international relations phd reading list

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Voice: My “top ten” books every student of International Relations should read

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This article was published more than 15 years ago

My “top ten” books every student of International Relations should read

A summer reading list..

• Stephen M. Walt

Last week Tom Ricks offered us his "Top Ten list" of books any student of military history should read. The FP staff asked me to follow suit with some of my favorites from the world of international politics and foreign policy. What follows aren't necessarily the books I'd put on a graduate syllabus; instead, here are ten books that either had a big influence on my thinking, were a pleasure to read, or are of enduring value for someone trying to make sense of contemporary world politics. But I've just scratched the surface here, so I invite readers to contribute their own suggestions.

Last week Tom Ricks offered us his “Top Ten list” of books any student of military history should read. The FP staff asked me to follow suit with some of my favorites from the world of international politics and foreign policy. What follows aren’t necessarily the books I’d put on a graduate syllabus; instead, here are ten books that either had a big influence on my thinking, were a pleasure to read, or are of enduring value for someone trying to make sense of contemporary world politics. But I’ve just scratched the surface here, so I invite readers to contribute their own suggestions.

See also: The Books We Read in 2018

1). Kenneth Waltz, Man, the State, and War .

An all-time classic, which I first read as a college sophomore. Not only did M, S & W provide an enduring typology of different theories of war (i.e., locating them either in the nature of man, the characteristics of states, or the anarchic international system), but Waltz offers incisive critiques of these three “images” (aka “levels of analysis.”) Finding out that this book began life as Waltz’s doctoral dissertation was a humbling moment in my own graduate career.

2). Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel .

Combines biology and macro-history in a compelling fashion, explaining why small differences in climate, population, agronomy, and the like turned out to have far-reaching effects on the evolution of human societies and the long-term balance of power. An exhilarating read.

3). Thomas Schelling, Arms and Influence .

Read more IR lists from FP

• Top 10 International Relations Books By Women: a reading list.
• The Best International Relations Schools in the World: U.S. scholars weigh in.

He’s a Nobel Prize winner now, so one expects a lot of smart ideas. Some of Schelling’s ideas do not seem to have worked well in practice (cf. Robert Pape’s Bombing to Win and Wallace Thies’s When Governments Collide ) but more than anyone else, Schelling taught us all to think about military affairs in a genuinely strategic fashion. (The essays found in Schelling’s Strategy of Conflict are more technical but equally insightful). And if only more scholars wrote as well.

4). James Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed .

This isn’t really a book about international relations, but it’s a fascinating exploration of the origins of great human follies (like Prussian “scientific forestry” or Stalinist collectivized agriculture). Scott pins the blame for these grotesque man-made disasters on centralized political authority (i.e., the absence of dissent) and “totalistic” ideologies that sought to impose uniformity and order in the name of some dubious pseudo-scientific blueprint. And it’s a book that aspiring “nation-builders” and liberal interventionists should read as an antidote to their own ambitions. Reading Scott’s work (to include his Weapons of the Weak and Domination and the Arts of Resistance ) provided the intellectual launching pad for my book Taming American Power ).

5). David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest .

Stayed up all night reading this compelling account of a great national tragedy, and learned not to assume that the people in charge knew what they were doing. Still relevant today, no?

6). Robert Jervis, Perception and Misperception in International Politics .

I read this while tending bar at the Stanford Faculty Club in 1977 (the Stanford faculty weren’t big drinkers so I had a lot of free time). Arguably still the best single guide to the ways that psychology can inform our understanding of world politics. Among other things, it convinced that I would never know as much history as Jervis does. I was right.

7). John J. Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics .

Why do bad things happen to good peoples? Why do “good states” do lots of bad things? Mearsheimer tells you. Clearly written, controversial, and depressingly persuasive.

8). Ernst Gellner, Nations and Nationalism .

The state is the dominant political form in the world today, and nationalism remains a powerful political force. This book will help you understand where it came from and why it endures.

9). Henry A. Kissinger, White House Years & Years of Upheaval .

Memoirs should always be read with a skeptical eye, and Kissinger’s are no exception. But if you want some idea of what it is like to run a great power’s foreign policy, this is a powerfully argued and often revealing account. And Kissinger’s portraits of his colleagues and counterparts are often candid and full of insights. Just don’t take it at face value. 10). Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation .

Where did the modern world come from, and what are the political, economic, and social changes that it wrought? Polanyi doesn’t answer every question, but he’s a good place to start.

So that’s ten, but I can’t resist tossing in a few others in passing: Geoffrey Blainey The Causes of War ; Douglas North, Structure and Change in Economic History ; Valerie Hudson and Andrea den Boer, Bare Branches: The Security Implications of Asia’s Surplus Male Population ; Robert Gilpin, The Political Economy of International Relations; Steve Coll, Ghost Wars ; T.C.W. Blanning, The Origins of the French Revolutionary Wars ; R. R. Palmer, The Age of the Democratic Revolution ; Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World ; Stephen Van Evera, Causes of War ; Samuel Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies ; Tony Smith, The Problem of Imperlalism ; and Philip Knightley’s The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero, Propagandist, and Myth-Maker . And as I said, this just scratches the surface.

So what did I miss? Keep the bar high.

(And for those of you who don’t have time to read books, I’ll start working on a “top ten” list of articles).

Photo credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Stephen M. Walt is a columnist at Foreign Policy and the Robert and Renée Belfer professor of international relations at Harvard University. Twitter:  @stephenwalt

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Comprehensive Examination Reading List

University of Notre Dame

Department of Government and International Studies

International Relations Subfield

This reading list is designed to help graduate students prepare for their comprehensive examination in the political science subfield of international relations.   Since it is impossible to provide a truly comprehensive list of all of the important works in the field of IR, students preparing for this examination may also find it useful to review the last several years' (or decades, for the eager) issues of the principal journals in international relations, including International Organization , International Security , and World Politics . Review of field seminar syllabi from schools that offer field seminars and talking with your international relations professors are also encouraged.   Students preparing for this examination should also be methodologically astute, able to write clearly, and able to make compelling arguments.

We want our international relations students to be well versed in IR-related current events and historical developments for two reasons. First, they should be able to apply theoretical knowledge to real world issues. Second, students should develop their own stands on the main debates in international relations. A principal way of demonstrating their own point of view is to make informed and theoretical arguments about currents events and historical issues. Because of this, almost all of our examination questions ask students to demonstrate their arguments with reference to current events and historical issues.

Preparation for this exam is a chance to build a broader and more integrated view of the field of international relations. You should try to knit together theories, themes, and arguments from your courses and outside readings so that they form a more coherent whole, and you should try to integrate international relations with your other field(s). This exam is part of the passage from being a student consuming international relations courses to a professional producing political science knowledge. The international relations examination is first and foremost part of your intellectual development.

The exam is also our chance to gauge your progress in our program. Success means that we certify you as a competent scholar in international relations. If we pass you, it means we believe that you could teach Introduction to International Relations, and that you could hold your own in general international relations discussions at conferences or at a job interview. Our field, our department, our university, and your peers on the job market have a vested interest in maintaining high standards.

a.Methodology /Analytical theory

Art, Robert and Robert Jervis ( eds ) International Politics: Enduring Concepts and Contemporary Issues (latest edition)

Axelrod , Robert, Evolution of Cooperation (1984)

Baldwin, David ( ed ) Neorealism and Neoliberalism : The Contemporary Debate (1993)

Carlsnaes , Walter et al. 2002.   Handbook of International Relations (Sage Publications).

Doyle, Michael, Ways of War and Peace (1997)

Fearon , James (1991). “Counterfactuals and Hypothesis Testing in Political Science,” World Politics , 43 (2), January: 169-95.

Fearon , James D. 1998. “Bargaining, Enforcement, and International Cooperation.” International Organization . 52: 269-305.

George, Alexander, "Case Studies and Theory Development" Diplomacy: New Approaches in History, Theory, and Policy (1979)

Gourevitch , Peter. “The Second Image Reversed: The International Sources of Domestic Politics” International Organization , 32:4 ( Autumn 1978): 881-911.

Hirschman, Albert, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty (1970)

Katzenstein , Peter, Robert Keohane , and Stephen Krasner , Exploration and Contestation in the Study of World Politics (1999)

Keohane , Robert, Gary King and Sidney Verba , Designing Social Inquiry (1994)

Milner, Helen. 1998. “Rationalizing Politics: the Emerging Synthesis of International, American, and Comparative Politics,” International Organization , 52, 4, 759-88.

Olson Jr., Mancur , The Logic of Collective of Action (1971)

Putnam, Robert. 1988. “Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two-Level Games.” International Organization Vol. 42 No. 3 ( Summer ):427-460.

Carr, E.H., Twenty Years' Crisis (1946)

Gilpin, Robert, War and Change in World Politics (1981)

Keohane , Robert ( ed ) Neorealism and Its Critics (1986)

Machiavelli, Niccolo , The Prince (any edition)

Mearsheimer , John, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001)

Morgenthau , Hans, Politics among Nations (any edition)

Waltz, Kenneth, Man, the State, and War (1959)

Waltz, Kenneth, Theory of International Politics (1979)

c.Institutionalism

Bull, Hedley, Anarchical Society , (1977)

Ikenberry , John. After Victory ((2001)

Keohane , Robert, After Hegemony (1984)

Keohane , Robert, International Institutions and State Power: Essays in International RelationsTheory (1989)

Knight, Jack, Institutions and Social Conflict (1992)

Krasner , Stephen, International Regimes (1983)

Mearsheimer , John J. (1994/95). “The False Promise of International Institutions.” International Security, 19, 3, Winter, 5-93 (includes responses by Keohane and Martin and by Wendt).

Morrow, James. 1994. “ Modelling the Forms of International Cooperation: Distribution vs. Information.” International Organization 48(3).

Ostrom , Elinor , Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions of Collective Action ( 1990)

Oye , Ken, Cooperation Under Anarchy (1986)

d. Liberalism

Hoffmann, Stanley , "Liberalism and International Affairs," in Janus and Minerva

Essays in the Theory and Practice of International Politics (1987)

Kant, Immanuel, Perpetual Peace (any edition)

Katzenstein , Peter , Between Power and Plenty: Foreign Economic Policies of Advanced

Industrial States (1978)

Milner, Helen, Interests, Institutions and Information: Domestic Politics and International Relations (1997)

Moravcsik , Andrew, "A Liberal Theory of International Politics," International Organization (Autumn 1997)

Parkinson, F., chapter 4 in The Philosophy of International Relations: A Study in the History of Thought (1977).

Wolfers , Arnold and Laurence Martin ( eds ) The Anglo-American Tradition in Foreign Affairs (1956)

e. Constructivism and Ideas

Goldstein, Judith and Robert Keohane ( eds ) Ideas and Foreign Policy (1993)

Katzenstein , Peter, Culture of National Security (1996)

Ruggie , John Gerard, Constructing the World Polity: Essays on International Institutionalization (1998)

Wendt, Alexander, Social Theory of International Politics (1999)

f. Normative Theory and Ethics

Charles Beitz , Political Theory and International Relations (1979)

Hoffman, Stanley, Duties Beyond Borders (1981)

Nardin , Terry ( ed ) The Ethics of War and Peace (1996)

Nardin , Terry and David Mapel ( eds ) Traditions of International Ethics (1992)

Walzer , Michael, Just and Unjust Wars (1977)

2. INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY

Alt, James E. and Michael Gilligan, “The Political Economy of Trading States: Factor Specificity, Collective Action Problems, and Domestic Political Institutions,” Journal of Political Philosophy 2:2 (1994), 165-192.

Alt, James E., Jeffry Frieden , Michael Gilligan, Dani Rodrik , and Ronald Rogowski . “The Political Economy of International Trade: Enduring Puzzles and an Agenda for Inquiry.” Comparative Political Studies Vol. 29 No. 6 (December):689 717.

Bailey, Michael, Judith Goldstein, and Barry R. Weingast , “The Institutional Roots of American Trade Policy: Politics, Coalitions, and International Trade,” World Politics 49, no. 3 (April 1997): 309-338.

Hiscox , Michael. "The Magic Bullet? The RTAA, Institutional Reform, and Trade Liberalization," International Organization 53, no. 4 (Autumn 1999), 669-698.

Katzenstein , Peter, Small States in World Markets (1985)

Milgrom , Paul R., Douglas C. North, and Barry Weingast , “The Role of Institutions in the Revival of Trade: The Law Merchant, Private Judges, and the Champagne Fairs.” Economics and Politics 2, no. 1 (1990): 1-23.

Milner, Helen, " Trading Places: Industries for Free Trade " World Politics. April, 1988, pp. 350-76.

Rogowski , Ronald. 1987. “Political Cleavages and Changing Exposure to Trade.” American Political Science Review 81, 1121–1137.

Scheve , Kenneth, and Matthew Slaughter. 2001. "What Determines Individual Trade-Policy Preferences?" Journal of International Economics 54, no. 2 (August): 267-292.

Broz , J. Lawrence and Jeffry A. Frieden , “The Political Economy of International Monetary Relations,” Annual Review of Political Science ¸ volume 4, 2001.

Cohen, Benjamin J., The Geography of Money (1998)

Eichengreen , Barry, Globalizing Capital: A History of the International Monetary System (1996)

Frieden , Jeffery A. (1991) “Invested Interests: the Politics of National Economic Policies in A World of Global Finance.” International Organization , 45(4):425-451.

Helleiner , Eric. (1994) States and the Reemergence of Global Finance: From Bretton Woods to the 1990s , Ithaca : Cornell University Press.

Leblang , David and William Bernhardt. (1999) “Democratic Institutions and Exchange Rate Commitments,” International Organization 53:71-97.

Obstfeld , Maurice. 1998. “The Global Capital Market: Benefactor or Menace?” International Organization 12, 4:9-30.

Quinn, Dennis and Carla Inclan . “The Origins of Financial Openness: A Study of Current and Capital Account Liberalization.” American Journal of Political Science Vol. 41 No. 3 (July):771-813.

Simmons, Beth, Who Adjusts ? Princeton University Press, 1994.

c.Global and Regional Integration

Ian Clark, Globalization and International Relations Theory (1999)

Garrett, Geoffrey. (1998) “Global Markets and National Politics: Collision Course or Virtuous Circle?” International Organization pp. 787-824.

Garrett, Geoffrey. (2000) “The Causes of Globalization,” Comparative Political Studies 33:941-991.

Held, David et al ., Global Transformations. Politics Economics and Culture (1999).

Keohane , Robert and Helen Milner ( eds ) Internationalization and Domestic Politics (1996)

Krasner , Stephen D. (1991). “Global Communications and National Power: Life on the Pareto Frontier,” World Politics , 43, April, pp. 336-66.

Rodrik , Dani , Has Globalization Gone Too Far ? (1997)

Moravcsik , Andrew, The Choice for Europe (1998)

Moravscik , Andrew. 1991. “Negotiating the Single European Act: National Interests and Conventional Statecraft in the European Community.” International Organization Vol. 45 No. 1 ( Winter ):19-56.

Mosley, Layna . 2000. “International Financial Markets and National Welfare States,” International Organization 54, 4:737-74.

Solingen , Etel , Regional Orders at Century's Dawn : Global and Domestic Influences on Grand Strategy (1998)

c.Development

Amsden , Alice, The Rise of "The Rest: ". Challenge to the West from Late Industrializing

Economies (2001)

Brewer, Anthony, Marxist Theories of Imperialism: A Critical Survey (1990)

Haggard, Stephan, Pathways from the Periphery (1990 )

Sen , Amartya , Development As Freedom (2000).

3. INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS and GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

a.Historical International Orders

Ferguson , Yale and Richard Mansbach , Polities (1996)

Huntington, Samuel, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (1996)

Kennedy, Paul, The Rise and Fall of Great Powers (1987)

Polanyi , Karl, The Great Transformation (1944)

Wallerstein , Immanuel, The Essential Wallerstein (2000)

b.International Institutions

Abbot, Kenneth, and Duncan Snidal . 1998. “Why States Act through Formal International Organizations.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 42(1) Claude, Jr., Inis , Swords into Plowshares (1971)

Falk, Richard, On Humane Governance: Toward a New Global Politics (1995)

Keohane , Robert, "International Institutions" International Studies Quarterly (1988)

Krasner , Stephen, Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy (1999)

Weiss, Thomas, David Forsythe and Roger Coate , The United Nations and Changing World Politics (2001)

Young, Oran , Governance in World Affairs (1999)

c.International Law

Abbott, Kenneth W., Robert O. Keohane , Andrew Moravcsik , Anne-Marie Slaughter, and Duncan Snidal . 2000. “The Concept of Legalization.” International Organization Vol. 54 No. 3 ( Summer ):401-419.

Akehurst , Michael, A Modern Introduction to International Law (1987)

Chayes , Abram and Antonia Handler Chayes , The New Sovereignty (1995)

Donnelly, Jack, Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice (1989)

Goldstein, Judith L., Miles Kahler , Robert O. Keohane and Anne-Marie Slaughter. 2000. Introduction: Legalization and World Politics   International Organization Vol. 54 No. 3 ( Summer ): 385 – 399.

Kahler , Miles. 2000.   Conclusion: The Causes and Consequences of Legalization International Organization Vol. 54 No. 3 ( Summer ): 661 – 683.

Kahler , Miles. 2000. Legalization as Strategy: The Asia-Pacific Case International Organization Vol. 54 No. 3 ( Summer ):549 – 571.

Simmons, Beth A. 2000.   “International Law and State Behavior: Commitment and Compliance in International Monetary Affairs,” American Political Science Review 94, 4 (December 2000).

d.Transnational Actors and Interdependence

Keck, Margaret and Katherine Sikkink , Activists Beyond Borders (1998)

Keohane , Robert and Joseph Nye, Power and Interdependence (1989)

Risse-Kappen , Thomas, Bringing Transnational Relations Back In (1995)

4. INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

a.Power and Security

Art, Robert and Kenneth Waltz ( eds ) The Use of Force (1999)

Sagan , Scott and Kenneth Waltz, Spread of Nuclear Weapons (1995)

Schelling , Thomas, The Strategy of Conflict (1960)

b.Causes of War, Collective Violence, and Peace

Appleby, Scott, The Ambivalence of the Sacred : Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation (2000)

Betts, Richard, Conflict after the Cold War (1994)

Blainey , Geoffrey ( ed ) The Causes of War (1998)

Brown, Michael et al ., America 's Strategic Choices (2000)

Brown, Michael, Ethnic Conflict and International Security (1993)

Brown, Michael ( ed ) Theories of War and Peace: An International Security Reader (1998)

Brown, Michael, Sean M. Lynn-Jones and Steven E. Miller ( eds ) Debating the Democratic

Peace (1993).

Brown, Michael and Sean Lynn-Jones, Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict (1997)

Brown, Michael, Sean Lynn-Jones and Steven Miller ( eds ) The Perils of Anarchy (1995)

Fearon , James. 1994. “Domestic Political Audiences and the Escalation of International Disputes.” APSR 88(3).

Fearon , James. “Signaling vs. the Balance of Powers and Interests.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 38(2): 236-69.

Fearon , James. 1995. “Rationalist Explanations for War.” International Organization 49(3).

Geller, Daniel S. and J. David Singer, Nations at War: A Scientific Study of International

Conflict (1998)

Jervis, Robert, "Cooperation Under the Security Dilemma" World Politics (1978)

Jervis, Robert, Perception and Misperception in International Politics (1976)

Levy, Jack, "The Causes of War: A Review of Theories and Evidence," in Philip Tetlock , et al., Behavior, Society and Nuclear War , Vol I (1989)

Reiter, Dan. 2003. “Exploring the Bargaining Model of War,” Perspectives on Politics 1 (March): 27-43.

Van Evera , Stephen, Causes of War (1999)

Walt, Stephen, Origins of Alliances (1987)

5. FOREIGN POLICY

Allison, Graham and Philip Zelikow , Essence of Decision (1999)

Evans, Peter, Harold Jacobsen and Robert Putnam ( eds ) Double Edged Diplomacy (1993)

Ikenberry , G. John ( ed ) American Foreign Policy: Theoretical Essays , 3 ed. (1999)

Khong , Yuen Foong , Analogies at War (1992)

Zakaria , Fareed , From Wealth to Power: The Unusual Origins of America 's World Role

b.History and Cases

Gaddis, John Lewis, The United States and the Origins of the Cold War (1972)

Gaddis, John Lewis, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History (1997)

George, Alexander and Richard Smoke, Deterrence and American Foreign Policy (1974)

Kennan , George F., American Diplomacy , expanded ed. (1984)

Lynn-Jones, Sean and Steven Miller, The Cold War and After (1991)

Pastor, Robert, A Century's Journey. How Great Powers Shape the World (1999)

Tessler , Mark, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (1994)

/ home / teaching /

Graduate Study in International Relations

The (Minimal) Reading List

Updated on January 9, 2004

Current Listings

• 240: International Relations Theory (Stephan Haggard)
• 240: International Relations Theory (Miles Kahler and David Lake)
• 243: International Security (Branislav L. Slantchev)
• 245: International Political Economy (J. Lawrence Broz)
• 247A: Quantitative Approaches to International Relations (Kristian S. Gleditsch)
• 247B: Formal Models in International Relations (Branislav L. Slantchev)

College of Arts & Sciences

Comprehensive Exam Reading Lists

The most updated versions of the Ph.D. comprehensive exam reading lists are available to all students by following the links below. These reading lists should be used as a tool for preparing for your comprehensive examinations.

Be sure to meet with your  Field Chair  to discuss your exam and the  Director of Graduate Studies  if you have any questions about the examination process.

Remember, copies of past exam questions are available for you to use in your exam preparations. Please contact  Maurice Green  for more information.

• American Government Comprehensive Reading Lists
• Comparative Government Comprehensive Reading Lists
• International Relations Comprehensive Reading Lists
• Political Theory Comprehensive Reading Lists

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Postgraduate reading lists

Here is a list of books and articles which you might want to have a look at before you arrive. We've arranged them by degree subject, but feel free to read whatever interests you!  These are not compulsory in any way, the aim is to give you a sense of themes/topics you will be exploring during your studies and point you to some of the key texts. 

We’ve given links to books on Amazon and articles are all open access. Of course, when you arrive, you will have access to all of these, and more, in the King’s Library. 

MA Conflict Resolution in Divided Societies 2021

MA Conflict, Security & Development

Ma history of war, ma intelligence & international security, ma international conflict studies.

MA International Peace & Security

MA International Relations & Contemporary War

MA International Relations 2020/21

Ma national security studies, ma science & international security.

MA Strategic Communications

MA Terrorism, Security & Society

MA War in the Modern World

MA War Studies

Ma conflict resolution in divided societies 2021  .

Key readings to prepare you for the year ahead:  

The Course textbook is available as an ebook through the library. You may also find it helpful to purchase a copy. 

·         Stefan Wolff & Christalla Yakinthou (eds.),  Conflict Management in Divided Societies: Theories and Practice , London: Routledge, 2011. 

Background Reading 

There are a number of important books for the course. There are copies in the library, but you may find it very helpful to purchase several from this list: 

B Anderson,  Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism , London: Verso, 2006. 

J Bercovitch, V Kremenyuk & I W Zartman (eds.)  The SAGE Handbook of Conflict Resolution , Sage Publications Ltd, 2008. 

S Bose,  Contested Lands: War and Peace in Israel-Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, Cyprus and Sri Lanka , London: Harvard University Press, 2007. 

C Cramer,  Civil war is not a stupid thing: Accounting for violence in developing countries , London: Hurst, 2006 

S Bollens,  City and soul in divided societies . Routledge, 2012. 

P Collier and N Sambanis (eds),  Understanding Civil War: Evidence and Analysis , The World Bank. 

Volf, Miroslav.  Exclusion & embrace: A theological exploration of identity, otherness, and reconciliation . Abingdon Press, 2010. 

T Gurr,  Minorities at Risk: A Global View of Ethnopolitical Conflicts , Washington: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1993. 

Roeder, Philip G., and Donald S. Rothchild, eds.  Sustainable peace: Power and democracy after civil wars . Cornell University Press, 2005. 

E Gellner,  Nations and Nationalism , Oxford: Blackwell, 1983. 

Adams, Julia, et al.  States of memory: Continuities, conflicts, and transformations in national retrospection . Duke University Press, 2003. 

A Guelke,  Politics in Deeply Divided Societies , London: Polity Press, 2012. 

E Hobsbawm Globalisation,  Democracy and Terrorism , London: Little, Brown, 2007. 

D Horowitz,  Ethnic Groups in Conflict , Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. 

J Hutchinson & A D Smith (eds.),  Nationalism , Oxford University Press, 1994. 

J Hutchinson & A D Smith (eds.),  Ethnicity , Oxford University Press, 1996. 

E Kedourie,  Nationalism , Oxford, Blackwell, 1993. 

M Kerr,  Imposing Power-Sharing: Conflict and Coexistence in Northern Ireland and Lebanon , Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2006. 

A Lijphart,  Democracy in Plural Societies , Yale University Press, 1977. 

J McGarry & B O’Leary,  The Politics of Ethnic Conflict Regulation , London: Routledge, 1993. 

Lederach, John Paul.  Preparing for peace: Conflict transformation across cultures . Syracuse University Press, 1996. 

J Montville (ed.),  Conflict and Peacemaking in Multiethnic Societies , Lexington: Lexington Books, 1990. 

A Maalouf,  In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong , New York: Penguin Books, 2003. 

Ismail, Salwa.  The rule of violence: Subjectivity, memory and government in Syria . Vol. 50. Cambridge University Press, 2018. 

M Mann,  The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing , Cambridge University Press, 2004. 

M Moore (ed.),  National Self-Determination and Secession , Oxford University Press 1998. 

R Paris,  At War’s End: Building Peace after Civil Conflict,  Cambridge University Press, 2004. 

A Smith,  Theories of Nationalism , New York: Holmes & Meier, 1983. 

C Taylor,  Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition , Princeton University Press, 1994. 

Michael Walzer,  Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations , New York: Basic Books, 1992. 

David Whittaker,  The Terrorism Reader , Routledge, 2007. 

Dayton, Bruce W., and Louis Kriesberg, eds.  Conflict transformation and peacebuilding: moving from violence to sustainable peace . Routledge, 2009. 

Alex Schmid (ed.),  The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research , Routledge, 2011. 

Oliver Ramsbotham, Tom Woodhouse & Hugh Miall,  Contemporary Conflict Resolution , Polity; 3rd ed., 2011. 

Stefan Wolff,  Ethnic Conflict: A Global Perspective , Oxford: OUP, 2007.

Background reading for CSD MA Programme 

Please note: This list is not exhaustive, but it should give you a good sense of the core themes and range of topics covered in the course. This list includes a number ofedited volumes as these capture a wide breath of perspectives and topics.  

International Development: Ideas, Experience, and Prospects  edited by Bruce Currie-Alder, Ravi Kanbur, David M. Malone, Rohinton Medhora, [Note: several chapters worth reading and all of them are easily available online at  https://idl-bnc-idrc.dspacedirect.org/handle/10625/52720  See in particular chapters by Harriss, Hulme, Berdal, Krause, Khadiagala ] 

Building  Peace after War  by Mats Berdal (Routledge, 2009) [Note: especially Introduction] 

Peaceland : conflict resolution and the everyday politics of international intervention  by Séverine Autesserre (CUP, 2014) 

Power After Peace – The Poli tical Economy of State-Building,  edited by Mats Berdal and Dominik Zaum (Routledge, 2012)[Note: Introduction provides useful overview of issues and debates] 

Greed &  Grievance: Economic Agendas in Civil Wars , edited by Mats Berdal & David Malone (Lynne Rienner: 2000) [Note: see in particular “Introduction” and chapters by P.Collier, D.Keen and D.Shearer] 

Building States to Build Peace,  edited by Charles Call (Lynne Rienner: 2008)

Some Case Study Readings 

United Nations Interventionism, 1991-2004 , edited by Mats Berdal and Spyros Economides (CUP, 2007) [Note: useful collection of case studies of UN interventionism] 

Dancing in the glory of monsters: the collapse of the Congo and the great war of Africa  by Jason Stearns (Public Affairs, 2012) [Note: engaging and highly readable account, touching on many issues covering the course] 

For course: 

Palgrave advances in modern military history by Hughes, Matthew; Philpott, William James 2006  

Rethinking military history by Black, Jeremy 2004   

What is history today ... ? by Gardiner, Juliet 1988 

War in European history by Howard, Michael 1976  

Military Strategy: the Politics and Technique of War by John Stone 2013 

David Omand  Securing the State

Christopher Andrew,  The Secret World

Robin Butler, ‘Review of intelligence on weapons of mass destruction’, particularly chapter 1. (Accessible at http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/14_07_04_butler.pdf ) 

The following are useful introductory texts for students commencing this degree programme in September 2021:

Introductory books:

• Jolle Demmers, Theories of Violent Conflict: An Introduction (Routledge, 2016).
• Karin Fierke, Critical Approaches to International Security, second edition, (Polity, 2015).
• Tim Jacoby, Understanding Conflict and Violence (Routledge, London and New York, 2007).

The following texts cover central topics in the module and represent the diverse approaches contained in the study of war, conflict, violence and security in global politics.

• Anna M. Agathangelou and L.H.M. Ling, Transforming World Politics: From Empire to Multiple Worlds (Routledge, 2009).
• Sara Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion (Routledge, 2014).
• Alex Anievas, Nivi Manchanda, and Robbie Shilliam (eds) Race and Racism in International Relations: Confronting the Global Colour Line (Routledge, 2015).
• Claudia Aradau, Jef Huysmans, Andrew Neal and Nadine Voelker (eds) Critical Security Methods (Routledge, 2014).
• Ulrich Beck, World at Risk (Polity, 2009).
• Shampa Biswas, Nuclear Desire: Power and the Postcolonial Nuclear Order (Minnesota, 2014).
• Judith Butler, Precarious Life: The Power of Mourning and Violence (London, Verso, 2004).
• Martin Coward, Urbicide: The Politics of Urban Destruction (Routledge 2009).
• Michael Dillon and Julian Reid, The Liberal Way of War: Killing to Make Life Live (New York, 2009).
• Jean Bethke Elshtain, Women and War (New York, 1987).
• Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (Penguin 1967).
• Michel Foucault, Security, Territory, Population (Palgrave 2007).
• Derek Gregory and Alan Pred (eds), Violent Geographies: Fear, Terror and Political Violence (Routledge, 2007).
• Derek Gregory, The Colonial Present (Blackwell, 2004).
• Siba N’Zatioula Grovogui, Sovereigns, Quasi-Sovereigns, and Africans: Race and Self-Determination in International Law (Minnesota, 1996).
• Anthony Giddens, The Nation-State and Violence (Cambridge, 1985).
• Lene Hansen, Security as Practice: Discourse Analysis and the Bosnian War (Routledge, 2006).
• Vivienne Jabri, War and the Transformation of Global Politics (London and New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007 and 2010).
• Mary Kaldor, New and Old Wars (Cambridge, Polity, 1999, 2006, 2012).
• Sankaran Krishna, Globalization and Postcolonialism: Hegemony and Resistance in the 21 st Century (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009).
• Mustapha Kamal Pasha, Islam and International Relations: Fractured Worlds (Taylor & Francis, 2017).
• Oliver Richmond, The Transformations of Peace (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).
• Meera Sabaratnam, Decolonising Intervention: International Statebuilding in Mozambique (Rowman & Littlefield 2017).
• Edward Said, Orientalism.  (London: Penguin, 2003).
• Laura Shepherd, Gender, Violence and Security: Discourse as Practice (Zed Books, 2013).
• Debra Thompson, The Schematic State: Race, Transnationalism, and the Politics of the Census (Cambridge 2018).
• Robert Vitalis, White World Order, Black Power Politics: The Birth of American International Relations (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2015).

BOOKS: 

For those with no background knowledge of international law: 

Paul Wilkinson,  International Relations: A Very short introduction,  Oxford University Press, 2017.  

Michael Howard, War and the Liberal Conscience  Hurst and Co. 2008/Clarendon OUP 1979 

For those with no background knowledge of international politics:  

Vaughan Lowe,  International Law: A Very Short Introduction,  Oxford University Press, 2015.  

Jan Klabbers,  International Law , Cambridge University Press, 2nd. Edition, 2017 

ARTICLES: 

Christopher J. Borgen, 'Law, Rhetoric, Strategy: Russia and Self-Determination Before and After Crimea', 91  International Law Studies , ,   218  ( 2015)  https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1262&context=ils  

Monica Hakimi, 'Why should we care about international law?' 118  Michigan Law Review , 1283, (2020):  https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5828&context=mlr  

Martin Koskenniemmi, 'Imagining the Rule of Law; rereading the Grotian "Tradition"',  European Journal of International Law , Vol.31, Issue 1, (Feb 2019)  https://academic.oup.com/ejil/article/30/1/17/5498077  

Advance reading list 

Before you start, there are a couple of excellent short introductions to IR you might want to read: 

Booth, K. (2014),  International Relations: All that Matters , (London: John Murray Press). Kindle edition:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/International-Relations-All-That-Matters-   ebook/dp/B00G5KJ8TI/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=  

Reus Smit, C. (2020),  International Relations: A Very Short Introduction (Very short introductions) , (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press). Kindle edition:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/International-Relations-Short-Introduction-Introductions-   ebook/dp/B0851PLH8R/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=wilkinson+international+relations&qid=1591092582&s=digital- text&sr=1-3  

Core textbooks you will need for this module: 

These are all excellent introductions to International Relations theory and we'll use the Brown and Williams texts in the second core module as well. All are available as ebooks via the KCL library (though not the latest editions) so you do not need to buy a copy unless you decide to keep one on your desk. 

Brown, C. (2019),  Understanding International Relations  5th edn. (London: Macmillan). [ebook available via KCL Library, 4th edition only] 

Dunne, T., Kurki, M., & Smith, S. (2016),  International Relations Theories  4th edn. (Oxford: OUP Oxford). [ebook available via KCL Library] 

Burchill, S (ed)  et al.  (2013),  Theories of International Relations  5th edn. (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan). [ebook available via KCL Library, 3rd edition only] 

Williams, P. & MacDonald, M. (ed) (2018),  Security Studies: An Introduction  3rd edn. (London: Routledge). [ebook available via KCL Library] 

If you are entirely new to the field of international relations, we would also recommend the introductory textbook by John Baylis, Steve Smith and Patricia Owens (now in its 8th edition - you may be able to find earlier editions secondhand online too). It is pitched at undergraduate level but is very well done and invaluable if you are new to the subject area. 

Baylis, J., Smith, S. and Owens, P. (2019),  Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations  8th edn. (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 

Also very good, this  Oxford Handbook  of IR is pitched at a higher level, more appropriate to postgraduate study. The first edition (2008) is available in e-book format via the King's Library. 

Reus-Smit, Christian and Duncan Snidal (2010),  The Oxford Handbook of International Relations  2nd edn. (Oxford: Oxford University Press). [1st edition available online via KCL Library] 

Other recommended reading: 

You are not expected to have begun course readings before the start of your course. However, if you wish to have a look at some key texts relevant to the degree you will be taking, we offer the following suggestions for highly readable books, some new and some classics in IR. 

Bhabha, H. K. (1994),  The Location of Culture  (Psychology Press). 

Bobbitt, P. (2002),  The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of History  (London: Penguin). 

Booth, K., Smith, S. and Zalewski, M. (1996),  International Theory: Positivism and Beyond  (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) [ebook available via KCL Library] 

Bull, H. (original publication 1977; 4th edition with S. Hoffman and A. Hurrell, 2012),  The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics  (London: Macmillan). 

Buzan, B. (revised 2nd edition published 2008; original publication 1983)  People, States and Fear  (New York: Columbia University Press) 

Campbell, D. (1992),  Writing Security: United States Foreign Policy and the Politics of Identity . 2nd Revised edition 1998 (Manchester University Press). 

Chakrabarty, D. (2008),  Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference  (Princeton University Press). 

Connolly, W. E. (2002),  Identity\Difference: Democratic Negotiations of Political Paradox  (University of Minnesota Press). 

Edkins, J., and Vaughan-Williams, N. (ed) (2009),  Critical Theorists and International Relations  (New York: Routledge). 

Enloe, C. (2014),  Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics  (University of California Press). 

Frost, M. (1996),  Ethics in International Relations  (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 

Jabri, V. (2012),  The Postcolonial Subject: Claiming Politics/Governing Others in Late Modernity  (Abingdon: Routledge). 

Keohane, R. and J. Nye (1977),  Power and Interdependence  (New York: Longman). 

Lapid, Y. and Kratochwil, F. (1996),  The Return of Culture and Identity in International Relations Theory  (London: Lynne Rienner). 

Lebow, R. N. (2010),  Forbidden Fruit: Counterfactuals and International Relations  (Oxford: Oxford University Press). 

Marshall, T. (2015),  Prisoners of Geography Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics,  (New York: Elliott & Thompson). 

Mearsheimer, J. (2001),  The Tragedy of Great Power Politics  (New York: Norton) 

Morgenthau, H. (7th edition, 2005; original publication, 1948)  Politics Among Nations  (Boston: McGraw-Hill) 

Nye, J. (2009),  Soft Power the Means to Success in World Politics  (New York: PublicAffairs). 

Reus-Smit, Christian (2009),  The Moral Purpose of the State: Culture, Social Identity, and Institutional Rationality in International Relations  (Princeton University Press). 

Shepherd, L. (2015),  Gender Matters in Global Politics: A Feminist Introduction to International Relations  2nd ed. (London: Routledge). 

Sjoberg, L. (2013),  Gendering Global Conflict: Toward A Feminist Theory of War  (New York: Columbia University Press). 

Tickner, J. A. (2001),  Gendering World Politics: Issues and Approaches in the Post-Cold War Era  (New York: Columbia University Press). 

Waltz, K. (revised edition, 2001; original publication, 1959),  Man, the State and War: A Theoretical Analysis  (New York: Columbia University Press) 

Waltz, K. (1979),  Theory of International Politics  (New York: Columbia University Press) 

Wendt, A. (1999),  Social Theory of International Politics  (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) [ebook available via KCL Library] 

Core titles that you will need to obtain for this module: 

Gaddis, J., (1997), We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press) Young, J. and J. Kent (2013)

International Relations Since 1945: A Global History (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press) 

In preparation for the module, we would advise you to read the sections from these two books on the origins and initial stages of the Cold War up to the Berlin Blockade.  

You may also wish to obtain this book for unit 4:

The nuclear arms race and the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1945-68 Fursenko, A. and T. Naftali (1997), ‘One Hell of A Gamble’: Khrushchev, Castro, Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis 1958–1964 (New York: Norton, and London: John Murray) 

• Anna M. Agathangelou and Kyle D. Killian (eds.), Time, Temporality and Violence in International Relations (London, Routledge, 2016)
• Alexander Anievas, Nivi Manchanda and Robbie Shilliam (eds.), Race and Racism in International Relations: Confronting the Global Colour Line (London, Routledge, 2015)
• Ken Booth and Steve Smith (eds.), International Relations Theory Today , 2 nd edition(Cambridge, Polity Press, 2016)
• Chris Brown and Kirsten Ainley, Understanding International Relations , 4 th edition (Basingstoke, Palgrave, 2009)
• Chris Brown, Terry Nardin and Nicholas J. Rengger (eds.), International Relations in Political Thought. Texts from the Ancient Greeks to the First World War (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002)
• Walter Carlsnaes, Thomas Risse and Beth A. Simmons (eds.), Handbook of International Relations , 2 nd Edition (London, Sage, 2012)
• Tim Dunn, Milja Kurki and Steve Smith (eds.), International Relations Theories. Discipline and Diversity , 3r d Edition (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013)
• Martin Hollis and Steve Smith, Explaining and Understanding International Relations (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1990)
• Naeem Inayatullah and David L. Blaney, International Relations and the Problem of Difference (London, Routledge, 2004)
• Robert Jackson and Georg Sørenson, Introduction to International Relations: Theories and Approaches , 6 th Edition(Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2015)
• Josef Lapid and Friedrich Kratochwil (eds.), The Return of Culture and Identity in IR Theory (Boulder, Lynne Rienner, 1996)
• Andrew Linklater, The Transformation of Political Community: Ethical Foundations of the Post-Westphalian Era (Columbia, University of South Carolina Press, 1998)
• Hans Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace (Boston, McGraw Hill Education, 2005)
• Mark Neufeld, The Restructuring of International Relations Theory (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994)
• Randolph Persaud and Alina Sajed (eds.), Race, Gender and Culture in International Relations (London, Routledge, 2018
• Steve Smith, Ken Booth and Marysia Zalewski, International Theory: Positivism and Beyond (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996)
• Christine Sylvester, Feminist Theory and International Relations in a Postmodern Era (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994)
• Robert Vitalis (2015), White World Order, Black Power Politics: The Birth of American International Relations (Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2015)
• Rob B. J. Walker, Inside/Outside: International Relations as Political Theory (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993)
• Kenneth N. Waltz, Theory of International Politics (London, Addison Wesley, 1979)
• Alexander Wendt, Social Theory of International Politics (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999)
• Ayşe Zarakol, Hierarchies in World Politics (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2017)

Derek Chollet,  The Long Game  

Joe Devanny and Josh Harris,  The National Security Council  

John Gans,  White House Warriors  

Colin Gray,  The Strategy Bridge

Peter Hennessy,  The Secret State  

David Omand,  Securing the State  

Thomas Schelling,  Arms and Influence  

We recommend that students should read some recent governmental security strategies, including: The 2015 UK National Security Strategy/Strategic Defence and Security Review; the 2018 UK National Security Capability Review; and, the 2017 U.S. National Security Strategy. 

In addition, for those who can currently access academic journals, we also recommend browsing the following over the summer: Foreign Affairs; International Affairs; Journal of Strategic Studies; RUSI Journal; and, Survival. 

Suggested Reading and Watching List 

Technology & International Relations 

The pitfalls of writing about revolutionary defense technology:  https://warontherocks.com/2019/07/the-pitfalls-of-writing-about-revolutionary-defense-technology/  

Technological Ambivalence and International Relations:  https://www.e-ir.info/2016/02/24/technological-ambivalence-and-international-relations/  

The democratization of science ushers in a new world order  https://warontherocks.com/2016/04/the-democratization-of-science-ushers-in-a-new-world-order/  

Technological change and international relations:  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0047117819834629  

Debates about Nuclear Weapons & International politics 

2020 Collection in Daedalus: Meeting the Challenges of a New Nuclear Age:  https://www.amacad.org/daedalus/meeting-challenges-new-nuclear-age  

To watch 

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb - Stanely Kubric’s 1964 satirical film on accidental nuclear war 

The Salisbury Poisonings BBC 2020 dramatization of the poisoning of Russian defector Skripal using a nerve agent in 2018.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08dqns1  (available in the UK but might not be available yet beyond) 

Chernobyl - 2019 TV Drama on the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident. Also check out its accompanying podcast 

Documentaries on Youtube 

The Bomb:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxIYYruXBvY  

Bioterror:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxIYYruXBvY  

History of Chemical weapons:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlri6xSXzoI  

MA Strategic Communications

Persuasion and Power: The Art of Strategic Communication  J ames P. Farwell  

The Violent Image: Insurgent Propaganda and the New Revolutionaries  Neville Bolt

Scott Atran,  Talking to the Enemy: Violent Extremism, Sacred Values, and What it Means to Be Human  (London: Allen Lane, 2010) 

Tore Bjorgo (ed.),  Root Causes of Terrorism  (London: Routledge, 2005) 

Bruce Bognor, Lisa M. Brown, Larry E. Beutler, James. N. Breckenridge, Philip G. Zimbardo (eds.),  Psychology of Terrorism .    (Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 2007) 

Ronald Crelinsten,  Counterterrorism  (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008) 

Martha Crenshaw (ed.),  Terrorism in Context  (Pennsylvania State University Press: Philadelphia, 2001) 

Audrey Cronin,  How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns  (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2009) 

Audrey Cronin, James Ludes (eds.),  Attacking Terrorism  (Georgetown, 2004) 

Paul K. David and Kim Cragin (eds.),  Social Science for Counterterrorism: Putting the Pieces Together  (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2009) (Download for free at:  http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG849/ )  

Frank Foley,  Countering Terrorism in Britain and France: Institutions, Norms and the Shadow of the Past  (Cambridge University Press, 2013) 

Bruce Hoffman,  Inside Terrorism , 2nd ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006) 

Walter Laqueur,  A History of Terrorism  (Transaction, 2001) 

Shiraz Maher,  Salafi-Jihadism: The History of an Idea  (London: Hurst, 2016)     

Peter Neumann,  Old and New Terrorism  (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2009) 

David Omand,  Securing the State  (London: Hurst and Co., 2010) 

Samir Puri,  Fighting and Negotiating with Armed Groups: the Difficulty of Securing Strategic Outcomes  (Oxford: Routledge, 2016)  

M. Brooke Rogers, Richard Amlot, G. James Rubin, Simon Wessely, & Kristian Krieger (2007)) Mediating the social and psychological impacts of terrorist attacks: The role of risk perception and risk communication.  International Review of Psychiatry , 19(3), 279-288. 

M. Brooke Rogers and Julia M. Pearce (2013) Risk communication, risk perception and behaviour as foundations of effective national security practices. In B. Akhgar, & S. Yates (Eds.),  Strategic intelligence management  (pp. 66-74). Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.   

Marc Sageman,  Understanding Terrorist Networks  (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania University Press, 2004) 

Andrew Silke (ed.)  Terrorists, Victims and Society: Psychological Perspectives on Terrorism and its Consequences .  Wiley Series in Psychology of Crime, Policing and Law (Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2003).   

Andrew Silke,  The Psychology of Counter-Terrorism  (Abingdon: Routledge, 2011) 

Robert J. Ursano, Carol S. Fullerton and Ann E. Norwood (eds.),  Terrorism and Disaster: Individual and Community Mental Health Interventions.   (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003) 

Core titles that you will need to obtain for this module:

Gaddis, J., (1997),  We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History  (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press)

Young, J. and J. Kent (2013),  International Relations Since 1945: A Global History  (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press)

In preparation for the module, we would advise you to read the sections from these two books on the origins and initial stages of the Cold War up to the Berlin Blockade. Recommended additional titles for this module

Unit 4: The nuclear arms race and the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1945-68

Fursenko, A. and T. Naftali (1997),  ‘One Hell of A Gamble’: Khrushchev, Castro, Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis 1958–1964  (New York: Norton, and London: John Murray)

On war by Carl von Clausewitz; J. J. Graham; F. N. Maude; Jan Willem Honig c2004  

War in European history by Michael Howard 2009  

 War by Lawrence Freedman 1994  

War & society by Miguel Angel Centeno; Elaine Enriquez  2016  

Strategy: a history by Lawrence Freedman 2013 

Military Strategy by John Stone 2011 

Beyond the classics: A fresh international relations reading list for students

Subscribe to the center on the united states and europe update, richard c. bush , richard c. bush nonresident senior fellow - foreign policy , center for asia policy studies , john l. thornton china center james goldgeier , james goldgeier visiting fellow - foreign policy , center on the united states and europe @jimgoldgeier jesse i. kornbluth , jesse i. kornbluth development manager - foreign policy, the brookings institution michael e. o’hanlon , michael e. o’hanlon director of research - foreign policy , director - strobe talbott center for security, strategy, and technology , co-director - africa security initiative , senior fellow - foreign policy , strobe talbott center for security, strategy, and technology , philip h. knight chair in defense and strategy @michaeleohanlon bruce riedel , bruce riedel senior fellow - foreign policy , center for middle east policy , strobe talbott center for security, strategy, and technology ted reinert , ted reinert assistant director - center on the united states and europe @tedreinert natan sachs , and natan sachs director - center for middle east policy , senior fellow - foreign policy , center for middle east policy @natansachs amanda sloat amanda sloat former brookings expert @a_sloat.

September 8, 2020

Students across the United States are heading back to class — in utterly unconventional times, of course, with many attending virtually and under unusual schedules. But the more things change, the more they stay the same: Many will be assigned certain classics in their international relations, history, political science, and/or regional studies courses. Recognizing that newer books and journal articles with fresh takes on the classic subjects don’t always make the syllabus, scholars and staff from Brookings Foreign Policy offer must-reads for students looking to supplement their coursework.

Richard Bush recommends:

Fear: trump in the white house.

James Goldgeier recommends:

Covert regime change: america’s secret cold war.

Jesse Kornbluth recommends:

Prisoners of geography: ten maps that tell you everything you need to know about global politics.

Michael O’Hanlon recommends:

Becoming kim jong un: a former cia officer’s insights into north korea’s enigmatic young dictator.

Bruce Riedel recommends:

The spymasters: how the cia directors shape history and the future.

Ted Reinert recommends:

Rigged: america, russia, and one hundred years of covert electoral interference.

Natan Sachs recommends:

Building social cohesion between christians and muslims through soccer in post-isis iraq, amanda sloat recommends:, the back channel: a memoir of american diplomacy and the case for its renewal.

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Reading List: Gender

This reading list explores the role of gender and sexual orientation in international relations and the contributions of feminist theory to our understanding of key themes within the discipline. The articles analyse the role of ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’ in transnational organized crime, sexual violence in conflict, the role of gender in global health and the ways gender interacts with coloniality in international politics. 

1. Promise or peril? Exploring the gender dimension of pragmatic peacebuilding

Discussion questions:  a) Does pragmatism offer opportunities for gender-inclusive peacebuilding?  b) How can rethinking men’s role in peacebuilding promote gender inclusivity? 

2. Pacific women's anti-nuclear poetry: centring Indigenous knowledges

Discussion question:  a) How can we understand the use of poetry in activism as a political choice?  b) What does it mean to centre indigenous knowledges in the study of International Relations? 

3. Masculinity and the Cuban Missile Crisis: gender as pre-emptive deterrent

Discussion questions:  a) Does gender operate as a pre-emptive deterrent in conflicts?  b) What does a gendered analysis of the Cuban Missile crisis reveal about the pitfalls of conflict resolution? 

4. Atomic aesthetics: gender, visualization and popular culture in Egypt

Discussion questions:  a) To what extent is nuclear imagery gendered?  b) Are the gendered politics of nuclear imagery dominated by global North perspectives? 

5. Abortion access and Colombia's legacy of civil war: between reproductive violence and reproductive governance

Discussion questions:  a) How do nationalism, masculinity and conflict inform the politics of abortion?  b) What lessons can be drawn from the legalization of abortion in Colombia for other contexts? 

6. Threat not solution: gender, global health security and COVID-19

Discussion questions:  a) Did the emphasis on gender during the COVID-19 pandemic advance gender equality in global health?  b) What are the pitfalls of viewing gender as a solution to health crises? 

7. Political leadership and gendered multilevel games in foreign policy

Discussion questions:  a) What role does gender play in foreign policymaking?  b) Is political leadership inevitably gendered? 

8. Reasserting hegemonic masculinity: women's leadership within the far right

Discussion questions:  a) How significant are women within far-right movements?  b) What role do narratives of extreme masculinity play in far-right movements? 

9. Sexual violence in the wrong(ed) bodies: moving beyond the gender binary in International Relations

Discussion questions:  a) To what extent is IR dominated by a gender binary?  b) Is our understanding of sexual violence seen primarily through the perspectives of women/girls? 

10. ‘Well, what is the feminist perspective on international affairs?’: theory/practice

Discussion questions:  a) How has feminist IR developed in the last 25 years?  b) Does feminist IR need to be transformational? 

11. Queens of narco-trafficking: breaking gender hierarchy in Colombia

Discussion questions:  a) Why is violence seen as maculine?  b) How do gender and political violence influence each other? 

12. Queering women, peace and security

Discussion questions:  a) How does queer theory advance gender studies and feminist IR?  b) Does the narrow focus of the Women, Peace and Security agenda ignore violence targeted towards LGBTQIA+ populations? 

Snapshot from history

Twenty-five years ago Marysia Zalewski demonstrated both that International Relations scholarship failed to incorporate feminism into the discipline and that this will severely damages any understanding of world politics. Helen M. Kinsella and Laura J. Shepherd based their 2019 special section on the transformational quality of feminist IR that Zalewski’s analysis explored by asking ‘two central questions: “What work is gender doing here?” and “What about women?”’. Despite brilliant work on feminism and gender—including the twelve articles in this list—these questions and the assertion that International Relations disregards women and feminism is as relevant today as it was then.

‘Well, what is the feminist perspective on Bosnia?’

Suggested seminar questions: a) Why does the International Relations discipline need feminist IR? b) Are the main features of feminist and gender studies still misunderstood within International Relations?

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Recommended Reading

None of our courses have compulsory reading prior to starting your course. But, if you are wanting to get a head start and a feel for the sorts of theories and ideas you will be exploring in your core modules, here are some recommended readings.

All textbooks recommended are available in the library when you start in September. You do not need to purchase your own copies and you are not required to have read them before you start.

Analysing politics (all courses).

Gamble. A (2019) Politics: Why it Matters 

Heywood, A. (2013) Politics (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan). 

Runciman, D. (2014) Politics: Ideas in Profile (London: Profile). 

Introduction to Western Political Thought (Core Politics)

History of Ideas, The Talking Politics Podcast series

This podcast series explores some of the most important thinkers and prominent ideas lying behind modern western political thought.

You'll be introduced to a wide variety of these thinkers on this module, so if you are wanting to get to know them a little better before you start, this is the podcast for you.

The World's Wicked Problems (Core IR)

McGlinchey, S. (2022)   International Relations  (E-IR’s free online textbook)

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