f Rwanda exploded in civil violence. Nearly one million men, women, and children were killed in a very short time period by their own countrymen. During that time, the international community debated what to do. While everyone agreed that the Rwandan genocide was horrible, countries were unable to cooperate in a meaningful way to stop the killing. Most countries did not want to suffer the costs of intervening in a humanitarian crisis. Rwanda raises a number of questions. Can we as human beings cooperate, when our self-interests are so strong? Can we work together to protect and provide common resources, without a government forcing us to do so? Or, are we so self-interested that cooperation is impossible? We address questions like these by exploring if and how countries cooperate in a world with no government. We study cooperation over a number of international issues, including peace and security, trade and development, and climate change. We conduct a simulation of international climate change negotiations to gain practical insight into the challenge of global cooperation. Finally, we assess and evaluate a number of global problems, including justice for war crimes victims, human rights promotion, and international economic development.
Advanced Seminar in Research Design (Undergraduate) This class introduces advanced undergraduates to the study of social science. As social scientists, we identify puzzling events in politics. We construct logical stories that answer those puzzles. We develop ways to see how valid our stories are, and look for evidence that can help confirm or reject the stories. We identify the holes in the proposed stories and address alternative explanations. Finally, we draw conclusions about how right or wrong our stories are. The objective of the class is for students to start and finish an original research project.
Introduction to International Relations (Graduate) This class introduces the systematic study of international politics. While sometimes the media portrays global events such as terrorist attacks as entirely random events, the fact is that patterns of behavior exist at the international level. Our job is to figure out how we can identify patterns in international relations, propose explanations for those patterns, and discover new patterns of our own. We explore political phenomena such as interstate and civil conflict, the formation and growth of supranational institutions, and conflict management. The class views international politics through the lens of strategic choice. Strategic choice means that international actors are purposive, and their actions are pursued in anticipation of how other actors will behave. Actors have unique interests they want to achieve in international relations, but cannot always achieve their interests because of other actors' preferences and behavior. Moreover, they are constrained by an institutional framework of norms, rules, and international law. It is the combination of interests, interactions, and institutions that produces global politics as we observe it. Strategic choice may seem like a simple and obvious concept, but it is a powerful framework that helps us move away from perceiving international politics as entirely random, and start looking for patterns in behavior.
International Organization (Graduate) Can countries find order in an anarchic world? If so, how? Addressing these questions not only tells us a great deal about global politics, it provides insight into human nature. We ask if human beings can work together to provide collective goods, or if our self-interests are too strong to foster sustained cooperation. This course explores a particular type of cooperation: the constitution of global order and the international organization of states. We investigate various sources of international order, including regimes, institutions, law, and norms. We also explore how states cooperate in a number of issue arenas, such as peace and security, human rights, and environmental issues. By the end of the semester, students are able to explain w