Fall 2018 - IS 451 D100

Seminar on Core Texts in International Studies (4)

Class Number: 8109

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 4 – Dec 3, 2018: Wed, 9:30 a.m.–1:20 p.m.
    Vancouver

  • Prerequisites:

    90 units. International Studies major or honors students.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An interdisciplinary course which aims to bring together different disciplinary perspectives on international affairs through the study of influential texts which, between them, involve study of core themes to the program: development, governance and civil society, war and peace, human rights and questions of culture and ethnicity.

COURSE DETAILS:

This is one of the two ‘capstone’ courses for the Major in International Studies (the other being IS 450), and it is intended to bring together concepts and ideas from across the range of courses that may be taken up by those majoring in this field of study. It is based upon the view that close study of a small number of texts is a rewarding approach to learning. There is no generally accepted canon of ‘core texts’ in an interdisciplinary field such as International Studies, but all the texts selected for study in this course are widely reckoned to be of particular significance. Between them, they enable us to study a number of topics that are of great importance in International Studies: state formation and state failure; capitalism; development; liberalism and neoliberalism; class and politics; energy and geopolitics; nationalism, race and culture. Between them, too, they provide us with a broad overview of the sweep of modern history from the time of the formation of states in early modern western Europe, to the Cold War and the present era. And they enable us to study, as well, different approaches in the social sciences: rational choice; historical materialism and historical institutionalism; constructivism.

Grading

NOTES:

Students will be required to submit their written assignments to Turnitin.com in order to receive credit for the assignments and for the course.

The School for International Studies strictly enforces the University's policies regarding plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty. Information about these policies can be found at: http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/teaching.html.

REQUIREMENTS:

Lectures and Seminars
The lectures in this course aim to provide historical and theoretical context for each of the texts in turn, and to draw out the concepts and ideas that they illuminate. The seminars will be devoted to discussion of the texts.  

Writing and Assessment
I will ask you to write a synopsis of Prosperity and Violence; an extended essay on Harvey’s Brief History and The Great Transformation; a film review; an essay on Imagined Communities and Half of a Yellow Sun; and an essay on either Carbon Democracy or Insurgent Collective Action.

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Robert Bates (2001) Prosperity and Violence: The Political Economy of Development. New York: W W Norton

This is a brilliant, very short book, tracing the story of state formation in early modern Europe through to that of state failures in the context of the Cold War. It presents, too, a way of thinking about development, rooted in a rational choice approach.

David Harvey (2005) A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford and New York: Oxford University.

Harvey is one of the most widely cited scholars working today, and probably the most influential Marxist thinker. This book offers a Marxist perspective on recent trends in international development.

Karl Polanyi (1944/2001) The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Times. Boston: The Beacon Press

In this book Polanyi, a refugee from Nazism, first in Britain and then in the United States, reflects upon the rise of the market economy, and upon how the contradictions to which it gives rise explain the great world crisis of the middle of the twentieth century. The analysis is a source of many insights, and scholars such as David Harvey have found in them a way of understanding what has happened in politics and society over the last half-century, since the time that Polanyi wrote.

Timothy Mitchell (2011) Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil. London and New York: Verso

Oil is a curse, it is often said, that condemns the countries producing it to an existence defined by war, corruption and enormous inequality. Carbon Democracy tells a more complex story, arguing that no nation escapes the political consequences of our collective dependence on oil. It shapes the body politic both in regions such as the Middle East, which rely upon revenues from oil production, and in the places that have the greatest demand for energy … In making the production of energy the central force shaping the democratic age, Carbon Democracy rethinks the history of energy, the politics of nature, the theory of democracy, and the place of the Middle East in our common world.

Benedict Anderson (1983/1991/2006) Imagined Communities: The Origins and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso

Nationalism, clearly, is one of the most powerful drivers of modern politics, and this is the most influential analysis of its origins and significance.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2006) Half of a Yellow Sun. Several Editions

This is a novel, a work of fiction. But creative writers, such as Adichie, are as much concerned with trying to understand human experience as are social scientists – and can be much more effective in conveying their understandings. Half of a Yellow Sun is a story set in Nigeria, shortly after the end of the colonial period, and through the civil war that broke out over the formation of a breakaway state, Biafra, by people of Igbo ethnicity. Adichie illuminates some of the ideas of Imagined Communities and offers powerful insights into ethnic conflict and the experience of civil war.  

Elizabeth Wood (2003) Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador. New York: Cambridge University Press

This book explores another hugely important question: what is the social basis for revolt? Wood asks why, despite the very high costs of doing so, so many peasants in El Salvador supported opposition organizations. She shows, finally, that while material grievances, especially the unequal distribution of land, played a role in motivating rebellion, emotional and moral reasons were essential to the emergence and consolidation of insurgent collective action.

FILM (for viewing in class, not for purchase)

Harlan County U. S. A. is a remarkable film made in the 1970s about a prolonged strike in the Kentucky coalfield. We will ‘read’ this film, too, as a ‘text’, alongside the books by Polanyi and Mitchel.

Registrar Notes:

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://students.sfu.ca/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS