Course Meeting Times
Lectures: 1 session / week, 2 hours / session
Course Description
This course focuses on cyberspace and its implications for private and public, sub-national, national, and international actors and entities. Topics include legacies of the 20th-century creation of cyberspace, changes to the international system structure, and new modes of conflict and cooperation. Students will examine whether international relations theory accommodates cyberspace as a new venue of politics, and how cyberpolitics alters traditional international politics.
Prerequisites
This course is open to undergraduate and graduate students with permission from the instructors.
Requirements
Students taking the graduate version are expected to pursue the subject in greater depth through reading and individual research.
For all students, the requirements include a choice of one of the following:
- Research Paper—topic focus, abstract, and outline to be reviewed by the instructors in advance.
- Three short literature review & critique papers (due Week 6, Week 9 and Week 13).
- Take Home Final—(essays—openbook) one required question for all, and choice of two questions among several distributed on the last day of class and due on the following Friday.
Calendar
| WEEK # | TOPICS |
|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction—Cyberspace and International Relations |
| 2 |
Evolution of International Relations Structure, Process, and Levels of Analysis |
| 3 |
The Construction of Cyberspace Concepts and Complexities |
| 4 | Integrating Cyberspace and International Relations |
| 5 | Globalization and Transformation |
| 6 | Contending Theories of International Relations |
| 7 |
Expansion of Cyber Access Evolving Parameters & Power Potentials |
| 8 | Cyber Conflicts and Threats to Security—Types & Cases |
| 9 | Cyber Cooperation and Modes of Collaboration—Types & Cases |
| 10 | Comparative Analysis and Cases in Context |
| 11 |
International Institutional Challenges Re-Visited—Sovereign States, Private Order, ad hoc Arrangements |
| 12 | Global Agenda—Emergent Accord & New Discord |
| 13 | Alternative Futures—Vision, Principles, Trajectories |
