Бакалавриат
2026/2027
Введение в международные отношения
ID 1139141
Статус:
Курс обязательный (Международная программа «Международные отношения и глобальные исследования»)
Кто читает:
Факультет мировой экономики и мировой политики
Где читается:
Факультет мировой экономики и мировой политики
Когда читается:
2-й курс, 3, 4 модуль
Охват аудитории:
для своего кампуса
Преподаватели:
Фергюсон Йен Эндрю
Язык:
английский
Кредиты:
4
Контактные часы:
56
Course Syllabus
Abstract
Students of this course are bound to ask the question – what exactly is International Relations (IR)? What distinguishes this subject from history or law, economics or comparative politics? When did ‘IR’ emerge as an academic subject? How has it changed over time in the West and in Russia? What does IR contribute to the sum of human knowledge? And why has it become one of the most popular twenty–first century social sciences despite the fact that – as students will discover fairly early on – IR scholars around the world spend more time than most defending and defining their ‘discipline’? The purpose of this course is to try and answer these questions while providing students with a foundation in the theory and practice of international relations and world politics and an introduction to more specialised topics that they may choose to study in more depth in the future. This course does not presuppose a specialised knowledge of international affairs. On the other hand, it does assume that students will have a genuine interest in world politics in addition to a willingness to expand their knowledge of geography, policy issues and events of international history. The course shall touch on the whole modern period of international relations, from the birth of the European state system in the early 15th century to the present day. But most of our focus will be on the last hundred years or so, a period marked by the quickening pace of globalisation, the search for a lasting, post–war international order and comparable events of international crisis associated with this collective enterprise.This course is therefore a roadmap and guide to the complex issues in an increasingly globalised context of world politics. Rather than trying to be exhaustive, it seeks to introduce students to a wide range of issues and problems, linked in some shape or form to changes brought about by political, cultural and economic aspects of globalisation; developments that have preoccupied scholars and policymakers alike around the world since the origins of ‘IR’ as a professional field of inquiry. Instead of arguing in favour of a specific approach or pointing to an absolute truth in IR, this course will ask students to think about the origins and dynamics to events and challenges in world politics in a clear and (where appropriate) critical fashion, coming to well–reasoned conclusions based on a combination of empirical observation and theoretical rigour. The aim, in other words, is to inform and stimulate and, in so doing, get all the students who take this course to ask questions and consider research puzzles about the international relations of the past and the present which they may never have thought of before.
Learning Objectives
- Explore the evolution of the discipline of international relations (IR) over the past century by examining the changing understandings of order in the modern world
- Consider the impact of major historical events on the evolution of IR, including the treaties of 1648, Europe’s imperial expansion, the First World War and the ongoing influence of globalisation
- Introduce students to a range of theoretical tools in order to analyse the behaviour of international actors and the nature of international systems
- Define and discuss some main concepts within the discipline, including war, peace, the state and power
- Critically assess challenges facing contemporary international society, including new security issues, global governance and the rise of East Asian actors.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- Understand the global evolution and limitations of International Relations (IR) as an academic discipline, including inside Russia
- Identify the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches for understanding and explaining changes in international order since 1919 in terms of the agency–structure problem in theory
- Analyse international events from a variety of actor–specific and theoretical viewpoints for understanding a range of (global) policy challenges in the twenty–first century
- Evaluate the relevance of key concepts for making sense of empirical, policy–facing situations in world politics and developing the theory of international relations in analytical response to these cases
- Discuss critically, and write knowledgeably about, major IR theories and paradigmatic debates
- Use key IR concepts to think, talk and write persuasively about historical processes and contemporary events
Course Contents
- The History of ‘IR’ between Wales, America & Russia
- The state as an actor in international relations
- Peacemaking and the ‘Crisis’ of International Orders
- Realism
- Liberalism
- Constructivism
- The English School
- International Political Economy
- Critical Theory & Feminism
- Power in the Global Age
- The EU’s Power in the Global Age
- War in the Global Age
- Is conflict between the USA and China inevitable?
- Post-Western Change in the Global Age?
Assessment Elements
- Seminar participationStudents’ participation in seminar discussions is assessed according to how well prepared they are. It is not enough to just turn up. Active participation, with clear and obvious references to course readings, is required to get a good participation grade. Obtaining an excellent grade requires demonstrating an ability to understand and analyse key ideas and concepts from all the required readings and (at least one) of the recommended readings assigned for the seminars. A scorecard for participation will be kept by the seminar instructors and used to calculate a final participation score for each student for the regular and the case study seminars (see tables below). If a student misses a seminar, and has a valid reason for doing so, there will be an opportunity to complete a brief written task in order to obtain a participation grade for the class they have missed. Confirmation of the validity of absence must be provided to the study office. The written task will be arranged by the seminar instructor.
- In-class essaysThere are two written exams for this course. We call them ‘mock exams’. One will be the end of Module 3, and another at the end of teaching on Module 4 – more specific dates will be set by the seminar instructors in January. The idea of this assignment is to test each student’s understanding of the course, and also to evaluate their academic writing skills. In these ‘mock exams’ students will be given a choice of ten questions, to which they are expected to answer TWO in an essay format. Each exam will last 3 hours. There is no strict word length or any penalties for writing too much or too little. Although we expect that each essay will be around 400-800 words long. They are expected to provide a thoughtful, well-researched response to a choice of one, from questions such as: ‘International Relations remains an American social science, even in Russia’. Discuss. Claims about the ‘liberal’ foundations of the contemporary international order are contested. Explain why with reference to arguments based on the reasoning of either ‘realism’ or ‘critical theory. ‘There is little agreement between contemporary theories of international relations on why ‘institutions’ are important’. Discuss. It is recommended (but not essential) that this assignment is structured to include something like the following, four sections: Introduction, which provides a brief version of the answer along with a guide to the essay; Literature review, which: a) engages with selected historical literature from the relevant theme(s) of the course, and b) sets out the theoretical / conceptual debate that the essay engages with; Analysis, which provides an explanation of the answer - an analytical section that engages with selected theoretical / conceptual literature in setting out an answer to the essay question; Conclusion, which restates the answer and reflects on its implications in terms of understanding and explaining a period of recent history and / or a particular theory / debate in International Relations As a rough guide, the Introduction and Conclusion combined should be no more 25% of the word length. There will be no opportunity to revise and resubmit this assignment. In all cases where plagiarism is identified, a grade of 0 will be given. There will be a chance to talk through the expectations in terms of academic writing for this assignment in the final seminars of each part of the course.
- Exam
Interim Assessment
- 2026/2027 4th module0.2 * Seminar participation + 0.4 * Exam + 0.4 * In-class essays
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Lebedeva, M. M. V. (DE-588)1051718589, (DE-627)786618302, (DE-576)407279407, aut. (2018). Russian studies of international relations from the Soviet past to the post-Cold-War present Marina Lebedeva ; with a foreword by Andrei P. Tsygankov. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.51570654X
- Wendt, A. (1992). Anarchy is what states make of it: The social construction of power politics. International Organization, 46(2), 391. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818300027764
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Theory of international politics / Kenneth N. Waltz. (2010). Long Grove, Ill.: Waveland Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.322626552