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University of Southern California Prof. Ann Tickner
School of International Relations Office: SOS B5
IR 501, Spring 2012 Phone: 740-2266
Seminar: Tuesdays, 2pm-5pm, tic[email protected]
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 2:30-5:00pm, and by appointment
ADVANCED INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY
Thematic Introduction
This is an advanced theory course in International Relations designed for POIR Ph.D
students. It is intended to compliment IR 500 and it assumes that students are already familiar
with literatures and approaches covered in 500. The course will take a historical multi-
paradigm approach, investigating some of the earlier literatures that have influenced the
various theoretical traditions in the discipline of International Relations. Although each week
is identified as presenting different approaches or paradigms, where possible, multiple
approaches and debates between them will be integrated into each week’s assignments. In the
interests of deparochializing an Anglo-American literature and emphasizing the global
character of the field, the course will include the contributions of non-American and hybrid
American scholars from different times and places. The course will also include some
readings on how knowledge is constructed in a variety of epistemological traditions. Since
the course is intended for students who are, or will in the near future, be writing Ph.D
dissertation proposals, we will devote one week to reading and critiquing some recently
completed Ph.D dissertations.
Seminar Requirements
It is imperative that students attend each weekly seminar and do the reading before the week
for which it is assigned. Students will be assigned responsibility for leading the discussion of
some portion of the reading each week and writing up brief summaries to be distributed to the
class one day before the class meeting. Since many weeks contain a great number of
readings, readings will be assigned to students one week ahead of time on an individual basis
so not everyone will be required to read all the readings. In addition, students will write two 5
page critical summaries of a portion of the readings from two different weeks. Students are
free to choose on which weeks they wish to write their papers. The papers will be due one
week after the class in which the chosen readings are discussed. Students will also write a
critical review of a recently completed Ph.D. dissertation. I have the dissertations in my
office and students may choose from among them. Please make your selections before the
spring break. This assignment is due on March 27. The final project will be a draft version of
a dissertation and/or research proposal of the student’s choosing. Ideally, it will incorporate
some of the material covered in the course. This paper is due on May 4. The two literature
review papers will count for 10% each, the Ph.D critique for 20%, attendance, class
discussion and short outlines for 30% and the final paper for 30%.
Students requesting academic accommodations based on disability are required to
register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of
verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP when adequate
documentation is filed. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me as early in the
semester as possible.
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Readings:
Wewillbereadingallorasubstantialpartofthefollowingbooks.Theyareavailablefor
purchaseintheBookstoreandareonreserveintheLeaveyLibrary.Otherrequired
readingsareavailableinelectronicform(soindicatedbyanasterisk).Theywillbe
postedonBlackboard.
Barry Buzan and Richard Little, International Systems in World History: Remaking the Study
of International Relations, Oxford University Press, 2000.
David Campbell, Writing Security: United States Foreign Policy and the Politics of Identity,
Revised edition, University of Minnesota Press, 1998.
Michael W. Doyle, Ways of War and Peace, W.W. Norton, 1997
NicolasGuilhoted.,TheInventionofInternationalRelationsTheory,ColumbiaUniversity
Press,2011
Stefano Guzzini and Anna Leander, eds., Constructivism and International Relations:
Alexander Wendt and his Critics, Routledge, 2006
Lene Hansen, Security as Practice, Discourse Analysis and the Bosnian War, Routledge,
2006
Patrick Jackson, The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations: Philosophy of Science
and its Implications for the Study of World Politics, Routledge, 2011
Andrew Linklater, The Transformation of Political Community: Ethical Foundations of the
Post-Westphalian Era, University of South Carolina Press, 1998
Richard M. Price, ed., Moral Limit and Possibility in World Politics, Cambridge University
Press, 2008
J. Ann Tickner and Laura Sjoberg, eds., Feminism and International Relations:
Conversations about the Past, Present and Future, Routledge, 2011
Alexander Wendt, Social Theory of International Politics, Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Please see page 8 of syllabus for additional background reading
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Course Outline:
Weeks 1 and 2: January 10 and 17th
How Do We Construct Knowledge for International Relations?:
PATRICK JACKSON WILL ATTEND CLASS ON JANUARY 10
Patrick Jackson, The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations: Philosophy of Science
and its Implications for the Study of World Politics, Routledge, 2011
*Martin Hollis and Steve Smith, Explaining and Understanding International Relations,
Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1991 (Excerpts)
Barry Buzan and Richard Little, International Systems in World History: Remaking the Study
of International Relations, Oxford University Press, 2000, Part I
Recommended:
Peregrine Schwartz-Shea and Dvora Yanow, Interpretive Research Design: Concepts and
Practices (unpublished)
Weeks 3 and 4: January 24 and 31
Birth and Development of the Modern Era: Historical Precursors to Contemporary
International Relations Theories
Barry Buzan and Richard Little, International Systems in World History: Remaking the Study
of International Relations, Oxford University Press, 2000, Skim parts II and III, Read Part IV
*Stephen Toulmin, Cosmopolis: The Hidden Agenda of Modernity, University of Chicago
Press, 1992, chs. 1 and 2
*Hayward Alker, “The Humanistic Moment in International Studies: Reflections on
Machiavelli and Las Casas,” chapter 4 in Alker, Rediscoveries and Reformulations,
Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Michael Doyle, Ways of War and Peace, W.W. Norton, 1997, Part I
Recommended:
Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, Random House, New York, 1950
Week 5: February 7
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Modernity, Colonialism and Postcolonialism:
NAEEM INAYATULLAH WILL ATTEND CLASS ON FEBRUARY 7
*Richard Devetak, “The Project of Modernity and International Relations Theory,”
Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 24: 27-51 (1995)
*Tzvetan Todorov, The Conquest of America, Harper Perennial, 1992. (excerpts)
Naeem Inayatullah and David Blaney, International Relations and the Problem of Difference,
Routledge, 2004
Week 6: February 14
Realism Revisited
Nicolas Guilhot ed., The Invention of International Relations Theory, Columbia University
Press, 2011
*Michael Williams, “Why Ideas Matter in International Relations: Hans Morgenthau,
Classical Realism, and the Moral Construction of Power Politics,” International
Organization vol. 58:4 (2004)
*Stacie Goodard and Daniel Nexon, “Paradigm Lost: Reassessing Theory of International
Relations,” European Journal of International Relations, vol. 11:1 (2005)
*J. Ann Tickner, “Hans Morgenthau’s Principles of Political Realism: A Feminist
Reformulation,” Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 17: 3 (1998)
Weeks 7 and 8: February 21 and 28
Constructivism
*Richard Price and Christian Reus-Smit, “ Dangerous Liaisons? Critical International Theory
and Constructivism,” European Journal of International Relations, vol. 4:3 (1998)
Alexander Wendt, Social Theory of International Politics, Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Particularly pages 1-44, 92-192, 247-312
Stefano Guzzini and Anna Leander, eds., Constructivism and International Relations:
Alexander Wendt and his Critics, Routledge, 2006
*Alastair Iain Johnston, “Treating International Institutions as Social Environments, “
International Studies Quarterly, 45: 4 (2001)
*J. Samuel Barkin, “Realist Constructivism,” International Studies Review, 5: 3 (2003)
Recommended:
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Maja Zeyfuss, Constructivism in International Relations: The Politics of Reality, Cambridge
University Press, 2002
Karin Fierke and Knud Erik Jorgensen, eds., Constructing International Relations: The Next
Generation, M.E. Sharpe, 2001
Nicholas Onuf, Worlds of our Making, University of South Carolina Press, 1989
Week 9: March 6
Ethical Issues and Normative Theorizing in International Relations
RICHARD PRICE WILL ATTEND CLASS ON MARCH 6
Richard M. Price, Moral Limit and Possibility in World Politics, Cambridge University Press,
2008
Michael W. Doyle, Ways of War and Peace, W.W. Norton, 1997, Part IV
Recommended:
“Responsible Scholarship in International Relations: A Symposium” edited by J. Ann
Tickner and Andrei Tsygankov, International Studies Review,10: 4 (2008)
MARCH 13 SPRING BREAK
Week 10: March 20
Ph.D. dissertations
We will have student presentations and discussions of some recent Ph.D dissertations. They
are available in my office and students may choose from among them.
March 27: PAPER DUE
Week 11: March 27
Liberalism
Michael Doyle, Ways of War and Peace, Part II
*Andrew Moravcsik, “Taking Preferences Seriously: A Liberal Theory of International
Relations,” International Organization, 51:513‐553 (1997)
*Christian Reus‐Smit, “The Strange Death of Liberal IR Theory,” European Journal of
International Law, Vol. 12: 573‐593 (2001)
READINGS CONTINUE ON NEXT PAGE
*Jeffrey Checkel, “International Norms and Domestic Politics: Bridging the Rationalist
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Constructivist Divide,” European Journal of International Relations, 3:473-495 (1997)
*Jennifer Sterling-Folker, “Competing Paradigms or Birds of a Feather? Constructivism and
Neoliberal Institutionalism Compared,” International Studies Quarterly, 44: 97-119 (2000)
Week 12: April 3
Marxism and Critical Theory
Michael Doyle, Ways of War and Peace, Part III
Andrew Linklater, The Transformation of Community: Ethical Foundations of the Post-
Westphalian Era, University of South Carolina Press, 1998
*Robert Cox, “Social Forces, States and World Orders: Beyond International Relations
Theory,” Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 10: 126-155 (1981)
Recommended:
Mark Neufield The Restructuring of International Relations Theory, Cambridge University
Press, 1995
Week 13: April 10
Feminism
*J. Ann Tickner, “What is Your Research Program? Some Feminist Answers to IR’s
Methodological Questions,” International Studies Quarterly, 49: 1-21 (2005).
J. Ann Tickner and Laura Sjoberg, eds., Feminism and International Relations:
Conversations about the Past, Present and Future, Routledge, 2011
Week 14: April 17
Poststructuralism and Postmodernism
David Campbell, Writing Security: United States Foreign Policy and the Politics of Identity,
University of Minnesota Press, 1998
Lene Hansen, Security as Practice, Discourse Analysis and the Bosnian War, Routledge,
2006
Recommended:
R.B.J. Walker, Inside/Outside: International Relations as Political Theory, Cambridge
University Press, 1993
Janice Bially Mattern, Ordering International Politics: Identity, Crisis, and Representational
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Force, Routledge, 2005.
James Der Derian, On Diplomacy: A Genealogy of Western Estrangement, Blackwell’s,
1987.
James Der Derian & Michael Shapiro, eds., International/ Intertextual Relations,
Lexington Books, 1989.
Week 15: April 24
Beyond the Anglo-American Tradition: IR Theory Around the World
Arlene Tickner and Ole Waever, eds., International Relations Scholarship Around the World,
Routledge, 2010
*Knud Eric Jorgensen, “Continental IR Theory: The Best Kept Secret,” European Journal of
International Relations, vol. 6:1 (2000)
*Giorgio Shani, “Toward a Post-Western IR: The Umma, Khalso Panth, and Critical
International Relations Theory,” International Studies Review, vol. 10: 4 (2008)
*William Callahan, “Chinese Visions of World Order: Post-hegemonic or a New
Hegemony?” International Studies Review, vol. 10:4 (2008)
Recommended:
John Hobson, The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation, Cambridge University Press,
2004.
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Background Reading:
SincethisisnotthefirstcoursecoveringIRtheorythatstudentsshouldhavetaken,I
havenotassignedaspecificweekasanintroductiontothehistoryofthediscipline
althoughhistoricalandfoundationalmaterialswillbeassignedthroughoutthecourse.
Althoughtheyarenotrequiredreading,thefollowingprovidesomegeneraloverviewof
thehistoricalandtheoreticaldevelopmentofInternationalRelationsasadiscipline.
Raymond Aron, Peace and War, Doubleday, 1966.
Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics, Columbia, New
York, 1977.
E. H. Carr, The Twenty Years Crisis, Harper Torchback, 1964 (originally 1939)
Robert M. A. Crawford, and Darryl S.L. Jarvis, eds, International Relations: Still an
American Social Science? Toward Diversity in International Thought, State University of
New York Press, 2001.
Tim Dunne, Milja Kurki, and Steve Smith, International Relations Theories: Discipline and
Diversity, Oxford University Press, 2007.
Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics, Cambridge University Press, 1981.
Stanley Hoffman, “An American Social Science: International Relations,” Daedalus 106
(1977) 41-59.
Torbjorn L. Knutsen, A History of International Relations Theory, 2
nd
ed., Manchester
University Press, 1997.
Justin Rosenberg, The Empire of Civil Society: A Critique of the Realist Theory of
International Relations, Verso, London and New York, 1994.
Brian C. Schmidt, The Political Discourse of Anarchy: A Disciplinary History of
International Relations, State University of New York, 1998.
J. Ann Tickner, Gender in International Relations, Columbia University Press, 1992
Quincy Wright, The Study of International Relations, Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1955,