INTR 290 602 - Transnational Issues and Contemporary International Politics

This course is designed to provide students with an introduction to international relations and to acquaint them with some of the leading issues, theories, concepts and processes that shape and define world events. It is expected that you will gain an ability to analyze, understand, objectively evaluate and appreciate the complex dynamic that is global politics. In order to better understand other nations, their leaders, and their motivations, the readings and lectures in the first segment of this course will examine the traditional and contemporary approaches to studying world politics.

Next, we will focus on the ins truments of conflict and cooperation and the forces of integration and fragmentation in the world today. Finally, we will assess some of the major international issues of our time and assess the prospects for bringing peace and prosperity to a chaotic world. The overriding challenge in this course is to appreciate international relations from different perspectives and to be open and adaptive as you develop this appreciation. There is rarely just one way of stating a problem, examining it, or working for its resolution. For this reason, we will use case studies to examine a series of international issues from a number of different vantage points: the international system, sovereign states and non state actors.

A fundamental shift in the field of international relations took place in 1989, on September 11, 2001 and now again with the global economic crisis. These events have transformed how we view politics among nations. In a post-Cold War and 9/11 era, international problems such as international terrorism, global warming, human rights, international migration and refugee populations, population growth, proliferation of conventional and nuclear weapons and international competition have replaced many of the problems and paradigms that dominated world politics for much of the last century. As the semester progresses, we will attempt to understand world politics and this “new world order” using three basic approaches to international relations: realism, idealism, and globalism.

Required Textbooks:

Required textbooks are available at Penn bookstore, or online from any vendor. 

International Politics on the World Stage, with PowerWeb, 12th Edition, John T. Rourke, University of Connecticut-Storrs, ISBN 0073261181

Global Issues. The Congressional Quarterly, CQ Press; 2009 Edition