North America: United States “Is IR Theory Relevant to the US Non-Political Science Student?”

When setting up an Introduction to International Relations course within the United States instructors need to consider several factors. First, in most instances this course is being taught as part of the General Education curriculum along with the major requirements. As a result, the course is typically populated with a significant number of non-majors. Second, given the population of the course, the question of whether to teach IR theory is real. Many question the relevance of teaching IR theory to a class of mainly non-majors. What can they gain from this topic? How might it help them in their understanding of the world? What role does it play in the students’ future employment endeavors? In this chapter, I take readers through my pedagogical process for why and how I teach IR theory to a group of primarily non-political science majors at a small liberal education institution in the United States and why teaching this subject matter is important for reasons beyond the content of the course.