Using the Course Materials Repository (CMR) for Exam Preparation

1. Using the Course Materials Repository (CMR) for Exam Preparation Instructions To get to the CMR, first select the link learning & teaching on the right-hand side of the University homepage (highlighted in yellow on the example screen).

2. Locate the CMR Instructions Now select the link Course Materials Repository near the top of the page (again, highlighted in yellow on the example screen).

3. Select the appropriate department Instructions Select the appropriate departmental link… For this example, the Department of Government has been used.

4. Find the appropriate course Instructions For each course there are numerous options. First, select the link course catalogue for the course description. GV902-G-FY has been used for this example.

5. Course descriptionGV902-G-FY: THEORIES OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Year: 2005/2006 • Course Description This course describes and critically assesses the competing theories of international relations. Importantly, this course is neither designed to be an introduction to the contemporary practice of international relations, nor a current affairs course. Its principle aim is to introduce and familiarize students with the rich variety of theoretical approaches that will allow students to better understand and explain international relations. In the first term the course explores the 'great debates' that have historically shaped the discipline of International Relations. Part I considers the early liberal and realist theories of international relations, while Part II analyses the methodological questions generated by these earlier approaches and which led to their modern neo-realist and neo-liberal equivalents. The third part of the course then explores the variety of critical and post-positivist theories that have flourished over the past decade and which have sought to challenge the disciplinary hegemony of realist and liberal approaches. In the Spring term, the course then turns toward considering partial theories of international relations. Part IV reviews the attempts to theorize poverty and justice in international relations, while the fifth part turns towards theories of war and security. The final part of the course considers the new global challenges posed to the nation-state by environmental concerns and globalisation. Instructions You should see something like this, but your departmental and course equivalent… Read this course description – or one that is more relevant to you for the purpose of this exercise.

6. Identify key topics and themes and theories in the course description • Course Description This course describes and critically assesses the competing theories of international relations. Importantly, this course is neither designed to be an introduction to the contemporary practice of international relations, nor a current affairs course. Its principle aim is to introduce and familiarize students with the rich variety of theoretical approaches that will allow students to better understand and explain international relations. In the first term the course explores the 'great debates' that have historically shaped the discipline of International Relations. Part I considers the early liberal and realist theories of international relations, while Part II analyses the methodological questions generated by these earlier approaches and which led to their modern neo-realist and neo-liberal equivalents. The third part of the course then explores the variety of critical and post-positivist theories that have flourished over the past decade and which have sought to challenge the disciplinary hegemony of realist and liberal approaches. In the Spring term, the course then turns toward considering partial theories of international relations. Part IV reviews the attempts to theorize poverty and justice in international relations, while the fifth part turns towards theories of war and security. The final part of the course considers the new global challenges posed to the nation-state by environmental concerns and globalisation. Instructions Read the course description again, more carefully and slowly… During this second reading, highlight or make a note of key and recurring topics, themes, and, if appropriate, theories.

7. Finding past papers Instructions Put the course description aside for the moment, go back to the main CMR page (the course listing) and select the link from the CMR exam papers archive for past exam papers.

8. Finding past papers, continued Instructions Select the appropriate year you wish to look at…

9. Read the exam papers slowly and carefully SECTION ONE 1. Trace and assess the impact of the three so-called ‘Great Debates’ on the development of IR as a discipline. 2. What is the place of ‘morality’ in international politics? 3. What was the main (theoretical) challenge to Realism during the Cold War, and is it still relevant for analysing IR today? 4. Critically examine Kenneth Waltz’s theory of international politics. 5. Define and evaluate the contribution of the ‘English School’ in the development of IR theory. 6. Marxism may still be of interest in the study of world politics after the collapse of the “real, existing socialism”. Do you agree? Explain your reasoning. (End of Section One) SECTION TWO 7. Do regimes matter in world politics? 8. Define the “neo-neo synthesis” and its impact on the evolution of IR theorising. 9. Define and evaluate the contribution of ‘Critical IR Theory’ OR ‘Social Constructivism’ to the Discipline of International Relations? 10. ‘Security is always for someone and for some purpose’. Discuss. 11. What is a ‘just war’ in IR theory and practice? Instructions Go through the past papers and highlight or make a note of the key and recurring __ 1. terms 2. themes, and 3. theories. Unless you are using examples from your own course, read the example to the right.

10. Identify key terms • Realist claim: power politics • ‘Complex interdependence' • ‘International system' c/c 'international society' • Social constructivism • Marxist theorists: global inequality and underdevelopment • Post-modern understanding of international ethics • National sovereignty & humanitarian interventionism: irreconcilable? • The three 'Great Debates' • ‘Levels of analysis' • ‘Outside in' c/c 'inside out' explanations • Neo-liberalism c/c neo-realism ; neo-liberalism = neo-realism??? • Critical theorists • Postmodernist • Constructivism • Feminism Instructions Now make a list of all the key and recurring terms that appear in each of the past papers and combine them… Make sure you are familiar with the main terms, looking up anything that you do not fully understand.

11. Identify key themes • Collective security: utopian/realistic international security system? • Regimes/international institutions: views of neo-liberals c/c neo-realists' • private governance: rise of non-state actors. • Trans-nationalist approach: difficulty explaining relevance of non-state actors Instructions Do the same again, this time making a list of all the key and recurring themes that appear in the past papers…

12. Identify key theories and theorists • Essence of Decision: demolishes the notions that states are either rational in their behaviour or unitary in their character • Graham Allison: bureaucratic politics • Hedley Bull: international society exists • Thomas Kuhn • Imre Lakatos • Hans Morgenthau: traditional realist • Jack Snyder, Myths of Empire: 'The tendency of a great power to overexpand depends most critically on the timing of its industrialisation' • Kenneth Waltz: international anarchy leads to moderation in foreign policy • Kenneth Waltz c/c 'offensive realists' • Alexander Wendt: 'Anarchy is what states make of it' Instructions Now make a list of all the theorists and theories that appear or are eluded to in the past papers…

13. Next, refer to the course outline and the aims and objectives to develop an essay checklist • Aims of the course This course aims to introduce students to the study of the relationship between media and cultural and social life. In particular the focus of the course will be on the technological transformations that have produced the current coexistence of mass media, postmodern media and a digital media culture-including digital and terrestrial television, the Internet, newspapers, land and mobile telephony, digital and analogue images and sounds and so on. The course will look at this system of communication through the work of theorists such as Walter Benjamin, Marshall McLuhan, Jean Baudrillard, Norbert Wiener, Paul Virilio, Brian Massumi, and Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. These classic perspectives will be supplemented with case studies taken from film, music, photography, cinema and the Internet. Throughout the course, the emphasis will be on how technical media constitute not simply representations of the social world but also our very modes of perception. As such our relationship with the media also involves our relationship with the body, social understandings of reality and the culture of interpersonal communication.By the end of the course, students will be expected to be familiar with the main theoretical approaches to the study of media cultures. They will also be expected to be able to apply these different theoretical frameworks to specific case studies. Format: Each session will include an introduction to the subject in question by staff; and a student presentation about the set reading . Some sessions will also include a close engagement with set readings by the major authors in the field. As part of a general orientation towards the analysis of contemporary media culture, the course might also include brief screenings or the use printed material as mini-case studies. There will be 10 lectures in total. Instructions Go back to the course listings and select the first option under each course, Course Materials Location, which will give you the course outline and the aims and objectives. Read this new example…

14. Look closely at what you need to show you have learnt from the course This course aims to introduce students to the study of the relationship between media and cultural and social life. In particular the focus of the course will be on the technological transformations that have produced the current coexistence of mass media, post-modern media and a digital media culture - including digital and terrestrial television, the Internet, newspapers, land and mobile telephony, digital and analogue images and sounds and so on. The course will look at this system of communication through the work of theorists such as Walter Benjamin, Marshall McLuhan, Jean Baudrillard, Norbert Wiener, Paul Virilio, Brian Massumi, and Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. These classic perspectives will be supplemented with case studies taken from film, music, photography, cinema and the Internet. Throughout the course, the emphasis will be on how technical media constitute not simply representations of the social world but also our very modes of perception. As such our relationship with the media also involves our relationship with the body, social understandings of reality and the culture of interpersonal communication. By the end of the course, students will be expected to be familiar with the main theoretical approaches to the study of media cultures. They will also be expected to be able to apply these different theoretical frameworks to specific case studies. Instructions It should be apparent (implicitly, at the very least) what the course aims to develop in terms of skill and knowledge. These need to be identified and highlighted.

15. Determine which kind of evidence is apt • Format: Each session will include an introduction to the subject in question by staff; and a student presentation about the set reading. Some sessions will also include a close engagement with setreadings by the major authorsin the field. As part of a general orientation towards the analysis of contemporary media culture, the course might also includebrief screeningsor the useprinted materialas mini-case studies. There will be 10 lectures in total. Instructions Identify what types of evidence are considered appropriate and use the lists as a basis for gathering your own evidence.

16. Essay checklist In this essay, is it clear that I have… ? • Brought out the relationship between media and cultural and social life? • Recognised the significance of technological transformations (post-modern media and a digital media culture-including digital and terrestrial television, the Internet, newspapers, land and mobile telephony, digital and analogue images and sounds)? • Drawn on the work of theorists (e.g. Walter Benjamin, Marshall McLuhan, Jean Baudrillard, Norbert Wiener, Paul Virilio, Brian Massumi, Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari)? • Illustrated my points through use of case studies (taken from film, music, photography, cinema and the Internet)? • Shown how these constitute our very modes of perception? • And that our relationship with the media also involves our relationship with the body, social understandings of reality and the culture of interpersonal communication? • Demonstrated familiarity with the main theoretical approaches to the study of media cultures and applied these different theoretical frameworks to specific case studies? • ALSO ANSWERED THE QUESTION!!! Instructions Having done that, make an essay checklist that outlines all of the things you need to demonstrate in your exams.