This course examines how ideas shape contestation over global orders—how the emergence, diffusion, and decline of ideas can challenge the established rules and orders of world politics. The course is both theoretical and empirical in orientation. Theoretically, we will engage with core debates in international relations theory, for example, over whether ideas “matter” in international politics; how actors contest the norms and ideas of existing orders; why it is some ideas gain traction and others fall by the wayside. This course will rely on a range of cases, both historical and contemporary, to explore the relationship between ideas and contestation in international politics. Case studies will include the challenge liberalism posed to dynastic empires in Europe and the Atlantic world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; nationalism in both nineteenth century European revolutions and twentieth century decolonization; the role of racial ideologies in sustaining imperial politics; the spread of fascism in the mid-twentieth century; and the creation of and challenges to the existing “liberal” global order.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: POL3 221.

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: