International Order in Crisis

Instructor: Marzenna james

This practicum will deal with the critical challenges to the international order in the 20th and 21st centuries. Given that Europe has experienced many crises, the introduction will focus on the examples of research about European politics, but students can focus on a key development in international relations anywhere in the world. 

This practicum will encourage students to explore causal questions in many possible contexts, for example, in research about the mechanisms and problems of multilateral cooperation between the United States and Europe, and between countries within Europe; the impact of the war in Ukraine, Brexit, or the Greek debt crisis on the viability of the European Union as an economic and political unit in international relations; the effectiveness of international economic sanctions that were adopted following Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, in containing the war with Ukraine, or in diminishing the risks of escalation of the conflict in the Middle East.

The goal of the practicum is to initiate the students into the process of independent research in the field of international relations (as opposed to the field of political theory) and to understand its underlying logic. The main emphasis will be on the basic methodological foundations upon which students will design their own research projects.