ISTANBUL OKAN UNIVERSITY INFORMATION PACKAGE / COURSE CATALOGUE
| International Relations | |||||
| Bachelor | TR-NQF-HE: Level 6 | QF-EHEA: First Cycle | EQF-LLL: Level 6 | ||
General course introduction information
| Course Code: | UIS494 | ||||||||
| Course Name: | Special Topics in International Relations | ||||||||
| Course Semester: | Fall | ||||||||
| Course Credits: |
|
||||||||
| Language of instruction: | TR | ||||||||
| Course Requisites: | |||||||||
| Does the Course Require Work Experience?: | No | ||||||||
| Type of course: | Compulsory | ||||||||
| Course Level: |
|
||||||||
| Mode of Delivery: | Face to face | ||||||||
| Course Coordinator : | Prof. Dr. ZEYNEP ALEMDAR | ||||||||
| Course Lecturer(s): |
Dr. Hakan ÇORA Prof. Dr. ZEYNEP ALEMDAR Prof. Dr. UMUT AZAK Dr.Öğr.Üyesi HABİBE ÖZDAL Prof. Dr. ALI POYRAZ GÜRSON |
||||||||
| Course Assistants: |
Course Objective and Content
| Course Objectives: | This course aims to provide a framework for understanding and analyzing the collapse of the Soviet Union and its outcomes with special focus on Post-Soviet space. The new politics, transitions and transformations that have taken place since 1991 will be examined during the class. Strategic, political, economic, ethnic, global and regional changes in the Russia and the former Soviet space will be addressed. Moreover, influence of clans, networks and corruption in the new independent states will also be explored. Russian regional politics, particularly concerning energy and integration policies as well as the policies of international actors (such as NATO and the EU) toward Eurasia will be examined. |
| Course Content: | Intervention and State-Building, Concepts, Case: Afghanistan; Concepts: Failed States, Case: Somalia; Terrorism; Social Movements and Civil Society- Concepts; Social Movements Case: the Arab Awakening; International Development and Poverty; Transnational Movement of People; Human Rights, Generations of Human Rights; Sovereignty and Security and Law within the “State of Exception”. |
Learning Outcomes
The students who have succeeded in this course;
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lesson Plan
| Week | Subject | Related Preparation |
| 1) | Identifying Main Issues in Eurasian Politics | |
| 2) | Dissolution of the Soviet Union | Stephen F. Cohen, “Was the Soviet System Reformable?”, Slavic Review, Vol. 63, No. 3, 2004, pp. 459-488 *Archie Brown, “The Soviet Union: Reform of the System or Systemic Transformation?”, Slavic Review, Vol. 63, No. 3, 2004, pp. 489-504 *Astrid S. Tuminez, “Nationalism, Ethnic Pressures, and the Breakup of the Soviet Union”, Journal of Cold War Studies, Vol. 5, No. 4, Fall 2003, pp. 81-136 |
| 3) | Political Transformation Process of the Russian Federation and the Newly Independent States | Brown, 2001, ss. 17-96 |
| 4) | Economic Transformation Process of the Russian Federation and the Newly Independent States | Anders Aslund, “Why Has Russia’s Economic Transformation Been So Arduous?”, Carnegie Endowment For International Peace, 1999. * Michael McFaul, “Transitions from Postcommunism”, Journal of Democracy, Vol.16, No. 3, 2005, pp. 5-19 * Sergei Guriev & Andrei Rachinsky, “The Role of Oligarchs in Russian Capitalism,” The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 19, No. 1, 2005, pp. 131-150 |
| 5) | Economic and Political Developments in Russia During Putin Terms | * Angela E. Stent, “Restoration and Revolution in Putin’s Foreign Policy”, Europe-Asia Studies, Vol.63, No. 6, 2008, pp. 1089-1106 * Natalia Morozova, “Geopolitics, Eurasianism and Russian Foreign Policy under Putin”, Geopolitics, Vol. 14, No. 4, 2009, pp.667-686 * Andrei Tsygankov, “Vladimir Putin’s Vision of Russia as a Normal Great Power”, Post-Soviet Affairs, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2005, pp. 132-158 *Samuel P. Huntington, “Clash of Civilizations?”, Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993 |
| 6) | Dynamics of the Color Revolutions in Post-Soviet Space | * David Lane, “‘Colored Revolution’ as a Political Phenomenon,” Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Vol. 25, No. 2-3, 2009, pp. 113-135. * Donnacha Ó Beacháin, “Roses and Tulips: Dynamics of Regime Change in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan,” Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Vol. 2, No. 2-3, 2009, pp. 199-226. * Paul D’Anieri, “What Has Changed in Ukrainian Politics?: Assessing the Implications of the Orange Revolution”, Problems of Post-Communism, Vol. 52, No. 5, 2005, pp. 82-91 |
| 7) | MIDTERM EXAM | |
| 8) | Politics, Conflicts, and ‘Frozen’ Conflicts in Eurasia | * Stephen Blank, “Russia and Black Sea’s Frozen Conflicts in Strategic Perspective”, Mediterranean Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 23-54 * Stefan Wolf, “A Resolvable Frozen Conflict? Designing a Settlement for Transnistria”, Nationality Papers, Vol. 39, No. 6, 2001, pp. 863-870 * William H. Hill, “Reflections on Negotiation and Mediation: The Frozen Conflicts and European Security”, Demokratizatsiya, Vol. 18, No. 3, (Summer 2010, pp. 219-227 |
| 9) | Integration Policies of the International Actors toward Post-Soviet Space | * Mark Kramer, “Russian Foreign Policy Toward the Commonwealth of Independent States: Recent Trends and Future Prospects”, Problems of Post-Communism, Vol. 55, No. 6, 2008, pp. 3-19 * Marcin Lapczynski, “The European Union’s Eastern Partnership: Chances and Perspectives”, Caucasian Review of International Affairs, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2009, pp. 143-155 * George Christou, “European Union Security Logics to the East: The European Neighborhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership”, European Security, Vol. 19, No. 3, 2010, pp. 413-430 |
| 10) | The Evolution of the Russia-NATO Relations Since 1991 | * Dmitry Polikanov, “NATO-Russia Relations: Present and Future”, Contemporary Security Policy, Vol. 25, No. 3, 2004, pp. 479-497 * Oksana Antonenko & Bastian Giegerich, “Rebooting NATO-Russia Relations”, Survival, Vol. 51, No. 2, 2009, pp. 13-21 |
| 11) | Russia-EU Relations in the Context of Eurasia | * Hiski Haukkala, “From Cooperative to Contested Europe? The Conflict in Ukraine as a Culmination of a Long-Term Crisis in EU–Russia Relations”, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Vol. 25, No. 1, 2015, pp. 25-40 * Fyodor Lukyanov, “Russia–EU: The Partnership That Went Astray”, Europe-Asia Studies, Vol.60, No. 6, 2008, pp. 1107-1119 |
| 12) | Energy Politics in the Eurasia: Energy as a Foreign Policy Tool | * F. Stephen Larrabee, “Russia, Ukraine, and Central Europe: The Return of Geopolitics”, Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 63, No. 2, 2010, pp. 33-52 * Vera Tolz, “Rethinking Russian-Ukrainian Relations: A New Trend in Nation-Building in Post-Communist Russia?”, Nations and Nationalism, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2002, pp. 235-253 * Dmitri Trenin, “The Ukraine Crisis and the Resumption of Great-Power Rivalry”, Carnegie Moscow Center, 2014. * David A. Deese, “Energy: Economics, Politics, and Security”, International Security, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 140-153 * Bertil Nygren, “Putin’s Use of Natural Gas to Reintegrate the CIS Region,” Problems of Post-Communism, Vol. 55, July/August 2008, pp. 3-15 |
| 13) | Turkey-Russia Relations after the Cold War | * Şener Aktürk, Turkis-Russian relations after the Cold War (1992-2002), Turkish Studies, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2006, pp. 337-364 * Ziya Öniş and Şuhnaz Yılmaz, “Turkey and Russia in a Shifting Global Order: Co-operation, Conflict and Asymmetric Interdependence in a Turbulent Region”, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 1, 2016, pp. 71-95 |
| 14) | Overall Assessment of Eurasian Politics | |
| 15) | FINAL EXAM |
Sources
| Course Notes / Textbooks: | Archie Brown, ed., Contemporary Russian Politics, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2001 Students are also responsible for additional readings distributed in the class |
| References: | Yok-None |
Course-Program Learning Outcome Relationship
| Learning Outcomes | 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Program Outcomes | ||||||||
| 1) Students will able to explain the essential body of knowledge in the area of International Relations, including evolution of the discipline, the state-of-the-art concepts, scientific methodology, theories and models. | ||||||||
| 2) Students will able to employ the appropriate tools and analytical techniques to collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data in the related areas, interpret results and propose solutions. | ||||||||
| 3) Students will able to categorize the basic concepts of Turkish politics, comparative politics, international relations, diplomatic history and foreign policy. | ||||||||
| 4) Students will able to analyze and critically evaluate local and global dynamics of contemporary socio-economic and political developments, foreign policy making and conflict resolution with all aspects. | ||||||||
| 5) Students will able to discover and create novel opportunities with an entrepreneurial spirit and use expertise to successfully establish and develop their own ventures. | ||||||||
| 6) Students will able to apply their knowledge in international institutions and multicultural environments and develop an interdisciplinary approach enabling them to relate and synthesize knowledge from diverse disciplines and draw novel conclusions. | ||||||||
| 7) Students will able to communicate in written and oral English with people from diverse backgrounds, and have the English proficiency to follow and interpret the global dynamics in the areas of International Relations. | ||||||||
| 8) Students will able to appreciate and defend human rights and multi-cultural diversity, and should emphatically interact with individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds in social and professional settings. | ||||||||
| 9) Students will able to identify standards of personal, professional, social and business ethics, evaluate the ethical implications of various practices in the related areas, and be aware the importance of ethical behavior in adding value to the society. | ||||||||
Course - Learning Outcome Relationship
| No Effect | 1 Lowest | 2 Low | 3 Average | 4 High | 5 Highest |
| Program Outcomes | Level of Contribution | |
| 1) | Students will able to explain the essential body of knowledge in the area of International Relations, including evolution of the discipline, the state-of-the-art concepts, scientific methodology, theories and models. | |
| 2) | Students will able to employ the appropriate tools and analytical techniques to collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data in the related areas, interpret results and propose solutions. | |
| 3) | Students will able to categorize the basic concepts of Turkish politics, comparative politics, international relations, diplomatic history and foreign policy. | |
| 4) | Students will able to analyze and critically evaluate local and global dynamics of contemporary socio-economic and political developments, foreign policy making and conflict resolution with all aspects. | |
| 5) | Students will able to discover and create novel opportunities with an entrepreneurial spirit and use expertise to successfully establish and develop their own ventures. | |
| 6) | Students will able to apply their knowledge in international institutions and multicultural environments and develop an interdisciplinary approach enabling them to relate and synthesize knowledge from diverse disciplines and draw novel conclusions. | |
| 7) | Students will able to communicate in written and oral English with people from diverse backgrounds, and have the English proficiency to follow and interpret the global dynamics in the areas of International Relations. | |
| 8) | Students will able to appreciate and defend human rights and multi-cultural diversity, and should emphatically interact with individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds in social and professional settings. | |
| 9) | Students will able to identify standards of personal, professional, social and business ethics, evaluate the ethical implications of various practices in the related areas, and be aware the importance of ethical behavior in adding value to the society. |
Learning Activity and Teaching Methods
| Expression | |
| Lesson | |
| Reading | |
| Homework | |
| Q&A / Discussion |
Assessment & Grading Methods and Criteria
Assessment & Grading
| Semester Requirements | Number of Activities | Level of Contribution |
| Attendance | 1 | % 20 |
| Midterms | 1 | % 40 |
| Final | 1 | % 40 |
| total | % 100 | |
| PERCENTAGE OF SEMESTER WORK | % 60 | |
| PERCENTAGE OF FINAL WORK | % 40 | |
| total | % 100 | |
Workload and ECTS Credit Grading
| Activities | Number of Activities | Workload |
| Course Hours | 15 | 45 |
| Midterms | 15 | 69 |
| Final | 16 | 72 |
| Total Workload | 186 | |