4.0

credits

Average Course Rating

The aim of this course is to read several important texts in depth and to write about the themes and arguments they raise. All the texts discuss the tension between the rights of states and international limitations on sovereign power. The course shows how – at any rate in western eyes – the traditional notion of the Westphalian state was superseded by a liberal vision of the international order that prized the constraints placed on sovereign power by global markets, by moral concerns about the failure to respect human rights, and by the need to end global injustices. This liberal vision of the world order has generated ‘atavistic impulses’ within the West itself (and, of course, criticism elsewhere in the world). The course will look at the specific case of the United States, though it is not a course about contemporary populism / nationalism. The course will conclude with two rigorous academic seminars in which students present the research they have conducted during the term on topics connected with the course material. These will not be ‘presentations’ with bullet points, but carefully worked-out academic arguments. The course, in short, is a preliminary reflection upon the historical development of the post-1945 world order. Doing the course presupposes some prior experience with political history, political theory, and the theory of IR.