International Studies

This course provides an analytical framework for understanding Turkey's foreign policy in its geographical environment from 2002 to the present. The regions covered are the Balkans, the Middle East, the Caucasus, the Mediterranean basin, and the Black Sea. The course is divided into two chronological phases: from 2002 to 2011, when Turkey based its power strategy primarily on soft power; and from 2011 to the present day, when the outbreak of the Syrian civil war has seen the militarization of Turkish foreign policy. The course is transversal and addresses many themes related to history, geography, economics, sociology, and international law as tools for the analysis of international relations.

This course debates contemporary issues in a Socratic manner inspired by Michel Sandel's lectures and Ian Shapiro's views on Enlightenment philosophy, which placed great faith in the power of human reason to understand the true nature of our circumstances and the idea of progress in human affairs as means to control, and perhaps even improve, our environments and our lives. Through different roles, students adopt different positions to think about sensitive issues related to conflictual situations from points of view that are not necessarily based on their personal convictions. Topics are inspired from the Council of Foreign Affairs: What is a Moral Foreign Policy.

This course studies the global economy from a political perspective. Politics and policy choices have fundamental impact on global economic outcomes, and the course examined such issues as who are the winners, who are the losers, and how are the economic costs and benefits distributed. The course begins by examining the major analytical perspectives used in the study of international political economy (IPE). It then turns to the key substantive topics in IPE: international trade, global capital flows, economic crises, multinational production, and the transnational movement of people. The course also compares the relative performance of different national economies in the global economic system. Thereafter, focus is on two global issues with stark implications for human welfare: environmental degradation and world hunger. The course concludes by reflecting on the ethics and future of globalization.

This course discusses the configuration and reconfiguration of the contemporary world system and Latin America's place within it. It examines different perspectives of globalization mainly through the lens of sociology and anthropology.  Topics include: approaches, definitions, and emphasis on the meaning and impact of globalization; economic insertion of a world periphery, regional integration systems, and resources at stake in global exchanges; global flows-- migratory, religious, touristic; diffusion and use of digital technologies, new social movements, and the global city from the south.