Oxford – Page 5 – a sibilant intake of breath

Predictable law exam complete

The international law has been written, and nobody who took the course can possibly complain about its content. Indeed, it was astonishingly predictable. They snuck on fourteen different possible topics, and I am pretty sure every one of them was either on a previous exam or taken directly from our reading list. As such, the main problem in each answer was effectively summarizing everything you knew about it, rather than wracking your brain in search of anything to write. I wrote on:

Why have international legal efforts to regulate the global atmospheric environment had such mixed success?
Is it proper for the World Trade Organization to be concerned with the elimination of economic inequalities within or between states?
What are the considerations that lead states to comply with provisions on international law?

I only heard after the exam that the assessors might be less than pleased about me answering a question so closely related to my thesis. If so, there is nothing that can be done for it now. Overlap is also a bit of a concern between the second question I answered on this exam and the second question I answered on yesterday’s theory exam. Clearly, I cannot write about either inequality or the WTO during tomorrow’s developing world exam. As such, it is probably go time to brush up on the security issues that exist in the developing world. Just nineteen hours or so away from being finished, now.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more

Today, we have our history and theory exams. Tomorrow, it’s international law. Wednesday is the exam about which I am most worried: the IR of the developing world. Thankfully, one can draw further inspiration from Henry V (III, i):

But when the blast of [exams] blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o’erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O’erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill’d with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height.

Friends in Oxford should make a point of attending our post-exam barbecue on Thursday at 7:00pm. For those in the IR program, we will be wandering over to Church Walk en masse after the party in the department ends.

[Update: 1:45pm] The history exam is done. I wrote essays on the following:

To what extent was instability in East Asia in the inter-war period a consequence of extra-regional forces?
‘The key international security institutions were incidental to the maintenance of world order during the Cold War, but they have become central pillars of order in the post-Cold War period.’ Do you agree?
‘The roots of contemporary conflict in the Middle East are to be found more within its processes of colonization and decoloninization than in the dynamics of the Cold War.’ Is this accurate?

Many thanks to Jason Shell for taking a group of us for lunch at Brasenose College after the exam. My IR theory exam begins in forty-five minutes.

[Update: 6:21pm] With the theory exam, I am halfway through. I wrote on the following:

‘The Realist and Liberal traditions of International Relations have more in common with each other than not.’ Discuss.
What does the literature on globalization tell us about the relation between international economic inequality and international political inequality?
‘The issue is not the “right to intervene” of any State, but the “responsibility to protect” of every State when it comes to people suffering from avoidable catastrophe.’ Discuss.

I included diagrams in the first and second essay, as well as calling constructivism a ‘pseudo-counterhegemonic discourse.’

I have now finished the exams I expected to be the 2nd and 4th most difficult. Tomorrow, I have law, which I expect to more more challenging than theory but less so than history. Wednesday, I have the developing world, which I expect to be the most challenging of all.

IR theory and human nature

One thing I have always disliked about international relations theory is the tendency to assert a view of human nature as simplistic and unchangeable. Often, I think this is more the result of short descriptions of theories becoming caricatures, rather than the product of theories that genuinely fail to appreciate how human behaviour is (a) malleable within broad limits and (b) critically influenced by context. Lots of fascinating recent psychology has been demonstrating the latter point. Malcolm Gladwell’s work is an entertaining and accessible example. So too, the work on behavioural economics that has been attracting so much attention.

I have a chart on my theory notes listing the major alternatives: Realism, Liberalism, Neoliberalism, Marxism, Feminism, and Critical Theory. In the column for ‘human nature’ the positions given are: ‘Fixed (essentially selfish)’, ‘Fixed (essentially selfish)’, ‘Fixed (essentially selfish)’, ‘Historically determined (corrupted by changeable)’, ‘Varies according to sub-model’, and ‘No fixed nature.’ Firstly, it seems like the issue of whether people generally behave selfishly or not isn’t sufficient to assert the existence of an essential human nature. Secondly, it seems like virtually all IR theories could pretty easily stretch to accommodate how people’s thinking and actions are conditioned by the environment in which they live. It seems like this is one of the major reasons for which neoliberals can continue to hope that conflictual elements of world politics will eventually give way to more cooperative ones. (Of course, we can also question whether the six traditions listed above constitute an appropriate taxonomy of IR theoretical approaches.)

The tendency to caricature I mention is another feature of IR. Because the discipline seeks to cover so much, it is often simplified to a dangerous extent. Key points are pulled out from historical situations ranging from the Peloponnesian War to the Cuban Missile Crisis, while theorists are often understood on the basis of a few quotes and bullet points. In any case, I have never found international relations theory to be a terribly useful or worthwhile enterprise. Both political theory and history have a lot more to say about the major issues involved, and both seem to have a more defensible approach to dealing with them.

Aside: Richard Rorty, American philosopher and inventor of the concept of ‘ironic liberalism,’ died today.

PS. The sore throat and aggressive cough I picked up on the Walking Club trip is still very much with me. I hope it doesn’t distract those around me too much during the exams tomorrow.

By the numbers

According to the Examiners Reports from 2002-2006, here is the breakdown of results for second year students in the M.Phil in International Relations. Please note that the reports are not always entirely clear on whether people got a distinction on exams only, or whether it was on the entire M.Phil course. Results from before 2002 are not used, because they do not mention how many candidates sat the exams.

Year: Total candidates – Passes – Fails – Distinctions

2006: 17 – 17 – 0 – 0
2005: 18 – 16 – 2 – 0
2004: 23 – 22 – 1 – 2
2003: 25 – 25 – 0 – 2
2002: 23 – 23 – 0 – 1

Total: 106 – 103 – 3 – 5
Percentages: Pass = 97.2% Fail = 2.8% Distinction = 4.5%

Given that there are 28 people in our program, it is likely that one person will fail and that one person will get a distinction.

It should be noted that most people who failed re-sat the exam successfully the next year. They have thus been counted both as fails in their original year and passes in the subsequent year. People who chose to withdraw from the course are excluded from these statistics. Those on the Oxford network can read the reports on the departmental homepage.

[Update: 10 June 2007] The figures above have been adjusted in light of this comment.

Last minute hermit

Between now and Wednesday afternoon, I really need to seclude myself and revise. Please do not invite me for walks, an evening pint, or any of the hundreds of other enjoyable Oxford spring activities. I have a date with a stack of notes and a barrel of coffee.

PS. Absolutely no ‘trashing’ on Wednesday afternoon. This is my only suit, and I will need it for my new job.

Revision and diversion

Understandably enough, anxiety about exams is peaking. Of course, there isn’t a huge amount that can be done about it now. All I can do is spend the weekend reading, thinking, and perhaps writing some more practice exams.

This evening did feature a couple of very nice asides from revision. Emma kindly showed me around Magdalen for a bit – demonstrating just how extensive the college is. Between the Deer Park and the Water Meadow, there is probably more area in grassy space than all of Wadham occupies. Afterwards, I had my second-to-last dinner in college, featuring some very interesting conversation about Marquez, Joyce, Kundera, and Nabokov. For the second time in the last few weeks, I have promised to share some of my slam poetry collection.

How to look like a bike thief / fool

You will need:

Fairly heavy steel-framed bicycle
Rear tire so badly blown out the wheel won’t turn
Dark suit and tie
Oxford scholar’s gown
Backpack full of revision notes

To prepare, generate such a rupture in such a bicycle. Ideally, this should occur while you are en route to somewhere about 1000m away, with just enough time left to finish cycling there. Lock said bike to a fence at point X, approximately 1000m from your home.

At some later point, attend a high table dinner in your college, wearing the suit and robe. While walking home, decide that it is time to bring back your bike, despite how it cannot be rolled. Do this despite being (a) highly improperly dressed for the activity and (b) already burdened with a sack full of books and binders.

Alternate between carrying the bike over one shoulder and rolling it forwards on the front wheel, holding the seat post at shoulder level. Make sure to do this at night, in a city with the highest rate of bicycle theft in England.

Surprisingly, two police cars rolled right past me while I was in the middle of performing this awkward, uncomfortable, and suspicious voyage. They didn’t even slow down – probably because they were smart enough to realize that anyone stealing a bicycle would not move it in such a stupid way.

The question now is whether I should put in the time to buy a new tube, remove the rear wheel, replace the tube, inflate it, and re-assemble the bike this weekend, or whether I should wait until after exams. Fixing it would waste more time. Leaving it alone would make it even more foolish to have carried it home.

Whatever is decided for tomorrow, it is back to revision for me now.

Entering the last captive weekend

The process of revision continues. Later tonight, I am planning to write a practice exam for history, if only to get the feel of writing three one hour timed essays in a row. First, I need to finish getting through some more of my notes. Even without reading anything other than the notes I have made on assigned readings and seminars, I have thousands of pages of text to deal with.

At least I have proven surprisingly capable of shifting my sleep schedule so that I am up and ambling around – if not exactly thinking at my sharpest – before 9:00am. Once again, I apologize for being uninteresting for a while. Once exams finish on Wednesday, I will try to write something more compelling here.

PS. While cycling up South Parks Road this evening, the rear tire on my bicycle seems to have exploded. The inner tube has torn along one of the seams, leaving a gash several inches long. A few patches and some rubber cement will not be enough to correct things, this time.

High school history

In the course of revising for the history exam, I have found myself looking over notes from my last year of high school. In many ways, they are ideal. I have a six page document that highlights the key features of alliances in the inter-war period in bullet form. We see dates, participants, major purposes, and outcomes, all without the need to wade through hundreds of pages of academic text. Something similar is true of the timeline of Cold War leaders that we all had to make.

I actually wish I had my paper notes from the class, in addition to my typed assignments. I remember having to memorize dozens of little quotations and hundreds of key terms. In terms of the amount of teaching time devoted to each subject, the class was significantly more comprehensive than our history seminars here. Of course, the level of discussion here was enormously higher, and the expectations in terms of argumentation and analysis are equivalently greater. All the same, having a few solid pellets of birdshot in one’s general blast of knowledge makes it seem and feel rather more substantial. It is also good to be acutely reminded of how hopelessly ignorant one was with respect to certain things, seven years in the past. Without such comparison, it is too easy to slip into the belief that you have always had your present understandings and views.

The early bird… cannot think

I have been trying to wake up early so as to acclimatize before my 9:30am exams next week. Of course, the transition to early rising has the effect of making my brain feel as though it is slowly sinking through honey for most of the day: hardly the best state in which to be going over all this material. In the end, however, the relative value of being awake and thinking at the time the exams are written (and not just running on the jittering energy of sheer terror) is probably greater than that of greater reading comprehension during the revision period.

PS. The general copyright on the blog, wiki, and my photography has been updated to a more current Creative Commons license. See the projects page for more details.