POL208Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: International Relations, Blackboard, Linnean Society Of London
What is IR
● Subfield in political science
● About interstate relations eg. diplomacy or trade
● Interested in global or world politics- international+
○ Domestic
○ Transnational
○ Interstate
○ Supranational (eg. UN, region): When big collection of different states are
involved
● Puzzle based approach: not necessarily one focused on theory
● 3 problems: power, inequality, war/conflict
● Study IR/global politics through puzzles, things that happen that demand explanation
● What does power mean in relation to IR: on what criteria are we judging 1st rate rising
power versus second rate. How is it defined and why doesn't everyone have it. What
does it mean to have power
● Inequality: unresolvable thus far even though it persists. Types of inequality and why
does it persist
● War: how is it changing. Moving away from interstate model when talking about ISIS
What IR does
● Provided with multiple frameworks to assess political phenomenon. Many interpretations
of the same empirical observation
● Form your own opinion and articulate, give assumptions
● Think about why you disagree about different perspectives
● Don’t look at specific countries, rather types of countries eg. developed vs developing
● Identify concepts, causes, and consequences of global behavior
What IR is not about
● Not about studying history just for history’s sake. History helps us understand why we
are here in this context now.
● IR is not about what the liberals did, conservatives etc. Not studying internal politics of
states
● Focused on generalities
● Will not talk about psychology of leaders
● Not talking about internal workings of individual people
● Can’t come up with laws eg. universalisms (different from science and religion). We talk
about generalities
● Fragmentations describes IR as opposed to unity
Levels of analysis
● Complementary
● Think about focusing camera. Wide angle to become more focused
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
About interstate relations eg. diplomacy or trade. Supranational (eg. un, region): when big collection of different states are. Puzzle based approach: not necessarily one focused on theory. Study ir/global politics through puzzles, things that happen that demand explanation. What does power mean in relation to ir: on what criteria are we judging 1st rate rising power versus second rate. How is it defined and why doesn"t everyone have it. Inequality: unresolvable thus far even though it persists. Types of inequality and why does it persist. Moving away from interstate model when talking about isis. Provided with multiple frameworks to assess political phenomenon. Form your own opinion and articulate, give assumptions. Think about why you disagree about different perspectives. Don"t look at specific countries, rather types of countries eg. developed vs developing. Identify concepts, causes, and consequences of global behavior. Not about studying history just for history"s sake. History helps us understand why we are here in this context now.
