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 in the first-cycle degree in 'Scienze Internazionali e Diplomatiche' and in the public selection for the diplomatic career at MAECI.

The course is "y"-shaped, dividing it into two sections. The course is entirely in-person and includes 40 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars.

The first part of the course comprises 20 lectures and is designed to introduce students to the conceptual tools and fundamental historical-diplomatic content.

The second part, also mandatory for attending students, consists of 5 seminars and is characterised by students' 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 organisation, public presentations, and classroom debate.

Attending students will be required to sign up through Almaesami and be distributed into six balanced groups to promote panels, deliver presentations, and debate the five seminars.

All attending students must read the provided sources in advance via the Virtuale platform to participate in the panels. Active participation in the seminars will be taken into account in the exam grade.

 

General Part (40 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, 21 Questions, Ishii-Lansing Agreement

IV IWW

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

V 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

VI 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

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, 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 (10 hours groups)

Introduction: How to plan a seminar?

1) Eisenhower's Farewell Address

2) The OUA. Birth and development of a Pan-African project

3) The 1972 USSR-Iraq Friendship and Cooperation Agreement

4) The Three Worlds. Deng's Speech at the UN in 1972

5) Japanese defence policy since 1945.

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. 167-247, pp. 280-289, pp. 298-306, pp. 316-330, pp. 337-477;

- 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. 3-71, 76-195, 199-246, 252-327, 338-417, 422-431, 454-478, 486-556, 571-628.

 

Readings (one of the 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

(https://delegazioneosce.esteri.it/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/baldi_monzali_italia_helsinki_50-1.pdf )

- M. Bloch, Apologia della storia. O Mestiere di storico, Feltrinelli, Milano 2024;

- N.J. Cull, Reputational Security, Olivares, Milano 2025;

- E. Di Nolfo, Prima lezione di storia delle relazioni internazionali, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2006;

- H.A. Kissinger, Ordine mondiale, Mondadori, Milano 2025;

- M. Mugnaini (a cura di), ONU 1945-2025. Studi su un sistema globale, FrancoAngeli, Milano 2025;

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

 

Further sources will be available on Virtuale.Unibo.it (https://virtuale.unibo.it/)

Teaching methods

The general section of the course (40 hours) will consist of lectures that introduce students to the discipline, its conceptual categories, and its main historical themes, serving as theoretical premises for historical thinking 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 foundation of international relations.

The seminar section of the course (10 hours a group, 6 groups) will encourage students to apply knowledge and historical thinking to specific case studies, accompanied by study sources. Students will be able to exercise soft skills such as organising presentations and panels, as well as debating in the classroom under the teacher's guidance.

Active participation in the seminars will be evaluated and will contribute to the final grade.

Assessment methods

Students who regularly attend the lessons (attendance will be monitored) will take three intermediate written tests, the dates of which will be communicated at the beginning of the course. Each test will focus on a specific part of the program. Indications of which parts of the program to study for each test will be provided in time via Virtuale. The tests will be based on open- and closed-questions to assess the students' historical thinking skills and preparation. The evaluation of the tests will be expressed in thirtieths.

As reported in the L SID teaching organisation, it is possible to recover a test as follows: absence from a test (always to be justified in time), insufficient grade, sufficient but unsatisfactory grade (whether all the grades are sufficient).

The recovery of a test will be held orally on the occasion of the final exam, only on a date of the winter session of exams.

Students can refuse once the final grade.

For students who have not test to recover, the final exam will be based on a few questions aimed at testing theoretical thinking skills, without repeating the specific questions already addressed in the tests or 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 of the three test means plus the evaluation of seminars, and the final oral exam. 

Non-attending students will take the exam in a single oral test on the entire programme, including the handbook and the reading.

Teaching tools

Further lectures' sources will be available on Virtuale (https://virtuale.unibo.it/).

Office hours

See the website of Paolo Soave

See the website of Bruno Pierri

See the website of