DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF GHANA
FIRST SEMESTER 2017/18
Instructor:
Kumi Ansah-Koi, Ph.D
Contact:
kktak55@gmail.com
kansah-koi@ug.edu.gh
Class
Hours: Mondays,
2:30pm-4:30pm
POLI
705: STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Introduction:
Student Research and Seminar Presentations would be
integral features of this course. The idea would be to offer solid foundations
in the discipline of International Studies towards the Comprehensive
Examination, and also to offer the students the necessary theoretical,
intellectual, and practical foundations and experience for writing an
acceptable doctoral dissertation in the discipline of International Relations.
In that regard, the course is designed as a
pro-Seminar; and would be largely interactive. Each topic would be introduced
and guidelines offered in class; and students would the offer a Seminar
Presentation of the topic. Peer review and critical appraisal would then ensue;
before the Instructor offers concluding remarks and comments on the topic in
question. The Course would thus involve minimum formal instructions/lectures;
but would nonetheless be intensive and very involving; and regular attendance
would be insisted on.
Student seminar presentations on the topics should be
by PowerPoint. Alternately, the presentation should take the form of a typed
five page (or less) presentations on the topic in questions, in the sequence
indicated below. Literature Review and due citations and source indications
would be critical components in assessing and rating student seminar
presentations.
An online platform (Easyclass) would be created to
facilitate discussions outside class hours and also to enable document sharing.
An on-going list of reading material and audio-visual presentations would be
uploaded on this platform. Presentations should be uploaded on the platform
latest by 7pm of the Monday proceeding the class, to enable fellow students to
view presentations and prepare for class.
A Whatsapp group would also be created to facilitate communication and
distribution of reading material. You are to prepare for each class by posing
pertinent questions, criticisms, recommendations, and so on, related to
uploaded presentations. You are also welcome to share relevant material on the
various groups. Feel free to upload other related material and interact with
each other on the various platforms. A schedule for presentations would be
subsequently made available.
Topics
1.
International
Politics/Relations as a Discipline: Origins/Emergence, Development and Current
State.
2.
The
International Setting and its Actors: Origins/Emergence, Nature, Challenges,
and Trends. Focus would also be on the evolution over the years, of the
International Setting/Relations; and also on the changing nature and
significance of both State and Non-State Actors in International Relations.
3.
International
Relations Study: Theoretical Paradigms and concepts and a critical review of
each.
4.
Globalization:
Origins, Nature, Challenges and Impact.
5.
The
UN (historical antecedents; emergence and objectives; structure/organization;
performance appraisal; reform/relevance).
6.
Regional
Organizations (particular focus would be on the EU and the AU)
7.
Global
Security, Conflicts, and Terrorism
8.
The
Bretton Wood Institutions
9.
Diplomacy
Basic Readings:
Detailed readings would be
indicated in class for each topic, as we move on. In my office are past issues
(for the past five years) of the American Political Science Review,
Perspectives on Politics, and Political Science and Politics. These can be borrowed.
The LECIAD library and the departmental library, between the, carry a solid
collection of pertinent readings. The following are basic, and should be read
as soon as possible:
Ada
W. Finifter (ed.), Political Science: The
State of the Discipline, Washington, 1993
John
T. Rourke, Taking Sides. Clashing Views
on Controversial Issues in World Politics, McGraw Hill, 2005
Karen
A. Mingst & Margaret P. Karns, The
United Nations in the Post-Cold War Era. Dilemmas in World Politics, Westview
Press, 2000
George
A. Ianyi and Wilson C. Williams, Crisis
and Continuity in World Politics, Random House, New York
Stanley
Hoffman, Contemporary Theory in
International Relations, Prentice-Hall, 1964
E.A.
Brett, The World Economy Since the War: The
Politics of Uneven Development, London, 1985
Bruce
Russet and Harvey Starr, World Politics.
The Menu for Choice, 1985
Jeremy
Black (2010), A History of Diplomacy,
London
Henry
Kissinger (2010), Diplomacy, New York
E
Hobsbawm (1995), The Age of Extremes: A
History of the World, 1914-1991, Pantheon, New York
J.
Goldstein & R. Keohane, (eds.), (1993), Ideas
and Foreign Policy
E.H.
Carr, 2001, Twenty Years Crisis,
Palgrave, New York
Peter
Calvocoressi, (2008), World Politics
Since 1945, Longman, Indiana.
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