Political Science 367B ESSAY TOPICS 2019

1. What are international regimes and how are they connected to the persistence of American power power in contemporary world politics?

2. Modern international political theory in the United States has been dominated by systems level analyses. Focusing on the rise of neorealism and neoliberalism, explain why this is so.

3. The growth of International Relations is characterized less by genuine debates than reactive cycles (e.g. the Realist reaction to Idealism; the liberal reaction to Realism; the rise of critical theories). Suggest explanations for the perpetual controversy and debate about theory in world politics.

4. What is “constructivism”? and in what ways, if any, is it superior to rationalist theories (like neorealism)?

5. Do Realists actually conform to the crude caricature of that school constructed in many International Relations textbooks? Select a classical Realist (e.g. Hans Morgenthau, Stanley Hoffmann, E. H. Carr, Martin Wight, etc.) and address this question.

6. “There is no such thing as theory in itself, divorced from a standpoint in time and space. When any theory so represents itself, it is more important to examine it as an ideology and lay bare its concealed perspective,” Robert Cox, Neorealism and its Critics, 1985.

Select one of the theories examined in the course and suggest why it affirms or challenges Cox’s claim.

7. An emerging multitude of identities is said to reveal a previously ignored, or poorly understood, complexity in mainstream models of international relations. Explore the

problem of change in the theory and practice of world politics, and suggest why ONE of the following approaches is (or is not) superior to “static” models: Critical Theory, post- modernism, Kantian Liberalism, or any variety of feminist international theory.

8. Take an IR perspective of your choice and explore the role of national interests, values, and location in shaping theoretical output.

9. Kenneth Waltz distinguishes between “thought” and “theory” in international politics. What is the basis for this distinction, and to what extent does it advance, or hurt, the pursuit of knowledge in world politics?

10. In conflicts like those in Syria and Afghanistan, we have seen a change in the norms of conflict, for example, increased gender-based violence and increased use of suicide terrorism. To what extent are rationalist and realist accounts of IR able to explain the changes in such norms?

11. Keohane has argued that feminist IR has failed in its attempt to make verifiable claims about the international system, and that it should adopt a positivist approach to empirical analysis. To what extent is this accurate?

12. Evaluate the impact of class, gender, nationality, or culture (or some combination of these elements) in the attempt to construct universally applicable insights about international relations.

13. Select an IR thinker of your choice and critically evaluate their past, present, or potential future contribution to IR theory. You should canvas a representative sample of their work, but your study need not be exhaustive.