AnnouncementsCheck this space regularly for announcements related to the course.1 April 2008The web site and me are back on speaking terms. Please resume checking this space for announcements. Today's e-mail will likely be the last time this semester I use e-mail rather than this announcements for items of general interest. We will meet in the classroom this evening. The topic will be "The Ethics of Intervention." I've posted a range of pages to read in Walzer, but at this point the main objective is simply to finish Just and Unjust Wars by Tuesday, April 8. 10 March 2008I apologize for posting this announcement so late, but we WILL be meeting at my place tomorrow evening for class. I have some pizzas to put in the oven. If you would like to bring drinks or a dessert, that would be great, but please don't feel obligated. I've still got work going on in the condo, but I don't think anything will be happening tomorrow that will raise too much dust. The topic for tomorrow is genocide and the assigned reading is from Donnelly's International Human Rights. Refer to the discussion questions in the book. (Many of Donnelly's questions are very challenging.) I'll be asking a few of you to spend five to seven minutes talking about the subject of your biographical paper. I'll try to decide who gets to do that and e-mail the relevant parties during the day tomorrow. And I will return the exams and papers tomorrow evening. 24 February 2008Tuesday's mid-term exam will end by 8:00 p.m. During the second half of class, I would like each of you to be prepared to spend about five minutes summarizing your biographical paper. The women you've written about deserve to be a little more widely known. 22 February 2008The review sheet for the mid-term exam has been revised. It is available here. Please keep in mind that the review sheet is a rough guide, not a comprehensive list of topics that may appear on the test. Whether the material appears on the review sheet or not, you will be held responsible for the readings assigned to this point and for the information covered in class. Please remember to bring a blue book to the exam. 19 February 2008I've posted discussion questions (for last week and this week) related to the last half of Brian Orend's Human Rights: Concept and Context. (Better late than never.) The Institute for Law, Religion and Ethics at the School of Law is hosting a conference on Thursday and Friday on the topic "Is There a Higher Law? Does It Matter?" The conference schedule is located here. I would encourage you to attend as much of the conference as you can. In connection with the ILRE conference, I have decided to add an option for the short writing assignment that I mentioned last week. You may write your one-page paper on one of three topics. Details (including the due date) are available here. Once again, we'll be meeting in AC 236 tonight. 17 February 2008Class will be meeting in AC 236 this week. We'll return to our discussion of human rights, so please try to finish reading Orend's Human Rights: Concept and Context. Don't forget that biographical papers are due on Tuesday at the beginning of class. 12 February 2008First of all, thanks to Andrea and Kathleen for their willingness to drive down to Cal State Long Beach this afternoon. Those of us who are going together--eleven of us, if the information you've given me is correct--should fit comfortably into the three cars (mine included). We will leave from the corner of the Rho parking lot near the Student Health Center promptly at 4:00 p.m. I will have maps for the drivers (or their navigators) and instructions concerning parking. Our agenda involves a film double-feature. At 5:30, we will see King Leopold's Ghost, a documentary based on the award-winning book of the same title. (For more on the film, go here.) At 7:30, we will see New Year Baby, a documentary by Socheata Poeuv about her return to Cambodia to uncover her family's story. (The film's web site is here.) Dinner will probably be a quick meal on campus given what appears to be a tight schedule. (For those traveling separately, both films will be shown in the University Student Union near the center of the CSU-LB campus. Maps are available on-line.) There will be a short writing assignment related to the films. (This is the paper mentioned in the syllabus that is worth 5 percent of the course grade.) Those unable to attend tonight with the group will have the option of seeing the films independently (if available) in order to write the same paper or writing a brief paper on a genocide memoir that I will assign. Details will follow. 10 February 2008With one exception, everyone I've heard from is able to make the trip to Long Beach State on Tuesday. (If you cannot go and have not already informed me of that fact, please let me know as soon as possible.) We'll be needing three people to join me in driving down. If you're interested in driving, please send me an e-mail as soon as possible so we can get the logistics worked out. (I'm working on getting the Social Science Division to cover expenses for those who drive. I should know something about that tomorrow.) The trip to Long Beach State for the conference on genocide will, of course, take the place of class this week. We'll leave Pepperdine at 4:00 p.m. (in hopes of arriving in time for the 5:30 p.m. screening of King Leopold's Ghost and return after the 7:30 p.m. screening of the documentary New Year Baby. That should put us back here before 10:00 p.m. Let me know if you have questions--or if you are willing to drive. 4 February 2008We will meet at my home tomorrow night. There will be food--probably sandwiches or pizza. While most of the evening will be devoted to the subject of human rights, we'll take a break at some point in the evening to check on Super Tuesday results. Before class tomorrow, please check your calendars to see if you would be available for a road trip down to Long Beach next week. I have an idea I'd like to discuss tomorrow evening. (For a preview, go here.) Be sure to read Orend and Donnelly. 1 February 2008Questions based on the first 100 pages of Brian Orend's Human Rights: Concept and Context have been posted here. I will try to post a few questions based on Jack Donnelly's International Human Rights later this weekend. If The Graphic can be trusted, Rendition will be shown in Elkins Auditorium tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m. This is a very good film with a plot pulled from recent headlines. 28 January 2008Here's the plan for this week: I'm going to assign Michael Collins, a 1996 film starring Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, and Julia Roberts that depicts the life of Ireland's revolutionary leader and founder of the Irish Republican Army. You may either see the film on your own or come to AC 236 tomorrow evening at 8:00 p.m. to view it with the class. (Running time for the film is 2:13.) We could start earlier, but I'd like to give those who are interested an opportunity to attend the lecture in Smothers Theater that begins at 7:00 p.m. Tomorrow I will e-mail you individually with instructions for either dinner on Thursday or lunch on Friday at my home. I still haven't heard from everyone in the class, but it looks like it will be possible to divide the group up almost equally between the two meals / discussions. Don't forget the reading. Questions are posted here. Let me encourage you to attend the lecture in Smothers tomorrow evening. Marianne Jennings, a professor of business ethics at Arizona State University, will be speaking on "What Makes Really Smart and Good People Do Really Dumb and Unethical Things." 26 January 2008If you haven't already done so, please don't forget to respond to the questions posted in the announcement below (and in my e-mail message). Based on the few responses I've received thus far, I expect to assign the film Michael Collins and to arrange discussions on Thursday evening and Friday at noon. (The discussions may touch on Michael Collins, but will be focused on Michael Ignatieff's The Lesser Evil.) Discussion questions related to the second half of Ignatieff's book have been posted here. Please check back soon for more details on plans for the week of January 28-February 1. 25 January 2008[If you've read your e-mail from me, you've already seen this announcement.] Here’s what I’d like to do for class next week:
To make this work, I need some information from each of you. Could you please respond by e-mail with an answer to each of the following questions?
Thanks for your help with this. Have a good weekend. 21 January 2008The course schedule indicates (correctly) that we'll be covering the first half (pp. 1-81) of Michael Ignatieff's The Lesser Evil tomorrow evening. To facilitate the discussion, I've posted some questions based on the reading here. Once again, we'll be meeting in AC 236 for class. At about 6:40, we'll break in order to attend the panel discussion on immigration being held in Elkins Auditorium from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. The panel will include Dr. Joel Fetzer, Dr. Dan Rodriguez, and me. I hope in my own comments to bring a human rights perspective to bear on the subject of immigration. In case you're wondering, the wedding on Saturday was beautiful. I'm sorry I ever advocated in favor of eloping. 15 January 2008We will meet in AC 236 again this evening. On our agenda will be some discussion of the readings (see the discussion questions here) and a documentary on J. Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the atomic bomb entitled The Day after Trinity. We will also discuss some of the challenges in trying to apply ethical principles to issues of international politics. 10 January 2008I think we got off to a pretty good start on Tuesday. Thank you for your participation in the class. I have posted some questions to guide your reading for next Tuesday night. As always, the questions for discussion are available here. There are a couple of announcements I've recently received that might be of interest to some of you. The first, from Melissa Umbro, concerns the Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Scholarship:
The second pertains to a screening of Amazing Grace on Monday, January 21:
6 January 2008Apparently I had the timing wrong in the announcement below. Until a few minutes ago, I thought Ethics and International Politics would be meeting on Thursday nights as it has almost every time I've taught it at Pepperdine over the course of the last fifteen years. A simple "see you Tuesday" in an e-mail sent me to the Spring 2008 Schedule of Classes where, much to my surprise, I found the course listed with a "T" for Tuesday rather than an "R" for Thursday. Thinking there must have been a mistake, I checked the online Schedule of Classes. It said "T" there, too. Then I went back to my e-mail from last September in which I listed my preferences for the spring schedule. There it was: the Original Sin. I was the one who initially put down "T" rather than "R" for the day of the week. So, consider this a clarification (primarily for my own benefit): POSC 549 will meet on Tuesday nights this semester. The assignments listed below for the first class meeting still stand. Thanks to those of you who have sent photos and biographies. They will be posted soon. We will occasionally meet in my home, but at least for this first week we will be in our home away from my home, AC 236. Let me know if you have any questions. 2 January 2008Happy New Year! With the class scheduled to begin one week from tomorrow, I want to welcome you and to make a few assignments so we can hit the ground running. First, unless you object to having these things posted on the course web site, please send me a digital photo of yourself along with a brief biography (approximately 150 words) to be posted on the course web site here. Second, read Chapter 1 of Rushworth Kidder's How Good People Make Tough Choices. (I have not ordered this book for our class, but the first chapter is available here on the website of the Institute for Global Ethics.) As you read this chapter, think of an ethical dilemma (not a moral temptation, to use Kidder's distinction) that you have faced, preferably one that you would be willing to describe to the rest of the class. Think, too, about how your dilemma fits into one of Kidder's four "dilemma paradigms" and how your method of resolving the dilemma conforms to one or more of the principles that Kidder introduces near the end of the chapter. To prepare for the class discussion related to this reading, please take a look at the questions posted here. Third, view The Mission. The DVD will be placed on reserve at Payson Library, but you might prefer to rent it or even purchase a copy. You should watch the movie carefully and be prepared to discuss it in depth. You might find it helpful to read this brief essay after you have watched the film. Finally, if you wish to get a jump on some of the assignments for the course, take a look at this list of films and this list of biographical subjects. During the semester, you'll be asked to write brief papers about one of the films and one of the women listed. If you have time in the days remaining before the semester begins, you might consider watching one or two of the films on the list and doing some preliminary research on a few of the biographical subjects. Please check back for additional announcements as we get closer to our first class meeting. As for the rest of the web site, I have a lot of editing to do. Much of what you'll find here at present is left from last spring. While much will be the same (or at least similar), there will be some significant changes, so don't put too much stock in pages with a "revised" date that goes back several months. I'm looking forward to a great semester. We'll have a lot to discuss from the very first evening we meet. 16 November 2007Welcome to those of you who have registered for Ethics and International Politics for the Spring 2008 semester. Most of the content on this web site is still geared toward the course as it was taught last spring, but I have just updated the list of required texts for those who may want to order books before returning to campus in January. You can find that list here. Revised: April 01, 2008 . |
