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2020/2021

International Relations and Conflicts in the Modern Age

Code: 100358 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500501 History OT 4 0
2502758 Humanities OT 3 0
2502758 Humanities OT 4 0
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Francisco José Veiga Rodríguez
Email:
Francesc.Veiga@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
spanish (spa)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
No
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
Yes

Prerequisites

A fluid understanding of International Contemporary History. This means knowing main dates and major evolutionary features in the social, economic and political fields. A minimum knowledge of English, necessary for reading academic texts

Objectives and Contextualisation

This subject studies the History of international relations in the period that follows the end of the Cold War (1948-1990). It is, therefore, an exercise of what is called current History or History of present time.
 
The programme covers the years between 1991 and 2016 because  can be identified there a closed period which includes: a) The beginning and end of the so-called New World Order led by the United States as the dominant superpower after the Cold War; b) The Great Recession; c) The reaction against globalization with the emergence of radical nationalisms and populist leaders. All this is accompanied by important transformations in the praxis of international relations.
 
Complementing these contents, the subject provides a study of the period 1979-1989, which lays the foundations for the end of the Cold War and subsequent transformations, as well as terminology and specific concepts of international relations, a study of the evolution of the military science, diplomacy (conflicts and resolution or prevention of them), security and intelligence, and the theory of the state that are common in Political Science and Law but are not usually adapted to the studies in History.

Competences

    History
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Identifying the main historiographical tendencies and critically analysing their development.
  • Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
    Humanities
  • Critically analysing the contemporary culture.
  • Critically analysing today's culture and its historical conditions.
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Identifying the historical processes of contemporary culture.
  • Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analysing the historical processes that led to armed conflicts.
  2. Communicating in your mother tongue or other language both in oral and written form by using specific terminology and techniques of Historiography.
  3. Critically analysing the patterns explaining the historical phases.
  4. Critically assessing and solving the specific historiographical problems of war studies.
  5. Drawing up an academic text using the discipline's specific vocabulary.
  6. Effectively working in teams and respecting different opinions.
  7. Engaging in debates about historical facts respecting the other participants' opinions.
  8. Identifying the main and secondary ideas and expressing them with linguistic correctness.
  9. Identifying the social, economic and political structures of the contemporary world.
  10. Organising and planning the search of historical information.
  11. Properly using the specific vocabulary of History.
  12. Solving problems autonomously.
  13. Submitting works in accordance with both individual and small group demands and personal styles.
  14. Using the characteristic computing resources of the field of History.

Content

1.- 1979-1989: A decade to liquidate the Cold War and prepare the current world
 
2.- Post-Cold War, from 1990 to 1995: Conflicts out of control:  the Balkans, Russia and Africa
 
3.- The world becomes globalized, 1996-2000: Liberalization of financial and labor markets on a worldwide scale
 
4.- The jump to the unknown, 2001 to 2008: The critical impact of 9/11 and the plans to reformulate Eurasia and the Middle East
 
5.- The failure of the New World Order, 2008-2014: The Great Recession, the counterattack of Russia and the new Chinese supremacy
 
6.- Conclusion: the new paradigms of international relations from 2016 onwards

Methodology

The teaching methodology and the training activities will contemplate different aspects, in the part and proportion that the professor considers appropriate. For example:
 
Attendance at theoretical classes led by the professor.
 
Attendance to seminars sessions and practices led by the professor.
 
Comprehensive texts reading
 
Learning strategies in order to obtaining information.
 
Making reviews, works and analytical comments.
 
Building up of oral presentations.
 
Personal study

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Theoretical lessons 40 1.6 1, 8, 11
Workshops and practices led by the professor 5 0.2 10, 7, 14
Type: Supervised      
Scheduled learning exercises 5 0.2 4, 11, 14
Tutorials 15 0.6 10, 13
Type: Autonomous      
Personal study 45 1.8 12, 10
Reading of texts, writing of papers, building up of oral comments and seminars. Search tools to bibliographies 30 1.2 12, 4, 2, 8, 10, 11, 14

Assessment

Standard regulations for a course without confinement incidents and / or teleteaching

As it was stablished  by the Degree Report, approved and in force, the subject will be evaluated regarding the following points:
 
a) Written tests (both partial and final), with cumulative marks that means up to 70% of the total maximum score that will be obtained;
b) Works, reviews, summaries, comments on the analysis of texts and other documents (statistical tables, graphs, maps, images, etc.) and / or preparation of oral comments and interventions in the seminar, with an accumulated score of up to twenty%. of the highest rating;
c) Exhibitions and oral or written comments in the discussion sessions and debate seminars, with an accumulated rating that means up to 10% of the maximum rating;
 
In general terms, in order to pass the subject, the student must obtain a score of 5 out of 10. On the other hand, each professor can set, if he / she thinks it is useful, a minimum that must be achieved in each of the elements a), b ) and c) here contemplated.
 
This translates into:
 
Two or three written exams (70%) spaced throughout the course.
A written work (20%).
Apprenticeships (10%)
 
The student will take a final reevaluation exam, on the date established by the Deanery, destined to reevaluate the students who failed the exams made during the course. Therefore, students must have been present in all the tests that appear in the teaching guide for the current year subject. And must have passed the minimum number of tests (exams) stipulated by the professor (2)

 

Warnings:
 
Only the evaluation activities carried out will be reevaluated and will be held on the official dates established by the Deanery. In no case, may the reavalution be considered as a means of improving the qualification of students who had already passed the subject in the normal process of continuous evaluation. The maximum grade that can be obtained in the re-evaluation is 5.0 (Approved)
 
The plagiarism of written sources (internet, books, works, etc.) or copy in the exam, supposes the annulment of the exercise. In this subject plagiarism control scanner is used
 
The students will have the right to review the results of the tests carried out. The professor will establish opportunely the mechanisms to do it.
 

No special individual exam will be applied or negotiated, regardless of the dates established for the common students. Any imponderable that can affect any specific student, with duly documented justification, will be resolved within the framework of thedates and calls set for all

 

Regulations for cases of confinement and / or teleteaching

Based on the experience of March-June 2020 teleteachung, in case the confinement occurs, this will involve a rethinkig about the number and pattern of exercises to be performed and the percentages of each model of test

In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.

It will be the personal circumstances of those students who prove some specific difficulty arising from confinement, as well as foreigners who have returned to their country. All changes and adaptations will be consulted and agreed with Teaching Coordination of the Department of Modern and Contemporary History.

At the time of completion/delivery of each assessment activity, the teacher will inform (Moodle, SIA) of the procedure and date of revision of the grades.

In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.

The student will be classified as Non-evaluable when he has not delivered more than 30% of the evaluation activities.

 

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Courseworks and learning exercises 45 4 0.16 1, 12, 4, 2, 9, 8, 10, 7, 13, 6, 11
Practices, internships 10 2 0.08 1, 3, 2, 5, 8, 10, 7, 6, 11, 14
Written theoretical tests 45 4 0.16 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 6, 11

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