Australian National University

This course examines the theoretical frameworks, empirical cases, policy instruments, and cutting-edge debates in the fields of international non-legal social norms and international law from an International Relations perspective. The course goes beyond the conventional moralistic and black-letter approaches, and instead focuses on the political contexts, causes, and consequences of norms and international law. The course is structured in three parts. First, we will focus on the different theoretical perspectives in International Relations for understanding norms and international law, such as realist, liberal, and constructivist approaches. Second, the course will examine the general issues of norms and international law, including the actors of norms and international law, the creation and sources of norms and international law, and the problem of compliance. Third, we will examine the interrelationships between norms and international law, on the one hand, and international politics, on the other hand, in several global issue areas, such as the use of force, human rights, international criminal justice, the environment, and/or trade. 

This course examines the theoretical and practical issues surrounding peace and conflict studies. It begins by exploring the range of different understandings of the roots of violence and the contemporary manifestations of conflict. It  then examines the key actors in conflicts such as elites, constituencies, civil society, soldiers, mercenaries, spoilers and outside actors. Turning to major debates in the field, it explores the question of whether it is ever 'just' to use violence for political ends; the concept of 'non-violence' in theory and practice; and debates over external intervention (including the R2P debate, various 'soft' and 'hard' power approaches and the role and efficacy of the UN). We then investigate key approaches in the field - such as conflict prevention, conflict management, conflict resolution and conflict transformation (and the relationship between these approaches). The role that human security, human rights and international law plays in such processes is also examined. The course then turns to the relationship that conflict resolution has to peacekeeping, peace-enforcing and post-conflict situations. Integral to these discussions is the application of theory to case-studies such as Israel-Palestine, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, Iraq East Timor, Sri Lanka and Rwanda. The final part of the course assesses the future of conflict and conflict prevention.

Recent events in global politics have forced the memory of empire into the public domain. Equally, changes in the international system have prompted analysts of various stripes in the public domain to refer to the US, China, Europe or Russia as ‘empire’. These changes have been reflected in political science with American Empire Debate, a turn toward history and critical voices calling for the decolonization of the discipline and a call for a recognition of the importance of empire in shaping global politics. A sub-discipline of comparative empire studies has emerged that overlaps history with IR and calls for ‘epistemic decolonization’ have arisen alongside scholarship which offers colonization as a viable policy option. With the disciplines of the social sciences being largely oriented around the state, this course takes as its focus empire as its referent object and asks: why has political science paid it so little attention? What is an empire and how do we theorize it and study it? What does the introduction of empire as a field of study mean for political science and how we understand the international system? This course takes empire as its object of inquiry and provides students with an interdisciplinary map for the various ways it has been theorized and understood. The aim of the course is to examine and assess in comparative frame the different kinds of analytical tools and methodological problems that might be applied to the study of empire. It will pose the theorization of empire as a problem which will be explored conceptually, methodologically and empirically. Finally, we explore what empire as a political form or category of analysis contributes to our understanding of global politics

The course aims to give students the analytical skills to compare and contrast the multiple paths to prosperity and critically assess the prospects and challenges for Asian economies and their citizens to thrive in the future. It moves beyond the mainstream approach to assessing country-level economic performance by incorporating seven ways to think like a 21st-century economist, as explained in the book Doughnut Economics, in a holistic exploration of the economic growth and development patterns in the dynamic Asian region. These include shifting the goal beyond GDP to broader measures of sustainable development and human wellbeing; understanding the importance of economic and political systems beyond the textbook 'free market'; recognizing the critical role of governments in supporting equitable and regenerative development; and questioning whether the 20th-century obsession with economic growth is compatible with 21st-century development challenges.

This course is designed to help students to deepen their understanding of key concepts in security studies and then apply them to real world situations. Students will be provided with a series of case studies from the post 1945 era and contemporary conflicts to develop their knowledge of concepts and theories introduced in this course. 

This course examines a range of legal skills that are crucial for successful legal studies and for professional practice. Students learn the essential skills that enable them to engage with and use our principal sources of law - case law and legislation. In addition to teaching students how to analyze case law and legislation and to formulate legal arguments, the course also covers the key legal principles of statutory interpretation and the role of the courts in interpreting statutes.

This course examines five security concepts and their relevance to security in the Asia-Pacific region. These concepts are order/hierarchy, alliances, polarity/balance of power, international reputation ("credibility"), and historical memory. It covers these concepts through case studies such as the Korean War, the Taiwan Strait crises, the history (and future) of alliances in Asia, the Vietnam War, the Sino-U.S. rapprochement, the post-war order, and territorial disputes.

This course examines the main issues of Southeast Asian security, giving due attention to traditional concerns with interstate conflict as well as non-traditional themes like the economy and the quality of democratic governance. It also provides a grounding in the Cold War-era conflicts that shaped the region as we know it today. The central focus, however, is on contemporary internal armed conflict rooted in processes of state formation and state decay (for instance, ethnic conflict in Myanmar, separatist violence in Indonesia or the attempts to create an autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao in the Philippines). Key internal conflicts affecting the human security of millions of Southeast Asians, as well as near neighbors like Australia, will be analyzed in their unique historical and cultural context, and related to cross-cutting questions with broad inter-disciplinary significance negotiating views from above and below, from inside and outside. 

This course examines the structure and themes of Australian public law, providing a bridge to all other public law study in the curriculum. In essence, the course examines how public power is structured, distributed, and controlled in Australia. The distinctive roles played by the legislature, the executive and the judiciary receive special attention. Subsidiary themes in the course are protection of individual rights in the Australian legal system, and constitutional change and evolution in Australia. The following topics will be covered the constitutional and legislative framework for Australian public law; major concepts and themes in Australian public law, including federalism, separation of powers, constitutionalism, representative democracy, rule of law, liberalism and Indigenous sovereignty; the Legislature, including the structure of Australian legislatures, parliamentary supremacy, and express and implied constitutional limitations on legislative power; the Executive, including the structure of Executive government, executive power, and liability of the Crown; the Judiciary, including the constitutional separation of judicial power, and the administrative law implications of judicial separation; constitutional change and evolution, including constitutional amendment.

This course examines the biological, behavioral, social and ecological determinants of health from scientific, social, cultural and policy perspectives. It covers current and historical health challenges faced locally and globally.