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