Field Seminar in International Relations (graduate)

This course offers a PhD-level introduction to the field of international relations. We will begin with a discussion of the history of the field. We will then survey major theoretical traditions in international relations before focusing on recent research on major IR topics.

China and Asian Security (undergraduate/graduate)

A graduate and advanced undergraduate-level seminar that focuses primarily on China’s evolving role in world politics, with a particular emphasis on Asia and the Sino-US relationship. Academic and intellectual conversations about China are happening simultaneously but not always in dialogue with each other. This course will engage a diverse array of approaches, encouraging students to explore different levels of analysis and paradigmatic approaches to understanding this critical topic.

Becoming a China Hand (undergraduate)

China’s prominence in the news cycle and policy discourse reflects the immense and growing importance of China’s role in the world. Substantively, there is hardly a profession or sector where what happens inside China does not touch upon or impact what happens outside China. This course seeks to give students the training and knowledge to decipher and contribute to these conversations. As China’s impact has grown around the world, so has the set of commentators and decisionmakers whose views matter as much as those who have made China their life’s work. This course seeks to put these perspectives—from generalists and country experts—in conversation with one another, so that students have a better understanding of the strengths and limits of each approach. 

Anti-Americanism in Comparative Perspective (undergraduate)

Anti-Americanism and other varieties of anti-foreign sentiment in the developing world, with a focus on the international and domestic sources of anti-Americanism and implications for U.S. foreign policy. Drawing upon examples from the Middle East, Latin America and East Asia, students explore the relationships between anti-Americanism, nationalism, globalization, regime type, and democratization. Students acquire the basic analytic tools to understand and explain a variety of anti-American and anti-foreign phenomena, including attitudinal shifts, social protest, and terrorism.

Domestic Politics in International Relations (undergraduate)

How do states make foreign policy decisions? What factors influence states’ international behavior and prospects for war and peace? This seminar has two main goals: to familiarize students with the burgeoning literature on the relationship between domestic politics and international relations, and to help students bridge the academic and policy gap in international relations. Topics will include regime type, war, and peace; diversionary conflict; public opinion; nationalism and democratization; individual leaders’ personality traits and time in office; perceptions and misperceptions; signaling; international cooperation; and trade and economic policy. Each week will include applications to current events and debates, with students writing three blog posts over the course of the semester to bring academic research and social scientific analysis to bear upon policy-relevant questions and developments.

Domestic Politics in International Relations (graduate)

This seminar explores the relationship between domestic politics and international relations, particularly how politics at the domestic level affect preferences and interactions between states and in the international system. This seminar has two main goals: to familiarize students with the burgeoning literature on the relationship between domestic politics and international relations, and to help students develop valuable research and analytical skills. Topics will include regime type, war, and peace; diversionary conflict; public opinion; nationalism and democratization; individual leaders’ personality traits and time in office; perceptions and misperceptions; signaling; international cooperation; and trade and economic policy. Each week students will be asked to consider applications to current events and debates. 

China in World Politics (undergraduate)

A survey of Chinese politics and foreign relations from the Opium Wars to the present, focusing on the post-Mao period. The second half of the course focuses on current debates in China's foreign relations, including the role of public opinion and popular nationalism, military development, growing "assertiveness" in regional disputes over territory and resources, and contentious issues in China's trade and investment practices, including currency manipulation.

China's International Relations (undergraduate/graduate)

An advanced undergraduate and graduate level seminar on China's international relations, which seeks to put China's contemporary diplomacy and foreign relations in dialogue with mainstream theories and ideas in international relations.

State & Society in Post-Mao China (undergraduate/graduate)

State-society relations in the People's Republic of China, focusing on the post-Mao period. Themes include popular protest and social mobilization, growth and impact of the internet, nationalism and cyberactivism, commercialization of the media, and prospects for political reform and democratization.