Big Books and Major Statements in International
Relations
Seminar, 1st term 2017-18
Ulrich Krotz
Professor, Chair in International Relations (SPS-RSCAS)
Director, program on Europe in the World
Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
European University Institute
Richard Maher
Research Fellow
Robert Schuman Centre for
Advanced Studies
European University Institute
Time of Class Meetings: Tuesdays, 17.00 – 19.00
Location: Seminar Room 3 (Badia Fiesolana)
Please register online
Contact: [email protected]
Purpose
This seminar scrutinizes some of the big books and major statements in International Relations over the
past few decades. Next to the importance of the respective works, a focus on Europe and security affairs,
both broadly conceived, informs the choice of readings. The course aims to help graduate students to
master major writings and thinking in International Relations, and to fully grasp the nature and relevance
of some of the main statements in these areas. The course will intertwine the reading and discussion of the
“big books” with students’ own thinking and research projects.
Thumbnail
Scrutinizes some of the big books in International Relations and security affairs of the past several
decades. Aims to help students master major writings and thinking in the field, and thereby to support their
own Ph.D. dissertation projects.
Requirements
1. Students are expected to come to class fully prepared and to have thoroughly completed the assigned
readings before each week’s meeting, and to actively participate in class discussions. Regular seminar
attendance goes without saying. Required readings will be discussed in class. The “Recommended
Supplementary Readings” will not be discussed in class. They function as a guide for students who want to
learn more about a given topic, or who wish to undertake independent research on the issue at hand. When
appropriate, the course provider or a participant will present to the seminar a brief summary of work listed
under “Recommended Supplementary Readings.”
2. Course participants are asked to write two or more literature critiques of around five pages each (say
around 1,500 words or so). These “reaction papers” will introduce the reading(s) and will be discussed in
class together with the readings themselves. The authors of these reviews need to send them via e-mail
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attachment to the other course participants no later than 24 hours before the seminar meetings. Authors will
very briefly present their critique papers in seminar, followed by questions and discussion.
Other requirements to be specified according to students’ interests and course enrollment.
Prerequisites
No formal prerequisites. However, the course design presumes that participants have a solid background in
international relations, and international history and politics, or are willing to make up deficits through
independent reading as the course proceeds. Students who are not willing or able to give serious
consideration to, and engage with, a diverse range of thinking and types of argument—even when these are
different from, and potentially contrary to, their own—are discouraged from taking this course.
Access to Readings
Students are encouraged to buy copies of the books assigned for this course. The books are readily
available as paperbacks as well as hard copies. However, one or more copies of the relevant books are
available on reserve in the library and/or are readily accessible as e-books through the library system. All
other relevant course materials are available on the course web page.
SYLLABUS
Session 1 (Tuesday 3 October 2017)
INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
Stanley Hoffmann, "An American Social Science: International Relations," Daedalus (Summer 1977), pp. 41-59. Reprinted as Stanley Hoffmann, "An American Social Science: International Relations," in Stanley Hoffmann, ed. Janus and Minerva: Essays in the Theory and Practice of International Politics (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1987), pp. 3-24. Read either.
Daniel Maliniak, Susan Peterson and Michael J. Tierney, “TRIP Around the World: Teaching, Research, and Policy Views of International Relations Faculty in 20 Countries.” Teaching, Research, and International Policy (TRIP) Project, The Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA (May 2012)
BACKGROUND and RECOMMENDED SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS
Russel H. Fifield, “The Introductory Course in International Relations,” American Political Science Review Vol. 42, No. 6 (December 1948), pp. 1189-1196.
Frederick Dunn, “The Present Course of International Relations Research,” World Politics Vol. 2, No. 1 (October 1949), pp. 80-95.
Miles Kahler, "Inventing International Relations: International Relations Theory after 1945," in Michael W. Doyle and G. John Ikenberry, eds., New Thinking in International Relations Theory (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997), pp. 20-53.
Michael W. Doyle, Ways of War and Peace: Realism, Liberalism, and Socialism (New York: Norton, 1997).
Peter J. Katzenstein, Robert O. Keohane and Stephen D. Krasner, eds., Exploration and Contestation in the Study of World Politics (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999).
Walter Carlsnaes, Thomas Risse and Beth A. Simmons, eds., Handbook of International Relations (Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2002).
Brian C. Schmidt, "On the History and Historiography of International Relations," in Walter Carlsnaes, Thomas Risse and Beth A. Simmons, eds., Handbook of International Relations (Thousand Oaks, Cal.: Sage, 2002), pp. 3-22.
Donald J. Puchala, Theory and History in International Relations (New York: Routledge, 2003).
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Susan Peterson and Michael J. Tierney (with Daniel Maliniak), “Teaching and Research Practices, Views on the Discipline, and Policy Attitudes of International Relations Faculty at U.S. Colleges and Universities,” Typescript, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA (August 2005 or February 2007 or latest version). Available at http://mjtier.people.wm.edu/intlpolitics/teaching/surveyreport.pdf or http://mjtier.people.wm.edu/intlpolitics/teaching/papers.php (web page Michael Tierney)
Christian Reus-Smit and Duncan Snidal, eds., The Oxford Handbook of International Relations (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).
Gunther Hellmann, “International Relations as a Filed of Study.” In International Encyclopedia of Political Science, edited by Bertrand Badie, Dirk Berg-Schlosser, Leonardo Morlino (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2011).
QUESTIONS and TOPICS for Research and Class Discussion
In what ways is International Relations still “an American social science”? In what ways is it not?
What might be some of the most promising areas of research in international relations and world politics in the years and decades ahead?
What are some of the most under-researched topics today in international relations, foreign policy, political science, or the social sciences more broadly?
Session 2 (Tuesday 10 October 2017)
VISIONS OF THE FUTURE
Francis Fukuyama, "The End of History?" The National Interest, No. 16 (Summer 1989), pp. 3-18.
Charles Krauthammer, “The Unipolar Moment,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 70, No. 1 (1990/91), pp. 23-33.
Samuel P. Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations?" Foreign Affairs, Vol. 72, No. 3 (Summer 1993), pp.
22-49.
Naazneen Barma, Ely Ratner, and Steven Weber, ‘A World without the West’, National Interest, no. 90,
July/August 2007, pp. 23-30.
Ulrich Krotz and Richard Maher, “Europe in an Age of Transition,” Global Affairs (forthcoming).
Brief presentation by uk on think pieces of this type
BACKGROUND and RECOMMENDED SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS
Reinhart Koselleck, Vergangene Zukunft: Zur Semantik geschichtlicher Zeiten (Frankfurt/Main:
Suhrkamp, 1979).
(Translated and with an introduction by Keith Tribe as Reinhart Koselleck, Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time (New York, NY: Columbia University Press).
Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of Great Powers (New York: Vintage, 1989).
Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994).
Thomas L. Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization (New York: Farrar,
Straus, and Giroux, 1999).
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Robert D. Kaplan, The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post-Cold War World (New York: Random House, 2000).
Robert Kagan, Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order (New York: Vintage Books, 2004).
Robert Cooper, The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2004).
Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: PublicAffairs, 2004).
Amy Chua, Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance—and Why They Fall (New York: Doubleday, 2007).
Thérèse Delpech, Savage Century: Back to Barbarism (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2007).
Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World: Release 2.0 (New York: W. W. Norton, 2012).
QUESTIONS and TOPICS for Research and Class Discussion
What aspects or trends of the post-Cold War world did Fukuyama, Krauthammer, and Huntington get
right? What did they miss (or misinterpret)?
Why were Fukuyama’s and Huntington’s articles so controversial? Do they deserve their notoriety?
How useful is it to make forecasts in international politics?
What would you call this genre: Journalistic “coffee talk” or informed commentary rooted in scholarship
and social science?
Session 3 (17 October 2017)
LAST WORDS OF THE LAST CENTURY (“BOOK OF THE DECADE”)
Alexander Wendt, Social Theory of International Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press,
1999).
Read carefully chapter 1 (“Four Sociologies of International Politics,” pp. 1-44), chapter 3 (“’Ideas all the Way Down?’: On the Constitution of Power and Interest,” pp. 92-138), chapter 4 (“Structure, Agency, Culture,” pp. 139-190), and chapter 8 (“Conclusion,” pp. 370-378). In addition, skim chapter 6 (“Three Cultures of Anarchy,” pp. 246- 312).
BACKGROUND and RECOMMENDED SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS
Peter L. Berger, and Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality. A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (New York, NY: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1966).
John R. Searle, The Construction of Social Reality (New York: The Free Press, 1995).
John Gerard Ruggie, "What Makes the World Hang Together? Neo-Utilitarianism and the Social Constructivist Challenge," International Organization, Vol. 52, No. 4 (1998), pp. 855-885. Reprinted in John Gerard Ruggie, ed. Constructing the World Polity: Essays on International Institutionalization (London: Routledge, 1998), and in Peter J. Katzenstein, Robert O. Keohane and Stephen D. Krasner, eds., Exploration and Contestation in the Study of World Politics
(Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999).
Emanuel Adler, "Seizing the Middle Ground: Constructivism in World Politics," European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 3, No. 3 (1997), pp. 319-363.
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Jeffrey T. Checkel, "The Constructivist Turn in International Relations Theory" (Review Article), World Politics, Vol. 50, No. 2 (January 1998), pp. 324-348.
Jeffrey T. Checkel, "Social Constructivisms in Global and European Politics: A Review Essay," Review of International Studies, Vol. 30, No. 2 (2004), pp. 229-244.
Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink, "Taking Stock: The Constructivist Research Program in International Relations and Comparative Politics," Annual Review of Political Science, Vol. 4
(2001), pp. 391-416.
Stefano Guzzini, "A Reconstruction of Constructivism in International Relations," European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 6, No. 2, 147-182 (2000), Vol. 6, No. 2 (2000), pp. 147-182.
Friedrich Kratochwil, “Sociological Approaches,” in Christian Reus-Smit, and Duncan Snidal, eds., The Oxford
Handbook of International Relations (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 444-461.
Ronald L. Jepperson, Alexander Wendt and Peter J. Katzenstein, "Norms, Identity, and Culture in National
Security," in Peter J. Katzenstein, ed. The Culture of National Security. Norms and Identity in World
Politics (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1996), pp. 33-75.
Peter J. Katzenstein, ed., The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1996).
Nina Tannenwald, The Nuclear Taboo: The United States and the Non-Use of Nuclear Weapons since
1945 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Vincent Pouliot, International Security in Practice: The Politics of NATO-Russia Diplomacy (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2010).
MAJOR REVIEWS of SOCIAL THEORY OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
Forum on Wendt’s “Social Theory of International Politics,” Review of International Studies, Vol. 26, No. 1 (January 2000), pp. 123-180. Introduction (pp. 123-124) and contributions by Keohane (pp. 125-130), Krasner (pp. 131-136), Doty (pp. 137-139), Alker (pp. 141-150), and Smith (pp. 151-163), and Wendt’s response to the critics (pp. 165-180).
Stefano Guzzini, and Anna Leander, eds., Constructivism and International Relations: Alexander Wendt and His Critics (New York: Routledge, 2006).
Friedrich Kratochwil, "Constructing a New Orthodoxy? Wendt's 'Social Theory of International Politics' and the Constructivist Challenge," Millennium, Vol. 29, No. 1 (2000), pp. 73-101. (Read
especially carefully pp. 77-78.). Reprinted in Guzzini/Leander, eds. 2006.
Lars Erik Cederman, and Christopher Daase, "Endogenizing Corporate Identities: The Next Step in
Constructivist IR Theory," European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 9, No. 1 (2003), pp.
5-35. Reprinted in Stefano Guzzini, and Anna Leander, eds., Constructivism and International
Relations: Alexander Wendt and His Critics (New York: Routledge, 2006), pp. 118-139. Read
either.
Alexander Wendt, “Social Theory as Cartesian Science: An Auto-Critique from a Quantum Perspective,”
in Stefano Guzzini, and Anna Leander, eds., Constructivism and International Relations:
Alexander Wendt and His Critics (New York: Routledge, 2006), pp. 181-219.
QUESTIONS and TOPICS for Research and Class Discussion
In the years and decades ahead, what will be some of the most fruitful ways of combining constructivist
theory (as found in Wendt’s seminal book or elsewhere) with an empirical social science?
What might be some of the most important constructivist contributions in the future (either theoretically or
empirically)? Where might constructivism reach its limits most sharply? Why?
Forget about “-ism” or “isms”: how best to do something with this as part of an empirical social science
and explanatory theory in the time ahead?
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Session 4 (24 October 2017)
GEOGRAPHY, GEOPOLITICS, GREAT POWERS: OFFENSIVE REALISM
John J. Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, Updated Edition (New York: Norton, 2014
[2001]).
Read Preface, Preface to Updated Edition, Chapter 1 “Introduction”; Chapter 2, “Anarchy and the Struggle for Power”; Chapter 5, “Strategies for Survival”; Chapter 10, “Can China Rise Peacefully?”; skim Chapter 6, “Great Powers in Action.”
BACKGROUND and RECOMMENDED SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS
Thucydides (2009 [ca. 404 B.C.]) The Peloponnesian War, translated by Martin Hammond and with an
Introduction by P.J. Rhodes (New York: Oxford University Press).
Niccolò Machiavelli [1513] The Prince. Numerous contemporary translations.
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan [1651], edited by Richard Tuck (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), especially chapter 13 (“Of the Natural Condition of Mankind, as concerning their Felicity, and Misery”).
Reinhold Niebuhr, Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1932), especially chapter 4 (“The Morality of Nations”).
Albert O. Hirschman, National Power and the Structure of Foreign Trade (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980 [1945]).
Edward Hallett Carr, The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1919-1939: An Introduction to the Study of International Relations, Second Edition (London: Macmillan, 1946).
Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace Fifth Revised Edition [or later edition] (New York: Knopf, 1978 [first edition 1948]).
Kenneth N. Waltz, Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical Analysis (New York: Columbia University Press, 1959).
Arnold Wolfers, Discord and Collaboration: Essays on International Politics (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 1962).
Raymond Aron, Paix et Guerre entre les Nations. (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1962).
Kenneth N. Waltz, Theory of International Politics (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979).
Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981).
Barry Posen, The Sources of Military Doctrine: France, Britain, and Germany Between the World Wars
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1984).
Robert Gilpin, "The Richness of the Tradition of Political Realism," in Robert O. Keohane, ed. Neorealism and Its Critics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986), pp. 301-321.
Kenneth N. Waltz, "Reflections on "Theory of International Politics:" A Response to My Critics," in Robert O. Keohane, ed. Neorealism and Its Critics (New York, NY: Columbia University Press,
1986), pp. 322-345.
Michael Joseph Smith, Realist Thought from Weber to Kissinger (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State
University Press, 1986).
Stephen M. Walt, The Origins of Alliances (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1987).
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Jonathan Kirshner, Currency and Coercion: The Political Economy of International Monetary Power (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995).
Thomas J. Christensen, Useful Adversaries: Grand Strategy, Domestic Mobilization, and Sino-American Conflict, 1947-1958 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996).
Robert Gilpin, “No One Loves a Political Realist,” Security Studies, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Spring 1996), pp. 3-26.
Michael W. Doyle, Ways of War and Peace: Realism, Liberalism, and Socialism (New York: Norton, 1997), Part One.
Jonathan Kirshner, Appeasing Bankers: Financial Caution on the Road to War (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007).
Steven E. Lobell, Norrin M. Ripsman, and Jeffrey W. Taliaferro, Neoclassical Realism, the State, and
Foreign Policy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008).
G. John Ikenberry, Michael Mastanduno, and William C. Wohlforth, eds., International Relations Theory and the Consequences of Unipolarity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011). [Originally published as a special issue in World Politics (Vol. 61, No. 1, January 2009)]
MAJOR REVIEWS of THE TRAGEDY OF GREAT POWER POLITICS
Glenn Snyder, “Mearsheimer’s World: Offensive Realism and the Struggle for Security,” International Security, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Summer 2002), pp. 149-173.
Richard N. Rosecrance, “War and Peace,” World Politics, Vol. 55, No. 1 (October 2002), pp. 137-166.
Adam Roberts, “Predictions of Offensive Realism,” Times Literary Supplement, July 26, 2002.
Richard Betts, “Conflict or Cooperation? Three Visions Revisited” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 89, No. 6
(November/December 2010), pp. 186-194.
QUESTIONS and TOPICS for Research and Class Discussion
Will “offensive realism” be the last (structural) realist theory of international politics?
If not, what might come next? What might be the realism(s) of the twenty-first century?
What might the next big realist book say or be about?
What is not part of Mearsheimer’s theory of “offensive realism”? What does he leave out? From what does
he “abstract”?
What does realism have to tell us about twenty-first century world politics? To what does it point our
attention, and to what does it sensitize us? Where does it reach its limits? What does realism (or some
version of it—whichever adjective, prefix, or suffix you choose) explain well? What does it have trouble
explaining?
Session 5 (31 October 2017)
HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY IN GRAND PERSPECTIVE
Stanley Hoffman, “Raymond Aron (1905-1983),” New York Review of Books, December 8, 1983.
Raymond Aron, Peace and War: A Theory of International Relations (New Brunswick, NJ: Transactions
Publishers, 2009 [1966]), pp. xi-149; skim 150-173.
Originally published in French as Paix et Guerre entre les Nations (Paris: Calmann-Lévy,
1962).
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BACKGROUND and RECOMMENDED SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS
Quincy Wright, A Study of War (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1942).
Kenneth N. Waltz, Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical Analysis (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1959).
Geoffrey Blainey, The Causes of War (New York: Free Press, 1973).
Robert Jervis, Perception and Misperception in International Politics (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1976).
James D. Fearon, “Rationalist Explanations for War,” International Organization, Vol. 49, No. 3
(Summer 1995): 379-414.
Stephen Van Evera, Causes of War (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999).
John A. Vasquez, The War Puzzle Revisited (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).
Jack S. Levy and William R. Thompson, Causes of War (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010).
QUESTIONS and TOPICS for Research and Class Discussion
What is the meaning and role of “theory” in Raymon Aron’s historical sociology?
What is “theoretical” in these pages?
Why did this book not generate more scholarship in a similar vein? Why did an “Aron School” not emerge
in France?
How would you translate historical sociology into the 21st century?
How can one combine Aron’s theorizing with qualitative methods, quantitative methods, and research
design? (Yes, think of KKV, Brady and Collier, and in particular George and Bennett)
What have we learned about peace and war since the 1960s?
Session 6 (7 November 2017)
HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY THEN AND NOW
Ronald J. Yalem, “The Theory of International Relations of Raymond Aron,” International Relations, Vol.
3, No. 11 (1971), pp. 913-927.
Stanley Hoffmann, “Raymond Aron and the Theory of International Relations,” International Studies
Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 1 (March 1985), pp. 13-27.
BACKGROUND and RECOMMENDED SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS
Hendrik Spruyt, The Sovereign State and Its Competitors: An Analysis of Systems Change (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1994).
Ole Waever, “The Sociology of a Not So International Discipline: American and European Developments in IR,” International Organization, Vol. 52 (1998), pp. 687-727.
Barry Buzan and Richard Little, International Systems in World History: Remaking the Study of International Relations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
Stephen Hobden and John M. Hobson, eds., Historical Sociology of International Relations (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2001).
Adam Watson, The Evolution of International Society: A Comparative Historical Analysis (London:
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Routledge, 2009).
Barry Buzan and George Lawson, The Global Transformation: History, Modernity, and the Making of International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015).
Julian Go and George Lawson, eds., Global Historical Sociology (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2017).
QUESTIONS and TOPICS for Research and Class Discussion
See questions and topics for Session 5
Session 7 (14 November 2017)
REGIONS, REGIONAL INTEGRATION,AND THE “AMERICAN IMPERIUM”
Peter J. Katzenstein, A World of Regions: Asia and Europe in the American Imperium (Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 2005).
Read Preface, Chapter 1, “American Power in World Politics”; Chapter 2, “Regional Orders”;
Chapter 3, “Regional Identities”; skim Chapter 6, “Linking Regions and Imperium” and/or
Chapter 7, “The American Imperium in a World of Regions” as you please.
BACKGROUND and RECOMMENDED SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS
Karl W. Deutsch et al., Political Community in the North Atlantic Area: International Organization in the
Light of Historical Experience (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1957). Reprinted in excerpts in
Brent F. Nelsen and Alexander Stubb, eds., The European Union: Readings on the Theory and Practice of
European Integration (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003), pp. 121-143.
Ernst B. Haas, The Uniting of Europe: Political, Social, and Economic Forces, 1950-1957 (Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press, 1958). Reprinted in excerpts in Brent F. Nelsen and Alexander Stubb, The
European Union: Readings on the Theory and Practice of European Integration (Boulder: Lynne Rienner
Publishers, 2003), pp. 145-149.
Joseph S. Nye, Peace in Parts: Integration and Conflict in Regional Organization (Boston, MA: Little
Brown).
Emanuel Adler and Michael N. Barnett, eds., Security Communities (New York, NY: Cambridge
University Press, 1998).
Ulrich Krotz, "Parapublic Underpinnings of International Relations: The Franco-German Construction of
Europeanization of a Particular Kind," European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 13, No. 3 (2007),
pp. 385-417.
Ulrich Krotz and Joachim Schild, Shaping Europe: France, Germany, and Embedded Bilateralism from
the Elysée Treaty to Twenty-First Century Politics (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press).
Andrew Moravcsik, The Choice for Europe. Social Purpose and State Power from Messina to Maastricht.
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998).
Andrew Moravcsik, "Taking Preferences Seriously: A Liberal Theory of International Politics,
International Organization, Vol. 51, No. 4 (Autumn 1997), pp. 513-553.
Etel Solingen, Regional Orders at Century’s Dawn: Global and Domestic Influence on Grand Strategy
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998).
Amitav Acharya, “The Emerging Regional Architecture of World Politics” (Review Article), World
Politics, Vol. 59, No. 4 (July 2007), pp. 629-652.
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Tanja Börzel, “Comparative Regionalism: European Integration and Beyond,” in Walter Carlsnaes,
Thomas Risse and Beth A. Simmons, eds., Handbook of International Relations (Thousand Oaks: Sage,
2013).
Tanja Börzel and Thomas Risse, eds., Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2016).
QUESTIONS and TOPICS for Research and Class Discussion
In what ways do we and do we not live in “a world of regions”?
What are some different views of “regionalism”, and of the historical forces and causal factors behind the
development and evolution of “regions”?
Are regions becoming more or less important in international relations?
Session 8 (21 November 2017)
THE ENDURANCE (AND/OR RETURN) OF CLASSICAL REALISM?
Arnold Wolfers, Discord and Collaboration: Essays on International Politics (Baltimore, MD: The Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1962).
Read Chapter 5, “The Goals of Foreign Policy”; Chapter 6, “The Pole of Power and the Pole of Indifference”; Chapter 8, “The Balance of Power in Theory and Practice”; skim Chapter 4, “Statesmanship and Moral Choice”; Chapter 10, “National Security as an Ambiguous Signal”
Jonathan Kirshner, “The Economic Sins of Modern IR Theory and the Classical Realist Alternative,”
World Politics, Vol. 67, No. 1 (January 2015), pp. 155-183.
BACKGROUND and RECOMMENDED SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS
Inis L. Claude, “National Interests and the Global Environment: A Review,” Journal of Conflict
Resolution, Vol. 8, No. 3 (September 1964), pp. 292-296.
Gideon Rose, “Neoclassical Realism and Theories of Foreign Policy” (Review Article), World Politics,
Vol. 51, No. 1 (October 1998), pp. 144-172.
Steven E. Lobell, Norrin M. Ripsman, and Jeffrey W. Taliafero, eds., Neoclassical Realism, the State, and
Foreign Policy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009)
Norrin M. Ripsman, Jeffrey W. Taliafero, and Steven E. Lobell, Neoclassical Realist Theory of
International Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016).
Campbell Craig, “Classical Realism for the Twenty-First Century: Responding to the Challenges of
Globality,” in Rens van Munster and Casper Sylvest, eds.,The Politics of Globality Since 1945:
Assembling the Planet (London: Routledge, 2016).
William C. Wohlforth, “Realism,” in Christian Reus-Smit and Duncan Snidal, eds., The Oxford Handbook of International Relations (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).
QUESTIONS and TOPICS for Research and Class Discussion
How would you characterize “classical” realism?
11 ■ Big Books and Major Statements in International Relations, 1st term 2017-18
What differentiates “classical” realism from other types of realism—e.g., structural realism, defensive
realism, offensive realism, “balance of power” realism, “rise and fall” realism, neoclassical realism, etc.?
Are we seeing a classical (or neoclassical) realist “turn” in international relations theory?
If so, what explains the classical (or neoclassical) realist “turn” in international relations theory?
How would you translate “classical” realism into the 21st century? (Yes, allow Kirshner give you a hand.)
How to combine classical realist theorizing (or thinking more generally) with qualitative methods,
quantitative methods, and research design? (Yes, think of KKV, Brady and Collier, and in particular
George and Bennett)
Session 9 (28 November 2017)
WORLD ORDERS AND GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
G. John Ikenberry, After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Rebuilding of Order after Major
Wars (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), Preface; chapter 1; skim chapter 2; and then as
much as you like.
Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink, “International Norm Dynamics and Political Change,”
International Organization, Vol. 52, No. 4 (Autumn 1998), pp. 887-917.
G. John Ikenberry, Liberal Leviathan: The Origins, Crisis, and Transformation of the American World
Order (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011), Preface, chapter 1.
BACKGROUND and RECOMMENDED SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS
Stephen D. Krasner, ed. International Regimes (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983).
Robert M. Axelrod, The Evolution of Cooperation (New York, NY: Basic Books, 1984).
Robert O. Keohane, After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984).
Robert O. Keohane, "Neoliberal Institutionalism: A Perspective on World Politics," in Robert O. Keohane, ed. International Institutions and State Power. Essays in International Relations Theory (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989), pp. 1-20.
John J. Mearsheimer, "The False Promise of International Institutions," International Security, Vol. 19,
No. 3 (1994/1995), pp. 5-49.
Judith Goldstein, Miles Kahler, Robert O. Keohane, and Anne-Marie Slaughter, eds., “Legalization and World Politics, A Special Issue of International Organization,” International Organization, Vol.
54, No. 3 (Summer 2000). Reissued as edited book.
Barbara Koremenos, Charles Lipson, and Duncan Snidal, eds., Rational Choice of International Institutions, A Special Issue of International Organization, International Organization, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Autumn 2001). Reissued as edited book.
Anne-Marie Slaughter, "The Real New World Order," Foreign Affairs, Vol. 76, No. 5 (1997), pp. 183-197.
Daniel Deudney and G. John Ikenberry, “The Nature and Sources of Liberal International Order,” Review
of International Studies, Vol. 25, No. 2 (April 1999), pp. 179-196.
Ian Hurd, “Legitimacy and Authority in International Politics,” International Organization, Vol. 53, No. 2
(Spring 1999), pp. 379-408.
Lisa L. Martin, and Beth A. Simmons, International Institutions: An International Organization Reader
(Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2001).
12 ■ Big Books and Major Statements in International Relations, 1st term 2017-18
G. John Ikenberry, "Is American Multilateralism in Decline?" Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 1, No. 3 (September 2003), pp. 533-550.
Anne-Marie Slaughter, “Everyday Global Governance,” Daedalus, Vol. 132, No. 1 (Winter 2003), pp. 83-
90.
Anne-Marie Slaughter, A New World Order (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004).
Michael Barnett and Raymond Duvall, eds., Power in Global Governance (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2005).
Daniel W. Drezner, All Politics Is Global: Explaining International Regulatory Regimes (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2007).
G. John Ikenberry, "Liberal Internationalism 3.0: America and the Dilemmas of Liberal World Order,"
Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 7, No. 01 (2009), pp. 71-87.
Robert O. Keohane, Stephen Macedo, and Andrew Moravcsik, "Democracy-Enhancing Multilateralism,"
International Organization, Vol. 63, No. 1 (2009), pp. 1-31.
Deborah D. Avant, Martha Finnemore, and Susan K. Sell, eds., Who Governs the Globe? (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Amitav Acharya, ed., Why Govern? Rethinking Demand and Progress in Global Governance (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2016).
QUESTIONS and TOPICS for Research and Class Discussion
What happens when the (American) leviathan is no longer liberal?
Is the American “liberal international order” in the process of disappearing?
Which of the two books did you enjoy more? Why?
Is Ikenberry too focused on America’s role in the creation and maintenance of the liberal international
order?
Session 10 (5 December 2017)
CONCLUDING DISCUSSION: LOOKING BACK AND PEERING AHEAD
National Intelligence Council, Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds (Washington, DC: U.S.
Government Printing Office, 2012), pp. i-xiv.
National Intelligence Council, Global Trends 2035: Paradox of Progress (Washington, DC: U.S.
Government Printing Office, 2017), pp. ix-xi.
International Organization 70th Anniversary Special Archive Collections (Available at:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/70th-anniversary-special-
collections) (Readings TBD)
Possible additional readings TBD
BACKGROUND and RECOMMENDED SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS
(Other Recent “Big Books”)
Alastair Iain Johnston Cultural Realism: Strategic Culture and Grand Strategy in Chinese History
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995).
13 ■ Big Books and Major Statements in International Relations, 1st term 2017-18
Daniel H. Deudney, Bounding Power: Republican Security Theory from the Polis to the Global Village
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006).
Richard Ned Lebow, A Cultural Theory of International Relations (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2009).
Charles A. Kupchan, How Enemies Become Friends: The Sources of Stable Peace (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 2010).
Charles L. Glaser, Rational Theory of International Politics: The Logic of Competition and Cooperation
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012).
R. Harrison Wagner, War and the State: The Theory of International Politics (Ann Arbor, MI: University
of Michigan Press, 2007).
Nuno P. Monteiro, Theory of Unipolar Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014).
Alexander Wendt, Quantum Mind and Social Science: Unifying Physical and Social Ontology
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015).
Max Weber, “Science as a Vocation,” accessible, for example, in Max Weber—Complete Writings on
Academic and Political Vocations, edited with and Introduction by John Dreijmanis, translated by
Gordon C. Wells (Algora Publishing, 2008), pp. 25-52.
Max Weber, “Politics as a Vocation,” accessible, for example, in Max Weber—Complete Writings on Academic and Political Vocations, edited with and Introduction by John Dreijmanis, translated
by Gordon C. Wells (Algora Publishing, 2008), pp. 155-208.
Both originally published as Max Weber, Politik als Beruf (Munich and Leipzig: Duncker and
Humblot, 1919).
QUESTIONS and TOPICS for Research and Class Discussion
What are the most under-researched questions or areas of international relations, foreign policy, or political
science more broadly?
What will the big thinking about world politics in the future be about or be like? Which issues will it
address? What are some of the most important topics of world politics in the century ahead? Will they be
mostly different from those of the past or largely similar?
What makes a book a “big” book, or a “classic”?
What is the big “think piece” you would like to write after all of this? (see session 2)