PI158 Course Guide 2020 2021 ix PDF

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SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

COURSE GUIDE 2020/2021 DEPARTMENT OF POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS PI1518 Introduction to Politics and International Relations: Power and Conflict Welcome to the School of Social Science. This course guide gives information about the social science course you have chosen to study. It must be read in conjunction with the School of Social Science Student Handbook, which is available on MyAberdeen. You should also look at the School of Social Science Information for Undergraduates page on MyAberdeen. MyAberdeen is the University of Aberdeen’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). This is where you will find learning materials and resources associated with the courses you are studying. MyAberdeen also provides direct access to TurnitinUK, the online originality checking service, through which you may be asked to submit completed assignments. You can log in to MyAberdeen using your University username and password (which you use to access the University network). Further information on MyAberdeen including Quick Guides and video tutorials, along with information about TurnitinUK, is available from the Toolkit.

Course Co-ordinator The Course Co-ordinator for PI1518 is Dr Ilia Xypolia (Room: F32, Edward Wright Building; e-mail: [email protected]). This is a team-taught course. Other lecturers on the course are: Dr Natasha Danilova: [email protected] Dr Manu Lekunze: [email protected] Dr Joanne McEvoy: [email protected] Dr Daniel Paget: [email protected] Dr Andrea Teti: [email protected] Dr David Toke: [email protected] Dr Ritu Vij: [email protected] 1

Tutors Charlen Anozie: [email protected] Chayuth Chamnanseth: [email protected] Mustafa Khedewi: [email protected] Emad Elfurtia: [email protected] Fredericke Weiner: [email protected] Stephan Ritscher: [email protected] Kathleen Greaver: [email protected]

Departmental Support The Departmental Support for PI1518 is Janice Longhurst [email protected]

External Examiner Dr Branwen Gruffydd Jones, Cardiff University (International Relations UG) Professor William Maloney, Newcastle University (Politics UG) The External Examiner’s name is provided for information purposes only. Students should not, under any circumstances, contact the External Examiner.

Credit Rating This course is offered in the second half-session. It has a rating of 15 credit points; that is, it is expected to take up 25% of the time of a full-time student. (One 30 credit course is 50% of the time of a full-time student.)

Course Requirements and Assessment Requirements  

Satisfactory participation in tutorials and online discussions Submission of course assessments (listed below) by the relevant deadlines

Course Aims PI1518 ‘Introduction to Politics and International Relations II’ is intended to introduce students to core concepts, issues and theories that are fundamental to studying politics and international relations. In this course, the concepts, issues and theories covered include power, conflict, political economy, terrorism, conflict resolution, movement politics, gender and rising powers. Main Learning Outcomes Students will acquire knowledge and understanding of some of the central concepts and theories in Politics and International Relations. Students will acquire a self-reliant and critical approach to 2

studying the fundamentals of the discipline, as well as developing effective written and oral communication and analysis skills. Intellectual Skills Through this course students should be able to: Identify a range of concepts and tools in Politics and International Relations Describe and interpret a range of evidence and information. Assess and analyse a range of evidence and information Begin to demonstrate a critical approach. Practical Skills Students will develop and demonstrate a range of important practical skills. They should be able to: Process and organise information to which they have been directed. Demonstrate basic research skills in identifying and retrieving relevant information from secondary sources. Comprehend and implement proper referencing and bibliographic practices. Plan and write a coherent and logical essay. Transferable Skills This course will also develop important transferable skills, including: Effective oral and written communication of information. Self-confidence in giving oral presentations and participating in group discussion. Basic time-management. Self-reliance and responsibility for one’s own work. Assessment This course is assessed by: 1. Online quiz (30%): Deadline 17:00 Friday 12 February 2. Essay (30%) (1,000 words): Deadline 17:00, Friday 2 April 3. End of Term Online Test (40%): Deadline 17:00, Friday 7 May Assessment 1: Online Quiz This test covers the material delivered in weeks one and two. It should be completed individually. It will consist of 22 questions, covering the lecture topics of power, approaches to global politics, and rising powers. The test will take place online via MyAberdeen. Detailed instructions for this assignment will be uploaded on MyAberdeen prior to the test. Assessment 2: Essay Submission of ONE 1,000 word essay (10% leeway on word count) by 17:00, Friday 02 April 2021. Note: Footnotes are included in the word count. Bibliography is NOT included in the word count. Students are encouraged to use the Harvard system of referencing, but any recognised reference format is acceptable provided it is accurate and consistent.

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If an essay is handed in after the submission date without an acceptable reason, then, the highest mark it can be awarded is D3. Feedback on essays will be provided within three weeks of the submission date. Choose one question from the following: 1. Does ‘soft power’ matters for world politics? 2. How does IR theory help us understand global politics? 3. ‘War between the U.S. and China is more likely than recognized at the moment. Indeed, judging by the historical record, war is more likely than not (Graham Allison).’ Discuss. 4. Discuss the core differences between realist and liberalist approaches to the study and practice of peace and security. 5. Did Sierra Leone’s civil war begin and persist for the same reasons? Justify your answer. 6. Discuss critically UN efforts to preserve international peace and security. 7. Should we distinguish between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ forms of terrorism? What are the political implications of this distinction? 8. ‘Including more women in politics will make the world more peaceful’. Critically examine this statement. 9. What is ‘anarchism’? Are protests like Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter better understood as anarchist movements and why? 10. In 2010 and 2011 the Arab Uprisings spread across many Middle Eastern countries. Why did some countries appear ‘immune’ from them? 11. To what extent does the notion of globalisation involve conflicts about race and power?

Assessment 3: End of Term Test This test covers the material delivered from week 3 until 11. It should be completed individually. It will consist of 44 questions, covering the relevant lecture topics. The test will take place online via MyAberdeen. Detailed instructions for this assignment will be uploaded on MyAberdeen prior to the test.

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Lectures Lecture materials will be made available on MyAberdeen each Monday morning. These will mostly take the form of short recorded lectures, but the precise format will be decided by the lecturers e.g. some might prefer to provide notes, or a combination of video and notes. Contacting the lecturers: You can email the lecturing staff with any questions about the weekly topics, preparation for essays and so on. If you’d like to speak with them, you can email and make an appointment to meet on MS Teams during staff office hours. Week no.

Uni week no.

Date

1

26

25 January

Topic and lecturer Introduction: Power (Ilia Xypolia) Approaches to Global Politics (Joanne McEvoy)

2

27

1 February

Approaches to Global Politics (Joanne McEvoy) Rising Powers (Ilia Xypolia)

3

28

8 February

Armed conflict in International Relations (Manu Lekunze) Intra-state conflict: Sierra Leone case study (Daniel Paget)

4

29

15 February

Conflict Resolution: UN, Peacebuilding & R2P 1 (Joanne McEvoy ) Conflict Resolution: UN, Peacebuilding & R2P 2 (Joanne McEvoy )

5

30

22 February

6

31

1 March

Reading Week (No Lectures) What is Terrorism? (Ilia Xypolia) What Causes Terrorism? (Ilia Xypolia)

7

32

8 March

Gendering Global Politics, Security and War 1 (Natasha Danilova) Gendering Global Politics, Security and War 2 (Natasha Danilova)

8

33

15 March

Protest Movements (Occupy Wall Street and BLM) 1 (Ritu Vij ) Protest Movements (Occupy Wall Street and BLM) 2 (Ritu Vij)

9

34

22 March

Arab Uprisings 1 (Andrea Teti) Arab Uprisings 2 (Andrea Teti)

10

35

29 March

Global Political Economy 1 (David Toke) Global Political Economy 2 (David Toke) **Spring Break – 5 to 23 April**

11

39

26 April

Employability (Stuart Durkin) Nuclear Proliferation (Ilia Xypolia)

12

40

3 May

Reading Week (No Lectures)

13

41

10 May

Revision (Ilia Xypolia)

5

Tutorials and student activities You will be able to choose your tutorials and finalise your personal timetable via MyTimetable. Step-by-step online help will guide you through this process. If you experience any problems with timetables/tutorial scheduling, please contact Janice Longhurst in the School office ([email protected]). Once signed up for a tutorial group, you MUST stay in that group. Changes of group will only be allowed in exceptional circumstances and must be approved in advance by the course co-ordinator. You will meet your tutor and other tutorial group members in week 3. From then, tutorials will alternate with discussion boards i.e. you will contribute to an online discussion within your assigned tutorial group. Please see the schedule of student activities listed below for full details.

Week (uni teaching week)

Week commencing

1 (26)

25 January

Online activity – MyAberdeen Activity 1.1: Getting to know each other

2 (27)

1 February

Online activity – MyAberdeen Activity 2.1: Visualising Power

3 (28)

8 February

Tutorial 1: Approaches to Global Politics

4 (29) 5 (30)

Tutorial Topic

ASSESSMENT no 1: Online Quiz, deadline 5pm Friday 12 February 15 February Online activity – MyAberdeen Activity 4.1: Visualising Conflict 22 February READING WEEK

6 (31)

1 March

Tutorial 2: Conflict Resolution

7 (32)

8 March

Tutorial 3: Terrorism

8 (33)

15 March

Discussion Forum – MyAberdeen Activity 8.1: Gendering Global Politics, Security and War

9 (34)

22 March

Tutorial 4: Protest movements

10 (35)

29 March

Discussion Forum – MyAberdeen Activity 10.1: Arab Uprisings

11 (39)

ASSESSMENT no 2: Essay, Deadline 5pm Friday 2 April **Spring Break – 5 to 23 April** 26 April Tutorial 5: Global Political Economy ASSESSMENT no 3: End of Term Online Test Deadline 5pm Friday 7 May

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Tutorial Outlines Tutorial 1: Approaches to Global Politics Tutorial questions: 1. How does IR theory help us make sense of international politics? 2. Are some approaches better, or more persuasive, than others? Tutorial 2: Conflict Resolution Tutorial questions: 1. What is ‘liberal peacebuilding’? What are its drawbacks? 2. How effective has the UN been in resolving conflict within states? 3. What factors best explain the challenges of implementing R2P? Tutorial 3: Terrorism Tutorial questions: 1. Why is it so difficult to define terrorism? 2. How do we best understand terrorism, as a strategy or as an ideology? 3. What are the causes of today’s terrorism? How much of a threat does terrorism pose? 4. What techniques might be most effective in dealing with different kinds of terrorism? Why? Tutorial 4: Protest Movements Tutorial questions: 1. Are ‘Occupy Wall Street’ and ‘Black Lives Matter’ instances of anarchist protest? What makes them so? 2. Is anarchism an effective political mode of protest? Tutorial 5: Global Political Economy Tutorial questions: 1. ‘When did globalisation actually start? To what extent is it merely of repackaging change that has always been happening in different ways? 2. Discuss the extent to which globalisation is a welcome development or whether it is a new form of neo-colonial politics dressed up? 3. How has British political economy changed since World War Two. What have been the associated changes in power and conflict?

Reading With regard to the lecture topics, the readings given below, include articles and books that you provide solid information and analysis. Under each lecture topic, you will find a couple of articles that initiate or continue debates relevant to the theme examined. It is important to begin to read now (in your first year) and utilize in your work the articles found in current and recent issues of journals including: Alternatives: Global, Local, Political; http://journals.sagepub.com/home/alt 7

British Journal of Politics and International Relations; http://journals.sagepub.com/home/bpi Conflict Resolution; http://journals.sagepub.com/loi/jcr European Journal of International Relations; http://journals.sagepub.com/home/ejt Global Faultlines; https://www.jstor.org/journal/jglobfaul Globalizations; http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rglo20/current International Affairs; https://academic.oup.com/ia International Organization; https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization International Studies Review; https://academic.oup.com/isr Millennium: Journal of International Studies; http://journals.sagepub.com/loi/mila Review of International Studies; https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-ofinternationalstudies Security Dialogue; http://journals.sagepub.com/home/sdi Third World Quarterly; https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ctwq20/current

Lecture Reading Lists Power

Required Reading Berenskoetter, F., & Williams, M.J. (Eds.). (2007). Power in World Politics (1st ed.). Routledge. Chapter 1 “Thinking about power” https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203944691 Chapter 1 Select “preview pdf” from https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/power-world-politics-felixberenskoetter-williams/e/10.4324/9780203944691 Nye, J. Soft power: the origins and political progress of a concept. Palgrave Communications 3, 17008 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/palcomms.2017.8 Lukes S. Power and the Battle for Hearts and Minds. Millennium. 2005;33(3):477-493. https://doi.org/10.1177/03058298050330031201

Further Reading Lukes, S. (2004). Power: a radical view. London: Palgrave MacMillan. Chapter 1. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/abdn/detail.action?docID=296503 Baldwin, D. (1979) ‘Power Analysis and World Politics’, World Politics 31(2): 161-194. https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/wpot31&i=179 Barnett, M. and Duvall, R. (2005) ‘Power in International Politics’, International Organisation, 59(1):3975. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818305050010 Nye, J., (1990) ‘Soft Power’, Foreign Policy, 80:153-171. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1148580 Guzzini, S. (1993). Structural Power: The Limits of Neorealist Power Analysis. International Organization, 47(3), 443-478. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2706983

Approaches to Global Politics

Required Reading: 8

Snyder, J., “One World, Rival Theories”, Foreign Policy 145, Nov/Dec 2004, pp. 52-62. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4152944 Walt, S. M., “One World, Many Theories”, Foreign Policy 110, Spring 1998, pp. 29-32+34-46. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1149275 Further Reading: Acharya, A. and B. Buzan. (2017) "Why is there no non-western international relations theory? Ten years On." International Relations of the Asia-Pacific 17(3), 341-370. https://doi.org/10.1093/irap/lcx006 Lake, D. A., “Theory is Dead, Long Live Theory: The end of the Great Debates and the rise of eclecticism in International Relations”, European Journal of International Relations, 19(3), 2013, pp. 467-487. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066113494330

Rising Powers

Required Reading Hurrell, A. (2019). 5. Rising powers and the emerging global order. In The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved 21 Jan. 2021, from https://www.oxfordpoliticstrove.com/view/10.1093/hepl/9780198825548.001.0001/hepl9780198825548-chapter-5 . Alison, G. (2015) The Thucydides Trap: Are the U.S. and China Headed for War?. The Atlantic. https://www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/centers/mrcbg/files/Allison%2C %202015.09.24%20The%20Atlantic%20-%20Thucydides%20Trap.pdf Cox, M. (2012). Power Shifts, Economic Change and the Decline of the West? International Relations, 26(4), 369–388. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047117812461336 Further Reading Michael A. Peters, et al. (2020) US–China Rivalry and ‘Thucydides’ Trap’: Why this is a misleading account, Educational Philosophy and Theory, DOI: 10.1080/00131857.2020.1799739 Allison, G. (2014). The Thucydides Trap. In The Next Great War?: The Roots of World War I and the Risk of U.S.-China Conflict. : The MIT Press. Available at: https://www.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.7551/mitpress/9780262028998.001.0001/u pso-9780262028998-chapter-006. Frank, A. G. (1998) ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley: University of California Press. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/abdn/detail.action? docID=799259. Gokay, B. and Whitman, D. (2010) Lineages of the 2008–10 global economic crisis: exposing shifts in the world economic order, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 12(2): 125-154. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19448951003791781 9

Gowan, P. (2013) ‘War in the Contest for a New World Order’, Journal of Global Faultlines, 1(1), 3449. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13169/jglobfaul.1.1.0034 Kennedy, P. (2017) The rise and fall of the great powers: economic change and military conflict from 1500 to 2000. London: William Collins. https://www.vlebooks.com/Vleweb/Product/Index/1247655?page=0 Layne, C. (2012) This Time It’s Real: The End of Unipolarity and the Pax Americana. International Studies Quarterly, 56(1):203-213. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41409832 Schweller, R. (2011) Emerging powers in an age of disorder, Global Governance, 17: 285-297. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23033748 Lee, J. Did Thucydides Believe in Thucydides’ Trap? The History of the Peloponnesian War and Its Relevance to U.S.-China Relations. Journal of Chinese Political Science 24, 67–86 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-019-09607-0 Lam Peng Er (2016) China, the United States, Alliances, and War: Avoiding the Thucydides Trap?, Asian Affairs: An American Review, 43:2, 36-46, DOI: 10.1080/00927678.2016.1150765 Nicholas Kitchen & Michael Cox (2019) Power, structural power, and American decline, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 32:6, 734-752, DOI: 10.1080/09557571.2019.1606158

Armed Conflict in International Relations

Required Reading Jervis, R. (1998). Realism in the Study of World Politics. International Organization, 52(4), 971-991. doi:10.1162/0020...