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Power, War and Diplomacy
Study Course Description
Course Description Statuss:Approved
Course Description Version:5.00
Study Course Accepted:09.02.2024 10:03:27
| Study Course Information | |||||||||
| Course Code: | PZK_138 | LQF level: | Level 7 | ||||||
| Credit Points: | 5.00 | ECTS: | 7.50 | ||||||
| Branch of Science: | Politics | Target Audience: | Political Science | ||||||
| Study Course Supervisor | |||||||||
| Course Supervisor: | Edijs Bošs | ||||||||
| Study Course Implementer | |||||||||
| Structural Unit: | Faculty of Social Sciences | ||||||||
| The Head of Structural Unit: | |||||||||
| Contacts: | Dzirciema street 16, Rīga, szf rsu[pnkts]lv | ||||||||
| Study Course Planning | |||||||||
| Full-Time - Semester No.1 | |||||||||
| Lectures (count) | 10 | Lecture Length (academic hours) | 2 | Total Contact Hours of Lectures | 20 | ||||
| Classes (count) | 10 | Class Length (academic hours) | 2 | Total Contact Hours of Classes | 20 | ||||
| Total Contact Hours | 40 | ||||||||
| Study course description | |||||||||
| Preliminary Knowledge: | Students should have basic knowledge about international relations and international processes, as well as European political history. | ||||||||
| Objective: | The course aims at creating an understanding of the development of the European and global state-system from the end of the Middle Ages until the end of the Cold War. | ||||||||
| Topic Layout (Full-Time) | |||||||||
| No. | Topic | Type of Implementation | Number | Venue | |||||
| 1 | Introduction to the course and concepts; structured discussion on the topic of first essay; introduction to the pre-modern and modern concepts of international order. | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 2 | Outline of the evolution of a euro-centric international system. Great powers of the 16th, 17th, and early 18th century: Habsburg bid for supremacy under Charles V, Philip II and Emperor Ferdinand II; the Thirty Years War and the Peace of Westphalia. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 3 | French claim for dominance under Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV, the War of the Spanish Succession and the Peace of Utrecht. Rise of Britain; and Russia under Peter the Great; and Prussia under Frederick the Great; re-invention of Austria as a great power. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 4 | The evolution of the ‘classical’ European balance-of-power system in the 18th century; ‘professionalisation’ of diplomacy and warfare in this period; the founding of the United States of America. The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 5 | The European settlement at the Congress of Vienna; the great power management of international affairs through the Concert of Europe; methods of ‘classical’ old European diplomacy. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 6 | Seminar on the origins and consequences of the First World War. | Classes | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 7 | Advances in military technology during the preceding century of industrialisation and its effects on international affairs. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 8 | The Versailles peace conference and the evolution of ‘new’ diplomacy; the role of Woodrow Wilson; balance-of-power considerations versus ‘collective security’ in the post-WWI European settlement; the eclipse of Europe’s international dominance. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 9 | Instability of the interwar period in Europe; weakness of the status quo powers and the upsurge of revisionism; the rise of extra-European powers. The collapse of the Versailles settlement. Hitler’s bid for European hegemony and the failures of pre-war diplomacy. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 10 | Seminar on the Second World War. | Classes | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 11 | The politics of U.S.-Soviet bipolarity and the change of the geopolitical landscape in the Cold War period; the vocabulary and basic tenets of nuclear strategy. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 12 | Turning points of the Cold War: its origins, the Cuban Missile crisis and its end. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 13 | Europe between the super powers; neutralisation of the ‘German problem through division and European integration; main directions of British, French and German foreign policies during the Cold War. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 14 | Seminar on the Cold War. | Classes | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 15 | The return of the primacy of geopolitics in the 21st century. | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 16 | Conclusion of the course, reflections on its main themes and preparation for the exam. | Classes | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| Assessment | |||||||||
| Unaided Work: | Final paper. | ||||||||
| Assessment Criteria: | Grading: Performance in seminar discussions: 4 x 15% = 60% Essays: 4 x 5% = 20% Exam: 20% | ||||||||
| Final Examination (Full-Time): | Exam (Written) | ||||||||
| Final Examination (Part-Time): | |||||||||
| Learning Outcomes | |||||||||
| Knowledge: | Students will be able to characterise the principles of relations of world powers at various historical stages. | ||||||||
| Skills: | Students will be able to identify elements, which are necessary for the analysis of various international systems. | ||||||||
| Competencies: | Students will be able to analyse multi-polarity, bipolarity and uni-polarity in the international system from a historic perspective. | ||||||||
| Bibliography | |||||||||
| No. | Reference | ||||||||
| Required Reading | |||||||||
| 1 | A Companion to International History 1900-2001. ed. by Gordon Martel. Oxford: Blackwell, 2007. | ||||||||
