88080 - HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

The course in History of International Relations is aimed at understanding the evolution of the international scenario from the Congress of Vienna to the breakdown of USSR. Students will be able to manage historical diplomatic case-studies and analyze new crisis for an autonomous comprehension. History of International Relations is a basic course of international studies and for diplomacy.

Contenuti

The course is made up 50 hours of frontal lectures (including two intermediate written tests) and aims at introducing students to the core tenets of the discipline, as well as to its conceptual tools, from the Congress of Vienna to the breakdown of USSR and the XXI century multilateral world. All these lectures also aim at providing occasions for in-depth discussions of class materials, such as documents and maps. Students’ active participation is welcomed, in order to implement and develop specific cross skills. Course sessions and written tests will be held on site and students will work on paper, since computers will not be allowed during the intermediate exams. The professor will give necessary information over the teaching period. Specific materials to ease study and better follow lectures will be available on Virtuale platform at the beginning of the course.

Lecture topics:

I Introduction to History of International Relations

II The Concert of Europe and the German Rise to Power

III From the Bismarckian System to William II’s Weltpolitik

IV European Colonialism, Imperialism and the Emerging of Extra-European Actors.

V The Diplomacy of the First World War

VI The Crisis of 1929, the Manchurian Question and Hitler’s Seizure of Power.

VII The Road to the Second World War and Conflict Diplomacy

VIII The Bipolar Era and the Cold War

IX The Middle East

X Decolonisation and Non-alignment: The Year of Africa

XI The Break between the USSR and the PRC, Vietnam and the Nixon Doctrine

XII Energy Questions and the Oil Revolution

XIII The Second Cold War and the Collapse of the USSR

XIV Human Rights, Southern Africa and Minority Regimes

XV Post-Mao China

XVI The Post-bipolar World: Multilateralism, and the Belt and Road Initiative

XVII Environment Issues and Arctic Governance

Testi/Bibliografia

All the following materials are mandatory for everyone, both attending and non-attending students

Handbook:

- "International History of the Twentieth Century and Beyond (Third Edition)", Antony Best, Jussi M. Hanhimäki, Joseph A. Maiolo and Kirsten E. Schulze, Routledge, London and New York 2015, also available with online sources (https://www.routledge.com/International-History-of-the-Twentieth-Century-and-Beyond-3rd-Edition/Best-Hanhimaki-Maiolo-Schulze/p/book/9780415656429 ).

As far as XIX century issues are concerned, no handbook is scheduled. Students will study on their own notes taken during the course, as well as the slides uploaded on Virtuale.

- Online sources and Teacher’s slides available on Virtuale.unibo.it [https://virtuale.unibo.it/]

- One of the following readings, both attending and non attending students

- Niall Ferguson, Empire. How Britain Made the Modern World, Penguin, London 2003

- J. Donald Hughes, The Face of the Earth, Environment and World History, Routledge, London and New York 2000

- Paul Kennedy, Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, Vintage Books, New York 1987

- Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy, Simon and Schuster, New York 1994

- Peter N. Stearns, Human Rights in World History, Routledge, London-New York, 2012

- Walter L. Hixson, American Foreign Relations: A New Diplomatic History, Routledge, London, New York, 2016

- Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War, Third World Interventions and the Making
of Our Times, Cambridge University Press, 2007

- Graham Allison, Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; First Edition, 2017)

- L. Monzali, P. Soave (editors), Italy and the Middle East. Geopolitics, Dialogue and Power during the Cold War, Tauris, London 2021

- M. Smith, S. Keukeleire, S. Vanhoonacker (Eds.), The Diplomatic System of the European Union: Evolution, Change and Challenges, Routledge, London-New York, 2016

Metodi didattici

The course will be based on lectures aimed at introducing students to the main diplomatic international issues and their historical assessment, especially focusing on diplomatic activities and the evolution of the international order in the last two centuries. Attention will be focused on the analysis of geographical maps and global history records, such as American and British documents, as well as African, Chinese, Russian sources, with the purpose to study several questions from different points of view. Students will be requested to develop specific skills, such as debating on cross issues.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

Regularly attending students (the professor reserves his right to collect signatures on the spot) will be evaluated twice with written intermediate tests, the first one probably in early November on the first part of the course, the other one at the end of the course on the rest of the syllabus. The exact dates will be set as soon as possible. Specific instructions on what to study before each test will be given by the professor. The tests will be based on some open questions stimulating the students’ skills in historical thinking. Candidates are requested to write down seven-ten lines for each answer. Written tests will be held on site and students will work on paper, since computers will not be allowed. The professor will give necessary information over the teaching period.

The grade will have an 18/30 range. In case of insufficient mark, or absence at any of the tests (always to justify), this will be made up at the final oral exam, during which the student will be assessed on the part of the programme which was not positive at the written test. The students have the right to refuse the mark of one test, but they are kindly advised to decide this after having done all tests. Also in this case, the recovery of the written exam will take place orally during the final exam.

As concerns students passing all intermediate tests, the final exam will consist in a few questions aimed at assessing history reasoning skills, as well as the discussion and critical thinking, not a simple summary, of the book chosen by the students, without contents questions already faced during the written tests.

The final grade will be the outcome of the mean between the mean of the written tests and the final oral mark. Students have the right to refuse the final mark.

Non attending students will take the exam in a single oral test on the whole programme, included the reading at their choosing. Students have the right to refuse the final mark.

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

The handbook offers some interactive sources (https://www.routledge.com/International-History-of-the-Twentieth-Century-and-Beyond/Best-Hanhimaki-Maiolo-Schulze/p/book/9780415656429 ). The professor will deliver some sources and slides, available on Virtuale.unibo.it [https://virtuale.unibo.it/], in order to integrate and summarize the programme

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Bruno Pierri