Culture and World Politics (POLS2224)

WEEK 1: Introduction

This lecture introduces students to the course. It sets the scene by detailing the multiple ways that questions of culture permeate contemporary debates about world politics. It challenges simplistic ways of thinking and talking about the role of culture, highlighting the contested meaning of culture and how it relates to social and political life globally. It explain the logic and organization of the course, as well as the assessment tasks and other expectations of students.

Learning outcomes: L01, L05

WEEK 2: Culture and Cultural Diversity

This lecture introduces students to the contested concept of culture, and to debates about the nature and effects of cultural diversity. It explores the multiple ways we use the concept of culture--from the high arts to a total way of life. It then distinguishes between two basic ways of thinking about culture: cultures as coherent, integrated entities; and cultures as highly variegated and contested. It goes on to explore the implications of these rival conceptions for how we think about the role of culture in world politics.

Learning outcomes: L01, L05

WEEK 2: Culture and Cultural Diversity

This tutorial explores in greater depth the themes covered in the lecture. It asks whether there is a fixed meaning to the concept of culture, how we use the term in multiple ways, and what cultural diversity is.

Learning outcomes: L01, L05

WEEK 3: World Politics Without Culture

While a host of factors demand that international relations (IR) scholars pay more attention to the role of culture in world politics, the field has not always been so inclined. Indeed, IR is notable not only for its neglect of culture, but for its determined attempts to theorise world politics as though culture were unimportant. This lecture explores two of the most prominent non-cultural ways of thinking about international relations: neorealism, and various strands of liberalism. We explore the nature of these theories, what their relative strengths are, and their value for understanding world politics at time when cultural factors seem to loom large.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L05

WEEK 3: World Politics Without Culture

This tutorial explores in greater depth the themes covered in the lecture. We will explore why scholars would seek to theorise international relations without reference to culture, the different ways they have sought to do this, and their relative success.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L05

WEEK 4: Bringing Culture Back In

The 1990s saw a new wave of scholarship that sought to bring culture back into the study of international relations. Indeed, two of the most enduring theoretical innovations of this time--poststructuralism and constructivism--both sought to bring culture back, albeit in very different ways. This lecture examines why, at this historical juncture, IR scholars felt a need to address questions of culture. And it explores how post-structuralists and constructivists integrated culture into their accounts of world politics.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L05

WEEK 4: Bringing Culture Back In

This tutorial explores the themes of the lecture in greater depth. It looks at various disciplinary attempts to return culture to its rightful place in the study of world politics.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L05

WEEK 5: Reading and Assignment preparation week

WEEK 6: Culture and Sovereignty

The relationship between culture and sovereignty is complex. On the one hand, sovereignty is often presented as a solution to the 'problem' of cultural difference globally. Sovereignty, from this view, enables peoples of different cultures to interact as legal equals, pushing cultural politics down to the domestic level. On the other hand, culture is often seen as a threat to sovereignty, where the political authority of the state, or the civic foundations of the nation, are threatened by forms of cultural identification and loyalty. This lecture examines this vexed relationship between culture and sovereignty.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L04, L05

WEEK 6: Culture and Sovereignty

This tutorial explores in greater detail the issues raised in the lecture. It asks how culture and sovereignty are related, and what tensions exist between the two.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L04, L05

WEEK 7: Culture and International Law

International law is a key fundamental institution of international society, defining legitimate agency and the parameters of rightful action. From some perspectives international law is simply a system of rules that reflects the rational self-interests of states. Others argue, however, that international law is a Western cultural artefact, dependent on Western cultural and political hegemony, and vulnerable to global cultural fragmentation. This lecture considers the nature of international law, its historical origins and evolution, and assesses the merits of universalist and culturalist understandings of international law.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L04, L05

WEEK 8: Religion in World Politics

In this lecture, we turn our attention to prominent manifestations of cultural forces in world politics. The rise of religious fundamentalisms in many states, and the advent of transnational religiously justified insurgencies, makes religion one of the most palpable manifestations of contemporary cultural politics. Yet we deal with it first because conventional accounts of the emergence of the modern international system emphasise the critical role that religious conflict played in sixteenth and seventeenth century world politics. This lecture examines these early origins of the international system, and what these meant for its subsequent development. It goes beyond this, though, to explore the nature of religion, its current political expressions, and the question of how the international system can, or ought to, accommodate religious identities and beliefs.

Learning outcomes: L01, L03, L05

MID-SEMESTER BREAK

WEEK 9: Civilisations in World Politics

Contemporary world politics is replete with claims to civilisational identity: the distinctiveness yet purported decline of Western civilisation, the renaissance of Chinese civilisation, and the much invoked 'clash of civilisations'. There is, however, considerable debate about what civilisations are, and about their claimed impact on world politics. Furthermore, claims to civilisational identity have gone in and out of fashion: from the late nineteenth century until to the 1960s, civilisational hierarchy justified the imperial organisation of the globe. After post-1945 decolonisation, however, such discourse were shunned, only to return more recently. This lecture explores debates about the nature of civilisations and the shifting role of civilisation as an organising principle in world politics.

Learning outcomes: L01, L03, L05

WEEK 9: Civilisations in World Politics

This tutorial explores in greater detail the issues raised in the lectures on civilisations and nationalism. It asks how civilisational ideas have shaped international relations, and what role nationalism has played in constituting the modern state system.

Learning outcomes: L01, L03, L05

WEEK 10: Nationalism in World Politics

Nationalism--the principle that each nation should have its own sovereign state--has had a profound effect on the evolution of modern international relations. Nationalism is bedevilled by a central ambiguity, though. What is the nation? Historically, debate on this question has been pulled between civic and ethnic conceptions of nationhood. Moreover, at different points in time the international community has privileged one or other of these understandings. After the First World War, it was ethnically defined nations who were thought to have the right to sovereignty. After the Second World War, however, civic nations were favoured. This lecture explores the nature of nationalism, its impact on the evolution of the international system, and its problematic status as a constitutive principle of international life.

Learning outcomes: L01, L03, L05

WEEK 10: Nationalism in World Politics

This tutorial examines in greater detail the issues raised in the lecture. It considers the nature of nations, states, and nationalism, as well as the role nationalism has played in shaping modern world politics.

Learning outcomes: L01, L03, L05

WEEK 11: Race in International Relations

Race in World Politics : Many assume that race is a biological phenomenon, but powerful arguments hold that in fact it is deeply cultural. Furthermore, it is a cultural phenomena deeply entwined with discourses of nationalism and civilisation, but also religion. Most importantly, the politics of race has had a profound effect on the development of modern world politics, licensing imperialism and ordering national societies. This lecture explores the nature of race as a cultural phenomenon, and surveys the multiple effects that the politics of race has had on the evolution of modern international relations.

Learning outcomes: L01, L03, L05

WEEK 11: Race in World Politics

This tutorial explores in greater detail the issues that will be raised in the lecture. It examines the nature of race as a cultural phenomenon, and how ideas about race have structured world politics.

Learning outcomes: L01, L03, L05

WEEK 12: Culture and Human Rights

Human rights are rights individuals have simply by virtue of their status as human beings. They are, in this sense, universal. Many deny, however, that there is any such thing as a universal human right, as all values derive from community, and communities are multiple and particular. Human rights from this perspective are universalist nonsense. Others defend the idea that human rights are morally universal but fear that they can only ever be weak in a world of diverse cultures. Some go further, arguing that cultural values should have priority over universal human rights. This lecture explores that tangled theoretical and historical relationship between culture and human rights.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L04, L05

WEEK 12: Culture and Human Rights

This tutorial examines in the greater detail the issues addressed in the lecture. It is concerned with the nature of human rights, the degree to which they are culturally specific or universal, and how human rights can be reconciled with cultural difference.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L04, L05

WEEK 13: Culture and the Future of International Order

For many, the rise of non-Western great powers, the advent of transnational religious insurgencies, and growing ethno-nationalism across the globe pose a profound threat to the modern 'Western' international order. This final lecture reviews the materials covered in the course, and reflects on the terms of current debate about the future of international order. It examines the poles of this debate, and the assumptions about culture that undergird rival positions. And it concludes by offering an alternative way of thinking about these issues.

Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L04, L05