Great Power Politics After the Cold War

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Destined for War? Great Power Politics after the Cold War: Our world has changed a lot in the last 30 years. From triumphant declarations of the "end of history" after the collapse of the Soviet Union to the mire of the War on Terror, and now with China's rise becoming more evident every day, global affairs has seen its share of ups and downs. This class will focus exclusively on international politics since the end of the Cold War, with specific attention paid to the actions and interactions of the great powers in the system - the US, Russia, China, and the European Union. We will examine how the various theoretical paradigms within the field of international relations seek to explain these events, and evaluate their proposed accounts. By the end of the class, students will possess broad knowledge of world political events that have taken place in the last 30 years and have an understanding of how political science has sought to understand these events.