IRL101 – International History
This course provides an introduction to the history of international relations, with an emphasis on the ways in which the Great Powers came to conceive, shape, and dominate the current ‘international system’.
Although it follows a broad chronological trajectory, the course goes beyond traditional narratives and explanations of diplomatic relations by considering what French historians have come to refer to as ‘les forces profondes’ (or ‘deeper factors’) affecting international relations (IR), including economic, demographic, geopolitical and cultural factors that shaped the identity and foreign policies of nation-states.
An important part of this process of identity formation–and of this course–revolves around the question of how national identities shaped (and were in turn shaped by) the relations of European states both with each other and with non-Europeans, especially Africa, East Asia and the Pacific.
This idea of Great Powers that not only shape the ‘international system’ but that are shaped by it–and by their experiences of colonization–is a key theme of this course. So is the critical assessment of historiographic sources, the use of theoretical IR tools to make sense of international events, and the appraisal of the ways in which actors, structures, and processes contributed to shape the ‘international system’.
This course has three aims. The first is to familiarize students with the basic issues involved in a truly ‘global’ history of international relations: not only historical events, therefore, but also the more subtle processes by which ideas about ‘the international’ developed, as well as the critical assessment of those ideas and of the players that contributed to form the international system. This involves an appreciation of how ancient and medieval structures and traditions–in Europe and beyond–contributed to shape the international system.
Second, the course explains how the development of European nation-states led to the creation of hegemonic systems which affected, directly and indirectly, non-European contexts, particularly in Africa, East Asia and the Pacific. Third and last, the course probes some of the Western-centric views of world history which have long dominated the discipline of international relations by highlighting how the hegemonic structures developed by European nations came to dominate both the world and–just as importantly–our knowledge of it.