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Superpower, War and Diplomacy: Insight into the History of International Relations
Study Course Description
Course Description Statuss:Approved
Course Description Version:4.00
Study Course Accepted:02.02.2024 12:30:09
| Study Course Information | |||||||||
| Course Code: | PZK_030 | LQF level: | Level 7 | ||||||
| Credit Points: | 5.00 | ECTS: | 7.50 | ||||||
| Branch of Science: | Politics; International 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. | ||||||||
| 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. | Lectures | 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 | 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. The European settlement at the Congress of Vienna. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 5 | Discussion and review of course literature. | Classes | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 6 | The challenge of the consolidation of the "European centre": the great power management of international affairs through the Concert of Europe; methods of ‘classical’ old European diplomacy. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 7 | Discussion and review of course literature. | Classes | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 8 | Origins of the First World War. Advances in military technology during the preceding century of industrialisation and its effects on international affairs. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 9 | 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 | |||||
| 10 | 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 | |||||
| 11 | Discussion and review of course literature. | Classes | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 12 | The politics of U.S.-Soviet bipolarity and the change of the geopolitical landscape in the Cold War period. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 13 | The vocabulary and basic tenets of nuclear strategy. The transition from bipolarity to unipolarity. | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 14 | Discussion and review of course literature. | Classes | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 15 | Student presentations. | Classes | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| Assessment | |||||||||
| Unaided Work: | |||||||||
| Assessment Criteria: | |||||||||
| Final Examination (Full-Time): | Exam (Written) | ||||||||
| Final Examination (Part-Time): | |||||||||
| Learning Outcomes | |||||||||
| Knowledge: | |||||||||
| Skills: | |||||||||
| Competencies: | |||||||||
| Bibliography | |||||||||
| No. | Reference | ||||||||
| Required Reading | |||||||||
| 1 | Keith Hamilton and Richard Langhorne, "The Practice of Diplomacy" | ||||||||
| 2 | Henry Kissinger, "Diplomacy" | ||||||||
| 3 | Michael Howard, "War in European History" | ||||||||
| Additional Reading | |||||||||
| 1 | Peter Paret (ed.) "The Makers of Modern Strategy" | ||||||||
