Spécialité BIRD – Making sense of International relations

Descriptif

The seminar will go into the details of IR theories before applying them to various topics linked to history of international politics and war studies. The issues covered include : IR’s Three Traditions ; Is IR an American Social Science? ; Neoclassical Realism ; Post-Positivism’s Major Claims ; Paradigmatic vs. Pragmatic Research in IR ; Democratic Peace or Democratic Wars? ; Reasons of Global Terrorism, etc.

Formule pédagogique

Every student has to make an oral presentation of both a Theoretical Issue and a Book Review (some 10 to 12 minutes, 30% of the final grade). Every student has to write 2 Research Papers (50% of the final grade).

Each research paper will be orally presented during some 20 to 30 minutes (the shorter, the better), and the presentation will be followed by a discussion based on the critical comments made by another student (10 % of the final grade).

Every student is invited to actively participate in the various discussions, by asking questions, putting forward criticisms, proposing alternative analyses (10% of the final grade).