International relations
The majority international relations courses focus on cutting edge research, filled with recent articles in the most respected journals. Others will focus on policy questions of the day, replete with deep thoughts from Foreign Affairs and foreign strategy from the statesmen of the day. Such approaches are valuable, but they often assume a familiarity with the classics of international relations that does not exist. Ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more significant than is usually understood.
Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some invalid economist. I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared to the steady encroachment of ideas. In order to genuinely appreciate current debates about international relations, one has to understand the history of thoughts in international relations.
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