I actually really enjoyed this class. Professor Stein is really nice and accommodates his students.
I truly hate exams with a passion but our TA's literally provided the questions that were going to be on the midterm, there is no final exam but a final 12 page long paper WHICH IS BASED ON A TOPIC YOU CHOOSE. We had a topic worth 5%, abstract 5%. DO THE READINGS! The midterm consists of 4 questions and you referencing (x) amount of the Readings. As long as you study the sample questions your TA gives you, you'll be fine. Lowks you can miss a lecture or two. The final paper is long but they encourage you to start early. Cartland and Bruce are G's, super helpful TA's.

There was A LOT of reading and I honestly did not go through most of it. With that said, the readings are absolutely necessary for the midterm and I only survived because I skimmed everything the weekend before and memorized brief descriptions of each reading and the authors. I also had a lot of help from classmates so if you're not confident in being able to keep up with the readings (4-6 papers a lecture) during the first half of the class, I wouldn't take it. The paper was alright because the TAs were very lenient with topic choice!

I'm not a Poli Sci major but I thoroughly enjoyed this class. There's a midterm, final paper, and discussion grade. The professor is definitely incredibly knowledgeable about the material and has slides that he uses, but he can often go on tangents, which can be a bit confusing but after a while it's easy to tell if it's going to be relevant material or not.

The discussion grade includes submitting a one-page summary/short analysis of the readings for the week. It's mostly graded on completion, so it's pretty easy. The TAs also highly encourage class discussion and attendance, which also goes into the discussion grade. The TAs are definitely helpful as well and since they're the ones grading your exam, talking to them is helpful.

The midterm was not too difficult, but it was really long considering we only had one class period to do it. However, the TAs noted this and graded accordingly. The final paper is basically analyzing a current event and how it's being portrayed in the media, and applying the various IR theories you learned in class to it. They make it clear you are NOT analyzing the actual event itself, but how it's being perceived/what IR theories they use/reference.

Overall, definitely recommend this class.

For those reading this I would tell you to ignore the two butthurt reviews from the two lazy individuals who are annoyed about the midterm - probably cause they didnt even do the reading and attend lectures. If you did the majority of the readings, the midterm was a great way to show your knowledge. Plus, the TA tells you the most relevant readings every week so you don't have to do all of them. If youre interested in politics and IR like you should be if youre at UCLA, this class is engaging, rewarding and extremely relevant. Stein is entertaining and clearly puts thought into his lectures, don't know what he is like personally as i never attended his office hours. The TA's are relaxed and kind, and discussion sections will never make you feel on the spot.

Midterm was so ridiculous, 1hr 15 min finished 3 short answers (1 page each suggested) and 1 long essay (6-7 pages suggested). The long essay was provided a page long hypothetical prompt, and kind of unclear, you have to at least spend 15 mins reading the prompt. Basically not enough time to do the long essay, not how others did on their midterms, but this is the hardest class ever taken at UCLA. readings are heave, expected to read 150+ pages per week. if you want to get an A on this class, you would have to spend at least 5 days a week studying it. 1 final paper (12-15 pages) and basically was a essay about writing how the news reported the topic your selected and combined what you have learned from the class. I don't really suggest this class unless you are very interested in.

I don't recommend this course to anyone. The in-class midterm of this course is no study guide, and you have to write 3 short answers, each 1 page, and a long essay (bluebook) 6-10 pages in 1hr15m. It is just ridiculous.

This was my first upper-div class and my first PoliSci class (I'm an IDS major), so I was apprehensive about it at first, especially because the grade is based off only the midterm and the final paper. However, it ended up being my favorite class this quarter and is a strong contender for my favorite class at UCLA overall.

Professor Stein wears a bow-tie every day and lectures about different theories. Each lecture was essentially a new way to frame conflict. His lectures were engaging, and I continued going to lecture after the midterm even though there was no final - they were that interesting.

The midterm is a series of essays answering questions about the themes we'd covered in class. We were given 12 possible short answer questions to review, 5 showed up on the midterm, and we had to write on three of them. We were given 2 long answer questions, 1 showed up on the midterm and we were given no choice.

The paper was unlike anything I'd written before because there was no real argument to it. It was 12-15 pages long, and we had to analyze how the media framed an international event. We were tasked with finding media analysis of our event that offered different explanations for the event, linked it back to the underlying IR theory, then explained the theory in detail. Despite its unusualness, it was an interesting exercise.

As others have stated, Professor Stein assigns a lot of reading, and it's typically quite dense. It paid, however, to do the reading, I was able to use the articles in my midterm essays and as sources for the final paper.

Overall: loved the class, learned a lot, would take again.

This class was nothing but theories, all of which flew over my head (I'm not a polisci major). The readings were often long and dense. Luckily, Professor Stein is very pleasant and obviously enjoys what he teaches, which made things easier. He also played music before class started every day. The final paper consisted of you analyzing coverage of a current (or past) international relations-related event to see which theories are used most often in describing it. I don't think I'd have passed this class were it not for my TA.

I've taken Stein for two classes. To get to the point he's the best PoliSci Professor I've had at UCLA. His lectures aren't the easiest to get engaged in but if you pay attention they're full of interesting information. He is the most knowledgeable professor I've ever had and is witty and more than willing to talk to you. His midterms aren't as bad as people on here have made it sound, and they are graded fairly. He is however, very busy. He is on a number of boards and committees and can be hard to get a hold of. Overall his class is not that difficult, it is a lot of reading, but you definitely can get away with skimming it. If you're interested in IR you would be doing yourself a great disservice by not taking his class, the material is a foundation for everything IR. Stein is a genius!

I have mix feelings about Stein. There is no point in going to lecture because we had a midterm where there was a couple of questions that pertain to the readings. He ended up not having a final so the midterm jump to 50% of our grade midway . The midterm was graded by all the T.A.'s ... there was a 12 to 15 page research paper.

My T.A. tried really hard but overall the class didn't apply well. Stein rambled about stuff that was never tested on. If you really want to learn about foreign affairs in a class that is more structured take someone else.