Lecturer, Institute of Political Sciences

World Politics

Dr. József Zoltán MÁLIK

Lecturer, Institute of Political Sciences

Contact: Building A, 3rd Floor, E323. e-mail:

Educational Homepage: http://malikdolgozat.uw.hu/index.html

Course Description:

Reading newspapers and watching or listening to the national news makes us aware of international events far away from our everyday lives. However, these events may seem to be distant and unrelated to our own lives can become personally salient to all of us as a consequence of their economic, social, security or military effects. Steep fluctuations in the value of the Japanese yen influence the price of your new computer or car; conflicts in the Middle East affect the price of oil; we meet immigrants in our country; from time to time shocking terrorist attack occurs in the big cities of the world, and as a result of this security measures make things warm for us. The objective of this course is to provide an up-to-date, integrated and forward-looking introduction to international politics. How should we approach the study of world affairs? How the world is best understood? World affairs have traditionally been understood on the basis of an international paradigm. In this view, which is called International Relations, states are taken to be the essential building blocks of world politics. However, since the 1980s, an alternative globalization paradigm has become fashionable. This reflects the belief that world affairs have been transformed in recent decades by the growth of global interconnections and interdependences. Non-state actors, such as international organizations, multinational corporations, environmental organizations, and terrorist groups, are all part of what could more correctly be termed as World or Global Politics. The aim of the course is to presents and explains relevant approaches and issues of international politics. We are going to regard what the main presumptions of the traditional and the new theories are, and how to apply them to certain cases including international conflicts and global issues.

Schedule:

Below, I list the main topics to be covered during the semester.

I. Historical Context of International Politics

·  Stage Points and Historical Periods in International Politics: the ancient times, The Christian commonwealth of medieval Europe, the Westphalian System, the balance of power, the (de)colonization of the world, the cold war period, and the borning world order in the post-cold war period

II. Introducing International Politics as Academic Subject

·  The ”Great Debates” in International Politics

·  About the assume of the main approaches

Seminar 1. Case Studies for Basic Concepts

·  Human Nature

·  History

·  Actors in World Politics

·  Balance of Power

·  International System

·  War and Peace

·  Human Rights

·  Gender Relations

III. Liberals and Realists

·  The tradition and strands of Liberalism

·  The tradition and strands of Realism

·  Neo-Neo Debate: about the mainstream of International Politics

Seminar 2. Case Studies for Conflicts in International Politics

·  Munich Pact

·  The Cold War

·  The Indochina Wars

·  The Israel-Palestinian Conflict

·  Terrorism and 9/11

·  Iraq Conflict

IV. Beyond the ”Mainstream”: Critical Views

·  The English School

·  Neo-Marxism

·  Constructivism

·  Feminism

·  The Green Perspective

Seminar 3. Case Studies for Global Issues

·  Globalization

·  Global Economic Governance

·  Poverty and Development

·  Global Environment

·  Global Future

Educational Resources:

Ø  E-books:

Lecture Notes #1

József Zoltán Málik: Essentials of World Politics. Budapest: ELTE, 2015.

Lecture Notes #2

József Zoltán Málik: Cases in World Politics. Budapest: ELTE, 2015.

Ø  Textbooks:

·  Baylis, J.–Smith, S.: The Globalization of World Politics. Oxford University Press, 2001.

·  Jackson, R.–Sorensen, G.: Introduction to International Relations. Theories and Approaches. Oxford University Press, 2003.

·  Viotti, P.–Kauppi, M.: International Relations Theory. Longman, 2012.

Assessment:

·  During the semester student has to write and send me an essay about one of the questions for discussion.

·  The questions will be given at the beginning of the semester, and student should choose one of them after Seminar 1 and work it out.

·  My Assessment Policy:

o  You may as well discuss and think over the content of essay together at home, but everybody has to write his own paperindividually and send it to me via e-mail.

o  Late submitted paper and team works are not accepted.

o  Though page number is far less important than the content and quality, the size of the paper should be between 10 and 20 pages.

o  The composition should demonstrate student's ability of the mastery in the concepts of main approaches to world politics, which student applies in the discussion (apply at least three relevant approaches).

o  To standardize the formatting of your paper, do comply with the requirement of MLA standard. Please, write "wp_your name" in the subject of the email, and convert your attached paper into PDF. (Don't send your paper in other format such as doc, odt, rtf).