OADI 2290 - Theory and Policy: key concepts in International Affairs

***UPDATED for 2021/22***

This course scrutinizes some of the key concepts or conceptual building blocks in world politics. In the same style, it also investigates some of the main issues in international affairs today. In so doing, the course links basic conceptual and theoretical thinking with considerations of policy, and explores policy-options in the light of wider, general political goals. The course combines compact lectures with seminar-style discussions as well as group presentations and or debates relating to the concepts and issues covered.

Learning Outcomes

1. Gain a grasp of some of the major conceptual building blocks and major current issues in international affairs.

2. Grasp the links or connections between serious conceptual-theoretical thinking on the one hand, and policy and policy-thinking on the other.

3. Further independent thinking about general, wider political goals, and possible policy options or -choices with respect to the big building blocks and issues in international affairs.

Professional Skills

Grasp the links or connections between serious conceptual-theoretical thinking on the one hand, and policy and policy-thinking on the other.

Further independent thinking about general, wider political goals, and possible policy options or -choices with respect to the big building blocks and issues in international affairs.

Present or debates positions regarding policy options related to the major concepts and issues covered in the course.

Ulrich KROTZ
Séminaire
English
- In Class Presence: 2 hours a week / 24 hours a semester

- Online learning activities: some independent online research as feeding into the three items beow

- Reading and Preparation for Class: ca. 2,5 hours a week / 30 hours a semester

- Research and Preparation for Group Work: one or two groups presentation or debates in class / 10 hours a semester

- Research and Writing for Individual Assessments: one short paper on a topic covered in the course / 10 hours a semester

No formal prerequisites.
Spring 2021-2022
Class participation 10%; debate(s) (group) or presentation(s) (group) in-class 40%; short paper (individual) toward end of semester 50%

During class, after class, and or during office hours.

1. Max Weber, Power and Domination, in Max Weber, Basic Categories of Social Organization in Economy and Society (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1978 [1921]), pp. 53-54.
2. James Crabtree, Robert D. Kaplan, Robert Muggah, Kumi Naidoo, Shannon K. O'Neil, Adam Posen, Kenneth Roth, Bruce Schneier, Stephen M. Walt, Alexandra Wrage, The Future of the State: Ten leading global thinkers on government after the pandemic, in: F
3. Can There Be a Common European Identity? (pp. 67-81) in Key Controversies in European Integration, edited by Hubert Zimmermann and Andreas Dür (London et. al: Palgrave Macmillan, Third Edition, 2021).
4. John Gerard Ruggie, "Social Time and Ecodemographic Contexts," in John Gerard Ruggie, ed., Constructing the World Polity. Essays on International Institutionalization (New York, NY: Routledge, 1998) pp. 155-171.
5. Rana Mitter, How China's past shapes Xi's thinking - and his view of the world, 25 October 2021, BBC
1. Kofi Annan, Nobel Lecture, Oslo, Norway, December 10, 2001. Lecture delivered after the Norwegian Nobel Committee had awarded the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize to the United National and its Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, for their work for a better organize
2. Interview with Josep Nye and Harry Kreisler. Accessible here: Conversations With History: Power with Joseph Nye - YouTube