MVZn4008 The World After the End of the Cold War

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2025

The course is not taught in Spring 2025

Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 6 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Zinaida Bechná, Ph.D. (lecturer)
prof. PhDr. Zdeněk Kříž, Ph.D. (lecturer)
RNDr. Petr Marek, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Zdeněk Kříž, Ph.D.
Department of International Relations and European Studies – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Olga Cídlová, DiS.
Supplier department: Department of International Relations and European Studies – Faculty of Social Studies
Prerequisites
Ability to understand written professional text in English.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
This course examines contemporary macroregions of the world with the aim of developing in students of international relations the empirical knowledge base about the contemporary world that is necessary for understanding and analyzing world politics. The course will focus on the evolution of world politics from the end of the Cold War to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It will be taught in an interactive format, where the instructor will assume students' knowledge of the topic in the relevant class, which will be acquired through the study of required readings.
Learning outcomes
- to understand contemporary developments in international relations and to analyse them competently. - interpret current events in world politics in a theoretically informed manner. - analyse the key dimensions of international relations (security, economic, energy, legal and social).
Syllabus
  • 1. Introduction to the subject. 2. Planet Earth as an arena for MV. 3. The international system and its evolution after SV 4. Demographic and social realities of the world. 5. Distribution of mineral resources and their extraction. 6. World politics from the end of World War II to 2001: basic trends. 7. The 1990s: a decade of American hegemony? 8. The transformation of the post-communist world. 9. China's rise to power: causes and implications for world politics. 10. Russia's decline in power: causes and implications for world politics. 11. Russia-Ukraine war and its implications for world politics. 12. Europe's search for a place in world politics. 13. Final discussion
Literature
  • Anděl, Jiří – Bičík, Ivan – Bláha Jan, D. (2021): Makroregiony světa. Nová regionální geografie. Praha: Karolinum.
  • BAYLIS, John, Steve SMITH and Patricia OWENS. The globalization of world politics : an introduction to international relations. 9th edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023, xxiii, 623. ISBN 9780192898142. info
  • VESELÝ, Zdeněk. Mezinárodní vztahy v zrcadle dějin. Plzeň: Vydavatelství a nakladatelství Aleš Čeněk, 2020, 671 stran. ISBN 9788073807924. info
  • DANĚK, Petr. Anděl, Bičík, Bláha: Makroregiony světa. Nová regionální geografie. (Anděl, Bičík, Bláha: World Macre-regions. New Regional Geography.). Informace České geografické společnosti. Česká geografická společnost, 2019, vol. 38, No 2, p. 19-25. ISSN 1213-1075. URL info
Teaching methods
- lectures, reports, group projects, discussions.
Assessment methods
The end of the course will take place in the form of an oral examination of the required literature and lecture content. Students will take 30 broad topics before the exam period begins. For the oral exam, they will be able to choose which one they want to talk about at the beginning. The second heading will be chosen by the examiner.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught every week.
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