GOV 355M World War I in Real Time
Prerequisites:
None
Course description:
This course follows events in the opening months of the First World War, which broke out in August 1914, exactly one hundred years after the outbreak of war. Each week, we will follow events as they happened a century before, beginning with the causes of the war in the July Crisis of 1914, the initial campaigns on the Western and Eastern Fronts, the disaster at Gallipoli, and the expansion of the war around the world through 1915. We will engage modern, cutting edge theories and evidence about the origins and conduct of war to shed new light on why "the seminal tragedy of modern times" occurred when it did and on what we can learn from it in the present.
Grading policy:
Students will be graded on three exams, occasional quizzes and impromptu writing assignments, as well as a brief analysis paper.
Texts:
- Hastings, Max. 2013. Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War. Knopf.
- Philpott, William. 2014. War of Attrition: Fighting the First World War. Overlook.
GOV 388L.7 Theory & International Relations
Prerequisites:
Graduate standing in Government; Introduction to Formal Political Analysis
Course description:
This is an applied formal theory course focused specifically on theories of international relations. Students will engage both foundational and cutting edge formal models in the areas of international security, international political economy, and international institutions. Key components of the course include reading and deconstructing models, solving and interpreting one’s own models (developed in the course), and establishing linkages between theoretical and empirical models.
Grading policy:
Students will be graded on the basis of several replications of individual models and a final paper based on a fully-solved and interpreted theoretical model.
Texts:
- Wolford, Scott. 2015. The Politics of Military Coalitions. Cambridge University Press.
- Morrow, James D. 2014. Order Within Anarchy. Cambridge University Press.