POLI 3340 - The Politics of Empires

Credit Hours: 3

This course will explore the political ideas, traditions and institutions associated with the idea of empires and imperial organization in international order. It will also focus on how empires not only organize foreign policy and foreign affairs, but equally the social and economic lives and cultures of their citizens and subjects. The course will begin with an overview of political science thinking on the values and ethics associated with the idea of empire, and how much of this political thought views empire as the key to peace, progress and prosperity. The course then considers the evolution of the imperial idea throughout political history to its current manifestations in our own age. The classical expression of empire is will first be considered in the examination of the Egyptian, Greek and Roman empires. The course then subsequently will consider the Asian practice of empire in both its Islamic forms (Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal) and Chinese forms. Following this, the course will turn to a treatment of the great trading and colonization empires (British, French, Dutch) and their influence in determining the modern economic and Western international political order. The age of ideological empires will be the fourth section of the course and it will explore not only the Nazi and Communist empires, but those patterns of world and imperial international order influenced by the French Revolution and the liberal internationalism of the United States of America. The course will conclude with a consideration of imperial order and international organization in the current era of globalization and increasing economic integration. In studying the aforementioned, the student will not only meet the general objectives, but also the following political science objectives.

Prerequisite: POLI 1000 or POLI 1100 or Sophomore Standing