Institut d'Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po)

Relying on a multidisciplinary perspective, this course provides theoretical and empirical tools to understand contemporary Iran. It studies decisive historical events, figures, and ideologies to understand how Iran interacted and interacts with regional and global powers. It analyzes the Iranian political and religious model to understand continuities and discontinuities in Iranian domestic policies (institutional and political structure, state ideology) as well as the evolution of alliances and balances of powers (regionally and internationally). The course encourages reading and familiarization with the global academic literature to develop critical thinking and methodological skills.

This course presents the main principles of International Political Economy (or Global Political Economy), which studies globalization, i.e. the reciprocal interaction between international relations, economics, and politics by gathering knowledge from history, international relations, politics, economics, and sociology in an innovative way. The course provides a broad overview of the frameworks of analysis, actors, institutions, issues, and processes responsible for international relations, the causes of war, inter-state economic competition, and the structural configuration of power in the global context. Therefore, it tries to analyze global affairs into a three-dimensional perspective: statist logic, market logic, and institutional logic. It also provides both academic skills and applies these skills for professional outcomes. The course relies on readings, class debates, and the study of factual cases.

This course studies diplomacy as an instrument, as public policy, and as a form of international social life. The scope and trajectory of the course are determined by the following questions: what is diplomacy and what are its functions? What is a diplomatic actor? How is diplomacy shaped and conducted? What are its limits?

This course introduces the concept of performance understood as an embodied practice. It explores everyday performances (such as social encounters and institutional practices), civic performances (including speech acts and grassroots movements), and artistic performances (theatre, dance, music), inviting students to examine how these diverse forms of performance contribute to the constitution of public space. By engaging with performance theory, political theory, and art studies, the course equips students with analytical and methodological tools for investigating the public significance of performance. Through a combination of lectures, close readings, and assignments, it analyzes selected performances both individually and in groups. Reflective discussions foster active student engagement and participation. Students learn to assess how performances are constructed, how they shape public spaces, and how they generate political effects.

At an empirical level, this course provides a solid knowledge in Lebanese history, mainly in the major violent episodes of its trajectory: the civil war (1975-1990), Israeli occupation (1982-2000), and Hezbollah's intervention in Syria (since 2013). It also presents a specific understanding of a practice of power far removed from what can be observed in Western democracies. Without being an authoritarian regime, the Lebanese political staff has always had a particular definition of ruling, a special understanding of democracy, that goes beyond the usual features shared by consociational systems everywhere else in the world (Switzerland, Belgium, Bosnia). This course is hence thought-provoking in political science, as it introduces models of ruling usually unfamiliar, models that are more frequent than typically imagined. By doing so, the course also triggers a shared reflection on theoretical concepts of political science, and a questioning of the universality of some of what Western political sociology sees as basic elementary truths and rules of the game in politics-in-practice. The course addresses Lebanese contemporary history; the notion of militancy in contexts of violence; a critical notion of foreign intervention, peacemaking, peacebuilding, state building, reconciliation, and transitional justice; and a good command of a particular case of consociational politics.

This course is primarily based on a flipped-classroom approach. Students complete the theoretical readings before class; in-class time is then devoted to discussion and to learning social science research methods (ethnographic observation, semi-structured interviews, and questionnaire surveys). The course introduces the notion of public space not only from a theoretical perspective, but also through the observation of practices and behaviors in urban public spaces, including the gendered dynamics. Throughout the course, special attention is given to fieldwork conducted in student groups in a Parisian public space. Drawing on political philosophy, sociology, geography, and urban studies, the course examines the multiple meanings of public space.

Set as a new objective of the European Union (EU) by the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam, the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) has since proven to be one of the most dynamic EU policy-making domains. It now encompasses key individual policies addressing fundamental concerns of European citizens: police cooperation, judicial cooperation in criminal and civil matters, border management, visa and asylum policies etc. This course analyzes the progressive development of the AFSJ by providing insights on three main considerations: who are the individual and collective actors contributing to that policy domain; which theories and concepts help us to understand the creation and evolutions of the AFSJ; and what are the key reforms, debates, and controversies of the individual AFSJ policies. 

This course is devoted to the notion of freedom as it is thought of in philosophy. The first part of the course focuses on the ancient idea of freedom as opposed to slavery, or as free will (as in Saint Augustine) to provide the sources from which modern reflections on freedom have been drawn, especially in German idealism. The course then follows the evolution of theories of freedom from Kant, Hegel, and Schelling to Isaiah Berlin, Sartre, Butler, and Axel Honneth, and to the re-emergence of the question of slavery in contemporary thought. An important part of the course is devoted to an in-depth study of F.G.J. Schelling's PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS INTO HUMAN FREEDOM (1809) to confront a seemingly difficult text with the keys to understanding the complex intellectual edifices that underpin our modern vision of freedom.

This course considers the role of journalism in today’s landscape where most people use social media to engage with news content and share information. It discusses the important role of journalism in democracy and the target from autocratic leaders who point to press – and significantly, female journalists – as the enemies of the people. The course also discusses the impact of Artificial Intelligence on journalism and what it means for the future of media. It covers the key elements of journalism to become acquainted with gathering news from different parts of the world and platforms for comparison.

The intellectual challenge and historiographical novelty of this course lie in the change of perspective it proposes: a contemporary history of France seen from its extra-European extensions, which are the overseas territories of the Republic. It revisits significant social, political, economic, and cultural moments in order to gain a different perspective on the history of nation-building. In this sense, this course is part of the abundant renewal of a history of France, thought beyond the limits of the Hexagon and linked to a history of the colonial and imperial fact. A basic knowledge of French history is an essential prerequisite.