PLIR 2030

I really liked this class, and I definitely recommend it if you want to learn more about the topic. Professor Schoppa is a good lecturer, and his pace through lecture is really reasonable in my opinion. The content is interesting and usually applicable or full of current events, so it's definitely useful information to know. The readings were reasonable, but I got away with skimming most of them. You'll benefit from reading a few important readings in full though. The discussion sections were fine and somewhat helpful to understanding the content. The exams were pretty reasonable; as long as you paid attention in lecture and read some of the readings, you'll be fine. Overall, I really recommend this class for the content because it's important to know when looking at international news. It's a good introduction class for international relations, and I would definitely recommend it to those interested in it!

I previously took Professor Schoppa’s Japanese Politics class and enjoyed it, so I decided to enroll in this course as well. Professor Schoppa is incredibly knowledgeable and a highly skilled lecturer. The course is fairly straightforward. While there is a significant amount of reading, attending lectures is extremely helpful. Professor Schoppa often summarizes and explains the key arguments and content from the assigned materials. I recommend at least skimming the readings because the bigger exams rely on your knowledge of the readings. He also does a good job of introducing key IR theories and showing how they apply in various real-world scenarios. The midterm is open-note, take-home, and timed. Typically, the TA provides potential prompts in advance, so it’s a good idea to prepare outlines and note which readings are relevant. This will help you avoid scrambling on the day of the exam.

However, the second half of the course, particularly post-Spring Break, was much more difficult to follow. While the material was interesting, lectures became harder to understand as Professor Schoppa would often go off on tangents or present so much information at once that it became unclear what was important to write down. The final exam was especially challenging. While the midterm focused more on IR theory application, the final was a policy memo and a short essay, which we had a week to write both. For the policy memo, we only received more clarification on what was expected a week before the assignment opened. The prompt(s) were also crazy because we were expected to act as policy advisors to various presidents, and it was hard knowing what content to apply where. Moreover, the final was worth 50% of the overall grade, so it felt more high-stakes.

That said, this course can still be relatively manageable (and even enjoyable) if you stay on top of the readings and attend lectures. It’s very possible to earn an A-, and I recommend this more than other IR classes if you are looking for an IR class. It was also more enjoyable because we took this in the crux of US and East Asia tensions, so it felt more relevant/the content stuck better. Finally, I want to highlight Ghita Chraibi, our TA, who was outstanding. She made the material engaging and accessible, explained concepts clearly, and incorporated games and activities that made learning more enjoyable. If she continues to teach at UVA, I highly recommend taking the discussion section with her.