All of the following points relate to sharpening the 12 questions listed on the syllabus!

How can we apply generic international relations theory to a region?  Many states claim their history is an exception -- none more vehemently than the United States and China!  Are the Balkans exceptions?

Important preliminaries:

Explanation vs Understanding as objects of our inquiry

Levels of analysis, that is, scales of aggregation or degrees of abstraction at which we identify the most important phenomena

    K. Waltz 1950: man, state, international system

    top-down or bottom-up: principal "causal" connections, e.g., P. Gurevitch "2nd image reversed".  [Then consider the impact upon domestic institutions of 'systemic' influence, with consequences for processes of foreign policy choice and formulation, and call it the 3rd image.  Then 'reverse' that ...]

Big 3: major claims of each:

Realism:

Liberalism:

Marxism:

Why might these grand theories not apply?

Realism: weak states; 'nationalism' [Herder (more generally, his works)], 'civilization', concept of 'national interest'  Herder

Liberalism: imperfect markets, illegal activities, migration (and the spread of conflict, Salehyan and Gleditsch ["Refugees and the Spread of Civil War Source," International organization 60:2 (2006)].

Marx: identify classes? 

MoMs, meaning 'models of man' (and woman)

Is there a Balkan MoM?

    Vulnerability-sensitive 'man'

        who 'remembers the glorious past'

    Instrumentally rational 'man'

        who maximizes expected utility

        who links beliefs to acts via 'practical reasoning' tightly linking deeply held 'wants' and 'acts' [Aristotle: parallel to but even more important than deductive reasoning]

            opportunistic, without much planning