Political Science 372/572: Field Seminar in International
Relations
Friday 9:30-11:55, Harkness
329.
Randall Stone
Harkness Hall 336
Associate Professor of
Political Science
273-4761
University of Rochester
randall.stone@rochester.edu
Purpose of the course: This is
an advanced course intended to prepare Ph.D. students for comprehensive exams in
international relations. The course
conducts a broad survey of major works in the field and current research into
the causes of international conflict and cooperation.
Course Requirements: This is a seminar with a heavy reading
load, and it is essential to complete the required reading. Students are expected to write short (no
more than 2-page) papers critiquing the assigned readings for each week, due
Thursday at noon. Students have the
option of skipping one paper; alternatively, the lowest grade will be
dropped. In addition, students are
expected to attend the lectures for PSC 272/472, which are designed to dovetail
with the content of this course.
(Note that there are no PSC 272 lectures the week of March 1.) There will be a 24-hour take-home final
exam, due Friday, April 29 at 5:00 pm.
Grading will be as follows: 1/3 class participation, 1/3 the average of
the papers, and 1/3 final.
Readings: The papers will be in folders in the
cubby hole on the third floor. I
recommend purchasing the following books at Amazon.com (new) or Alibris.com
(used).
Waltz, Kenneth. A Theory of International
Politics. (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley,
1979).
Mearsheimer, John. The Tragedy of Great Power
Politics. New York: W. W. Norton,
2001.
Baldwin, David A., ed. Neorealism and Neoliberalism: The Contemporary Debate. (New York: Columbia Univ. Press,
1993).
Wendt, Alexander. Social Theory of International
Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1999.
Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce,
and David Lalman. War and
Reason: Domestic and International
Imperatives. (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1992).
Powell, Robert. In the Shadow of Power: States and Strategies in International
Politics. (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1999).
Schelling, Thomas. The Strategy of Conflict. (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press,
1960).
Schultz, Kenneth. Democracy and Coercive
Diplomacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Course Outline:
Week One
Friday, Jan. 14: Orientation and
Overview
Week Two
Friday, Jan. 21: Classical Realism in International
Relations
Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War. (New York: Modern Library ed., 1982). Book I, vs. 24-146 (pp.
14-86).
Macchiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince. Chpts. 15-21 (pp.
56-84.)
Morgenthau, Hans J. Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and
Peace. (New York: Knopf, 1948, Fourth Edition, 1967).
Chpts. 1-3, 10-15, 21, 27 (pp. 3-35, 145-223, 332-49, 438-56). (Note: Chpt. and page numbers vary with
editions.)
Recommended:
Carr, Edward H. The Twenty Years' Crisis,
1919-1939. (London: MacMillian and Co., ltd.,
1946).
Hobbes, Thomas. The Leviathan.oHHob
Waltz, Kenneth N. Man, the State and War. (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1954).
Week Three
Friday, Jan. 28: Neorealism
Waltz, Kenneth. A Theory of International
Politics. (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley,
1979).
Helen Milner, "The
Assumption of Anarchy," in Baldwin, ed, Neorealism and
Neoliberalism.
Gaddis, John Lewis. "The Long Peace: Elements of Stability in the Postwar
International System."
International Security
10, No. 4 (Spring, 1986).
Mearsheimer, John. The Tragedy of Great Power
Politics. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001. Chapters 2, 6-9 (pp. 29-54,
168-359).
Recommended:
Walt, Stephen. The Origins of Alliances. (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1987), chpts. 1, 2,
5, 8.
Friday, Feb. 4:
No class
Week Four
Friday, Feb. 11: Imperialism
Lenin, Vladimir Ilich. Imperialism: The Highest Stage of
Capitalism.
Doyle, Michael. Empires. (New York: Cornell Univ. Press, 1986). pp. 19-47, 54-81, 123-61,
232-305.
Gallagher, John, and Ronald
Robinson. "The Imperialism of Free
Trade." Economic History
Review 2nd ser., 6, No. 1
(1953): 1-25. Excerpts in Harrison M. Wright, The “New Imperialism”: Analysis of Late Nineteenth-Century
Expansion (Lexington: D. C. Heath,
1976):
134-58.
Gilpin, Robert. War and Change in World
Politics. (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1981). Chapters 3-6 (pp.
106-210).
Recommended:
Evans, Peter. Dependent Development: The Alliance of Multinational, State and
Local Capital in Brazil.
(Princeton: Princeton Univ.
Press, 1979). Chpt. 1, pp.
14-54.
Cohen, Benjamin. The Question of Imperialism. (New York: Basic Books,
1973).
Schumpeter, Joseph. Imperialism and Social
Classes.
Kahler, Miles. Decolonization in Britain and
France.
Hobsbawm, E. J. Industry and Empire: From 1750 to the Present Day. (New York: Penguin Books, 1968, reprinted
1986).
Friday, Feb. 18: No Class
Week Five
Friday, Feb. 25: Institutional Liberalism
Gourevitch, Peter. "The Second Image Reversed: The International Sources of Domestic
Politics." International
Organization 32 (Autumn
1978):
881-912.
Keohane, Robert and Joseph
Nye. Power and
Interdependence: World Politics in
Transition. (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1977, 2nd. ed.,
1989). Parts I and V (pp. 3-60,
245-82).
Hirschman, Albert O. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms,
Organizations, and States.
Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1970). Chpts. 1-5
(pp. 1-61).
Baldwin, David A., ed. Neorealism and Neoliberalism: The Contemporary Debate. (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1993). Chpts. 1-8.
Moravcsik, Andrew. “Taking Preferences Seriously: A Liberal Theory of International
Politics.” International
Organization 51 (4)
(1997):
513-54.
Keohane, Robert O. After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World
Political Economy.
(Princeton: Princeton Univ.
Press, 1984). Chpts. 1-2, 4-7 (pp.
5-30, 49-132).
Recommended:
Axelrod, Robert. The Evolution of
Cooperation. (New York: Basic Books,
1984).
Taylor, Michael. The Possibility of
Cooperation. (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press,
1987).
Bull, Hedley.
The Anarchical Society: A
Study of Order in World Politics.
(New York: Columbia Univ.
Press, 1977). Chpts. 1-3 (pp.
3-76).
Baldwin, David.
"Power Analysis and World Politics:
New Trends Versus Old Tendencies." World Politics 31 (January, 1979),
pp. 471-506.
Krasner, Stephen, ed. International Regimes. (Ithaca: Cornell, 1983).
Powell, Robert. "The Neorealist-Neoliberal Debate." International Organization. Vol. 48, No. 2 (Spring 1994), pp. 313-344.
Friday, Mar.
4: No class and no PSC 272
lectures this week
Friday, Mar 11:
(during Spring Break) Constructivist Approaches
Wendt, Alexander. Social Theory of International
Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1999.
Abdelal, Rawi. National Purpose in the World
Economy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001. Chapters 1-2.
Week Seven
Friday, Mar. 18: Game
Theory, International Bargaining, and Contracting
Schelling, Thomas. The Strategy of Conflict. (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1960). Chpts. 1-3.
Powell, Robert. "Crisis Bargaining, Escalation, and
MAD." American Political Science
Review 81, No. 3 (September
1987):
717-37.
Powell, Robert. In the Shadow of Power: States and Strategies in International
Politics. (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1999).
Recommended:
Stone, Randall. Satellites and Commissars: Strategy and Conflict in the Politics of Soviet-Bloc Trade. (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1996).
Friday, Mar. 25: No class (Good
Friday)
Week Eight
Friday, April 1: Deterrence and
War
Schelling, Chpts. 8,
10.
Jervis, Robert. Perception and Misperception in
International Politics.
(Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1976). Part I
(pp. 3-113).
Huth, Paul K. “Extended Deterrence and the Outbreak of
War.” American Political Science
Review 82: 2 (June 1988): 423-44.
Fearon, James D. “Signaling versus the Balance of Power
and Interests: An Empirical test of
a Crisis Bargaining Model.” The
Journal of Conflict Resolution
38 (2) (June 1994): 236-69.
Jervis, Robert. "Cooperation under the Security
Dilemma." World Politics 30,
No. 2 (January 1978): 167-214.
Levy, Jack S. “Prospect Theory, Rational Choice, and
International Relations.”
International Studies Quarterly 41 (1) (March 1997): 87-112.
Recommended:
Powell, Robert. Nuclear Deterrence Theory: The Search for Credibility. (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press,
1990).
Bundy, McGeorge. Danger and Survival. (New York: Random House, 1989). Esp. pp. 578-611.
Betts, Richard. Nuclear Blackmail and Nuclear
Balance. (Washington,
D.C.: Brookings,
1987).
Week Nine
Friday, Apr. 8:
Theories of Rational War
Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce,
and David Lalman. War and
Reason: Domestic and International
Imperatives. (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1992).
Fearon, James D. "Rationalist Explanations for War." International Organization 49, No. 3 (Summer 1995): 379-414.
Slantchev, Branislav L. “The Power to Hurt: Costly Conflict with Completely Informed States.” American Political Science Review, Vol. 47, No. 1. (March, 2003), pp. 123-135.
Slantchev, Branislav L. “The Principle of Convergence in Wartime Negotiations.” American Political Science Review, Vol. 47, No. 4. (December, 2003), pp. 621-632.
Slantchev, Branislav L. “How Initiators End Their Wars: The
Duration of Warfare and the Terms of Peace.” American Journal of Political
Science, Vol. 48, No. 4. (October, 2004), pp. 813-829.
Week Ten
Friday, Apr. 15: Democratic Politics and International
Bargaining
Putnam, Robert D. “Diplomacy and Domestic Politics.” International Organization 42 (3) (Summer 1988): 427-61.
Downs, George W., and David
M. Rocke. Optimal
Imperfection? Domestic Uncertainty
and Institutions in International Relations. (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1995). Chpts. 3-6 (pp.
56-142).
Schultz, Kenneth. Democracy and Coercive
Diplomacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Tarar, Ahmer. “International Bargaining with Two-Sided
Domestic Constraints.” Journal
of Conflict Resolution 45 (3)
(June 2001):
320-40.
Recommended:
Milner, Helen V. Interests, Institutions, and
Information: Domestic Politics and
International Relations.
(Princeton: Princeton Univ.
Press, 1997). Chpts. 1-4 (pp.
3-128).
Week Eleven
Friday,
Apr. 22: The Democratic
Peace
Doyle, Michael. "Kant, Liberal Legacies, and Foreign
Affairs, Part I." Philosophy and
Public Affairs 12, No. 3
(Summer 1983): 205-35.
Kant, Immanuel. "Perpetual Peace, a Philosophical
Sketch." In Perpetual Peace and
Other Essays on Politics, History and Morals. Trans. Ted Humphrey. (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co.,
1983.)
Bueno de Mesquita and
Lalman. War and Reason. Chpt. 5.
Green, Donald, et. al. “Dirty Pool,” International
Organization 55 (2) (Spring
2001):
441-68.
Oneal, John R. and Bruce
Russett. “Clear and Clean: The Fixed Effects of the Liberal
Peace.” International
Organization 55 (2) (Spring
2001):
469-86.
Beck, Nathaniel, and
Jonathan Katz. “Throwing Out the
Baby with the Bath Water: A Comment
on Green, Kim and Yoon.”
International Organization
55 (2) (Spring 2001):
487-96.
Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce,
James D. Morrow, Randolph M. Siverson, and Alastair Smith, “An Institutional
Explanation of the Democratic Peace.”
American Political Science
Review 93 (4) (December
1999):
791-808.
Russett, Bruce.
Grasping the Democratic Peace:
Principles for a Post-Cold War World. (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1993). Chpts. 1, 2, 4 (pp. 3-42,
72-98).
Slantchev, Branislav L.,
Anna Alexandrova, Erik Gartzke.
“Probabilistic Causality, Selection Bias, and the Logic of the Democratic
Peace.” American Political Science Review (Forthcoming,
2005).
Friday,
April 29, 5:00 pm: Final Exam
Due