Institut d'Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po)

This course studies some of the foundational doctrines of contemporary international law, while also equipping students with the tools to critique and question these foundational doctrines. While expounding upon some of the foundational doctrines and facets of international law such as sources, sovereignty, Law of Treaties, state responsibility, jurisdiction, international organizations, use of force, International Humanitarian Law, and International Criminal Law, this course also critically examines the complex and reciprocal relationship between international law and empire. It explores how empire was instrumental in the making of international law, shaping its foundational doctrines, institutions, and practices. Conversely, it also interrogates how international law itself became a powerful tool in the making and maintenance of empire, facilitating processes of domination, extraction, and governance across the globe. Drawing on critical perspectives—especially those advanced by Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) - the course challenges students to question conventional narratives and dominant frameworks. Through engagement with TWAIL scholarship and other critical schools, students analyze the extent to which international law continues to serve imperial interests and consider the question of whether international law, by itself, is now an empire.

This course studies Europe both as a collection of countries that exhibit varying political, economic, and policy patterns but face very similar problems at the turn of the millennium and as a political and economic unit that binds those European countries together and determines their collective responses to the challenges they face. It provides an understanding of capitalist diversity within Europe and the challenges faced by European integration in the past decade and a half.

The course follows a traditional chronological approach (from antiquity to the 1860s), providing an introduction to the development of major schools of thought. The emphasis is on understanding the historical, political, and cultural context that contributed to the emergence of economic doctrines. Neither a history of simple “ideas” nor a history of economic theories alone, this is a contextual history that seeks to explain how and why, in each era, different ways of thinking about economics took hold. It examines how three ages of thought follow on from and intermingle with one another: moral (conforming behavior to norms defining the good life); political (working for the prosperity and power of nations); and scientific (developing a rational explanation of economic behavior and phenomena).

This course explores the concept of equality through the lens of analytic philosophy, applying normative theories to pressing global ethical issues. The first part of the course engages in conceptual analysis of equality, examining key debates in distributive justice, structural injustice, and recognition theory. The second part of the course applies these theoretical foundations to real-world ethical challenges, including climate justice, post-colonialism, minority rights, war and conflict, migration, and human rights. Students are evaluated on their ability to mobilize normative concepts in their discussion of the problems and solutions particular to the global sphere.

This course presents the Chinese economy and its evolution over the last four decades from a macroeconomic perspective. The world's second-largest economy has several characteristics: it is opaque, constitutes a rare example of a hybrid capitalist system, and has undergone significant changes in recent years. In recent years, the Chinese economy has faced persistent internal imbalances that raise questions about the future changes to its growth model and, more broadly, the implications for its financial and trading partners. This course provides the essential tools for understanding the Chinese economy and its implications for international economic dynamics. 

The Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Norway, Denmark) are often seen as global models of welfare, good governance, and high quality of life, successfully combining social protection with entrepreneurial success. Historically associated with consensus politics, trust, and moral leadership - through figures such as Olof Palme or Norway's peace diplomacy - the region has long defied conventional wisdom about global pressures for deregulation, showing how social protection can coexist with global competitiveness. Recent narratives of decline, however, point to rising crime, economic stagnation, and populism. This course revisits the evolving politics of the "Nordic model," exploring its institutions, challenges, and relevance for Europe through history, politics, economics, and sociology.

This course examines the key institutions, actors, and processes shaping U.S. foreign policy, with a focus on the current Trump administration. It introduces major theories of foreign policy analysis and applies them to domestic and international dynamics influencing U.S. foreign affairs. Students engage with core debates and empirical cases across regions and policy realms. The course analyzes how leadership, polarization, public opinion, and bureaucracy affect foreign policy decisions. It concludes with a simulation of a U.S. National Security Council emergency meeting, allowing students to apply their knowledge in a practical, crisis-based setting.

This interdisciplinary seminar explores how literature and film grapple with the complexities of political power, authority, resistance, and representation. Drawing from a range of historical and geopolitical contexts, the course examines how writers and filmmakers narrate, aestheticize, and challenge systems of domination, the dynamics of oppression and liberation, and the moral ambiguities inherent in political engagement. Through lectures, screenings of film excerpts, class discussions, and written assignments, students acquire critical tools to analyze how cultural productions both reflect and shape political realities. The course features close readings of literary texts and critical analyses of landmark films, including CITIZEN KANE and CASABLANCA. It examines the theatrical staging of power in Shakespeare's HENRY V and its contrasting cinematic interpretations by Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh; the construction of the Napoleonic and Lincolnian myths, from Abel Gance to Steven Spielberg; and the expression of American democratic idealism in Frank Capra's cinema. Further topics include the representation of atrocity and memory in works addressing the Holocaust, McCarthyism, the nuclear era, Watergate, the Vietnam War. Emphasis is placed on the aesthetics of authoritarianism and resistance, as well as on portrayals of the presidential figure in American and French cinema. The course interrogates the subdued complicity of the butler (Anthony Hopkins) in James Ivory's THE REMAINS OF THE DAY and explore the differences and similarities between Joseph Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS and its adaptation by Francis Ford Coppola in APOCALYPSE NOW. Throughout the semester, the course critically engages with propaganda, the narrative construction of ideology, the tension between personal conscience and collective responsibility, and the ways in which historical memory is shaped—or suppressed—by literary and cinematic forms.