International Studies

Rarely a day passes without the media reporting on violent uprisings, military coups, international interventions, suicide bombings, drone attacks, and civilian casualties all over the world. In conflict studies, these events are often discussed using a range of concepts such as ‘civil war’, ‘protracted social conflict’, ‘invasions’, and ’terrorism’. Despite this proliferation of terms, clarifying the complexity of violent conflict in the 21st century remains a challenging task. Rather than choosing one of these labels, this course presents a variety of theoretical approaches that aim to understand why and how different actors resort to violence in internationalized intrastate conflict. Each of these theories use different analytical categories to study different aspect of the phenomena under investigation. The course respectively focuses on the non-state, state, paramilitary, and international actor. This course teaches conflict analysis to help understand, and explain to others, the complex array of actors, interests, and dynamics involved in the violent conflicts we see around the world today. Throughout the course, address pressing issues in contemporary warfare like: How are terrorist and insurgency organizations able to mobilize people towards violent action? Why do states deploy starvation and sieges as a weapon of war in response?  Why do states outsource violence to paramilitaries? How and why do international actors forge transnational alliances to intervene in theatres of war? The course focuses on a broad range of contemporary case studies, such as Afghanistan, Israel-Palestine, Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Ethiopia, and Nagorno-Karabakh. Collectively, grappling with these different layers of analysis in isolation and in relation to one another and different case studies sharpen your conceptual and analytical capacities greatly. This course is essential for those who plan to participate in upcoming courses of the Conflict Studies minor. Entrance requirements include at least 45 EC for the category 1 (Bachelor Introductory).

This course is tailored for undergraduate students majoring in international studies who seek to understand the foundations of international trade law and policy. It offers a comprehensive overview of the global trading system and prepares students for careers in trade-related fields within both business and public sectors. Students learn about key topics such as anti-dumping measures and subsidy/ countervailing duty cases, equipping them with practical skills for the private sector. Additionally, the course introduces the crucial relationship between public policy and law, making it an excellent starting point for those considering advanced studies or a Ph.D. in international trade law and policy. Topics include Non-discrimination: Most-Favored-Nation, Non-discrimination: National Treatment Principles, Tariffs, Quotas and Non-Tariff Barriers, Escape Clauses, Safeguards and Adjustment Policies, Regulation of Dumping, Subsidies in International Trade, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measure, Technical Barriers to Trade, Trade in Services, and Regional Trading Agreement. 

This course provides first-hand knowledge about China and its global impact in two interconnected stages. The first part looks at China itself and asks how it is different and not-so-different from the West by examining China’s recent history, its culture, society and politics, study how China is portrayed in Western media. In the second part, we move to “global China”: how do the “domestic” factors studied in the first part of the course shape China’s decision-making at a global level? This part of the course focuses on its role in Africa, Asia and in the West.

This course aims to build foundational knowledge of global policy frameworks, systematically introducing core concepts, historical evolution, and key actors (states, international organizations, NGOs, etc.) of global public policy. Combining contemporary issues such as climate change, global health, and digital governance, it cultivates students' basic capabilities to analyze transnational policy challenges and governance mechanisms through real-world cases like the Montreal Protocol and COVID-19 vaccine distribution. It also covers cutting-edge topics such as technological governance and regional integration to solidify the cognitive foundation of global governance.

Climate change is a global policy challenge whose solutions need to transcend national borders to address its multilayered causes and courses of action. This course reflects on transnational climate governance through the case of the EU Green Deal by exploring case by case its relevant stakeholders: in-house policymakers, member states, civil society, private and international actors. These stakeholders are viewed in parallel to climate policy domains (social and intergenerational justice, carbon markets, sustainable finance), and its tools (lobbying, negotiations and legislative procedures). This course provides a comprehensive approach to studying climate governance, combining theoretical concepts with practical examples, engaging students with real-life policy developments.

Self-identified indigenous peoples inhabit all continents except Antarctica and struggle against oppressive inequality, ethnocidal assimilation and genocidal extermination by the settler societies, colonial/neocolonial/postcolonial developmental states and national populations that surround them.  Nevertheless, the local/global contexts of their struggles differ substantially.  What are the political consequences and effects of grouping together into a global category, for example, the Saami in Scandinavia, the Yanomami of Brazil, India’s adivasi, and Australian Aborigines?  This course will survey the global history of the discourse of indigeneity and some local political contexts of indigenous peoples.  The aim will be to try to understand relevant commonalities and also important differences among indigenous struggles across the world, though our primary focus will be on indigenous peoples in Brazil and Latin America.  Themes will include racism and ethnic discrimination, extractivism and clashes over large-scale economic development projects, human rights and international organizations, and political self-determination and the politics of state recognition.  As this semester coincides with COP30 in Belém, Brazil, we will spend some weeks on questions of eco-politics and indigenous participation in climate change negotiations. 

This course covers the key institutions, actors, and issues shaping Taiwan’s contemporary politics. The class introduces how Taiwan’s democracy operates, how it manages its complex relationship with China, and how it positions itself globally. The first half covers the structure and everyday workings of Taiwan’s political system, while the second half examines current political debates and challenges through weekly topics and guest speakers. Students gain a clear understanding of how Taiwan’s vibrant democracy functions and why it matters in today’s world.

This course examines the rise of human rights discourse and its relationship to other discourses on suffering and social justice. It focuses on the experience of victims of human rights abuse and the politics of meaning. Students will engage in critiques of law as a reductionist discourse on the social by exploring the relationships between human rights and cultural differences such as gender, ethnicity, religion and indigenous cultures. The embodied self, social interdependency and the architecture of social institutions are the backdrop through which the course explores the tensions between universal and relativist understandings of human rights and their realization. Students will be introduced to the fundamentals of human rights, the global human rights machinery, and the ethics of humanitarian intervention, and will consider how sociologists have studied and written about human rights.

This course covers the foundation of international political economy, theories and approaches in international political economy, changes in global political and economic orders, power relations and bargaining processes in international politics and their impact on allocation and distribution of economic resources, and transnational factor and resource mobilization.

This course introduces the fundamental themes of intercultural communication by drawing on current language and intercultural communication theory, research, and practice, to better understand communication between culturally diverse individuals. Through experiential projects and personal reflections, students explore what it means to be an interculturally competent communicator or mediator and the competencies necessary for interacting more appropriately and effectively in intercultural encounters. By engaging with readings, project and reflections, students are encouraged to become more actively engaged with intercultural interactions and to foster an ethno-relative mindset with greater curiosity and open-mindedness. Topics include conceptions of culture and multiculturalism, the relationship between language, communication, power and context, language and cultural socialization, identity and belonging, ‘othering’, prejudice and stereotypes, facework and conflict management, intercultural transition, intercultural relationship-building, social justice and global citizenship.