The eleventh in the ongoing series. This week, relational theory: boundary processes and sovereign practices, especially the formation of identities.

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The tenth lecture for this semester’s rendition of SIS-301: systems, structures, and what it means to think about theoretical explanations of world politics that don’t place individuals and their decisions at the center.

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The ninth lecture for SIS-301: contemporary mainstream US IR theory, realism/liberalism/constructivism. And their fundamental similarity as different hypotheses — reductionist hypotheses — about state behavior.

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Lecture 8 for SIS-301 Theories of International Politics. This week’s topic: E. H. Carr, and the rise of social science disciplines as a way of organizing knowledge.

Yes, these lectures are getting longer. I hope to stop that precedent next week, and try to curb my enthusiasm a bit.

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Lecture 7, for your listening enjoyment: Hegel, historical dialectics, and the progress of reason. A little longer than usual, because there was a lot to say.

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The diagrams we drew on the board in class this week — and, full disclosure, that’s not the first time I have used such diagrams — seemed to need a supplemental lecture of their own, as we gather our thoughts before diving into Hegel for the week after the break. Accordingly, here’s a supplemental lecture on the differences in modes of authority between Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Kant. Plus some thoughts on universal Reason.

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Lecture 6, Kant. Longer lecture than usual, because with Kant, there is usually a lot more to say.

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