International Studies

Recent decades have witnessed China’s rapid growth and its massive infrastructure finance in the developing world. This brought a new round of discussion on what development is. How should we understand development policy in the context of a changing world order? This course provides students with the historical, political, economic, and institutional context to understand international development policy. The course aims to give students exposure to on- going policy debates on international development as well as the conceptual and theoretical framework to understand development issues. The course allows students to discuss and explore China’s changing role in international development and its impact on regional and international orders. Topics to be covered include (but not limited to): history of development, industrialization, poverty reduction, aid and development finance, energy and environment, international development institutions, South-South cooperation, and China and global development order.

This course discusses the problems and challenges inherent in the analytical framework of studying social movements and transnational actors (TNAs). It examines contemporary struggles covering diverse social mobilizations based in different parts of the world. This course explores differences and commonalities in selected fields of social justic struggles.

This course provides a critical overview of the functioning of intergovernmental organizations, with a specific focus on their relevance, role, and contribution in the face of a shifting global landscape. Through a series of case studies and scenarios, it introduces the broad notion of multilateralism and how to identify legal issues, analyze problems, and formulate an informed perspective on intergovernmental organizations.

This course provides an introduction to the field of international development, focusing on community development and the impact of development interventions on disadvantaged individuals and communities. The course discusses the development of development theory since the 20th century; the various world events which led to changes in development theory and were significantly affected by them; and influential approaches to development practice. Historically, the course provides a broad understanding of power relations between the developed and the developing worlds since the 15th century; discusses the links between conflict, governances, and development; and examines various approaches to governance and their implications on development. Building on the understanding that communities are the key for achieving sustainable positive advancement in human development, the course focuses on theories and approaches which are relevant to community development, including the Capability Approach and the Assets Based Approach to development.

This course studies a range of key historical problems and conceptual questions relating to the colonial and postcolonial experience. Focus is placed on the characteristics of capitalism, imperialism, and modernity, and students also examine the making of the modern world. Students gain an overview of European expansion, the slave economy, the development of wage labor, industrial growth, imperialism, creation of the modern state, genocide, development, anti-colonialism, and the creation of the “third world.” Students are exposed to a long-term, historical view within which the material of subsequent development studies courses may be usefully contextualized. Assessment is based fully on a final essay.

This course analyzes U.S. foreign policy, primarily through the prism of American military power. It provides an overview of the major issues at stake regarding U.S. international action in a fragmented world. The course is divided into three main parts, each of which addresses specific questions. The first part focuses on the evolution of U.S. foreign policy, from the end of the Second World War to the post-9/11 period. The second part examines U.S. international strategy in its ideological dimension, through the major debates that surround it. Finally, the last part looks at the practice of American foreign policy and its major geopolitical challenges, particularly with regards to Russia, the Middle East, and China.

This course takes as its starting point the description of cultural places and moments in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, whose role in both the building and the representations of the global stage has increased and diversified since the late 1990s. It then focuses on contributing to the definition of power in those political entities and understanding their place on the global stage through the lenses of political sociology. 

The story of post-World War Two war crime trials was long told from a Western standpoint with attention mostly focused on a few highly publicized international trials. By contrast, in this course, the stress is on the transnational delivery of justice; the plurality of protagonists, including genocide/war survivors, involved in shaping it; the window into regime changes, evolving power hierarchies, and social and gender norms trials offer. The course builds upon a diversity of print, visual, and oral primary and secondary sources, including filmed trials and archival documents. It provides an opportunity to explore these complex sets of data as well as interact with former judicial investigators and scholars, invited as guest lecturers.

In 1951, six European countries signed the Treaty of Paris to form the European Coal and Steel Community that laid the foundation for what is known today as the European Union (EU). Since its humble beginnings, the EU has played a crucial role in the political and economic development of Europe and the globe and has evolved into an ‘ever closer union’ of currently 27 member states that have pooled their sovereignty to a historically unprecedented degree. Today, the EU constitutes one of the most complex and intriguing political and economic systems in the world, and as the European integration process remains in flux, the EU remains a moving target for those who study it. This course focuses on the scientific study of the EU and EU politics. It offers you the opportunity to deepen your knowledge of the EU’s institutional actors and decision-making procedures, to actively analyze EU politics and policy-making, and to find answers to the various theoretical and empirical questions that are raised by the EU’s existence and developments. To provide you with a more tangible feel for the EU and the problems of EU policy-making and to make your learning experience as interactive as possible, the course complements regular class meetings with simulations of the Council of the European Union.

This course offers a study of the main intellectual traditions and paradigms of International Relations from the interwar era to the first half of the Cold War, including idealism, realism, the English school, neorealism, and institutional liberalism, among others.