POWER SHIFT: THE DECLINE OF THE WEST, THE RISE OF THE BRICS, AND WORLD ORDER IN A NEW ASIAN CENTURY (IR201) Course duration: 54 hours lecture and class time (Over three weeks) Summer School Programme Area: International Relations, Government and Society LSE Teaching Department: Department of International Relations Lead Faculty: Professor Michael Cox (Dept. of International Relations) Pre-requisites: At least one introductory course in either social science (e.g. political science, international relations, sociology, economics), history, law or any other cognate subject in the Arts or Humanities.
Course Outline: At the beginning of the 21st century the world stood on the cusp of what most experts assumed would be a golden age of international peace and global prosperity guaranteed by American power and underwritten by an ever-expanding world market dominated by the West. But 9/11 and the financial crisis of 2008 followed, leaving – or so many pundits insisted - the United States in decline, Europe in tatters, and the balance of power rapidly shifting southwards towards the ‘rest’ and eastwards towards Asia and China, or more generally towards the BRICS. A very different kind of world now beckoned – one more balanced and fair perhaps, according to Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs, who coined the term BRICs to characterise the emerging order; but 1 less under the control of the West.
Many pundits even began to talk of a new world disorder in the making. Certainly, with tensions increasing between Russia and the West, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, an apparently insoluble crisis in Europe, and new uncertainties arising from BREXIT in the UK and the election of Donald Trump in the United States, it did appear as if the international system was fast becoming a much less stable place. Some even wondered whether the liberal order itself was now under threat.
But how have all these major changes come about? What has been their impact on international affairs? And where is the world heading? These are at least three of the big questions we will be seeking to answer in this intensive three-week programme.
The course is designed with several different audiences in mind: undergraduate students looking for an expert guide through contemporary international issues; policy-makers at all levels seeking an in-depth survey of the main challenges facing the world today; those from any of the major social science disciplines who take the ‘global’ seriously; members of international organisations and NGOs; and anybody with a keen interest in international affairs who wishes to deepen his or her understanding of world issues.
Course content is subject to change. Last updated: December 2017
Instruction will comprise daily lectures and seminars. There will be five lectures in week one, five lectures in week two, and two lectures in week three. There will be a revision day in the third week. Professor Michael Cox is joined by guest lectures from noted LSE experts, including Professor Margot Light, Dr Nicholas Kitchen, and Dr Luca Tardelli.
Course Overview - Session 1: Global War and the Crisis of the 20th Century - Session 2: Revolution in the making of the 20th Century: the rise and fall of the USSR - Session 3: The New American Empire: from Clinton to Trump - Session 4: Europe: from superpower to global irrelevance? - Session 5: Globalisation under threat? After the 2008 Crisis - Session 6: The West under threat? Towards an Asian Century - Session 7: The West under threat? Towards a BRIC world? - Session 8: BRIC I: Will China rule the World? - Session 9: BRIC II: India: An Emerging Superpower? - Session 10: BRIC III: A New Cold War? Putin’s Russia and the West (Margot Light) - Session 11: Zone of Turmoil: The Middle East – From Arab Spring to the Rise of ISIS (Luca Tardelli) - Session 12: The End of Power? Diffusion, Resistance, and a World Without Superpowers (Nicholas Kitchen)
2 Course Texts - J. Baylis, S. Smith & P. Owens (eds), The Globalisation of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations, 6th edition, OUP (2013).
Course Structure: Lecture: 36 hours Classes: 18 hours
Assessment - Formative Essay-planning exercise (in class Week 1; unassessed) - Assessed Mid-Session Essay (worth 50% of overall grade). Due Friday of week 2, results returned on Monday of week 3. - Assessed Final Exam (worth 50% of overall grade). Friday of week 3 (time and location to be confirmed during week 2), final overall results will be reported within a week of the exam. The precise time and location of the exam will be circulated during the programme.
Course content is subject to change. Last updated: December 2017
Session 1: Global War and the Crisis of the 20th Century In his classic study, ‘War and Change in World Politics’, Robert Gilpin drew our attention to the simple but important fact that when states develop the power to change the system according to their interests they will strive to do so – and have more often than not done so through war. This has been especially true in the 20th century when not one, but three, great ‘wars’ have not only led to an enormous loss of life – well over 100 million – but to massive power shifts and changes in the balance of power too. Required reading - Jay Winter, ‘How the Great War shaped the World’. The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/08/how-the-great-war-shaped-the- world/373468/ - Ian Kershaw, ‘War and Political Violence in Twentieth-Century Europe’. Contemporary European History, 14, 1 (2005), pp. 107-123. http://users.clas.ufl.edu/gesenwei/violence20thcentury.pdf - Drew Gilpin Faust, ‘Two Wars and the Long Twentieth Century’, The New Yorker, March 13, 2015 http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/two-wars-and-the-long-twentieth-century Videos - MAP: BBC World War One: The global conflict that defined a century: http://www.bbc.co.uk/timelines/zqbhn39 - The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century. BBC. 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=- 3 bb-xWX0qlk - THE COLD WAR – PART 1: From World War to Cold War. 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpYCplyBknI
Session 2: Revolution in the making of the 20th Century: the rise and fall of the USSR In his book ‘Revolution and World Politics: The Rise and Fall of the Sixth Great Power’, Fred Halliday makes the important point that IR as a discipline has been less interested in the subject of revolutions than either history or sociology. But if we are to understand the twentieth century it is not only war we have to look at. We also have to examine the extraordinary impact which revolutions have had – most notably the Russian revolution and the Soviet state which emerged as a result of that upheaval in 1917. Regarded as a major threat to the West for seventy years, in the late 1980s the Soviet system of power began to crumble, finally collapsing completely in 1991. And with its unexpected collapse a very new kind of world order beckoned. But what caused this massive change to happen? Why did we not predict it? Which IR theory explains it best? Required reading - Michael Cox, ‘Why Did We Get the End of the Cold War Wrong?’, The British Journal of Politics & International Relations 11, No. 2 (May 1, 2009): pp. 161-176. - Michael Cox, ‘Ronald Reagan and the End of the Cold War: The Debate Continues’.
Course content is subject to change. Last updated: December 2017
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/age-reagan/essays/ronald-reagan-and-end-cold-war- debate-continues - Stephen G. Brooks and William C. Wohlforth, ‘Power Globalization, and the End of the Cold War: Re- evaluating a Landmark Case for Ideas’, International Security, 25 (3) 2000-2001, 5-53. - Robert D. English, ‘Power, Ideas and New Evidence on the Cold War’s End: a reply to Brooks and Wohlforth’, International Security, 26 (4) 2002, 70-92. Videos - People’s Century – The end of the Cold War. 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqyPrTaCiag - Collapse of USSR – Three days that shook the world in August 1991. 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAPk7z5Yzrw - A New Look Back: Reagan and the End of the Cold War. Youtube. (1 hour 22 minutes). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJPLhVQSnTY - Communism The Collapse. Youtube (51 minutes). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ2NiWvk3pY - ABC – 1990 News reports on the collapse of communism. Youtube. (1 hour 19 minutes). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBZ2i2m3ai0 4 Session 3: The New American Empire: from Clinton to Trump The collapse of the only remaining superpower competitor to the United States by 1991 created structural unipolarity which many assumed would be temporary, though others saw as representing the consolidation of a new global ‘empire’. But what did the overwhelming dominance of the United States mean for the rest of the world; has this dominance endured into the 21st Century; why do many writers today claim the US is in decline? Required reading - Cox, Michael Cox (2007) ‘Still the American Empire’, Political Studies Review, 2007, Vol 5, 1-10. http://raider.mountunion.edu/~GROSSMMO/POL%20270/articles/still%20the%20american%20empire .pdf - Robert S. Singh (2008) ‘The exceptional empire: why the United States will not decline – again’. International Politics 45 (5), pp. 571-593. http://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/2166/ - Kupchan, Charles A. ‘Why America Must Prepare for the End of Dominance’. March 20, 2012, Atlantic Magazine. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/03/the-decline-of-the-west-why- america-must-prepare-for-the-end-of-dominance/254779/ - Patrick Porter, ‘Was Paul Kennedy Right? American Decline 30 Years On’. June 17, 2015. War on the Rocks. http://warontherocks.com/2015/06/was-paul-kennedy-right-american-decline-30-years-on/
Course content is subject to change. Last updated: December 2017
Videos - Fareed Zakaria: The Post-American World. 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG8Fmi1Ys3I - American Decline: Global Power in the 21st Century. LSE 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_Eh_QXuw3A - The Myth of American Decline. Brookings Institution. 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwHY962oI-o - The Post-American World and the Rise of the Rest. (1 hour 28 minutes). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs4zw1O_MYE - American Decline: Global Power in the 21st Century. LSE (6 minutes). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_Eh_QXuw3A - The Myth of American Decline. You Tube (7 minutes). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwHY962oI-o - Joseph Nye on global power shifts. Ted Talk. 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=796LfXwzIUk
Session 4: Europe: from superpower to global irrelevance? The end of the Cold War opened up an exciting new phase in the history of Europe, so much so that by the turn of the millennium a number of writers were beginning to talk confidently of Europe becoming the dominant actor in the 21st century. However, a series of events exposed the European ‘miracle’ to the ultimate stress test. Once lauded as the model for regional economic and political integration, and feted as a new superpower, 5 today the Eurozone, and the European project more widely, seems to be teetering on the verge of collapse. Why did we not foresee this? How did the crisis come about? And can the EU be saved? Required reading - Kristin Archick, ‘The European Union: Current Challenges and Future Prospects’, Congressional Research Service. 2017. https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R44249.pdf - Varoufakis, Yanis (April 2016), ‘Why We Must Save the EU’, The Guardian Long Read. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/05/yanis-varoufakis-why-we-must-save-the-eu - ‘The EU Is on the Verge of Collapse’— An Interview George Soros and Gregor Peter Schmitz. New York Review of Books. February 11, 2016. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/02/11/europe-verge- collapse-interview/ - Timothy Garton Ash, ‘Is Europe Disintegrating?’, The New York Review of Books, January 2017. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/01/19/is-europe-disintegrating/ - Tim Oliver, What impact would a Brexit have on the EU? 2016. http://www.lse.ac.uk/IDEAS/pdf/Dahrendorf-pdf/Dahrendorf-Analysis-Brexit-Tim-Oliver.pdf
Videos - Imperfect Union: The Eurozone in Crisis - Full Episode. Foreign Policy Association. 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpwpIiU-5n0
Course content is subject to change. Last updated: December 2017
- After Brexit: The Battle for Europe. Philip Hunt. 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMQXXCiEQnA - Brexit, Grexit and the future of the EU – UpFront. Interview with former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis. Al Jazeera English. 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqo_McESWlY
Session 5: Globalisation under threat? After the 2008 Crisis The collapse of the old bipolar order between 1989 and 1991 created the conditions for a massive surge of activity across borders, which drew once closed and protected economies into a single integrated global economy. The term used to describe this new economic order was ‘globalisation’. But what was globalisation? Was it new? Who benefitted and who lost out from the new economic order? What impact did the 2008 financial crisis have on globalisation? And is globalisation now in retreat? Required reading - Jean Yves Huwart and Loic Verdier, ‘Economic Globalisation Origins and Consequences’, 2013 http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264111905-en - Globalization Report 2016. Who benefits most from globalization? Bertelsmann Stiftung. https://www.bertelsmann- stiftung.de/fileadmin/files/BSt/Publikationen/GrauePublikationen/NW_Globalization_Report_2016.pdf - Barry Eichengreen, ‘Will globalisation go into reverse? Spinning beyond Brexit’. November 2016. http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/will-globalisation-go-into-reverse-brexit-donald-trump 6 - Globalization: A Brief Overview. IMF, May 2008, http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/ib/2008/053008.htm Videos - Bernie Sanders Grills Alan Greenspan on Globalization and Inequality (5/20/1999). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAL4f0jBIQ0 - CNN - Obama on globalization. 2008. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7owMXrLu2d8 - Globalization. 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oTLyPPrZE4 - Robert Reich, Globaloney, ‘The Dangerous Myths of Globalization’, 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXc_SZz3Cx4 - Economic Globalization: Documentary on the History of Economic Globalization (Full Documentary). 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb5O00tIKZ4 - Donald Trump on Globalization & Free Trade. 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PS1ph7Z5LU - Discussion: Is anti-globalization on the rise? CCTV News. December 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcHzMqLV-vQ
Course content is subject to change. Last updated: December 2017
Session 6: The West under Threat: Towards an Asian Century? The notion that the future belonged to Asia is by no means a new one. Indeed, through the 1980s and early 1990s some writers even talked of an Asian ‘miracle’ – until that is the 1997 Asian crisis undermined these claims almost overnight. But Asia recovered and over the past 15 years it has once again become the focus of a new optimism, with many now insisting that the 21st century is bound to be Asian. But are we being too optimistic about Asia? Can it keep developing? And if it were to do so, would this pose a challenge to the West? Required reading - Asia 2050: Realizing the Asian Century. Asian Development Bank. 2011. http://www.iri.edu.ar/publicaciones_iri/anuario/cd_anuario_2012/Asia/21.pdf - Quah, Danny (2011), ‘The global economy’s shifting centre of gravity’, Global Policy 2.1, 3-9. http://www.dannyquah.com/Quilled/Output/2011.01-Danny.Quah-The-Global-Economys-Shifting- Centre-of-Gravity-j.1758-5899.2010.00066.x.pdf - Cox, Michael (2011), ‘Power shift and the death of the West?: not yet!’, European Political Science, 10 (3). http://www.lse.ac.uk/IDEAS/people/michaelCox/PDF/PowerShift.pdf - The Asian Century: Reality or Hype? 2013. http://www.international-economy.com/TIE_Su13_AsiaCenturySymposium.pdf - Minxin Pei, ‘Think Again: Asia’s Century’, Foreign Policy magazine 2009. http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/06/21/think-again-asias-rise/ - Joshua Kurlantizk ‘The Asian Century: Not Quite Yet’, Current History, January 2011, pp26-31. 7 Videos - Will the 21st Century be Asian? LSE IDEAS. 2015. http://www.lse.ac.uk/IDEAS/EVENTS/events/2015/15-11-02-Will-the-21st-Century-be-Asian.aspx - The Decline of the West in the New Asian Century? LSE IDEAS. 2016. http://www.lse.ac.uk/IDEAS/EVENTS/events/2016/16-10-04-Rachman.aspx - Kishore Mahbubani on The Asian Century: Changing Asia. 2014. https://www.adb.org/news/videos/asian-century - Is This the Asian Century? Chicago Council on Global Affairs. 2017. https://www.thechicagocouncil.org/event/asian-century
Session 7: The West under Threat? Towards a BRIC world? In November 2001 the Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill coined the acronym BRICs to identify those four big economies which would, in his view, become the key drivers of economic growth into the 21st century. The argument caught on, especially in the four countries themselves. Indeed, the four BRICs – Brazil, Russia, India and China – decided to assume the name and create structures of annual meetings as of 2009, in order to transform their emerging economic strength into geopolitical power. The tone of their successive collective statements was to assert the place of the South against that of the North, and especially that of the United States in the world-system. But do the BRICs represent the voice of the South? Are they united by common principles? And how far do they collectively represent a serious challenge to the West?
Course content is subject to change. Last updated: December 2017
Required reading - Robert Lieber, ‘The Rise of the BRICS and American primacy’, International Politics, March 2014, Volume 51, Issue 2, pp 137–154. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/ip.2014.1 - Zaki Laidi, ‘BRICS: Sovereignty power and weakness’, International Politics 49(5), September 2012. http://www.laidi.com/sitedp/sites/default/files/BRICS,%20sovereignty%20power%20and%20weakness .pdf Videos - Empire - BRIC: The new world order. Al Jazeera, English. 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjR1GGP_Vns - Is the New BRICS Bank a Challenge to US Global Financial Power? Youtube (27 Minutes). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tNOekslUYg - 'West scared of BRICS as it has no control over it' - Ex-Indian Foreign Secretary Youtube (25 minutes). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfB8Fbn-TEE - Goldman Sachs, ‘Is This the BRICs decade?’ Global Investment Research, May 2010. http://www2.goldmansachs.com/ideas/brics/brics-decade.html - ‘5 factors limiting the impact of the BRICS nations’ 8 July 2015. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/07/5-factors-limiting-the-impact-of-the-brics-nations/ - ‘Brics’ New World Order Is Now on Hold’. The Wall Street Journal. Davos 2016. http://www.wsj.com/articles/brics-new-world-order-is-now-on-hold-1453240108
8 Session 8: BRIC I: Will China rule the World? The key BRIC country is the PRC (China) where state-led economic growth combined with Communist Party rule and deeper integration into the world economy has transformed one of the world’s most populous countries and lifted millions out of poverty. But how did China achieve this success? What are the implications for the balance of power, peace and security of China’s rise? Can China offer a real alternative to the Western order? And can its rise remain peaceful? Required reading - Schweller, Randall L. and Xiaoyu Pu (2011), ‘After unipolarity: China’s visions of international order in an era of US decline’, International Security 36.1, 41-72. - Mearsheimer, John J. (2010), ‘The gathering storm: China’s challenge to US power in Asia’, The Chinese Journal of International Politics 3.4, 381-396. - Michael Beckley, ‘China’s Century? Why America’s Edge Will Endure’ International Security. Winter 2011- 2012. Vol. 36, 3. 41-78. http://www.belfercenter.org/sites/default/files/files/publication/Chinas_Century.pdf - Wayne M. Morrison, ‘China’s Economic Rise: History, Trends, Challenges, and Implications for the United States’. 2015. https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33534.pdf - A.Kaya, ‘The EU’s China problem: A battle over norms’, International Politics, March 2014, Volume 51, Issue 2, pp 214–233.
Course content is subject to change. Last updated: December 2017
Videos - Linda Yueh, The 21st Century Belongs To China. Oxford Union Debate. 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL7IRGrOotE - China's economic transformation and its global implications - 中国的经济转型 及其在全球格局中的意 义 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGXIzzs1gJI - Why China Will Not Become the Dominant Power in Asia. 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AvNT3vyzr0 - Crouching Tiger: John Mearsheimer on Strangling China & the Inevitability of War. 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXSkY4QKDlA - Why are the United States and China frenemies? CNN. 2015 http://edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/09/15/china-and-united-states-relations-friends-enemies- sciutto-org.cnn - U.S. vs China - What The World Thinks. The Daily Conversation. 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6hpXDwrLj8 - Are China and the US doomed to conflict? Kevin Rudd. Ted Talk. 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XQ1onjXJK0
Session 9: BRIC II: India: An Emerging Superpower? Rapid economic growth has not been confined to China. India, the world’s largest democracy, has seen 9 economic liberalisation generate sustained growth and an expanding middle class, leading some to see India as a new global power. But deep and pervasive fault-lines within Indian society call into doubt India’s superpower aspirations. Is India ready to lead? Required reading - Guha, Ramachandra (2012), ‘Will India Become a Superpower?’, in India, the Next Superpower? LSE IDEAS Special Report. http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/43442/1/India_will%20india%20become%20a%20superpower(lsero).pdf - Mukherjee, Rohan (2014), ‘The False Promise of India’s Soft Power’, Geopolitics, History and International Relations 6.1, 46. http://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/38317015/mukherjee_softpower.pdf?AWSAcces sKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1489177757&Signature=lJGwtOQlu3Q1YTcAMUmMUKuia h8%3D&response-content- disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DThe_False_Promise_of_Indias_Soft_Power.pdf - Pant, Harsh V. (2015), ‘Is India developing a Strategy for Power?’, The Washington Quarterly, 38:4. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/14ca/ac065694edb614f25a1b3e725f839051b881.pdf - Kattumuri, Ruth (13th January 2016), ‘Top 10 Economic and Development Challenges for India in 2016’, South Asia @ LSE Blog. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2016/01/13/5689/
Course content is subject to change. Last updated: December 2017
Videos - India Rising: The New Empire, Business and Indian Economy Growth.2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh4-9Broe4c - Bridging Asia: China or India - Who will be ahead in 2030? Singapore. 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOnqOP_4hhc - China vs India - Race to the Top of the World - Documentary by BBC. 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBzxsCh64xA - India's next decade at the World Economic Forum debate.2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjnTMYnDjfc
Session 10: BRIC III: A New Cold War? Putin’s Russia and the West (Margot Light) Vladimir Putin rose to power with a determination to reverse the humiliation Russia suffered in the 1990s. Fuelled by high oil prices, an increasingly assertive Russia has vigorously sought to defend Russia’s power over its neighbours and push back against Western influence. But although Russia’s renewed claim to great-power status might mask a deeper internal malaise, might it still imply a rekindling of conflict with the West? Are we indeed at the beginning of a new cold war?
Required reading 10 - Sakwa, Richard (2008), ‘”New Cold War” or Twenty Years’ Crisis? Russia and International Politics’, International Affairs. - Allison, Roy (2014), ‘Russian ‘deniable’ intervention in Ukraine: how and why Russia broke the rules’, International Affairs Vol. 90 (6), pp1255-1297. - Trenin, Dmitri (2016), ‘A Five-Year Outlook for Russian Foreign Policy: Demands, Drivers, and Influences’, White Paper, Task Force on U.S. Policy Toward Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, Carnegie Moscow Center: http://carnegie.ru/2016/03/18/five-year-outlook-for-russian-foreign-policy-demands- drivers-and-influences/ivkm Videos - Marvin Kalb on Russia, Ukraine, and the New Cold War. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJaIJ45ehiw - Return to Cold War. Youtube. (1 hour 24 minutes). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-imyocUDM0
Session 11: Zone of Turmoil: The Middle East – From Arab Spring to the Rise of ISIS (Luca Tardelli) Liberal hopes for a democratic revolution in the Middle East precipitated by the Arab Spring have been dashed by the ongoing brutality of the Syrian civil war and the rise of Islamic State. What are the roots of conflict in the region, and are there any prospects for peace? Required reading
Course content is subject to change. Last updated: December 2017
- Anderson, Lisa (2011), ‘Demystifying the Arab Spring: Parsing the Differences between Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya’, Foreign Affairs, 90(3), 2-7. - Grause, Gregory (2014), ‘Beyond Sectarianism: The New Middle East Cold War’, Brookings Doha Center Analysis Paper, Number 11, available at: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2014/07/22-beyond-sectarianism-cold- war-gause/english-pdf.pdf - Gerges, Fawaz (2016), ‘Introduction: Down the Rabbit Hole and Into the History of ISIS’, ISIS: A History, Princeton University Press, 1-22, can be retrieved here: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i10673.pdf
Session 12: The End of Power? Diffusion, Resistance, and a World without Superpowers (Nicholas Kitchen) Amid all the talk of power, American decline, and the rise of the rest, ongoing processes driven by globalisation have increasingly diffused power away from states. Can major states still create and sustain order in a world that’s increasingly resistant to authority, or is the age of the superpowers at an end? Required reading - Barry Buzan, ‘A World without Superpowers: Decentred Globalism’, International Relations, Volume 2, Number 1 (2011) 3-25. - Naim, Moises (2014), ‘The end of power: from boardrooms to battlefields and churches to states, why being in charge isn’t what it used to be’, Basic Books, Chapter 1. 11 - Kupchan, Charles A. (2014), ‘The normative foundations of hegemony and the coming challenge to Pax Americana’, Security Studies, 23.2, 219-257. - Crocker, Chester A. (2015), ‘The strategic dilemma of a world adrift’, Survival 57.1, 7-30. - Buzan, Barry and Lawson, George (2014), ‘Capitalism and the emergent world order’, International Affairs 90.1, 71-91.
Course content is subject to change. Last updated: December 2017
12
Credit Transfer: If you are hoping to earn credit by taking this course, please ensure that you confirm it is eligible for credit transfer well in advance of the start date. Please discuss this directly with your home institution or Study Abroad Advisor. As a guide, our LSE Summer School courses are typically eligible for three or four credits within the US system and 7.5 ECTS in Europe. Different institutions and countries can, and will, vary. You will receive a digital transcript and a printed certificate following your successful completion of the course in order to make arrangements for transfer of credit. If you have any queries, please direct them to [email protected]
Course content is subject to change. Last updated: December 2017