Department: International Relations Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences
Course Title: International Relations Theory (MA, Compulsory)
Credits: Four
Course objectives: This course familiarises students with some of the major debates within the
discipline. It introduces them to key interdisciplinary conversations between IR and other
disciplines such as history, philosophy and sociology. Although the course content is largely
theoretical, it refers to historical and contemporary developments as illustrative examples. The
course would particularly introduce ‘critical frames’ of enquiry to students, to nudge them to
critically engage for instance with the broadly ethnocentric and masculinist character of the
discipline.
Course structure with units:
Unit 1: Making sense of the ‘International’: Past and Present (Week One)
This unit offers a brief introduction to how ‘international’ has been imagined in the past. It offers
two contending views for the twentieth (Mackinder vs Norman) and 21st century (Slaughter and
Mearsheimer) and critically introduces the students to the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of the competing
debates in International Relations Theory.
Unit II: Introduction to IR Theory (Week Two)
The unit introduces students to the field of IR theory. It seeks to succinctly explain the function
of theory and its centrality in the field of international relations.
Unit III: Major Approaches in IR (Week Three—Week Ten)
The unit presents a comprehensive overview of the major theories in IR, covering the entire
disciplinary spectrum from mainstream approaches such as realism and liberalism to the critical
approaches such as postcolonialism and feminism. A further delineation of certain major theories
into sub-schools offers a nuanced understanding of the subject.
Realism
Liberalism
Constructivism
Critical Theory
Feminism
Postcolonialism
Postmodernism
English School
Unit IV: Dialogues with Other Disciplines (Week Eleven)
Unit four presents a critical assessment of IR’s level of engagement with other disciplines such
as history and sociology. The scope for deeper inter-disciplinary conversations points to potential
avenues for the growth of IR as a discipline in the future.
Interdisciplinarity
Unit V—International Relations Theory and South Asia (Week Twelve)
Student led open house. Back ground readings, will be provided.
Reading Suggestions:
Angell, Norman (1912) ‘The Influence of Credit Upon International Relations’, in The
Foundations of International Polity (London: Heinemann).
Guzzini, Stefano (2001), ‘The Significance and Role of Teaching Theory in International
Relations’, JIRD, 2001,4(2), 98-117
Kenneth M. Waltz, “Laws and Theories,” from Robert O. Keohane, Neorealism and Its Critics
(New York: Columbia University Press), pp. 27-46.
Alexander Wendt, ‘The Agent-Structure Problem in International Relations,’ International
Organization, Vol. 41, No. 2 (1987): 335-370
Cox, Robert (1981) ‘Social Forces, States and World Order: Beyond International Relations
Theory’, Millennium 10(2): 126-155.
Tickner, J. Ann and Laura Sjoberg (eds.) (2011), Twenty Years of Feminist International
Relations: A Conversation about the Past, Present and Future. London and New York:
Routledge.
Der Derian, James and Michael Shapiro (eds.) (1989), International/ Intertextual Relations:
Postmodern Readings of World Politics, New York: Lexington Books.
Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber (2002), ‘In Defense of Diverse Forms of Knowledge’, PS: Political
Science and Politics, 35 (2): 193-195
