Led by Professor Jeremi Suri (Department of History) and Professor Jonathan Zeitlin (Departments of Sociology, Political Science, and the LaFollette School of Public Affairs)
This faculty development seminar will focus on the topic of "international governance." This is an area of research that has drawn major interest in the last decade from scholars in numerous humanistic and social science disciplines. The growing dangers attributed to unfettered competition among states in a world of proliferating weapons, rapid environmental degradation, and widening economic inequality have pushed diverse observers to contemplate alternatives to Westphalian presumptions about state sovereignty. The nation-state, in this sense, has lost some of its historical legitimacy. Numerous groups and institutions have coalesced in recent years to offer new approaches to governance on a transnational scale. Our seminar will not seek to build expertise about particular proposals for international governance, nor will it offer any proposals of its own. Instead, we will seek to interrogate the core conceptual issues behind the movement toward international governance. We will treat this topic as central humanistic dilemma - how to build order in diversity, cooperation with competition. In addressing questions of international governance in these terms we will take a broad approach, interrogating some of the most influential public discourses, historical experiences, and contemporary experiments with international governance. We will also examine some of the criticisms of globalization, especially those that question its effects on local culture, political accountability, and social equality. We expect that this is an approach that can draw fruitfully on many different humanistic fields of study, and contribute to the research of many diverse humanities scholars.
Weekly meetings of our seminar will center on the reading and discussion of argumentative, conceptual texts. These will include books and articles from scholars in a variety of disciplines - including history, philosophy, literature, anthropology, sociology, legal studies, and political science. The texts will offer diverse perspectives on three theoretical and empirical questions, around which we will structure discussions:
In the end, we hope to build a community of scholars interested in one of the most enduring questions at the root of humanistic study: how can human beings live peacefully together. Recent scholarship on international governance returns us to this basic question, with clear and obvious connections to our contemporary world, and the many disciplines that comprise a vibrant "republic of letters."
The Faculty Development Seminars in the Humanities receives major support from the Dean of the College of Letters and Sciences, the Institute for Research in the Humanities, and the Center for the Humanities. The Seminars provide a formal setting for faculty that promotes sustained collaboration and dialogue across disciplinary lines on a specific topic. This project is designed to enhance the quality of Humanities Research at UW-Madison. This particular seminar is co-sponsored by the Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE).
We intend to meet for ten consecutive weeks. To encourage community-building, we might plan our meetings to coincide with a group dinner. Each meeting will focus on a specific text or texts that everyone will read in advance. The two seminar leaders will start each week's discussion with a short 10 minute introduction, after which we will open a free-flowing seminar conversation. The two seminar leaders will offer some short wrap-up remarks at the end of each session, highlighting key topics in anticipation of the next seminar meeting.
Week 1: Towards Perpetual Peace? Kant and International Governance
Immanuel Kant, "Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch", in Kant, Political Writings, ed. H.S. Reis (2nd., ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 93-130.
James Bohman and Matthias Lutz-Bachman (eds.), Perpetual Peace: Essays on Kant's Cosmopolitan Ideal (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997), selections.
Week 2: Sovereignty and the Nation-State: From Hobbes to Globalization
Istvan Hont, "The Permanent Crisis of a Divided Mankind: 'Nation-State' and 'Nationalism' in Historical Perspective", Political Studies (1994), reprinted in his Jealousy of Trade: International Competition and the Nation-State in Historical Perspective (Cambridge, MA: Harvard/Belknapp Press), 447-528 (+ commentary in the Introduction, 111-56).
Stephen D. Krasner, "Globalization and Sovereignty", in David A. Smith et al. (eds.), States and Sovereignty in the Global Economy (London: Routledge, 1999), 34-52.
Week 3: The "First Globalization"
Suzanne Berger, The First Globalization: Lessons from the French, published in French by Le Seuil, Paris, 2003; English version available online.
The First Globalization: Lessons in French
Paul Hirst and Grahame Thompson, Globalization in Question, 2nd revised edition (Cambridge: Polity, 1999), ch. 2 ("Globalization and the History of the International Economy"), pp. 19-61.
Week 4: The United Nations and International Law
Elizabeth Borgwardt, A New Deal for the World: America's Vision for Human Rights (Cambridge, MA; Harvard/Bellknap Press, 2005), selections.
Week 5: Postwar "Realism" and International Governance
Martti Koskenniemi, "Out of Europe: Carl Schmitt, Hans Morgenthau, and the Turn to 'International Relations'", in his The Gentle Civilizer of Nations: The Rise and Fall of International Law 1870-1960 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 413-509.
Jeremi Suri, Henry Kissinger and the American Century (2007), selections.
Week 6: International Organizations and Global Governance
Paul Kennedy, The Parliament of Man: The Past, Present, and Future of the United Nations(New York: Random House, 2006), selections.
Michael N. Barnett and Martha Finnemore, 1999: "The Politics, Power, and Pathologies of International Organizations", International Organization 53(4): 699-732.
Week 7: Civil Society and International Governance
Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Transnational Advocacy Networks in World Politics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998).
John Keane, Global Civil Society? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), selections - to be confirmed.
Week 8: International Governance of Violence
Samantha Power, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide (New York: HarperCollins, 2002), selections.
Week 9: The European Union as an Experiment in Post-National Governance
Brigid Laffan and Sonia Mazey, "European Integration: The European Union - Reaching an Equilibrium?", in Jeremy Richardson (ed.), European Union: Power and Policy-Making, 3rd ed., (London: Routledge, 2006), 31-54.
Jan Zielonka, Europe as Empire: The Nature of the Enlarged European Union (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), selections.
Charles Sabel and Jonathan Zeitlin, "Learning from Difference: The New Architecture of Experimentalist Governance in the EU", unpublished working paper, Columbia Law School/University of Wisconsin-Madison (2007).
Week 10: Democracy and International Governance
Ruth W. Grant and Robert O. Keohane, "Accountability and Abuses of Power in World Politics",American Political Science Review 99, 1 (2005): 29-43.
Joshua Cohen and Charles Sabel, "Global Democracy?" NYU Journal of International Law & Politics 37, 4 (2005): 763-97
David Held and Mathias Koenig-Archibugi (eds.), Global Governance and Public Accountability(London: Basil Blackwell, 2005), selections.