casa summer trinity college dublin...of the iraq war.” international security, 35(3):7-52, 2011. -...

10 CASA SUMMER PROGRAMME 2017

Syllabus CASA Summer School 2017

Contemporary Global Politics

Department of Political Science

Trinity College, Dublin

1 Description

This module offers an overview of contemporary topics in international politics, as well as themes related to Irish politics and society. The international system is a complex and constantly evolving environment. Interactions between states and non-state actors, such as multinational corporations and international non-governmental organizations, produce outcomes that we read about in the news every day. This module offers the student a set of theoretical tools to help understand why these outcomes emerge. Examples of questions that we will cover in this module include: Are wars becoming more infrequent? Do international institutions matter? Why are civil wars so difficult to end? Does foreign aid work? Is a comprehensive climate change agreement possible? Are international courts effective?

2 Objectives

This module aims to build an understanding of the major theoretical approaches and empirical findings in the field of global politics. General topics include international conflict, international political economy, international institutions, global environmental politics, and human rights. Further, the analytic approaches covered in the first half of the module are applied to various salient contemporary political topics in Ireland, Europe, and the Middle East.

3 Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

Critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of various theoretical approaches used to explain variation in global political outcomes.

Understand the domestic and international political forces that determine the international political economy, effectiveness of development policy, and global environmental cooperation.

Identify the key determinants of inter- and intra-national conflict as well as international terrorism.


Learn the structure and impact of different types of international regimes and their effectiveness in constraining state behavior.

Become acquainted with a range of salient political issues, including the British referendum on EU membership, security crises in Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as the ongoing European economic and migrant crises.

4 Module Requirements and Policies

Each session will include a mix of lecture and seminar discussion. Some sessions will include in-class simulations. Students are required to attend each session, complete the readings prior to each meeting, and participate in class.

4.1 Written Assignments (40%)

Students complete two written assignments of approximately 1,500 words on a topic from the following list:

1.“Should foreign aid to the developing world be increased?”

Suggested additional readings:

- Sachs, Jeffrey. (2005) The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. New York: Penguin Press. pp. 244-265, skim: 288-308

- Easterly, W. R. (2001). The elusive quest for growth: economists’ adventures and misadventures in the tropics. MIT press. pp. 25-44, 100-120.

Class Requirements

Projects Guidelines Due Date Grades

Written Assignments

1,500 words, essay topics handed out in class.

Essay 1: June 22

Essay 2: July 6

40% of your final grade.

In Class Exam 90-minute exam at the end of the programme.

August 4 9-11am (location TBA)


Participation Each student is expected to come prepared to class and to actively participate in class discussions.

All classes and tutorials



- Clemens, M. A., Radelet, S., Bhavnani, R. R., & Bazzi, S. (2012). Counting Chickens when they Hatch: Timing and the Effects of Aid on Growth. The Economic Journal, 122(561), 590-617.

- Moyo, D. (2009). Why foreign aid is hurting Africa. The Wall Street Journal, 21, 1-2.

2.“Information is now more detailed and readily available than ever before. How might this affect the propensity of states to go to war?”


- Gartzke, Erik. "War is in the Error Term." International Organization 53.03 (1999): 567-587.

- Fearon, James D. "Domestic political audiences and the escalation of international disputes." American Political Science Review 88.03 (1994): 577-592.

- Chadefaux, Thomas. “Market anticipations of Conflict Onsets”. Working paper.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2763219

- Lake, David A. “Two cheers for bargaining theory: Assessing rationalist explanations of the Iraq war.” International Security, 35(3):7-52, 2011.

- Stephen Van Evera. Offense, defense, and the causes of war. International Security, 22(4):5-43, 1998.

3.“Under what circumstances is international law effective? Answer drawing on at least two issue areas (trade, laws of war, human rights, the international criminal court, European law), demonstrating knowledge of course readings.”


- C Davis, Why Adjudicate? Enforcing Trade Rules in the WTO (Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 2012)

Chapter on trade-in-fish disputes between Developing Countries and US / EU.

- E Hafner-Burton, 'Trading Human Rights: How Preferential Trade Agreements Influence Government Repression' (2005) 59 (3) International Organization 593-629

R Price, 'A Genealogy of the Chemical Weapons Taboo' (1995) 49 (1) International Organization 73-103


- David Bosco, Rough Justice: The International Criminal Court in a World of Power Politics (Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014)

REST OF BOOK

- Phelan, William (2016). Diagonal Enforcement in International Trade Politics. EUI Working Paper SPS 2016/1. Fiesole, EUI.

The first assignment is due on June 22nd, and the second on July 6th. All written assignments must be submitted through http://www.turnitin.com. The class ID is TBD and the password is TBD (case-sensitive).

4.2 In Class Assessment (40%)

A short written examination will be held at the end of the module. Questions will be based on the assigned readings and in-class discussion. Students will have 90 minutes to complete the exam.

4.3 Participation (20%)

Each student is expected to come prepared to class and to actively participate in class discussions.

4.4 Format

The Class will meet for two hours per day for the first three weeks and will then meet each Friday for the following six weeks for one two hour seminar session.

4.5 Absence from Class

Summer programme students are required to attend all lectures, tutorials and field trips as part of the programme. If there is an emergency and you are unable to attend class you must contact Global Relations staff and your lecturer. You may be asked to provide documentation, such as a medical certificate, for your absence.

4.6 Credit and Transcripts

The summer programme in Contemporary Global Politics has been approved for credit by Trinity College Dublin. Students who complete the programme successfully, submitting and passing all assignments and attending all classes, are allocated 10 ECTS credits and will be issued with a Trinity College Dublin transcript.

At the end of the programme your Trinity College Dublin transcript will be sent to the Office of Global Engagement in Brown University.

5 Academic & Professional Ethics

Please do not plagiarize. Academic dishonesty is a serious matter, with serious consequences that can result in receiving no credit for an assignment, a failing grade for the module, and even expulsion from the programme. It is never permissible to turn in any work that contains others’ ideas without proper acknowledgment. It is


your responsibility to make sure that your work meets the standard of academic honesty set forth in the College Calendar. If you are paraphrasing, cite the source. If you are quoting, use quotation marks and appropsriate citation. Remember that academic integrity is a reflection of one’s character. Lastly, students are required to only submit “new work" in each module, which means work that has not been submitted previously in any other university module. Students who wish to use previously submitted work as part of a new project will need the approval of the lecturer.

6 Syllabus Modification Rights

The instructors reserve the right to reasonably alter the elements of the syllabus at any time. More often than not this will mean adjusting the reading list to keep pace with the course schedule, although I may add reading assignments as well.

7 Readings

This class does not have a textbook. Readings consist of peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and articles from journals intended for wider audiences. All readings are available through Trinity College Library.

8 Lecturers

Constantine Boussalis Thomas Chadefaux William Phelan Thomas Chadefaux William Phelan

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Course Outline

Week 1: Introduction & Topics in International Politics

Week 2: Topics in International Security

Week 3: Topics in International Law

Week 4: “Brexit” and its impact on Europe and Ireland

Week 5: The Euro Crisis and its impact on Ireland

Week 6: Media Politics: Climate Change and Foreign Policy

Week 7: Conflict and Post-Conflict in Northern Ireland

Week 8: The ISIS Threat and Middle Eastern Security

Week 9: The Migration Crisis

mailto:[email protected]




Course Schedule

Week 1. Introduction & Topics in International Politics (Boussalis)

Day 1: Introduction to International Relations Theory

Walt, S. M. (1998). “International relations: one world, many theories." Foreign policy, 29-46. Also, Snyder, J. (2004). “One world, rival theories." Foreign Policy.

Thucydides, “Melian Dialogue", History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 5, sections 84-116 (pp. 301-307).

Waltz, K. N. (1988). The origins of war in neorealist theory. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 615-628.

Katzenstein, P. J., Keohane, R. O., & Krasner, S. D. (1998). International organization and the study of world politics. International Organization, 645-685.

Day 2: Politics of International Trade

Frieden, J. A., Lake, D. A., & Schultz, K. A. (2010). World politics: interests, interactions, institutions. New York: WW Norton. pp. 276-305

Mansfield, E. D., Milner, H. V., & Rosendorff, B. P. (2002). Why democracies cooperate more: Electoral control and international trade agreements. International Organization, 56(03), 477-513.

Gordon, B. K. (2012). Trading up in Asia. Foreign Affairs, 91(4), 17-22.

Bollyky, T. J., & Bradford, A. (2013). Getting to Yes on Transatlantic Trade. Foreign Affairs.

Day 3: International Development

Frieden, J. A., Lake, D. A., & Schultz, K. A. (2010). World politics: interests, interactions, institutions. New York: WW Norton. pp. 419-386.

De Soto, Hernando. Mystery of capital: why capitalism triumphs in the West and fails everywhere else. Basic books, 2003. pp. 36-68.

Easterly, William. (2006). The white man’s burden: why the West’s efforts to aid the rest have done so much ill and so little good. Penguin. Ch. 5

Fisman, R., & Miguel, E. (2007). Corruption, norms, and legal enforcement: Evidence from diplomatic parking tickets. Journal of Political economy, 115(6), 1020-1048.


Day 4: Global Environmental Politics

Mitchell, R. B. (2002). International Environmental Politics, in Carlsnaes, W., Risse-Kappen, T., Risse, T., & Simmons, B. A. (Eds.) Handbook of international relations. Sage.

Steffen, W., Grinevald, J., Crutzen, P., & McNeill, J. (2011). The Anthropocene: conceptual and historical perspectives. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 369(1938), 842-867.

McCright, A. M., & Dunlap, R. E. (2003). Defeating Kyoto: The conservative movement’s impact on US climate change policy. Social Problems, 50(3), 348-373.

Bodansky, D. (2013). The who, what, and wherefore of geoengineering governance. Climatic Change, 121(3), 539-551.

Week 2. Topics in International Security (Chadefaux)

Day 1: The End of War?

Steven Pinker. The better angels of our nature: The decline of violence in history and its causes. Penguin UK, 2011. Chapter 5: “The Long Peace”. 80 pages.

Joshua S Goldstein. War Really Is Going Out of Style. The New York Times. December 17, 2011. 3 pages

Walter R Mead. The Return of Geopolitics. Foreign Affairs. 17 Apr. 2014. 7 pages

John G Ikenberry. The Illusion of Geopolitics. Foreign Affairs. 17 Apr. 2014. 7 pages

Day 2. Forecasting Conflict

Kenneth J Arrow, Robert Forsythe, Michael Gorham, Robert Hahn, Robin Hanson, John O Ledyard, Saul Levmore, Robert Litan, Paul Milgrom, Forrest D Nelson, et al. The promise of prediction markets. Science, 320(5878):877, 2008

Michael D Ward. Can we predict politics? Toward what end? Journal of Global Security Studies, 1(1):80-91, 2016

Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner. Superforecasting: The art and science of prediction. Random House, 2016, ch. 3-4, pp. 46-104


Day 3. Bargaining and Conflict

James D Fearon. Rationalist explanations for war. International Organization, 49(03):379-414, 1995. (Read carefully)

Erik Gartzke. War is in the error term. International Organization, 53(03):567- 587, 1999.

David A Lake. Two cheers for bargaining theory: Assessing rationalist explanations of the Iraq war. International Security, 35(3):7-52, 2011.

Day 4. Terrorism

Robert A Pape. The strategic logic of suicide terrorism. American Political Science Review, 97(03):343-361, 2003

Andrew Kydd and Barbara F Walter. Sabotaging the peace: The politics of extremist violence. International Organization, 56(02):263-296, 2002

Peter R Neumann. Negotiating with terrorists. Foreign Affairs, pages 128-138, 2007

Scott Atran. Genesis of suicide terrorism. Science, 299(5612):1534-1539, 2003

Day 5. Civil Wars

Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler. Greed and grievance in civil war. Oxford economic papers, 56(4):563-595, 2004

Daniel N Posner. The political salience of cultural difference: Why Chewas and Tumbukas are allies in Zambia and adversaries in Malawi. American Political Science Review, 98(04):529-545, 2004

Stephen John Stedman. Spoiler problems in peace processes. International security, 22(2):5-53, 1997.


Week 3. Topics in International Law (Phelan)

Day 1. World Trade Organization

Axelrod, R. M. (1984). The Evolution of Cooperation. New York, Basic Books. Chapter 4 on the Live and Let Live System in World War One. pp. 73-87

Standing up for Steel: The US Government Response to Steel Industry and Union Efforts to Win Protection from Imports (1998-2001). C. Devereaux. Case Studies in US Trade Negotiation: Vol. 2: Resolving Disputes

Gerald Wilkinson ‘Reciprocal food sharing in the vampire bat” in Nature 1984, 308:8 March, pp. 181-184. Statement delivered by Colin Murdoch, ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda to the 8th session of the WTO Ministerial Conference 17 December 2011

Day 2. Law in War and Armed Conflict

Valentino et al. ‘Covenants without the Sword: International law and the Protection of Civilians in Times of War’ World Politics 58, April 2006, pp.339-77. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/world_politics/v058/58.3valentino.pdf

IV Hull, A Scrap of Paper: Breaking and Making International Law during the Great War (Cornell, Ithaca, NY 2014), selection.

J Morrow, Order within Anarchy: The Laws of War as an International Institution (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2014)

Day 3. International Human Rights Law

Samantha Power,”Bystanders to Genocide’, The Atlantic Monthly, Sept 2001

Andrew Moravcsik, ‘The Origins of Human Rights Regimes: Democratic Delegation in Post-War Europe’, International Organization, vol. 54, no. 2, 2000, pp. 217-252 http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online aid=164775

B Simmons, Mobilizing for Human Rights (Cambridge UP, Cambridge 2009) Chapter on Women’s rights.

Day 4. The International Criminal Court

David Bosco ‘Rough Justice’, selections.

Andrew Moravcsik, "Why Is U.S. Human Rights Policy So Unilateralist?" in Shepard Forman and Patrick Stewart, eds., The Cost of Acting Alone: Multilateralism and US Foreign Policy (Boulder: Lynne Riener Publishers, 2001). http://www.princeton.edu/ amoravcs/library/unilateralism.pdf


Day 5. The European Court of Justice

A-M Burley [Slaughter] and W Mattli, ’Europe Before the Court: A Political Theory of Legal Integration’ (1993) 47 (1) International Organization 41-76

K Alter, ’The European Court’s Political Power’ (1996) 19 (3) West European Politics 458-487

W Phelan, In Place of Inter-State Retaliation: The European Union’s Rejection of WTO-style Trade Sanctions and Trade Remedies (Oxford University Press, Oxford 2015), selection

Week 4.“Brexit” and its impact on Europe and Ireland

Readings TBA

Week 5.The Euro Crisis and its impact on Ireland

J. Carmassi, D. Gros, S. Micossi (2009), ‘The Global Financial Crisis: Causes and Cures’, Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 47, No. 5, pp. 977–996. (19pp) William Poole ‘Causes and Consequences of the Financial Crisis of 2007-2009’ Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Vol. 33, pp. 1-20. (20pp).

Peter Hall (2012): The Economics and Politics of the Euro Crisis, German Politics, 21:4, 355-371.

P. R. Lane, Philip (2011), ‘The Irish Crisis’, CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP8287, March (39pp)

Alison Johnston & Aidan Regan (2014): European Integration and the Incompatibility of Different Varieties of Capitalism. MPIfG discussion paper

Week 6. Media Politics: Climate Change and Foreign Policy

Page, B. I. (1996). The mass media as political actors. PS: political science & politics, 29(01), 20-24.

Boykoff, M. T., & Boykoff, J. M. (2004). Balance as bias: global warming and the US prestige press. Global environmental change, 14(2), 125-136.

Painter, J. and Ashe, T. (2012). Cross-national comparison of the presence of climate skepticism in the print media in six countries, 2007-10. Environmental Research Letters, 7:1–8.


Baum, M. A., & Potter, P. B. (2008). The relationships between mass media, public opinion, and foreign policy: Toward a theoretical synthesis. Annu. Rev. Polit. Sci., 11, 39-65.

Gadarian, S. K. (2010). The politics of threat: How terrorism news shapes foreign policy attitudes. The Journal of Politics, 72(02), 469-483.

Week 7. Conflict and Post-Conflict in Northern Ireland

McGarry, J. and O’Leary, B. (1995) Explaining Northern Ireland: Broken Images. Oxford: Blackwell. Intro and Chapter 8.

Cochrane, Feargal (1999). ‘The Past in the Present’ in Paul Mitchell and Rick Wilford (eds.) Politics in Northern Ireland. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Hickey, J. (1984) Religion and the Northern Ireland Problem. Dublin: Gill & MacMillan. Chapter 3.

Jonathan Tongea, Peter Shirlowb & James McAuleyc. So Why Did the Guns Fall Silent? How Interplay, not Stalemate, Explains the Northern Ireland Peace Process in Irish Political Studies, Volume 26, Issue 1, 2011

Recommended: McGarry, J. and O’Leary, B. (1995) Explaining Northern Ireland: Broken Images. Oxford: Blackwell. Chapter 11.

Week 8 The ISIS Threat and Middle Eastern Security

Gowrinathan, Nimmi. 2014. “The Women of Isis: Understanding and Combating Female Extremism,” Foreign Affairs, August 21.

Howard J. Shatz, “How ISIS Funds Its Reign of Terror Rand Corporation,” Rand Corporation.

Lisa Anderson, “Demystifying the Arab Spring: Parsing the Differences Between Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya,” Foreign Affairs, May/June 2011

Week 9 The Migration Crisis

Parker, George. Nov 27 2013. “David Cameron launches attack on EU migration” Financial Times. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b2b10574-56c3-11e3-ab12-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2ro32w6ev

Cameron, Geoffrey and Ian Goldin July 5 2001. “Why More Migration Makes Sense”. Available here: http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/why-more-migration-makes-sense


Hainmuller, Jens and Michael Hiscox. (2007). “Educated Preferences: Explaining Attitudes toward immigration in Europe”. International Organization. 61(2\). Spring. (EJ).

casa summer trinity college dublin...of the iraq war.” international security, 35(3):7-52, 2011. -...

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