ASTK12573U SEMINAR: Capitalism and Geopolitics

Volume 2013/2014
Content

The major theoretical traditions in IR, notably Realism and Neorealism, conceptualise international relations in abstraction from the question of the historical origins and development of capitalism. This restricts the analytical field to political relations – diplomacy, geopolitics, war - between states in an anarchical environment. Classical Marxism, in contrast, has largely neglected the challenge of the geopolitical dimension of capitalist development across time and space. While Realists insist on the primacy and autonomy of geopolitics, Marxists tend to reduce geopolitics to the deep ‘laws of motion’ of capitalism, if the problem of interstate rivalry for the course of capitalist development is not ignored altogether.

This long-standing opposition between Realism and Marxism has been subject to many attempts of theoretical synthesis, but also re-entrenchment. Realism, since Hobbes, has been enriched by Neo-Weberian Historical Sociology seeking to reconnect geopolitics with the classical agenda of sociology, as defined by Max Weber and Otto Hintze, namely how to account for the long-term modernization of single societies. During the interwar period, however, Realism was dramatically redefined by Carl Schmitt, promoting geopolitics again to the irreducible center of international relations. Similarly, Marxism has widened its analytical scope over the years. Classical theories of imperialism, World Systems Theory and Neo-Gramscian IR have confronted the original absence of international relations in Marx and Engels’s work without, however, conceding much ground to Realism.

While these theoretical developments have enriched the field – establishing the new discipline of International Historical Sociology - the opposition between Realism and Marxism and the challenge to integrate, theoretically and historically, the dynamics of capitalism with the dynamics of geopolitics persist.  

This multi-disciplinary seminar is designed to

a) familiarize you with the main theoretical approaches in International Historical Sociology

b) re-examine the historical relations between capitalism and geopolitics from the 17th to the 21st Century

c) explore possible avenues beyond this theoretical impasse between Realism and Marxism. 

The seminar reviews the major theoretical debates, old and new, on the nexus between capitalism and geopolitics. It combines these theoretical questions with in-depth interrogations of history – the key processes, actors and events that shaped the turbulent history of the co-development of capitalism and the international system.

 

The first part of the seminar starts with an overview of the three classical traditions that have most centrally informed this discourse: (i) the writings of Max Weber and Otto Hintze that assert the primacy of military competition for geopolitical orders and that have - since the mid-1980s – inspired a Neo-Weberian turn in Historical Sociology and IR; (ii) the works of Fernand Braudel and Immanuel Wallerstein – updated and extended by neo-Gramscian IR Theory - that revolve around the rise of commercial exchange and the construction of successive world hegemonies; and (iii) the ideas of Karl Marx that, although short on specific arguments on geopolitics, have more recently led to intense debates within the Neo-Marxist literature on how to conceptualise capitalist social relations and class conflict in their effects on inter-state conflict and co-operation across the centuries.

Against this theoretical setting, the second part of the seminar examines sequentially a number of different historical geopolitical orders – dynastic-absolutist, revolutionary-Napoleonic, 19th Century British Hegemony, imperialist, fascist, liberal and contemporary – on the basis of the divergent interpretations deriving from the three classical traditions.


I.Introduction

 

Week 1: Capitalism and Geopolitics – Approaches and Research

Programme

 

II. Major Theoretical Perspectives

 

Week 2: The Weberian Tradition: War, the State and the Primacy of

Geopolitics

Week 3: The Marxist Tradition: Exchange versus Class Relations, the State,

and the Turn to Geopolitics

 

III. The History of Capitalism and Geopolitics

 

Week 4: Absolutism, War and the ‘Westphalian System of States’

Week 5: The French Revolution and Napoleon

Week 6: Capitalism, British Hegemony, and the ‘Concert of Europe’

Week 7: Imperialism and Inter-Imperial Rivalry

Week 8: Versailles, Fascism and ‘Geopolitik

 

Week 9: Term Paper Plan Workshop

Week 10: Reading Week

 

Week 11: 19th Century US Imperialism & the Monroe-Doctrine

Week 12: Post-WWII International Order: American Hegemony?

Week 13: Globalisation and the Neo-Imperial Turn

 

Week 14: Term Paper Workshop 

Learning Outcome
The key objective of this seminar is to develop solid knowledge of the interrelations between capitalism and geopolitics, historically and theoretically, and – for your assignment - to enable you to make an informed and intelligent selection of one or more theoretical perspectives to interpret and reconstruct a particular historical conjuncture of the international history covered in this course.

By the end of the course, a successful student should be able to:

 

  • Show advanced comprehension of the major theoretical approaches in IR Theory and Historical Sociology on the formation of the European states-system.
  • Show familiarity with and fluency in the contemporary debate on International Historical Sociology
  • Demonstrate a good empirical grasp of the co-development of war, inter-state rivalry, and the expansion of capitalism from the 17th to the 21st Century
  • Apply theories of IR and International Historical Sociology to specific historical case studies
  • Discuss and evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of different theoretical perspectives on the formation of the European states-system
  • Demonstrate complex thinking and critical capacities in the theoretical analysis of historical case-studies
  • Have made progress in the following skills: communication and public speaking; time management and organization of work; independent research; composing an academic paper; independent thinking.
A basic knowledge of international and political theory, including an acquaintance with European and US international history, as well as an interest in international politics
This seminar will consist of a combination of short introductory notes, class discussion, student presentations and a free assignment.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Class Instruction
  • 28
  • Exam
  • 79
  • Preparation
  • 168
  • Total
  • 275
Credit
10 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written examination
Individual seminar assignment
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
Criteria for exam assesment
  • Grade 12 is for students with excellent performance, and full or almost full mastery of the content of the course materials and the literature and an excellent ability to discuss, analytically and with critical insight, the role of ideas in politics and international relations
     
  • Grade 7 is for students with good performance, and good understanding of the content of the course materials and literature and a good ability to discuss, with a solid degree of analysis and critique, the role of ideas in politics and international relations
     
  • Grade 02 is for students with sufficient performance, and understanding of the content of the course material and literature and some ability to discuss the role of ideas in politics and