Your grade pretty much depends on the TA, and I had Roey, who was great. Pagden gives engaging lectures and I really enjoyed taking his class. Your grade is based on attendance in section/short responses to the reading, midterm and final that aren't particularly hard.

I really liked this class. It was more of a political theory class than an international relations class, so if you hate philosophy, I wouldn’t recommend this class. Professor Pagden is a great lecturer and is really awesome to talk with in office hours (especially about Vitoria and all of his crazy ideas). He’s pretty cool and definitely happy to chat with you. I recommend downloading the slides he puts on the class website and then typing what he says at the bottom where it says, “notes,” because you won’t have enough time to type (let alone write) everything that is on the slides because he usually includes long quotes. Even though he uploads the slides, you do really need to go to class because he expands on the concepts a lot and sometimes the theorists' ideas. I thought the professor did an excellent job at explaining the material and helping students to differentiate between the theorists' views. He pretty much gives you the info to write on the exams. In addition, I felt the exams actually tested how well we understood the material and challenged our critical thinking skills; they were not tests of mere memorization (but a little).