Course Syllabus

Course Information

Course title

Critical Approaches to World Politics: An Introduction

Semester

110-1

Designated for

COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE INSTITUTE OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

Instructor

LIN, WAN-PING

Curriculum Number

PS5706

Curriculum Identity Number

322EU2420

Class

Credits

2.0

Full/Half
Yr.

Half

Required/
Elective

Elective

Time

Monday 8,9(15:30~17:20)

Remarks

The upper limit of the number of students: 20.
The upper limit of the number of non-majors: 3.

Ceiba Web Server

http://ceiba.ntu.edu.tw/1101_PS5706

Course introduction video

Table of Core Capabilities and Curriculum Planning

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Course Syllabus

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Course Description

[ The First Class Access on September 27 ] https://meet.google.com/ryw-wxto-cyn

*Passwords for the course registration will be provided at the end of the first online class on September 27.

Note: This course is designed for students who have basic disciplinary knowledge in international relations and are interested in critically reflecting upon the given studies, perspectives and approaches to world politics.

Course Description
This course aims to familiarize students with fundamental perspectives and practices concerning critical approaches to world politics within and beyond the West. Topics to be covered include international relations (IR) as a divided discipline, various major contentions in IR and their responses and the broadly defined Chinese international relations theories. This course includes one hour of lecture/presentation plus one hour of discussion. In-class workshops and mock conferences are designed to prepare students to develop and write a thoughtful term essay through the process of discussions and peer reviews.

Course Objective

By the end of the course, students will
1. Understand common critical approaches to world politics.
2. Apply their knowledge of critical approaches and skills to world politics.
3. Demonstrate familiarity with critical approaches to world politics.
4. Submit a term essay (undergraduate 1500-3000 words; graduate 2500-5000 words).

Course Content
1. Acquire professional knowledge and its contexts
(1) Pre-view reading assignments before class
(2) In-class assigned readings presentations
(3) In-class discussions and summaries
(4) Formulating new ideas

2. Apply critical approaches to world politics
(1) Brainstorming ideas
(2) Researching and crafting essay proposals
(3) Peer reviews on essay proposals
(4) Mock conferences
(5) A term essay

Core Competencies (CCs)
1. Professional knowledge and its contexts
2. Independent judgment and critical thinking
3. Interpersonal, cross-cultural and cooperative communication and teamwork skills
4. Evaluation on issues, topics and approaches to the studies of world politics

Course Requirement

Course Requirements:
1. Students are required to attend all classes. No more than three absences are permitted. Being often late and/or leaving early may negatively impact the final course grade.
2. All materials and lectures are presented in English. Assignments and discussions should be submitted and conducted in English.
3. Active participation in class discussions is required.
4. Assignments are carefully scheduled as stages toward the fulfillment of the course’s objectives. The assignments should be your own work and submitted electronically as a MS Word file. Late assignments are accepted, but the grades would be substantially lower and may not receive any feedback. Plagiarism will not be accepted.
5. Make sure you familiarize yourself with CEIBA system and stay on track throughout the semester.

Student Workload (expected study time outside of class per week)

Office Hours

Note: Please email me for an online appointment.

Designated reading

See the syllabus

References

See the syllabus

Grading

No.	Item	%	Explanations for the conditions
1.	Assigned Readings Presentations	10%	Students demonstrate their comprehension and familiarity with the assigned readings and their ability to critically engage with the materials.
2.	Essay Outline Writing Task	5%	Students choose a topic, identify a gap, brainstorm how to critically interrogate it and anticipate the results. (200-500 words)
3.	Essay Proposal Writing Task	5%	Students develop an essay outline on the chosen topic (400-1000 words) via brainstorming, researching and organizing arguments and supporting details.
4.	Peer Advice Worksheets	15%	Students provide thoughtful advice to peers’ essay proposals. (10%) Students evaluate peers’ presentation performance. (5%)
5.	Response to Peer Advice Worksheet	5%	Students respond to the peer-reviewed feedback and provide specific solutions to the identified issues.
6.	Mock Conference Tasks	15%	Students practice to play different roles (e.g., a presenter, a host, audience), present their research essay and manage Q&A.
7.	Term Essay Writing Task	30%	Students conduct original research, apply critical thinking approaches and formulate creative views on world politics in the term essay. (undergraduate 1500-3000 words; graduate 2500-5000 words)
8.	Participation & Attendance	15%	Students will be graded based on their attendance and participation in class discussions.

Progress

Week	Date	Topic
Week 2	9/27	Course Introduction Course overview, requirements, grading policy, grouping, Q&A
Week 3	10/04	IR: a Divided Discipline Required Reading Acharya, A. & Buzan, B. 2019. “Introduction” and “The World up to 1919: The Making of Modern International Relations,” in The Making of Global International Relations: Origins and Evolution of IR at its Centenary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1- 32. Recommended Reading Reus-Smit, C. & Snidal, D. 2010. “Between Utopia and Reality: The Practical Discourses of International Relations,” in Reus-Smit, C. & Snidal, D.(ed.) The Oxford Handbook of International Relations, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 3- 37.
Week 4	10/11	Holiday (No Class)
Week 5	10/18	Major Contentions in IR Required Reading Brown, C. 2016. “Theory and Practice in International Relations,” in Booth, K. & Erskine, T. (ed.) International Relations Theory Today, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 39-52. Recommended Reading Bilgin, P. 2016. “Do IR Scholars Engage with the Same World?” in Booth, K. & Erskine, T. (ed.) International Relations Theory Today, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 39-52.
Week 6	10/25	The Expansion of International Society Required Reading Shih, C. Y. & Chang, C. Y. 2017. “The Rise of China Between Cultural and Civilizational Relationalities: Lessons from Four Qing Cases,” International Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 1-25. Recommended Reading Neuman, I. 2011. “Entry into International Society Reconceptualized: The Case of Russia.” Review of International Studies, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 117-145.
Week 7	11/01	Contentions of Eurocentrism Required Readings Hobson, J. M. 2012. “Introduction: Constructing Eurocentrism and International Theory as Eurocentric construct,” The Eurocentric Conception of World Politics: Western International Theory, 1760-2010, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-30. Sajed, A. 2016. “Race and International Relations—What's in a Word? A Debate Around John Hobson’s The Eurocentric Conception of World Politics,” Postcolonial Studies, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 168-172. Recommended Reading Wallerstein, I. 1997. “Eurocentrism and Its Avatars: the Dilemmas of Social Sciences,” Sociological Bulletin, Vol. 46, No.1, pp. 21-39.
Week 8	11/08	Alternative to Eurocentrism? Asian school of IR? Global IR? Required Readings Amitav, A. & Buzan, B. 2017. “Why is there no non-Western international relations theory? Ten years on,” International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 341-370. Anderl, F. & Witt, A. 2020. “Problematising the Global in Global IR,” Millennium: Journal of International Studies, pp. 1-26. December 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305829820971708 Recommended Reading Chen, C. C. 2011. “The absence of non-Western IR theory in Asia reconsidered,” International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 1-23.
Week 9	11/15	Midterm Week (No class) [Write your essay proposal]
Week 10	11/22	Literature Review Presentations
Week 11	11/29	Essay proposal peer-review workshop
Week 12	12/06	Homegrown Chinese IR theories Required Readings Qin, Y. 2016. “A Relational Theory of World Politics,” International Studies Review, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 33-47. Yan. X. 2019. Leadership and the Rise of Great Power, Chapter 1& 9, pp. 1-24 &190-206, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Recommended Readings Creutzfeldt, B. 2011. ‘Theory Talk #45: Qin Yaqing on Rules vs Relations, Drinking Coffee and Tea, and a Chinese Approach to Global Governance’, Theory Talks, http://www.theory-talks.org/2011/11/theory-talk-45.html (30-11-2011) Creutzfeldt, B. 2012. ‘Theory Talk #51: Yan Xuetong on Chinese Realism, the Tsinghua School of International Relations, and the Impossibility of Harmony’, Theory Talks, http://www.theory-talks.org/2012/11/theory-talk-51.html (28-11-2012)
Week 13	12/13	Postcolonialism Required Readings Ling, H. M. L. 2016. “What’s in a Name? A critical interrogation of the “Chinese School of IR,” in Zhang, Y. & Chang, T. (ed.) Constructing a Chinese School of International Relations: Ongoing Debates and Sociological Realities. London: Routledge, pp. 1-18. Tucker, K. 2018. “Unraveling Coloniality in International Relations: Knowledge, Relationality, and Strategies for Engagement,” International Political Sociology, Vol. 12, pp. 215-232. Recommended Readings Capan, Z. G. 2017. “Decolonising International Relations?” Third World Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 1-15.
Week 14	12/20	Critical Sinophone IR Theories Required Readings Ling, H. M. L. 2014. The Dao of World Politics: Towards a Post-Westphalian, wordlist International Relations, Chapter 1& 2, London: Routledge. Shih, C. & Huang C. 2016. “Balance of relationship and the Chinese School of IR: being simultaneously Confucian, post-Western and post-hegemonic,” in Zhang, Y. & Chang, T. (ed.) Constructing a Chinese School of International Relations: Ongoing Debates and Sociological Realities, London: Routledge, pp. 177-191. Recommended Readings Ling, H. M. L. 2014. The Dao of World Politics: Towards a Post-Westphalian, wordlist International Relations, London: Routledge. Shih, C. et. al. 2019. China and International Theory: The Balance of Relationships, London, Routledge.
Week 15	12/27	Individual Consultation
Week 16	1/03	Conference on essay progress
Week 17	1/10	Final exam week (No class) [Revise and submit your term essay]