Paradigms in International Relations
Course code
RIR7608.YK
old course code
Course title in Estonian
Rahvusvaheliste suhete paradigmad
Course title in English
Paradigms in International Relations
ECTS credits
6.0
Assessment form
Examination
lecturer of 2024/2025 Spring semester
Not opened for teaching. Click the study programme link below to see the nominal division schedule.
lecturer of 2025/2026 Autumn semester
Not opened for teaching. Click the study programme link below to see the nominal division schedule.
Course aims
The course helps to develop an understanding of intellectual origins of International Relations (IR) as a discipline and provide an in-depth knowledge of IR theory, based on familiarity with key texts and contributions to the study of IR and their contemporary reception and critique. The course will help students to understand the broader intellectual context of their own research and successfully employ IR theory in their dissertations.
Brief description of the course
The course introduces a diverse selection of theoretical perspectives and approaches. It starts with unsettling the origins of IR theorising and confronts the eurocentric and exclusionary beginnings of the discipline by offering a post-Western overview of the foundational theories of IR. After this, we will thus re-centre how we teach IR theories and offer diverse perspectives, such as feminism, queer theory and critical relationalism, constructivism, postcolonial and decolonial perspectives. This course will give a thorough understanding of what is a theory and which building blocks it consists of (ontology, epistemology, methodology, reflexivity).
Learning outcomes in the course
Upon completing the course the student:
- understands the historical and social context of the discipline of IR;
- understands of different theoretical approaches to the study of international relations and the can use theory in research.
- understands the historical and social context of the discipline of IR;
- understands of different theoretical approaches to the study of international relations and the can use theory in research.
Teacher
Matthew Crandall
Study programmes containing that course