PS103 Global Political IssuesWest Virginia UniversityDavid HauserClass times: Monday, Wednesday, Friday; 12:30PM – 1:20:PMRoom: Business & Economics 459Office: 307D, Woodburn Hall Office Phone: 304-293-9541Office Hours: MF, 1:30PM to 3:00PM (I’m around most of the time; email me and we can set up another time if the official office hours don’t work.)Email: [email protected] (NOTE: I never, ever check my WVU email account)Website: eCampus This is an introductory course, designed for students with no prior background in World Politics, to focus on current issues and debates in both the public and academic sphere relating to relations between states. The focus of the course is on reading and discussion, with new topics introduced on a regular basis. The purpose of this course is to provide the students with some general background on issues that are presently being discussed by policy-makers and academics with respect to politics in the world. This course is designed and focused around the idea of class dialog with respect to the often-contradictory viewpoints of the authors of the readings. GEC Information and Prerequisites:This course carries three credits and satisfies the General Education Curriculum requirements in Western Culture (8) and Non-Western Culture (9). If you do not know what GECrequirements you need, or don’t understand the GEC system, please see your advisor.This is an introductory course, designed for students with no prior background on World Politics, to focus on current issues and debates in both the public and academic sphere relating to relations between states. There are no prerequisites for this course; no previous knowledge of world politics or theories of international politics are necessary.The Basic Idea:We’ll read a short, introductory textbook that brings in some of the basic theories of international politics. After that, we’ll use a weekly news magazine to introduce some of the important topics and events going on in the world today, and try to explain them.Course Goals and Learning Objectives:Successful students will be familiar with:1. Some of the basic theories of the academic study of International Relations.2. Definitions and examples of the basic actors in international politics.3. Why and how international conflict occurs4. What “international sovereignty” means, and how it affects international politics.5. Potential future sources of conflict, including terrorism6. Definitions of globalization, what it is, and how it affects the world.7. Definitions and different points of view with respect to global cultures and values.(Additionally, I should note that learning objectives apply differently to different students. Students from different backgrounds (engineers versus political scientists) and differentlevels of education (freshmen versus seniors) will take away different conclusions from this course. Thus, the slate of “learning objectives” should not be construed as the entire educational goal for the course. I want you to learn something about international relations, but based onwhat you know when you come in (lots or little) and what your assumptions are (left, right, agnostic), people will learn different things. That’s fine by me.)Course Requirements:Students should:1. Complete the assigned readings before each scheduled class. Lecture is designed tohelp you understand the readings; if you haven’t done the readings, you will have difficultyunderstanding lecture.2. Take the four scheduled quizzes/tests that will be given over the course of the semester.3. Participate actively and intelligently in lecture.4. Participate actively and intelligently in the simulations done throughout the semester.Texts:There are two required texts. The first required text is Theories of International Politics and Zombies by Daniel Drezner. This is a very basic book that outlines in very general ways the terms and concepts for the different issues that we will be exploring during this semester. This book will provide the background framework and theories for discussions of the issues. It also talks about Zombies, which is a plus.The other “book” is slightly more complicated. We will be using a magazine called “The Economist” as the textbook for the course, following the first few weeks of the Drezner book. The Economist is a weekly news magazine that does a very good job of covering global events and issues.The Economist is NOT available in the bookstore. Students will NOT be signing up for individual subscriptions (which are mailed directly to you at your home). The sign-up process forindividual subscriptions takes 6 to 8 weeks to start the magazine, and that’s too long for the class. So, the magazines will be shipped to me in one big package and I’ll distribute them in class. Unfortunately, The Economist isn’t free (though I have negotiated a reduced rate). Also, unfortunately, you can’t buy it through the bookstore. So, you’ll have to give me money (I’ll giveyou a receipt). I’m not a store, so I don’t take credit cards. Cash is best. I don’t know about checks. I’ll have full info on this on the first day of class. Bottom line: I’ll need approximately $30 from each of you, for which you will get one copy of The Economist every week for about 12or 14 weeks. Again, final details will be available on the first day of class.IMPORTANT: You’ll need to keep all the copies of the magazine throughout the semester. I will assign readings on topics that go back to previous issues (i.e., articles from magazines that I handed out several weeks before). Since I don’t know what will be in the magazines (what they write depends on what happens in the world), I can’t know a head of time which articles I want to use for what we will discuss during the class. So, keep all the magazines and I’ll be clear about which articles I want to talk about as part of working through the topics wewill discuss. In a sense, all the back issues of the magazine you keep will be the “textbook” that we’ll read from in order to talk about the course subjects. Grading:I will give a large quiz/small test at the end of the first (introductory) section (before westart into The Economist). I will give three more tests/quizzes over the course of the semester,drawing the material for each from the in-class discussions of The Economist and the themes wecover in class. Each quiz/test will