DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

UNIVERSITY OF GHANA

FIRST SEMESTER 2022

Instructor: Kumi Ansah-Koi, Ph.D

Contact:kktak55@gmail.com

 kansah-koi@ug.edu.gh    024 5013066

Class Hours: Wednesdays 10am till noon

 

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. These are interesting times for reflection on International Relations. The Covid Pandemic and Russia’s 2022 Invasion of Ukraine make it even more so.

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 Whatsappgroup 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. De-Globalization?

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.

Nataliya Gorodnia,, ‘Major Features of the 21^st Century international System from Ukraine’s Perspective’ available online.