Introduction to International Relations
Graduate Class
A 203
Wednesday (16:55 - 20:35)
Instructor: Tugrul Keskin
Cell: 86+15000-465734
E-mail: tugrulkeskin (at) t.shu.edu.cn
or Wechat: tugrulkeskin
A developing country that wants
to develop its economy must first of all keep natural resources in its own
hands.
- Deng Xiaoping
- Deng Xiaoping
Course Description and Objective
The focus of this course is global and comparative politics.
Therefore, the major themes of the course relate directly to comparative
political changes and conflicts in the 19th, 20th and 21st
centuries. In order to understand global politics, we need to explore the historical
legacy of international relations and economic transformation. Today’s
paradigms were created in relation to specific events in the past, and now continue
to fuel political conflicts and international relations. At the beginning of
the 20st century, there was a modern and bureaucratic state structure
in Europe, which emerged as a consequence of the industrialization of the late
18th century. The 18th and 19th century’s
patterns of industrialization then fueled domestic migration and the migration
of rural populations to the big cities, which led to mass urbanization and the
creation of the nation-state.
During and after the industrialization process, the emergence of the
nation-state led to the formation of nationalism and national identities, as we
know them today. This was also a product of the domestic market, and was used
in order to develop and expand capitalist interests. The decline of religious
identities has thus been replaced with the rise in national identities.
According to Karl Marx, the state and nationalism were necessary mechanisms of
exploitation, used to protect the interests of the bourgeoisie – or upper
classes. Nationalism became a new ‘religion’ and a mechanism to represent the collective
consciousness.
At the time of the 20th century economic revolution, we
witnessed rapid social changes, such as women’s participation in the workforce,
an increase in education across all sectors of the population, the popular use
of visual and print media, and the emergence of the nuclear family, among
numerous other trends. Changes such as this led to a flourishing multi-party
system democracy. However, the new economic system was also the engine of these
changes and has continued to reproduce itself for the sake of the free market
economy.
Today, capitalism has moved to a new
stage in its development in the second part of the twentieth century. The
political system of the nation-state changed because old style bureaucratic
structures created obstacles for the new free market economy. Therefore, the
role of the nation-state has since weakened and this has led to the formation
and predominance of powerful transnational corporations.
In this course, we will observe, analyze, and understand the
consequences of this transformation in comparative perspective. Every concept
and phenomenon will be explored within the disciplines of Sociology, Political
Science, International Relations and Global/International Studies. As an
introduction to these disciplines, the purpose of the course is to develop a
foundational knowledge of these fields, enhanced analytical skills, and to
develop a terminology that is relevant to a broad understanding of the
economic, social and political transformations of our time.
Learning Outcomes (Tugrul Keskin):
By
the end of the course, you will have enhanced your:
§
Critical
thinking in relation
to international studies
§
Ability
to question dogmas and taboos in today’s societies
§
Consciousness
of differing perspectives and diversity
§
Understanding
of world issues and trends
§
Understanding
of the impact of colonialism and imperialism in developing
nations
You also will increase your knowledge
concerning:
§
Resources
in your potential discipline
§
Resources
specific to your region
§
Traditional
information sources
§
Alternative
information sources
§
Knowledge
of relevant methodologies
Learning Outcomes
Core Learning Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding
of world politics within the context of globalization, as well as developing
the skills and attitudes to function as “global citizens.”
Specific Outcomes:
- Demonstrate knowledge of global issues, processes, trends and systems (i.e. economic and political interdependency among nations; environmental-cultural interaction; global governance bodies).
- Can articulate an understanding of her/his culture in global and comparative context; that is, recognizes that her/his culture is one of many diverse cultures and that alternate perceptions and behaviors may be based in cultural differences.
- Demonstrates an understanding of the meaning and practice of political, military, economic, and cultural hegemony within states and within the global system.
- Demonstrates an understanding of how her/his field is viewed and practiced in different international contexts.
- Uses diverse cultural perspectives and frames of reference, including those of the media, to think critically and solve problems.
- Uses information from other languages and other countries to extend their access to information and experiences.
- Interprets issues and situations from more than one cultural perspective.
- Can articulate differences among cultures; demonstrates tolerance for the diverse viewpoints that emerge from these differences.
- Demonstrates a critical understanding of the historical origins of the nation-state, and its current role in the global system.
- Can apply the key theoretical concepts in the field to interpret global issues.
- Exhibits an ongoing willingness to seek out international or intercultural opportunities.
Required Readings:
Readings in
Globalization: Key Concepts and Major Debates by George Ritzer and Zeynep Atalay (Editors), 2010. http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405132736.html
Recommended Readings:
- John J. Macionis and Ken Plummer. 2012. Sociology: A Global Introduction. Prentice-Hall.
- Leslie Sklair. 2004. Globalization: Capitalism and its alternatives. Oxford University Press.
- Sheila L. Croucher, 2004. Globalization and Belonging: The Politics of Identity in a Changing World, Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
- John Mearsheimer. 2003. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. New York: W.W.
Norton &
Company.
5. Judith Blau and Mark Frezzo. 2011. Sociology and Human Rights: A Bill of Rights for the Twenty-First Century. Sage. http://www.sagepub.com/books/Book235439
- David Harvey. 2006. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford University Press. http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Politics/PoliticalTheory/ContemporaryPoliticalThought/?view=usa&ci=9780199283279
- Jeffry A. Frieden. 2007. Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century. W.W. Norton. http://books.wwnorton.com/books/detail.aspx?ID=8193
- J. Timmons Roberts, Amy Bellone Hite. 2007. The Globalization and Development Reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
- J. R. McNeill. 2011. Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the 20th Century World. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
- Naomi Klein. 2007. The Sock Doctrine. New York, NY: Metropolitan Books.
- William I. Robinson. 2004. A Theory of Global Capitalism: Production, Class, and State in a Transnational World. Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press.
- Richard P. Appelbaum and William I. Robinson. 2005. Critical Globalization Studies. New York, NY: Routledge.
13. Samuel Martinez. 2009. International Migration and Human Rights: The Global Repercussions of U.S. Policy. University of California Press.
http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520258211
Recommended Movies and documentaries:
- The War On Democracy - John Pilger
- The Secret Country by John Pilger
- The New Rulers of the World John Pilger
- Ten Canoes (2007)
- Citizen Kane (1941)
- The Fountainhead (1949)
· Death of a Salesman (1985)
- Fight Club (1999)
- Pleasantville (1998)
- American Beauty (1999)
- The Truman Show (1998)
- The Corporation (2003)
- Treble Army – Lullabomb
- Animal Farm - George Orwell - 1954
- Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
- 1984 - George Orwell
- Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
- Brazil - 1985
- 12 Monkeys - 2009
Course Philosophy:
The goal of this course is to
become familiar with the social, political and economic underpinnings of
International Relations. The success of this course depends on your continued
and sustained reading and participation. The course will be based on a
four-dimensional method of learning, and this includes inquiry and critical
thinking; communication; and will draw on the diversity of human experience;
and ethics and social responsibility. First, I would like you to critically
analyze what you learn in this class or have learned so far through the media
and your education, because in today’s world, truth is a relative concept. Throughout
human history, critical thinking is one of the most important factors that have
contributed to human development. In order to become active,
self-motivated, and empowered learners and future leaders, you will need to
have the ability to think critically, and therefore your criticism, feedback
and suggestions are necessary. Second, I would like for you to enhance your
writing and oral communication skills in this course. Therefore, it is
important to clearly elaborate your arguments in class discussion as well as in
the written assignments.
Third, we are each part of the
human mosaic, and all have different experiences based on our unique social,
political and economic differences. We can all learn from and respect each
other and benefit from our diversity. Please try to learn from and understand
those with different perspectives from your own. Lastly, we need to learn that
we are all part of this intellectual community and part of a larger society,
and all have social and ethical responsibilities to our family, community,
classmates, and humanity. We live in a globalized world and therefore, we need
to be aware of events in our community, and the world today. In order to
enhance our knowledge, we must critically examine our social, political and economic
environment in order to apply this knowledge to our experience.
Course Requirements
To prevent confusion later,
please read the following information:
Grades: Your grade for
this course will be based on your performance on the following components,
shown below with their dates and respective weights.
Item Date Weight (%)
Quizzes (5) 30.0
Weekly Class Presentations 20.0
Class Participation/Attendance 10.0
Newspaper Articles 10.0
The grading system in this class is as follows:
A 95-100
A- 90-94
B+ 86-89
B 85
B- 80-84
C+ 76-79
C 75
C- 70-74
D+ 66-69
D 65
D- 60-64
F (Failure)
Final Paper: In this requirement, you will select three
academic articles and will review (summarize and critique) the authors’
perspectives and compare them with each other. This paper should be at least
3000 words in length. Recommended articles will be provided by the
instructor. The paper is last day of the class. No one will read or review the
same article. Your selection must be approved and registered by me; therefore, you must contact me
directly regarding your selection. The deadline for selecting/registering your
article with me is Sunday, 4th week of the class. The deadline for submitting
your review is Sunday. Late submissions will not be accepted.
Quizzes: You will have 5 quizzes. The quizzes will have 12
questions from each week’s class readings and discussions. Each Quiz is worth 6
points and each question is worth 0.5 point. You will find the schedule of
quizzes below. Please carefully review the quiz schedule. If you have schedule
conflict, drop the class. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not
hesitate to contact me directly.
Attendance: Regular
attendance is one of the most important parameters to successful completion of
the course requirements. If you miss more than 4 classes, you will not receive
an attendance grade. Excuses will not be
permitted for any reason.
Class
Participation: Each student must read the course materials before they
attend class and I expect them to participate in class discussion. Class
participation in the form of informed questions and comments will be taken into
consideration when determining your final grade. Additionally, the class
participation grade also depends on class attendance.
Newspaper Articles: During the semester, you can bring 10
newspaper articles related with our class subjects. You cannot bring more
than one article in the same week. You will have to summarize these
articles in class and will find the recommended newspapers listed on http://internationalstudiesandsociology.blogspot.it/,
under the external links section.
Newspaper articles sent by email will not be accepted. Please bring it to
class, the first page of the printed/hard copy of the article. You can only
bring an article from the selected newspapers, posted on http://internationalstudiesandsociology.blogspot
and you will find them under links section. Some of the recommended newspapers
are The Guardian, Al-Jazeera, Democracynow.org, Financial Times, The New York
Times, The Wall Street Journal, Pravda, Haaretz, China Daily, and the
Economist. Please do not bring articles from local newspapers!
PLEASE
READ CAREFULLY!
Coming late to class: Late comers will not be accepted to class, so
be on time. If you are late for a class, please do not disturb your classmates
and me and do not come at all. Please also do not send an email or call me regarding your class
attendance. If there is a medical need, bring an official letter from a doctor.
Whatever the reason is, if you cannot come to class, this is your
responsibility. If you miss more than 4 classes, you will not receive an
attendance grade.
PLEASE
READ CAREFULLY!
Laptop and
cell phone policy: No laptops or cell phones will be allowed in this
class. Please turn your cell phone off before you come to class. If you use
the Internet/laptop or your cell phone during class, you will be asked to
leave.
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES:
- Why a leading professor of new media just banned technology use in class
- Why you should take notes by hand — not on a laptop
- To Remember a Lecture Better, Take Notes by Hand
Responsibility: You and/or your parents pay tuition for this
class; therefore, you have responsibility to yourself and/or your parents.
Passing or failing the class is not the main objective, rather that you learn
and improve your knowledge. Please read and try to understand the main concepts
of this class. If you are having difficulty, please do not hesitate to see me
and discuss your concerns!
Each year, almost half a million
people graduate from Chinese and American public universities (see http://collegecompletion.chronicle.com/).
As you will see from the statistics, the job market is very competitive;
therefore, students need to improve their knowledge, skill, and experience in
order to find a job they want. Learning is a lifelong process. An academic
institution like Shanghai University will provide you with an educational
discipline and methodology; everything else is up to you. You should study and
improve your skills, in order to compete with the rest of the graduates. While
you are in the program, you should apply for internships to obtain relevant
experiences before you graduate. Therefore, if you need a letter of
recommendation for an internship or job, please do not hesitate to ask me, if you
receive at least an A, A- or B+ grade from my class. Please also remember that
an undergraduate degree might not be enough to find the job you want;
therefore, you might need to apply to graduate school. In order to apply to
graduate school, you will also need to have a letter of recommendation. I am
also happy to advise you on graduate school or provide a letter of
recommendation if you receive an A, A- or B+ grade.
No Laptops and cell phones
will be allowed in this class.
Course Timeline
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WEEK 1
|
1
Introduction to Globalization Debates.
1 Is
Globalization Civilizing, Destructive or Feeble? A Critique of Five Key
Debates in the Social Science Literature (Mauro F. Guillén).
Part I
Political Economy.
2
Civilizations.
2 The Clash of
Civilizations? (Samuel P. Huntington).
3 Global
Utopias and Clashing Civilizations: Misunderstanding the Present (John
Gray).
4 Can
Civilizations Clash? (Jack F. Matlock, Jr).
5 History
Ends, Worlds Collide (Chris Brown).
6 If Not
Civilizations, What? Paradigms of the Post-Cold War World (Samuel P.
Huntington).
3
Orientalism, Colonialism, and Postcolonialism.
7 Orientalism:
Introduction (Edward W. Said).
8 Orientalism
and Orientalism in Reverse (Sadik Jalal al-'Azm).
9
Postcolonialism and Its Discontents (Ali Rattansi).
10 Said’s
Orientalism: A Vital Contribution Today (Peter Marcuse).
|
|
WEEK 2
|
4
Neoliberalism.
11 Freedom
versus Collectivism in Foreign Aid (William Easterly).
12 The Great
Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time (Karl Polanyi).
13 Freedom’s
Just Another Word . . . (David Harvey).
14
Neoliberalism as Exception, Exception to Neoliberalism (Aihwa Ong).
5
Structural Adjustment.
15 Structural
Adjustment in East and Southeast Asia: Lessons from Latin America (Jim
Glassman and Pádraig Carmody).
16 The Social
Consequences of Structural Adjustment: Recent Evidence and Current Debates (Sarah
Babb).
17 The Human
Rights Effects of World Bank Structural Adjustment, 1981–2000 (M. Rodwan
Abouharb and David L. Cingranelli).
18 How International
Monetary Fund and World Bank Policies Undermine Labor Power and Rights (Vincent
Lloyd and Robert Weissman).
19 Who Has
Failed Africa?: IMF Measures or the African Leadership? (Gerald Scott).
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WEEK 3
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6
Nation-State.
20 Sociology and
the Nation-State in an Era of Shifting Boundaries (Donald N. Levine).
21 The
Westfailure System (Susan Strange).
22
Globalization and the Myth of the Powerless State (Linda Weiss).
23
Globalization and the Resilience of State Power (Daniel Béland).
24 Beyond
Nation-State Paradigms: Globalization, Sociology, and the Challenge of
Transnational Studies (William I. Robinson).
|
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WEEK 4
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7
Transnationalism.
25
Transnational Practices (Leslie Sklair).
26 Social
Theory and Globalization: The Rise of a Transnational State (William I.
Robinson).
27 Revisiting
the Question of the Transnational State: A Comment on William Robinson's
"Social Theory and Globalization" (Philip McMichael).
8 World
Systems.
28 The
Modern World-System: Theoretical Reprise (Immanuel Wallerstein).
29 Competing
Conceptions of Globalization (Leslie Sklair).
|
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WEEK 5
|
9 Empire.
30 Empire
(Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri).
31 The Global
Coliseum: On Empire (Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri interviewed by
Nicholas Brown and Imre Szeman).
32 Retrieving
the Imperial: Empire and International Relations (Tarak Barkawi and
Mark Laffey).
33 Africa: the
Black Hole at the Middle of Empire? (David Moore).
34 The New
World Order (They Mean It) (Stanley Aronowitz).
35 Adventures of
the Multitude: Response of the Authors (Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri).
|
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WEEK 6
|
10 Network
Society and Informationalism.
36 Toward a
Sociology of the Network Society (Manuel Castells).
37
Depoliticizing Globalization: From Neo-Marxism to the Network Society of
Manuel Castells (Peter Marcuse).
11 World
Risk Society and Cosmopolitanism.
38 The
Terrorist Threat: World Risk Society Revisited (Ulrich Beck).
39 Risk,
Globalisation and the State: A Critical Appraisal of Ulrich Beck and the
World Risk Society Thesis (Darryl S. L. Jarvis).
40 Unpacking
Cosmopolitanism for the Social Sciences: A Research Agenda (Ulrich Beck
and Natan Sznaider).
41
Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism (Craig Calhoun).
|
|
WEEK 7
|
12 McWorld
and Jihad.
42 Jihad vs McWorld
(Benjamin R. Barber).
43 Paris Is
Burning: Jihad vs McWorld by Benjamin R. Barber (Fareed Zakaria).
44 Sovereignty
and Emergency: Political Theology, Islam and American Conservatism (Bryan
S. Turner).
45 On
Terrorism and the New Democratic Realism (Benjamin R. Barber).
|
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WEEK 8
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Part II
Culture.
46
Globalization and Culture: Three Paradigms (Jan Nederveen Pieterse).
13
Creolization, Hybridity, and Glocalization.
47 The World
in Creolisation (Ulf Hannerz).
48 Flows,
Boundaries and Hybrids: Keywords in Transnational Anthropology (Ulf
Hannerz).
49
Globalization as Hybridization (Jan Nederveen Pieterse).
50
Glocalization: Time–Space and Homogeneity–Heterogeneity (Roland Robertson).
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WEEK 9
|
14
Critiquing Creolization, Hybridity, and Glocalization.
51 Hybridity,
So What? The Anti-Hybridity Backlash and the Riddles of Recognition (Jan
Nederveen Pieterse).
52 The Global,
the Local, and the Hybrid: A Native Ethnography of Glocalization (Marwan
M. Kraidy).
53
Globalization and Trinidad Carnival: Diaspora, Hybridity and Identity in
Global Culture (Keith Nurse).
54 Mapping the
“Glocal” Village: The Political Limits of “Glocalization” (William H.
Thornton).
55 Rethinking
Globalization: Glocalization/Grobalization and Something/Nothing (George
Ritzer).
56 Dialectics
of Something and Nothing: Critical Reflections on Ritzer’s Globalization
Analysis (Douglas Kellner).
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WEEK 10
|
15
McDonaldization.
57 An
Introduction to McDonaldization (George Ritzer).
58
McDonaldization and the Global Culture of Consumption (Malcolm Waters).
59 The
McDonald’s Mosaic: Glocalization and Diversity (Bryan S. Turner).
60
Transnationalism, Localization, and Fast Foods in East Asia (James L.
Watson).
61 Global
Implications of McDonaldization and Disneyization (Alan Bryman).
62
Glocommodification: How the Global Consumes the Local – McDonald's in Israel
(Uri Ram).
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