The recent history of the international system is undoubtedly marked by the end of bi-polarism, which has been regarded as the single most important event in the second half of the 20th century. This “transformational moment”, however, is questioned by a number of historiographical approaches emphasizing the importance of long term trends to understand a number of current events. The course will investigate the evolution of international relations since the end of the cold war by comparing these explicative paradigms. On the one hand, it will look at some of the most distinctive features of the post Cold War era, inlcuding the crises of the 1990s, the emergence of the United States as a hegemonic power, and the consequences of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and of the 2003 Iraq war on the American ability to preserve its supremacy. On the other, it will discuss different conceptual and chronological frameworks to present the evolution of the international system from more complex perspectives, by looking at long term phenomena such as the return of China to a great power role or the discontinuity introduced in the international system by the Neo-liberal approach since the 1970s.
teacher profile teaching materials
CONTENT:
PART I – Introduction, historical controversies and the major features of the early post-cold war era.
Week 1
Introduction and description of the course. The search for new interpretive paradigms: the end of the Cold War or the triumph of globalization ?
Week 2
The rise of US hegemony and the search for a new Europe: the Kuwait war and the Maastricht negotiations
Weeks 3-4
The crises of the early 1990s: Yugoslavia, Somalia and Ruanda. The failure of assertive multilateralism and the search for alternatives. Contending US and EU security models
PART II
The war on terror and the rise of a multipolar system
Week 5
The drift towards US unilateralism: the Kosovo war and its implications for NATO and European security. The evolution of Russian foreign policy
Nuclear proliferation and arms control after the end of the Cold War: the North Korean crisis, the containment of Iraq, and the A.Q. Khan network
MIDTERM EXAM APRIL 10
Week 6
The impact of 9/11, the war in Afghanistan and the 2003 Iraq crisis.
Week 7
The rise of China and India and its impact on the international system. Will Asia return to the center of the international system?
PART III
What next?
Week 8
The erosion of US hegemony? The crisis in the Greater Middle East, 2003-2010 and the Obama administration’s pivot to Asia. The consolidation of the EU – and its stalemate. The Arab Springs and their aftermath. The Negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program
Week 9
2014-2015: the unraveling of the post-cold war order?
Week 10
Seminar – Class Presentations
Week 11
Seminar -Class Presentations
Week 12
Seminar -Class Presentations
Week 13
Seminar -Class Presentations
John Young and John Kent, International Relations Since 1945, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013),
Part VI The Post-Cold War World, 1990-2000
20:Europe and the Former Soviet Union
21:US Predominance and the Search for a Post-Cold War Order
22:Stability and Instability in the Less Developed World
PART VII The Age of Instability and Conflict: Terror, Economic Chaos, and Political Change 2001-11
23:The 'War on Terror' and the War in Afghanistan
24:The War in Iraq
25:Economic Problems in the West and the Economic Rise of China in the East
PART VIII The Age of Uncertainty: Chaos and Confusion in a Globalized World, 2011-18
26:Conflict and Chaos in the Middle East
27:Threats to the existing Global Order: Instability in the West
28:Threats to the Existing Global Order: Challenges from the East
For the in class discussions, students will have to read the following essays:
Butt, Ahsan I. "Why Did the United States Invade Iraq in 2003?". Security Studies 28, no. 2 : 250-85.
Cox, Michael. "Another Transatlantic Split? American and European Narratives and the End of the Cold War." Cold War History 7, no. 1 (2007/02/01 2007): 121-46.
Kramer, Mark, " NATO Enlargement—Was There a Promise?", in International Security, vol. 42, n.1, (Summer 2017) pp. 186-189
Ikenberry, G. John. "The Illusion of Geopolitics." Foreign Affairs 93, no. 3 (2014): 80-90.
Leffler, Melvyn P. "The Foreign Policies of the George W. Bush Administration: Memoirs, History, Legacy." Diplomatic History 37, no. 2 (April 1, 2013): 190-216.
Mead, Walter Russell. "The Return of Geopolitics." Foreign Affairs 93, no. 3 (2014): 69-79.
Shifrinson, Joshua R. "Deal or No Deal?: The End of the Cold War and the U.S. Offer to Limit Nato Expansion." International Security 40, no. 4 (2016): 7-44.
Sarotte, Mary Elise. "A Broken Promise?", 90-97: Foreign Affairs, 2014.
Spohr, Kristina. "Germany, America and the Shaping of Post-Cold War Europe: A Story of German International Emancipation through Political Unification, 1989–90." Cold War History 15, no. 2 (2015/04/03 2015): 221-43.
Trachtenberg, Marc. "The United States and the Nato Non-Extension Assurances of 1990: New Light on an Old Problem?". International Security 45, no. 3 (2021): 162-203.
Westad, Odd Arne. “Has a New Cold War Really Begun?” Foreign Affairs, SNAPSHOT March 27, 2018
NATO Expansion: What Gorbachev Heard, at https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early
Programme
The course intends to offer a general survey of the evolution of the international system since the end of the Cold War. After discussing the main historical interpretations of the causes of the Soviet collapse, the first part of the course will focus on the crises of the 1990s (Iraq, Yugoslavia, Somalia and Rwanda), the repeated failures of the UN, and the US and European search for a new international security paradigm. The second part of the course will look at the consequences of 9/11 as well as the war on terror, considering their long term impact on the hegemonic position of the US. It will also discuss the growing role of emerging powers such as China and India. Finally, the third part of the course looks at such recent events as the negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program, the Arab Springs and their consequences, the paralysis in the EU, and the crises in Ukraine and Syria.CONTENT:
PART I – Introduction, historical controversies and the major features of the early post-cold war era.
Week 1
Introduction and description of the course. The search for new interpretive paradigms: the end of the Cold War or the triumph of globalization ?
Week 2
The rise of US hegemony and the search for a new Europe: the Kuwait war and the Maastricht negotiations
Weeks 3-4
The crises of the early 1990s: Yugoslavia, Somalia and Ruanda. The failure of assertive multilateralism and the search for alternatives. Contending US and EU security models
PART II
The war on terror and the rise of a multipolar system
Week 5
The drift towards US unilateralism: the Kosovo war and its implications for NATO and European security. The evolution of Russian foreign policy
Nuclear proliferation and arms control after the end of the Cold War: the North Korean crisis, the containment of Iraq, and the A.Q. Khan network
MIDTERM EXAM APRIL 10
Week 6
The impact of 9/11, the war in Afghanistan and the 2003 Iraq crisis.
Week 7
The rise of China and India and its impact on the international system. Will Asia return to the center of the international system?
PART III
What next?
Week 8
The erosion of US hegemony? The crisis in the Greater Middle East, 2003-2010 and the Obama administration’s pivot to Asia. The consolidation of the EU – and its stalemate. The Arab Springs and their aftermath. The Negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program
Week 9
2014-2015: the unraveling of the post-cold war order?
Week 10
Seminar – Class Presentations
Week 11
Seminar -Class Presentations
Week 12
Seminar -Class Presentations
Week 13
Seminar -Class Presentations
Core Documentation
MANDATORY READINGS:John Young and John Kent, International Relations Since 1945, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013),
Part VI The Post-Cold War World, 1990-2000
20:Europe and the Former Soviet Union
21:US Predominance and the Search for a Post-Cold War Order
22:Stability and Instability in the Less Developed World
PART VII The Age of Instability and Conflict: Terror, Economic Chaos, and Political Change 2001-11
23:The 'War on Terror' and the War in Afghanistan
24:The War in Iraq
25:Economic Problems in the West and the Economic Rise of China in the East
PART VIII The Age of Uncertainty: Chaos and Confusion in a Globalized World, 2011-18
26:Conflict and Chaos in the Middle East
27:Threats to the existing Global Order: Instability in the West
28:Threats to the Existing Global Order: Challenges from the East
For the in class discussions, students will have to read the following essays:
Butt, Ahsan I. "Why Did the United States Invade Iraq in 2003?". Security Studies 28, no. 2 : 250-85.
Cox, Michael. "Another Transatlantic Split? American and European Narratives and the End of the Cold War." Cold War History 7, no. 1 (2007/02/01 2007): 121-46.
Kramer, Mark, " NATO Enlargement—Was There a Promise?", in International Security, vol. 42, n.1, (Summer 2017) pp. 186-189
Ikenberry, G. John. "The Illusion of Geopolitics." Foreign Affairs 93, no. 3 (2014): 80-90.
Leffler, Melvyn P. "The Foreign Policies of the George W. Bush Administration: Memoirs, History, Legacy." Diplomatic History 37, no. 2 (April 1, 2013): 190-216.
Mead, Walter Russell. "The Return of Geopolitics." Foreign Affairs 93, no. 3 (2014): 69-79.
Shifrinson, Joshua R. "Deal or No Deal?: The End of the Cold War and the U.S. Offer to Limit Nato Expansion." International Security 40, no. 4 (2016): 7-44.
Sarotte, Mary Elise. "A Broken Promise?", 90-97: Foreign Affairs, 2014.
Spohr, Kristina. "Germany, America and the Shaping of Post-Cold War Europe: A Story of German International Emancipation through Political Unification, 1989–90." Cold War History 15, no. 2 (2015/04/03 2015): 221-43.
Trachtenberg, Marc. "The United States and the Nato Non-Extension Assurances of 1990: New Light on an Old Problem?". International Security 45, no. 3 (2021): 162-203.
Westad, Odd Arne. “Has a New Cold War Really Begun?” Foreign Affairs, SNAPSHOT March 27, 2018
NATO Expansion: What Gorbachev Heard, at https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early
Reference Bibliography
Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier, America between the Wars: from 11/9 to 9/11 (New York: Public Affairs, 2008) Warren I. Cohen, America’s Falling Empire. U.S. Foreign Relations since the End of the Cold War (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006) Philip H. Gordon, and Jeremy Shapiro. Allies at War: America, Europe and the Crisis Over Iraq (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004) Jolyon Howorth, Security and Defence Policy in the European Union (London: Palgrave/ Macmillan, 2014) Marc Lynch, The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East (New York: Public Affairs, 2013) Richard Rhodes, The Twilight of the Bombs- Recent Challenges, New Dangers, and the Prospects for a World Without Nuclear Weapons (New York: Knopf, 2010) William Shawcross, Deliver us from Evil. Warlords and Peacekeepers in a World of Endless Conflict (London: Bloomsbury, 2001) Kristina Spohr, Post Wall, Post Square. How Bush, Gorbachev, Kohl, and Deng Shaped the World after 1989 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020) Robert G. Sutter, Chinese Foreign Relations: Power and Policy since the Cold War (New York, Rowman and Littlefield, 2009) Ashley J. Tellis, Travis Tanner and Jessica Keough (eds.), Asia Responds to its Rising Powers. China and India. Strategic Asia 2011-2012 (Seattle and Washington: NBR, 2011) David S. Yost,, NATO’s Balancing Act (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2014)Type of delivery of the course
CONTENT: PART I – Introduction, historical controversies and the major features of the early post-cold war era. Week 1 Introduction and description of the course. The search for new interpretive paradigms: the end of the Cold War or the triumph of globalization ? Week 2 The rise of US hegemony and the search for a new Europe: the Kuwait war and the Maastricht negotiations Weeks 3-4 The crises of the early 1990s: Yugoslavia, Somalia and Ruanda. The failure of assertive multilateralism and the search for alternatives. Contending US and EU security models PART II The war on terror and the rise of a multipolar system Week 5 The drift towards US unilateralism: the Kosovo war and its implications for NATO and European security. The evolution of Russian foreign policy Nuclear proliferation and arms control after the end of the Cold War: the North Korean crisis, the containment of Iraq, and the A.Q. Khan network MIDTERM EXAM APRIL 10 Week 6 The impact of 9/11, the war in Afghanistan and the 2003 Iraq crisis. Week 7 The rise of China and India and its impact on the international system. Will Asia return to the center of the international system? PART III What next? Week 8 The erosion of US hegemony? The crisis in the Greater Middle East, 2003-2010 and the Obama administration’s pivot to Asia. The consolidation of the EU – and its stalemate. The Arab Springs and their aftermath. The Negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program Week 9 2014-2015: the unraveling of the post-cold war order? Week 10 Seminar – Class Presentations Week 11 Seminar -Class Presentations Week 12 Seminar -Class Presentations Week 13 Seminar -Class PresentationsType of evaluation
REQUIRED WORK AND FORM OF ASSESSMENT: Attendance and participation to class discussions (20%); mid-term written research paper (25%); in class oral presentation (30%); final written research paper (25%). The mid-term and the final consist in the presentation of two short research papers. The class discussions concentrate on the essays indicated in the required readings section. Access to journals can be obtained through the online subscriptions of our university. For the presentation each student will be asked to analyze either an advanced research monograph or a set of primary sources. (for an excellent primer on the availability of primary sources, check David Gibbs’ page at the University of Arizona: http://dgibbs.faculty.arizona.edu/guide_using_declassified_documents) In the first week of class, the professor will explain how to prepare for the presentations, which will take place toward the end of the course. In order to approach the methodological discussion in the best way possible, the class will also take a field-study in the library of the Department. During the COVID-19 emergency, exams will be given according to the rules introduced by art.1 of Decreto Rettorale n°. 703 of May 5, 2020