POLS 210/310, Spring 2013 SEMINAR IN GLOBAL POLITICS LIE-01, MW 9:00 10:25 am T Asma Abbas 202 Liebowitz aabbas@simons-rock.edu; x7215 Office Hours: MW 12:20-2:20pm & by appt. his course approaches global politics through some fundamental questions pertaining to our everyday lives as citizens of this world. The lenses used are multiple and integrated, and attentive to questions of power, inequality, boundaries, justice, war, immigration, terrorism, as well as other essential issues unspoken of within the grand worries of our times. The course is a multi-perspectival introduction to many questions we have always thought about, and on which many of us already have opinions. In order to confront current problems, the course maintains, we must step assess, improve, and build the edifices and the scaffoldings of both our thought and action. Our manner of approach is inseparable from the nature and demands of objects we encounter, so our relations to them are essential as we decide how to play a role in the world. The course will intersperse (1) an introduction to key terms and approaches, (2) a range of approaches from international relations and global politics as two distinct tendencies in the study of world politics today (3) case studies on some central political problems in the contemporary world. While this will not be an exhaustive course, we will certainly be compelled to configure and articulate a rigorous, thoughtful, and integrated take on pressing issues confronting us today. REQUIRED TEXTS Baylis, John, et al. Eds. Globalization of World Politics. Oxford, (any edition, latest preferred) (GW) Edkins, Jenny, and Maja Zehfuss. Global Politics: A New Introduction. Routledge, (any edition, latest preferred) (GP) RECOMMENDED Edkins, Jenny, and Nick Vaughan-Williams. Critical Theorists and International Relations. 1st ed. Routledge, 2009. EXPECTATIONS & REQUIREMENTS Attendance and Preparation You are required to attend class having done the assigned reading for the day. Please have the texts in class at all times. Active class participation is expected. Bring all questions, difficulties, admirations, and issues that arise from what you read, because they eventually determine what course the class will take. I will strictly follow the college attendance policy, which should keep you from being tardy and skipping class without good reason. Two unexcused absences will earn you an official warning. Three unexcused absences shall result in suspension. Presence and participation are worth much in the total grade, so even absences within the 3-absence limit may cost you unless you make every effort to keep abreast of the goings on in your absence through classmates and myself, and make up for participation opportunities lost. 1
Written Work Case Studies: On the 5 Case Days noted on the syllabus, students will follow a template (provided by me) to put together a detailed case study on the topic. The professor and case leaders (see below) will decide whether to focus on a general topic and allow students to find particular manifestations (region or event) or whether to work on the same specific manifestation from different angles. Every student will do these 5 cases. On September 15, a case study plan/proposal will be due, in which every case leader will put together a proposal for each of the case study days. This will include components derived from every individual contribution. Class Case Publications: With help from the teacher and the class tutor, the case leaders will organise brief class presentations (5 minutes from each student), and decide on a way to produce a collective output from the case study. There is room for inventiveness and creativity here, and every output should have an editor s statement/foreword leading/accompanying it. Case Leader: Up to 2 students will be assigned the leadership role on a particular case for a given case day. The responsibilities would involve determining a focus for the case study, its scope (whether thematic or event-centred), producing a bibliography, helping out classmates and, importantly, ensuring that a wide range of regions or events are covered over the course of the semester. All students will work on the case individually, but the case leaders will organise the presentation and sharing of this work, in consultation with the course tutor and teacher where necessary. Final Proposal (for course at 200-level): Students will pick one or related case studies from the semester, and develop that into a proposal for further research, with an essential element of focusing on methodology and action (some of the issues raised by the theorists, and related to an articulated normative goal where possible). I will provide some guidelines and a template for this. For course policies on Academic Honesty and Religious Holidays, please refer to the SRC Catalogue, pp. 31-33. For issues of learning skills, and subsequent accommodations, please get in touch with me, and also contact Sue Lyon (slyon@simons-rock.edu). Grade Composition Class Participation & Preparation 10% 5 Case Studies 50% Case Leader 20% Final Proposal 20% 2
CLASS SCHEDULE The readings below are from the required texts that must be procured, or, if marked with an asterisk, are available on the course Moodle page. ` WEEK ONE Monday, 25 August Introductions Wednesday, 27 August Global Politics (GP), Chapter 1 Globalization of World Politics (GW), Chapters 2-5 WEEK TWO Monday, 1 September *Gourevitch, Peter. The Second Image Reversed: The International Sources of Domestic Politics. International Organization 32, no. 4 (October 1, 1978): 881-912. GW: Chapters 6-13; GP, Chapter 2 (overlapping group presentations, visuals with examples) Wednesday, 3 September GW: Chapters 6-13; GP, Chapter 2 (overlapping group presentations, visuals with examples, contd.) WEEK THREE Monday, 8 September and Wednesday, 10 September NO CLASS WEEK FOUR Monday, 15 September (Case Studies Combined Proposal Due) GP: Chapter 11 (Why is the world divided territorially?) Chapter 13 (Does the nation-state work?) GW: Chapter 25 (Nationalism) Wednesday, 17 September GP: Chapter 10 (Why is people s movement restricted?) Chapter 12 (How do people come to identify with nations?) Chapter 27 (Who has rights?) *Edkins, Jenny. Missing: Persons and Politics (Selections) *Marfleet, Philip. Refugees in a Global Era. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005 (selection) Friday, 19 September: Case I, Who is this all about? Refugees, Citizens, and the Missing *UNHCR. The State of the World's Refugees: In Search of Solidarity. 2012 (students report on different regions using this resource) 3
WEEK FIVE Monday, 22 September GP: Chapter 6 (How do religious beliefs affect politics?) *Talal Asad, Secularism, Nation-State, Religion, in Formations of the Secular Wednesday, 24 September GP: Chapter 5 (Who do we think we are?) GW: Chapter 17 (Gender in world politics) *Enloe, Cynthia. The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire. 1st ed. University of California Press, 2004. (Selection) *Cockburn, Cynthia. The Space Between Us: Negotiating Gender and National Identities in Conflict. Zed Books, 1999. Monday, 29 September GP: Chapter 7 (Why do we obey?) GW: Chapter 18 (International Law) WEEK SIX Wednesday, 1 October GW: Chapter 20 (United Nations) Chapter 21 (Transnational Actors and International Organizations) WEEK SEVEN Monday, 6 October GW: Chapter 19 (International Regimes) *Hafetz and Denbeaux (Eds.), The Guantanamo Lawyers: Inside a Prison Outside the Law. NYU Press, 2009 (selection) *Fleur Johns, Guantanamo Bay and the Annihilation of the Exception, European Journal of International Law. Vol. 16, No. 4, 2005 *Stephen Humphreys, Legalizing Lawlessness: Giorgio Agamben s The State of Exception, European Journal of International Law. Vol. 17, No. 3, 2006 Wednesday, 8 October: Case II, Current Issues in International Law Case: International Court of Justice FALL BREAK WEEK EIGHT Monday, 20 October GP: Chapter 17 (How is the world organized economically?) Chapter 19 (Why are some people better off than others) 4
Wednesday, 22 October GW: Chapter 27 (Global trade and global finance) GW: Chapter 16 (International political economy in an age of globalization ) James Petras: Meet the Global Ruling Class, n.d. http://www.counterpunch.org/petras03212007.html Harris and Robinson, Towards A Global Ruling Class? Globalization and the Transnational Capitalist Class. Science & Society, Vol. 64, No. 1, Spring 2000, 11 5411 WEEK NINE Monday, 27 October GP: Chapter 20 (How can we end poverty) GW: Chapter 28 (Poverty, development, and hunger) Wednesday, 29 October *Markus Crepaz, Trust Beyond Borders: Immigration, the Welfare State, and Identity in Modern Societies. University of Michigan Press, 2007 (selection) *David Brady, The Welfare State and Relative Poverty in Rich Western Democracies, 1967-1997 *Ruth Lister, The Nordic Nirvana? Gender, Citizenship & Social Justice in the Nordic Welfare States *Rachel Simon-Kumar, The Analytics of Gendering the Post-Neoliberal State *Stephen White, Narratives of the Welfare State *Pontusson and Clayton, Welfare-State Retrenchment Revisited: Entitlement Cuts, Public Sector Restructuring, and Inegalitarian Trends in Advanced Capitalist Societies WEEK TEN Monday, 3 November: Case III, Global Austerity Politics GP Chapter 18 (Is the financial crisis part of everyday life? *Alexander Livingston, Debt, Democracy, and the Power of Ideas: On Blyth s Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea*Franco Berardi, Time, Acceleration, Violence *Social Research, Volume 80, Number 3, Fall 2013; special issue on Austerity Economics: Failed Economics but Persistent Policy, Guest Editors: Teresa Ghilarducci and Richard McGahey Wednesday, 5 November: GP: Chapter 21 (Why do some people think they know what is good for others?) Chapter 14 (Is democracy a good idea?) *Fassin, Didier, and Richard Rechtman. The Empire of Trauma: An Inquiry into the Condition of Victimhood. 1st ed. Princeton University Press, 2009. (Selection) WEEK ELEVEN Monday, 10 November GP: Chapter 15 (Do colonialism and slavery belong to the past?) Chapter 16 (How does colonialism work?) Wednesday, 12 November: Social Justice and Diversity Teach-In Class Workshop TBD WEEK TWELVE 5
Monday, 17 November: Case IV, Failed States? *The Failed States Index GW: Chapter 29 (Human security) Wednesday, 19 November *Lange and Dawson, Dividing and Ruling the World: Postcolonial Violence and Colonialism *Ahluwalia, Pal. *Feichtinger and Malinowski, Transformative Invasions: Western Post-9/11 Counterinsurgency and the Lessons of Colonialism THANKSGIVING BREAK WEEK THIRTEEN Monday, 1 December and Wednesday, 3 December NO CLASS Monday, 8 December GP: WEEK FOURTEEN Chapter 22 (Why does politics turn to violence?) Chapter 23 (What counts as violence?) GW: Chapter 14 (The changing character of war ) Chapter 15 (International and global security) *Nordstrom, Carolyn. Shadows of War: Violence, Power, and International Profiteering in the Twenty-First Century. 1st ed. University of California Press, 2004. Wednesday, 10 December GP: Chapter 25 (What can we do to stop people harming others?) GW: Chapter 31 (Humanitarian intervention in world politics) *Fassin, Didier, and Mariella Pandolfi. Contemporary States of Emergency: The Politics of Military and Humanitarian Interventions. Zone Books, 2010. (Selection) *Fassin, Didier, and Richard Rechtman. The Empire of Trauma: An Inquiry into the Condition of Victimhood. 1st ed. Princeton University Press, 2009. (Selection) Thursday, 11 December: Case V, War and Peace GP: Chapter 26 (Can we move beyond conflict?) Chapter 28 (What can we do to change the world?) Monday, 16 December FINAL WORK DUE 6