International Studies

This course provides an introduction to the EU and its policy on environmental protection and natural resources. After a brief recap of the basics of policy-making in the EU, students learn about the guiding principles and developments within the EU’s environmental policy. Subsequently, the course covers the major environmental challenges currently faced by the EU. The first part of the course discusses the functioning of the European Union to be able to better understand the factors influencing European environmental policy and politics. The course also looks at the European reaction to climate change and discusses the effectiveness of the main solutions to this global problem: the development of renewable sources of energy and the different ways of pricing carbon. The course devotes a special session to the EU’s role in climate negotiations. The second part of the course is devoted to different forms of pollution, such as air, noise, water, and soil pollution, as well as humanity’s impact on biodiversity loss. In this part of the course students discuss the main prerequisites for making the European transport sector more sustainable and European cities greener and smarter. The last session is devoted to discussing the challenges and the opportunities for the future of environmental policy.

This course is divided into two parts. The first half of the course offers a comparative modern history of East Asian countries, with a special focus on Hokkaido, Ryukyu-Okinawa, Taiwan, Korea and China, in the framework of Japanese “Nation-Empire” building. The course also explores categories of people, including trafficked children, peddlers, “abducted” women, the Ainu, Taiwan's indigenous people, Micronesians, and Okinawans. The second half of the course focuses on cultural studies (pop culture, movies, music manga, etc.), political economy (regional integration, ASEAN+3, TPP, RCEP, One Belt One Load), comparative politics (political regime, identity, nationalism, democracy), regional security (U.S.-Japan Alliance, U.S. military presence, military cooperation, South China and East China sea, bandwagoning or hedge). The course uses active learning in groups, making maximum use of the mixture of students from different regions and countries, and bringing out different perspectives, points of view, and opinions on various issues and topics.

This course equips students with some of the knowledge and skills needed to work in international organizations. The first part of the course provides an overview of the core notions of International Law needed to understand the functioning of international organizations such as the sources of international law, the making of international treaties, or the areas of action of international law. The second part of the course examines the concrete functioning of international organizations by discussing the work of five global and regional organizations (with a focus on Europe and America), namely the Council of Europe, the European Union, the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The third part of the course provides a few practical tips for working in international organizations. The course includes guest lecturers with experience in working for/on international organizations.

This course builds on new scholarship which expands the study of the Cold War from a primarily bipolar, Western, superpower perspective to a truly global perspective not only geographically, but also thematically, giving voice to underrepresented perspectives. Through combining diplomatic, military, economic, and cultural history with elements of intelligence studies and International Relations theory, this course approaches the bipolar conflict in the broadest sense possible. This course complements The Transatlantic Cold War, which approaches the bipolar conflict mainly from an East-West perspective. It can be taken in conjunction with that course, since it covers an altogether new set of themes and regions, or by itself, since students become familiar with the relevant skills and contents during the course.

This course has four parts: firstly, it sets the scene by introducing a series of analytical categories and dimensions that can be employed to examine social policy in comparative perspective; secondly, it illustrates similarities and differences in the social policies of high-income countries by reviewing in detail selected national models of welfare state; thirdly, it moves from the national to the supranational level by examining the role of selected supranational institutions in shaping social policies in the Global North and the Global South (e.g. European Union; World Bank; ILO); fourthly, it reviews some key challenges that welfare states are currently faced with and the opportunities for renewal that these challenges may offer.