GOVT1105 - Geopolitics

Semester 1, 2011  |  Credit Points: 6

Coordinator: Diarmuid Maguire
Phone: +61 2 9351 4510
Email: diarmuid.maguire@sydney.edu.au

Description

This unit will examine how the contemporary international political order has emerged by focusing upon the interplay of diplomatic and strategic issues in the post-war world. It will begin with an analysis of the Cold War and its origins, tracing the development of Soviet-American rivalry, its manifestations in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, and the different ways in which that rivalry was played out. The collapse of the Soviet Union as both a superpower and a state and the disappearance of the communist bloc will be analysed, before surveying the post-Cold War international scene. Among the issues reviewed in the post-Cold War era will be the question of US hegemony and unilateralism vs. multilateralism, nuclear proliferation, the continuing tension between the first and the third worlds, questions of civilisational conflict, non-state actors and terrorism, democratisation, and regional conflict.

Assessments

1x1500wd essay (30%), 1x1hr mid-term exam (20%), 1x2hr final exam (40%) and tutorial participation (10%)

Classes

1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week commencing week 2

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