Course description

How is change possible in the international system? How do actors bring it about, and which actors matter? 'Power is the production, in and through social relations, of effects that shape the capacities of actors to determine their own circumstances and fate'. Such a view is substantially different than that espoused by the realist school, which focuses primarily on the material capabilities of states. While the state is the primary actor in international relations, today its power is challenged along a number of directions: whether by changes at the domestic level; by international actors such as international and non-governmental organizations and transnational actors; by events outside its control, whether globalization, conflict, or state failure; and finally by the very structures of international society. This capstone course will use the role of the state in the international system today to explore issues of agency, the emergence of new forms of global governance, and the rise of new transnational threats and problems

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