“The nineteenth century’s legacy to the twentieth century’s social scientists resembles an old house inherited from a rich aunt: worn, overdecorated, cluttered, but probably salvageable.”
— Charles Tilly,
as quoted in Torbjørn L. Knutsen’s A History of International Relations Theory.
Posts filed in POL 1000
“Pol 1000″ is an abbreviation of “Political science 1000″, and can be compared to an American 101 course. The full title of the course, is “Introduction to political science: International relations/politics and comparative politics”. It’s a course that consists of two fields of political science, and is one of four courses that combined make up the introduction to political science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. (The other three being “Public policy formation and administration”, “Political theory and political behaviour”, and “Social sceintific method”.)
I’m taking this course in the autumn semester of 2006, and will try to translate my lecture notes into English, and publish them here. For additional information on the course, check out the first post labelled with this category, or check this site out: http://www.svt.ntnu.no/adm/eng/stud/fagbeskrivelser/statsvitenskap/bachelor.htm (Their server seemed to be down or something, so this is the best link I can get.)
Inheritance
Regime types and regimes change — lecture #14
Ways to classify — taxonomy.
There are many different taxonomies for regime types, and a bewildering fauna of terms is frequently used carelessly, in ways that do more to befuddle than to clearify. The choice of terms usually not neutral, as a researcher may have a theory in which some feature is more important than others, [...]
The scientific study of politics — lecture #13
Bah, I seem to have grown a conscience over the night, so I was unable to watch much more than a couple of minutes of Heroes before realising that I should rather be typing out a set of lecture notes. (But I managed to play “Championship Manager Season 97-89″ before surrendering to this crap, so [...]
An introduction to comparative politics — lecture #12
So, we’re done with the international part of the course, and it’s time to have a look at the field of comparative politics.
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What is comparative politics?
As usual, we start with a definition of the term, and that is that CP is the study of politics within one or more countries — thus leaving the relationship [...]
International cooperation and international law — lecture #11
This lecture (which is the last of the IP ones, and was held on October 3, meaning that I’m insanely behind on my schedule) dealt mainly with answering the question of why cooperation exists in international relations, in light of Liberalist theories — seeing as Realists don’t really believe in cooperation — but with some [...]
Various understandings of “security” — lecture #10
Alright, it’s now less than a month to my first exam, and I still have some 25 lectures to type out. This means that I gotta start prioritising. Which basically means that I’ll be concentrating on the notes from my political science notes, as these are the ones requiring the most restructuring and the most [...]
Foreign policy: Goals, means and driving forces — lecture #9
Alrighty, time to leave the different theoretical apporaches to the study of international politics, and turn to the foreign policy of states.
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Deinition.
Foreign policy can be defined as a government’s determined and public action aimed at its surroundings. Foreign policy refers to the content of and the relationship between foreign political goals and means, and must [...]
Theories in IR: Reflectivism — lecture #8
“Reflectivism” isn’t an unitary perspective, but its various versions has in common that it can be seen as a kind of opposite to all of the other theoretical schools we’ve discussed this far. By this, we mean that the Reflectivist perspectives centers on ontological and epistemological questions not answered to a satisfactory degree by the [...]
And we’re done! :D
Two down, one to go. But that one is so ridiculously small that I don’t really see it as much of a problem. As for this one, I’m relatively happy with it, I think I managed to get it as cohesive as possible and also quite structured and, well, just assignment-answering, really.
Oh, and I got [...]
Tonight’s plans:
1. Read the 31 page article “Reinventing Governments: The Promise and Perils of United Nations Peace Building”, praying for a couple of relevant passages to come up in the first couple of pages so that I won’t have to read the entire thing.
2. Define concepts, beginning with the Realist school of IR theory, its views [...]
Bloody bureaucratic pedants…
I could be finished reading for my political science paper on UN, war and peace, having read a couple of chapters from books outside of the course’s syllabus. But nooo, the bloody pedantic bureaucrats who run the department of political science and sociology here at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology have decided that [...]
In the words of Joseph S. Nye, Jr…
I’m currently reading international relations theory for a paper I gotta finish ’till Friday, about whether or not the UN has changed its views on war and peace, recently. And in his “Understanding International Conflicts”, Joseph S. Nye, Jr. writes the following:
“If the League of Nations was designed to prevent World War I after the [...]
The easiest dilemma I’ve ever faced
I have a dilemma. On the one hand, I’ve got a history assignement due in three days, that I hould really start doing some research for, in the very least. Next Tuesday, I’ve gotta hand in a 6-7 pages long paper on the gold standard prior to 1914. In the syllabus books of this course, [...]
Theories in IR: Radicalism — lecture #7
Central topics.
Radical theories are often concerned with the role of states in the international economy. Being based on the works of Marx, they also tend to focus in the preeminence of the economic structure over other spheres of society, both as an object of analysis and as a driving force behind social change. Furthermore, Radicals [...]
Theories in IR: Rationalist convergence, the Neo-Neo synthesis — lecture #6
First of all, it may be useful to repeat some of the criticisms raised against Liberalism by Realists.
Primarily, this was a criticism related to the perception of human nature. The Realists see conflict, the Liberalists see harmony. Or perhaps saw would be a better word, as this is a fairly dead debate, the parts having [...]
Theories in IR: Liberalism — Lecture #5
Liberalism is often understood as the opposite, or the adversary, if you will, of Realism.
Topics important to Liberalists.
First of all, Liberalists are concerned with how international institutions simplifies cooperation and historical changes. They’re also preoccupied with studying how transnational relations (international relations in which non-governmental organizations participates) affects the foreign policy of states. Liberalists are [...]
Theories in IR: Realism - Lecture #4
Despite having had a lot of free time the last two weeks, I’ve hardly done anything on my project of posting my lecture notes. Silly as I am, I’ve prioritized Scrubs, Prince of Nothing, and such irrelevant (but oh so fascinating) nonsense. It’s time to redeem myself.
(The following lecture was one I didn’t attend, [...]
Central theories and debates in IR - 3rd lecture
Important!
It is important to keep in mind that there are no neutral descriptions or explanations of international relations or politics. The facts doesn’t interpret themselves; it’s impossible to understand facts without first having at least some idea of what facts really are.
In other words, you cannot choose whether or not to use theories. Attempts to [...]
Structures in International Politics - 2nd lecture
This lecture is kinda far away in my mind, it being one and an half week since I attended it, but hey, it’s my loss.
Starting point
Terminology
Like all scientific studies, the study of international relations uses various forms of special terminology. Most central of the terms, is perhaps actors (previously “participants”). The actors are parts of [...]
Introduction to International Relations
This was the first lecture in the course, and also the first lecture many new students of political science attend, so there was quite a lot of generalities about political science — basic definitions, rough overviews of social scientific method, and more practical information. Most of it I already knew, as I’ve taken courses in [...]
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