6 ECTS credits
156 u studietijd
Aanbieding 2 met studiegidsnummer 1016182BER voor alle studenten in het 2e semester met een verdiepend bachelor niveau.
In 1532, Fransesco de Vittoria wrote: “The sovereignty of the individual state is limited by the fact that it forms part of a community of nations linked by solidarity and mutual obligations.” At the same moment, Niccolò Machiavelli stated: “The sole plight of a prince is to uphold his power.“ Here we have two intellectuals with the ambition to advise political leaders living in the same region and in the same era, but with completely different opinions. There are many such examples.
The policy that we can observe – the pursuit of peace or the declarations of war, the ambition to promote the common good or the greedy desire for relative gains – is always an outcome of the way interests are defined, of how those interests are shaped by certain values, of how values on their turn are based on assumptions about how the world is organized, and of how those assumptions are often defined by distinct identity and history. This is not to argue that material changes, the shifts in the balance of power, are not important. They are still crucial, but besides the distribution of power, it remains equally important how we define power.
This course helps you understand the underlying assumptions that shape foreign policy, assumptions about how the world functions, about the role of the state, about how states are ought to respond to changes in the international order, and about how the behaviour of the states might be conditioned by trade, institutions, values, and so forth. You will be challenged to identify theoretical arguments in important publications, to test them and to embed them into your own thinking. Because that is the end goal: to use theory to enrich your thinking about world politics.
As a student with the ambition to lead or to study leadership, you have to be conscious that even your thinking is and will be shaped by implicit assumptions, to continue to reflect upon them, and to continuously ask yourself the question: Am I right in thinking this or are their other ways to look at the problem? This should not lead to indecision, but to strengthen your capacity to judge. Furthermore, it will help you understand the opinions and the behaviour of others. Consider that you negotiate about a military intervention and your counterpart resolutely says “no” because it does not want to violate sovereignty. That might appear irrational, but, then, it becomes useful to understand his interests and the assumptions behind them. That insight could give you an idea about how far you can push him on the issue or even allow you to formulate more convincing arguments to make him think twice.
This course challenges you to discover theory, to learn to understand it, to discuss it, and, most importantly, to use it. Building on history of international relations, you will have to work more independently in reading and interpreting different texts. We will continue to pursue interaction, but interaction will now be more intensive, because you will discuss your findings in small groups and those discussions will be evaluated as well. An assistant and I will help to get you going and teach you how to get your arguments across.
I expect you to have an active knowledge of the content of History of international relations. That course introduced the main strands of theory, key thinkers, and challenged you to make up your mind about how much some of the intellectual debates make sense. From History of international politics you should also be able to extract interesting cases for theory testing. You should have a good command of English and French.
This course consists of eight classes of 2,5 hours in which we discuss how different theories approach important themes of international politics. Apart from the first and the last class, we will start with discussing the readings in groups of four. Departing from a loosely formulated question, I want you to identify the main differences between the papers and to assess their merits. I will move around and evaluate how much you contribute. After a short break, there will be a plenary debate to summarize the findings.
Teaching Methods
This description of the teaching methods is indicative, in order to assess the expected study load.
REGULAR STUDENTS
Lecture: 20 hours (8 x 2,5 hours)
Self: 136 hours
De beoordeling bestaat uit volgende opdrachtcategorieën:
Examen Schriftelijk bepaalt 100% van het eindcijfer
Binnen de categorie Examen Schriftelijk dient men volgende opdrachten af te werken:
In order to stimulate interaction, debate, and reflection, class attendance is mandatory. You are expected to come to class well prepared, to be ready to discuss the reading materials, and to be up to date of new important events in international relations. You can be sure that you will be frequently asked to explain your views about certain issues and to comment on recent developments in world politics.
There will be a closed-book written exam.
Deze aanbieding maakt deel uit van de volgende studieplannen:
Bachelor in de politieke wetenschappen en de sociologie: - afstudeerrichting politieke wetenschappen
Bachelor in de politieke wetenschappen en de sociologie: - afstudeerrichting sociologie, minor politieke wetenschappen
Bachelor in de politieke wetenschappen en de sociologie: - afstudeerrichting politieke wetenschappen, minor onderwijs