International Studies

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course provides an understanding of key issues involved in environmental politics, from both a theoretical and practical perspective. Environmental issues are critically discussed, with particular reference to the role and responsibilities of great powers in the international politics of climate change, power inequality, and the global ecological crisis. Students acquire and learn: 1) the essential conceptual, theoretical, and methodological tools necessary to tackle and understand environmental issues; 2) knowledge regarding the major interpretations of environmental security; 3) basic knowledge about major environmental powers (United States, China, European Union, India, Brazil, Russia) and international institutions and issue areas (UN Security Council, multilateral environmental agreements, international climate leadership, coal politics); and 4) how to apply the acquired tools to the analysis of concrete cases.

This course examines transnational global climate change developments through the lens of broader debates about transnationalism in world politics. It explores how and under what conditions sub-national and non-state actors such as cities, corporations, NGOs, and Indigenous peoples have become central to global efforts to address climate change. The course also considers the diverse forms of transnational governance led by these actors and the relationship of these initiatives to multilateral treaties and other state-based forms of climate change regulation. It reviews efforts to assess whether transnationalism contributes to a more effective global response to climate change and reflects on the normative issues raised as transnational actors and forms of governance become more deeply embedded in global climate politics.

This course is designed to assist students who seek to bring cross-cultural theory and research into their business practices in order to develop the intercultural competence necessary to interact confidently and successfully with Japanese businesspeople. Theoretical discussions and intercultural sensitivity workshops are included in this course to achieve these goals. The comparative approach allows for examining how people practice business differently, depending on explicit and implicit sets of general cultural assumptions, rules, norms, and values. The course aims to understand cultural differences in businesspeople’ s attitudes towards work, companies, and the relationship between individuals (colleagues or co-workers and clients/customers) and organizations (counterparts or partners). The course also seeks to understand possible cultural roots of Japanese business practices and behavior, highlighting phenomena that are only indirectly observable, such as harmony, loyalty, discipline, patience, respect for senior staff, and the importance of moderation.

A good mixture of lectures, class discussions, and workshops comprise the activities of this course.

The institution and the development of international organizations constitutes a major phenomenon of contemporary international society. This course introduces the law of international organizations including their constituent treaties; the role of states within them; the functioning of their components; and the methods of production and implementation of the law they offer. The course also reflects on the functions of international organizations within contemporary international society to discuss if they are places of governance, regulation of the international community, or simple mechanisms structured by coordination of the interstate relations.

This interdisciplinary course explores classic literature and contemporary perspectives on reproduction from the perspectives of history, sociology, anthropology, and law. It examines the crucial role reproduction plays in how relations between nations are negotiated, both symbolically and materially. From colonial to metropolitan households, notably via military contexts, the “domestic” has been re-signified by the transnational: nannies, international adoption, and gestational surrogacy have historical links with 19th and 20th centuries' wars. Focusing on the exchanges and connections between the economic, the political, and the intimate, it examines how these increasingly global processes affect individuals, families, and (imagined) communities from multiple lenses: ethnicity and race, nation, class, and gender. It considers how notions of kinship, citizenship, and human rights have become the subject of intense scrutiny, notably through public debates on private and state management of collective life through (bio)technologies of measurement and intervention. Case studies range from analysis of gender dynamics of armed rebellions in Africa to reproductive politics in the United States. Key concepts and policies pertaining to biopolitics, birthing, welfare programs, domestic labor, marriage, and care work are discussed.

This course provides an overview of the history and major issues in Korea-US relations. The first half of the course deals with the late nineteenth century up to the 1980`s. The second half discusses various contemporary issues related to the two countries, including security, trade, Korean nationalism, immigration, North Korea`s nuclear program, and territorial disputes, among many others. Topics include security, trade, Korean nationalism, immigration, North Korea`s nuclear program, and territorial disputes, among others.

This course discusses causes and impacts of globalization on the interaction between the power of market and the states. The course explores how state institutions cope with the forces of globalization. It also investigates novel regulations and orders of the global governance.

Because there is a high concentration of international actors in Geneva, it is often known as one of the capitals of global governance. This course offers an understanding about the world of international organizations and nongovernmental organizations while detailing the main issues of global governance. In order to fully comprehend what is at stake, this course adds academic training to general information. Students benefit from the extensive experience of well-known officials belonging to international organizations and nongovernmental organizations as well as an analysis from professors. The pedagogical approach in this course is interdisciplinary including history, political science, economy, and law, and includes visits to several international organizations. Topics include human rights and humanitarian law, global health, science and diplomacy, migrations and international labor, and international trade and development.

This course offers a comparative, transnational study of the dramatic social, scientific, political, and cultural transformations that occurred in the two decades or so following World War II. By focusing on Japan's global moment in the 1960s, it includes some of the following topics: the Cold War and the Space Race, the reshaping of the Middle-East, the Cultural Revolution in China, decolonization in Africa, dictatorship and Liberation Theology in Latin America, the global civil rights movement, the New Right, the environmental movement, consumerism, counter-culture and the student protest movements that took place around the world.
 

This course examines multiple contexts of the Global Sixties in the collective efforts to map out the simultaneity of revolutionary transformation and conflict, while developing a methodological approach for researching and interpreting change from a variety of national/local perspectives. It particularly focuses on the travels of individuals who saw themselves as part of an international community of antiwar activists and antiracism causes.

This class also examines how actual interactions among people from Japan and other Third World countries inspired transnational identities and multiracial coalitions, challenging the political commitments and personal relationships of individual activists.

This course examines the formulation and development of United States foreign policy from the American founding to the present day. It explores case studies and crises that have tested and reshaped American leadership in the world including the territorial expansion of the United States, the two world wars, the Cold War rivalry with the Soviet Union and its satellites; the Korean War; the Cuban Missile Crisis; the Vietnam War; the collapse of Soviet Communism; tensions in the Middle East; the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001; the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; and the ongoing rise of China and Russia’s war in Ukraine. It also traces the roots of America’s ascent to superpower status during the 20th century and assesses the many dilemmas it faces in the present day as US foreign policy has veered from the Trump administration’s authoritarian populism to the Biden presidency and its return to liberal internationalism. The course also studies how American responses to world affairs–and American interactions with other governments, regions and international institutions–have evolved across generations.