International Relations

• GRS IR 699: Teaching College International Relations I
  The goals, contents, and methods of instruction in international relations. General teaching-learning issues. Required of all teaching fellows.
• GRS IR 701: Introduction to International Relations
  Offers a rigorous introduction to the basic concepts of international relations, including analytical approaches, state system and non-state actors, international legal principles, diplomatic practice, and international ethics. Emphasizes history, case study, and practical application.
• GRS IR 702: Research Methods for International Relations Practitioners
  Provides tools for designing and implementing rigorous research and policy papers. Reviews formulation of research questions and choice of research methods. Introduces methodologies including case study, archival research, and basic quantitative analysis.
• GRS IR 703: International Security
  Introduces core concepts of international security, including deterrence, balance of power theory, alliance politics, arms races, asymmetric warfare, and non-traditional security concerns such as terrorism. Topics are considered from both a theoretical basis and in historical and contemporary context.
• GRS IR 704: Global Economic and Development Policy
  Intermediate level survey of the contemporary politics, economics and policy questions in the international economy: theories of international political economy and international economics; politics of international economic institutions; analyses of industrial development, foreign investment, global and regional trade, and poverty alleviation.
• GRS IR 707: Political Reform in the Middle East
  Seminar analyzes and rethinks Middle East politics. Authoritarian governments rule most of the Middle East, but internal and external pressures for change are mounting. Given the tenuousness of the status quo, political reform will be hard to avoid.
• GRS IR 712: International State Systems
  The pivotal issues in the development of the international state system will be explored: the presumed obsolescence of the national state through economnic interdependence, democratic peace and transnational demands; the rise and fall of great powers as states, hegemonies and empires.
• GRS IR 722: U.S. Foreign Policy since the End of the Cold War
  This graduate seminar exmines the formulation and conduct of U.S. foreign policy since 1989. It identifies the objectives and essential elements of American grand strategy and evaluates the extent to which U.S. policy is realistic, effective and democratic.
• GRS IR 723: Seminar: The Political Economy of Advanced Industrialized Societies
  Meets with CAS PO 621. Surveys forces contributing to national differences in social and economic policy; identifies current challenges to state sovereignty, such as globalization and immigration; and examines how nations from different welfare state regimes are coping with these threats to the nation state.
• GRS IR 757: Transnational Shi?ism
  Begins with the original split in Islam that generated Twelver Shi?ism, discusses key features of the religion such as Muharram rituals and the existence of a quasi-clergy, and ends with a discussion of individual Shi?ite countries and relations between them.
• GRS IR 766: Contemporary Issues in Latin America
  Meets with GRS PO 768. Review and analysis of contemporary developments in Latin America from major print and on-line news sources and journals. Focuses on breaking issues and develops capacity for critical analysis. Required for LASMA students.
• GRS IR 767: Latin American Comparative Politics
  Review of comparative politics literature, combined with country case studies, to assess to what degree Latin America is "the graveyard of development theories." Particular attention on recent patterns of redemocratization and economic liberalization and their multiple challenges.
• GRS IR 768: Democratic Reforms in Latin America
  Examines efforts at political and institutional reform in Latin America, their successes, challenges, and failures.
• GRS IR 778: Problems of Strategic Intelligence
  Explores major aspects of strategic intelligence; interrelationship of intelligence and other aspects of foreign policy; performance of U.S. intelligence community; and intelligence as a tool in the formulation of foreign policy.
• GRS IR 780: CIA's National Clandestine Service
  The National Clandestine Service spends 5% of the US Intelligence budget but receives 95% of public and private scrutiny. Examines the unique legal mandate of the clandestine service: espionage, covert operations, counterintelligence, and special operations.
• GRS IR 786: Conflict and State-Building in Africa
  Meets with GRS PO 786. Examines conflict in contemporary Africa at both the international and domestic levels. Addresses the dynamics of insurgency and inter-state war, as well as the ways in which these conflicts have affected African state-building.
• GRS IR 794: Current Issues in International Environmental Affairs
  Seminar explores key concepts related to regimes and environmental diplomacy and focuses on a selected set of contemporary issues in international environmental affairs. Seeks to foster research and writing on the negotiation and implementation of environmental treaties. Meets with EE794
• GRS IR 798: Global Development Capstone
  (Meets with GRS EC 798 and GE798.) Capstone course for MA students in Global Development Policy and Global Development Economics. Students, working in groups, design and carry out an interdisciplinary policy analysis comparable to those performed for a government or nonprofit agency.
• GRS IR 799: MAIA Paper Workshop
  Provides structure and support to MAIA Paper writers. Goals include formulating researchable questions, creating viable research and writing strategies, and critiquing intermediate efforts. Focuses on creating an environment of peer feedback.
• GRS IR 825: Seminar: Women and Social Change in the Developing World
  (Meets with GRS SO 820.) Studies women in nonindustrial countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, stressing empirical research, theory, and methodology. Comparisons between regions and with industrial countries. Focus on sex segregation, female labor force participation, migration, fertility, family roles, and women and political power.

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