Institut d'Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po)

Law is often imagined as a mass of written documents containing intricate and arcane language, which is usually manipulated by lawyers and judges. This course expands this imagery by exploring the impact of legal practice, defined as a set of techniques deployed by legal professionals, in relation to our daily life. The course first surveys the historical underpinnings of legal practice, devoting special attention to the study of its Roman and Medieval manifestations. Moreover, it reflects upon the impact of legal professionals and legal techniques in the organization of geographical spaces, group membership, behavior control, and economic production. The course also discusses the tensions between legal pluralism and the centralization of legal authority promoted by the nation-State, as well as introduces the use of legal technique as tools for resistance and change.

This course offers an introduction to the theory and cases of democracy in crisis, structured across three thematic units. The first unit introduces foundational concepts, exploring definitions of democracy and its crises, as well as theoretical frameworks addressing democracy's vulnerabilities. The second unit focuses on analytical tools and typologies, examining institutional approaches to democracy's collapse, democracy indexes, and comparative frameworks. Finally, the third unit delves into recent and historical case studies of democratic erosion across various regions, fostering a nuanced understanding of global trends. The course combines professor-led lectures, student-driven seminars, and debates, emphasizing critical analysis and active participation. Transversally, the course addresses qualitative and quantitative comparative methodological issues related to democracy.

This course overviews the challenges and opportunities for the international community in contemporary Africa. Taught by a former ambassador with wide Africa experience, the course exposes students to the major themes in the world's interactions with Africa, ranging from humanitarian intervention to economic opportunity, from struggles against terrorism and instability to great power competition. The course is intended for future practitioners in diplomacy, business, or media with an interest in Africa and more widely for those seeking to understand global engagement with a great continent.

This course examines the modern origins and development of foreign aid. Specifically, it analyzes foreign aid administered by Western countries and transferred to developing countries, primarily in the Global South. Starting with the Marshall Plan, and the American transfer of funds to Europe, Western countries, post WW2, developed mechanisms for public financial transfers (i.e. state or IGO to state or substate) initially to allied countries and soon thereafter to industrializing countries and poor countries. Under the guise of “aid”, this relationship has mostly been considered interest-based rather than philanthropic. The course is centered around five central questions on the topic of foreign aid: 1. Who gives foreign aid? 2. Why give foreign aid? 3. Who benefits from foreign aid? 4. Does foreign aid cause more harm than good? 5. If economic restorative justice is the objective of foreign aid, are there alternative policies that can better accomplish these goals? In this context we examine the evolution of foreign aid in a post-WW2 global context: first, during the Cold War, and then during its aftermath. Central to the discussion, the course considers the economic impact of globalization on developing countries; the root causes of poverty and ways to reduce it; and the nature of North-South relations and neocolonialism. It studies issues animating foreign aid policy parameters and how these issues have changed. A focus on themes such as trade, immigration, human/gender rights, and climate change, illuminates the shifting nature of “aid.” The focus is on the methods and motivation of Western countries – examining “soft power” and the role of foreign aid in overall foreign policy of countries that administer it. Finally, the course examines the potential spread of aid as a tool for influence as it is adopted by new state actors (e.g. BRICS, China).

The migration crisis, the independence of the judiciary, the right to integrity, attacks on secularism, the debate on the end of life, restrictions on the right to demonstrate: these are just some of the current debates that call freedoms into question. Because freedoms are always on the move, always progressing, always under threat, this course, through the study of major current debates, examines the state of freedoms in France today, their limits, the conditions under which they are exercised, and the ways in which they are protected. By focusing on the study of fundamental freedoms and their protection mechanisms, this course masters the main legal concepts, develops legal reasoning and a good knowledge of French and European jurisdictional architecture.

This course delves into the study of economic and financial history thorugh the critical reading and analysis of primary sources. It explores the interplay between historical dynamics, economic theories, and financial institutions, providing students with the tools to interrogate the past through sources such as treaties, accounting records, letters, and policy records. A central feature of the course is its engagement with historiographical debates, emphasizing how interpretations of economic and financial history have evolved over time. It explores key controversies, from the causes of economic crises to the role of trade networks in shaping global capitalism, while critically assessing the arguments proposed. The course also prioritizes the study of methodologies employed in the discipline, introducing  approaches such as quali/quantitative analysis, comparative history, and the integration of social and cultural perspectives into economic narratives. Through a combination of lectures, readings, and analyses of archival material, this course provides the analytical skills and historiographical knowledge necessary for understanding and interpreting main economic and financial historical turning points.

This course offers a comprehensive exploration of the intersections between gender and religion, examining how religious beliefs, practices, and institutions shape and are shaped by constructions of gender identity, roles, and power dynamics in international and local politics. Moreover, the course critically evaluates the role of gender and religion in shaping law, diplomacy, and conflict resolution strategies. It analyzes the ways in which governments, constitutions and laws, international organizations, and non-state actors incorporate gender and religious considerations into their policies and practices. Some questions therefore regularly returned to are: How have norms for gendered individuals in religious, non-religious, beliefs, and spiritual traditions been negotiated over time? Whose voices matter, when deciding which gendered actions are acceptable (or not)? What happens if we read religious traditions according to the voices of women, queer people, or people who identify with other marginalized gender and sexual identities? This course tackles these questions, showing how gender and sexuality—how they are taught, performed, and regulated—are central to understanding religious communities and international politics.