Syllabus
Course schedule (2019) 1. Course introduction and requirements (21.2.2019)
Bloc I: Theory 2. Theorizing international cooperation and international organizations – realist, liberal institutionalist and constructivist perspectives (28.2.2019)
Discussion:
Reisman, Michael W., “The United States and international institutions”, Survival 41 (4), 1999: 62-80.
Optional:
Karns, Margaret P. and Karen A. Mingst, International organizations: the politics and processes of global governance (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004). Chapter 2 – “The Theoretical Foundations of Global Governance ”.
Abbot, Kenneth W. and Duncan Snidal, “Why States Act through Formal International Organizations”, The Journal of Conflict Resolution 42 (1), 1998: 3-32. 3. Expectations and output – questions of the legitimacy of international organizations (7.3.2019)
Discussion:
Dahl, Robert A., “Can international organizations be democratic? A skeptic’s view” in Ian Shapiro and Casiano Hacker-Cordón, Democracy’s Edges (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
Optional:
Steffek, Jens, “The output legitimacy of international organizations and the global public interest”, International Theory 7 (2), 2015: 263-293.
Hurd, Ian, “Legitimacy, Power, and the Symbolic Life of the UN Security Council”, Global Governance 8 (1), 2002: 35-51. 4. The principal-agent problem and the socialization effect of international organizations (14.3.2019)
Discussion:
Kent, Ann, “China's International Socialization: The Role of International Organizations”, Global Governance 8 (3), 2002: 343-364.
Optional:
Graham, Erin, “International organizations as collective agents: Fragmentation and the limits of principal control at the World Health Organization”, European Journal of International Relations 20 (2), 2014: 366-390.
Bloc II: The US Government and International Organizations 5. Executive agreements and US Presidential powers in foreign policy (21.3.2019)
Discussion:
Zoellick, Robert, “Congress and the making of US foreign policy”, Survival 41 (4), 1999: 20-41.
Optional:
Krutz, Glen S., and Jeffrey S. Peake, Treaty Politics and the Rise of Executive Agreements: International Commitments in a System of Shared Powers (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2009). Chapter 1 – “Treaties and Executive Agreements: A History”. 6. Class cancelled (28.3.2019) 7. The post-war institutional bargain and US approach to multilateralism (4.4.2019)
Discussion:
Stokes, Doug, “Trump, American hegemony and the future of the liberal international order”, International Affairs 94 (1), 2018: 133–150.
Optional:
Ikenberry, John G., “State Power and the Institutional Bargain: America's Ambivalent Economic and Security Multilateralism” in Foot, Rosemary, S. Neil MacFarlane, and Michael Mastanduno, eds. US Hegemony and International Organizations: The United States and Multilateral Institutions (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
Bloc III: US Power and Influence in International Organizations 8. The idea of collective security - The Security Council and US power (11.4.2019)
Discussion:
Weiss, Thomas G., “The illusion of UN Security Council reform”, Washington Quarterly 26 (4), 2003: 147-161.
Optional:
Miller, Lynn H., “The Idea and the Reality of Collective Security”, Global Governance 5 (3), 1999: 303-332.
Krisch, Nico, “The Security Council and the Great Powers” in Lowe Vaughan etl (eds.). The United Nations Security Council And War: The Evolution Of Thought And Practice Since 1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). 9. Dean’s holiday (18.4.2019) 10. The (ir)relevance of NATO after the Cold War – a US perspective (25.4.2019)
Discussion:
Goldgeier, James M., “NATO expansion: The anatomy of a decision”, The Washington Quarterly 21 (1), 1998: 83-102.
Optional:
Layne, Christopher, “US Hegemony and the Perpetuation of NATO”, Journal of Strategic Studies 23 (3), 2000: 59-91. 11. US and international tribunals and courts (2.5.2019)
Discussion:
Birdsall, Andrea, “The ‘Monster That We Need to Slay’? Global Governance, the United States, and the International Criminal Court”, Global Governance 16 (4), 2010, 451-469.
Optional:
Paulus, Andreas L., “From Neglect to Defiance? The United States and International Adjudication”, European Journal of International Law 15 (4), 2004: 783–812. 12. The role of the US in international financial institutions (9.5.2019)
Discussion:
Woods, Ngaire, “The United States and the International Financial Institutions: Power and Influence Within the World Bank and the IMF” in in Foot, Rosemary, S. Neil MacFarlane, and Michael Mastanduno (eds.), US Hegemony and International Organizations: The United States and Multilateral Institutions (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
Optional:
Vreeland, James Raymond, The International Monetary Fund: Politics of Conditional Lending, New York: Routledge, 2007, Chapters 2 and 6 – “Who controls the IMF?” and “Reform the IMF?”
Wade, Robert Hunter, “US hegemony and the World Bank: the fight over people and ideas”, Review of International Political Economy 9 (2), 2002, 215-243. 13. Maritime law: the US and UNCLOS (16.5.2019)
Discussion:
Smith, Leland Holbrook, “To accede or not to accede: An analysis of the current US position related to the United Nations law of the sea”, Marine Policy 83, 2017: 184-193.
Optional:
Hudzik, Elizabeth M., “A Treaty on Thin Ice: Debunking the Arguments against U.S. Ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea in a Time of Global Climate Crisis”, Washington University Global Studies Law Review 9 (2), 2010: 353-370. 14. Final test (23.5.2019)
Annotation
Despite the claims of emerging multipolarity, the United States is still the world's hegemon. For this reason, its relations to and positions vis-a-vis any international institution are pivotal for the effectiveness and functionality of the given institution.
Reluctance of the United States to cooperate on the international level may ultimately hinder any attempts at collective security and perspectives of global governance. The political and economic clout of the US is thus significant enough to have major influence in any international institution and organization (albeit this clout is in relative decline) - therefore, in order to comprehend the workings and architecture of international institutions, which have been designed in large part by the US itself, it is important to understand the US positions and relations with these institutions.
The course will firstly discuss the theoretical questions of why states cooperate through international institutions? what are the processes of decision-making in international institutions? what are the setbacks of international cooperation and how do major IR theories interpret international cooperation? In the second bloc, the course will examine particular cases of US influence and positions in international institutions, its current challenges and potential for future cooperation.