Dr. Frances Harbour
Dept. of Public and International Affairs
A230 Robinson Hall
Office Hours: T,R 10-12, and R 5-7
HNRS 131 Section 4
Fall 2005
Global Systems, Global Issues
Honors 131 section 4 is a seminar that will ask students to wrestle with the nature and extent of globalization and the workings of global systems. It also examines political and other questions that global systems raise in nation-states and the world as a whole. Students will develop, apply, and justify their own view and justify it in terms of theory, history, and social science research. Student participation is central to this course. There will be some lively discussions and no prior answers are assumed! The course will also encourage development of critical thinking, presentation, and writing skills. The modes of instruction are lectures and active participation in class discussion.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Class Participation. 15%. Each student is expected to be an active participant. Up to 15% of the final grade is available for students who participate regularly and constructively in class. Participation credit is extended for offering information, observations (especially regarding class reading and material introduced in earlier parts of the course), thoughtful analysis, asking questions, participating in sessions where the person is not a Special Resource, and for Aactive listening.@ Participation credit may also be obtained by contributions to the bulletin board on the course WebCT site.
Special Resource Assignments. 4 @ 5% each =20%. Sign up the first week of class for four sessions. In
class, students acting as a Special Resource take a leading role in
discussions. They should be able to
answer specific and general questions about the reading, speculate knowledgeably
on future trends in the real world, and on how the issues of the whole week relate to problems, questions, or issues
discussed in earlier parts of the course.
Evidence of outside reading
also raises grades but is not required.
Any absence for a special resource assignment must be excused by the day
of the session and a make-up session approved.
Journals. 3 @ 15% each = 45%. Each journal will contain your notes from the reading assignments, brief reactions (about a paragraph each) to 10 of the entries in Jessica Williams’ Fifty Facts that Should Change the World, and a thoughtful, 1000-word essay that supports your answer to a question raised for you by readings and class meetings. No outside research is required for the journals, but they will be graded on how clearly and thoroughly they address course material, and the level of creativity, depth, and care in the essays and Fact reactions. Be sure to specify the Facts you address and the question you pose for yourself!
Group Projects. 1 @ 20% Each student will be assigned to a team for the group project and various in-class assignments and activities. Cooperation among people with differing backgrounds is one of the most important challenges of globalization; I will therefore make the teams as diverse as possible in terms of gender, culture, and major. You will have the opportunity to recommend your colleagues= project grades based on their contributions.
Group projects involve a 30-minute presentation to the class
at the end of the semester, and a 5-page briefing book for the professor, or
the equivalent posted to the course WebCT site.
(If your group will need help with the technology members should consult
STAR in the
A few ideas for group projects:
$
Propose
a project using transcontinental resources that could provide income and
protect cultural values for villagers in
$
Develop
a Ahow to@ manual for students graduating from a
$
Evaluate
Thomas Friedman=s ADell theory of conflict prevention@
(no two countries involved in the same major global supply line are will fight
a war with each other.)
$
Design
a plan for a new nongovernmental organization (NGO) to use at least 5 of the 10
Aflattening@ factors Friedman lists in The World
Is Flat to improve human security in some specific way.
$
Diagram
and explain connections between two major systems (such as petroleum and food,
democracy and capitalism, or the global price of gems and conflict in
$
Use
systems theory to explain the onset, resolution, and surprising side effects of
a historical event with roots in at least two continents.
$
Evaluate
and explain the chance that the US, UK, Japan, India, or Brazil will experience
a terrorist attack using biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons in the next
ten years. What globally oriented steps
could be taken to reduce the risk?
Criteria for evaluation of projects: detail, feasibility,
and plausibility of proposals, depth of outside research, use of course
material, coverage of the topic, and style in oral, written, and electronic
contributions. Because this is an
academic project written or electronic material MUST cite ideas and sources of
material using
Robert P. Clark. Global
Awareness. Rowman & Littlefield. 2002.
Thomas L. Friedman. The World is Flat. Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux. 2005.
Peter Hough. Understanding International
Security.
Karen Mingst. Essentials of International Relations. Norton.
Patrick O’Meara, Howard D. Mehlinger, and Matthew Krain, eds. Globalization and the Challenges of a New
Century.
Jessica Williams. Fifty Facts that Should Change the World. Disinformation Company. 2004.
Additional assignments may be made on the course WebCT site, as events warrant.
Course WebCT site
The course’s WebCT 4.1 site may be found at: https://webct41.gmu.edu
Your username and password are the same as for your GMU email account.
I will use the WebCT site for announcements, to answer student questions, and to post information useful to the class, including some course reading.
You should set the mail option of your WebCT to forward email to your regular email account. Otherwise you MUST check your WebCT mailbox frequently because I (and other students) may use it to send you messages.
You may use the WebCT bulletin board as a discussion board to earn extra credit. (Up to 5% of course grade extra credit is available for regular and constructive use of the bulletin board.)
Late assignments MUST be approved by the day they are
due or they will not be accepted.
Excuses will be granted for documented cases of personal illness, death
or serious illness in the family, or computer disaster. Any employment-related excuses must be
documented by your work supervisor and are accepted only for genuine
emergencies.
COURSE CALENDAR
|
9/6-9/8 |
INTRODUCTION AND
CONTEXT Mingst,
Approaches to International Relations, pp. 1-16; Historical Context of Contemporary International Relations, pp. 17-56;
Contending Perspectives, pp. 57-82. The International System, pp. The International
System, pp. 83-99. |
|
9/20-9/22 9/27-9/29
|
GLOBALIZING
ECONOMIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS Friedman, While I Was Sleeping, The Triple Convergence, The Great Sorting Out, pp. 1-47, 173-222. Friedman,
Ten Forces that Flattened the
World, pp. 48-172. Mingst, International Political Economy, pp 182-216. O'Meara et. al., eds., The New Global Economy, pp. 215-286. Hough, Economic Threats to Security, Accidental Threats
to Security, pp. 83-104, 199-214. |
|
10/12 10/17-10/19 |
CHANGING ACTORS IN
THE CHANGING GLOBAL SYSTEM Clark, Changing Systems, The Mexican Strawberries and Mingst, Global Governance, pp. 217-250. O'Meara, Globalization and Democracy, pp. 159-214. Mingst, The State, The Individual, Human Rights pp.
100-151, 265-271. O'Meara, et. al., eds., Redrawing the Map? Forecasting the Future, pp.
91-211, 221-268 (not including the Genetics Chapter). |
|
11/1-11/3 |
THE NATURAL WORLD Mingst, The Environment, pp. 133-152. Hough, Environmental Threats to Security, pp133-152;
Natural Threats to Security, pp. 179-197. O'Meara et. al., eds, Think Global Act Local: The Environment, pp.
375-406. Hough, Health Threats to Security, pp. 153-178. O'Meara, et. al, eds., Genetics, pp. 368-374. |
|
11/15, 11/17, 11/22 |
COUNTER-GLOBALIZATION
and GLOBALIZED INSECURITY Hough, Military Threats to Security from Non-State Actors, Criminal
Threats to Security, pp. 61-82, 215-230. Mingst, War and Strife, pp. 152-181. Hough, Security and Securitization, pp. 1-20; Military
Threats to Security from States, pp. 21-60. O'Meara, et. al., eds, Global Order and Disorder: Speculations; Global
Order and Disorder: Rejoinders, pp. 1-90. |
|
11/29, 12/1, 12/6, 12/8 |
Presentations |