International Political Sociology

Course content

International political sociology (IPS) has recently emerged as a sub-field of international studies. The main tenets of this new literature are the emphasis on social practices, a sociological approach to the international and international political problems as the main analytical focus. This course surveys the contributions of scholars inspired by Michel Foucault’s thought to the study of International Relations. It introduces students to Foucault’s later work known as governmentality and the genealogical method. The course then focuses upon current transformations in world politics from a governmentality perspective. In particular, it highlights the international political sociology literature on questions such as international order, war, political power, governance, reason of state, risk, territoriality and borders. The objectives of this course are assessing the contributions of governmentality perspective to the IR discipline and developing the skills to use theoretical concepts to analyze empirical political phenomena.