IR321 Half Unit
Revolutions and World Politics
This information is for the 2015/16 session.
Teacher responsible
Dr George Lawson CLM 5.12
Availability
This course is available on the BSc in International Relations, BSc in International Relations and History and BSc in Politics and International Relations. This course is not available as an outside option. This course is available with permission to General Course students.
Course content
Revolutions are often considered to be a ‘side order’ to the ‘main course’ of International Relations. But as this course explores, the lack of attention paid to revolutions is a mistake – revolutions have played a major part in the making of modern international order. From the ‘Atlantic Revolutions’ of the late 18th and early 19th centuries to the ‘colour revolutions’ of the early 21st century, revolutions have been constitutive of notions of sovereignty, order, justice, and more. Revolutions have also been tightly bound up with dynamics of war and peace. This course explores both the theory and practice of revolutions, teasing out their effects and examining the prospects for revolutionary change in the contemporary world.
List of Topics
Part 1 Thinking about revolutions
Week 1 What are revolutions?
Week 2 Key themes in the study of revolutions
Week 3 Revolutions and world politics
Part 2 The experience of revolution
Week 4 The Atlantic ‘age of revolutions’
Week 5 Socialist revolutions
(Week 6 Reading week – session on the assessed essay)
Week 7 ‘Third World’ revolutions
Week 8 The ‘last great revolution’?
Week 9 ‘Colour’ revolutions
Part 3 Revolution today
Week 10 The Arab uprisings
Week 11 Rethinking revolution
Teaching
10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of classes in the LT.
The main aim of the course is to provide an opportunity for students to make informed judgments about how and in what ways revolutions have impacted on core features of modern international order. Additional aims include assessment of the place of revolution in the contemporary world and, more generally, the ability to connect theoretical arguments about revolutions with the substantive experience of revolutions.
Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with departmental policy.
Formative coursework
Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the LT.
Students will also submit an outline of their assessed essay during Lent Term.
Indicative reading
Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow and Charles Tilly (2001) Dynamics of Contention (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
John Foran (2005) Taking Power (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
John Foran, David Lane and Andreja Zivkovic eds. (2008) Revolution in the Making of the Modern World (London: Routledge).
Jack Goldstone (2014) Revolutions: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, Oxford University Press).
Jeff Goodwin (2001) No Other Way Out ¿(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Fred Halliday (1999) Revolutions and World Politics (London: Palgrave).
Charles Kurzman (2008) Democracy Denied (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
Daniel Ritter (2015) Unarmed Revolutions (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Eric Selbin (2010) Revolution, Rebellion, Resistance (London: Zed).
Theda Skocpol (1979) States and Social Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Assessment
Essay (80%, 3000 words) in the ST.
Presentation (10%) and coursework (10%) in the LT.
Key facts
Department: International Relations
Total students 2014/15: Unavailable
Average class size 2014/15: Unavailable
Capped 2014/15: No
Value: Half Unit
PDAM skills
- Leadership
- Self-management
- Team working
- Application of information skills
- Communication