International Studies

This course provides an international law of armed conflict framework to the main recent and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa regions. It focuses on the role international law plays in the realm of international and regional relations, namely inter-State relations but also State-individual relations through the growth of human rights law. The first part of the course provides an outline of the general public international law framework to key international conflicts faced by the international community. It then applies these concepts to concrete case studies that are discussed in-depth during the second part of the seminar in view of analyzing and studying international law “in motion.” The course is interactive and necessitates active participation and engagement in the class discussions. It introduces general knowledge of general public international law and of international law of armed conflicts; identifies the relevant legal questions and mobilizes the relevant legal and analytical tools to analyze situations of international conflict; highlights the limitations of international law and the reasons why international legality cannot always overcome deadlocked situations; and develops both oral and written advocacy skills.

This course studies the history of the 20th century global movement after World War II, which influenced global politics. Students are expected to examine a historical case of a local movement crossing over to global politics. 

This course offers a study of corruption and accountability. It examines the causes and consequences of corruption, as well as types of corruption: judicial, political, private sector, and organized crime. This course explores means to regulate corruption including through international regulation, good government, transparency, and democracy.

This course provides the basic knowledge of different forms of international standards, how those standards are made and enforced, and how and why they have impacts on what countries do at home and abroad. It covers international rules governing issues such as human rights, trade, climate, and the use of force in resolving disputes between countries and how they affect the day-to-day lives of people and communities all over the world.

This course introduces the politics and international relations in Korea, including some of the major developments in Korea’s contemporary history. It covers the complicated ways in which domestic politics, national division, and international relations intersect with each other. The course also provides opportunities to critically discuss contemporary political issues so that students may identify major political forces affecting them and their implications for Korea and their neighbors. The course aims to equip students with political knowledge and intellectual tools with which they can better understand the politics and international relations in Korea and Northeast Asia in the past and the future. 

This course reviews the history of Western international society and its global expansion, placing the development of the League of Nations and the United Nations (UN) in this historical context. The course particularly focuses on the role of Japan in any international organization.  

The course introduces students to the theory and history of international organizations, seeking to understand the following four subjects: (1) International Society, Rationalism or the English School as the third paradigm of International Relations in contrast to Realism and Liberalism; (2) the historic developments of Western international society and international organization; (3) the political dynamism behind the creation of the League of Nations and the United Nations (UN), and (4) the historic significance of a global liberal order.  

This course shows that Africa is a productive laboratory for students and researchers in international relations and security studies as the region gathers some of the most enduring interlinked political rivalries within the international system. It challenges and sometimes clarifies powerful concepts developed by the field (hegemonic stability, regional security complex, failed states, small state, sovereignty). It contrasts arguments that international relations focuses on the politics of powerful states and that, as a consequence, there is an African exceptionalism which explains the field’s inability to accurately address African experiences. The course examines how Africa has often been neglected by the different theoretical approaches to international relations and more generally by the discipline, demonstrating that the Horn of Africa is pertinent not only for area specialists but also constitutes a remarkable ground for fieldwork and theory-testing of both old and new approaches. 

This course interrogates development geography as a discipline, discourse, and practice. Framed as "global development" in contemporary discourse, it traces its origins to colonialism and engages with debates in both mainstream and radical development thinking. Drawing on examples from different regions of the world, it focuses on global challenges related to migration, employment, gender, environment, digital technologies, and development finance to reflect on the changing geographies and politics of development.

This course is designed to introduce students to the basic drivers of international relations in the modern age from the Antiquities, namely, the causes of war and peace through theoretical and historical examination of major conflicts up to the 21st century.

This advanced course offers a comprehensive examination of women's engagement in politics worldwide, with a primary focus on the French context. Through a nuanced and comparative lens, it explores the complex dynamics surrounding women's participation in political spheres. Students critically analyze the multifaceted challenges that women encounter in their pursuit of political power and decision-making roles but also in influencing political and intellectual debates. Drawing on extensive research and scholarly works, the course investigates the historical, social, and political factors that have shaped women's involvement in politics from a global perspective.