IR 105 THEORIES OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Fall 2014 Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:35-3:50 Maginnes 270

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1 Lehigh University Professor Arman Grigoryan International Relations Office: Maginnes 206 Tel: (610) IR 105 THEORIES OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Fall 2014 Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:35-3:50 Maginnes 270 Course Description: The course builds on IR 10. It aims to expose students to some of the most important controversies and debates in IR theory at a more advanced level. We shall also concern ourselves with certain important methodological, epistemological and philosophical issues as they come up in the debates between different schools of thought in IR. Finally, we shall examine some interesting empirical disputes to see how theories are applied to settle them. Prerequisite: IR 10. Grades will be based on two take-home essays, a final exam, and class participation. The first essay will be worth 25%, the second will be worth 35% of the grade, and the final exam will be worth 30% of the final grade. Class participation will count for the remaining 10%. There will be no make-up or extra credit assignments. Readings: All readings, with one exception, will be available electronically on coursesite. The exception is Kenneth Waltz, Theory of International Politics (New York, NY: McGraw Hill, Inc., 1979), which students will have to purchase. Office Hours: Tuesdays 4:00-6:00 PM. Accommodation for students with disability: Students who have a disability for which you are or may be requesting accommodation should contact both the instructor and the Office of Academic Support Services, University Center 212 ( ) as early as possible in the semester. You must obtain documentation from Academic Support Services before accommodation can be granted. 1

2 Schedule 1. Introduction (08/26) - No readings. 2. Knowledge and superstition (08/28) - Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial (Documentary). 3. How do we accept and discard theories? Falsifiability (09/02) - Imre Lakatos, The Methodology of the Scientific Research Programs (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1978), pp Is social science possible (09/04) - Paul Rabinow and William M. Sullivan, The Interpretive Turn: A Second Look, in Paul Rabinow and William M. Sullivan, eds., Interpretive Social Science: A Second Look (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1987), pp Karl Popper, The Poverty of Historicism (London, UK: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1957), ch The scientific method and international relations: a feminist critique (09/04) - Hans Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace (New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 1993), ch Ann Tickner, A Critique of Morgenthau s Principles of Political Realism, in Rebecca Grant and Kathleen Newland, eds., Gender and International Relations (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1991), pp Structural Realism (09/09) - Kenneth Waltz, Theory of International Politics, chs. 5-6, 8. 2

3 7. Refinements of Waltz s theory (09/11-09/16) - Stephen Walt, The Origins of Alliances (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1987), pp Randall Schweller, Bandwagoning for Profit: Bringing the Revisionist State Back In, International Security, Vol. 19, no. 1 (Summer, 1994), pp Jack Snyder, Myths of Empire: Domestic Politics and International Ambition (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991), pp and John Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (New York. NY: W. W. Norton, 2001), ch. 2, and pp Agents and structures (09/18-09/23) - Alexander Wendt, Anarchy Is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of Power Politics, International Organization, Vol. 46, no. 2 (Spring 1992), pp Jeffrey Frieden, Actors and Preferences in International Relations, in David A. Lake and Robert Powell, eds., Strategic Choice and International Relations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), pp Case study 1: From community to anarchy? (09/25) - John G. Ruggie, Continuity and Transformation in the World Polity: Toward a Neorealist Synthesis, World Politics, Vol. 35, no. 2 (January, 1983), pp Markus Fischer, Feudal Europe, : Communal Discourse and Conflictual Practices, International Organization, Vol. 46, no. 2 (Spring, 1992), pp Case Study 2: From anarchy to community? (09/30) - Rey Koslowski and Friedrich Kratochwil, Understanding Change in International Politics: The Soviet Empire s Demise and the International System, International Organization, Vol. 48, no. 2 (Spring 1994), pp Stephen Brooks and William Wohlforth, Power, Globalization, and the End of the Cold War: Reevaluating a Landmark Case for Ideas, International Security, Vol. 25, no. 3 (Winter 2000/01), pp

4 11. The security dilemma (10/02) - Robert Jervis, Cooperation under the Security Dilemma, World Politics, Vol. 30, no. 2 (January, 1978), pp Jack Levy, The Offensive-Defensive Balance of Military Technology, International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, no. 2 (June, 1984), pp Can rational states fight? (10/09- MIDTERM ESSAYS DUE) - James Fearon, The Rationalist Explanations for War, International Organization, Vol. 49, no. 3 (Summer 1995), pp Making credible commitments in international crises (10/14) - James Fearon, Domestic Political Audiences and the Escalation of International Disputes, American Political Science Review, Vol. 88, no. 3 (September, 1994), pp Jack Snyder and Erica Borghard, The Cost of Empty Threats: A Penny, Not a Pound, American Political Science Review, Vol. 105, no. 3 (August, 2011), pp More on commitments: weakness is strength and strength is weakness (10/16) - Thomas Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960), ch Robert Putnam, Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two- Level Games, International Organization, Vol. 42, no. 3 (Summer 1988), pp Asymmetric information in mediation and intervention (10/21) - Andrew Kydd, Which Side Are You On? Bias, Credibility and Mediation, American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 47, no. 4 (October, 2003), pp Arman Grigoryan, Third-Party Intervention and the Escalation of State- Minority Conflicts, International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 54, no. 4 (December, 2010), pp Domestic politics, state preferences, and foreign policy (10/23) - Andrew Moravcsik, Taking Preferences Seriously: A Liberal Theory of International Politics, International Organization, Vol. 51, no. 4 (Autumn, 1997), pp

5 17. Case study 3: the Israel lobby and the US foreign policy (10/28) - John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, The Israel Lobby, London Review of Books, Vol. 28, no. 6 (23 March, 2006). - Robert Lieberman, The Israel Lobby and American Politics, Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 7, no. 2 (June, 2009), pp John Mearsheimer, and Stephen Walt, The Blind Man and the Elephant in the Room: Robert Lieberman and the Israel Lobby, Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 7, no. 2 (June, 2009), pp Is the decline in the frequency of war caused by the spread of democracy? (10/30-11/04) - Bruce Russett, Grasping the Democratic Peace: Principles for a Post- Cold War World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993), ch Sebastian Rosato, The Flawed Logic of the Democratic Peace Theory, American Political Science Review, Vol. 97, no. 4 (November, 2003), pp Douglas M. Gibler, The Territorial Peace: Borders, State Development, and International Conflict (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012), ch Mark E. Pietrzyk, International Order and Individual Liberty: Effects of War and Peace on the Development of Governments (Lanham, MA: University Press of America, 2002), ch Is the decline in the frequency of war caused by economic change? (11/06) - Carl Kaysen, Is War Obsolete? International Security, Vol. 14, no. 4 (Spring 1990), pp Peter Liberman, The Spoils of Conquest, International Security, Vol. 18, no. 2 (Fall 1993), pp Normative change and international politics (11/11-11/13) - Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998), ch Robert Axelrod, The Evolution of Cooperation (New York, NY: Basic Books, 1984), ch E.H. Carr, The Twenty Years Crisis, (New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1946), ch. 9. 5

6 21. Case study 4: humanitarian intervention in the 19 th century (11/18-11/20) - Martha Finnemore, Constructing Norms of Humanitarian Intervention, in Peter J. Katzenstein, ed., The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1996), pp Chaim D. Kaufmann and Robert A. Pape, Explaining Costly International Moral Action: Britain s Sixty-Year Campaign against the Atlantic Slave Trade, International Organization, Vol. 53, no. 4 (Autumn 1999), pp Case study 5: human rights and the cold war. (11/25) - Kathryn Sikkink, The Power of Principled Ideas: Human Rights Policies in the United States and Western Europe, in Judith Goldstein and Robert O. Keohane, Ideas and Foreign Policy: Beliefs, Institutions, and Political Change (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993), pp James Peck, Ideal Illusions: How the US Government Co-opted Human Rights (New York, NY: Metropolitan Books, 2010), Ch Theory and prediction (12/02) - John Mearsheimer, Back to the Future: Instability in Europe after the Cold War, International Security, Vol. 15, no. 1. (Summer 1990), pp Francis Fukuyama, The End of History? The National Interest, no. 16 (Summer 1989), pp John Mearsheimer, Can China Rise Peacefully? The National Interest, 8 April, Summary and wrap-up (12/04 FINAL ESSAYS DUE) - No readings. Final exam date TBD 6

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