Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL2117: Great Power Politics

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Aims

This module will provide you with:

  • Theoretical understanding of the causes of great power competition and cooperation, including both the comparison of theories to explore their explanatory utility and the application of theory to contemporary debates in great power relations;
  • Empirical knowledge of past and present great power interactions, thereby providing an evidence base with which to assess the competing claims of different explanatory theories as well as the background knowledge that informs our understanding of contemporary problems; and
  • Applicable insights for national security strategy/policy.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of key issues around great power politics and international relations.
2. Apply this awareness to contemporary problems of strategy and statecraft.
Discipline-Specific Skills3. Display an understanding of the evolution of international relations and strategic theory, and their utility for contemporary decision-making.
4. Exercise informed judgement about change and continuity in international politics.
Personal and Key Skills5. Conduct independent research, exercise critical judgement, and write clearly and persuasively.
6. Demonstrate the ability to work independently, within a limited time frame, and without access to external sources, to complete a specified task.

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

(This reading list is indicative– it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list.)

  • John J. Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (New York: Norton, 2001)
  • Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000 (New York: Random House, 1987)
  • Dale C. Copeland, The Origins of Major War (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000)
  • Robert Jervis, The Meaning of the Nuclear Revolution: Statecraft and the Prospect of Armageddon (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990)
  • Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981)
  • Stacie E. Goddard, When Right Makes Might: Rising Powers and World Order (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2018)
  • Paul K. MacDonald and Joseph M. Parent, Twilight of the Titans: Great Power Decline and Retrenchment (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2018)
  • David M. Edelstein, Over the Horizon: Time, Uncertainty, and the Rise of Great Powers (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2017)
  • David M. McCourt, Britain and World Power since 1945: Constructing a Nation’s Role in International Politics (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2014)
  • Michael Beckley, Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World’s Sole Superpower (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2018).