GLOBAL  POLITICS   POL 1025 Summer Session II, 2000 Instructor: Rado Dimitrov

“All the world is a stage,” wrote William Shakespeare. Let us be seated and be spectators.  This course is rewarding and demanding.  It requires intellectual effort and time commitment, in exchange of conceptual understanding and factual knowledge of current world affairs. By the end of the course you will have awareness of the rules and norms that govern behavior of actors on the stage, and you will be familiar with the main issues in world politics today. While we de-emphasize theory, the analytical skills that you develop will enable you to make better sense of events and of developments that will take place after the course ends.
 
 

Course Readings
John T. Rourke and Mark A. Boyer, World Politics, Dushkin/McGraw-Hill, 2000 (3^rd edition). $39.70 in U’s West Bank bookstore.[Referred to as ‘Rourke and Boyer’ in syllabus].

Global Issues 00/01, Annual Editions series, edited by Robert M. Jackson, Dushkin/McGraw-Hill, 2000 (16^th edition). $17.65
[Referred to as ‘Global Issues’ in syllabus].

World Watch assignment
Throughout the course, you will be expected to follow world events in the mass media.  Every week, you will write a one-page paper in response to a current event in world politics.  The source of information that you use must be either one of the following: The New York Times, The Washington Post, or Reuters (www.reuters.com/news). Both the event and the article must be recent.

The paper is due at the beginning of each class period.  Please make it no longer than one double-spaced page.  At the top, please indicate the newspaper, the title of the article, and the page number.  The first paragraph should summarize the event  and be no more than one-third of the page.  In the rest of the paper, write freely about your reaction to the event: what are your thoughts and/or feelings about it? Be free and sincere.

World Map assignment
You will receive instructions for this assignment on the first day of class.

Reading Diary
You are to keep a diary of the reading assignments, in which you reflect on the reality that the reading reveals. Please share insights that you have gained and/or reactions that you have about the subject matter of the reading, and/or about world politics in general. Although this is an exercise free of prescribed form, I ask that each entry includes a short piece of factual information of which you were not aware before (for example, 109.7 million people have died in wars during the 20^th century). The dairy may be hand-written if you wish.

Grading policy                                              Grading scale

Map exercise                      10 %                          A-, A          90-92; 93-100%
World Watch assignments   10 %                          B-, B, B+    80-82; 83-87; 88-89 %
Reading diary                      10 %                         C-, C, C+   70-72; 73-77; 78-79 %
Mid-term exam                   20 %                          D-, D, D+   60-62; 63-67; 68-69 %
Final exam                          40 %                          F                 < 59 %
Participation&attendance    10 %

Consult University policies for academic misconduct.
 

Late-entry policy
In case of unavoidable and serious circumstances, arrangements can be made to take the final exam earlier, and the mid-term exam earlier or later.  Late 'World Watch' papers will not be accepted.

Students with Disabilities
Please contact me in the first week of class. If you think that you have a physical or mental disability but are not certified yet, first contact Betty Benson at the Office for Disability Services (tel. 612-626-9085).
 
 

 

July 11	Nation-States and Transnational Actors Read: Rourke and Boyer, pp. 49-50; 138-142; 149-157.	Independent states
July 13	International Organizations  Read: Rourke and Boyer, pp. 177-195;  Richard Falk, “World Prisms,” Global Issues pp. 27-31.	United Nations Organization Major International Organizations
July 18	International Law and Morality Read: Rourke and Boyer, pp. 235-253;  “Justice Goes Global,” Global Issues, pp. 155-157. World Map assignment due.	International Treaties World Court
July 20	Diplomacy and negotiations Read: Rourke and Boyer, pp. 209-227.  Mid-term exam Simulation: UN negotiations on forest policy	U.S. Department of State
July 25	International Security  Read: Rourke and Boyer, pp. 261-275, 280-292;  Michael Klare, “The Kalashnikov Age,” Global Issues pp. 144-148;  Michael Renner, “How to Abolish War,” Global Issues, pp. 181-187. Simulation: Security Council action	Contemporary conflicts Peacekeeping operations Terrorism
July 27	International Economics Read: Rourke and Boyer, pp. 346-361;  Arturo Escobar, “The Invention of Development,” Global Issues, pp. 93-96;  Louis Kraar, “What Pacific Century?” Global Issues, pp. 115-116.	Human Development Report 1998
August 1	Environmental politics; Human Rights Read: Rourke and Boyer, pp. 421-429; 393-398;  Karl Meyer, “Enforcing Human Rights,” Global Issues, pp. 158-162; Lester Brown, “We Can Build…” Global Issues, pp. 81-85. Film: "The Earth Summit"	Human Rights Web Global Warming
August 3	The United States in World Politics Final Exam	Foreign policy areas