Political Science

This course provides a detailed understanding of the European jihadi phenomenon, from its inception during the war in Afghanistan (1979) to the fall of ISIS (2019) and its current reconfigurations on the Old Continent (2020-2023). It is the results of a decade of on-the-ground research, it explores the way jihadi groups and organizations spread their ideas throughout the Old Continent, from the French “banlieues” to the British and Belgian inner cities, and from the German countryside to the Scandinavian metropolitan area. The course also covers female activism, online activism, and the way jihadism functions behind bars. It points out the poorly understood centrality of prisons in the making of European Jihadism and its current reconfigurations since the fall of ISIS. The course introduces jihadism and its key concepts, including pre-modern Islamic theology and jurisprudence to demonstrate how these references were appropriated and repurposed by jihadi ideologues for political ends. It concludes on the current debates in Europe surrounding jihadism and Islamism in the wake of the killing of Samuel Paty in France and subsequent attack in Vienna, Austria.

Chile has experienced a series of political, economic, social and cultural upheavals during the twentieth century. This course examines the phenomenon of violence, memory, and amnesia through the history of political conflicts. It underlines the roles of silence, oblivion, repression, and humiliation in the formation of authoritative and dictatorial regimes and opposes them to the exaltation of memory in the legitimization of a cause. The course involves a diachronic analysis, introducing the historical and sociological context of nineteenth century Chile, before exploring the period stretching from the beginning of the twentieth century to the democratic transition in 1989, and concluding on the return of speech through the victims' testimony. From the rise of political consciousness to egalitarian combats, from conservative regimes to progressive governments, from the experience of Popular Unity to Pinochet's military coup, the study of Chile is a probing illustration of the intertwine of opposites and contraries shaping a collective consciousness. The course proposes a multidisciplinary point of view in order to embrace the complexity of political and cultural change, as well as an innovative pedagogy; historical archives, testimonies, and documentaries provide the background for a reflective study relying on systemic analysis and strong bases of methodology. Guest speakers from different fields (lawyers, authors, film directors) are invited to address the group, in order to share knowledge and experience, and give professional and personal points of views on different aspects of the course, stimulating an interactive conversation with the students.

This course introduces the world of intelligence; both the theoretical and practical concepts, as well as how it works in both the public sector (government agencies) and the private sector (corporations and intelligence vendors). It provides an understanding of concepts such as the Intelligence Cycle, intelligence analysis, intelligence collection methods (human intelligence, open-source intelligence, signals intelligence) and briefing techniques. The ethics of intelligence and the differences in the public and private sector are introduced, as well as career options in intelligence. This course uses case studies of intelligence operations in both government and corporate environments to expose real world applications of intelligence tradecraft.

This course studies the nature of immigration policy and politics in Japan. In comparative immigration literature, Japanese policy is characterized as highly restrictive, reflecting a preference for an ethnically homogenous society. However, large-scale migration flows to and from the Japanese archipelago occurred under the Japanese empire, and more recently, immigration has increased ethnic and cultural diversity in some local communities. As Japan faces the demographic challenge common to advanced industrial societies of a shrinking labor force, management of immigration and the social integration of foreign residents/immigrants assume an even greater importance for public policy. While retaining a comparative perspective, we discuss immigration in Japan in terms of legal framework; policy making; public discourse, and views of immigrant communities themselves.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course focuses on the basic concepts of Criminology as they apply to the relationships between migration, deviance, and social control; the “new” prevention of crime in urban settings; and the sociology of social control and punishment. The course highlights the sociological theory of crime and punishment and in particular the relationship between such theories and the broader framework of migration in the European Union. What is the connection between processes of European unification (legal, political, economic and social) and migrants' criminalization -- in the two aspects of criminalization, i.e. migrants' participation in criminal behavior, and the construction of migrants as criminal subjects? Theories discussed include the ecological theory of the Chicago School, differential association theory, the theory of anomie, labelling theory, and the theories of “everyday life.”

This course addresses the state of relations between the three world superpowers which are the European Union, the United States of America, and the People's Republic of China. The course addresses the subject of these triangular, complicated relations by developing China-United States relations, European Union-China relations, and European Union-United States relations. Each of these parts begins with a historical reminder and then explores the reset of these relations today. A large part of the course is also devoted to cross-cutting issues within this G-3, such as climate change, trade policy, digital technology, soft power, human rights, defense strategy, et cetera. This course adopts new perspectives to the understanding of the G-3 dynamics. A decentered perspective from each superpower's points of view (Brussels, Washington, or Beijing) is adopted.