When I first started teaching intro to IR, I closed the semester with lectures on climate change and the second Congo war (or "Africa's world war"). This was part of my effort to include current and overlooked aspects of international relations. As time went on, and discussions spread about how IR should deal with racial and environmental issues, I expanded these lectures. The former now looks at whether IR is up to the task of addressing current crises like climate change. And the latter looks at whether ethnocentrism in IR can be fixed. This is connected to my general approach to IR, which...