Power, Capitalism, and Difference: Critical International Relations

This course approaches central themes of International Relations through a critical lens. Critical analyses involve exposing structures - underlying forces -that organize political,social,and economic life. Scaled to the level of international relations, critical perspectives highlight important influences on world order; on the persistence of nation-states; international conflict; the administration of aid; and the expansiveness of capitalism as a political-economic system. In combination, these forces shape contemporary life, and decisions about life, across a global political landscape. In other words, the course explores structured relations of power and economy, often resulting in domination and exploitation, and how such political configurations create (and limit) efforts to change the exercise of power on the global scale. The course navigates these themes through a series of units, each building upon the last: 1} Power & Globalization; 2) Capitalist Political Economy; 3) Post-Colonial World(s); 4} Race, Gender, and Difference; 5) The Politics of Development; 6) Emergency; and 7) Climate Change.

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