This is an interdisciplinary course in Mass Communications and Political Science, focusing on issues in International Relations and International Law.  In Political Science we will investigate three major philosophical traditions, that of Hobbes (Realism), of Grotius (Idealism) and of Kant (Cosmopolitanism).  As we weigh these traditions, we will encounter their feminist critics and thus explore a fresh source of political theory, Feminism.  In film the philosophical roots run deep in the theories of Münsterberg (Kant), Eisenstein (Hegel/Marx) and Kracauer (Locke).  These theorists pronounce grandly on the purpose of cinema and its ultimate value in human life, and through them we will stress, in particular, how film can illuminate political act and how it can deepen and intensify our understanding of it.  We will view six films during the course of the semester, and will scrutinize each film closely, seeking to demonstrate that a filmmaker’s vision emerges from the film’s form and structure.  In the readings and films we will confront issues such as: terrorism, war, espionage, revolution; nationalism, national self-determination, national sovereignty, foreign intervention; cultural homogeneity, cultural conflict; and the role of ethics in international law.

After the introductory week, the course will be divided into three sections: War & Peace, during which we will view “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Breaker Morant,” Nationalism, Colonialism & NeoColonialism, during which we will view “Burn” and “The Year of Living Dangerously,” and Terrorism & Revolution, during which we will view “State of Siege” and “Battle of Algiers.”  Weeks in which we view a film will alternate with weeks during which classes will be oriented toward the presentation and discussion of political theory.

Course Readings

Many of the readings for the course will be made available over the Internet via links accessed through this web page.  If a hard-copy of these readings is preferred, there will be one complete set of readings on reserve at the Library.

In addition to the readings available electronically, there will be a few select readings available in paper form in a packet at the Campus Copy shop, in the basement of FOB.  These readings will be clearly marked on this syllabus and on the web-page.  Each student should purchase a copy of this packet at the beginning of the semester.

Finally, one book is on order at the bookstore as an optional text on film interpretation:

Monaco, James. How to Read a Film: The World of Movies, Media, and Multimedia Art, Technology, Language, History, Theory, 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, 2000.

Course Assignments

There will be a take-home midterm and a take-home final exam.  Both exams will be essay format, and will ask the student to apply knowledge and insight learned in the course to the task of analysis.  More information will be provided in advance of each test.  The final grade for the course will be calculated as follows:

Week 1: Introduction: Sovereignty, society & system  (Jan. 25, 27)
 

Part I:  War and Peace

Week 2: Realism, Idealism, Cosmopolitanism   (Feb. 1, 3)

Bull, Hedley (1981). "Hobbes and the International Anarchy," Social Research, vol. 48, pp. 717-38. (Available in Campus Copy packet).

Hobbes, Thomas (1651).  Leviathan, Ch. 13.

Morgenthau, Hans J. (1978).  Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace, Fifth edition, revised, “Six Principles of Political Realism.”

Week 3: Film: Lawrence of Arabia     (Feb. 8, 10)

Week 4: Just War Theory & International Law  (Feb. 15, 17)

Thucydides. The History of the Peloponnesian War, Chapter 9 – “Fourth and Fifth Years of the War - Revolt of Mitylene.”

Aquinas, Thomas.  Summa Theologica, II-II, 40, 1 – “Whether it is always sinful to wage war?”

Wilson, Woodrow.  ‘The World Must Be Made Safe for Democracy,’ Address to Congress asking for a Declaration of War, April 2, 1917.

Wilson, Woodrow.   ‘Fourteen Points,’ Address to Congress, January 8, 1918.

Week 5: Film: Breaker Morant     (Feb. 22, 24)
 

Part II  Nationalism, Colonialism & NeoColonialism

Week 6: Economic Colonialism & Nationalism  (Feb. 29, Mar. 2)

Bull, Hedley.  “The Revolt Against the West,” Ch. 14 in Bull & Adam Watson (1984).  The Expansion of International Society.  (Available in Campus Copy Packet)

Lenin, V.I. (1916). Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism, Chs. 4, 6, 10.

Week 7: Film: Burn      (March 7, 9)

Week 8: Nationalism & Revolt (March 21, 23)

Scott, James C. (1976). "Revolt, Survival and Repression," Chapter 7 in The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia, pp. 193-240. (Available in Campus Copy Packet)

Week 9: Film: The Year of Living Dangerously  (March 28, 30)
 

Part III Terrorism & Revolution

Week 10: Terrorism & the Challenge of the State (April 4, 6)

Hoffman, Bruce (1998). Inside Terrorism, Chs. 1 & 5: "Defining Terrorism" and "Terrorism, the Media and Public Opinion," pp. 13-44; 131-155. (Available in Campus Copy Packet)

Week 11: Film: State of Siege     (April 11, 13)

Week 12: Power, Inequality & Revolution (April 18, 20)

Memmi, Albert (1965). The Colonizer and the Colonized, "Situations of the Colonized," and "The Two Answers of the Colonized," pp. 90-141. (Available in Campus Copy Packet)

Week 13: Film: Battle of Algiers     (April 25, 27)

Week 14: Conclusions & Wrap-up    (May 2, 4)

Stiehm, Judith Hicks (1988). "The Effect of Myths about Military Women on the Waging of War," in Isaksson, Eva (ed.) Women and the Military System, pp. 94-105. (Available in Campus Copy Packet)