Great Power Politics (POLS90035)

This subject examines the nature and importance of ‘great powers’ in international relations. While such powers are generally thought to play a central role, significant questions surround their nature and impact on world affairs. What are the sources of their power? How has their nature and influence changed over the past two centuries, as the world of empires transformed into a world of sovereign states? Do great powers have special responsibilities in international relations, and how important is the fulfillment of such responsibilities for peace and cooperation? 

The subject has two organizing themes: how different conceptions of power inform different ideas about the nature and significance of great powers; and how the ethics of great power politics has been debated over time. Exploring these themes, the subject examines debates about the changing nature of great powers, and addresses their contribution to war and peace, the construction and reconstruction of global hierarchies (of civilization, race, and regime type), and the development of institutions of global governance. It concludes by considering two recent critiques: that existing debates about great powers are Eurocentric, and that the emphasis on great powers obscures the transformative impact of ‘weak’ actors on world politics.