International Studies

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. The course focuses on the new requirements with which diplomacy must comply, both at the national and global level, in the present transitional phase of the international relations system. A special section of the course is devoted to the radical changes that occurred after the Cold War and the public and multilateral diplomatic methods that resulted from it, with special reference to specific crises. The course describes the additional challenges that diplomacy must face, at the domestic and international level, in the present transitional phase of foreign relations. Specific case studies analyze the most relevant changes that have occurred since the end of the Cold War, and indicate the emerging public and multilateral diplomatic tools.

This course introduces students to critical approaches to international law and excavates the ideas and histories that help shape international law's subjects, categories, and boundaries. The course engages with critical theories (TWAIL, critical legal studies, Marxism) that challenge the narrative of international law as a universal and progressive project. This course consists of three parts which provide students with a foundation to reflect on both the limits and potential of international law. The first part of the course explores how colonialism helped produce international law's actors: the State, victim, perpetrator, and international community. The second part engages with non-legal discourses (narrative, mythology, emotion) to explore how these categories are sustained. The third part of the course investigates whether the discourse presents a crisis of imagination that makes alternative international engagements unthinkable.

This course examines a variety of aspects concerning international politics in Europe, with particular focus on the Cold War and post-Cold War eras. The course surveys the postwar history of international politics in Europe; European integration in general and the European Union in particular; the role played by security organizations (especially NATO and OSCE); US and Soviet/Russian policy towards Europe; the eruption of ethno-political conflict (in particular, the Balkans); the international impact of Germany's recent reunification; and the quest for order, stability, and security in a region that is no longer divided by the Iron Curtain but in which international politics continue to be shaped and affected by East-West as well as North-South contrasts. The course mixes an examination of contemporary aspects with historical contextualization, in presentations, readings, and video material.

This is an internship opportunity through the Central European Studies Program that responds to a clear necessity among multicultural societies to educate young people abroad in a professional working environment. Apart from onsite work experience, the Internship Program has a strong and challenging academic component exposing students to the world of non-governmental organizations, education, and the social services sector in the Czech Republic and EU as well as developing personal, interpersonal, and intercultural competencies. Qualified students choose from several pre-screened internship positions with local, mostly non-governmental organizations, which may be involved in education, film, organization of international political conferences, local and global human rights issues, and library and administrative work in the field of economics.  International professional experiences are broadened through a series of guided discussions, a reflective journal, and presentations. Students explore major relevant topics, such as organization theory, and develop their intercultural skills through interactive workshops and reflection of their work experience in the host culture.

This course examines international affairs in Northeast Asia through a range of theoretical perspectives in international relations. The course is divided into three parts. The first part discusses how major international relations theories can help us better understand international politics of Northeast Asia and how the regional order has been shaped since the World War II and throughout the Cold War. It then moves on to assessing contemporary foreign policy of individual countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, and Taiwan. Finally, it explores key regional issues, such as territorial disputes, alliance management, and nuclear proliferation.

The course is an introduction to some of the major economic and development issues that international organizations deal with. It provides some key factual, methodological, and analytical elements that contribute to a better understanding and appreciation of the current work of international organizations and the underlying policy debates and motivations. Each lecture treats a specific topic that is part of the post-2015 Development Agenda adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN). Each lecture is organized in three parts, starting with a series of well-established stylized facts. These facts are then used to illustrate a crucial methodological and conceptual issue related to the topic treated. The last part of the lecture is dedicated to a deeper analysis that reflects ongoing policy debates.

This seminar provides a critical introduction to how knowledge is produced in and about (post)conflict zones. It focuses on the intricacies of the production of statistical and qualitative data, on institutions engaged in conflict reporting and their policies (like Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group), on ethnographies of spaces of aid and peacebuilding, on the construction of expertise, on fieldwork industries and their share in coproducing data, on the politics of evidence, and on how knowledge about conflict in turn shapes conflict itself. How do think tanks, academics, and politicians gather evidence about conflicts that are often almost impossible to study directly? How is access to conflict knowledge mediated? How are facts established? And what role do institutions, political narratives, and networks play in the production of knowledge about post conflict situations? Why are some conflicts studied and receive attention, while others tend to be ignored or forgotten? This seminar provides an introduction to this comparatively novel topic in peace and conflict studies.