Students are expected to develop a general awareness on the nature and limitations of the data produced and presented in academic learning, which they acquire in lectures, textbooks and monographs. As a result, students will approach the study material in the discipline of International Relations with a critical rather than submissive disposition, getting ready to challenge the data and interpretations they routinely come across during the formal education. Last but by no means least, the course will provide skills in making full sense of the theoretical approaches to International Relations, which is an integral part of the education. A basic mastery of concepts such as research, fact, value, theory, objectivity and interpretation are taken for granted in studying theories of international politics, which comes later in education. The present course provides the basic tools for some such mastery.