Political Science

This course offers an exploration of the histories, theories and practices of democracy. It provides students with a systematic overview of the complex discourses on democracy today. What is democracy? Where does the idea of democracy come from? Has the idea one or many origins? Can democracy be justified, and if so, on what grounds? What are the limits of democracy? These, and many more, questions lie at the heart of democratic theory and of this course.

This course examines some fundamental questions about the nature of war and conflicts in international politics. It covers the following topics: whether war is part of human nature or a social invention; if democracies are less prone to fight than authoritarian regimes; whether war is an unavoidable consequence of anarchy, and if so, the role of human agency; what factors contribute to conflict among nations and how these factors have changed over time; if the nuclear shadow is back in our contemporary international security; has the window of humanitarian operations been closed; and whether we can speak of “new wars” in the 21st century. The course uses an interdisciplinary perspective, incorporating insights from political science, anthropology, psychology, and history to better understand our current international environment.

This course provides an introduction to the study of International Political Economy (IPE). IPE is a field of research that combines the study of politics and economics, exploring both domestic and international factors that impact preferences, behaviours, and policies relating to economic globalisation. The course will cover major topics of inquiry within IPE such as the politics and policies relating to international trade, international investment, and international finance. Students will be introduced to theoretical and empirical research analysing each topic covered. By the end of the term, you should have a firm understanding of IPE as a discipline, including ways in which the field’s insights can inform policy-making.

This course educates students on the history, process, and sources of American foreign policy. The course is divided into four sections. The first section focuses on the field of foreign policy analysis as a subfield in International Relations. An overview of the various analytical perspectives on U.S. foreign policy is covered. This first section also considers the importance of examining American foreign policy in today's world. Section two concentrates on the history of U.S. foreign policy, covering such events as the Founding of the United States, World War I, the inter-war years, World War II, the making of a Superpower, the Cold War, the Post-Cold War world, September 11th, and ending with recent world events, such as the Iraq War and the Global War on Terror. Part three examines the politics and the policy-making process of American foreign policy. Topics for discussion in this section include the institutions involved in the policy-making process, such as the President, various bureaucracies like the State Department, the Department of Defense, and the CIA, plus Congress and the Courts. This section also considers the role the American public plays in the process of making U.S. foreign policy. The final part of this course studies the instruments used to implement American Foreign Policy. This section includes a discussion of America's use of open or diplomatic instruments, secret instruments, economic instruments, and also its military instruments. This final section ends with a task that discusses the future of American Foreign Policy. Prerequisites for this course include an introductory international relations or political science course and at least one intermediate-level social science course.

This course starts with an overview of mainstream and critical international relations theory which is then applied to real-world events. Students first think about how war and peace, order and disorder, prosperity and poverty are conceptualized in international relations. Using approaches from realism to post-colonial theory, the course discusses the role of the state in the formation of global politics in order to understand how globalization has in turn affected the role of states in global politics, particularly against the backdrop of populist nationalism and ever-growing global challenges. 

This course surveys classical theories and analytical approaches of political economy. Emphasis is placed on understanding the processes by which agents' political (economic) incentives influence economic (political) outcomes in the public domain, and vice versa. The course consists of two parts. Part I of this course introduces core concepts and theories – collective action, public goods, preference, social structure and power, and institutions – in the study of political economy. Part II of this course applies the knowledge introduced in part I to analyze a range of issues in political economy: institutional change, development, the interplay between different types of resources and channels of influence, and international trade. Contrary to what have been indoctrinated in the fields of economics and political science, the aim of this course is to leverage “political economy”—as an analytical approach—to help understand the sources of sub-optimal socio-economic outcomes.

This course discusses a classical issue for international relations and political theory: the ethics of war. It exemplifies the role of norms in warfare and discusses the major dilemmas that face armies, politicians, and civilians throughout history, with a specific focus on contemporary challenges. Its focus is mainly interdisciplinary as it brings together moral and political philosophy, international law, and international relations. By analyzing case studies, it addresses the legitimacy of resorting to war, discusses the coherence of certain rationales and principles justifying the use of force both legally and morally, and explores future challenges of the field (cyberwar, artificial intelligence). Ultimately, the course provides the concepts and references students can deploy to build their own argument on justice and war.