University of Florida

INR 3502

Spring 2010

 

International Institutions

 

Dr. Samuel Barkin

Office:  221 Anderson Hall

Office Hours:  Tuesdays 3-6pm, Wednesdays 9am-noon, and by appointment

Phone:  x3-2399

Email:  barkin@ufl.edu

 

            The past several decades have seen a proliferation of international and transnational organizations.  Are these organizations merely functional reflections of the dominant international balance of power, or is organization at the international level coming to replace the state as the primary source of governance in the contemporary world?  Are these organizations capable of radically changing the way politics happen at the international level, or are they useful only for managing relations among states in functional issue-areas that are not contentious?  This course will examine the state of the political science literature on international organizations in an attempt to illuminate these questions, and to develop the analytical and research skills necessary to examine both the structures and the roles of specific organizations.

 

            The course will begin by looking at various theories of international organization, asking such questions as what purposes do these organizations serve, why are they created, etc.  This will be followed by an examination of the UN system, and at the other kinds of non-state organizations that populate the world of international relations.  Finally, we will look at a variety of functional issue-areas, and examine both the international institutional structure and the efficacy of existing institutions in dealing with the problems they were created to alleviate.

 

 

Readings

 

Book Ordered for Purchase:

 

Margaret Karns and Karen Mingst, International Organizations:  The Politics and Processes of Global Governance (Lynne Rienner, 2004).

 

Samuel Barkin, International Organization:  Theories and Institutions (Palgrave, 2006)

 

-Other reading will be made available on the web.  These readings will be posted on the online version of this syllabus over the course of the semester.

 

 

Course Requirements

 

Class Participation -- 10%

First Examination -- 30%

Second Examination -- 30%

Research Paper -- 30%

 

Further details on the exams and the paper will be posted on the online version of this syllabus at appropriate times.

 

Class Participation (10%):

 

Students are expected to come to all classes, to pay attention, and to participate actively in class discussions and in various class exercises that will occur from time to time.

 

First Examination (30%):

 

There will an examination held in class on Tuesday, February 16, which will cover theoretical and empirical material discussed in class and in the readings.

 

Second Examination (30%):

 

There will an examination held in class on Tuesday, April 20, which will cover theoretical and empirical material discussed in class and in the readings since the first exam.

 

Research Paper (30%):

 

Each student will write a 3,000-word research paper.  For this paper each student will be expected to apply the analytic tools discussed in class to either a specific empirical issue-area in international governance or a specific international organization or institution.  More explicit instructions will be distributed in due course. 

 

You will be expected to submit a statement of your research question and tentative thesis on Tuesday, February 9, and your working bibliography on Thursday, March 18.  Each submission is worth 10% of the paper credit.

 

Details of the assignment, information on sources and citation, and the statement of policy on plagiarism and academic honesty can be found as links from the online version of the syllabus.

 

The paper is due at the beginning of class on Tuesday, April 13.  Please note that late papers will be accepted, but marked down half a grade for every day late.

 

 

Course Schedule and Readings

 

Week 1 (January 5 and 7): Introduction:  Why Cooperate?

 

Week 2 (January 12 and 14): Anarchy and sovereignty

            -Barkin, introduction and chapters 1 and 2.

            -Karns and Mingst, chapters 1 and 2.

 

Week 3 (January 19 and 21): Regimes and Institutions

            -Barkin, chapters 3 and 4.

            -Karns and Mingst, chapter 3 and 7.

 

Week 4 (January 26 and 28): Compliance and Effectiveness

-Abram Chayes and Antonia Handler Chayes, ÒOn Compliance,Ó International Organization 47(2) (Spring 1993), pp. 175-205.

-George W. Downs, David M. Rocke, and Peter N. Barsoom, ÒIs the Good News About Compliance Good News About Cooperation?Ó International Organization 50(3) (Summer 1996), pp. 379-406.

 

Week 5 (February 2 and 4): The UN System

            -Barkin, chapter 5.

            -Karns and Mingst, chapter 4.

-James Traub, ÒWho Needs the U.N. Security Council?Ó The New York Times Magazine 17 November 2002, pp. 46-51.

 

Week 6 (February 9 and 11): Other Actors

*Research question due on Tuesday the 9th. 

            -Karns and Mingst, chapter 6.

            -Richard Price, ÒReversing the Gun Sights:  Transnational Civil Society Targets Land Mines,Ó  International Organization 52(3) (Summer 1998), pp. 613-644. 

 

Week 7: (February 16 and 18): Exam week 1

*First exam on Tuesday the 16th.

*Note that there is no class on Thursday the 18th.

 

Week 8 (February 23 and 25): International Security

            -Barkin, chapter 6.

            -Karns and Mingst chapter 8.

 

Week 9 (March 2 and 4): Human Rights and Humanitarian Intervention

            -Barkin, chapter 7.

            -Karns and Mingst, chapter 10.

 

Spring Break!

 

Week 10 (March 16 and 18): International Political Economy

*Working bibliography due Thursday the 18th 

            -Barkin, chapter 8.

            -Karns and Mingst, chapter 9, pp. 355-392.

            -"China Uses Rules on Global Trade to Its Advantage"

 

Week 11 (March 23 and 25): Development

            -Barkin, chapter 9.

            -Karns and Mingst, chapter 9, pp. 392-412.

            -UN Millennium Project, Investing in Development:  A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals Ð Overview (UNDP, 2005), introduction and chapter 1.

 

Week 12 (March 30 and April 1): The Environment

*Note that there is no class on Tuesday, March 30.

            -Karns and Mingst, chapter 11.

            -Elizabeth DeSombre, Global Environmental Institutions (Routledge, 2005), chapter 2, pp. 7-41.

 

Week 13 (April 6 and 8): Regional Cooperation and Integration

            -Karns and Mingst, chapter 5.

            -Barkin, chapters 10 and 11.

 

Week 14 (April 13 and 15): Conclusions

*Final paper due Tuesday the 13th 

            -Barkin, chapter12.

            -Karns and Mingst, chapter 12.

 

Week 15 (April 20): Exam Week 2

*Second exam on Tuesday the 20th