Department of Political Science, University of Delhi

Master of Arts in Political Science

Semester I

PS-C 102: Theories of International Relations

Credits: 5 Duration: 5 hrs./week

Course Objectives:

This course introduces Masters students to diverse traditions of theoretical endeavours in

International Relations theory including explanatory as well as normative paradigms. The course
is designed to provide a thorough background in different schools of International Relations
theory and the debates between them regarding their perspectives on the nature of international
politics and how it is to be conceptualized, understood and judged, bearing in mind their geo-
cultural specificities.

Course Learning Outcomes:

Towards the end of the course, the students shall have acquired a grounding in the academic
debates and research literature in the field of international relations (IR), and understood how to
apply key theories and concepts of IR to global and regional issues. The students would gain
knowledge of significant developments in contemporary international relations, and would
develop practical skills relevant to a career in international affairs, including in academia, research
think-tanks, international organisations, government, media and NGOs.

Contents:

Unit I: Introduction
a. Evolution of the Discipline
b. The Great Debates

Unit II: Realism: Its Variants and Complements

a. Structural Realism
b. Indian Tradition: Kautilya’s Realpolitik
c. Neo-Realism and the Chinese Tradition
d. Neo-Liberal Institutionalism
e. The English School

Unit III: Alternative Approaches in IR

a. Critical Theory
b. Constructivism
c. Post-Modernism
d. Feminism
e. Neo-Marxism

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 Department of Political Science, University of Delhi

f. Post Colonialism

Unit IV: Non-Western Perspectives in International Relations

a. State
b. Ethics in IR

Unit V: Future Directions in International Relations Theory

a. Problematic of ‘International’
b. The End of IR theory

Suggested Readings:

Unit Wise Reading List

Unit I.a.

Stephen M. Walt, ‘International Relations: One World Many Theories’, Foreign Policy, No. 110,
Spring, 1998, pp. 29-32 and 34-46.

Milja Kurki and Colin White, ‘International Relations and Social Science’, in Tim Dunne, Milja
Kurki and Steve Smith(eds.), International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2013): 14-45.

Scott Burchill and Andrew Linklater, “Introduction”, in Scott Burchill et. al. eds., Theories of
International Relations, New York: St Martin Press, 1996, pp. 67-92.

Martin Hollis and Steve Smith, “The Growth of a Discipline”, in Martin Hollis and Steve Smith,
Explaining and Understanding International Relations, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991, pp. 16-
44.

Unit I.b.

Chris Brown, “Theory and International Relations 1: Past Debates” and “International Relations
Theory Today”, in his book on, Understanding International Relations, New York: Palgrave,
2001, pp. 21-61.

Peter Wilson, “The Myth of the ‘First Great Debate’”, in Tim Dunne, Michael Cox and Ken
Booth, eds., The Eighty Years Crisis: International Relations - 1919-1999, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998, pp. 1-16.

Morton A. Kaplan “The New Great Debate: Traditionalism vs. Science in International
Relations”, in Stephan Chan and Cerwyn Moore, eds., Theories of International Relations, Vol. 1,
Indusland: Sage, 2006, pp. 72- 88.

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