1. WHY SPEND TIME TALKING ABOUT HISTORY?
What is path dependency? What is punctuated equilibrium
What key features of the present (?) international system are explained by critical junctures in history?:
Why is the world organized into states? (realism, liberalism, Marxism, and constructivism all can help us to think about this)
Why are states treated as sovereign?
Why is the intl. system one of anarchy?
Why, at least until very recently, have western states played the dominant role in the international system?
Why does the international system change with respect to its major players? Why are there always a few major states seemingly in balance? What are the differences among unipolar, bipolar, and multipolar systems? What are examples of these? How unusual is the unipolar momement (which may be over)?

2. WHERE DID THE STATE SYSTEM COME FROM?
How is a state different from other types of social organization?
The modern state system usually seen as a 15th C forward things, but the process begins earlier… Most humans lived in bands 10K years ago? Why do they now almost all live in states? (Jared Diamond): agriculture, religion, conquest
Massive populations, concentrated populations;
political/territorial/civic vs. kinship defined,
Bureaucracies & the rule of law, and complex systems of hegemony
Specialized labor especially in the area of commerce and conflict.
Was the modern (15-17th C, European) state inevitable? Five innovations that led to the rise of the west:
International sailing vessels (1492)
Gutenberg and the printing press (1440s)
Commercial classes, better accounting & better public goods (14th C)
Gun power (1430s onward)
Martin Luther and Protestantism (1517)
Think about what this means for today… “Functionalism” is the idea that institutions and norms emerge, evolve, and are displaced based on how well they serve those who have the capacity to change or maintain the status quo.
WHERE DID THE STATE SYSTEM COME FROM?

3. WHAT ARE THE DEFINING QUALITIES OF THE MODERN INTERNATIONAL STATE SYSTEM?
What were the key ideas of the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), which ended the Thirty Years War?
Secular authority within international relations
Domestic autonomy
International sovereignty
Fixed (more or less) territoriality, although this is much more serious today.
What is collective security? The Concert of Europe (1840)… League of Nations (post WWI)… UN (Post WW2): Great power concerts vs. collective sec.
How did imperialism and mercantilism transform the intl. system (1500s, 1800s)
How did the Industrial Revolution and truly international trade transform the international political economy (1760s, 1970s, 1990s)
What is nationalism and why is it such an important idea/principle? (1770s, 1950s, 1990s).
Where did popular sovereignty (aka national self determination) come from and how does it related to nationalism?
When and why did intl. organizations become so powerful? (i.e., UN, IMF, GATT/WTO, NATO, and the NPT come out of total war)
What important questions are impacting the current intl. system today: Do you have a natural right to create nations even when they aren’t able to protect own sovereignty? How is thinking changing about WMDs, genocide, rules of war vis-à-vis civilians? what other human rights does a person have, and when does the intl. community have to protect them (R2P)?