Bringing (inter)national history into ‘Introduction to International Relations’

Many introductory courses in International Relations (IR) dedicate some portion of the class to international history. Such class segments often focus on great-power politics of the twentieth century and related academic debates. In this essay, I argue that these international history segments can better engage students by broadening the histories instructors present and by drawing on especially salient histories such as those of the country in which the course is being taught. To elaborate on how one might do this, I discuss how US-based courses could productively examine the country’s rise to great-power status. I outline three reasons to bring this topic into US-based introductory IR courses, and I draw on personal experience to provide a detailed description of the ways one can do so.

Great Power Politics in Post-Cold War Period: The Ukraine Crisis of 2014

The Ukraine Crisis of 2014 which led to the annexation of Crimea by Russia has been one of the worst European issues since the end of the Cold War. NATO’s relations with Russia have worsened ever since Russian troops invaded and annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014. This paper examines why Russia intervened and eventually annexed Crimea during the Ukraine crisis through theoretical approaches in IR (international relations). In addition, the paper also discusses the consequences of Russia’s actions in Crimea during the Ukraine Crisis of 2014. This paper argues that Russia intervened and annexed Crimea during the Ukraine Crisis of 2014 because of NATO’s expansion policy in eastern Europe. The study was conducted using a qualitative and a non-positivist approach to research (interpretivist) which is centered on the humanistic view of the social sciences. On the one hand, the findings of this study support my central thesis; it revealed that NATO’s expansion policy in eastern Europe was the cause of Russia’s actions in Crimea during the Ukraine Crisis of 2014. On the other hand, the findings of this study revealed that there are alternative factors that also motivated Russia to intervene and annex Crimea from Ukraine such as nationalism, identity, and Russia’s quest for great power status. Further, Russia’s invasion and eventual annexation of Crimea without the consent of Ukrainian authorities had several consequences. For instance, it caused tension between Russia and NATO, increased military spending, and led to numerous international sanctions.

Regional Fracture and Its Intractability in World Politics: The Case of the Late Ottoman Empire

Scholars have long grappled with the puzzle as to why some regions become peaceful and resilient while others crumble into perpetual insecurity. Much of the scholarship that they produced viewed regional formations as extensions of the state system. This work argues that state-centric tools to study regionalism have precluded us from uncovering regional forms of engagement under hierarchical relations of empires. They have privileged great power politics, at the expense of the political agency of non-state actors, such as minority communities, constitutional assemblies, and political parties, among others. This work highlights the lack of conceptual tools to capture historical continuity in the regional fabric of world politics. The bulk of the article engages in the methodology of concept development for regional fracture, in an effort to advance comparative regional studies historically and systematically. The concept development is then applied in the context of the Eastern Anatolian region of the late Ottoman Empire.

Globalization, deglobalization and Great Power politics

Commercial liberalism would suggest that whereas globalization was conducive to great power cooperation—or at least moderated competition—deglobalization is likely to ignite greater competition amongst the Great Powers. In reality, however, the picture is much more complex. To begin with, the intense globalization of the 1990s and 2000s is not responsible for moderating Great Power tensions; instead, it is itself a product of the security situation resulting from the end of the Cold War. Furthermore, while globalization did serve to reinforce cooperation between the United States and rising challengers, such as China, which sought to harness the economic gains of globalization to accelerate their rise, it also created or intensified fault-lines that have led to heightening tensions between the Great Powers. Finally, while we are currently witnessing increasing tensions between the US and both China and Russia, deglobalization does not appear to be the primary cause. Thus, geoeconomic conditions do not drive security relations; instead, the geoeconomic environment, which is itself influenced by Great Power politics, is better understood as a medium of Great Power competition, which may affect the character of Great Power competition and its intensity, but does not determine it.