2, spring

1992

4

Structuralism, Offensive and Defensive Realism: balance

of power and balance of threat; power and influence;

offence and defence

1) Jack Snyder (2004)

‘One World, Rival

Theories’, Foreign

Policy 145: 52-62.

2)Baylis Chapter 5:

Realism; Chapter 7:

Contemporary

mainstream approaches,

Neo-Realism and Neo-

Liberalism (section on

Neo-Realism).

3)Dunne Chapter 3:

Classical Realism;

Chapter 4: Structural

Realism.

4) Online Resource:

http://plato.stanford.edu/

entries/realism-intl-

relations/

5

Liberalism: Core tenets, neo-liberal institutionalism,

Cooperation under anarchy; trade cooperation; the causes

of security and insecurity; globalization and

interdependence; relative and absolute gains; international

organisations

1)Bayliss et al.,

Globalization of World

Politics, Chapter 6

‘Liberalism’ & Chapter

7 ‘Contemporary

Mainstream

Approaches”

2)Dunne et al.,

Discipline and Diversity,

Chapter 5 ‘Liberalism’

& Chapter 6 ‘

Neoliberalism’

3) Bertrand Badie,

Liberalism in

International Relations,

http://www.stefanorecchi

a.net/1/137/resources/pu

blication_1040_1.pdf

6 Marxism and Dependency Theory: impact of globalisation

on different states, Role of IMF and World Bank in

1) Bayliss et al.,

Globalization of World

creating/reducing inequality among states. Politics, Chapter 8

‘Marxist Theory of

International Relations’,

Chapter 9, Post

Structuralism’

2) Ronald L. Chilcote,

Issues of Dependency

Theory and Marxism.

3) Gary Gereffi,

Dependency Theory and

Third World

Development, The

Pharmaceutical Industry

and Dependency in the

Third World, pp 3-49.

7

Social constructivism: Anarchy; mutual constitution of

structure and agency; material and ideational factors;

identity and interests; constitutive and regulative rules;

change in international politics

1) Baylis Chapter 9:

Social Constructivism

2)Dunne Chapter 9:

Constructivism

3)Alexander Wendt

(1992) ‘Anarchy is What

States Make of It: The

Social Construction of

Power Politics’,

International

Organization 46(2): 391-

426.

4) Tim Dunne (1995)

‘The Social Construction

of International Society’,

European Journal of

International Relations

1(3): 367-389.

8 Mid term exams

9

Feminism in International Relations: What is feminism?

Roles played by women in IR, divorcing of war from

human emotion

1) Sarah Smith,

Introducing Feminism in

International Relations

Theory, E-IR,

https://www.e-

ir.info/2018/01/04/femin

ism-in-international-

relations-theory/

2) Cynthia Enloe,

Gender Makes the World

Go Round: Where Are

the Women?, chapter in

Bananas, Beaches and

Bases: Making Feminist

Sense of International

Politics, University of

California Press.

3)Carol Cohn, Sex and

Death in the Rational

World of Defense

Intellectuals, Signs, Vol.

12, No. 4, Within and

Without: Women,

Gender, and Theory.

(Summer, 1987), pp.

687-718.

10

International Security: Changing nature of war; new wars;

peacebuilding; changing nature of peacebuilding; post-

conflict reconstruction and nation building; security-

development nexus; ethnic and nationalist conflicts

1)Bayliss et al.

Globalization and World

Politics, Chs. 13, 24 &

32

2)Michael Barnett, "The

New United Nations

Politics of Peace: From

Juridical Sovereignty to

Empirical Sovereignty,"

Global Governance 1:1

(Winter 1995), pp. 79-

97.

11

International Organizations in World Politics: Competing

approaches to the study of international organization (IO);

international regimes; nature of IO power and influence;

regional organizations; power and regimes

1)Baylis et. al,

‘Globalization in World

Politics’, Chapter 18 ‘

International Regimes’

& Chapter 19 ‘ The

United Nations’’

2) John Mearshimer, ‘

The False Promise of

International

Institutions’,

International Security,

19, 3: 1994/5

3)

12

The Emerging World Order and Liberal Democracy:

Actors and Non-state actors in international relations, types

of non-state actors, asymmetric warfare

1) Muhittin Atama, The

Impact of Non-State

Actors on World

Politics: A Challenge to

Nation-States, Turkish

Journal of International

Relations, 2003, Vol 2,

No. 1, 42-66

2) G. John Ikenberry,

The Future of the Liberal

World Order:

Internationalism After

America, Foreign

Affairs, Vol. 90, No. 3

(MAY/JUNE 2011), pp.

56-62, 63-68.

3)P.A. Reynolds, Non-

State Actors and

International Outcomes,

British Journal of

International Studies,

Vol. 5, No. 2 (Jul. 1979),

pp. 91-111

13

Norms, Ethics, and Justice in International Relations:

Human Security; Human Rights; Humanitarian

Intervention; Sovereignty; Limits on the use of force;

Responsibility to Protect

1)Baylis and Smith,

Globalization and World

Politics, Chs. 39, 30 &

31

2) Robert Jackson, Why

Africa’s Weak States

Persist: The Empirical

and Juridicial in

Statehood, World

Politics, 1982

3)Michael C. Doyle,

International Ethics and

the Responsibility to

Protect, International

Studies Review, Vol. 13,

No. 1 (March 2011), pp.

72-84

14 The Asian Century in International Relations 1)David C. Kang,

International Relations

Theory and East Asian

History: An Overview,

Journal of East Asian

Studies, Vol. 13, No. 2,

SPECIAL ISSUE:

International Relations

and East Asian History:

Impact, Meaning, and

Conceptualization

(MAY–AUGUST 2013),

pp. 181-205

2)Ronald L. Tammen,

The Impact of Asia on

World Politics: China

and India Options for the

United States,

International Studies

Review, Vol. 8, No. 4

(Dec., 2006), pp. 563-

580

3)Michael Auslin, The

Asian Century is Over,

Foreign Policy, July 31,

2019.

15 Revision