Nov. 26, 2021
What We Are Learning This Week with Dr. Gavin Cameron
We’re exploring the concept of justice within global politics.
November 29, 2021 in POLI 381 Intro to International Relations Dr. Gavin Cameron is exploring the concept of justice within global politics
Can you tell us a little more about this topic?
The topic reintroduces ideas of universalist and pluralist ethics, discussed earlier in the course, and then asks how concepts of “fairness” might be applied to some of the issues we have considered already such environmental politics or postcolonialism, for example. The discussion also builds on earlier related topics, such as international law, and on competing theoretical conceptions of global politics.
What else do you cover in your course?
We spend several weeks discussing different theories of international relations. Rather than simply presenting these as competing ideas within the discipline, I try to emphasise the different understanding of the key actors, issues and driving logics that underpin each theoretical conception of global politics. We then move on to examining various issues within global politics, using the theories to consider different possibilities within the same issue. For example, when we look at international security, a realist and a feminist have different ideas of what is being secured and against what threat.
What do you love about teaching this course?
I enjoy that this is a broad introductory course—it covers a wide range of different theories and issues, so the challenge is to ensure the material “make sense” relatively quickly. I also want to honour the ideas that I present on their own terms, so I will advocate strongly for a theory or idea, even if I disagree with it or if it contradicts what I advocated for the previous week. Students tend to quickly grasp what I am doing and that is usually when they start engaging with the material because they can see the possibilities and limitations implicit in those ideas. That is when we have the best class discussions, along the lines of “but what about…?”
Finally, what other courses would you recommend for students interested this topic?
POLI 381 is an introductory course, so we cover a lot of material relatively briefly, and it is the pre-requisite for international relations classes at the 400 and 500-level. Students can treat POLI 381 as a taster for the issues within international relations that they want to explore further. We have whole courses on international security, international political economy, international law or international organizations, for example, topics that would occupy one week in POLI 381.