Graduate Courses
POL290C (Version 1): Research in International Relations (class on international institutions and cooperation)
This course focuses on rational choice analyses in the study of international organization and is designed to get Ph.D. students thinking both theoretically and empirically about issues of international cooperation. The first half of the course will be devoted to touching in key issues in the theoretical debate between realists and institutionalists about the possibility of international cooperation and the conditions that foster cooperative interactions. The second half of the course will focus on the role of international institutions in fostering international cooperation as identified by the rational choice approach, and in highlighting some of the empirical issues that arise in attempting to test theories about the effects of international institutions.
POL290C (Version 2): Research in International Relations (class on international negotiations)
This is a class focused on international negotiations. It has some elements of game theory, but that is not the main focus of the course. We will look at some game theory models of bargaining, analyses of bargaining strategies, different factors of the negotiation process, and work on using the structure of the “negotiation” to analyze other types of interactions. It is recommended that this course be taken by graduate students in their second year or above, as it assumes knowledge of information that students will learn in the IR core (or other IR courses).
This course focuses on rational choice analyses in the study of international organization and is designed to get Ph.D. students thinking both theoretically and empirically about issues of international cooperation. The first half of the course will be devoted to touching in key issues in the theoretical debate between realists and institutionalists about the possibility of international cooperation and the conditions that foster cooperative interactions. The second half of the course will focus on the role of international institutions in fostering international cooperation as identified by the rational choice approach, and in highlighting some of the empirical issues that arise in attempting to test theories about the effects of international institutions.
POL290C (Version 2): Research in International Relations (class on international negotiations)
This is a class focused on international negotiations. It has some elements of game theory, but that is not the main focus of the course. We will look at some game theory models of bargaining, analyses of bargaining strategies, different factors of the negotiation process, and work on using the structure of the “negotiation” to analyze other types of interactions. It is recommended that this course be taken by graduate students in their second year or above, as it assumes knowledge of information that students will learn in the IR core (or other IR courses).