Bruce Parrott

Designed to familiarize doctoral candidates with basic epistemological and methodological issues connected with doctoral research. The first part of the course explores various ways that scholars approach matters of conceptualization and evidence. The second part examines how scholars move from the kernel of an idea to a testable research hypothesis and then to a research design.

This course examines processes through which Moscow became one of the world's two superpowers and later lost that position. It focuses on several issues: the changing nature of international power during the past century; the evolution of Moscow's foreign relations; the domestic political and economic processes through which the Stalinist garrison state generated international power; and the system's vulnerabilities under conditions of incipient globalization. The course also briefly examines the prospects for Russia to resume a central global role in the new century.

Examines the interplay between Russia's relations with established international and regional powers. Traces this interplay in Russia's relations with the United States and the European Union; with Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan; and with China, India, and Japan.

The troubled relationship between political power and ethnonationalism is a central issue of the modern world. The course analyzes how states across the globe have tamed, or have failed to tame, the sociopolitical processes fueled by national and ethnic identities. Covers topics including the emergence of varied forms of nationalism; nationalism and state power; the significance of national homelands; the impact of ethnic mixing and diasporas; interethnic conflict; the cultural politics of nationalism; and nationalism and relations among neighboring states. EES concentrators may focus their papers on Europe, Russia, or other Eurasian states, but students from other concentrations are welcome and may tailor their papers to their own regional interests.