Spring 2014

This seminar focuses on issues in Japanese domestic politics and political economy in historical and comparative perspective.  We critically review major debates in the field, examining new scholarship as well as classic works.

This course considers the pressures on the advanced countries for economic and political adaptation. As nations struggle to recover from the crash and sustain employment and productivity growth to assure expanding real incomes of the citizens, they find that their policy choices have been altered by two, perhaps contradictory, sets of forces. One set of forces, globalization and the decomposition of production, seems to limit the capacity of governments to act in the face of the supposedly inexorable pressures of markets. The other set of forces, the instability and crash of financial markets along with the dangers of climate change, seem to call for government action. What is a government to do? Can wealthy nations stay wealthy? Are equality and sustained growth compatible? Can emerging economies succeed in sustaining growth?
 

This is a graduate seminar designed to give Ph.D. students the opportunity to become familiar with the subfield of international cooperation and to plan their own research projects on a related topic. We begin by reviewing the positions of central IR paradigms on the possibility of international cooperation and the role of international institutions. We will talk about why states want to cooperate, which obstacles need to be overcome, and how international institutions can facilitate interstate cooperation. We examine questions concerning the design of international institutions, the extent of compliance they evoke, and their effect in various areas of international cooperation.

This course is a graduate field seminar in International Politics.  We will survey and assess foundational theoretical perspectives, issues, and research programs in IR, placing each in historical perspective.  What kinds of questions does modern IR theory ask (and not ask) and about what kinds of problems?  What methods are used to seek answers?  What is the value of the answers?  Who uses them and for what?  Where is this field headed and where do we think it should be headed?  Through intensive reading and discussion as well as some small writing assignments, we will build a foundation for more advanced courses in International Relations as well as research agendas that can elaborate, refine, and extend contemporary debates in academic IR.  

This seminar provides a broad survey of major debates in comparative political economy, focusing on the creation and evolution of market institutions.  The course begins by examining classic works in political economy, including those of Smith, List, Marx, and Polanyi.  In analyzing the significance of institutions in political life, we draw on contending perspectives from history, sociology, and economics as well as political science.  We then proceed through a selective survey of literature on the political economy of Western Europe, Japan, the newly industrializing powers of East Asia and Latin America, the developing world, and the post-socialist economies.  

Nearly everyone agrees that history somehow matters for understanding political life, but there are many disagreements concerning how much, how we would know, and the mechanisms of history’s influence. What role do historical legacies, path dependence, and critical junctures play in accounting for contemporary outcomes? What are the best methods for illuminating the influence of the past? We explore these and related questions through close examination of an eclectic array of scholarly materials. 

**Please note: Duiring the week of On February 2nd through 7th, class will be held on Thursday, February 6th in 291 Barrows from 10a-12p.

In this seminar, we will study, unpack, and analyze some of the most difficult and consequential US foreign policy decisions of the last 100 years.  The focus will be on decision-making processes and strategy:  Why did policy makers choose the way they did?  How effective were they in efforts to foresee the consequences of their decisions...to plan for contingencies...to reduce 'unintended consequences'... to minimize the downside of risky choices... to maximize the upside potential and adaptive space to adjust?  We will consider some prominent theories of and perspectives on decision-making and strategy, but the bulk of the course will be devoted to studying specific cases in-depth.  

The Junior Seminars are intense writing seminars which focus on the research area of the faculty member teaching the course. The seminars provide an opportunity for students to have direct intellectual interactions with faculty members while also giving the students an understanding for faculty research.

Junior seminars fulfill upper division requirements for the major.

Subfield:   International Relations