INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: THEORY AND PRACTICE (Course number MSFS ) Classroom location: Intercultural Center (ICC) 234a Class day & time: Tuesday, 3:15pm-5:05pmIntercultural Center (ICC) Instructor: James Raymond Vreeland, Professor 2.0JamesRaymondVreeland WE ARE GLOBAL GEORGETOWN!

Plan 1.Theory & Practice Icebreaker 2.Who and what matters in international relations? 3.Syllabus 4.Next week

Who is this guy? WEGG

Welcome to the Georgetown School of Foreign Service! Expectations? 1.current issues – different frameworks to understand what’s happening (e.g. Iran) 2.linking theory to practice 3.analytical tools to bring with you 4.game theory 5.practical tools – writing/presenting

My expectations Standards of Excellence Attendance, punctuality, preparation, participation, thoughtfulness, intellectual curiosity, …

The course take-away: The BRIDGE between IR theory and policy-making is… TESTING EMPIRICAL IMPLICATIONS In both worlds we come up with “theories” / “hypotheses” / “stories” In both worlds, the crucial aspect of the theory is… Are we right? How do we know? TESTING THEORIES In academia we have very rigorous tests We also have the luxury of… Low consequences when we are wrong In policy-making, the test has real-world consequences!

Theory & Practice Icebreaker 3:40pm) What do we learn from this exercise? 1.Theory –Also known as hypotheses or “stories” 2.Collaboration –Necessary to generate theories 3.Practice? –Testing… empirical implications

What is an explanation? Przeworski, Adam and Henry Teune The Logic of Comparative Inquiry. Malebar, Florida: Krieger Publishing. Pages 3-30.

What is it to explain? To explain a specific event is to state the conditions under which it always or usually takes place (perhaps probabilistically) The BRIDGE between ACADEMIA and POLICY-MAKING is… TESTING empirical implications of theory

What is the difference between: Prediction and explanation???

Who and what matters in international relations? (50 mins) Name the G20 List the head of state of each List the capital city of each List the GDP of each List the Population of each List the GDP/capita of each List the political regime of each (democracy/dictatorship) List the exchange rate regime of each

Why the G20? Members represent –around 90% of global GNP –80% of world trade (including EU intra-trade) –about 2/3 of global population

Why NOT the G20? 1.Doesn't really do anything 2.Selection process was arbitrary and membership is already out of datearbitrary 3.The group is too big to be effective (perhaps by design)

Still… Learning who is in the G20 And who is not Gives a sense of the mightiest countries on the horizon Who’s in & who’s out? – and-maktisas.htmlhttp://vreelander.blogspot.com/2010/06/g20- and-maktisas.html

What matters more for explanation? Proper nouns? Variables?

Variables (non-exhaustive) Size (e.g., GDP, population) –Realist theory Regime –Democratic peace GDP/capita –Modernization theory & variants Exchange rate regime –Mundell-Fleming, Credible commitments

Syllabus (20 mins) MSFS_510.htmlhttp://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/jrv24/ MSFS_510.html

Next week (15 mins) Be prepared to present the main arguments of each reading Skim the math How influential in academia is each reading? How influential is each academic journal where the article is published? How influential in academia is each author? Resources? –Google scholar, Social Science Index, Curriculum vita of each author, Ranking of universities, H-index (publish or perish software)

Thank you WE ARE GLOBAL GEORGETOWN!