Institut d'Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po)

This course reflects on contemporary issues through the lens of the political history of the last century. Political history is a broad term and incorporates social, economic, and cultural actors. The 20th century is analyzed through three angles: wars and types of war; collective utopia and individual rights; and human security and insecurity. The course examines how a multi-pronged inquest into security and the defense of human rights forged our 21st century. 

This course examines how people mobilize certain values to think and act while at the same time disagreeing over their definition, ranking, and translation into norms that organize the legal, social, and political world. The course uses political theory to provide concepts, principles, categories, and arguments to navigate through these conflicting normative aspirations. The course addresses questions of how to be coherent while having different values, beliefs, and practices; where to bridge the gap between ideal political principle and current institutions; whether there are acceptable trade-offs between conflicting values or conflicting interpretations of values; and why and how some values are politicized and weaponized.

The seminar provides insight in the political situation of various states such as Myanmar, Syria, and Ukraine, and analyzes reasons for flight and implications for the receiving states. It outlines opportunities and challenges for the integration of refugees and explores human rights, especially refugee rights in the world. Students define a research question and investigate reasons for refugee movements and the paths of forced migration (especially in the Mediterranean Sea). The course provides an international perspective on displacements in other parts of the world (especially Southeast Asia, the European Union, and West Africa). It discusses these questions with experts and active NGO members in an open atmosphere to analyze and consider the situation of refugees today.

This course is about money and Central Banking: what money is; how it is created; how it moves around and what impact it may have on the economy. Students are introduced to the basics of money creation, the role of Central Banks, the theory of inflation and monetary policy. The following topics are analyzed: the impact of digital technologies on the forms and nature of money; the recent actions of major Central Banks to address the consequences of the Covid crisis and their long run implications; the relationships between money, the Governments, and the society in this new environment