HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

The course provides students with elements of advanced knowledge in International History (events, agents, structures, processes, concepts, methods of inquiry and theoretical foundations). It also provides students with a global approach to subjects that will be analyzed from regional or thematic perspectives in the courses offered in each of the RIC's paths. As a course taught entirely in English, it provides students with the possibility to become confident with their language skills in the field of international relations. The course, whose readings are based on a selected bibliography from various sources, will allow students to learn to prepare a bibliography on international history subjects. By putting an emphasis on the historical method of inquiry, the course will provide students with the capacity to analyze events and processes in the international realm, and to develop original and well-founded interpretations about them, beyond the specific object of the course itself. All the above combined will provide students with historical consciousness about international events and processes, which can be understood as a basic element of the RIC's overall objectives.

At the end of the course, students will be able to:
a) manage confidently the main events and concepts pertaining to the history of the international political economy from the 1970s to the present, including issues such as international debt "crises", the evolution of the international monetary system from Bretton Woods to the present, and the relationship between these and major diplomatic and military events of the period;
b) display a confident knowledge of the most updated literature on the subject, including the ability to critically compare diverging views and approaches;
c) read and interpret original diplomatic documents, and to make use of such ability in the preparation of their own research projects;
d) communicate their work and research in English and take part in a debate about these topics;
e) consolidate their competence in the field of international history in an autonomous and self-organized manner.

As an advanced course in History of international relations, the course requires a sound knowledge of basic facts and processes of the international history of the 20th century. As terms of reference, "basic facts and processes of the international history of the 20th century" can be found in the textbooks listed below. Students who realize they do not possess the requested basic knowledge can follow the class, but are kindly invited to catch up with the basics before taking the exam.

Ennio Di Nolfo, Dagli imperi militari agli imperi tecnologici, Laterza, 2007 (or later editions)
Guido Formigoni, Storia della politica internazionale nell'età contemporanea, Il Mulino (2006 or later editions)
Antonio Varsori, Storia Internazionale, Il Mulino, 2014
Anthony Best et al., Storia delle relazioni internazionali, UTET, 2013
William Keylor, "A world of nations", Oxford University Press, 2009 (or later editions)
Anthony Best et. al, International History, Routledge, 2008 (or later editions)
John W. Young and John Kent, International Relations Since 1945, OUP, 2013 (or later editions)
Jean-Baptiste Duroselle and André Kaspi, Histoire des relations internationales de 1945 à nos jours, Armand Colin, 2017

Of course, the most complete textbook on the subject remains Ennio Di Nolfo, Storia delle relazioni internazionali, Laterza, 2008 (or later editions)

The course will focus on the concept of hegemony and dominance in the international system in the 1970s and 1980s, and on the interactions between U.S. financial and military power in the making of the present world (dis-)order. It will deal with issues such as the end of Bretton Woods, US and Soviet foreign policies, Third World politics, the "oil crises" of the 1970s, the rise of international finance, and the "debt crisis" of the 1980s". A detailed program will be provided at the beginning of the course to facilitate the possibility for students to plan their studying activities week-by-week, and will be uploaded in the moodle page of the course: https://moodle.unive.it/course/view.php?id=2087 .

Students who regularly attend the class can prepare the exam on the class notes, on the class slides that will be made available at the end of the course on the moodle page of the class (at https://moodle.unive.it/course/view.php?id=2087 ), and on the study material listed below.

Charles Maier, "Among Empires", 2007, pp. 228-284
Philip Golub, "Power, profit and prestige", 2010, pp. 63-103
Daniel Sargent, "The US and globalization in the 1970s", 2010, pp. 45-65
Peter Gowan, "The Global Gamble", 1999, pp. 19-38
Giovanni Arrighi, “The world economy and the Cold War, 1970-90”, 2010, pp. 23-44
Giuliano Garavini, “From Boumedienomics to Reaganomics”, 2015, pp. 79-92
William Glenn-Gray, “Learning to Recycle”, 2016, pp. 172-192
David Spiro, "The hidden hand of American hegemony", 1999, pp. 80-126
Silvio Pons, “The Rise and Fall of Eurocommunism”, 2010, pp. 45-65
Duccio Basosi and Giovanni Bernardini, “The Puerto Rico Summit”, 2008, pp. 256-267
Duccio Basosi, “The European Community and International Reaganomics”, 2013, pp. 133-152
James Boughton, "Silent Revolution", 2001, pp. 266-281
Vijay Prashad, “The darker nations”, 2007, pp. 191-244
Stephen Kotkin, "The Kiss of Debt", 2010, pp. 80-93
Duccio Basosi, “A missing cold war?”, 2011, pp. 208-228

Please note #1: all the readings are available in the Ca' Foscari libraries and will be made available at the beginning of the course in the moodle page of the class: https://moodle.unive.it/course/view.php?id=2087 .

Please note # 2: students who do not attend the class regularly, are invited to add one of the following volumes to the study list:

Duccio Basosi, "Finanza e petrolio", 2012
Daniel Sargent, "A superpower transformed", 2016

The exam is written and oral. The grade is an average of the two parts.

The written exam is a short essay on a question provided by the teacher, asking students to use various parts of the program in the construction of their answers. The written exam is "open notes, open books", that is students may consult their study material and refer to it (provided that they cite it appropriately). It has a duration of three hours. It aims at verifying the preparation of the students on the topics of the course (facts, dates, names, definitions, concepts), their capacity to organize and communicate their knowledge (completeness, synthesis, consistency, clarity, precision) and their ability to link, where pertinent, different themes among those raised by the analysis of the international political political economy of the period 1970s-present. In the written exam the students will have to display their:
a) ability in rendering a coherent picture concerning the main events that have marked the development of international political economy from the 1970s to the present;
b) knowledge of the origins and dynamics of the main historical process of the period under examination (fall of Bretton Woods; post-Bretton Woods negotiations; the "oil crisis" and its consequences; petrodollar recycling; financialization; the North-South dialogue and confrontation; the "second cold war"; the "international debt crisis"; the crisis and fall of the Soviet Union);
c) knowledge of the different interpretations of historical facts in connection with various types of sources available to the historian;
d) ability to make use of the historical categories discussed in the readings and in class;
e) ability to discuss critically the different interpretations of specific events and processes as they result from the program readings;
f) ability to develop their own reflections on the topics of the course.

The oral exam has an average duration of 20 minutes and aims at discussing any critical point emerging from the written exam. If needed, the oral exam can also be the occasion to verify the student's knowledge of the basic facts and concepts of international history.

Please note #1: the inability to locate the specific events discussed in the course in the broader context of the international history of the 20th century (as from the Requirements section above) constitutes a reason for not passing the exam.

Please note #2: Around the 8th week of the course, during the regular class time the teaching activity foresees a non-mandatory written test of the duration of 90 minutes, open to all students, in order to enable students to familiarize with the type of work that will be demanded at the final written exam (same kind of question, same rules). The date of the test will be communicated in advance on the teacher's announcements page. The test will receive a score between 0 and 3 and the score will be added, in case, to the grade obtained in the final exam.

Frontal lectures, with slides and use of multimedia material. The slides will be made available by the teacher in the moodle page of the course (https://moodle.unive.it/course/view.php?id=2087 ), before the end of the course. Questions and debates in class are extremely welcome.

Inglese

1) The teacher is easily available for questions concerning the course at his office hours and by email at duccio.basosi@unive.it. Emails have to be written in a formal style (not "Hi prof." or "Salve prof.", but "Good morning", "Buongiorno", and the likes) and should not ask questions whose answer can be found in the information contained in this syllabus.
2) Ca’ Foscari abides by Italian Law (Law 17/1999; Law 170/2010) regarding support services and accommodation available to students with disabilities. This includes students with mobility, visual, hearing and other disabilities (Law 17/1999), and specific learning impairments (Law 170/2010). If you have a disability or impairment that requires accommodations (i.e., alternate testing, readers, note takers or interpreters) please contact the Disability and Accessibility Offices in Student Services: disabilita@unive.it.

scritto e orale

Questo insegnamento tratta argomenti connessi alla macroarea "Povertà e disuguaglianze" e concorre alla realizzazione dei relativi obiettivi ONU dell'Agenda 2030 per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile