Transcript ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & INTERNATIONAL POLITICS …

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS:
THEORY AND PRACTICE
(Course number MSFS 510-02)
Classroom location: Intercultural Center (ICC) 234a
Class day & time: Tuesday, 3:15pm-5:05pm
Instructor: James Raymond Vreeland, Professor 2.0
WE ARE GLOBAL GEORGETOWN!
Plan
1. Theory & Practice Icebreaker
2. Who and what matters in international
relations?
3. Syllabus
4. Next week
Who is this guy?
WEGG
Welcome to the Georgetown
School of Foreign Service!
• Expectations?
1. current issues – different frameworks to
understand what’s happening (e.g. Iran)
2. linking theory to practice
3. analytical tools to bring with you
4. game theory
5. practical tools – writing/presenting
My expectations
• Standards of Excellence
• Attendance, punctuality, preparation,
participation, thoughtfulness, intellectual
curiosity, …
The course take-away:
• The BRIDGE between IR theory and policy-making is…
• TESTING EMPIRICAL IMPLICATIONS
• In both worlds we come up with “theories” / “hypotheses” / “stories”
• In both worlds, the crucial aspect of the theory is…
• Are we right?
• How do we know?
• TESTING THEORIES
• In academia we have very rigorous tests
• We also have the luxury of…
• Low consequences when we are wrong
• In policy-making, the test has real-world consequences!
Theory & Practice Icebreaker
(stop @ 3:40pm)
• What do we learn from this exercise?
1.Theory
– Also known as hypotheses or “stories”
2.Collaboration
– Necessary to generate theories
3.Practice?
– Testing… empirical implications
What is an explanation?
Przeworski, Adam and Henry Teune. 1982. The Logic of
Comparative Inquiry. Malebar, Florida: Krieger
Publishing. Pages 3-30.
What is it to explain?
• To explain a specific event is to state the
conditions under which it always or usually
takes place (perhaps probabilistically)
• The BRIDGE between ACADEMIA
and POLICY-MAKING is…
• TESTING empirical implications of
theory
What is the difference between:
Prediction and explanation???
Who and what matters in international relations?
(50 mins)
• Name the G20
• List the head of state of each
• List the capital city of each
• List the GDP of each
• List the Population of each
• List the GDP/capita of each
• List the political regime of each (democracy/dictatorship)
• List the exchange rate regime of each
Why the G20?
• Members represent
– around 90% of global GNP
– 80% of world trade (including EU intra-trade)
– about 2/3 of global population
Why NOT the G20?
1. Doesn't really do anything
2. Selection process was arbitrary and
membership is already out of date
3. The group is too big to be effective
(perhaps by design)
Still…
• Learning who is in the G20
• And who is not
• Gives a sense of the mightiest countries
on the horizon
• Who’s in & who’s out?
– http://vreelander.blogspot.com/2010/06/g20and-maktisas.html
What matters more for
explanation?
• Proper nouns?
• Variables?
Variables (non-exhaustive)
• Size (e.g., GDP, population)
– Realist theory
• Regime
– Democratic peace
• GDP/capita
– Modernization theory & variants
• Exchange rate regime
– Mundell-Fleming, Credible commitments
Syllabus (20 mins)
• http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/jrv24/
MSFS_510.html
Next week (15 mins)
• Be prepared to present the main arguments of each reading
• Skim the math
• How influential in academia is each reading?
• How influential is each academic journal where the article is
published?
• How influential in academia is each author?
• Resources?
– Google scholar, Social Science Index, Curriculum vita of each
author, Ranking of universities, H-index (publish or perish
software)
Thank you
WE ARE GLOBAL GEORGETOWN!