GRADUATE SCHOOL

PhD in Political Science and International Relations

PSIR 602 | Course Introduction and Application Information

Course Name
Current Issues in International Relations
Code
Semester
Theory
(hour/week)
Application/Lab
(hour/week)
Local Credits
ECTS
PSIR 602
Fall/Spring
3
0
3
7.5

Prerequisites
None
Course Language
English
Course Type
Elective
Course Level
Third Cycle
Mode of Delivery -
Teaching Methods and Techniques of the Course -
Course Coordinator -
Course Lecturer(s)
Assistant(s)
Course Objectives This course aims at providing students with an overview of some of the more important topics and debates in the contemporary study of International Relations. Various issue areas from both International Political Economy (IPE) and International Security (IS) subfields would be visited, in order to deepen and widen the students’ grasp of International Relations and to also help them identify/crystallize their respective areas of academic enquiry.
Learning Outcomes The students who succeeded in this course;
  • The students who succeed in this course will be able to; Develop a good grasp of the contemporary debate and topics in the field of international relations,
  • Identify empirical and theoretical debates in the field of international relations,
  • Critically analyze empirical and theoretical works in IR,
  • Discuss various aspects of contemporary issues in IR literature,
  • Compare/contrast the perspectives of different actors with respect to contemporary IR issues.
Course Description This course provides in-depth analysis and multiplicity of perspectives regarding the contemporary IR literature and possible research topics.

 



Course Category

Core Courses
X
Major Area Courses
Supportive Courses
Media and Management Skills Courses
Transferable Skill Courses

 

WEEKLY SUBJECTS AND RELATED PREPARATION STUDIES

Week Subjects Related Preparation
1 Introduction – syllabus presentation and explanation. Syllabus and documents containing rules for the undertaking and evaluation of students’ individual analytical work.
2 Environment in IR Peter Hough, “Environmental Security” in Peter Hough (ed), International Security, 2014; Matteo Fagotto, “West Africa Is Being Swallowed by the Sea”, Foreign Policy, 21 October 2016; Joshua Busby, “Warming World”, Foreign Affairs, 14 June 2018; Amitav Ghosh, “The Coming Climate Crisis”, Foreign Policy, Winter 2019.
3 Populism and post-truth Pankaj Mishra, “The Globalization of Rage”, Foreign Affairs, 17 October 2016; Tom Nichols, “How America Lost Faith in Expertise”, Foreign Affairs, 13 February 2017; Thorsten Benner, “An Era of Authoritarian Influence?”, Foreign Affairs, 15 September 2017; Sean Illing, “20 of America’s top political scientists gathered to discuss our democracy”, Vox, 13 October 2017; Christopher Walker and Jessica Ludwig, “The Meaning of Sharp Power”, Foreign Affairs, 16 November 2017; Kenneth Roth, “How to Stand Up For Human Rights in the Age of Trump”, Foreign Policy, 18 January 2018; Akın Ünver, “RussiaHas Won the Information War in Turkey”, Foreign Policy, 21 April 2019.
4 Nuclear balance (or imbalance) of terror Doug Bandow, “Let Them Make Nukes”, Foreign Affairs, 26 July 2016; Scott D. Sagan, “The Korean Missile Crisis”, Foreign Affairs, 10 September 2017; Stephen M. Walt, “The World Doesn’t Need Any More Nuclear Strategies”, Foreign Policy, 8 February 2018; Robert Jervis and Mira Rapp-Hooper, “Perception and Misperception on the Korean Peninsula”, Foreign Affairs, 5 April 2018; Wayne McLean, “Turkey must be thinking of the Bomb”, The Interpreter, 16 July 2018; Jeffrey Lewis, “Nuclear Deals and Double Standards”, Foreign Affairs, 2 October 2018; Andrew F. Krepinevich, “The Eroding Balance of Terror”, Foreign Affairs, 11 December 2018.
5 Term Project: research question, methodology, first outline Students’ presentation and discussion of their introductory work.
6 Transformation of Warfare Sydney J. Freedberg Jr, “Don’t Forget COIN”, Breaking Defense, 10 December 2015; Mike Pietrucha and Mike Benitez, “Political Air Power, Part II”, War on the Rocks, November 2016; Amos Fox, “Precision Fires Hindered by Urban Jungle”, AUSA, 16 April 2018; Tanisha M. Fazal and Sarah Kreps, “The United States’ Perpetual War in Afghanistan”, Foreign Affairs, 20 August 2018; Christopher S. Browning, International Security – A Very Short Introduction, Chapter 5; Christian Brose, “The New Revolution in Military Affairs”, Foreign Affairs, 16 April 2019.
7 Spatial International Relations Ian Shields, “Space and security” in Hough (ed), International Security, Chapter-33; Matthew Shaer, “The Asteroid Miner’s Guide to the Galaxy”, Foreign Policy, April 28, 2016; James Bamford, “Spooks in Space”, National Security, December 2016; Stewart Patrick and Kyle L. Evanoff, “The Right Way to Achieve Security in Space”, Foreign Affairs, 17 September 2018; Sean Kanuck, “The dawn of a new strategic era in outer space”, IISS Observatory, 24 September 2018; Paul Meyer, “Final Frontier”, Jane’s Intelligence Review, November 2018; Brian G. Chow, “Space Arms Control: A Hybrid Approach”, Strategic Studies Quarterly, Summer 2018.
8 Russian factor James Appell, “The Short Life and Speedy Death of Russia’s Silicon Valley”, Foreign Policy, 6 May 2015; Stephen Kotkin, “Russia’s Perpetual Geopolitics”, Foreign Affairs, 18 April 2016; Fyodor Lukyanov, “Putin’s Foreign Policy”, Foreign Affairs, 18 April 2016; Dimitri Trenin, Russia in the Middle East, Carnegie Moscow Center – Task Force White Paper, 5 April 2016; Dmitry Gorenburg, Dmitry Gorenburg, “Russia’s Strategic Calculus: Threat Perceptions and Military Doctrine”, ponarseurasia.org, 16 November 2016; Gregory Feiffer, “Putin’s Past Explains Russia’s Future”, Foreign Affairs, March 16th, 2018; Michael Petersen, “The Naval Power Shift in the Black Sea”, War on the Rocks, 9 January 2019.
9 Term Project: overview and presentation of content, expected findings. Students’ presentation and defense of their progressing work.
10 Rising China Elizabeth C. Economy, “History with Chinese Characteristics”, Foreign Affairs, 13 June 2017; Andrew J. Nathan, “What Is Xi Jinping Afraid Of?”, Foreign Affairs, 8 December 2017; Evan Osnos, “Making China Great Again”, The New Yorker, 8 January 2018; Keith Johnson, “Why Is China Buying Up Europe’s Ports?”, Foreign Policy, 2 February 2018; Jennifer Lind, “Life in China’s Asia”, Foreign Affairs, 13 February 2018; Robert A. Manning and Bharath Gopalaswamy, “Is Abdulla Yameen Handing Over the Maldives to China”, Foreign Policy, 21 March 2018; Kevin Rudd, “How Xi Jinping Views the World”, Foreign Affairs, 10 May 2018; Orinana Skylar Mastro, “The Stealth Superpower”, Foreign Affairs, 11 december 2018; Will Doug, “The Belt and Road Initiative Is a Corruption Bonanza”, Foreign Policy, 15 January 2019.
11 Cyber and Digital Revolutions Franz-Stefan Gady, “Could Cyber Attacks Lead to Nuclear War?”, The Diplomat, May 2015; Amy Zegart, “The NSA Confronts a Problem of Its Own Making”, The Diplomat, 29 June 2017; Alper Başaran, “Turkey Under Cyber Fire”, Turkish Policy Quarterly, Spring 2017; Mark Galeotti, “Size Doesn’t Matter for Spies Anymore”, Foreign Policy, 31 January 2018; Neri Zilber, “The Rise of the Cyber-Mercenaries”, Foreign Policy, 3 August 2018; Tarah Wheeler, “In Cyberwar, there are no rules”, Foreign Policy, 12 September 2018; Yuval Noah Harari, “Who Will Win the Race for AI?”, Foreign Policy, Winter 2019.
12 Terrorism Andrew Moran, “Terrorism”, in Hough (ed) Chapter-11; Jeffrey Haynes, “Religion and international conflict”, in Hough (ed) Chapter-12; Graeme Wood, “True Believers”, Foreign Affairs, 15 August 2017; Matt Apuzzo, “Who Will Become a Terrorist?”, The New York Times, 27 March 2016; Jacob Olidort, “The Game Theory of Terrorism”, Foreign Affairs, 10 December 2015; Colin P. Clarke, “How ISIS Is Transforming”, Foreign Affairs, 25 September 2017.
13 Term Project: overview and presentation of content, findings and likely conclusions. Students’ presentation and defense of their work.
14 International System and global leadership Walter Russel Mead and Sean Keeley, “The Eight Great Powers of 2017”, American Interest, 24 January 2017; Robert Kagan, “Backing Into World War III”, Foreign Policy, 6 February 2017; Stewart M. Patrick, “Trump and World Order”, Foreign Affairs, 13 February 2017; Ian Burum, “Life After Pax Americana”, Project Syndicate, 6 June 2017; Stephen M. Walt, “Global Consequences of Trump’s Incompetence”, Foreign Policy, 18 July 2017; Stephen Kotkin, “Realist World”, Foreign Affairs, 14 June 2018; Stephen M. Walt, “What Sort of World Are We Headed For?”, Foreign Policy, 2 October 2018.
15 Review of the semester
16 Delivery of Projects

 

Course Notes/Textbooks

This course has no specific course book.

All course readings are available at the University Library and as open sources.

Suggested Readings/Materials

This course does not have specific book. Instead, there will be large number of weekly reading assignments comprising articles, manuscripts, reports and news stories drawn from a large variety of books, journals, periodicals, magazines and newspapers. Assigned readings for each lecture would be available on the course’s Blackboard page a week or two in advance.

 

EVALUATION SYSTEM

Semester Activities Number Weigthing
Participation
1
40
Laboratory / Application
Field Work
Quizzes / Studio Critiques
Portfolio
Homework / Assignments
Presentation / Jury
Project
1
60
Seminar / Workshop
Oral Exams
Midterm
Final Exam
Total

Weighting of Semester Activities on the Final Grade
2
100
Weighting of End-of-Semester Activities on the Final Grade
Total

ECTS / WORKLOAD TABLE

Semester Activities Number Duration (Hours) Workload
Theoretical Course Hours
(Including exam week: 16 x total hours)
16
3
48
Laboratory / Application Hours
(Including exam week: '.16.' x total hours)
16
0
Study Hours Out of Class
16
6
96
Field Work
0
Quizzes / Studio Critiques
0
Portfolio
0
Homework / Assignments
0
Presentation / Jury
0
Project
1
81
81
Seminar / Workshop
0
Oral Exam
0
Midterms
0
Final Exam
0
    Total
225

 

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES AND PROGRAM QUALIFICATIONS RELATIONSHIP

#
Program Competencies/Outcomes
* Contribution Level
1
2
3
4
5
1

To be able to improve and deepen the theoretical and conceptual proficiencies on Political Science and International Relations.

X
2

To be able to evaluate critically and analytically the relationships between various factors in the discipline of Political Science and International Relations such as structures, actors, institutions and culture at an advanced level.

X
3

To be able to determine the theoretical and empirical gaps in Political Science and International Relations literature and gain the ability of questioning at an advanced level.

4

To be able to gain the ability to develop innovative, leading and original arguments in order to fill the gaps in Political Science and International Relations literature.

X
5

To be able to gather, analyze, and interpret the data by using advanced qualitative or quantitative research methods in Political Science and International Relations.

X
6

To be able to develop original academic works and publish scientific articles in refereed national or international indexed journals in the field of Political Science and International Relations.

7

To be able to describe individual research and contemporary developments in Political Science and International Relations in written, oral, and visual forms.

X
8

To be able to take responsibility in an individual capacity and/or as part of a team in generating innovative and analytical solutions to the problems that arise in relation to the politics in daily life.

9

To be able to develop projects in determining the institutional and political instruments for conflict resolution in national and international politics.

10

To be able to prepare an original thesis in Political Science and International Relations based on scientific criteria.

X
11

To be able to follow new research and developments, publish scientific articles and participate the debates in academic meetings in Political Science and International Relations through a foreign language.

12

To be able to have ethical, social and scientific values in the stages throughout the processes of gathering, interpreting, disseminating and implementing data relevant to Political Science and International Relations.

X

*1 Lowest, 2 Low, 3 Average, 4 High, 5 Highest

 


Izmir University of Economics
is an establishment of
izto logo
Izmir Chamber of Commerce Health and Education Foundation.
ieu logo

Sakarya Street No:156
35330 Balçova - İzmir / Turkey

kampus izmir

Follow Us

İEU © All rights reserved.