Thread by @ProfPaulPoast

Excited to once again teach "Intro to International Relations" (#ChicagoIntroIR2019) this fall at @UChicago!

Added a number of new features to the course and tweaked the content.

👇is a summary. IR educators, feel free to borrow!

First, a bit about the content.

I start the course by emphasizing the World War I origins of the discipline, something I summarized in this thread:

https://twitter.com/ProfPaulPoast/status/1141040858877370368

To drive home how the discipline emerged out of our efforts to understand WWI and the general turmoil (both political and economic) that transpired over the subsequent 20 years (call out to E.H. Carr), each lecture opens with an event from WWI, the interwar period, or WWII.

For example, when lecturing on International Organizations, I open with a discussion of the League of Nation's creation.

Or when lecturing on international trade, I open with a discussion of Smoot-Hawley tariff

The course focuses on two questions:

1) Why is there no world government?

2) What are the consequences of not having a world government?

We explore the first course question -- why no world government -- in four lectures, each focused on a concept:

- Sovereignty
- Anarchy
- Structure
- Order

We then explore the second course question -- the consequences of no world government -- by exploring the three main ways that states interact:

- Violence
- Contracts
- Exchange

With Violence, we look at War and Rebellion

With Contracts, we look at Treaties and Norms

With Exchange, we look at Money and Markets

That's the content! What about the new features?

They include...

Two United Nations Security Council simulations, courtesy of @CFR_org

modeldiplomacy.cfr.org/#

A paper asking students to draw on documents from the @NSArchive, something I describe here (and thx to @e_sarotte)

https://twitter.com/ProfPaulPoast/status/1148199552341749762

A paper asking students to draw on data from @UCDP's outstanding web-interface

ucdp.uu.se

As for readings, I'll still provide a weekly "Twyllabus" 😉

However, the CORE readings will be drawn from the outstanding @IAJournal_CH special issue commemorating 100 years since the Treaty of Versailles

academic.oup.com/ia/issue/95/1

As I explained in this thread, it is really a terrific collection of articles

https://twitter.com/ProfPaulPoast/status/1144211478704246785

For the last portion of the course, I have a few "You choose the topic" lectures.

At some point during the term, I'll ask the students for suggestions and will then give a couple lectures based on those suggestions.

So I'm looking forward to a great term and working with a terrific group of @UChicagoPoliSci & @UChicagoSSD grad students as Teaching Assistants!

Stay tuned for #ChicagoIntroIR2019 threads throughout the fall!