ATS1873: Introduction to International Relations

A few things have changed just since 2013 (mostly in terms of assessment), and since this is now a first semester unit and jaffys will be piling in soon, I thought I might as well write up a second opinion review on Intro to IR.

This is your standard “big picture” first year unit. Each week touches on a different topic in International Relations, ranging from poverty, refugees and humanitarian intervention, to global governance, human rights, globalisation and international political economy, to critical and prescriptive theories of International Relations, and back around to war, arms control, terrorism and security studies.

The unit starts off with a look at what present day International Relations consists of (remember kids: International Relations is the study of international relations). You get a very broad overview of the four subdivisions of IR: “Foreign Policy Analysis”, “International Security Studies”, “Global Governance” and “International Political Economy”, each of which is available to study as a second and third year unit. You’re also provided with an equally broad overview of the most prominent theories in IR: realism, liberalism and constructivism, as well as the critical turn (Marxist, Feminist and Postmodern perspectives on contemporary IR issues). The present historical context of IR is then introduced by way of showing what era we’ve just emerged from – Cold War bipolarity (two great powers: the US and Russia) - contrasted with 21st century unipolarity (one great power: the US). If you’re not interested in the Cold War, I would suggest getting yourself interested in it ASAP, because it is absolutely pivotal to all contemporary discussions in IR. History has always bored me, and I’ve always been crap at geography. But just like a good historian needs to have good geographic intuition (think of a country -> have a good idea about what countries border it), a good IR student needs to have good historical intuition (think of a point in history -> have a good idea of what was going on around that time, and where), because IR is a social science - meaning it’s not really a science, but it likes to dress up like one. Your experiment is the entirety of world history, all evidence for this subject comes from the past, and considering everything from the ancient Greeks to the Libyan intervention is fair game, the more knowledge of history you have, the more compelling an argument you can make - in an essay, in a tute or in a pub argument. The Cold War was utterly unprecedented in world history, and seemed to defy the expectations of conventional accounts of international relations. The way it ended in 1991 was even more exotic and theoretically inexplicable as an historical event. The study of IR has had to adapt to these occurrences with new theories and accounts of the way the world is. So it will pay to give it your full attention early in the unit, because it won't seem too important at a first encounter.

From here on out, as above, the unit just meanders through the academic environment of modern IR scholarship. You get a little bit of knowledge about a lot of things, just enough for you to figure out what turns you on and what doesn’t. If you were keen on the weeks on human rights, IPE and security studies, well, good news! You can study them all in much more depth in later years. And if you found the weeks on development or globalisation boring, you neve have to study them again. Unless they’re a cornerstone. In which case, it sucks to be you. Indonesia also came up a fair bit, particularly in tutes, which was actually quite interesting as a repeat case study in diplomacy, refugees and terrorism.

The last week comes back with a somewhat more comprehensive re-introduction to IR theory, the idea presumably being that you’ll appreciate it more having spent 12 weeks being exposed to nearly everything there is to be studied. It was a good way to round off the unit, seeing as how the only absolutely necessary retained knowledge for future units are the tools of analysis in IR

The unit didn’t suffer too badly from any administrative or organisational faults, and they were, in fact, so minor that only a stressed out pre-exams student would have taken note of them. It can only run more smoothly in 2015 and beyond, so in that sense I certainly think this is a good unit.
That said, I don’t know if I’d recommend this unit to someone looking for an elective that will give them a keener perspective on the way the world around them works. The two Contemporary Worlds units do a good job at that. I loved this unit, but I also love this subject. This is more of a unit tailored for someone looking to major in IR. So in that sense I suppose I’m not really recommending it to anyone but people looking already to major in IR – and if you are majoring in IR, this is a gateway unit. So I guess I’m not recommending it to anyone at all lmao

Dr. Ben Wellings, with guest lecturers Dr. Remy Davison, Dr. Anne McNevin and Dr. Swati Parashar.

Yeah, dating back to the '90s, I believe, but they look nothing like the exam from 2014 onwards.

4 out of 5

Yep, with screen capture

You need to get your hands on a copy of “An Introduction to International Relations”, Devetak et al., 2nd edition.

1 2hr Lecture, 1 1hr Tute

2014, Semester 2

79

•Comparative analysis 15%, 1000 words - two topics were provided and for each topic you were given two different articles covering that topic (this year we got the Syria crisis and nuclear weapons). As it states you had to compare the two articles arguments coming to the conclusion on which one argues the case the best. The sample pieces were provided for guidance which were extremely helpful. The big problem for a lot of people was they wrote their essay like a language analysis in school in that the compared the stylistic approach by the authors. This task doesn’t care what they have used to persuade you but looking at the argument itself and its credibility, what info have they left out etc. This piece helps you quite a bit for the major essay as valuable feedback is provided.
•Major essay 35%, 1500 words – 12 topics were provided one for each week. Topics were pretty straightforward and some a bit open ended allowing you to explore the topic from various angles if you wished.
•Tutorial participation/speech 15% - this was broken up into two parts. Tutorial participation and as the name states no marks were awarded for just showing up. My tutor was always stressing that he is very stingy with these marks and everyone must contribute to the discussion. The second part was a debate topic that you had to present. This involved picking one of the topics from the various weeks and present an argument with a powerpoint presentation arguing your point.
•Exam 35% - 2 hours in the exam period. First part requires you to write an essay on one of three topics. The topics were on the theories we looked – realism, liberalism and wold systems theory/Marxism. Second part is you are given 12 short answer questions in which you write on 6.

•In terms of an introductory unit I thought this subject was brilliant.
•To start with you look at the major theories in world politics such as realism, liberalism, Marxism, world systems theory and all their variants. Next you move onto a new topic for each lecture. We looked at things like security, sovereignty, failed states, nuclear weapons, cold war, nationalism, United Nations, humanitarian intervention, human rights and others. Keep in mind that you spend only 50 minutes on each topic so you don’t look at them in depth but as an overview it was quite good. As a side note a lot of these subjects can be studied in later year such as security studies which is a whole 2nd year unit.
•Because of the array of topics some were more boring than others but there should be something there for everyone.
•In terms of assignments they are pretty standard for an Arts subject. They weren’t overly hard and my tutor provided brilliant feedback which is always good.
•For the tutes I had Justin and I would highly recommend him. The guy is like 25 but he is extremely knowledgeable on a lot of areas and he brought up some brilliant discussions. The discussions in this tutorial were so thought provoking that I actually enjoyed going and everyone was actually willing to provide their own input – something you don’t get in all tutes. I have also heard good things about the other tutors.
•In all a superb subject that was really well organised and run and would recommended it to other people.
•Also if you were wondering knowing and keeping up with world events is always advantageous in just everyday life but it isn’t necessary to do well in this subject.

•Remy Davison is the main lecturer and he is really good. His powerpoints are laden with info but he doesn’t just read off of them. He gives many examples to go with the theory and unlike some other lecturers he generally enjoys what he is talking about. And he cracks jokes at everyone including university.
•Justin Shearer who is one of the tutors takes one of the lecturers and some other guy takes one as well.

Yes all the way back to like the late 90s but only the last few years are relevant as they changed the structure of the exam.

5/5

Yes

there is one recommended but don’t buy, will be a waste of money. It’s good for extra reference but that it just borrow from library if needed.

2 x 1 hour lectures and 1 x 1 hour tutorial per week

2013, Semester 2.

TBA