Admission requirements
Admission to the MA International Relations, track International Studies. Students who are interested in taking this course, but who are not admitted to the mentioned master programme are requested to contact the co-ordinator of studies.
Description
This course problematises the western-centric nature of International Relations (IR) as a discipline, and explores alternative contributions from the Global South. During the first part of the course we will briefly review the existing canon of IR theories by critically engaging with their strengths and weaknesses and applying them to case studies. We will ask questions such as: How ‘international’ is IR? Can existing frameworks make sense of the current changes in the international system? During the second and main part of the course, we will engage with scholarship questioning the western dominance of IR, and explore work by non-western scholars. We will try to find answers to questions such as: Can we assume that an African / Asian / Latin American perspective on IR will necessarily be different from a European or North American one? How can we think innovatively about new ways of understanding international relations?
The course will take the form of text-based discussions. As this is a graduate seminar, a high premium is placed on attendance, preparation and participation. Your performance in the course will depend largely on the time you commit to reading the prescribed material, and the effort you make to understand it.