POL 785

Core Studies in International Relations

    The following readings cover historical and contemporary content that students preparing for general exams in international relations should master. The readings will provide content background for those preparing for comprehensive exams.  This is a self-directed reading list although students are encouraged to discuss the material collaboratively with other students and field faculty. Students should integrate these readings into their three year plan of study beginning their first year and complete the material in advance of the quarter in which they will sit for comps. For administrative purposes, students register for 15POL785 in the quarter of their comps and will receive a grade upon passing the exams.

A.         Classic Conflict

Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War Book I (Rex Warner translation published by Penguin Classics recommended)

Richard Ned Lebow ed., Hegemonic Rivalry (Westview Press, 1991)

Steven Miller, et.al., Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War (Princeton University Press, 1991)

B.         Balance of Power vs. Appeasement

Edward Vose Gulick, Europe's Classical Balance of Power (Norton, 1955)

Edward Hallett Carr, The Twenty Years Crisis: 1919-1939 (Harper, 1964); (First edition is 1939)

William Rock, British Appeasement in the 1930s (Norton, 1977).

C.         The Cold War

John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of Containment (Oxford, 1982)

John Lewis Gaddis, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History (Oxford, 1997)

Graham Allison, Essence of Decision 2nd edition (Longman, 1999)

D.   America and the World

Walter Mead, Special Providence (2002)

Andrew Bacevich, American Empire (2002)

George W. Bush, National Security Strategy of the United States (2006)

E.  The International Economic System

Robert Gilpin, Global Political Economy: Understanding the International Economic Order (Princeton, 2001)

and the following 11 book chapters:

David Held et al, eds., Global Transformations: Politics, Economics, and Culture (Stanford, 1999), introduction, conclusion, and chapters 3, 4, and 5.

Barry Eichengreen and Peter Kenen, “Managing the World Economy under the Bretton Woods System: An Overview,” in Kenen, ed., Managing the World Economy (Institute for International Economics, 1994), pp. 3-68.

John Gerard Ruggie, “International Regimes, Transactions, and Change: Embedded Liberalism in the Postwar Economic Order,” in Charles Lipson and Benjamin Cohen, eds. Theory and Structure in International Political Economy (MIT, 1999), pp. 245-282.

Bernard M. Hoekman, The Political Economy of the World Trading System: The WTO and Beyond 2nd edition (Oxford, 2001), chapters 1-4

F.   International Law and Organization

M. Karns and Karen Mingst, International Organizations: The Politics and Processes of Global Governance (2004)

Stanley Meisler, United Nations: The First Fifty Years (1995)

John Murphy, The U.S. and the Rule of Law in International Affairs

William Slomanson, Fundamental Perspectives on International Law, 5th ed. (2006)

G.   Human Rights/Democratization

Jack Donnelly, Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice,

David Forsythe, Human Rights in International Relations 2nd ed. (2006)

The United Nations, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

TO:      Political Science Graduate Students

FR:      International Relations Field Committee

RE:      POL 785 and POL 885

June 2006

POL785 Core Reading in International Relations is a self-directed reading list that students should obtain from the department office as soon as IR is determined to be one of their general fields. Although self-directed, students are encouraged to discuss the material collaboratively with other students and field faculty. Students should integrate these readings into their three-year plan of study beginning their first year and complete the material in advance of the quarter in which they will sit for comps. For administrative purposes, students register for 15POL785 in the quarter of their comps and will receive a grade upon passing the IR General Field Exam.  These readings, which should be begun as soon as possible, represent field content that must be mastered for comprehensive exams beyond course and seminar material.

POL885 Focus Field Literature Review is a faculty-directed student-generated reading course that requires the completion of a literature review essay.  Students who will take a focus field exam in IR should meet with their prospective dissertation chair two quarters prior to sitting for exams to begin to structure a literature review bibliography and get specific instructions concerning length and structure of the essay. The review essay must be handed in during the quarter before comprehensive exams. For November exams, the review essay is due the last week of August. For May exams, the essay is due the second week of March. Students who miss these deadlines will not be able to sit for exams. Administratively, students should register for POL885 during the quarter of their exams, although they will receive their paper and grade at the beginning of that quarter.

            POL885 should assist students in preparing for their focus field exam and serve as a basis for the literature review necessary for a dissertation proposal, which should follow successful completion of the comprehensive exams.