Course Summary
This graduate course is in three Parts. Together they are intended to provide theoretical, empirical, and policy perspectives on source and consequences of globalization, focusing on emergent structures and processes, and on the implications of flows of goods and services across national boundaries - with special attention to the issue of migration, on the assumption that people matter and matter a lot. An important concern addressed pertains to the dilemmas of international policies that are shaped by the macro-level consequences of micro-level behavior.
Part I defines the dimensions of globalization. The focus is on empirical evidence, propositions about the 'causal logic', cross-border issues, and evolving policy dilemmas. A conceptual distinction is made between conventional views of globalization shaped by the perspectives and priorities of comparative politics as a field that focus largely on the integration of national economies, and those of international relations, shaped by the priorities of the IR/IPE field — addressing security and sovereignty issues that transcend national boundaries, question the implications of these boundaries as traditionally defined, and contribute to the transformation of inter-state, supra-state, and non-state relations. The globalization literature pertaining to international relations can be viewed as distributed along a spectrum defined by two 'end-positions": one focuses largely on economic and policy issues related to the increased integration of national economies ("narrow globalization"); the other focuses on the changes in international structures and processes generated by the movements of people, resources, technologies and so forth ("complex view").
Part II is on crossing borders and focuses on sources, consequences, and modalities of migrations. The intent is to integrate a hitherto missing dimension of the study of international relations, namely the mobility of people - individually or collectively - and their implications for the configuration of the international system and relations among state and non-state actors. Special attention is given to matters of security, to the configuration of state systems and to sources and consequences of international conflict. A central proposition is that the nature of domestic politics is not neutral with respect to factors crossing borders and that, under some circumstances they actually shape the parameters of emergent domestic and international politics.
Part III is on the processes by which changes take place in the international domain, influenced by emergent sources and consequences of globalization - and its particular manifestation in patterns of population movements. Particular attention is given to insights from international relations theory and IPE theory and policy of understanding institutional challenges and responses that transcend the conventional frame of the state system defined by territorial boundaries. The concluding session reviews known legacies of the 20th century to date - given emergent understandings of the complexity of globalization. At this point a re-view of the globalization spectrum is undertaken, and a reassessment of the implications of complex globalization for relations among sovereign states as well as implications for salient non-state actors and agencies.
17.411 fulfills undergraduate public policy requirement in the major and minor. Graduate students are expected to explore the subject in greater depth through reading and individual research.
Requirements
There are three major course requirements:
First is the nature and extent of class discussion and participation (30% of final grade).
Second is a mid-term take home final exam (30%).
Third is a research paper (40%).
The class discussion involves
(a) critical review of the assigned materials,
(b) systematic comparisons of concepts and issues, and
(c) specific attention to 'meanings' of globalization'.
The intent is to encourage students to view theoretical and empirical issues critically and to address the dynamic (and rapidly changing) rather than the static (and time-specific) features of the issues in question.
The mid term exam is open book and take-home. There is a choice of 2 out of 4 essays; covering the first part of the course (i.e. the first five weeks). The task is to show familiarity with the assignments and the class discussions and debate, and to lay the foundations for the focus on matters of migration. The research paper is designed as a short, focused, analysis of one (or more) of the issues covered in the second part of the course, with special attention to their relevance (if any) for the evolution of international institutions. Students will also give brief class presentations of the research paper.
Required Texts
Clark, Ian. Globalization and International Relations Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Katzenstein, Peter J., Robert O. Keohane, and Stephen D. Krasner, eds. Exploration and Contestation in the Study of World Politics. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1999.
Nye, Joseph S., and John D. Donahue, eds. Governance in a Globalizing World. Cambridge, Mass: Visions of Governance for the 21st Century, 2000.
Tainter, Joseph A. The Collapse of Complex Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Weiner, Myron, and Sharon Stanton Russell, eds. Demography and National Security. New York: Berghahn Books, 2001.