International Relations

The goal of the course is to provide students with the theoretical knowledge necessary to understand contemporary international politics and, more specifically, to grasp the main trends in international relations today. The course will introduce students to the main theoretic traditions and debates underpinning the discipline of International Relations (idealism, realism, institutionalism, and constructivism). Against this theoretical backdrop, the course will outline the fundamental features of the international system that distinguish it from the domestic political arena. In this view, it will introduce specific theories of International Relations (e.g. the democratic peace theory, theories of alliances, theories of interdependence etc.). Finally, this conceptual and theoretic background will be used to analyse the current trends of international politics: the paradoxes of the post-bipolar system, the decline of the international liberal order, the waning of the US leadership and the major post-Cold War crises.

At the end of the course the students will be able to understand the peculiar logic of how the international relations works (especially, its difference from domestic politics) and will be familiar with the main paradigms of International Relations (IR). Thanks to the knowledge of both the structural features of the international arena and IR's theoretical models, students will be able to appreciate the current trends of the contemporary international system, developing a critical and autonomous ability to analyse international events. The familiarity with key concepts of IR will let the students to integrate notions from other courses and grasp the complex relationship between the political, economic and legal dimensions of world politics.