PS 0500: Introduction to World Politics
William Spaniel
Fall 2017
Lecture: Tu/Th 2:00-2:50 Cathedral of Learning 324
Recitation: As Scheduled
Office Hours: Tu 11:45-1:45 Posvar 4446
Email: williamspaniel@gmail.com
Syllabus
YouTube Playlist
Problem Set #1, Data Analysis #1, Problem Set #2, Data Analysis #2
World politics is the study of how states interact with each other. This course builds a working knowledge of our field, introducing the background, theoretical, and empirical tools necessary to understand international relations today. Students will learn about important findings in a variety of subfields, including war, international political economy, institutions, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism. To do so, the course emphasizes readings from original research material rather than from a textbook. Students will also solve problem sets and work with common international relations datasets to obtain a working understanding of the discipline’s methodological foundations.
Topic 12: Intervention
Slides: Here
Readings: The Critical Barrier to Civil War Settlement, Pitfalls and Prospects in the Peacekeeping Literature
Lectures: Where Does Terrorism Fester?, Commitment Problems, Exploitation and Civil War Settlements, The Critical Barrier to Civil War Settlement
Topic 11: Terrorism
Slides: Here
Readings: The Strategies of Terrorism, Democracy, Foreign Policy, and Terrorism
Lectures: The Definition of Terrorism, Are Terrorists Rational?, The Frequency of Terrorism, The Profile of a Terrorist, Understanding Suicide Terrorism, Provocation and Terrorism
Topic 10: Nuclear Weapons
Slides: Here
Readings: Why Do States Build Nuclear Weapons? Three Models in Search of a Bomb, Winning with the Bomb
Lectures: Who Has Nuclear Weapons?, Mutually Assured Destruction, Is War Obsolete?, Nuclear Pessimism, Why Not Proliferate?, Covert Nuclear Programs, The Iraq War
Topic 9: The United Nations
Slides: Here
Readings: How Much Is a Seat on the Security Council Worth? Foreign Aid and Bribery at the United Nations
Lectures: The Organization, Veto Power, Insincere Voting, Bribery, Rally ‘Round the Flag Effects, Ideology in the General Assembly
Topic 8: International Institutions
Readings: The Rational Design of International Institutions, Controlling Institutions, Chapter 1
Slides: Here
Fun with Institutions: Fishing Nets, College Football Helmets
Lectures: Goods, Monitoring Institutions, Collective Action Problems, Hegemonic Provision of Public Goods, Issue Linkage
Topic 7: Economic Sanctions
Readings: Do Economic Sanctions Destabilize Leaders?, The Microfoundations of Economic Sanctions
Slides: Here
Lectures: Economic Sanctions Basics, Selection Problems, The TIES Database, Costly Signaling, Leaders and Sanctions
Topic 6: Leaders
Announcement: To facilitate studying for the exam, I will be holding office hours on Monday 10/16 from 10 am to noon, and Matt will be holding office hours on Monday 10/16 from 2 pm to 4 pm. Our regularly scheduled office hours for that week are canceled.
Readings: International Conflict and the Tenure of Leaders: Is War Still Ex Post Inefficient?, Regime Type, the Fate of Leaders, and War
Slides: Here
Lecture: Principal-Agent Problems, Diversionary War, Gambling for Resurrection, Democratic Accountability, Leader Retirement, Fighting for Survival and Peace through Instability, Bargaining and Leaders, Pandering, Leaders and Uncertainty
Topic 5: The Democratic Peace Theory
Reading: The Logic of Political Survival (Chapter 1)
Slides: Here
Lecture: The Democratic Peace Theory, Explaining the Democratic Peace, Correlation versus Causation, The McDonald’s Peace Theory, Economic Interdependence, The Rise of China
Topic 4: International Trade
Slides: Here
Lecture: Absolute Advantage, Comparative Advantage, Trade Rivalry, Resolving Trade Disputes, The Relative Gains Problem
No readings this week. Catch up if you are behind or get an early start on the first data analysis!
Topic 3: Bargaining and War
Readings: Rationalist Explanations for War and The Rationality of War (Chapter 2)
Slides: Here
Lecture: The Rationality of War, The Unitary Actor Assumption, War’s Inefficiency Puzzle, The Algebraic Bargaining Model of War, War’s Bargaining Range, Crisis Bargaining, Preventive War, Information Problems and Incentives to Misrepresent, Issue Indivisibility, Preemptive War, Understanding War, Militarized Interstate Disputes, Correlates of War and the Long Peace
Topic 2: Basic Models of Conflict and Cooperation
Readings: The Cult of the Offensive and The Evolution of Cooperation, Chapter 1 and Chapter 4
Slides: Here
Lecture: Conflict versus Cooperation, The Prisoner’s Dilemma, The Cult of the Offensive and the Origins of World War I, Tariffs and the Barriers to Free Trade, Arms Races, The Shadow of the Future, Grim Trigger, Benevolent Cooperation
Topic 1: The Basics
Slides: Here
Lecture: Introduction, Sovereignty, Anarchy, Proximate versus Underlying Causes, The Strategic World
Topic 0: Logistics
Slides: Here
William Spaniel 