Course Plan Summer Semester 2014 M.A. Global Studies Angela Glodschei Email: angela.glodschei@uni-leipzig.de Course Title: International Organizations in theory and history. Course Description Nowadays international organizations are an indispensable feature of the international system. Research on international organizations was for a long time mostly concentrated in International Relations (IR) and diplomatic history. International Relations (IR) theories provide a filter for looking at the international system and world politics by constructing ideal type world orders and international configurations, thereby simplifying or oversimplifying the complicated picture. Moreover, International Relation theories have the tendency to regard concepts like sovereignty, nation states or power as unchanging abstract categories and not so much as multi-layered social concepts that might change over time. Creating generalizations that compress past and present, rendering them similar in outlook, thus failing to recognize difference, context or process as well as the overall concentration on the nation state is one of the main critiques of IR theory. In contrast an historical enquiry wants to capture and comprehend the complicated picture. The empirical material is not used to explain external dynamics but is the key to thoroughly understanding the precise forces that constitutes a given period of time by reconstructing political processes and events on the basis of archival material. Nonetheless, especially diplomatic historians have also relied very much on the classical realist paradigm of an anarchical international system, which is constituted trough power and states. The advent of new approaches, namely global and transnational history, widened the focus of enquiry and broke the heavy concentration on big men history. For this reason historical research on international organization remained marginal for a long time but in recent years enjoys a growing popularity in global and transnational history. For this reason the course is divided into three parts. The first part will introduce several theoretical approaches towards analyzing international organizations, mainly from International Relations (IR) and history. Part two will examine the evolution of international organizations from the end of the 19 th century until the creation of the United Nations (System). In part three a topical and empirical approach is used in order to discuss various topics on the basis of original documents and secondary literature. The main aim of the course is to sharpen the awareness of different theories, which are at hand to analyze international organizations, and to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the respective approaches. Requirements: - presentation 20 minutes - Active Participation in the seminar and discussions (as the presentations are not a repetition of the required literature, I will ask for a short summary of the respective texts in the beginning of each session) - group work in the last two sessions
Introductory literature Amrith, Sunil, and Glenda Sluga. "New Histories of the United Nations." Journal of World History 19, no. 3 (2008): 251-74. Herren, Madeleine. Internationale Organisationen seit 1865. Eine Globalgeschichte der internationalen Ordnung. Darmstadt: WBG, 2009. Mazower, Mark. No enchanted palace: the end of empire and the ideological origins of the United Nations, Lawrence Stone lectures. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009. Reinalda, Bob. Routledge Handbook of International Organization. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2013. Sluga, Glenda. Internationalism in the age of nationalism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. Sessions: approx. 14 Session 1: Introduction - defining goals and course requirements - general introduction into the topic: international organizations as research object several approaches possible, therefore the course is divided in 3 parts - presentation of the course plan - what do students expect from this course? Is there anything missing in their perspective and why? explanation for the specific approach to the topic (history and not political science) PART I: THEORETICAL APPROACHES Session 2: Political theories on International Organizations I (IR) Presentation: Realism Presentation: Neorealism Guiding questions: What is the main emphasis in the respective theories on international organizations? What are the objects of investigation? What role do international organizations play in the international system/ world politics? (Introductory) Reinalda, Bob. Routledge history of international organizations : from 1815 to the present day. London ; New York: Routledge, 2009, p. 5-16.. Routledge Handbook of International Organization. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2013, p. 1-23 Session 3: Political theories on International Organizations II (IR) Presentation: (neoliberal) Institutionalism Presentation: Constructivism Guiding questions: What is the main emphasis in the respective theories on international organizations? What are the objects of investigation? What role do international organizations play in the international system/ world politics? (Introductory)
Reinalda, Bob. Routledge history of international organizations : from 1815 to the present day. London ; New York: Routledge, 2009. Session 4: transnational/ global history Presentation: international history/ diplomatic history Presentation: global/ transnational history history Guiding questions: What is the main emphasis in the respective theories on international organizations? What are the objects of investigation? What role do international organizations play in the international system/ world politics? (Introductory) Rodogno, Davide, Shaloma Gauthier, and Francesca Piana, eds. What does transnational history tell us about a world with international organizations? The historians' point of view. Edited by Bob Reinalda, Routledge Handbook of International Organization. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2013, p. 94-105 Williams, Andrew J., Amelia Hadfield, and Simon J. Rofe. International history and international relations. London, New York: Routledge, 2012, p. 150-174 Gajduk, Ilya Valeryevich. Divided together : the United States and the Soviet Union in the United Nations, 1945-1965. Washington, D.C., Stanford, Calif.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, Stanford Univ. Press, 2012, Introduction: An Elusive United Nations p 1-8 Williams, Andrew J., Amelia Hadfield, and Simon J. Rofe. International history and international relations. London, New York: Routledge, 2012, p. 150-174, p. 7-32 Loth, Wilfried, and Jürgen Osterhammel. Internationale Geschichte : Themen - Ergebnisse - Aussichten, Studien zur internationalen Geschichte. München: Oldenbourg, 2000. Dülffer, Jost, and Wilfried Loth. Dimensionen internationaler Geschichte. München: Oldenbourg, 2012 Sandrine Kott, "International Organizations - A Field of Research for a Global History," in: Zeithistorische Forschungen/ Studies in Contemporary History, Online edition, 8 no 3 (2011), http://www.zeithistorische-forschungen.de/16126041-kott-3-2011 Amrith, Sunil, and Glenda Sluga. "New Histories of the United Nations." Journal of World History 19, no. 3 (2008): 251-74.) PART II: HISTORY Session 5: early beginnings of international organizations at the end of the 19 th century Presentation: public international unions Objective: Discussing the transformation of the international system. Sluga, Glenda. Internationalism in the age of nationalism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013: 11-44 Herren, Madeleine. Internationale Organisationen seit 1865. Eine Globalgeschichte der internationalen Ordnung. Darmstadt: WBG, 2009 Herren, Madeleine. "Governmental Internationalism and the Beginning of a New World Order in the Late Nineteenth Century." In The Mechanics of Internationalism. Culture,
Society, and Politics from the 1840s to the First World War, edited by Martin H. Geyer and Johannes Paulmann, 121-44. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Iriye, Akira. Cultural internationalism and world order. Baltimore, Md. ; London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. Session 6: WW I/ League of Nations Presentation: Short introduction to the League of Nations. Objective: Each group has to present the respective text to the other group and then discuss what are the main differences and commonalities. What picture of the League of Nations is reproduced in the two articles? Group 1: Dunbabin, John P. "The League of Nations' Place in the International System." The Journal of the Historical Association History 78, no. 254 (1993): 421-42. Group 2: Lloyd, Lorna. ""Another National Milestone": Canada's 1927 Election to the Council of the League of Nations." Diplomacy & Statecraft 21, no. 4 (2010): 650-68. Schmidt, Karl J. "'An anomaly between anomalies': India's entry into the League of Nations." Proceedings of the Florida Conference of Historians 1 (1993): 1-13. Pedersen, Susan. "Back to the League of Nations." The American Historical Review 112, no. 4 (2007): 1091-117. Sluga, Glenda. Internationalism in the age of nationalism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013, p. Session 7: WW II/ foundation of the United Nations (system) Presentation: Short introduction to the UN Discussion: Classical vs. new approaches. Each group has to present the respective text to the other group and then discuss what are the main differences and commonalities. Group 1: Kennedy, Paul M. The parliament of man : the United Nations and the quest for world government. London: Allen Lane, 2006, 3-47 (The troubled advance to a new world order) Group 2: Mazower, Mark. No enchanted palace: the end of empire and the ideological origins of the United Nations, Lawrence Stone lectures. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009, p.1-27, 190-203 Session 8: International secretariats Presentation: short introduction to International Secretariats Objective: Each group has to present the respective text to the other group and then discuss what are the main differences and commonalities. What is the advantage/disadvantage of each approach?
Group 1: Mathiason, John. Invisible governance : international secretariats in global politics. 1. print. ed. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 2007: p.25-54 [68] Group 2: Biermann, Frank, and Bernd Siebenhüner. "Problem solving by international bureaucracies." In Handbook of International Organization, edited by Bob Reinalda, 149-61. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2013, p. 149-161 Ege, Jörn, and Michael W. Bauer. "International buraucracies from a Public Administration and International Relations perspective." In Routledge Handbook of International Organization, edited by Bob Reinalda, 135-48. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2013, p.135-148 PART III: TOPICS The main objective of the topical approach towards the UN is the discussion of the respective issues on the basis of original documents and the provided literature. There won t be any presentations in the beginning but I will ask spontaneously for a short summary of the provided text. Session 9: Decolonization UN Yearbook 1960, Chapter V: The Declaration of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, 44-50 A/RES/1514(XV) 1960, Declaration of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples Santos, Aurora Almada E. "The Role of the Decolonization Committee of the United Nations Organization in the Struggle against Portuguese Colonialism in Africa: 1961-1974." The Journal of Pan African Studies 4, no. 10 (2012): 248-60. UN Yearbook 1961, Chapter VI: The situation with regard to implementation of declaration on granting independence to colonial countries and peoples assistance to Africa: a United Nations programme for independence, 44-57 Sherwood, Marika. ""There is No New Deal for the Blackman in San Francisco": African Attempts to Influence the Founding Conference of the United Nations, April-July, 1945." The International Journal of African Historical Studies 29, no. 1 (1996): 71-94. Session 10: Human Rights UN Yearbook 1946-47: the treatment of Indians in the Union of South Africa; 144-148 Lauren, Paul Gordon. Power and prejudice. The politics and diplomacy of racial discrimination. Boulder ; London: Westview Press, 1988, p.166-182 Jackson, Peter, and Mathieu Faupin. "The United Nations Role in Fighting Racism and Racial Discrimination." The Ardent Review 1, no. 1 (2008): 1-8.
Mazower, Mark. "The Strange Triumph of Human Rights, 1933-1950." The Historical Journal 47, no. 2 (2004): 379-98. Samuel. The last utopia: human rights in history. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. Kennedy, Paul M. The parliament of man : the United Nations and the quest for world government. London: Allen Lane, 2006, p. 177-205 Session 11: UN and NGOs Arrangements and practices for the interaction of non-governmental organizations in all activities of the United Nations system. Report of the Secretary-General. 10 July 1998 (A/53/170) Paul, James A., Civil Society and the United Nations, Global Policy Forum (2011) [URL: http://www.globalpolicy.org/publications/publications.html#eleven, 10 Feb 1014] Session 12: Peace and Security Verbatim Records of the 7081 st meeting of the Security Council (S/PV.7081) Goulding, Marrack. The United Nations and Conflict in Africa since the Cold War. African Affairs, 98, no. 391 (1999), pp. 155-166 Session 13 + Session 14: Group Work (case study) + Conclusion The participants of the seminar will be divided into three different groups: - theory - history - empirical I will provide different texts as a preliminary basis to each group. The students have to prepare a presentation on the basis of following questions: 1. What picture of the United Nations is communicated in the texts? 2. Which actors/ objects of investigation are of importance? 3. What role does South Africa play in the UN? After the presentation the results of the different groups should be discussed together. Objective of the Group work: - putting into practice what we learned in the previous session - to sensitize the students how different approaches of researching international organizations affect the objects of investigation as well as the outcome of study last 20-30 minutes: Conclusion