The first part of the course deals with the basics, which includes an engagement with the foundational concepts of the IR discipline as well as the concept of “theory” itself. In the second part of the course, we discuss the major paradigms –a concept you will become familiar with in this course– of IR. Paradigms for our purposes refer to the totality of assumptions, thought patterns, theories, research questions, methods, and programs pertaining to a collectively imagined framing of the social world. Part III examines the important omissions. Many of the major paradigms proceed from a structural understanding of world politics that focus on the interactions of states. They tend not to engage with deeper issues of world politics such as its main constituent actors like the state. We need to grapple with the nexus of system and unit-level phenomena by situating the state historically and among major IR theories. Next, we assess the state of knowledge production the discipline, focusing not only on the relative neglect of non-Western approaches to IR but also by problematizing the omission of gender as a significant factor in world politics. We will end the course by discussing the future of the international order via an appraisal/critique of contemporary U.S. foreign policy. At this point, students will be well placed to excel in their final take-home exam. The final, Part IV, looks at contemporary, critical and emancipatory aspects of IR Theory by scrutinizing the constituent elements of the social world and the power dynamics therein. It asks students to think about what other kinds of hierarchies exist in the social world.