Theory of History (International Relations track)

Course goals

After completing this course, you are able to:

• name and recognise the main theoretical positions within the academic field of International Relations.
• interpret the most important theoretical developments within International Relations in their specific historical context.
• make a reasoned judgement on the merits of the various theoretical positions within International Relations for the historical craft.
• stimulate academic reflection in both the theoretical debate and the historical craft.

Content

This course is an exercise in self-reflection as a historian and a critical reflection of the merits of International Relations theories for the historical profession.

A good historian knows what they are doing. They are a self-confident historian who not only chooses and applies the right forms of source criticism and the historical method, but can also justify them; a historian who contributes knowledge about the past and can say something meaningful about the status and meaning of that knowledge; a historian who reads the work of fellow historians, dissects it and uses it for her or his own research and can position her or himself within the historiographical debate.

A good historian of International Relations can also draw on a large reservoir of political science theories that focus on explaining the behaviour of state and non-state actors in the international political system. However, how we think about war, power and prosperity is itself strongly rooted in a historical context. In addition to the historiographical debate, therefore, historians of International Relations must also critically engage with these political science theories.