HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

The course is a "characterizing" course of the Global studies and the American studies paths of the MA program in Comparative International Relations (RIC). It provides students with advanced knowledge in History of International Relations (events, agents, structures, processes, concepts, methods of inquiry and theoretical foundations), with a particular focus on the changes in the international political economy since the 1970s, thus contributing to achieve RIC's objectives in the history field. By putting an emphasis on the historical method of inquiry, the course provides students with the capacity to analyze events and processes in the international realm, and to develop original and well-founded interpretations about them, beyond the specific object of the course itself. Readings are based on a selected bibliography from various sources, which will allow students to learn to prepare a bibliography on international history subjects. Further, the course provides students with the possibility to become confident with their English language communication skills in reference to the history of international relations. All the above combined will provide students with historical consciousness about international events and processes, which can be understood as a basic element of RIC's overall objectives.

At the end of the course, students will be able to:
a) manage confidently the main events and concepts pertaining to the history of the international political economy from the 1970s to the present;
b) display a confident knowledge of the most updated literature on the subject, including the ability to critically compare diverging views and approaches;
c) read and interpret various types documents, and to make use of such ability in the preparation of their own research projects;
d) communicate their work and research in English and take part in a debate about international affairs;
e) consolidate further their competence in the field of international history in an autonomous and self-organized manner.

As an advanced course in History of international relations, the course requires a sound knowledge of basic facts and processes of the international history of the 20th century. As terms of reference, "basic facts and processes of the international history of the 20th century" can be found in the textbooks listed below. Students who realize they do not possess the requested basic knowledge can follow the class, but are kindly invited to catch up with the basics before taking the exam.

Ennio Di Nolfo, Storia delle Relazioni Internazionali, Laterza, 2008 (or later editions)
Guido Formigoni, Storia della politica internazionale nell'età contemporanea, Il Mulino (2006 or later editions)
Antonio Varsori, Storia Internazionale, Il Mulino, 2014
Anthony Best et al., Storia delle relazioni internazionali, UTET, 2013
William Keylor, "A world of nations", Oxford University Press, 2009 (or later editions)
Anthony Best et. al, International History, Routledge, 2008 (or later editions)
John W. Young and John Kent, International Relations Since 1945, OUP, 2013 (or later editions)
Jean-Baptiste Duroselle and André Kaspi, Histoire des relations internationales de 1945 à nos jours, Armand Colin, 2017

The course will focus on the interactions between U.S. financial, political and military power in the making of the present world (dis-)order. After a set of introductory classes aimed at placing the changes of the 1970s "in context", we will focus on the international politics of the 1970s and early 1980s by analyzing such issues as the end of Bretton Woods, the "oil crises", the "recycling of petrodollars" and the Reagan administration's "star wars" program. A detailed week-by-week program will be provided at the beginning of the course, and will remain available in the moodle page of the course (https://moodle.unive.it/course/view.php?id=2087 ).

Students who regularly attend the class should prepare the exam on:

1. the class notes;
2. the class slides that will be made available at the end of the course in the moodle page of the class (https://moodle.unive.it/course/view.php?id=2087 );
3. a list of readings which will be made available at the beginning of the course in the moodle page of the class (https://moodle.unive.it/course/view.php?id=2087 ).

Students who do not attend the class regularly, should prepare the exam on:

1. the class slides that will be made available at the end of the course in the moodle page of the class (https://moodle.unive.it/course/view.php?id=2087 );
2. a list of readings which will be made available at the beginning of the course in the moodle page of the class (https://moodle.unive.it/course/view.php?id=2087 );
3. the book by Daniel Sargent, "A superpower transformed. The Remaking of American Foreign Relations in the 1970s", Oxford University Press, 2014

PLEASE NOTE:
1) to "prepare the exam" means to study carefully the material listed above. It is not a synonym of "taking a look" at the material;
2) the course will treat the reading material critically in the attempt to show the implications, and the respective strengths and weaknesses, of alternative interpretations of the same facts. Students should not be surprised to see that different articles make divergent claims on the same subjects, nor to discover that some of these claims can be proved to be stronger than others. Particularly for students who do not attend the class regularly, it is important that they associate the reading materials with the class slides. A meeting with the professor is also advisable.

ATTENTION - UPDATE 29.4.2020

The exam has a written part and an oral part. Given the measures for "social distancing" adopted in response to the "coronavirus emergency", for all the remaining examination sessions of the academic year 2019-20, both the written and the oral part will occur by remote.

The written part of the exam is a short essay (ca. 1200 words) on a question provided by the teacher via Moodle. The specific technical arrangements will be communicated before the exam. The written part of the exam has a duration of three hours. The question will require students to use various parts of the program in the construction of their answers. The written exam is "open notes, open books", that is students may consult their study material and refer to it (provided that they cite it appropriately). It aims at verifying the preparation of the students on the topics of the course (facts, dates, names, definitions, concepts) and their capacity to organize and communicate their knowledge (completeness, synthesis, consistency, clarity, precision). In the written part of the exam, students will have to display their: a) ability in rendering a coherent picture concerning the main events that have marked the development of international political economy from the 1970s to the present; b) knowledge of the origins and dynamics of the main historical processes of the period under examination (fall of Bretton Woods; post-Bretton Woods negotiations; the "oil crisis" and its consequences; petrodollar recycling; the North-South dialogue and confrontation; superpower détente; the "second cold war"; the "international debt crisis"; the crisis and fall of the Soviet Union); c) knowledge of the different interpretations of the themes above and ability to critically debate them, also on the basis of the evidence form primary sources; d) ability to make use of the historical categories adopted in the readings and in class; e) ability to develop their own reflections on the topics of the course.

The oral exam has an average duration of 15 minutes and will take place in video-videoconference. Technical details will be communicated before the exam. It aims at discussing any critical point emerging from the written exam and at checking the students' ability to answer questions concerning other parts of the program.

Please note #1: the inability to locate the specific events discussed in the course in the broader context of the international history of the 20th century (as from the Requirements section above) constitutes a reason for not passing the exam.

Please note #2: Around the 7th-8th week of the course, students can turn in via moodle a short essay (ca. 400 words) on a subject indicated by the teacher. This is a non-mandatory exercise open to all students, and is aimed at allowing students to familiarize with the type of work they will be asked to write at the final written exam (same kind of question, same rules, shorter duration). The precise date of the test will be communicated in advance on the teacher's announcements and moodle pages. The test will receive a score between 0 and 3 and such score will be added, in case, to the grade achieved in the "regular" exam.

Frontal lectures, with slides and use of multimedia material. The slides will be made available by the teacher in the moodle page of the course, before the end of the course. Questions and debates in class are extremely welcome.

English

The teacher is easily available for questions concerning the course at his office hours and by email at duccio.basosi@unive.it. Emails have to be written in a formal style (not "Hi prof." or "Salve prof.", but "Good morning", "Buongiorno", and the likes). The teacher will not reply to messages asking questions whose answer can be found in the information contained in this syllabus.

written and oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "International cooperation" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development