Overview

Students are required to write two essays over the course of the term totaling 4000 words (i.e. roughly sixteen pages). Both assignments appear below; and students are encouraged to begin considering these essays the moment they begin the course. Throughout the term, they ought to examine the bearing of each week’s readings on these essay questions.

Students will happily find that these essay assignments are designed to build on one another. The first essay presses students to evaluate international order and attempt to explain its sources. The second essay challenges students to test the validity of theories of the nature and causes of order against the empirical record.

Students are reminded to follow the specifications of the assignments closely.

Outside Materials

Both essays can be written without having to go beyond the materials on the syllabus. Students, however, are challenged to explore the connections between the issues raised in this course and the materials they have encountered elsewhere. Where these outside materials will help to advance the exploration of the themes raised here, students are encouraged to draw on them in the essays and discussions. Students are reminded to cite all of their sources, regardless of whether they appear on the course syllabus.

The essay due dates fall a considerable time after the relevant material is covered. These dates were chosen: (1) to correspond with units where the reading is relatively lighter and/or easier; and (2) to provide plenty of opportunity to reflect on the material and compose the essay. Students are advised to begin work well in advance of these deadlines, particularly since the course tardiness policies will be strictly enforced

Essay 1: Evaluating International Order

Maximum Length: 1750 words
Recommended Minimum Length: 1500 words
Help Deadline: 10:00 PM, Tuesday, 6 October
Deadline: 10:30 PM, Wednesday, 7 October

Within Unit 1, we consider two major issues. Topic 2 presses us to define our dependent variable, to consider the nature of “international order.” And Topic 3 presents several potential independent variables, several explanations of that which gives rise to international order and disorder. This essay will challenge you to consider both parts of the social scientific explanation.

The international system is frequently contrasted with civil society within states. Intrastate society, so the argument goes, is regulated by the state, while the international system is “anarchic.” Do you agree that this is the best way to characterize the international system? If not, how would you better describe the nature of international order? In other words, what is the difference between the “order” we see within states and the “order” we see in the international system? How do we know “order” (or “disorder”) when we see it?

Once you have defined your dependent variable–established an understanding of the nature of international order–consider what gives rise to international order and disorder. What causes (dis)order?

While this essay will challenge you to respond to two different questions, your answers do not need to be disjointed. After all, it is possible that our understanding of the nature of order leads naturally to an explanation of that which gives rise to order. This, though, does not have to be the case.

For some, this topic may prove challenging. If you find that is the case for you, I strongly encourage you to request help.

Essay 2: The Causes of Order & Disorder

Maximum Length: 2250 words
Recommended Minimum Length: 2000
Help Deadline: 10:00 PM, Sunday, 6 December
Submission Deadline: 10:30 PM, Monday, 7 December

You are an adviser to the President of the United States (or the leader of another country, if you so choose). One of the President’s other advisers has issued the following statements, and you are tasked with writing a policy brief in response to one of the statements from a better-informed perspective. To do so, you should draw on the empirical record we’ve considered in this course and the cases you’ve studied elsewhere. The President is busy, however, and (s)he will not read more than 2250 words. Be sure to be clear whether you support or reject the adviser’s statement. Also be sure to respond to potential counter-arguments and empirical “anomalies.”

• Statement 1 (the mechanisms of ordering): “The story of the twentieth century is clearly the story of a shift from the centrality of norms as governing international regimes to the creation of formal international institutions and organizations. Consider, for instance, trade and monetary exchange: in both cases norms were replaced by formal international institutions. This shift was the best possible response to the decline of Great Britain, which had previously used its unique position in the international system to generate and support the norms that organized international relations.”

• Statement 2 (the means of ordering): “True: we can blur the lines between intrastate and interstate conflict. But even if we accept that the international system is somewhat ordered and that no state has a complete monopoly over coercive force within its borders, the distribution of power is still the independent variable that determines the bulk of interactions in the international system. These international ‘institutions’ are really just tools used by the powerful to exercise their will at lower cost—and for the weak to save face. In so far as it is organized, the international system always has been and always will be organized by the distribution of power within that system.”