Graduate Seminar
The return of geopolitical rivalry
API 6339
Graduate
School of Public and International Affairs
University
of Ottawa
Winter
2020
Office:
FSS 6053
Office
hours: By appointment
Email: rparis@uottawa.ca
Course Description
This course will examine the
causes, characteristics and possible consequences of the recent intensification
of major-power rivalry in international politics, including in the military,
economic and cyber domains.
Requirements
|
Response papers (3) |
30% |
|
Midterm exam |
20% |
|
Final exam |
30% |
|
Participation |
20% |
Response papers
You will write three response papers during the semester. Deadline: 12 noon the day before the relevant class meeting. Late papers will be subject to penalties (see lateness policy below). Detailed instructions will be provided in class.
Midterm exam
The midterm exam will cover all the course material up
to the date of the exam. Duration: 2 hours.
Final exam
The final exam will cover the entire course. Duration: 3 hours.
You must write the final exam to pass the course.
Participation
The participation
grade in this course is significant. It will be based
not only on your involvement in seminar discussions, but also on evidence that
you have completed and understood the weekly readings.
Readings
Click on the links in the course
schedule, below. To access subscriber-only material, you may either: (1) connect to the library website from a
University of Ottawa-networked computer, or (2) follow
these instructions for off-campus access:
http://www.biblio.uottawa.ca/html/Page?node=get-access&lang=en.
Cheating and
Plagiarism
Academic fraud – including plagiarism, submitting work that was produced by someone else, or submitting the same work in
more than one course – may result in a failing grade for a particular
assignment, a failing grade for the course, and/or suspension for various
lengths of time or permanent expulsion from the university. The onus is on each
student to know and comply with the university’s regulations on academic fraud.
Lateness
Policy
There will be a penalty for late
submissions. Exceptions are made only for illness or other serious situations
deemed as such by the professor. University regulations require all absences
from exams and all late submissions due to illness to be supported by a medical
certificate. The Faculty reserves the right to accept or reject the reason put
forth if it is not medical. Reasons such as travel, work and errors made while
reading the exam schedule are not usually accepted. In the event of an illness
or related complications, only the counseling service and the campus clinic
(located at 100 Marie-Curie) may issue valid certificates to justify a delay or
absence. Each day of late submission
will result in a penalty of 5% (weekends included). This also applies to assignments sent by email (time of receipt of
the email indicates the time of delivery). Please notify the professor as soon
as possible if a religious holiday or event forces your absence during an
evaluation.
Mental Health
and Wellness
The University of Ottawa is committed to the wellbeing of its
students and to ensuring that every student can experience good mental health
in order to complete their work and participate fully in university life. For
more information, visit http://sass.uottawa.ca/en/personal/services/mental-health-wellness,
Sexual
Violence
The
University of Ottawa does not tolerate any form of sexual violence. Sexual
violence refers to any act of a sexual nature committed without consent, such
as rape, sexual harassment or online harassment. The University, as well as
student and employee associations, offers a full range of resources and
services allowing members of our community to receive information and
confidential assistance and providing for a procedure to report an incident or
make a complaint. For more information, visit www.uOttawa.ca/sexual-violence-support-and-prevention.
Jan. 8 Introduction
to the Course
Walter Russell Mead, “The Return of
Geopolitics,” Foreign Affairs 93:3 (May 2014), pp. 69-79.
G. John Ikenberry,
“The Illusion of Geopolitics,” Foreign
Affairs 93:3 (May 2014), pp. 80-90.
I. FOUNDATIONS
Jan. 15 Power
and Change
Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics (Cambridge
University Press, 1981), chapter 1, “The Nature of International Political
Change.”
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511664267.003
Alexander Cooley, Daniel Nexon and Steven Ward, “Revising Order or Challenging the
Balance of Military Power? An Alternative Typology of Revisionist and
Status-Quo States,” Review of
International Studies 45: 4 (Oct. 2019), pp. 689-708.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210519000019
Michael Barnett and Raymond Duvall, “Power
in International Politics,” International
Organization 59:1 (Winter 2005), pp. 39-75.
Jan. 22 Ideology
and Identity
J. David Singer, “The Level-of-Analysis
Problem in International Relations,” World
Politics 14:1 (Oct. 1961), pp. 77-92.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2009557
Mark L. Haas, “Ideological Polarity and
Balancing in Great Power Politics,” Security
Studies 23:4 (2014), pp. 715-753.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09636412.2014.964991
Bentley B. Allan, Srdjan Vucetic and Ted Hopf, “The Distribution of Identity and the Future of
International Order: China's Hegemonic Prospects,” International Organization 72:4 (Fall 2018), pp. 839-869.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818318000267
II. THE CONTENDERS
Jan. 29 The United States
Joseph S. Nye, “The
Rise and Fall of American Hegemony from Wilson to
Trump,” International Affairs 95:1
(Jan. 2019), pp. 63-80.
https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiy212
Rubrick Biegon,
“A Populist Grand Strategy? Trump and the Framing of American Decline,” International Relations 33:4 (Dec.
2019), pp. 517–539.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0047117819852399
Daniel W. Drezner,
“This Time Is Different: Why U.S. Foreign Policy Will Never Recover,” Foreign Affairs 98:3 (May 2019), pp.
10-17.
Patrick Porter, “Why
America's Grand Strategy Has Not Changed: Power, Habit, and the U.S. Foreign
Policy Establishment,” International
Security 42:4 (Spring 2018), pp 9-46.
https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/full/10.1162/isec_a_00311
Feb. 5 China
Oriana Skylar Mastro,
“The Stealth Superpower: How China Hid Its Global Ambitions,” Foreign Affairs 98:1 (Jan. 2019), pp.
31-39.
Maximilian Mayer, “China’s Historical Statecraft
and the Return of History,” International
Affairs 94:6 (Nov. 2018), pp. 1217-1235.
https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiy209
Xuetong Yan, “Chinese Values vs. Liberalism: What
Ideology Will Shape the International Normative Order?” Chinese Journal of International Politics 11:1 (Spring 2018), pp.
1-22.
https://doi.org/10.1093/cjip/poy001
Hal Brands, “After the Responsible
Stakeholder, What? Debating America’s China Strategy,” The Strategist 2:2 (Feb. 2019).
http://dx.doi.org/10.26153/tsw/1943
Feb. 12 Midterm
Exam
Feb. 19 No Meeting (University Break)
Feb. 26 Russia
Andrew Radin and
Clint Reach, Russian Views of the
International Order (RAND, 2017).
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1826.html
Bettina Renz, “Russian Responses to the
Changing Character of War,” International
Affairs 95: 4 (July 2019), pp.
817-834.
https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiz100
Nadège Rolland, “A China–Russia Condominium over
Eurasia” Survival 61:1 (2019), pp
7-22.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00396338.2019.1568043
Thomas Graham, “Let Russia Be Russia: The
Case for a More Pragmatic Approach to Moscow,” Foreign Affairs 98:6 (Nov. 2019), pp. 134-146.
March 4 Europe
Erik Jones and Anand
Menon, “Europe: Between Dream and Reality?” International
Affairs 95:1 (Jan. 2019), pp. 161-180.
https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiy237
Alina Polyakova
and Benjamin Haddad, “Europe Alone: What Comes After the Transatlantic
Alliance,” Foreign Affairs 98:4 (July
2019), pp. 109-120.
Magnus Ekengren,
“A Return to Geopolitics? The Future of the Security Community in the Baltic
Sea Region,” Global Affairs 4:4-5
(2018), pp. 503-519.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23340460.2018.1535250
Andrew Small, “Why Europe Is Getting Tough
on China,” Foreign Affairs (April 3,
2019).
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2019-04-03/why-europe-getting-tough-china
III. THEMES
March 11 Geoeconomics
Robert D. Blackwell
and Jennifer M. Harris, War by Other
Means: Geoeconomics and Statecraft (Harvard
University Press, 2016), chapters 1-3.
https://www.degruyter.com/viewbooktoc/product/473017 (click on “Content” to read or download chapters 1-3)
Branko Milanovic,
“The Clash of Capitalisms: The Real Fight for the Global Economy’s Future,” Foreign Affairs 99:1 (January 2020), pp.
10-21.
Henry Farrell and Abraham
L. Newman, “Chained to Globalization: Why It’s Too Late to Decouple,” Foreign Affairs 99:1 (Jan. 2020), pp.
70-80.
Susan Lund, James Manyika and Michael Spence, “The Global Economy’s Next
Winners: What It Takes to Thrive in the Automation Age,” Foreign Affairs 98:4 (July 2019), pp. 121-130. https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=136923450&site=ehost-live
March 18 Techwar
Warren Chin,
“Technology, War and the State: Past, Present and Future,” International Affairs 95:4 (July 2019), pp. 765-783.
https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiz106
Rory Cormac and
Richard J. Aldrich, “Grey is the New Black: Covert Action and Implausible
Deniability,” International Affairs
94:3 (May 2018), pp. 477-494.
https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiy067
Robert Chesney and
Danielle Citron, “Deepfakes and the New
Disinformation War: The Coming Age of Post-Truth Geopolitics,” Foreign Affairs 98:1 (January 2019), pp.
147-155.
Paul Scharre, “Killer Apps: The Real Dangers of an AI Arms
Race,” Foreign Affairs 98:3 (May
2019), pp. 135-144.
March 25 International
Rules and Institutions
Jack Goldsmith and
Shannon Mercer, “International Law and Institutions in the Trump Era,” German Yearbook of International Law
(forthcoming).
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3324582
James R. Holmes,
“Goodbye Grotius, Hello Putin,” Foreign
Policy (Nov. 29, 2018).
Roland Paris, “The
Right to Dominate: How Old Ideas about Sovereignty Pose New Challenges for
World Order,” International Organization
(forthcoming).
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818320000077
David Petrasek, “Not
Dead Yet: Human Rights in an Illiberal World Order,” International Journal 74:1 (March 2019), pp. 103-118.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0020702019827642
April 1 Future
International Order(s)?
John J. Mearsheimer, “Bound to Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Liberal International Order,” International Security 43:4 (Spring
2019), pp. 7-50.
https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/10.1162/isec_a_00342
Roland Paris, “Can
Middle Powers Save the Liberal World Order?” Chatham House (June 18, 2019).
https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/publications/research/2019-06-18-MiddlePowers.pdf
Michael Mousseau, “The End of War: How a Robust Marketplace and
Liberal Hegemony Are Leading to Perpetual World Peace,” International Security 44:1 (Summer 2019), pp. 160-196.
https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/isec_a_00352
Amitav Acharya, “After
Liberal Hegemony: The Advent of a Multiplex World Order,” Ethics and International Affairs 31:3 (Fall 2017), pp. 271-285.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S089267941700020X
Final
exam date and location: To be confirmed.