POL 2520 -- Intro to World Politics

 

“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.” John Adams

 

“I would rather understand a single cause than be king of Persia.” Democritus of Abder

 

 

There are fundamental forces at work every day in the international system, movements that have a tremendous impact on our daily lives.  Security and trade deeply affect issues ranging from military expenditures to third world development.  Unfortunately, public knowledge of these matters remains minimal.  A sophisticated understanding of these complex issues is often limited by ignorance of the work performed by professional scholars.  All too frequently, influential commentators offer untempered opinions, visceral statements that reflect little grounding in the academic literature.  Critically, the public is often too ill-informed to reject such claims.  POLI 2520 aims to rectify this predicament by providing a thorough overview of the knowledge and understanding that the field of international relations (IR) has accumulated by the early 21st Century.

 

Course Documents

 

Pol 2520 - World Politics Syllabus - Summer 2012.doc

 

Pol 2520 Review Slides.pptx 

 

Lecture 2b - Lecture 2b - Assignments & Writing.ppt

 

Conference Paper Proposal.doc

 

IR Weblinks 

 

Political Science Career Websites

 

Prospective Research Sources

 

Sources of Student Funding