Political Science

Today, the EU is a world leader in alternative energy efforts, most notably Germany's Energiewende, which aims to replace coal and nuclear with wind and solar electricity. However, the EU is also interconnecting member-state gas, electrical, and transport systems and unifying its energy markets aided by its new European Energy Union (EEU) — whose formation was spurred by the Ukraine crisis and Europe's heavy dependence on Russian gas. This course investigates how these transitions impact EU carbon emissions, resources, economy, society, and geopolitical security. It begins by surveying the EU's energy resources and infrastructure as compared to the USA's. It then studies Europe´s energy transitions from medieval times through its 20th-century energy crises and wars. With this preparation, the course covers Europe's intended 21st-century energy transitions. Topics include: Germany's Energiewende, its technical, economic, and social challenges and its impact on EU neighbors; problems of oil dependence and traffic congestion in the German and EU transport sectors; EU natural gas policy – external issues including dependence on Russia and pipelines through Ukraine, attempts to diversify with Norwegian, North African, and Caspian gas and with US liquefied natural gas (LNG); and internal issues such as market unification, interconnection of pipelines, anti-monopoly efforts, fracking, and competition from cheap carbon-intensive coal; finally, German rejection of nuclear energy is viewed in light of risks and promises of next-generation reactors. Throughout, students follow current German, EU, and related global energy affairs. This course should be of interest to students of both social and natural sciences.

Research on developing countries has mainly focused on how to achieve economic prosperity and equal distribution of wealth, but politics also has a significant impact on the well-being of people in developing countries. This course will introduce students to the most important theoretical frameworks and empirical findings for the study of politics in developing countries. Firstly, it introduces the main paradigms of studying political development, such as modernization theory and dependency theory. Next, the course will discuss some important topics in political development, such as the influence of colonialism, ethnic conflict, military intervention, individual dictatorship, religion and politics, and political and economic development. 

This course provides an introduction to the theory of the state. After introducing the concept of the state and the state-centered perspective, this course expands on the current theory of the state from both horizontal and vertical perspectives. Vertically, the course answers the following questions: Why did the modern state rise? What are the factors that influence nation-building? What experience does each country offer? Horizontally, the course introduces the relationship between the state and other political and social phenomena, such as the state and political system, the state and economy, the state and identity, and so on. Finally, the focus of this lesson will fall to China.

The course is deepens students’ understanding not only of the substance of Irish politics but also of the academic research that aims to interpret and understand it. The course covers political culture, the constitution, elections and electoral behavior, parties and the party system, the electoral system and its political consequences, and the role of parliament. Students learn to understand the Irish political process and become familiar with the academic research into Irish politics. 

This course presents a multifaceted France constructed by the juxtaposition of diverse spheres. The history of this construction is an arduous one of conflict and constant change. By focusing on evolving institutions, the course analyzes the political struggles out of which the French State arose and developed its current form. It pays particular attention to fundamental developments during the 19th century, using a novel approach to study of that period. Class discussion plays an important role in this course, as students are encouraged to interact with the material not only to consolidate their grasp of the subject but also as a way to analyze events, explore causality, and therefore discover the complexity and subtlety of historical analysis.

Foreign policy analysis (FPA) seeks to better understand how the foreign policy of a state is formulated not only by government actors but also other stakeholders. These can be domestic players, such as political parties, politicians, government ministers, foreign and defense ministries, but also the economic sector, think-tanks, and non-state actors, or outside actors such as intergovernmental organizations (EU, ASEAN, NATO, or the World Bank), or governments and leaders of other countries. One focus is the decision-making process within governments, domestic and international constraints, the drafting process of foreign policies, their implementation, and their public defense against domestic or international critique.