Università Roma Tre

This course consists of in-depth study of fundamental dynamics in international politics. Following an introduction on the history and historiography of IR, the course is in three parts. Its first part engages the students in a discussion of the main theories of international relations: from realism, institutionalism, and liberalism, through the English school and constructivism, to critical theory, feminism, post-structuralism, and post-colonialism. International Political Economy and green theory are also introduced. It closes with an in-class debate on cooperation and competition in international politics.
The second part moves from theory to practice and performance of foreign policy. It looks into the games real actors play in international politics and diplomacy in an increasingly pluriverse world. Furthermore, it includes a particular section on how movies perform and influence our understanding of international politics. Students can choose among a list of movies to watch and write a short narrative analysis paper of two movies.
The third part of the course explores key topics in international politics. Students can propose topics of their interest or choose among a list of topics (world-making after decolonization, new wars and areas of limited statehood, the rise of China, the crisis of the liberal order, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the European Security Order, international politics of migration etc). Students will directly engage these issues in presentations through the theoretical and conceptual tools acquired in the first part of the course. This will also help them to frame the research question, theoretical and methodological approach of the final research paper.

Students who have taken this course will have:
• a detailed knowledge of the main theoretical and conceptual approaches to the study of international relations;
• a knowledge of current developments in world politics;
• a critical understanding of the diversity of political ideas in the study of international relations and of the political and social issues that such diversity raises;
• an ability to locate, analyze and evaluate new information and knowledge from a variety of textual sources;
• an ability to communicate their knowledge.

Textbook 1: Dunne, Tim, Milya Kurki, and Steve Smith (eds), International Relations Theories. Discipline and Diversity. Oxford: Oxford University Press (4th edition, 2016)
Textbook 2: Georg Sørensen, Jørgen Møller, Robert Jackson (eds.), Introduction to International Relations: Theories and Approaches. Oxford: Oxford University Press (8th edition, 2021).