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Lecture notes of the course Introduction to International Relations

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Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)

This document contains notes of all the lectures of the course Introduction to International Relations, taught at the UvA. It is needed for the exams, which I passed with an overall grade of 8.4. Good luck.

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political science
politicologie
theory of ir
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introduction to international relations

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Lecture 1 - 31/10
What is ‘International Relations’? A Primer on the history of IR (H1+2)

What a time to study IR:
- Never been so peaceful and little hunger around the world, despite all the wars
(Israel/Palestina and Ukraine/Russia)
- Coup d’etats in Africa (Niger, Mali), indirectly related to the war in Ukraine (see Nos
op 3 YT)
- Global reshifting of power balance, especially in the Global South
- Everything (in IR) is related and connected, which makes it difficult to grasp on
everything that is going on

Part 1 - What is ‘IR’?
IR as a practice
- International diplomacy
- Political leaders meeting
- Country meetings in which leaders and diplomats get together to try and deal with
challenges (e.g. G7 Hiroshima Summit 2023)
- United Nations
- European Union = weird one, as it has no legislative state or parliament. But has lots
of influence in the EU member countries
But, this is also IR…
- Non-governmental organizations = e.g. ships that patrol the Mediterranean Sea to
search for migrant-boats
- Multinational corporations and their growing influence = e.g. Shell
- Outsource of labour in the Global South due to globalizations and the subsequent
bad labour conditions
- (Transnational) Social movements = e.g. BLM

*** IR as a science, a definition of International Relations: ***
‘IR studies the relations between, beyond and across states. As such it is engaged with
world affairs and tries to theorise the complex phenomenon of global politics. It goes beyond
the exclusive domain of nation states and includes non-states actors such as (social)
movements, corporations, and advocacy groups. International Relations increasingly tries to
include the challenges of today’s world such as human development, terrorism, (gender)
inequality, and climate change.’
- Interactions = between, beyond and across states
- Various types of actors = (social) movements, corporations, advocacy groups
- Various levels of analysis
- Transnational challenges = human rights, climate changes, etc. The need for
countries to face these challenges together is enormous

Object of study of IR
- Political, economic and social issues of which character, causes and consequences
exceed and transcend national borders
- How do these issues impact:
● Relations between states?
● Relations between state, inter-state and non-state actors?

, - Interactions between levels of collectivity → decision-making

Part 2 - A very short history of modern IR
- Present international state system = product of European civilisation in the Middle
Ages, because Europe happened to be dominant in the world at that time
- Before Europe’s dominance = various other civilisations, e.g. Arabs till 750, China,
Japan, Aztecs, Incas, African kingdoms (Ghana)

Europe around 1500
- Italian city states
- Hanseatic League (Hanzesteden) in the North of Europe = cities that cooperated on
certain interests, trade routes, etc.
- Feudal areas → authoritarian kingdoms (France, Britain)
- Emergence of modern (mercenary) armies
- Beginning of great ‘voyages of discovery’ (Columbus, Vasco de Gama, etc.) and the
beginning of Europe’s borders and globalization

*** Peace of Westphalia (1648) ***
- Ends the Thirty Years’ War and Eighty Years’ War
- The first big peace treaty = ‘birth certificate of IR’
- Formalises fundamental principles of that are still used in modern IR:
● Sovereignty
● Territorial integrity
● Non-intervention
● Cuius regio, eius religio (Augsburg 1555)
- Was Westphalia really the beginning of modern IR? Needs to be relativated, not
everything is still used as it was in 1648. And it can be seen as eurocentric that IR
was ‘born’ in here
- Theory vs practice = e.g. 1672 (Rampjaar in the Dutch Republic), there was no actual
authority to control the overeengekomen afspraken

18th century
- Rise of the UK, Russia and Prussia
- American and French Revolutions = for the first time power didn’t come from a king
or in the name of god, but it came from below. Power needed to be justified by the
people

19th century
- Napoleonic Wars
- Congress of Vienna 1815:
● ‘Concert of Europe’ = searching for peaceful solutions between Russia,
Prussia, UK, Austria and France
● Based on the ‘balance of power’ (machtsvacuum) in Europe = the ambitions
between each great power is restrained by the others
- Outside of Europe = British hegemony

,End of 19th century
- Erosion of British hegemony = other states were able to pick up new (industrial)
innovations quicker then Britain
- Bismarck unites Germany = shakes up the ‘balance of power’
- Rise of US, Italy and Japan
- Practice of colonialism/imperialism:
● Scramble for Africa at the Berlin Conference in 1884-1885
● Bismarck said: ‘My map of Africa is in Europe’
● Relations between states get tense as a result
This all culminates in World War I = ends century of relatively peaceful relations in Europe

The Interwar period
Treaty of Versailles (1919)
- Wilson’s ‘Fourteen points’
- League of Nations = an attack on one member state is considered an attack on all,
just like the NAVO
- Germany severely punished = big crisis as a result, provides the basis of the rise of
Hitler
Interbellum (1918-1939)
→ Great Depression (beurskrach 1929) → bigger crisis in Germany, Hitler comes to power in
1933 → World War II (1939-1945) → establishments of United Nations in 1945 → Cold War

Cold War (1947-1991)
- Bipolar world order
- Proxy wars = both sides of the conflict were supported by Russia or the US, but no
direct confrontations between these powers
- Decolonisation

Unipolar moment (1991-2001)
- Great optimism in the West
- Fukuyama = ‘end of history/development of humankind with the rise of capitalism’
- US only remaining ‘superpower’
- Still a lot of important conflict which consequences can be felt today = Gulf War 1991,
Rwanda 1994, Yugoslavia 1991-1999
- Intensifying ‘globalisation’ through Internet

After 9/11
- Transnational terrorism = first time a terrorist organisation is able to attack a global
power in the heart
- Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, Gaza
- Rise of new regional powers = Russia and China (BRICS-countries)
- Economic and financial crisis in the West which leads to decreased confidence to the
‘western way of life’ = challenges to liberal multilateralism:
● Rise of populism and authoritarian politics
● International migration
● Climate change
- World order in 2023 = messy kind of order with a lot of transnational challenge
Part 3 - IR as a field of study

, Important individual thinkers:
- Thucydides = one of the founding fathers of the doctrine of realism in IR
- Niccolo Machiavelli = realist thinker
- Immanuel Kant = one of the founding fathers of the doctrine of liberalism
IR as a form of study/science only developed in the 1920s

Practice vs Theory: 1918-1938
IR as a practice
- Wilson’s ‘Fourteen Points’
- Treaty of Versailles
- League of Nations
- Increasing free trade (until 1929)
- Idealistic politics = progress through agreements and cooperation
IR as a science:
- Close to international law, and practice of diplomacy
- Belief in progress, makeability
- Focus on making and promoting ‘rules of the game’ (idealist politics)

Practice vs Theory: 1938-1978
IR as a practice:
- Great Depression, WWII, Cold War
- Renewed optimism/ idealism after WWII, soon superseded by Cold War
- Decolonisation
IR as a science:
- E.H. Carr, Twenty Years’ Crisis (1939) = criticism of utopian-idealistic framework;
‘distinguish is from ought’
- Hans Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations (1948) = basic principles of Realism

Practice vs Theory: 1980s
IR as a practice
- Continued Cold War, bipolar structure
In the late 1980s increasing criticism of
- Nuclear arms race
- Demonisations of communists
- Consumer society, environmental contamination
- Authority
IR as a science
- Structural/Neorealism (Waltz)
- Neoliberal Institutionalism (Keohane, Nye)
In the late 1980s increasing criticism of
- What is ‘the national interest’?
- What is ‘development’?
- Does IR science legitimate the status quo?
- Should IR scholars be problem-solvers or critics of ‘the system’ (Cox)?
- Rise of critical theories = constructivism, post-positivism

Practice vs Theory: since the 1990s

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