Introduction to International Relations

This course aims, on the one hand, to provide students with a bird’s eye view onto the most important approaches in the interdisciplinary study of international relations. On the other hand, students are familiarised with some of the key topics in IR: war & peace, state vs. non- state actors, the diversity of non-state actors; self-interested vs. moral motivation; essentialism vs. constructivism in the methodology of IR. Readings partly consist of texts aimed at a non-specialist audience, and introduce theoretical issues through some of the most heated public political debates concerning—among other topics—refugees and migrants, terrorism and other forms of irregular warfare, the usefulness of humanitarian interventions and the limits of state sovereignty, and global inequalities in free trade.