IR Theory Seminar, November 29th, 2017 PART I. Dependency theory - Gunder Frank · Core and periphery countries · Unequal exchange - exploitation through trade World systems theory · Core, semi-periphery, and periphery countries · Core and periphery products (core products profitable) · Unequal exchange - exploitation through production and trade · Capitalists keep world proletariat (working classes) divided Do you see these theories as applicable to explaining the state of the world today? Do they offer a valid explanation for why some countries are poor and others rich? If their explanation is incomplete or completely invalid in your view, why and what factors better explain economic inequalities between the world's countries? PART II. Cosmopolitanism · Derived from Kant · Good rooted in the individual · Good universal · Borders meaningless · Can individual be abstracted from community? Communitarianism · Derived from Hegel · Good rooted in the community · Good local/specific · Borders ethically meaningful · Moral relativism? In small groups, sketch out two articles addressing child refugees from Calais that the UK promised to take in but are currently still in France - one from a communitarian perspective and one from a cosmopolitan perspective. Questions to discuss: 1. Are there values and norms that are universal? What are they? 2. Do/can cosmopolitanism and communitarianism lead to the same moral conclusions? Is one arguably better than the other for global outcomes? 3. Which approach to international politics - cosmopolitanism or communitarianism - is most influential in IR practice today? What about the IR theories we have studied so far?