Dr-Dlynn-Armstrong-Williams
Dlynn Armstrong Williams, Department Head for Political Science & International Affairs.
Dr-Raluca-Viman-Miller
Raluca Viman-Miller, Assistant Professor for Political Science & International Affairs.

A new textbook, “The Basics of World Politics: Theory and Practice,” will be published by the University of North Georgia Press in April 2021. The textbook will be co-edited by Dr. Dlynn Armstrong-Williams, the University of North Georgia’s (UNG) Political Science & International Affairs (PSIA) Department Head, and Dr. Raluca Viman-Miller, PSIA Assistant Professor.

The reasons for writing a new textbook on global politics are varied. Many members of the PSIA department were utilizing a textbook that was phasing out the print element of the text.

Dr. Armstrong-Williams says, “We were inspired by The Basics of American Politics text that was authored by our Americanist colleagues, and thought we could provide a similar service for students looking for a low-cost text that could be utilized for Global Issues or Introduction to International Relations (IR) courses.” The ultimate goal is to provide a high-quality textbook for a very low cost to students, not only within the region but beyond, and to offset the cost of their education.

Another reason for the new textbook is the fact that there is a great need for updated texts for POLS 2401, which is a large survey class teaching basic IR theory and using examples to support the learning process.  Dr. Viman-Miller notes, “We were able to engage our colleagues from UNG and beyond to contribute to this volume with what they believed to be important, updated and relevant for Introduction to IR-level courses.”  By working with the University of North Georgia Press, this helps us keep the price of the volume very low. The final product, costing approximate $30, will help students lower educational costs, improve retention this way and give them an opportunity to a better education. As there is an ever-growing concern regarding the costs of textbooks and increasing student debt, this new textbook will help to alleviate some of these costs.

Dr. Armstrong-Williams states, “We are very excited about this first edition and the support we have received from the Provost and the Office of Academic Affairs through the receipt of a Provost’s seed grant to support the construction of auxiliary materials.” The supplemental materials will include a test bank with multiple choice and short answers and essay questions, as well as presentation slides to aid instructors who choose to adopt the text.

Dr. Viman-Miller adds, “We have gotten signals from overseas that some universities and university bookstores are interested in adopting and buying the text. We may have the opportunity to translate the volume in a couple of languages that are less circulated such as Korean and Romanian and we are working at the details that might get us to that point.”

The co-editors state that, so far the volume has progressed very well. Dr. Armstrong-Williams and Dr. Viman-Miller are hopeful that COVID-19 and the uncertainty it produces will not affect the release date of April 2021.

Along with Dr. Armstrong-Williams and Dr. Viman-Miller, the authors of this first edition are members of the PSIA program at UNG: Professors Craig Greathouse, Cristian Harris, Scott Meachum, Jonathan Miner, Nathan Price, Sam Rohrer, Seved Hamid Serri, Laurel Wei and Dwight Wilson, as well as Dr. Jake Greear and Dr. Jennifer Schiff, members of the Political Science & Public Affairs department at West Carolina University.