05515 - History of International Relations

Learning outcomes

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.

Course contents

History of International Relations is a fundamental course of the first cycle degree in 'Scienze Internazionali e Diplomatiche', as for preparing selections for the diplomatic career. The course is shaped according to the "y" organization, which provides the division of the course in two different sections. All activities will be held in presence and the total number of hours for attending students will be 46: 32 hours for the 16 lectures of the teacher and 14 hours for the seminars. The first part of the course, the general one based on 16 lectures, will be aimed at introducing students to the conceptual tools and fundamental historical-diplomatic contents.

The second part, also mandatory for attending students, will be based on 7 seminars and characterized by their active participation. Applying the historical-diplomatic theoretical skills acquired in the first part of the course, students will develop specific soft skills such as panel organization, public presentations, classroom debate. Attending students will be required to sign up on six groups through AlmaEsami and carry out activities for 7 seminars planning their panels and holding their presentations in the classroom. Students will choose from the topics listed below according to the calendar that will be indicated at the beginning of the course and will contact the teacher in advance to organize their work and select their resources.

All attending students will have to read the resources provided in advance by the teacher through the "Virtuale" Unibo platform to follow panel presentations and take part in the debate. The evaluation given by the teacher to the active participation in the seminars, such as presentations and interventions based on preliminary readings, will contribute to the final grade.

 

General Part (32 hours)

I Introduction to History of International Relations

Foreign Policy, War, Diplomacy

Evolution of diplomacy: secret diplomacy, open diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, multilateral diplomacy, public diplomacy, cyber-diplomacy.

Diplomats and consuls, treaties and diplomatic documents

 

II The Concert of Europe and the rise of Extra-European powers

The post-Napoleonic World: Eurocentrism and Balance of Power

The Congress of Vienna, Holy Alliance and Quadruple Alliance, the Diplomacy by Conference

The Crimean War

Diplomatic Issues of Italian Unification: the Great Powers' intervention.

Bismarck: from German national unification to continental hegemony: The Three Emperors and the Triple Alliance.

From the Bismarckian system to William II's Weltpolitik: break of the alliance with Russia and global challenge to Great Britain

Rise of United States and Japan, Russo-Japanese War, the Chinese question: Open Door, Ishii-Lansing Agreement

 

III WWI

The making of Alliances and the European polarization

The Treaty of London,

Sykes-Picot Agreement,

Balfour Declaration.

Lenin and Benedict XV

Wilson's Fourteen Points

 

IV Birth and Failure of Collective Security

Paris Peace Conference: diplomatic clash between Old and New World

Peace treaties and the League of Nations

Russian and German Isolation: Cicerin-Rathenau Agreement

From "Mutilated Victory" to the Treaty of Rapallo.

Reparations and War Debts: Dawes and Young Plans

Treaties of Locarno, German entrance into the League of Nations, Briand-Kellog Pact

The Crisis of 1929, the Manchurian question, Hitler's seizure of power, German remilitarisation.

Mussolini and Hitler: Four-Power-Pact, Conference of Stresa, Anglo-German Gentlemen's Agreement, Ethiopian question, Spanish civil war, Antikomintern Pact, Rome-Berlin Axis.

Appeasement

Anschluss and Munich Conference

Pact of Steel

Ribbentrop-Molotov agreement

 

V WWII

German hegemony and Tripartite Pact,

Atlantic Charter,

United Nations Declaration,

War conferences: Casablanca, Tehran, Moscow, Yalta, Potsdam

VII Bipolar Era and Cold War

The UN and multilateralism

Bretton Woods: new economic international order and American supremacy

 

VI The Cold War

People's democracies, Long Telegram, Containment, Marshall Plan, Berlin Blockade, Mao's China, Korean War, NSC 68, NATO

The foundation of Israel and the first Arab-Israeli War

Stalin and the Warsaw Pact

The Conference of Geneva and the spirit of détente

Bandung Conference, decolonisation, non-alignement

Suez crisis, Cold War and the Middle East, Kruscev and the Eisenhower Doctrine

Cold War and European Integration

Kennedy and the second Berlin crisis

Cuba and the missile crisis

The Break between USSR and PRC

Vietnam War

Six-Day-War

Nixon, Kissinger, Breznev and Détente: nuclear diplomacy, 1963 agreement, NPT, ABM, SALT, Delcaration on basic principles of U.S.-Soviet Relations, Triangular diplomacy

Yom Kippur War and Oil revolution

Ostpolitik and Helsinki final Act

Second Cold War and the decline of the USSR: Carter doctrine, Euromissiles, Iranian revolution, Occupation of Afghanistan.

Reagan, Gorbachev's reforms, INF Agreement

The collapse of the Soviet block and the end of the USSR

German Reunification

EU and NAO's Enlargements Towards East.

 

Part II: Seminars (14 hours groups)

Introduction: How to plan a seminar?

1) Neutrality and Non-Belligerency: Itally Facing two Wordl Wars. A Comparison

2) Washington Conference of Naval Powers 1921-1922

3) The origins of an alliance: USA and Saudi Arabia at the end of WWII

4) Oil shock in the 1970s

5) The Cyprus Crisis in 1974

6) USA and CSCE

7) Iraq-Iran War 1980-1988

 

Readings/Bibliography

Mandatory sources both for attending and non-attending students: handbooks and a reading of student's choice.

Handbooks:

- L. Monzali, F. Imperato, R. Milano, G. Spagnulo, Storia delle relazioni internazionali (1492-1918), Mondadori Università, Milano 2022: pp. 167-277 and pp. 275-477;

- L. Monzali, F. Imperato, R. Milano, G. Spagnulo, Storia delle relazioni internazionali (1919-2022). Tra Stati nazionali, potenze continentali e organizzazioni sovranazionali, Mondadori Università, Milano 2022: pp. 3-628.

Readings (one of student's choice):

- G. Allison, Destinati alla guerra. Possono l'America e la Cina sfuggire alla trappola di Tucidide? Fazi, Roma 2018;

- S. Baldi, L. Monzali (a cura di), Italia-Helsinki 50. Dall'Atto finale di Helsinki del 1975 all'OSCE di oggi, Editoriale Scientifica, Napoli 2024

- F. Bettanin, La Russia, l'Ucraina e la guerra in Europa, Donzelli, Roma 2022

- M. Bloch, La strana disfatta. Con gli scritti della clandestinità 1942-1944, Res Gestae, Milano 2014

- V. Criscuolo, Il Congresso di Vienna, il Mulino, Bologna 2015

- H.A. Kissinger, Leadership. Sei lezioni di strategia globale, Mondadori, Milano 2022;

- L. Mascilli Migliorini, Metternich. L'artefice dell'Europa nata dal Congresso di Vienna, Salerno Editrice, Roma 2014

- L. Monzali, P. Soave (editors), Italy and Libya. From Colonialism to a Special Relationship (1911-2021), Routledge, London-New York 2023

- M. Mugnaini (a cura di), UN System. Temi e problemi di storia internazionale, FrancoAngeli, Milano 2023

- G. Nicolosi, Diplomazia liberale. Istituzioni e uomini dall'Unità alla Repubblica, Luni Editrice, Milano 2023

- V. Pavlovic, Tito. L'artefice della Jugoslavia comunista, Rubbettino, Soveria Mannelli 2023

- B. Pierri, Britain, the US and China’s Anti-Soviet Stance in the Cold War Containment and Trade, 1977-1980, Routledge, London-New York 2024

- L. Riccardi, Yalta. I Tre Grandi e la costruzione di un nuovo ordine internazionale, Rubbettino, Soveria Mannelli 20021;

- M.E. Sarotte, Not one Inch: America, Russia and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate, Yale University Press 2021;

- M. Smith, S. Keukeleire, S. Vanhoonacker (editors), The Diplomatic System of the European Union, Routledge, London and New York 2016

- A. Varsori, Dalla rinascita al declino. Storia internazionale dell'Italia repubblicana, il Mulino, Bologna 2022.

Further sources to read, not included in the exam programme:

Attending students:

- preparatory readings for seminars will be available in advance on Virtuale.unibo.it.

Attending and non-attending students:

- any additional reading, always not included in the exam programme, will be uploaded on Virtuale.unibo.it [https://virtuale.unibo.it/]

Teaching methods

The general section of the course (32 hours) will be based on lectures aimed at introducing students to the discipline, its conceptual categories and main themes as theoretical premises of historical reasoning applied to the foreign policies of international actors. The focus will be on diplomacy, its articulation and its evolution, as a prevailing practice and cultural pillar of international relations.The seminar section of the course (14 hours for each in presence - group) will stimulate students to apply knowledge and historical reasoning to specific case studies introduced with study resources. Students will be able to exercise soft skills such as the organization of presentations and panels, as well as the debate in the classroom by the lead of the teacher.

Assessment methods

Students who regularly attend the lessons (the teacher will take the signatures) will take three intermediate written tests on dates that will be communicated at the beginning of the course. Each test will focus on a specific part of the program. Indications on the parts of the program to be studied for each test will be given in time by the teacher. The tests will be based on open and closed questions aimed at stimulating the student's historical reasoning skills and probing the acquired preparation. The evaluation of the tests will be expressed in thirtieths. In case of insufficient grade or absence from a test (always to be justified by informing the teacher in time), the student will have to recover in the final oral exam. The grade of a test can be refused, but it is strongly recommended to evaluate such an opportunity only after all the written tests. Also in this case the recovery of the test will be held orally on the occasion of the final exam. For students who have passed all the tests and do not intend to refuse a grade, the final exam will be based on a few questions aimed at testing the theoretical reasoning skills, without the repetition of the specific questions already addressed in the tests, as well as in the discussion of the reading. Students are invited to present a critical appraisal of the reading, not just a summary. The final grade will be determined by the arithmetic mean between the mean of the three tests and the final oral exam. Active participation in the seminars, with presentations and repeated, meaningful interventions in the debates, will contribute to the final vote for attending students with an increase of 1 or 2 points.

Non-attending students will take the exam in a single oral test on the whole program, included the reading.

Students have the right to refuse the final mark only once.

Teaching tools

The teacher will deliver a few resources available on Virtuale.unibo.it [https://virtuale.unibo.it/].

Office hours

See the website of Paolo Soave

See the website of Bruno Pierri

See the website of