How “International” Are International Relations Syllabi?

This article offers a general account of international relations studies (IR) in Latin America through an examination of IR thinking in the region, an inventory of IR theory courses in seven Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Trinidad and Tobago), and an analysis of journal articles selected from five specialized IR journals in Latin America. Although considerable U.S. influence upon the ways in which IR is approached in Latin America is made apparent through this narrative, the specific context in which IR studies have evolved in the region has substantially altered the content of U.S. IR discourse. Therefore, the article concludes with a discussion of the possible contributions of Latin American IR to Anglo‐American perspectives in the field.

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“… 10 Similar exercises are performed in the case of the United States by Alker and Biersteker (1984) and Robles (1993). …”

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confidence: 88%

Hearing Latin American Voices in International Relations Studies

Tickner

2003

Int Studies Perspectives

110

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“…The communication flows in IR were excessively asymmetric and hierarchical: most highly recognized theoretical products travelled from producers in the American center to consumers in semi‐peripheries and peripheries (Holsti ; Lyons :626; Smith :200; Zürn :109; Giesen :142). Everyone seemed to read American IR, but Americans rarely read or cited anything but Americans (Robles :527; Strange :290; see also Biersteker ).…”

Section: Revisiting the “American Social Science”mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…; see also Hamati‐Ataya ). Another literature has studied how IR is taught in the United States and around the world by looking at the syllabi and textbooks used to teach IR courses (Alker and Biersteker ; Holsti ; Robles ; Nossal ; Friedrichs ; Biersteker ; Hagmann and Biersteker ). The latter approach is a useful way to examine what is read, assigned, debated, and thus what disciplines students, but it has been questioned whether textbooks and syllabi provide good indicators of the discipline.…”

Section: A Sociological Approach To Stratification In Irmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bibliometric studies demonstrate that so are the majority of authors in these top journals (Goldmann ; Wæver ; Aydinli and Mathews ; Breuning, Bredehoft, and Walton ). Studies of IR syllabi and textbooks have found that both American and non‐American students tend to read mostly Americans (Alker and Biersteker ; Holsti ; Robles ; Nossal ; Friedrichs ; Biersteker ). This paper revisits the question of US dominance in IR seeking to make two overall contributions: first, by studying US dominance in IR comparatively, vis‐à‐vis other social sciences and over time, and second, by unpacking US dominance and instead presenting a subnational map of stratification patterns at the level of dominant cities and institutions.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Revisiting the “American Social Science”-Mapping the Geography of International Relations

Kristensen

2013

Int Stud Perspect

100

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This paper studies the geography of the International Relations (IR) discipline, particularly the notion that IR is an “American social science.” First, it analyzes bibliometric data and finds that US‐based scholars continue to dominate IR journals, but also that IR is one of the least US‐dominated social sciences and that it has become markedly less so since the 1960s. Second, the paper argues that conventional measures based on nation‐state affiliation capture only part of the spatial structures of inequality. It employs novel visualization tools to present an alternative map of elite stratification in IR. Instead of looking at national cores and peripheries, it maps the social network structures of authorship and coauthorship in key IR journals. By mapping city and institutional output, it finds stratification structures within the American discipline. Elite institutions in Northeast America, rather than “America,” dominate the field's leading journals. A similar stratification is found in Western Europe. Moreover, network linkages in terms of both coauthorships and doctoral backgrounds tie these Northeast American and West European elites together. The paper concludes that while US dominance in IR journals is in decline, this has not yet made the discipline as international as its name warrants.

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“… 5 Additional important sources from political science and international studies include: Brighi (2001), Davies and Wells (2002), Divine (2000), Gerner and Schrodt (2002), Giroux (2002), Gregg (1999), Kacowicz (1993), Kurth (1998), Lang and Lang (1998), Lipschutz (2000), Moreno (2000), Nadel (1995), Nolan (1995), Popkewitz (1998), Robles (1993), Rubenstein (1990), Smith and Marysia (1996), Steger (2001), Walker (2000), Weber (2000), Wright (2002), Xing and Hirabayashi (2003). …”

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confidence: 99%

Independence Day as a Cosmopolitan Moment: Teaching International Relations

Webber

2005

Int Studies Perspectives

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This essay expands upon a teaching approach that I used in my introductory international relations (IR) course for three semesters prior to September 11, 2001. The vast majority of the curriculum of the course is read through Independence Day, a 1996 blockbuster Hollywood film. Beginning with the film and the concept of world order it arguably provides through a fictional moment of world peace (or hegemony, depending how one interprets the leading role of the U.S. in the film and the significance of the Fourth of July holiday as the world's Independence Day, hence ID4) students are able to understand several key concepts in IR theory, as well as the major paradigms of IR thought that I present to them. ID4 presents the viewer with the IR field's two great mythological narratives, realism and idealism, and preserves the notion of the nation-state as the predominant actor and unit of analysis for understanding world history and key events in that history.

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How “International” Are International Relations Syllabi?

Cited by 4 publications

References 2 publications

Hearing Latin American Voices in International Relations Studies

Hearing Latin American Voices in International Relations Studies

Revisiting the “American Social Science”-Mapping the Geography of International Relations

Independence Day as a Cosmopolitan Moment: Teaching International Relations

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