Political Science

This course is designed to explore what it takes to be a successful diplomat. The course works under the premise that many "qualified" leaders too often disqualify themselves by lacking the basic communication, presentation, leadership, empathy, and listening skills amongst many others. This workshop-style seminar highlights the most essential soft skills that are needed to make it in the world of politics. Toward that end, this course includes the teaching of advanced techniques for delivering great speeches as well as successfully taking charge and winning complex communication settings like negotiation, mediation, interviews, and debates. Media training, body language, emotional intelligence as well as negotiation strategies are the common thread underlying all lectures to practice the art of public speaking and negotiating. While this course develops these skills in a political and diplomatic setting, all techniques described and taught are applicable to any communication setting regardless of the occupation and background of the communicator. All skills reviewed in this course are presented from a theoretical point of view and taken into consideration with different layers of analysis: social, cultural, educational, religious, and generational background to name a few. In addition, the course offers a specific lecture designed for future women diplomats and political leaders to discuss the different pressures placed on them in a political communication setting and to raise awareness among male students.

This class explores several important themes in the political development of East and Southeast Asia. The first part of the course focuses on political culture, concerning the so-called 'Asian values' debate; the second part explores aspects of political information selection, and the third part covers topics of political participation.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The course provides an advanced and critical overview and understanding of the role of victims of crime and abuse of power, social exclusion, and repression in contemporary society with regards to the main theoretical approaches in the discipline as a reflection of the changing of structure dynamics and relations at all level in the "global era". The course provides the skills to: analyze processes of victimization in contemporary societies in a broader political and socio-economic context; set the peculiar condition of victims in the frame of multiple interactions with regards to national and supra national institutions; recognize the ambivalence of victims’ role inside the judiciary and criminal justice systems in a comparative perspective; apply the “new” victimology of human rights in an original and interdisciplinary approach that transcends current official and social perspectives of victimization and its sources.

This course introduces the analysis of the foundations of public order from the perspective of analytical political theory. This basis provides the conceptual tools for approaching a central issue in political theory: the justification of political obligation and contestation. The study of the justification of public institutions reviews some of the key approaches in political philosophy (deontology; consequentialism) and analytical political theories (contractualism; utilitarianism). The course addresses questions of moral right to command and a moral duty to obey; whether individual autonomy and political authority are compatible; whether voluntarily accepting an obligation is to be bound by it; why must we obey the laws even if the personal costs of obedience are very high; whether we are ever morally justified in disobeying unjust laws; and if exemptions from the law for reasons of conscience can ever be justified.

This course introduces students to political data analysis using domestic and international data. The course covers core substantive topics in politics and international relations, typically exploring one major research question from Politics and one major research question from IR. It explores how to access relevant data and assesses the appropriateness of data. It provides key skills in quantitative data analysis, including descriptive statistics, cross-tab/contingency tables, measures of association, correlation, and regression. 

This course introduces emerging technologies (ET) and international law. Topics include characteristics of the technology era, technology law and governance, convergence and interplay of politics, international norms and regulations, and evolution and future of emerging technologies.

This course examines the great contemporary problems of poverty and inequality within the context of a globalizing world. Sources and selected empirical cases of poverty and inequality are explored and related development theories and policies are examined. The geographical scope of the course ranges from local to international. One or more African languages may accompany English in some lectures or reading material. Coursework counts 60%; an examination counts 40% of the final mark.

Using a comparative perspective, this course explores the different foreign policy strategies and approaches that Latin American countries use to integrate in a globalized world. It examines the processes of integration, cooperation, and security between countries in the region. The course analyzes the difference in foreign policy approaches, specifically political, economic, and social processes that have occurred in Latin American countries since the 1980s. Other topics include the relationship of Latin America with world powers.

The course deals with substantive, procedural and political issues relating to international criminal justice, its origins, reach, legitimacy, and articulation with (post-) conflict management and peace making. It covers historical and recent international and national efforts undertaken to address these crimes. After presenting the framework and principles of international criminal justice, the course discusses contemporaneous issues. Experts and practitioners contribute to equipping students with the tools necessary to understand the role and impact of justice in international affairs.

This political theory course considers whether the end of climate change denial leads to climate justice or new forms of fascisms. It takes seriously the emergence of new ecofascist tendencies as complex phenomena to be critically studied, analyzed, and contested. The course is divided into three parts. The first part explores various conceptualizations of fascism and climate change generally. It then analyzes the tendency from climate change denial towards realism about (anthropogenic) climate change and the forms of fascism that may follow from it. Finally, it discusses democratic responses to the emerging phenomena. The course draws on political theories concerning climate change, democracy, and fascism. It presents ecofascist, neo-Malthusian, petro-masculinist, and collapsologist movements that in some cases convey racist, misogynic, and homophobic ideas and critically discusses them within materialist, new materialist, and critical theoretical frameworks.