The central themes of the course are:
- main disciplinary trends and controversies since c. 1980: neo-realism and neo-liberalism as dominant modes of analysis;
- advent of post-positivism in International Relations; significance of the end of the Cold War;
- new theoretical and methodological approaches with special emphasis on constructivism;
- contemporary critical perspectives, e.g. post-structuralism and the feminist agenda;
- epistemological concerns, meaning the conditions for knowledge about international relations.
