| Instructor: |
Mark Schroeder, M.A. |
| Class Times: |
Monday and Wednesday 6:00 pm – 7:15 pm |
| Location: |
CB 238 (White Hall Classroom Building) |
| Office: |
#1602 Patterson Office Tower |
| Telephone: |
859-257-4436 |
| E-mail: |
maschr2@uky.edu |
| Web: |
http://www.uky.edu/~maschr2 |
| Office Hours: |
Monday and Wednesday 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm and by appointment |
Required Texts:
Karen Mingst, Essentials of International Relations, Third
Edition (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2004).
Gregory M. Scott, Randall J., Jones, Jr., Louis S. Furmanski:
21 Debated Issues in World Politics, Second Edition, (Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2004).
Course Overview:
Understanding world politics presents opportunities and challenges
that confront a ‘Washington Consensus’ approach for
scholars and policy makers. This course explains the historical,
political, social, and economic dynamics that drive the policies
of different countries and regions of the world. Students will
gain familiarity with theories of international relations, and
will be introduced to the concerns and policies of different nation
states and regions of the world. You will learn to evaluate the
policies of and opinions held by individual and collective Western
nation states towards other states and regions of the world.
Throughout the course you will be expected to contribute with
news from the rest of the world by reading the print or on-line
versions of the Wall
Street Journal, The
Economist, the New
York Times, and other similar newspapers. Following the
countries and regions of the Europe by reading these daily journals
will give you considerable information on the interactions and
international relations between nation states in the world.
| Course Assignments
and Grading: |
|
25% Midterm Research Paper
20% Midterm Exam
20% Group project
25% Final Exam
10% Participation via quizzes, attendance, other short assignments
Late assignments, quizzes, research papers,
projects, etc. will not be accepted later than seven calendar
days following their due date. A penalty of one third of a letter
grade per calendar day will be applied towards any late assignment.
Plagiarism will not be tolerated and if found, for example, by
“googling” your research paper, will result in a minimum
of a failed grade; please refer to official University of Kentucky
regulations regarding plagiarism.
This is your opportunity to research how a foreign
country relates to the world. You are to explain what drives the
international relations policies of your selected country. How
does your selected country view its position (for example: pro-Western,
socialist, Islamist, neutral) in the world? How does your country
understand the theories of and participate in international relations?
What are the political, cultural, economic and historical values
that have contributed to its current international relations position?
Your purpose is not to determine whose “side” your
country is on but to understand and explain why your country has
its particular international relations position. More specifically:
you are building a case to explain why your selected country takes
the position in international relations it does on particular
issues. You are not just stating what those positions are.
Begin by selecting a country that interests you.
Perhaps it is one that you have traveled or would like to travel
to. Since not all countries are concerned about all international
issues, you will need to determine what world issues your country
cares about. You will be providing these positions later in your
paper. It is your job to present the motive of your selected country
for taking those positions from their perspective. You are presenting
the “why” of the case such that if you present your
case well, it will seem obvious, given the characteristics of
your selected country, that they would take the positions they
have. You may find yourself disagreeing with the actions and positions
of the country you are studying, but this is not a critique of
what is right or wrong from your perspective, so you want to be
careful to keep such commentary out of your paper. You are only
interested in providing the reasons your selected country has
for doing what they do, whether you agree with them or not.
This paper takes planning to do it effectively,
and it will be well worth taking the time to outline your arguments
before writing. I suggest that you consider at least several academic
sources before writing. Be careful with your sources: Wikipedia,
newspaper stories and country websites, while helpful for introductory
purposes, don’t provide the substantive analytical content
that your paper requires.
The paper must be 6-8 pages long, 12-point font,
typewritten and double-spaced, and must include citations to all
references used. E-mailed copies of your paper will not be accepted.
You are to form groups of five people and select
from a list of actionable topics that I will distribute in class.
You are to research this topic, and, acting as diplomatic delegates
of your selected nation to the United Nations, make a 15 minute
presentation of this topic to the class. The class in turn will
act as members of the United Nations Security Council. You are
to convince the class that your topic requires the support of,
intervention by, and/or a resolution from the Security Council,
whichever is appropriate to your topic. Your presentation is worth
50% of the group project grade.
Following your presentation you are to submit
to me an eight page, type-written and double-spaced paper outlining
your country’s case to the United Nations Security Council.
Your paper is worth 30% of the group project grade. Attached on
a separate page to your group paper, include a letter grade recommendation
according to each member’s participation.
Following each presentation, each student is
required to submit to me a written evaluation of the presentation
followed by a letter grade. This evaluation should include three
aspects: the presenter’s command of speech and delivery,
the presenter’s knowledge of the topic, and the presenter’s
ability to convince. The student evaluation is worth 20% of the
group project grade.
