PREREQUISITES
PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE
SUBJECTS TO BE TAKEN SIMULTANEOUSLY
SUBJECT DESCRIPTION
Core
group
The course
seeks to provide a theoretical and chronological framework of the main
historical milestones and events in the 20th century and conclude
with an introduction to the key geopolitical forces in the 21st
century.
In light of
this, the course is organized in three chronological modules which depict a
“brief 20th century”, inasmuch as it begins with the outbreak of the
Great War, and it closes with the attack on the Twin Towers in New York in
2001.
While the
course does not disregard the factual contents of the subject, it also seeks to
interpret the events in order to give an insight to the evolution of the 20th
century and its transition to the 21 century.
Therefore
the course is divided into two modules which have got specific goals aimed at
International Relations students and which are detailed in the content section.
Learning Unit 1: The interpretation
of recent contemporariness (Prof. Xavier Díez)
To know the
main interpretative models that are prevalent in contemporary history and the conceptions
that support them. The models are the end of history, conceived by Fukuyama,
which considers the neoliberal model as the pinnacle of historical evolution,
civilization hostility as a change agent, the Keynesian vision, and the defense
of social-democracy based on a feeling of discontentment at the onset of 21st
century as stated by Tony Judt.
Learning
Unit 2: Globalization: live analysis of global transformations (Prof. Xavier
Díez)
To know the
current historical processes, related to complex processes of globalization,
and the deep transformations that they bring about at different levels —social,
work-related, philosophical, cultural, economic—, and their impact on the
public and private sphere.
COMPETENCES
1. To learn how to apply the specific methods
and approaches in history to the course topics.
2. To grasp the complex nature of international
relations based on history.
The above competences will be assessed based on the criteria and
instruments detailed below.
It is expected that students achieve the following learning outcomes at the end of the course:
1. To identify the main
questions of Contemporary History in order to have a global outlook and to
pinpoint the topics related to international relations.
CONTENTS
Core
group:
Module 1.
The interwar world (1914-1945)
1. La Great
War (1914-1918)
2. The
post-war world (1918-1929)
3. Mass
society
4. The outset
of the Soviet era: from Lenin to Stalin (1917-1927)
5. USA: from
the Wall Street crash of 1929 to the New Deal
6. New and
old nationalisms: fascism and Nazism
7. New and
old nationalisms (2): Stalin’s USSR and Hirohito’s Japan
8. The
Second World War (1939-1945)
Module 1
reflects on the configuration of the world in the second half of the 20th
century based on questions that are nowadays up-to-date (because of the new
economic depression and the crisis of representative democracies):
* The notion
of the Great World as the hinge between the Ancient Regime society and the
onset of the capitalist era (following Arno J. Mayer’s thesis).
* The global
impact of the first economic crisis.
* The
downfall of the system of international alliances.
* The crisis
in parliamentarism and the onset of political organizations and mass movements
(fascisms and communism).
* The
perception of the 1914-1945 period as a prolonged European civil war.
Module 2.
The Cold War world (1945-1989)
9. Origins
of the Cold War (1944-1948)
10. The
apotheosis of the Cold War (1948-1953)
11. Decolonization
and the birth of the Third World
12. From
Cold War to a peaceful coexistence (1953-1973)
13. Origins
of the Second Cold War (1973-1979)
14. From the
Second Cold War to the demise of the Soviet bloc (1979-1989)
Module 2
examines the evolution of the bipolar world and the complexity of breaking the
stability.
* The
emergence of a bipolar world, and the transfer of conflicts to the periphery of
the two superpowers (US and USSR).
* The
creation of a structure of spheres of influences that were hard to dismantle,
as the cases of Salvador Allende in Chile, the colonels’ dictatorship in Greece
or Italian politics exemplify.
* Decolonization
and its impact. The Non-Aligned Movement.
* The
outbreak of the global anti-imperialism discourse: the case of Cuba and Guevarism.
* The limits
of “the balance of terror”, in which the Soviet Union loses the war race in the
so-called “Star Wars”.
From the
“end of history” to the “clash of civilizations” (1992-2001)
15. From the
Gulf War to 9/11 (1990-2001): from euphoria to dysphoria
* The
First Gulf War: US and the New World Order. The role of the US as the world’s
police force and its limitations.
* The
failure of Perestroika: the end of the USSR and the return of Russia:
the failure of real socialism and the end of the bipolar world.
* The
European Union: the problem of creating an alternative to the US.
* The
emergence of Asia: Japan, China and the Asian tigers
* The
problems of Africa.
* The
9/11 attacks in 2011 as the trigger for the theories of confrontation (Samuel
P. Huntington’s “clash of civilizations”), the emergence of Islamic
fundamentalism as a political actor, and the conversion of anti-Semitism into
Islamophobia in Europe.
Learning
Unit 1: The interpretation of contemporaneity
- Interpretation
based on conservative Anglo-Saxon thought: the paradigm of liberal democracy
and market economy: the “end of history” (Francis Fukuyama)
- Western
political and military hegemony (Robert Kagan)
- Assessment of
multiculturalism and the clash of civilizations (Samuel P. Huntington)
- The
Neo-Keynesian and social democratic interpretation of the current crisis
- Assessment of unruled
capitalism (Joseph Stiglitz)
- Assessment of
the social effects of neoliberalism (Tony Judt)
Learning
Unit 2: Globalization: analysis of global transformations
- Basic features
of processes of economic, social and cultural internationalization.
- Assessment of the
politics of global economy (Stiglitz), the transformation of the paradigms
in society (Ulrich Beck), in work (Richard Sennet), and geopolitical
transformations (Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri) and their impact on the
individual sphere (Zygmunt Bauman)
- Interpretation
and analysis of globalization: definitions and features of contemporary
processes of globalization. The arguments for and against. The shock
doctrine. (Naomi Klein)
METHODOLOGY
Core
group
* Individual
exercises in class about the course topics.
* Individual
exercises outside class about the course topics.
* Final exam.
Learning Units
* Reading, analysis
and debate of three compulsory readings about opposed views on the recent past.
* Exercises
in and outside class about current international news stories related to the
course contents.
* Presentations and forums about the topics
dealt with in class.
EVALUATION
Students must pass the different parts of the course separately. The
final grade is based on continuous assessment which takes into account the
following assessed items and percentages.
Core
group:
Assessment
will follow the criteria below:
* 60% of the
final grade is based on the core group.
* The above
60% is divided into: 40% (final exam); 20% (individual exercises, reading,
presentations and class debates).
*Students
must submit at least 70% of the class exercises to have the right to take the
final exam. If a student does not fulfil this criterion, he/she will not be
able to take the final exam, and therefore he/she will fail the course.
* 40% of the
final grade is based on the two LUs (each of them is worth 20% of the final
mark).
* The
assessment can be carried out through exercises or tests, depending on the
teacher responsible. In any case, the course can only be passed provided 70% of
the LU exercises or activities have been completed.
* To pass
the course, the student must pass both the core group and the LUs. If he/she
fails one of the parts, he/she has to re-take only that part in the second sitting.
* Only
students who have submitted at least 70% of the exercises can sit the final
exam in the second sitting. If the student does not pass the part that he/she
has failed in the second sitting, he/she will fail the whole subject and will
have to re-register for the course in the next academic year—for which no
grades will be saved.
Core
group
First
sitting
* Exam 50%
* Assessment
of individual exercises 50%
Second
sitting
The grade
for the individual exercises will be kept and the exam will be re-taken.
Learning
Unit 1:
First
sitting:
*Both LUs
will be assessed in a comprehensive way and based on three exercises:
*Exercise 1:
analysis of a current international conflict from a historical perspective. It
is a group activity that will result into an audiovisual documentary (10-15
minutes long). This exercise is worth 40% of the grade for the LUs.
*Exercise 2:
Individual participation in a virtual forum about some aspects of
globalization. This exercise is worth 30% of the grade for the LUs.
*Exercise 3:
An exam about the compulsory readings, worth 30% of the grade for the LUs.
Second sitting
Given the
global nature of the activity, students will repeat exercise 1 individually.
Half of the
grade for LU 1 is the average mark resulting from the tests on the texts
commented in class, and the other 50% is based on a comprehensive course summary.
Because assessment is based on attendance, if a student does not attend the
sessions, he/she cannot be evaluated for LU 1 and no longer has the right to
pass the course.
If the student fails LU 1, the above percentages are preserved in the second
sitting.
Learning
Unit 2:
First
sitting:
See
indications for LU 1 above.
Second
sitting:
See
indications for LU 1 above.
Half of the
grade for LU 2 is the average mark resulting from the tests on the texts
commented in class, and the other 50% is based on a comprehensive course
summary. Because assessment is based on attendance, if a student does not
attend the sessions, he/she cannot be evaluated for LU 2 and no longer has the
right to pass the course.
If the student fails LU 2, the above percentages are preserved in the second
sitting.
VERY IMPORTANT: Both the core
group (theory) and LUs must be passed separately to pass the course. In the
second sitting, the student will have the right to take only the part which
he/she failed in the fist sitting (following the same percentages), but he/she
cannot sit the part which was not taken in the first sitting. In the latter
case, the student will fail the entire course and will have to re-take it in
the following academic year.
CRITERIA OF EVALUATION OF RESULTS
The following criteria will be
considered to evaluate the different assessment criteria:
- To
demonstrate the knowledge of the evolution of the world from 1914 to 2001.
- The
student will show the above knowledge by completing the final written exam
and also the various essays throughout the course, both in the core group
and the LU.
BASIC BIBLIOGRAPHY
Core group:
FONTANA, Josep, Por el bien del imperio. Una
historia del mundo desde 1945. Pasado y presente, Barcelona, 2011
FUENTES, Juan Francisco; LA PARRA LÓPEZ, Emilio. Historia
universal del siglo XX. De la Primera Guerra Mundial al ataque de las Torres
Gemelas (Síntesis, Madrid, 2008).
HOBSBAWM, Eric J.. Historia del siglo XX (Crítica,
Barcelona, 1995).
JUDT, Tony, Postguerra (Taurus,
Madrid, 2006).
TOOZE, Adam. El diluvio. La Gran Guerra y la
reconstrucción del orden mundial (1916-1931) (Crítica, Barcelona, 2016).
VEIGA, Francisco. El desequilibrio como orden.
Una historia de la posguerra fría 1990-2008 (Alianza, Madrid, 2009).
VEIGA, Francisco; UCELAY DA-CAL, Enric; DUARTE,
Àngel. La paz simulada. Una historia de la Guerra Fria
(1941-1991) (Alianza Editorial, Madrid, 2001).
Learning Unit 1:
FUKUYAMA, Francis; “El fin de la historia y otros
escritos” (Dossier)
HUNTINGTON, Samuel P. “¿Choque de civilizaciones?, Foreing
Affairs, 1993
JUDT, Tony, Algo va mal. Taurus, Madrid, 2011
Learning Unit 2:
BAUMAN, Zygmunt, Tiempos líquidos. Vivir en una
época de incertidumbres, Tusquets Eds., Barcelona, 2007
KLEIN,
Naomi, La doctrina del shock. El auge del capitalismo del desastre.
Paidós, Barcelona, 2007.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND MATTER COMPLEMENTARY
Core group:
ALEKSIÉVICH, Svetlana. El fin del
«Homo sovieticus» (El Acantilado, Barcelona, 2015).
CASANOVA, Julián. Europa contra Europa, 1914-1945
(Crítica, Barcelona, 2011).
JUDT, Tony. Sobre el olvidado siglo XX (Taurus,
Madrid, 2008).
MISHRA, Pankaj. De las ruinas de los imperios
(Galaxia Gutenberg, Barcelona, 2014).
WASSERSTEIN, Bernard. Barbarie y civilización. Una
historia de la Europa de nuestro tiempo (Ariel, Barcelona, 2007 [2ª ed.
2010]).
Learning Unit 1:
KAGAN, Robert. Poder y debilidad. Europa y Estados
Unidos en el nuevo orden internacional. Taurus, Madrid, 2003
KAPLAN, ROBERT D. The Revenge of Geography. What
the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against. Random
House, New York 2012 (Vers. Esp. La venganza de la geografia. Cómo los mapas
condicionan el destino de las naciones. RBA, Barcelona, 2013
LURI, El neoconservadurisme americà, Angle
Editorial – Idees, Assaig breu, Barcelona, 2006
TOURAINE, Alain, Un nuevo paradigma para comprender
el mundo de hoy, Paidós, Barcelona, 2005
Learning Unit 2:
ACEMOGLOU, Daron; ROBINSON, James A. ¿Por qué
fracasan los países? Los orígenes del poder, la prosperidad y la pobreza, Deusto
S. A. Ediciones, 2012
BECK, Ulrich, Un nuevo mundo feliz. La precariedad
del trabajo en la era de la globalización. Paidós, Barcelona, 2007
FONTANA, Josep; El futuro es un país extraño. Una
reflexión sobre la crisis social de comienzos del siglo XXI, Pasado &
Presente, Barcelona, 2013
HARDT, Michael, NEGRI, Antonio, Imperio,
Paidós, Barcelona, 2005