International Relations Theory

IR 501 steps back from the "list of isms" approach to international relations and asks what each tradition actually assumes about how the world works — its ontology, epistemology, and what counts as evidence. You'll spend the semester reading across the canonical debates (realism, liberalism, constructivism, and their internal quarrels over anarchy, power, cooperation, and identity), writing a substantial research project plus a presentation, and learning to argue at the meta-theoretical level rather than just summarizing schools of thought. As a required spring course late in the IR curriculum, it's the theoretical spine that ties together the regional, historical, and policy courses you've already taken and sets up serious thesis or graduate work.