Document Type

Graduate Syllabus

Date

Spring 2025

School

Diplomacy

Course Number

DIPL 6001 WB

Course Description

This course surveys the politics of cultural and ethnic pluralism/diversity as manifested in terms of the plurality of political, economic, cultural, and socio-demographic variables shaping the contemporary world, and their impact on the international system and the practice of international relations. The course focuses on the salient issues that have taken center stage in the modern world, and deals with general issues related to the rise of politicized ethnicity and other cultural cleavages around the world. It explores different theories and perspectives on identity formation, activation, and mobilization. Moreover, factors that contributed co the recent revival of ethnic, religious, and linguistic attachments are investigated.

The lectures for chis course are organized around three schools of thought -- primordialism, instrumentalism and constructivism, all of which purport to explain cultural solidarities. We will try to apply these three perspectives in our study of the politics of cultural pluralism in the contemporary world, with emphasis on why and how ethnic cleavages have become more salient at the beginning of the 21st century. Towards the end of the semester, possible formulas for accommodation of cultural pluralism in multi-ethnic societies are explored.

To this end, the course interrogates national and ethnic identities around the globe and their impact on the human condition. The instructor hopes that, by the time the course topics are covered, each student will have developed a heightened interest in the study of cultural pluralism and an appreciation of the extent to which parochial solidarities (e.g. ethnic, religious, and linguistic solidarities) have become politically salient nowadays. As students interested in Diplomacy and International Relations, you are expected to chink in terms of theories and related policy issues that potentially affect the domestic and foreign policies of culturally plural societies.

Each student will write and present a research paper on any topic related to cultural pluralism either in a specific country (that is, at the sub-national or national levels) or group of countries (that is, at the group level), or globally (that is, at the systemic level), subject to the instructor's approval of the topic. The course will conclude with student PowerPoint (PPT} presentation of research findings and submission of the research paper.

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