International Relation

MSc International Relations Theory 2015-16 IR436
Theories of
International Relations
Course Convenor
Dr George Lawson
Room: CLM 5.12
e-mail: [email protected]
tel: 020 7955 6028
Office hours: Autumn Term: Wednesday 1.30-3.30; Spring Term: Monday 2.30-4.30
Support Staff: Martina Langer; Room CLM 6.08; email: [email protected]
Lectures
Mondays 11am-12pm, Room to follow
Tuesdays 10-11am, Room to follow
Dr Jonathan Agensky (JA)
Professor Barry Buzan (BB)
Dr Janina Dill (JD)
Dr George Lawson (GL)
Professor Iver Neumann (IBN)
Seminars
Group 1: Wednesdays 3-5pm, Room to follow
Group 2: Wednesdays 10-12, Room to follow
Group 3: Tuesdays 11am-1pm, Room to follow
Introduction
This course is a graduate-level introduction to International Relations (IR) theory. It is
structured around three core engagements: IR as a branch of philosophical knowledge; IR as
a social science; and IR as a dimension of actual existing world politics. The course surveys
both mainstream and critical approaches to the subject, examining how these theories
conceptualize the international as a field of study. The course explicitly relates IR to
cognate disciplines, reflects critically on the conceptual frameworks and modes of analysis
used by IR theories, and studies the co-constitutive relationship between the theory and
practice of international relations.
Aims
The course has four main aims:
To enable students to assess the contributions and shortcomings of both mainstream
and critical IR theories.
To interrogate how the international has been constructed as a field of study.
To connect IR with debates, both methodological and theoretical, that have been
germane to the formation of social science as a whole.
To demonstrate how theory provides a road map, toolkit or lens by which to examine
international events and processes.
Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will:
Evaluate the advantages and difficulties of IR theories both in comparison to each
other and vis--vis schemas drawn from other disciplines.
Discuss critically, and write knowledgeably about, major IR theories, relating these
both to contemporary events and historical processes.
Possess the means to show how theory and practice intertwine in constituting
mainstream and critical IR theories.
Learn how to think and write critically about key debates in contemporary IR theory.
Teaching methods
IR 436 is the core course for both the MSc International Relations Theory and the MSc
International Relations Research. The course consists of 23 lectures and 20 seminars. A
revision class will be held in Summer Term details to be announced later in the year.
There are three main teaching methods used on the course: lectures, seminars and small
groups.
Lectures: lectures provide an overview of a particular topic. The course is structured
in three sections. We begin with two tasks: theorising theory and theorising the
international. The former is an introduction to how to think about doing theory; the
latter explores the ways in which IR theorists have conceptualised the international
as a field of study. The second section of the course examines both mainstream and
critical approaches to the subject, applying these theories to key concepts in the
discipline. The final part of the course focuses on philosophy of science and
philosophy of history, paying attention to how these underpin and sometimes
undermine IR theories.
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Although no previous knowledge of IR theory is assumed, it is worth remembering

that this is a graduate level course. As such, preparation even for lectures is vital.
We suggest that you do some reading before the lectures and, in addition, strengthen
your knowledge of IR theory by attending lectures in related courses such as The
Structure of International Society (IR100) and International Politics (IR410).
Seminars: There are 20 seminars starting in the first week of Autumn Term. The
course guide outlines texts that are required reading each week. These are intended to
provide a basis for class discussion, to introduce key concepts and issues, and to act as
a starting point for more advanced, independent enquiry of particular topics. These
texts should be digested ahead of the seminars.
Attendance at seminars is compulsory. If you do need to miss a seminar, please notify
your class teacher ahead of time. While you are not expected to have prior knowledge
of the material we will be discussing, it is important that you are keen, active and
involved participants in the course as a whole. This means reading every week,
thinking about the topics involved, working hard on the presentations, and generally
playing your part in making the seminar an enjoyable, stimulating environment.
Most of the time, seminars will consist of three core elements:
o There will be a brief presentation (10 minutes) by one or two members of the
group. Presentations should be based on the key questions listed under the
weekly topics. Please note that presentation handouts should be circulated to
the group twenty-four hours before the seminar takes place.
o A discussant will comment briefly (no more than 5 minutes) on the topic at
hand, raising issues not addressed by the presenter, offering an alternative
view or, perhaps, discussing an additional question included in this course
guide. Presenters and discussants should work together to ensure that their
work is complementary.
o The class will have a discussion based on the material presented. This will
vary in form from week to week, ranging from a general conversation to
smaller group work and, on occasion, written assignments.
Small groups: During the reading weeks that are held during week 6 of Autumn
Term and Spring Term, students will meet in small groups of 3-4 with their seminar
leader. These tutorial sessions are intended as forums for probing deeper into issues
raised by the course, highlighting problems, and looking more closely at topics which
students are engaging with in their written work. These sessions will be timetabled in
consultation with seminar leaders.
Presentations
Begin presentations by setting out the question you are addressing and explaining why it is
important. Outline your perspective clearly and identify issues for discussion. Do not merely
read out a pre-prepared script, but, using a clear structure, talk through your argument. This
makes the presentation more enjoyable to listen to, develops valuable presentation skills and
ensures that you know your material. Presenters should also prepare a handout (e.g. outlining
the main points covered by the talk) for classmates to download. You are welcome to use
PowerPoint, Prezi and other such programmes.
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Assessment
Formative assessment the course has four forms of formative assessment:
Diagnostic test: all students will take a diagnostic test on Wednesday 30th September
in order to gauge your familiarity with core concepts and themes used on the course.
The test will be assessed by advisers with feedback provided verbally to students.
Please note that no preparation is required for this test and it does not constitute a part
of your final grade.
Essays: you will write three essays (2,000-2,500 words) during the course of the year.
The first, due in week 7 of Autumn Term (Wednesday 11th November), should engage
with the texts used to set up the course and its central concerns: how to do theory
and how to conceptualize IR as a field of enquiry. The second, due in week 2 of
Spring Term (Wednesday 20th January), should be an assessment of mainstream
theories and concepts. The final essay, due in week 8 of Spring Term (Wednesday 2nd
March), should interrogate critical approaches to the subject. Please note that these
essays can be used in the development of your summative essay.
Outline: it is strongly encouraged to provide an outline of your summative essay (see

below) to your seminar leader. Please note that the outline should be 2-3 pages long
and consist of: a question/title; an overview of your argument; a draft structure; and
an indicative reading list. This is a chance to see how your ideas are developing,
assess whether the argument is hanging together and receive some thoughts about
what gaps need to be filled.
Verbal: all students will conduct at least one presentation and take one turn as
discussant during the second section of the course i.e. weeks 4-18. Class teachers will
provide feedback on presentations. In addition, all students are expected to contribute
regularly to seminar discussions.
Summative assessment the course has two forms of summative assessment:

Long essay: 50% of the final grade is drawn from a long essay (4,000 words) due in
week 1 of Summer Term (Wednesday 27th April). We are open about both topics and
methods. Essays should, of course, engage with a theoretical question, issue or puzzle,
although this will be interpreted liberally in order to maximise independence of
thought and creativity of research. Class teachers and advisors will provide guidance
on the long essay during the year.
Exam: during Summer Term (probably in mid May), students will sit a two hour
unseen exam. This exam constitutes 50% of your final grade. Last years exam is
provided at the back of this reading list. You can find copies of the exams from
previous years in the library. A revision session relating to the exam will be held early
in Summer Term. Once again, advisors and class teachers will provide guidance on
the exam during the year.
Essay writing
Essay topics should be drawn from the questions listed under each topic or from prior
discussion with class teachers. Essays should be typed, double spaced and printed on A4
paper. They should outline a sustained argument answering a specific question, backing up
claims and refuting counter positions with examples and evidence. Essays should also include
footnotes (where appropriate) and a bibliography. As a basic guide, we suggest reading and
absorbing between 6-10 texts (articles, chapters and books) for each essay.
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Please place formative essays in the pigeonhole of your class teacher, located on the 6th floor
of Clement House, by 5pm on the deadline day. Instruction regarding the summative essay
will be circulated nearer the time. Deadlines for the assignments are:
Essay 1 (doing theory; theorising the international): Wednesday 11th November
Essay 2 (mainstream theories): Wednesday 20th January
Essay 3 (critical theories): Wednesday 2nd March
Long essay: Wednesday 27th April
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the most serious offence in academic work. All summatively assessed work, as
well as some formatively assessed work, will be checked against plagiarism software. The
department takes plagiarism seriously and the penalties are severe. Plagiarised work will, at
minimum, be given a mark of zero, and you may be denied a degree. If your referencing (or
lack thereof) makes it difficult for examiners to identify clearly where you draw on the work
of others and in what form you do so, you have committed plagiarism, even if this was not
your intention. Drawing on the work of others includes, but is not limited to, direct use of
others formulations and paraphrasing of their formulations without due referencing. The
work of others includes text and illustrations from books, newspapers, journals, essays,
reports and the Internet. It is also an offence to plagiarise your own work (e.g. by submitting
the same text for two different pieces of summative work).
The golden rule for avoiding plagiarism is to ensure that examiners can be in no doubt as to
which parts of your work are your own formulations and which are drawn from other sources.
To ensure this, when presenting the views and work of others, include an acknowledgement
of the source of the material. For example, As Waltz (1979) has shown. Also make sure to
give the full details of the work cited in your bibliography. If you quote text verbatim, place
the sentence in inverted commas and provide the appropriate reference. For example, It is
not possible to understand world politics simply by looking inside states (Waltz 1979: 65).
Once again, make sure to give the full details of the work cited in your bibliography. If you
want to cite the work of another author at length, set the quoted text apart from your own text
(e.g. by indenting a paragraph) and identify it by using inverted commas and adding a
reference as above. If you want to use references to third party sources you have found in a
text, include a full reference. For example, Considerations of security subordinate economic
gain to political interest (Waltz 1979, cited in Moravcsik 1993: 129). In this instance,
include bibliographical details for each work.
It is your responsibility to ensure that you understand the rules on plagiarism and do not
submit plagiarised work. The failure of seminar leaders to detect breaches of these rules in
formative or summative essays does not constitute an endorsement implicit or explicit of
your referencing. You must read the school regulations and, if you have any questions,
consult your seminar leaders and/or personal advisor. For further guidance on how to avoid
plagiarism and how to reference, see:
Richard Pears and Graham Shields, Cite Them Right: The Essential Guide to
Referencing and Plagiarism (London: Pear Tree Books, 2008);
LSEs regulations on plagiarism:
http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/calendar/academicRegulations/RegulationsOnAssess
mentOffences-Plagiarism.htm
the librarys training sessions on referencing:
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/services/training/citing_referencing.aspx;
the IR subject guide on the library website:
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/subjectGuides/internationalRelations/help.aspx.
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Moodle
Moodle is the web-based location for IR436 course materials. Moodle can be accessed via the
Welcome to LSE Moodle quick link on the current students page of the LSE website.
Students need to self-register via the link on the Moodle homepage in order to gain access to
the IR436 site. Help in using the system is available online, and the Teaching and Learning
Centre runs tutorials that you can and should make use of.
The IR436 Moodle site contains an electronic version of the course guide, lecture slides, web
links and news of upcoming events. We have tried to ensure that all essential readings are
available electronically, although this should not be assumed and does not serve as a
substitute for visiting the library! There is also an IR436 e-pack consisting of scanned
readings that are not otherwise available electronically. Your views on the site are welcome
please direct feedback and queries to George Lawson ([email protected])
Textbooks and journals
Although there is no textbook assigned for this course, it will be worth purchasing the
following three books, particularly if you havent studied IR before.
Chris Brown and Kirsten Ainley, Understanding International Relations 4th edition,
(London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) organised usefully around issues/topics rather
than isms.
Scott Burchill et al (eds.), Theories of International Relations 5th edition (London:

Palgrave, 2013) solid ism-based textbook pitched at quite a high level. Includes
chapters on subjects such as historical sociology, international political theory and
green politics as well as the usual suspects.
Patrick Jackson, The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations (London:

Routledge, 2010) especially useful for the first part of the course (doing theory)
and the third section on philosophy of science.
Three useful (although more expensive) reference texts would also be worth tracking down:
Martin Griffiths (ed.), Encyclopaedia of International Relations and Global Politics

(London: Routledge, 2007) comprehensive contributions on a wide range of
subjects.
Walter Carlsnaes, Thomas Risse and Beth Simmons (eds.), Handbook of International
Relations, 2nd edition (London: Sage, 2012) wide-ranging in scope and containing
some important, if often complex, contributions from leading thinkers in the field.
Christian Reus-Smit and Duncan Snidal (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of International
Relations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) as with the Carlsnaes et al
handbook, a wide-ranging book containing some important contributions.
It might also be worth buying a copy of the Penguin Dictionary of International Relations,
edited by Graham Evans and Jeffrey Newnham, which contains further information on the
main concepts and terms we use on the course.
It is important to keep up to date with debates in the field through the major journals, all of
which are available electronically. International Organization and International Security are
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the premier US journals. Please note that these journals are, in the main, gateways to
mainstream approaches they are interesting as much for what they omit as for what they
cover. International Studies Quarterly is the house journal of the International Studies
Association. It provides an alternative showcase for mainstream theories, while selfconsciously seeking to represent the breadth of work being done in the discipline..
The main non-US journals are the European Journal of International Relations, which is
mostly (but by no means exclusively) associated with constructivism and post-positivism; the
Review of International Studies, a well-established general journal published by the British
International Studies Association; International Affairs, another good general journal,
although more geared at empirical enquiry than theoretical work; and Millennium, a selfstyled avant-garde journal edited by research students at LSE (N.B. the Millennium Editorial
Board is open to all MSc students in the department it is a valuable way to get to know the
best (and worst) of cutting-edge IR theory). International Political Sociology is also worth
looking at for (mainly) critical articles. International Theory, edited by Alex Wendt and
Duncan Snidal, is a high-calibre self-consciously theoretical journal intended to explore the
ways in which IR fits with and rubs up against cognate modes of enquiry.
Websites and blogs
There are an increasing number of blogs devoted to international studies, some of which
repay regular visits. The Duck of Minerva (http://duckofminerva.blogspot.com/) is a
collective venture established by a youngish crowd of IR scholars. The disorder of things is
a group blog set-up by an even younger, and altogether more radical, collective:
(http://thedisorderofthings.wordpress.com/). Relations international
(http://relationsinternational.com/) is worth bookmarking, as is Political Violence at a
Glance (http://politicalviolenceataglance.org/). For those interesting in philosophy of social
science, Daniel Little hosts an excellent site: http://understandingsociety.blogspot.co.uk/. eInternational Relations (http://www.e-ir.info/) is a solid, student-friendly site.
Other useful websites include http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/conversations/, the front-page
for the University of California, Berkeleys conversations with history TV programme. The
site contains interviews with some of the leading figures in IR theory including Kenneth
Waltz, John Mearsheimer, Stephen Krasner and Robert Keohane. http://www.theorytalks.org/ has a number of interesting interviews, including those with Cynthia Enloe, Ann
Tickner, Patrick Jackson, Siba Grovogui, Nick Onuf and Robert Cox, as well as our own
Barry Buzan and Iver Neumann. Those of you keen on exploring ideas formulated outside IR,
which I hope means all of you, can spend many happy hours roaming around this site, which
features interviews with a range of historians, anthropologists, sociologists, classicists and
even the odd neuroscientist: http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/ancestors/audiovisual.html
In terms of actual existing international affairs, the World Affairs Journal provides up-todate commentary on international affairs: http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/;
http://www.opendemocracy.net/ is a global conversation that includes discussion of issues
ranging from security to social justice. The main UK think-tanks working on international
affairs are Chatham House, the IISS, RUSI, and the European Council on Foreign Relations.
http://www.brookings.edu/ is the online home of the Brookings Institution, perhaps the main
think-tank in the United States devoted to international studies.
Obviously, this is just the tip of a substantial iceberg. The key point is that websites, blogs
and social media are an increasingly common and powerful means of conducting, and
thinking about, IR theory. So make sure that you are part of the conversation.
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List of Lectures
Autumn Term
Part 1
30 September
31 September
5 October
6 October
12 October
13 October
Theorising theory; theorising the international

International Relations vs. international relations (GL)
What do we study? (IBN)
Angell, Mackinder and Du Bois on the international (GL)
What is theory? (IBN)
Slaughter, Mearsheimer and Pipes on the international (GL)
Two ways of doing theory (IBN)
Part 2
Theories of International Relations
Mainstream approaches
19 October
Realism and neorealism (JD)
26 October
War and security under anarchy (JD)
Reading week meet in small groups: see p. 3
9 November
Liberalism and neoliberal institutionalism (JD)
16 November
Constructivism (JD)
23 November
International Law (JD)
30 November
The English School (BB)
7 December
Sovereignty (BB)
Spring Term
Critical approaches
11 January
Marxism and critical theory (GL)
18 January
Empire (GL)
25 January
Post-structuralism (JA)
1 February
Power (JA)
8 February
Feminism (JA)
Reading week meet in small groups: see p. 3
22 February
Security (JA)
Part 3: Theorising theory
29 February
Philosophy of Science I: Knowledge and certainty (JA)
7 March
Philosophy of Science II: Pluralism and paradigms (JA)
14 March
Philosophy of History I: Context (GL)
21 March
Philosophy of History II: Narrative (GL)
Summer Term
We will hold a revision session early in Summer Term. Details will be forwarded to you
nearer the time.
Topics: Overview, reading and key questions

It is not intended that students read all the references listed under each topic below. Essential
readings are exactly that essential. Other important works are marked with an asterisk (*)
and are usually held in the Course Collection and/or available electronically.
Autumn Term
Part 1: Doing theory, theorising the international
The first section of the course has two parts: three lectures explore what it means to do
theory; three more lectures examine how a range of scholars from different times and starting
points imagine the international. This helps to illuminate one of the central concerns of the
course: is there something distinctive about IR, and if so, what is it?
Doing theory
Week 1
What do we study?
The objects of study in IR range from states to ideas, and from war to political economy. This
lecture discusses what kind of phenomena these are. Taking its cue from Emile Durkheim,
the lecture argues that objects of study in IR are best understood as social facts. The lecture
pays particular attention to what it means to call a state a social fact.
Week 2
What is theory?
Doing theory is to stylize. Theory may be more or less grand. Theory may vary as to its area
of validity. Theory may depend on the concepts of the researcher or of those being studied.
The lecture introduces these distinctions and gives examples from the analysis of power, with
discussions about Michel Foucaults approach featuring prominently.
Week 3
Two ways of doing theory: ideal types and conceptual history
This lecture outlines two ways of doing theory. The first stems from Max Webers notion of
ideal types. Ideal-types do not have any direct counterpart in social reality and cannot be used
for hypotheses testing. The second arises from Reinhart Kosellecks understanding of
conceptual history. The lecture argues that conceptual history is well suited to analysing
changes in what might broadly be called discourse analysis.
Further reading
There are no particular readings you need to do for these sessions. However, the following
will be used to inform the lectures, all of which can be found in the library:
Emile Durkheim (1982) The Rules of Sociological Method (London: Free Press). See also
http://durkheim.uchicago.edu/Summaries/rules.html
Michel Foucault (1991) Discipline and Punish (London: Penguin).
Patrick Jackson (2010) The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations (London:
Routledge).
Helge Jordheim and Iver B. Neumann (2011) Empire, Imperialism and Conceptual History,
Journal of International Relations and Development 14(2): 153-185.
Reinhart Koselleck et al (2002) The Practice of Conceptual History (Palo Alto: Stanford
University Press).
Max Weber (1918) Science as a Vocation (Wissenschaft als Beruf), available at:
http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~oded/X/WeberScienceVocation.pdf.
Key questions
What does it mean to do theory?
What makes a theory more or less successful?
________________________________
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Theorising the international

Week 1
Introduction: International Relations and international relations
Before the discipline of International Relations, there was the study of international relations
i.e. the influence of external practices, ideas and institutions on societies around the world.
This lecture provides an overview of the deep roots of international relations. Its main point
is that international relations has a longer, deeper and broader history than that of modern
Europe. Taking this longer lens provides us with a surer basis for thinking about the present
international order and about the institutionalisation of IR as a discipline.
Essential reading
Benjamin de Carvalho, Halvard Leira and John Hobson (2011) The Myths That Your
Teachers Still Tell You about 1648 and 1919, Millennium 39(3): 735-758.
Barry Buzan and George Lawson (2013) The Global Transformation, International Studies
Quarterly 57(3): 620-634.
Further reading
Acharya, Amitav (2014) Global International Relations and Regional Worlds, International
Studies Quarterly 58(1): 647-59.
* Bayly, C.A. (2004) The Birth of the Modern World (Oxford: Blackwell).
* Buzan, Barry and Richard Little (2002) Why International Relations Has Failed as an
Intellectual Project and What to Do About It, Millennium 30(1): 19-39.
* Buzan, Barry and George Lawson (2015) The Global Transformation (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press). Also see the forum on the book at the Disorder of Things:
http://thedisorderofthings.com/tag/the-global-transformation/ .
European Journal of International Relations (2013) Special Issue: The End of International
Relations Theory? 19(3). Also see the debate at the Duck of Minerva:
http://www.whiteoliphaunt.com/duckofminerva/tag/ejir-special-issue-symposum.
Hoffman, Stanley (1987) An American Social Science: IR in Stanley Hoffman ed., Janus
and Minerva: Essays in International Relations (Boulder: Westview): 3-24.
Millennium (2014) Special Issue: The Standard of Civilization 42(3).
Pomeranz, Kenneth (2000) The Great Divergence (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
* Shilliam, Robbie (2011) The Perilous but Unavoidable Terrain of the Non-West in Robbie
Shilliam ed., IR and Non-Western Thought (London: Routledge): 12-26.
Tickner, Arlene and David Blaney eds. (2012) Thinking IR Differently (London: Routledge).
Key questions
To what extent is IR as a discipline shaped by the experience of the modern West?
Does it matter if IR is Eurocentric?
________________________________
Week 2
Angell, Mackinder and Du Bois on the international
This lecture explores three approaches to theorising International Relations in the early 20th
century. Angell, Mackinder and Du Bois wrote before IR was institutionalised as an
academic discipline. Nevertheless, all three outlined what they saw as the distinctive features
of the international. Angell saw the international as acquiring a new form in the early 20th
century, which he associated with the interdependence of financial markets. Mackinder
argued that there were long-standing forces that shaped international politics, particularly
geography and power politics. For Du Bois, international order was sustained by imperialism
and underpinned by a racial color line. If Angell, Mackinder and Du Bois had distinctive
takes on the international, all three were deeply immersed in debates about empire, race and
civilization. IR as a discipline emerged from these debates.
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Essential reading
Angell, Norman (1912) The Influence of Credit Upon International Relations, in The
Foundations of International Polity (London: Heinemann).
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1915) The African Roots of War, Atlantic Monthly, May:
http://scua.library.umass.edu/digital/dubois/WarRoots.pdf
Mackinder, H. J. (1904) The Geographical Pivot of History, The Geographical Journal, 23
(4): 421-437.
Further reading
Angell, Norman (1910) The Great Illusion (London: G.P. Putnam and Sons):
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38535/38535-h/38535-h.htm
* Anievas, Alex et al (eds). (2015) Race and Racism in International Relations (London:
Routledge), especially the introduction and chapter by Charles Mills.
Ashworth, Lucian (2011) Halford Mackinder, Geopolitics and the Reality of the League of
Nations, European Journal of International Relations 17(2): 279-301.
Belich, James (2009) Replenishing the Earth (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Bell, Duncan (ed.) (2007) Victorian Visions of Global Order (Cambridge: CUP).
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1920) The Souls of White Folk in: Darkwater (New York: Harcourt,
Brace and Co): http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15210/15210-h/15210-h.htm#Chapter_II
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1925) Worlds of Color, Foreign Affairs, April:
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/1925-04-01/worlds-color.
Guzzini, Stefano (2012) The Return of Geopolitics in Europe (Cambridge, CUP).
Hobson, John (2012) The Eurocentric Conception of World Politics (Cambridge: CUP). Also
see the forum on Hobsons book in Millennium 42(2) (2014).
Mackinder, H.J. (1919) Democratic Ideals and Reality (London: Henry Holt at Co).
* Schmidt, Brian (2002) Anarchy, World Politics and the Birth of a Discipline,
International Relations 16(1): 9-31.
* Vitalis, Robert (2005) Birth of a Discipline in: Long and Schmidt, Imperialism and
Internationalism in the Discipline of IR (State University of New York Press): 159-182.
Vitalis, Robert (2015) White World Order, Black Power Politics (Ithaca: Cornell).
Key questions
In what sense do Angell, Mackinder and Du Bois provide us with a theory of the
international?
To what extent was and is international order sustained by a global color line?
How relevant are the arguments of Angell, Mackinder and Du Bois to 21st century
concerns?
_______________________________
Week 3
Slaughter, Mearsheimer and Pipes on the international
This lecture examines different attempts to specify what the international means from the
perspective of IR as an established social science in the early part of the 21st century. AnneMarie Slaughter, a former adviser to President Obama, picks up some of Angells themes in
arguing that IR needs to meet the demands of an interdependent, networked world. John
Mearsheimer follows Mackinder in stressing the importance of perennial (particularly
geopolitical) themes to the make-up and practice of international relations. Daniel Pipes, like
W.E.B. Du Bois, sees IR as intimately bound up with questions of race, even if he takes a
quite different view than Du Bois about how to conceive race and what to do about the
global color line. Which of these visions is more compelling? And to what extent can we
draw common threads between the writings of Slaugher, Mearsheimer and Pipes, and those
of Angell, Mackinder and Du Bois?
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Essential reading
Mearsheimer, John (2011) Imperial by Design, The National Interest, Jan-Feb: 16-34.
Pipes, Daniel (1990) The Muslims are Coming! The Muslims are Coming!, National
Review, November: http://www.danielpipes.org/198/the-muslims-are-coming-themuslims-are-coming
Slaughter, Anne-Marie (2009) Power in the Networked Century, Foreign Affairs 88(1): 94113.
Further reading
To get an up-to-date sense of Slaughters thinking, have a trawl through her tweets, blog
posts and interviews. A longer version of Mearsheimers article can be found in his Tragedy
of Great Power Politics (Norton, 2001). A shorter version can be found in Newsweek. Daniel
Pipes runs both an extensive website and a think-tank.
Key questions
Do the analyses of Slaughter, Mearsheimer and Pipes have anything in
common?
What distinguishes the ways in which Slaughter, Mearsheimer and Pipes theorise the
international from the views of Angell, Mackinder and Du Bois?
To what extent do we need to read texts contextually?
_______________________________
Part 2
The second part of the course uses thirteen sessions in order to explore the principal theories
of International Relations. Most of the time, theories are covered in two sessions. In the first
week, lectures provide a general introduction to a particular approach. In the second week,
lectures tackle an issue/theme/concept of core concern to the theory. At all times, we will be
asking two linked questions: 1. How well or not do these concepts/issues map onto
existing IR theories?; 2. How close are the links between the concepts and issues we use to
understand/explain/describe the world, and actual events and processes in world politics?
Week 4
Realism and Neorealism
Realism has deep roots in the writings of Thucydides, Machiavelli, Hobbes and others. After
the Second World War, Carr, Morgenthau and other scholars established realism as an
alternative to idealism, which they thought had dominated the interwar years. Realism soon
became the principal IR theory, particularly in North America. Following the behaviourist
turn in political science, Kenneth Waltz became the progenitor of neo- or structural realism,
aspiring to develop realism into a scientific theory. Structural realism divides into
offensive realism, defensive realism and neo-classical realism. Somewhat
unintentionally, the latter two have revived interest in classical realist ideas.
Essential reading
(In recommended order)
William Wohlforth,Realism, in: Duncan Snidal and Chris Reus-Smit eds., Oxford
Handbook of International Relations (Oxford, 2010).
Extracts From Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, Machiavelli The Prince and Hobbes,
Leviathan in Chris Brown, Terry Nardin, and N.J. Rengger (eds.), International
Relations in Political Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
Kenneth Waltz, Theory of International Politics (1979), Chapters 5 & 6.
Jeffrey W. Legro and Andrew Moravcsik (1999) Is Anybody Still a Realist? International
Security, 24(2): 5-55.
12
Further reading
Classical realists
* E.H. Carr, The Twenty Years Crisis (especially the 2001 edition by Michael Cox)
George Kennan, American Diplomacy (1952)
Hans J. Morgenthau, Scientific Man and Power Politics (1947)
* Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations (any edition up to 5th)
Reinhold Niebuhr, Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932)
Commentaries on the classical realists
Christoph Frei, Hans J. Morgenthau: An Intellectual Biography (2001)
* Nicolas Guilhot ed. The Invention of International Relations Theory (2011)
* Jonathan Haslam, No Virtue Like Necessity: Realist Thought since Machiavelli (2002)
Joel Rosenthal, Righteous Realists (1991)
* Michael Williams, Why Ideas Matter in IR: Morgenthau, Classical Realism, and the Moral
Construction of Power Politics, International Organization, 58(4) (2004): 633-665
Michael Williams, The Realist Tradition and the Limits of International Relations (2005)
Michael Williams (ed.), Realism Reconsidered (2007)
Neorealism(s)
Ken Booth ed., Realism and World Politics (2011) [also published as The King of Thought:
Theory, The Subject and Waltz, International Relations, Special Issues 23(2) and 23(3),
(2009)]
Charles L. Glaser, A Rational Theory of International Politics (2010)
Fred Halliday and Justin Rosenberg, An Interview with Kenneth Waltz, Review of
International Studies 24(3) (1998): 371-386
Steve Lobell et al., Neoclassical Realism, the State, and Foreign Policy (2009)
Gideon Rose, Neoclassical Realism and Theories of Foreign Policy, World Politics 51(1)
(1998): 144-172
* Randall Schweller, Unanswered Threats (2006)
* Stephen M. Walt, The Origins of Alliances (1987), Chapters 1 & 2
* Kenneth Waltz, Realist Thought and Neorealist Theory, Journal of International Affairs,
44(1) (1990): 21-37
Kenneth Waltz, The Emerging Structure of International Politics, International Security,
18(2) (1993): 44-79
Conversation with Kenneth Waltz: http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people3/Waltz/waltzcon0.html
Key questions
For classical realists conflict stems from human nature, while for neo-realists conflict
stems from the nature of the international system. Discuss.
Do defensive and neoclassical realism pose a threat to the scientific credentials of
neorealism?
_______________________________
Week 5
War and Security under Anarchy
One of the central preoccupations of IR as a discipline is the possibility of security under
conditions of anarchy. In a system of states without a centralised monopoly on the use of
force, how can states ensure their survival? Realist scholars have devoted much thought to
the link between the distribution of power in, and the stability of, the state system. At the
same time, realists have grappled with the observation that war is costly, yet even rational
actors seem unable to avoid it.
13
Essential reading
Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics (1981), esp. Chapters 1 and 2.
Robert Jervis, Theories of War in an Era of Leading-Power Peace, American Political
Science Review, 96(1) (2002): 1-14.
Robert Jervis, Perception and Misperception in International Politics (1976), Chapter 3.
Further reading
Emanuel Adler and Michael Barnett eds., Security Communities (1998), esp. Part I
Robert Art and Kenneth Waltz eds., The Use of Force: Military Power and International
Politics (5th ed. 1999), esp. Chapters by Art, Jervis and Waltz
* Michael Brown et al. eds. The Perils of Anarchy (1995)
* Michael Brown et al. eds. Offense, Defence and War (2004)
Martin Ceadel, Thinking about Peace and War (1987)
Dale Copeland, The Origins of Major War (2000)
* Toni Erskine and Ned Lebow eds., Tragedy and International Relations (2012)
* Richard Ned Lebow, The Tragic Vision of Politics (2003)
Michael Mandelbaum, Is Major War Obsolete?, Survival 40(4) (1999): 20-38
* John Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001) [reviewed in Brian C.
Schmidt, Realism as Tragedy, Review of International Studies, 30(3) (2004): 427-441]
John Mueller, Retreat from Doomsday: The Obsolescence of Major War (1990), esp. Ch. 10
Sebastian Rosato, The Flawed Logic of Democratic Peace Theory, American Political
Science Review, 97 (2003): 585-602
Randall Schweller, Managing the Rise of Great Powers: Theory and History, in: Alistair
Iain Johnston and Robert Ross (eds.), Engaging China: The Management of an Emerging
Power (1999)
* Jeffrey W. Taliaferro, Security Seeking Under Anarchy, International Security 25(3)
(2000): 128-161.
David C. Rapoport, The Four Waves of Modern Terrorism, in: Audrey K. Cronin and James
M. Ludes (eds.), Attacking Terrorism: Elements of a Grand Strategy (2004)
Robert I. Rotberg and Theodore K. Rabb eds., The Origin and Prevention of Major Wars
(1989)
Key questions
In an anarchical system, is durable peace possible?
How does a rational hegemon react to the rise of a peer-competitor?
_______________________________
Week 6
No lecture reading week

_______________________________
Week 7
Liberalism and Neoliberal Institutionalism
Classical political liberalism traces its origins to thinkers as diverse as Kant, Cobden and
Mill. Liberal IR theorists tend to reject the Realist conception of states as like-units, linking
variations in state behaviour to differences in regime type. In particular,
democracies/republics are considered to be less warlike than monarchies/authoritarian
regimes. Modern democratic peace theory has refined this theory into the statistically
grounded hypothesis that consolidated liberal democracies do not go to war with each other.
All variants of liberalism are associated with the theorization of cooperation. One particularly
influential strand of liberalism in IR, neoliberal institutionalism, accepts most of
neorealisms basic assumptions, but, drawing on game theory, makes more optimistic
predictions about the viability of cooperation under anarchy.
14
Essential reading
Kant Perpetual Peace, Cobden Political Writings and Mill A Few Words on NonIntervention in Chris Brown, Terry Nardin and N.J. Rengger (eds.), International
Relations in Political Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
Michael Doyle Liberalism and World Politics, American Political Science Review, 80(4)
(1986): 1151-1170.
Andy Moravcsik, The New Liberalism, Oxford Handbook of International Relations
(2010), Chapter 13.
Robert Axelrod and Robert Keohane Achieving Cooperation under Anarchy: Strategies and
Institutions, World Politics, 38(1) (1985): 226-254.
Further reading
Classical liberalism
* Michael Doyle, Kant, Liberal Legacies and Foreign Policy, Parts I and II, Philosophy and
Public Affairs, (12) (1983): 205-235 and 323-353
Stanley Hoffmann, Liberalism and International Affairs, in: Janus and Minerva: Essays in
the Theory and Practice of International Politics (1987), Chapter 18
* Beate Jahn, Kant, Mill and Illiberal Legacies in International Affairs, International
Organization, 59(1) (2005): 177-207
Michael J. Smith, Liberalism in Terry Nardin & David Mapel eds., Traditions of
International Ethics (1992)
Neoliberal institutionalism
Joseph Grieco, Anarchy and the Limits of Cooperation: A Realist Critique of the Newest
Liberal Institutionalism, International Organization, 42 (1988): 485-508
Robert O. Keohane After Hegemony (1984)
* Robert Keohane and Lisa Martin, Institutional Theory as a Research Program in: Elman
and Elman eds., Progress in International Relations Theory (2003)
Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye, Power and Interdependence (1977)
John J. Mearsheimer The False Promise of International Institutions, International Security,
19 (1994/5): 5-49
* Andrew Moravcsik, Taking Preferences Seriously: A Liberal Theory of International
Politics International Organization, 51(4) (1997): 513-553
Beate Jahn, Liberal Internationalism: From Ideology to Empirical Theory And Back
Again, International Theory, 1(3) (2010): 409-438. Also see the exchange between
Moravcsik and Jahn in International Theory, 2(1) (2011).
Democratic peace theory
* Tarak Barkawi and Mark Laffey, The Imperial Peace: Democracy, Force and
Globalization, European Journal of International Relations, 5(4) (1999): 403-434
* Michael Brown et al eds., Debating the Democratic Peace (1996)
Jack Levy, Domestic Politics and War, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 18(4) (1988):
653-673
John MacMillan, Hollow Promises? Critical Materialism and the Contradictions of the
Democratic Peace, International Theory, 4(3) (2012): 331-366
Michael Mann, The Darkside of Democracy: The Modern Tradition of Ethnic and Political
Cleansing, New Left Review, 235 (1999): 18-45
Edward Mansfield and Jack Snyder, Democratization and the Danger Of War, International
Security, 20(1), (1995): 5-38
Bruce Russett, Grasping the Democratic Peace (1993)
Key questions
15
Is liberalism in IR better seen as a theory or as an ideology?

When and why do states co-operate?
_______________________________
Week 8
Constructivism
The introduction of constructivism has prompted a shift from discussions about the
distribution of material power to a concern for the role of ideas and perceptions in explaining
state behaviour. Perhaps the most prominent constructivist, Alexander Wendt, accepts the
states under anarchy problematic, but rejects the immutability of anarchy. Other
constructivists more fully embrace the idea of social construction, emphasising the role of
relatively neglected aspects of world politics, such as language, identity and beliefs.
Essential reading
Ian Hurd, Constructivism, Oxford Handbook of International Relations, (2010), Chapter 17
Alexander Wendt, Anarchy is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of Power
Politics, International Organization, 46(2) (1992): 391-426
Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink, International Norm Dynamics and Political
Change, International Organization, 52(4) (1998): 887-917
Friedrich Kratochwil, Constructing a New Orthodoxy? Millennium, 29(1) (2000): 73-101
Further readings
Theoretical debates
* Emanuel Adler Seizing the Middle Ground, European Journal of International Relations,
(3) (1997): 319-364
Samuel Barkin, Realist Constructivism (2010)
Samuel Barkin, Realist Constructivism and Realist-Constructivism, International Studies
Review, 6(2) (2004): 337-352.
Stefano Guzzini and Anna Leander eds., Constructivism and IR (2006); [also see the review
by J.F. Keeley, Alex Wendt as Explorer, Millennium, 35(2) (2007): 417-430]
* Friedrich Kratochwil, Rules, Norms and Decisions (1989)
Harald Mller, Arguing, Bargaining and All That, European Journal of International
Relations, 10(3) (2004): 395-435.
* Nicholas Onuf, World of Our Making (1989)
* Thomas Risse, Lets Argue, International Organization, 54(1) (2000): 1-41
John G. Ruggie (1998) Constructing the World Polity (London: Routledge).
* Alexander Wendt, Social Theory of International Politics (1999), especially Chapter 1
Alexander Wendt, The State as Person in International Theory, Review of International
Studies, 30(2) (2004): 289-316.
Alexander Wendt, Why a World State is Inevitable, European Journal of International
Relations, 9(4) (2003): 491-542
Alexander Wendt and Raymond Duvall, Sovereignty and the UFO, Political Theory 36(4)
(2008): 607-633
Wiener, Antje, Enacting Meaning in Use: Qualitative Research on Norms in International
Relations, Review of International Studies, 35(1) (2009).
Applying constructivism
Finnemore, Martha (2003) The Purpose of Intervention (Ithaca: Cornell University Press).
* Jackson, Patrick (2007) Civilizing the Enemy (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press).
Mitzen, Jennifer (2013) Power in Concert (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Nexon, Daniel (2009) The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe (Princeton: Princeton
University Press).
16
* Phillips, Andrew (2011) War, Religion and Empire (Cambridge: CUP).

Philpott, Daniel (2001) Revolutions in Sovereignty (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Price, Richard (2007) The Chemical Weapons Taboo (Ithaca: Cornell University Press).
* Reus-Smit, Chris (2013) Individual Rights and the Making of the International System
(Cambridge: CUP).
Tannenwald, Nina (2007) The Nuclear Taboo (Cambridge: CUP).
* Towns, Ann (2010) Women and States (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Zarakol, Ayse (2011) After Defeat (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Key questions
Can constructivists explain state behaviour?
Do all forms of constructivism share a common denominator?
_______________________________
Week 9
International Law
Since the end of the World War Two, international law has proliferated, mainly in the form of
bi- and multilateral treaties. The existence of supposedly binding and enforceable rules
challenges the assumption that the international system is fundamentally characterised by
anarchy. While constructivists have devoted more attention than other approaches to the
study of international law, all theories discussed in the preceding weeks have proposed ways
to explain the role of international law in international relations, seeing it as: an
epiphenomenon of state interests (much of realism), an instrument through which to signal
credible commitment (institutionalism), and a way of expressing shared norms and beliefs
(constructivism). The challenge for these approaches is showing whether and how
international law can make a difference, i.e. whether states create and comply with laws that
further a prior interest and/or align with a shared norm when there is no overarching authority
to enforce those that do not.
Essential reading
Michael Byers, International Law, Oxford Handbook of IR (2010), Chapter 35
Jutta Brune, and Stephen Toope, Legitimacy and Legality in International Law (2010),
Introduction and Chapter 3
Martha Finnemore, Are legal norms distinctive? New York University Journal of
International Law and Politics 32 (2000): 699-705
Further reading
Eyal Benvenisti and George Downs, The Empires New Clothes: Political Economy and the
Fragmentation of International Law, Stanford Law Review, 60 (2007): 595-631
* Michael Byers ed., The Role of Law in International Politics: Essays in International
Relations and International Law (2000), esp. Chapters 1, 2, 3 & 9
* Janina Dill, Legitimate Targets? Social Construction, International Law and US Bombing
(2015), Chapters 1 and 2
* Jeffrey L. Dunoff and Mark A. Pollack eds., International Law and IR (2012)
Thomas Franck, The Power of Legitimacy Among Nations (1990), Chapters 1 and 2
Thomas Franck, Fairness in International Law and Institutions (1995)
Jack Goldsmith and Eric Posner, The Limits of International Law (2005)
H.L.A. Hart, The Concept of Law (1961, new edn. 1994)
Rosalyn Higgins, International Law and How We Use It (1994), Chapters 1, 2, 3 & 6
* International Organization, Special Issue Legalization and World Politics, 54(3) (2000)
Benedict Kingsbury, The Concept of Law in Global Administrative Law, European
Journal of International Law, 20 (2009): 23-57
17
Benedict Kingsbury, The Concept of Compliance, Michigan Journal of International Law, 19

(1998): 345-372.
Harold Koh, Why Do Nations Obey International Law, Yale Law Journal, 106(8) (1997):
2599-2659.
Martti Koskenniemi, Law, Teleology and International Relations, International Relations,
26(1) (2012): 3-34.
Martti Koskenniemi, The Mystery of Legal Obligation, Symposium on Legitimacy and
Legality in International Law by Jutta Brunne and Stephen J. Toope, International
Theory, 3 (2011).
* Martti Koskenniemi, Miserable Comforters: International Relations as New Natural Law,
European Journal of International Law, 15(3) (2009): 395-422
Nico Krisch, Beyond Constitutionalism (2010), Chapter 1 and Conclusion
Frdric Mgret, International Law as Law, in: James Crawford and Martti Koskenniemi
(eds.), The Cambridge Companion to International Law (2012)
* Christian Reus-Smit ed., The Politics of International Law (2004), esp. Chapters 1 & 2
Adam Roberts, Law and the Use of Force after Iraq, Survival, 45(2) (2003): 31-56
Anne-Marie Slaughter, A New World Order (2004)
Joseph Weiler, The Geology of International Law: Governance, Democracy, and
Legitimacy, Heidelberg Journal of International Law, 624 (2004): 547-562
Diehl, Paul F. and Charlotte Ku, International Law: Classic and Contemporary Readings
(2003)
Essential questions
Of what does international law consist?
In what ways do legal rules differ from other kinds of rules?
How is the international legal order changing?
_______________________________
Week 10
The English School
This lecture begins by reviewing the classical English school pluralism of Bull, Wight and
their successors. It then explores three additional threads that run through the fabric of
English school theory alongside, and in debate with, this pluralist core. The first is historical.
This work concentrates on: a comparison of different international societies; the general
evolution of international society in world history; and the specific, coercive story of the
expansion of European international society. The second thread is solidarism. Solidarists take
a progressive view of international relations, denying the pluralist assumption that
coexistence provides the limits of international society. They have made particular play of
human rights and their work is strongly connected to normative theory. The third thread is the
debate between structural and normative readings of English school theory: is the framework
of the three traditions fundamentally a normative debate, or can it also be constructed as a
way of looking at the evolution and interplay of macro-scale social structures? This structural
framing questions the linkage of solidarism to human rights, brings in the economic sector
generally neglected by the English school, and focuses on institutions as social structures.
This approach also builds links to constructivism, though without seeing the English School
simply as a precursor to it.
Essential readings
Buzan, Barry (2010) Culture and International Society, International Affairs 86(1): 1-25.
Clark, Ian (2009) Towards an English School Theory of Hegemony, EJIR 15(2): 203-228.
Suzuki, Shogo (2005) Japans Socialization into Janus-Faced European International
Society, European Journal of International Relations, 11(1): 137-164.
18
Further readings
* Bull, Hedley (1977) The Anarchical Society (London: Palgrave), especially pp. 3-21.
Bull, Hedley and Adam Watson eds. (1984) The Expansion of International Society (Oxford).
* Buzan, Barry (2004) From International to World Society? (Cambridge: CUP).
Buzan, Barry (2001) The English School: An Underexploited Resource in IR, Review of
International Studies, 27(3): 471-488.
Buzan, Barry (2014) An Introduction to the English School of IR (Cambridge: Polity).
* Gong, Gerritt (1984) The Standard of 'Civilization' in International Society (Clarendon).
* Keene, Edward (2002) Beyond the Anarchical Society (Cambridge: CUP).
Jackson, Robert (2000) The Global Covenant (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Linklater, Andrew and Hidemi Suganami (2006) The English School of IR (Cambridge: CUP)
Navari, Cornelia (ed.) (2009) Theorising International Society (Basingstoke: Palgrave).
Suzuki, Shogo et al (eds.) (2013) International Orders in the Early Modern World: Before
the Rise of the West (London: Routledge).
Vincent, John (1986) Human Rights and International Relations (Cambridge, CUP).
* Wheeler, Nicholas (1992) Pluralist and Solidarist Conceptions of International Society,
Millennium 21(3): 463-487.
Wheeler, Nicholas (2001) Saving Strangers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
* Wight, Martin (1991) The Three Traditions (Leicester: Leicester University Press).
Zhang, Yongjin (1991) China's Entry into International Society, Review of International
Studies 17(1): 3-16.
* N.B. http://www.leeds.ac.uk/polis/englishschool/ is the online home of the English School,
containing articles, papers, and a bibliography of English School resources.
Key questions
Critically assess solidarist and pluralist visions of the English School.
Does the English School provide a convincing account of the expansion of
international society?
Is the English School best seen as a form of proto-constructivism?
_______________________________
Week 11
Sovereignty
Realism, Liberalism, Constructivism and English School theory offer contrasting, sometimes
overlapping, frameworks for explaining international politics. For all of them, however, a
distinctive feature of the international is the institution of sovereignty. This lecture
demonstrates how the theoretical perspectives explored in previous weeks give us different
ways of understanding how sovereignty works as a constitutive feature of international
relations. It examines how sovereignty became a defining global political principle, how it
links to other principles, particularly territoriality and nationalism, and how the practices
associated with it have evolved. A key theme is the longstanding tension between the
principle of sovereign equality, and various practices of inequality and hierarchy.
Essential readings
Jackson, Robert (1999) Sovereignty in World Politics, Political Studies 47(3): 431-456.
Holsti, Kalevi J. (2004) Taming the Sovereigns (Cambridge: CUP), chapters 3 & 4 (this is an
e-book available through the main library catalogue).
Simpson, Gerry (2004) Great Powers and Outlaw States (Cambridge: CUP) chapters 2 & 3
(this is an e-book available through the main library catalogue).
Further readings
Bartelson, Jens (1995) A Genealogy of Sovereignty (New York: Cambridge University Press).
19
Biersteker, Thomas and Weber, Cynthia (eds.) (1996) State Sovereignty as Social Construct
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Hashmi, Sohail (ed.) (1997) State Sovereignty (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State
University Press). See in particular, Philpott, Ideas and the Evolution of Sovereignty.
Hinsley, R. H. (1986) Sovereignty (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Jackson, Robert (1990) Quasi-States (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Jackson, Robert (ed.) (1999) Sovereignty at the Millennium (Oxford: Blackwell).
* Keohane, Robert O. (1995) Sovereignty in International Society, in Hans-Henrik Holm
and Georg Srensen (eds.), Whose World Order, Westview Press, 165-86.
* Krasner, Stephen (1999) Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy? (Princeton University Press).
Krasner, Stephen (1995) Compromising Westphalia, International Security 20(3): 115-51.
Onuf, Nick (1991) Sovereignty: A Conceptual History, Alternatives, 16(4): 425-446.
* Osiander, Andreas (2001) Sovereignty, International Relations, and the Westphalian
Myth, International Organization 55(2): 251-287.
* Wendt, Alexander and Daniel Friedheim (2005) Hierarchy Under Anarchy, International
Organization 49(4): 689-721.
Classical readings
There is a vast literature on sovereignty in western though. See:
Extracts from Bodin (16th century), Hobbes and Grotius (17th century), Vattel and Rousseau
(18th century), Hegel and Mill (19th century) in: Chris Brown et al eds., International
Relations In Political Thought (Cambridge: CUP, 2002).
In the 20th century, the German jurist Carl Schmitt introduced a decisionist understanding of
sovereignty:
- Political Theology (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press)
- The Concept of the Political (Chicago: University of Chicago Press)
- The Nomos of the Earth (New York: Telos)
The dark side of sovereignty: European colonialism and decolonisation
* Anghie, Antony (2004) Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law
(Cambridge: CUP).
Benton, Lauren (2010) A Search for Sovereignty (Cambridge: CUP).
* Grovogui, Siba (1996) Sovereigns, Quasi-Sovereigns and Africans (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press).
Hobson, John (2004) The Eastern Origins of Western Civilization (Cambridge: CUP).
Inayatullah, Naeem and David Blaney (2004) International Relations and the Problem of
Difference (London: Routledge)
* Keene, Eddie (2002) Beyond the Anarchical Society (Cambridge: CUP).
Key questions
What makes a state a state for the purposes of International Relations?
If sovereignty is organized hypocrisy, what difference does that make to theorising
international politics?
Is sovereignty a source of equality or inequality in international affairs?
_______________________________
Spring Term
Critical Approaches
This section of the course assesses the challenges posed to mainstream IR theory by critical
approaches to the subject. Although there is considerable variation both within and between
the schools of thought we examine, they form part of a collective attempt to broaden and
deepen IR both in terms of its methods and its empirical focus.
20
Week 12
Marxism and critical theory
Critical theorists draw on a long line of scholarship that extends from Marx and Gramsci via
the Frankfurt School to modern day theorists such as Immanuel Wallerstein and, in IR,
Robert Cox and Justin Rosenberg. For critical scholars, world politics is marked by
historically constituted inequalities between core and periphery, north and south, developed
and underdeveloped. To that end, liberal and realist approaches are seen as ideologies of
inequality. Rather than focusing on anarchy, Marxist theorists examine the social relations
that underpin geopolitical systems. Such a commitment leads to debates about the
hierarchical nature of international affairs. It also leads to attempts to construct a social
theory of the international.
Essential reading
Cox, Robert (1981) Social Forces, States and World Order: Beyond International Relations
Theory, Millennium 10(2): 126-155.
Rosenberg, Justin (2006) Why Is There No International Historical Sociology? European
Journal of International Relations 12(3): 307-340.
Wallerstein, Immanuel (1995) The Inter-State Structure of the Modern World System, in:
Steve Smith, Ken Booth and Marysia Zalewski (eds.), International Theory: Positivism
and Beyond (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press): 87-107.
Further readings
* Arrighi, Giovanni (2010) The Long Twentieth Century (London: Verso).
* Anievas, Alex ed. (2010) Marxism and World Politics (London: Routledge).
Frank, Andre Gunder (1966) The Development of Underdevelopment, Monthly Review,
18(4): 17-31.
Gill, Stephen (1995) Globalisation, Market Civilisation and Disciplinary Neo-Liberalism,
Millennium 24(3): 399-423.
Halliday, Fred (1994) A Necessary Encounter: Historical Materialism and International
Relations, in: Fred Halliday, Rethinking IR (Basingstoke: MacMillan): 47-73.
Jahn, Beate (1998) One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Critical Theory as the Latest Edition
of Liberal Idealism, Millennium 27(3): 613-642.
* Rosenberg, Justin (2010) Basic Problems in the Theory of Uneven and Combined
Development, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 23(1): 165-189.
* Rosenberg, Justin (1994) The Empire of Civil Society (London: Verso), Chapters 1 and 5.
Teschke, Benno (2003) The Myth of 1648 (London: Verso).
* Wallerstein, Immanuel (1974) The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist
System, Comparative Studies in Society and History 16(4): 387-415.
The debate on hierarchy
Clark, Ian (2011) Hegemony in International Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Cox, Robert (1983) Gramsci, Hegemony and IR, Millennium 12(2): 162-175.
* Gilpin, Robert (1981) War and Change in World Politics (Cambridge: CUP). For an
excellent retrospective on Gilpins work, see: John Ikenberry ed. (2014) Power and
Change in World Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
* Hobson, John (2014) Why Hierarchy and not Anarchy is the Core Concept of IR,
Millennium 42(3): 557-575.
* Hobson, John and Jason Sharman (2005) The Enduring Place of Hierarchy in World
Politics, European Journal of International Relations 11(1): 63-98.
Lake, David (2007) Escape from the State-of-Nature: Authority and Hierarchy in World
Politics, International Security 32(1): 47-79.
Donnelly, Jack (2006) Sovereign Inequalities and Hierarchy in Anarchy, European Journal
of International Relations 12(2): 139-170.
21
Key questions
What is critical about critical IR theory?
Capitalism not anarchy is the defining feature of the international system. Discuss.
What is the significance of seeing hierarchy rather than anarchy as the organizing
principle of world politics ?
_______________________________
Week 13
Empire
Most IR scholars accept that the modern states system emerged from a system of empires,
even if they disagree about when and how this process took place. Fewer scholars accept that
imperial legacies and practices continue to constitute core features of contemporary
international relations. More often than not, empire is seen as a normative term rather than as
an analytical tool. This lecture explores the political, economic and cultural components of
empire, and assesses the extent to which imperial relations continue to underpin
contemporary market, governance and legal regimes.
Essential readings
Barkawi, Tarak (2010) Empire and Order in International Relations and Security Studies,
in: Bob Denemark ed. The International Studies Encyclopedia (New York: Blackwell).
Hobson, John (2007) Is Critical Theory Always for the White West and for Western
Imperialism? Review of International Studies 33(S1): 91-107.
Vitalis, Robert (2010) The Noble American Science of Imperial Relations and Its Laws of
Race Development, Comparative Studies in Society and History 52(4): 909-938.
Further readings
Benton, Lauren (2010) A Search for Sovereignty (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
* Burbank, Jane and Frederick Cooper (2010) Empires in World History (Princeton).
Darwin, John (2007) The Rise and Fall of Global Empires, 1400-2000 (London: Penguin).
* Gallagher, John and Ronald Robinson (1953) The Imperialism of Free Trade, The
Economic History Review 6(1): 1-15.
Galtung, Johan (1971) A Structural Theory of Imperialism, Journal of Peace Research,
8(2): 81-117. Also see: Johan Galtung (1980) A Structural Theory of Imperialism: Ten
Years Later, Millennium 9(3): 181-196.
* Go, Julian (2011) Patterns of Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Hardt, Michael and Antonio Negri (2000) Empire (Cambridge, Harvard University Press).
* Long, David and Brian Schmidt eds. (2005) Imperialism and Internationalism in the
Discipline of International Relations (New York, SUNY).
Mann, Michael (2004) The First Failed Empire of the 21st Century, Review of International
Studies 30(4): 631-653.
Mann, Michael (2012) Global Empires and Revolution (Cambridge: CUP).
Key questions
Are international relations better understood as imperial relations?
To what extent is the discipline of International Relations an imperial discipline?
How useful is the concept of empire for understanding contemporary international
relations?
_______________________________
Week 14
Poststructuralism
This lecture maps out major developments in IR theory under the heading of poststructuralism.
It examines the arguments underlying poststructuralist critiques of realist, liberal, English
School, constructivist and critical theories. Calling attention to the influence of leading figures
22
within literary theory and philosophy (e.g. Foucault, Derrida, Butler, Kristeva, and Lyotard),
the lecture explores how matters of representation, language, and power have led some IR
scholars to question received wisdom about the make-up of contemporary international order.
In doing so, the lecture looks critically and comparatively at different versions of
poststructuralism, exploring the implications of poststructuralist ideas for the meaning of the
international, and for making explanatory and normative claims about international politics.
Essential reading
Ashley, R. and Walker, R. B. J. eds. (1990) Speaking the Language of Exile, International
Campbell, David (1998) Why Fight: Humanitarianism, Principles, and Post-Structuralism,
Millennium 27(3): 497-522.
Epstein, Charlotte (2013) Constructivism or the Eternal Return of Universals in International
Relations, European Journal of International Relations 19(3): 499-519.
Further reading
* Ashley, R. K. (1988) Untying the Sovereign State, Millennium 17(2): 227-286.
* Campbell, David (1992) Writing Security (Manchester: Manchester University Press).
* Der Derian, James (1992), Antidiplomacy: Spies, Terror, Speed and War (Oxford: Blackwell).
Der Derian, J. and Shapiro, M. (eds.), International/Intertextual Relations (Lexington, 1989).
Dillon, M. & Neal, A. (2008) Foucault on Politics, Security and War (London: Palgrave).
Doty, R. (1996) Imperial Encounters (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press).
Edkins, Jenny (1999) Poststructuralism in IR (Boulder: Lynne Rienner).
Edkins, Jenny and Maja Zehfuss (2005) Generalising the International, Review of
International Studies,31(3): 451-472.
* Inayatullah, N. and D. Blaney (2004) IR and the Problem of Difference (London: Routledge).
* Jabri, V. (1998) Restyling the Subject of Responsibility in IR, Millennium 27(3): 591-611.
Shapiro, M. (1992) Reading the Postmodern Polity (University of Minnesota Press).
Walker, R. B. J. (1993) Inside/Outside (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Weber, Cynthia (2010) Interruption Ashley Review of International Studies 36(4): 975-87.
Key questions
What do poststructuralists mean by critique?
How persuasive is the poststructuralist critique of realism?
What is the best way to characterise the relationship between poststructuralism and
constructivism?
_______________________________
Week 15
Power
One of the major contributions claimed by poststructuralist international theory is that it
incorporates a more comprehensive and nuanced conception of power than other
perspectives. This lecture addresses the different dimensions of power proposed within the
framework of poststructuralism, calling attention to how power might be thought of as
relational and productive, and how it might be analysed with attention to discourse and
modes of representation.
Essential Reading
Barnett, M. & Duvall, R. (2005) Power in International Politics, International Organization
59(1): 39-75.
Barnett, M. & Duvall, R. (eds.) (2005) Power in Global Governance (Cambridge, CUP). See
in particular: R. Lipschutz, Global Civil Society and Global Governmentality.
Bially Mattern, Janice (2005) Why Soft Power Isn't So Soft Millennium 33(3): 583-612.
23
Further Reading
* Edkins, Jenny and Vronique Pin-Fat (2005) Relations of Power and Relations of
Violence, Millennium 34(1): 1-24.
* Foucault, M. Power, Volume 3 of the Essential Works of Foucault, ed. J. D. Faubion (New
York: New Press, 2000). See, in particular, Truth and Power, Governmentality and
Omnes et Singulatim: Towards a Critique of Political Reason.
Guzzini, S. (1993) Structural Power: The Limits of Neorealist Power Analysis,
International Organization 47(3): 443-478.
Hirst, P. (1998) The Eighty Years Crisis, 1919-1999: Power, Review of International
Studies 24(Special Issue): 133-148.
* Ikenberry, John and Charles Kupchan (1990) Socialization and Hegemonic Power,
International Organization 44(3): 283-315.
Joseph, Jonathan (2010) The Limits of Governmentality: Social Theory and the
International, European Journal of International Relations 16(2): 223-246.
* Lukes, S. Power: A Radical View (London: Palgrave, 2004) N.B. it is worth getting hold of
the substantially updated second edition.
* Neumann, I. B. & Sending, O. J. (2006) The International as Governmentality,
Millennium 35(3): 677-702.
* Nye, Joseph S. (2004) Soft Power (New York: Public Affairs).
Nye, Joseph S. (2011) Power and Foreign Policy, Journal of Political Power 4(1): 9-24.
Key questions
Can poststructuralist and realist ideas about power ever be compatible?
Is the concept of govenmentality useful for understanding power in global
governance?
In what ways do poststructural conceptualizations of power differ from notions of
hegemony, socialization, or soft-power?
_______________________________
Week 16 Feminism
This lecture maps out the contributions of feminist scholarship to IR theory. It explores the
distinctive claims of feminism, its critique of mainstream IR theories, and its overlaps and
tensions with constructivism, critical theory and post-structuralism. This, in turn, lays the
ground for thinking about how feminist modes of IR theory intersect and influence other forms
of IR at the marginsincluding postcolonial IRand calls attention to the analytical and
normative consequences of patriarchy and androcentrism across issue areas. Finally, the lecture
distinguishes between different strands of feminist theories and asks whether it is possible, as
some constructivists claim, to incorporate gender into IR theory without feminism.
Essential reading
Ackerly, Brooke, and Jacqui True (2008) Power and Ethics in Feminist Research on
International Relations, International Studies Review 10(4): 693-707.
Carpenter, Charli (2002) Gender Theory in World Politics: Contributions of a Nonfeminist
Standpoint, International Studies Review 4(3): 152-165.
Squires, J & Weldes, J. (2007) Beyond Being Marginal: Gender and International Relations
in Britain, British Journal of Politics and International Relations 9(2): 185-203.
Further reading
Overviews
Forum, Are Women Transforming IR? (2008) Politics and Gender 4(1): 121-180.
Hutchings, K. (2008) Contrast and Continuity in Feminist IR, Millennium 37(1): 97-106.
24
* Keohane, R, Tickner, J. A. et al (1998) Conversations between IR and Feminist Theory,

International Studies Quarterly 42(1): 191-210.
Steans, J. (2003) Engaging from the Margins, British Journal of Politics and International
Relations 5(3): 428-454.
* Tickner, J Ann (2011) Retelling IR's Foundational Stories: Some Feminist and
Postcolonial Perspectives, Global Change, Peace & Security 23(1): 5-13.
Youngs, G. (2004) Feminist International Relations: Contradiction in Terms? International
Affairs 80(1): 101-114.
Additional reading
Buck, L., Gallant, N. & Nossal, K., Sanctions as a Gendered Instrument of Statecraft,
Review of International Studies, 24(1) 1998.
Cockburn, C. & Zarkov, D. (eds) Militaries, Masculinities and International Peacekeeping
(London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2002).
Cohn, C., Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals, Signs 12(4) 1987.
Elshtain, J. B., Women and War (Brighton: Harvester Press, 1987). See also: Women and War:
Ten Years On, Review of International Studies, 24(4), 1998.
* Goldstein, J. War and Gender (Cambridge, CUP, 2001)
Hooper, C. Manly States (New York, Columbia University Press, 2001).
* Hutchings, K., Towards a Feminist International Ethics, Review of International Studies,
26, Special Issue, (December 2000), 111-130.
Shepherd, Laura J. (ed.) (2010) Gender Matters in Global Politics (London: Routledge)
* Sylvester, C., Feminist Theory and IR in a Postmodern Era (Cambridge: 1994).
* Tickner, J. A (2005) What is your Research Program? Some Feminist Answers to IR
Methodological Questions, International Studies Quarterly 49(1): 1-21.
* Zalewski, M. Do We Understand Each Other Yet? Troubling Feminist Encounters Within
International Relations, British Journal of Politics and IR, 9(2), 2007: 302-312.
Key questions
What is distinctive about feminist critiques of mainstream IR theory?
Can the concept of gender be divorced from feminist theory?
How do empirically driven feminist modes of IR differ from those that are
conceptually driven?
_______________________________
Week 17
No lecture reading week

_______________________________
Week 18
Security
Peace, war and security studies have long been targets for various forms of critical
intervention. This lecture examines feminist critiques of how security is understood in both
mainstream and critical theories. Building on the previous lectures, the lectures explores in
the ways in which the agenda of security studies has grown to encompass a wider range of
security referents and modes of analysis. It also assesses how feminist arguments fit with
contemporary developments in the theorization of security, and considers their strengths and
weaknesses in relation to concepts like human security, insecurity, and securitization.
Essential reading
Hansen, L. (2000) The Little Mermaids Security Dilemma and the Absence of Gender in
the Copenhagen School, Millennium 29(2): 285-306.
Sjoberg, L. (2009) Introduction to Security Studies: Feminist Contributions, Security
Studies 18(2): 183-213.
25
Sylvester, C. (2013) Experiencing the End and Afterlives of International Relations Theory
European Journal of International Relations 19(3): 609-626.
Further Reading
Bilgin, Pinar (2010) The Western-Centrismof Security Studies Security Dialogue 41(6):
615-662.
Blanchard, E. Gender and the Development of Feminist Security Theory, Signs 28(4) 2003.
* Buzan, Barry and Ole Waever (2009) Macrosecuritisation and Security Constellations,
Review of International Studies 35(2): 253-276.
Buzan, B. and Hansen, L. (2009) The Evolution of International Security Studies (CUP).
* Carpenter, Charli (2005) Women, Children and Other Vulnerable Groups, International
Studies Quarterly, 49(2): 295334.
* Hoogensen, Gunhild Stuvy Kirsti (2006) Gender, Resistance and Human Security,
Security Dialogue 37(2): 207-228.
Jones, A. (2000) Gendercide and Genocide, Journal of Genocide Research, 2(2) 2000: 185211.
* Kirby, Paul (2013) How is Rape a Weapon of War?, EJIR 19(4): 797-821.
* MacKenzie, M. (2009)Securitization and Desecuritization: Female Soldiers and the
Reconstruction of Women in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone, Security Studies 18: 241-61.
* Security Dialogue (2011) Special Issue on the Politics of Securitization, 42(4).
Whitworth, S. (2004) Men, Militarism and UN Peacekeeping (Boulder: Lynne Rienner).
Young, I. M. (2003) The Logic of Masculinist Protection, Signs 29(2).
* Wilcox, L. (2009) Gendering the Cult of the Offensive, Security Studies 18: 214-240.
Key questions
How do conceptions of security differ between mainstream and critical
approaches?
What are the consequences of defining security from a feminist point of view?
Can the Copenhagen school accommodate feminist critiques?
_______________________________
Part 3
Theorising theory
The final section of the course explores the theory of theory, i.e. the concerns with issues of
objectivity and truth, causation and chance, and power and knowledge that lie behind social
scientific enquiry. The first two sessions look at whether social sciences, including IR, can be
approached in a way comparable to natural sciences. The latter two sessions look at the use
and abuse of history in social scientific research, focusing on how concepts such as context
and narrative help to build bridges between the two enterprises.
Week 19
Philosophy of Science I: Knowledge and certainty
This lecture provides an overview of debates about the nature of scientific knowledge and
how these have been taken up in IR, focusing on issues of causation and prediction.
Perspectives covered include: those who read causation in Humean terms; those who deny
the relevance of causal models for the social sciences; and those who argue for a different,
more complex model of causation as the means to generate a scientific IR. A central theme
in the lecture is the way in which post-positivist approaches have opened up disciplinary
debates about the importance of explanation, causality and interpretation.
Essential reading
Keohane, Robert O. (2009) Political Science as a Vocation, PS: Political Science & Politics
42(2): 359-363.
26
Kurki, Milja (2006) Causes of a Divided Discipline Review of International Studies 32(2):
189-216.
Wendt, Alexander (1998) On Constitution and Causation in International Relations, Review
of International Studies, 24(Special Issue): 101-117.
Further Reading
Alker, H. R. and T. J. Biersteker (1984) 'The Dialectics of World Order', International
* Biersteker, T.J. (1989) 'Critical Reflections on Post-Positivism in International Relations',
Chernoff, Fred (2014) Explanation and Progress in Security Studies (Palo Alto: Stanford
University Press).
* Haraway, Donna (1988) 'Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the
Privilege of Partial Perspective' , Feminist Studies 14(3): 575-599.
* Jackson, Patrick (2010) The Conduct of Inquiry in IR (London: Routledge).
* Law, John and John Urry (2004) 'Enacting the Social', Economy and Society 33(3): 390410.
Urry, John (2005) 'The Complexities of the Global', Theory, Culture & Society 22(5): 235-54.
* Weber, Max. Politics as a Vocation & Science as a Vocation. In: From Max Weber:
Essays in Sociology, translated and edited by H.H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1946). [Both essays are available online at:
https://archive.org/details/frommaxweberessa00webe]
* Wight, C. (2006) IR: A Science Without Positivism, Ch. 1 in Agents, Structures and
International Relations: Politics as Ontology (Cambridge: CUP).
Key questions
To what extent is social science distinguished by its focus on causal explanations?
How important is prediction to the study of world politics?
Can there be a social science without positivism?
_______________________________
Week 20
Philosophy of Science II: Pluralism and paradigms
This lecture traces the take up in IR of the Kuhnian notion of paradigms. It examines the
difficulties of adapting Kuhn's argument to IR and assesses recent arguments that suggest IR
should embrace methodological pluralism. Drawing on this framework, the lecture explores
one of the most entrenched meta-theoretical problems in IR the agent-structure debate
and how some scholarship has attempted to resolve this through a turn to critical realism.
Essential reading
Goddard, Stacie E., and Daniel H. Nexon (2005) 'Paradigm Lost? Reassessing Theory of
International Politics' European Journal of International Relations 11(1): 9-61.
Lake, David (2011) Why isms Are Evil, International Studies Quarterly 55(2): 465-480.
Patomki, Heikki and Colin Wight (2000) After Postpositivism? The Promises of Critical
Realism, International Studies Quarterly 44(2): 213-237.
Further reading
Bueno de Mesquita, B. Predicting Politics (Ohio State: 2002), Ch. 1.
Elman, C. and M.F. Elman eds. Progress in IR Theory (MIT: 2003). Also see the theory
talk with Miriam Elman: http://www.theory-talks.org/2009/07/theory-talk-32.html
* European Journal of International Relations, Special Issue: The End of IR Theory? 19(3)
2013: see the contributions by Mearsheimer and Walt, and Jackson and Nexon.
27
Gaddis, J. International Relations Theory and the End of the Cold War, International
Security, 17(3) 1992/3: 5-58.
Hollis, M. & Smith, S. (1991) The International System, Ch. 5 of Explaining and
Understanding in International Relations (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
* Jackson, Patrick and Daniel Nexon, (2009) Paradigmatic Faults in IR Theory,
Keohane, R. O. (1988) International Institutions: Two Approaches, International Studies
Quarterly, 32(4): 379-396
Knorr, K & Rosenau, J. (eds) (1969) Contending Approaches to International Politics
(Princeton). See especially the contributions by Bull and Singer.
Kuhn, T. (1970) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd Ed (Chicago).
* Kuhn, T. Logic of Discovery or Psychology of Research? and Reflections on my Critics
in Alan Musgrave and Imre Lakatos eds. Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge
(Cambridge: 1970). See also the chapters by Popper, Lakatos and Feyerabend.
Kurki, M. and H. Suganami (2012) Towards the Politics of Causal Explanation,
International Theory 4(3): 400-429.
Smith, S. (2004) Singing Our World Into Existence, International Studies Quarterly, 48(3):
499-515.
* Wendt, A. (1987) The Agent-Structure Problem in International Relations Theory,
International Organization, 41(3): 335-370.
Wendt, A. (1991) Bridging the Theory/Meta-theory Gap in International Relations, Review
of International Studies, 17(4): 383-392.
* Wight, C. (1999) They Shoot Dead Horses Dont They? EJIR 5(1): 109-142.
Key questions
What is a paradigm and can we know the world without one?
Are isms evil?
Is it possible to resolve the agent-structure debate?
_______________________________
Week 21
Context
In some respects, history has always been a core feature of international studies. On both
sides of the Atlantic, leading figures in the discipline such as E.H. Carr, Hans Morgenthau,
Martin Wight and Stanley Hoffman employed history as a means of illuminating their
research. And, since the end of the Cold War, the prominence of history has risen with the
emergence or reconvening of historically oriented research programmes such as
constructivism, neo-classical realism and the English School. However, much of this
literature either deliberately or otherwise operates under the guise of a well-entrenched
binary: political scientists do the theory, historians do the spadework. This lecture
problematizes this set-up, asking what it is we mean when we talk about history in IR. Along
the way, special attention is given to the role of context as developed by the Cambridge
School of intellectual historians.
Essential readings
Skinner, Quentin (1988) Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas, in: James
Tully (ed.), Meaning and Context: Quentin Skinner and his Critics (Princeton, NJ). Also
see Skinners reply to my critics in the same book.
Schroeder, Paul (1994) Historical Reality and Neo-Realist Theory, International Security
19(1): 108-148. Also see Elman and Elmans, Second Look, International Security
20(1): 182-193 and Schroeders reply in the same volume, pp. 194-196.
Lawson, Stephanie (2008) Political Studies and the Contextual Turn, Political Studies
56(3): 584-603.
28
Further readings
Bell, Duncan (2009) Writing the World: Disciplinary History and Beyond, International
Affairs 85(1): 3-22.
* Carr, E.H. (1967) What is History? (London: Vintage).
* Elman, Colin and Miriam Elman (eds.) (2001) Bridges and Boundaries (Cambridge, MA:
MIT), especially the chapters by John Lewis Gaddis and Richard Ned Lebow.
Evans, Richard (1997) In Defence of History (London: Granta).
* Gaddis, John Lewis (1996) History, Science and the Study of International Relations, in
Ngaire Woods (ed.), Explaining International Relations Since 1945, pp. 32-48.
* Goodin, Robert and Charles Tilly (2006) It Depends, in: Robert Goodin and Charles Tilly
(eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Contextual Political Analysis, pp. 3-34.
Hobson, John and George Lawson (2008) What is History in IR? Millennium 37(2): 415435. Also see the essays by Chris Reus Smit and Eddie Keene in the same forum.
Holden, Gerard (2002) Who Contextualises the Contextualisers? Review of International
Studies 28(2): 253-270.
Lustick, Ian (1996) History, Historiography and Political Science, American Political
Science Review 90(3): 605-618.
Pierson, Paul (2004) Politics in Time (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
* Vaughan-Williams, Nick (2005) International Relations and the Problem of History,
Millennium 34(1): 115-136.
Key questions
What is the best way of combining theory and history?
It depends (Goodin and Tilly). Does it?
Are there any dangers in the turn to context in IR?
_______________________________
Week 22
Narrative
This lecture looks at the work of narrative historians and eventful sociologists who
attempt to theorise contingency, chance and uncertainty without losing track of the broader
dynamics, processes and sequences that make up historical development. Regardless of
sometimes stark disagreements over epistemology, subject matter and sensibility, the lecture
examines whether enduring links can be established between history and theory by
acknowledging that history is a form of theorising, and that theory is necessarily historical.
Core readings
Lawson, George (2012) The Eternal Divide? History and International Relations, European
Journal of International Relations 18(2): 203-226.
Roberts, Geoffrey (2006) History, Theory and the Narrative Turn in International Relations,
Suganami, Hidemi (1999) Agents, Structures, Narratives, European Journal of
Further readings
Abbott, Andrew (1992) From Causes to Events: Notes on Narrative Positivism,
Sociological Methods & Research, 20(4): 428-455.
Bleiker, Roland and Brigg, Morgan (2010) Autoethnography and International Relations,
Buzan, Barry and George Lawson (2014) Rethinking Benchmark Dates in International
Relations, European Journal of International Relations 20(2): 437-462
29
Humphreys, Adam (2011) The Heuristic Application of Explanatory Theories in IR,

European Journal of International Relations, 17(2): 257-277.
* Jackson, Patrick (2006) The Present as History, in Robert Goodin and Charles Tilly (eds.),
The Oxford Handbook on Contextual Political Analysis, pp. 490-505.
Kratochwil, Friedrich (2006) History, Action and Identity, European Journal of
Lebow, Ned (2009) Forbidden Fruit (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Ling, L.H.M. (2014) Imagining World Politics (London: Routledge).
* Sewell, William (1996) Three Temporalities: Toward an Eventful Sociology, in Terrence
J. McDonald (ed.) The Historic Turn in the Human Sciences, pp. 245-280.
Sewell, William (2005) Logics of History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
* Stone, Lawrence (1979) The Revival of Narrative, Past and Present 85(1): 3-24.
Tilly, Charles (2006) Why? (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
* White, Hayden (1974) Metahistory (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press).
Key questions
Is history a social science?
Does narrative act as a useful bridge between history and IR?
Can we speak of an eternal divide between history and social science?
_______________________________
30
Summer 2014 examination
IR436
Suitable for all candidates
Instructions to candidates
Time allowed: 2 hours
This paper contains eight questions. Answer two questions. All questions will
be given equal weight.
1. The power of Waltzs theory is that it is immune from internal critique.
Discuss.
2. How important is the concept of sovereignty to the development of
International Relations theory?
3. Both liberalism and Marxism should be primarily understood as normative
theories. Discuss.
4. Do the concepts of empire and imperialism belong to the past?
5. Is it possible to study security in International Relations without feminism?
6. Post-structural readings of power are philosophically interesting, but
empirically vacuous. Do you agree?
7. Are International Relations theories incommensurable or can they be usefully
combined?
8. What is the best way to understand the relationship between International
Relations theory and the substance of international relations?

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What are the three main teaching methods used on the course?

What are the three main teaching methods used on the course?

What are the four main aims of the course?

What are the four main aims of the course?

MSc International Relations Theory 2015-16 IR436

To interrogate how the international has been constructed as a field of study.

Although no previous knowledge of IR theory is assumed, it is worth remembering

Outline: it is strongly encouraged to provide an outline of your summative essay (see

Summative assessment the course has two forms of summative assessment:

Scott Burchill et al (eds.), Theories of International Relations 5th edition (London:

Patrick Jackson, The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations (London:

Martin Griffiths (ed.), Encyclopaedia of International Relations and Global Politics

Theorising theory; theorising the international

Topics: Overview, reading and key questions

Theorising the international

Theories of International Relations

No lecture reading week

Is liberalism in IR better seen as a theory or as an ideology?

* Phillips, Andrew (2011) War, Religion and Empire (Cambridge: CUP).

Benedict Kingsbury, The Concept of Compliance, Michigan Journal of International Law, 19

* Keohane, R, Tickner, J. A. et al (1998) Conversations between IR and Feminist Theory,

No lecture reading week

Humphreys, Adam (2011) The Heuristic Application of Explanatory Theories in IR,

Summer 2014 examination

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