Reading- Relations Among States

1. The Interstate System: Key Elements

1.1. Bruce Russett and Harvey Starr, World Politics, Chapters 3-4, pp. 46-98

1.2. Shively, Power and Choice, Chapter 18.

• What is the international system?
• What are its key elements?
• Who are the key actors and what do they do?
• Be sure you understand ways in which nation-states are not the only important actors in the international system.
• How is the organization of politics and choice within states similar and different to that of the international system?

2. Order and Disorder Among States

2.1. John Gerard Ruggie, "Interests, Identity and American Foreign Policy,"

2.2. Samuel Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations,"

2.3. Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris. "The True Clash of Civilizations ,"

2.4. Thomas Friedman, Chapter 1-2,

• Mearsheimer argues that the structure provided by the Cold War was important in limiting many conflicts within the international system.
• He, like others, worries about the lack of structure in the present system.
• Although some of his initial assumptions will disturb many of you, see if you can find examples from the past two or three years to support his argument.
• Huntington suggests that ethnicity and religion now have replaced ideology as the basis of political divisions in the world.
• Is what he calls "the clash of civilizations" so new, and if it is what are the prospects for war and peace in the coming years?
• Friedman raises the issue of the importance of technology as a focus for integration and conflict.

3. International Conflict: The North-South Case

3.1. Charles W. Kegley, Jr. and Eugene R. Wittkopf, "The North-South Conflict: Roots and Consequences of Global Inequalities,"

• The conflict between the haves and have-nots, the north versus the south has the potential to be the most intransigent international conflict in the next twenty years.
• What are its key elements?
• Are the ways in which it can be limited effectively?
• How much inequality is compatible with a just solution?

4. Just War

4.1. Neta C. Crawford, "Just War Theory and the US Counterterror War."