International Relations

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  • CAS IR 230: Fundamentals of International Politics
    Introduction to basic concepts of international politics: the state system and types of states, modern ideologies, legal frameworks of international transactions, and political regions. Also raises key issues such as population, the environment, war, and international law. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS.
  • CAS IR 242: Globalization and World Poverty
    (Meets with CAS SO 242.) Globalization and world poverty; how and why over 80% of the world remains poor and inequality increases despite economic modernization and democratization. Addresses urbanization, immigration, religion, politics, development politics, foreign aid, women, drugs, environment, food security. Special attention to Latin American, African, and Asian experiences. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS.
  • CAS IR 250: Europe and International Relations
    Meets with CAS PO 382. Provides an overview European affairs. Topics include the foreign policies of European nations, the dynamics of European integration, NATO, international migration and ethnic conflict, and European relations with the United States, Russia, and neighboring countries.
  • CAS IR 251: Introduction to Comparative Politics
    Meets with CAS PO 251. Examines different patterns of political development and contemporary politics in Western Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the former Soviet bloc. Introduces the comparative method in political science and competing theories of political development and political change.
  • CAS IR 271: Introduction to International Relations
    (Meets with CAS PO 271.) Undergraduate required principal course. Study of basic factors in international relations, Western state systems, the concept of balance of power, nationalism, and imperialism. Primarily for concentrators. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS.
  • CAS IR 275: The Pacific Challenge
    (Meets with CAS PO 365.) The dynamic growth of Pacific Rim countries poses an impressive array of challenges for the U.S. and the world. Analyzes Japanese trade and defense policies, the rise of the "mini-dragons" (Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore) and "new mini-dragons" (Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia), "Confucian capitalism," democratization (and its failure in China), and legacies of the Indochina war.
  • CAS IR 292: Fundamentals of International Economics
    Basic issues of international finance. Topics include the balance of payment adjustment, theories of exchange rate determination, and case studies in international economic policy. Geared for international relations students; does not count toward economics requirements for economics concentrators.
  • CAS IR 303: Universal History
    Surveys the birth and the rise of the human race; the flourishing of a variety of civilizations; and the triumph, as of 2000, of modernism. Focus on political history and public affairs with some reference to cultural, scientific, and intellectual issues.
  • CAS IR 304: Environmentally Sustainable Development
    (Meets with CAS EE 304.) Traces the emergence of sustainable development as the defining environmental challenge of our times. Surveys and evaluates policies for balancing ecological sustainability and economic development in various parts of the world and at the global level.
  • CAS IR 309: America at War: The Response to 9/11
    Meets with CAS PO 309. Investigates America's wars against terrorism, focusing on Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, from 9/11 to the present. Traces the decisions that led to the wars, the military strategies employed, and the political ramifications of these conflicts in the U.S. and abroad.
  • CAS IR 310: The Sea and International Relations
    Covers the world's seas in areas of resource exploitation, use of commercial transport, the deployment of maritime power, environmental issues, possible use by terrorists, and the associated body of international law.
  • CAS IR 320: The American Military Experience
    (Meets with CAS HI 286.) Introduction to American military history from the colonial period to the role of military force in contemporary U.S. statecraft. Examines the character of the armed services, the American style of waging war, and the relationship between the military and society.
  • CAS IR 325: The Great Powers and the Eastern Mediterranean
    Meets with CAS HI 229. The Eastern Mediterranean as center of Great Power confrontation. Its impact on wider international relations, the domestic political results, the role of sea power, and the origins, conduct, and resolution of wars.
  • CAS IR 328: Turko-Persia in the Twentieth Century
    The twentieth-century history of the non-Arab Muslim Middle East, i.e., Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia. Analysis of the constitutional revolutions in Turkey and Iran, Kemalism, the Islamic revolution in Iran, and communism in the Soviet Union and Afghanistan. Also offered as CAS HI 382.
  • CAS IR 329: History of Premodern Iran
    Meets with CAS HI 385. History of Iran from the Muslim conquest to 1900. Examines political developments; Persian literature, visual arts, and culture; Irannian Islam, and religious minorities.
  • CAS IR 330: Diplomatic Practice
    Introduces the practice of diplomacy as management of a country's foreign relations with a view to secure or restore peace. The nation state in diplomatic relations; foreign ministries, diplomatic missions, embassies, and consulates; the peacekeeping role of international law and international government organizations.
  • CAS IR 333: Non-State Actors in International Relations
    Meets with CAS PO 333. Examines the important role of non-state actors in international relations. Non-state actors include subnational governments, international organizations, multinational corporations, non-governmental organizations, religious groups, violent groups, for-profit security firms, social movements, and grassroots organizations.
  • CAS IR 341: Central Europe
    Intellectual, cultural, political, diplomatic, and military history of the region between Germany and Russia from the end of the Middle Ages to the present. Also offered as CAS HI 278.
  • CAS IR 349: History of International Relations, 1900–45
    Meets with CAS HI 289. The causes and consequences of the First World War; the search for postwar reconstruction and stability during the twenties; economic collapse, revolutionary nationalism, and fascism during the 1930s; the Second World War and the advent of the bipolar world.
  • CAS IR 350: History of International Relations since 1945
    Meets with CAS HI 290. The causes and consequences of the Soviet-American Cold War from its origins in Europe to its extension to Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The rise of the multipolar international system, the emergence of the nonaligned blocs, and inter-and intra-alliance conflicts.

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