Institut d'Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po)

This course is a workshop. Students work together to write a press article on subjects or events related to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries using the resources offered by RetroNews (newspapers, magazines) and Gallica (newspapers, magazines, and journals), two online sites belonging to the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF). Students gather and work on a corpus of articles to shed light on a specific historical subject or event, based on published historical research, while analyzing the political and social representations and discourse of the press of the period. Some student articles are then submitted to the RetroNews editorial team for publication.

This course covers the main issues at the root of most of the conflicts in Africa. It examines the conflicts and geopolitical dynamics that affect the Horn of Africa and identifies the historical, political, and military regional dynamics of these conflicts, as well as their broader international dimension. The course provides a critical analysis of Horn Africa's relations with the world as the new battle held between emerging powers such as the Gulf, BRICS, and traditional superpowers. It also provides a general overview of violent extremist groups and regional and international responses to the Global War on Terror. Finally, it discusses current wars as well as their strategic implications and connections to the most prominent global security challenges of the post-Cold War and post 9/11 world.

This methodological workshop imparts basic reflexes when it comes to thematic cartography. The course focuses on a limited number of skills that are systematically addressed methodologically and then put into practice in subsequent sessions. This dual approach (methodological and practical) develops critical faculties when using, researching, making, and ordering maps, while considering the feasibility and practical difficulties underlying the construction of these images.

This course reflects on the history of the relationship between state, society, and Islam in the Ottoman and Turkish context from the 1750s to the 2020s. The course explores in detail such themes as Muslim reformism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries; Islam in the age of Ottoman reform; modernist and fundamentalist Islamism; pan-Islamism and Ottoman caliphate politics; the Young Turks and Islam; Islam in the secular republic; the question of female emancipation and Islam; plural Islam: Alevism and Sunnism; political Islam in the context of the Cold War; the seizure of power by political Islam and the Islamo-fascist dictatorship in power in Turkey since 2002.

This course introduces the history of political thought and state-building in the Middle East from the end of the Ottoman empire (1923) to present days. From the creation of the “Middle East” area by British and French mandatory administrations, this course analyzes how various political ideologies (Kemalism, Zionism, Nasserism, Khomeynism, Ba'athism, and Islamism) have influenced state-building processes in Iran, Turkey, Israel, and in the Near East. By providing methodology and tools based on historical sources, this course addresses the spread of nationalism in the Middle East to encourage a reflection on a question raised by Henry Laurens in 2019: will the 21st century witness the “end of the Middle East?”

This course provides a critical introduction to three major related areas of international law that focus on the protection of the human beings: international human rights law, international humanitarian law (the law of armed conflict), and international criminal law. The course covers the main normative instruments and principles relating to the international protection of human rights, the rules aimed at limiting the effects of armed conflict, and the criminal repression of individuals under international law; and assesses the flaws and limitations of the international system, as well as the benefits and practical consequences of using the remedies it provides.

This course examines the factors that lead companies of strategic importance to France's economic sovereignty to relocate their activities or be taken over by foreign players. It studies theoretical concepts concerning industrial sovereignty, French public policies aimed at protecting strategic companies, case studies, and exchanges with guest speakers.

Through a multifaceted approach, this methodological workshop imparts an effective methodology and knowledge to apprehend the reading of political philosophy texts as a genuine interpretative experience. By focusing on famous philosophical texts, it studies the way in which argumentation is constructed and logical, articulated reflection is conducted. This methodological and practical approach focuses on providing the tools needed to understand a text properly: identifying arguments, dialectical procedures, and the use of examples. The temporal and geographical variation of the texts also provides an understanding that any reading of political philosophy is necessarily situated, inscribed in a here and now, which instructs us on the meaning of the text and enriches our understanding of it. Finally, the course cross-references the interpretations that the texts may elicit. From this point of view, the study of secondary sources offers a fresh, offbeat look at philosophical works.

This course focuses on international security with a constructivist approach. It relates the security sector's response to the 9/11 attacks in the United States and studies the international security framework that has been centered on anti-terrorism against Al Quaeda and Daech, from 2001 to 2011 (ending at the death of Bin Laden), through films and TV shows. The course draws on the theoretical apparatus of the aesthetic turn and recent work on fictional representation and its impact on public space, as well as on security policies themselves. Fiction is not just a matter of a more or less realistic representation of reality, but an increasingly influential and even central element in defining the repository for security policies.

This course compares interdisciplinary approaches to economics (sociology, history, political science, business) through the study of a specific object: consumption. It highlights the contributions of each of these perspectives to underline their specificity. It also considers how they can be combined to produce a more complete and realistic representation of consumption, and through it, of our society. After a presentation of the main viewpoints and narratives on consumption, thematic sessions cross-reference these viewpoints on a variety of subjects and issues including quality, choice, credit and money, fashion, overconsumption, and addiction.