Political Science

The course first addresses the concept of the “atrocity triangle” and it looks into the relationship between the three actors (the perpetrator, the victim, and the bystander) involved in the triangle. An integrated criminological model is introduced which sets out the relevant etiological elements that are addressed in greater detail in the second part of the course. The second part of the course, which focuses on the perpetrators, starts with the forms, functions, and effects of (political) violence and the concept of torture in particular. The analysis continues on the macro level and addresses the role of policy and ideology. Subsequent analysis focuses on the meso level and the role of military organizations and other institutions. In this context, attention is paid to the influence of military training and students discuss how, with the help of a bureaucratic system, genocide can be planned, organized, and carried out. The course furthermore discusses several experiments (Milgram, Ash, Stanford, etc.) on obedience, institutional roles, and conformity, but also addresses other social-psychological mechanisms that help understand how and why people can participate in the perpetration of gross human rights violations. Lastly, the important role that language and discourse play in conflict and international crime is highlighted. The third part of the course focuses on the role of the bystander by looking into the phenomenon of the “bystander effect” to address the question of why bystanders fail to act. Secondly, the role of bystanders in international politics at the macro-level of both states and international organizations in the field of human rights is discussed. Special attention was given to the role of the UN Security Council when it was confronted with gross human rights violations. The course then looks more closely into the phenomenon of rescuing to find out what turns actors into rescuers. The fourth and last part of the course takes a more victimological perspective, which focuses on the position of the victim. Specific attention is paid to gender-selective violence. More particularly, the phenomena of rape as a “weapon of war” and gendercide (gender-selective mass killings) are discussed. Also, the complex case of child soldiers is addressed as they are victims and perpetrators at the same time. These lectures in this course are used to illustrate the discussed materials and to provide the participants with a deeper understanding of the subject matter by presenting the linkage between theory and (research) practice. During the lectures, various guest speakers address the subject matter from the practitioner's perspective. In addition, several documentaries are screened and then analyzed during the post-discussion. Case studies play an important role throughout the course wide variety of cases are covered including The Holocaust and other cases of genocide (Armenia, Australia, Cambodia, Rwanda, Srebrenica, Darfur, etc.). Prerequisites for this course include two intermediate-level courses in the Social Sciences or Humanities.

This course provides an introduction to memory studies, an interdisciplinary field encompassing sociology, political science, anthropology, and history, among other disciplines. The course introduces the main theoretical concepts in memory studies and the historical development of different approaches while focusing on recent debates on the relationship between memory politics and contemporary political developments (the rise of populism; nostalgia in the post-socialist world; Brexit; tearing down of colonial statues; return of looted artifacts from the Global North). The course provides an understanding of the basic notions of memory and its relation to identity formation, both individual and collective; the role of memory in institutional politics through memorialization rituals; the importance of monuments; and the role of memory and nostalgia as sites of resistance in everyday politics of contemporary world. Through lectures, selected readings, media screenings, group discussions, and student presentations, the course provides insight into the importance of power interplays of different memory and history narratives and critically engages in understanding contemporary memory discourses.

This course investigates the evolution of relations between the United States and European states with a focus on the strategic and security-related dimensions of this relationship. It seeks to analyze the driving factors behind recent transatlantic crises and divergences and the implications for the future of international security. The first part of the course introduces several theoretical approaches to transatlantic relations based on the main International Relations schools of thought. The second part of the course applies these approaches to current challenges facing the transatlantic partnership, ranging from defense burden sharing to responding to Russia's assertiveness, from China's rise to crises in the Middle East and Africa.

This seminar offers a survey of the intellectual tradition that takes for its object the interrogation and theorization of systems of power whereby inequality is associated with gender, sex, and sexuality. A range of key work are explored, mainly from western authors, that exemplify the intellectual history of feminist and queer theory. Through works of philosophy, political, and psychoanalytic theory about gender and sexuality, the course traces the foundations and development of some major strands of recent and contemporary thought about gender and sexuality including: liberal feminism, with its emphasis on sameness and equality; cultural, separatist, and lesbian feminisms with their focus on difference; radical, Marxist, socialist, and anarchist feminisms with their political and material analysis of gender; intersectional feminisms with their questioning of such identity categories as woman; postcolonial and transnational theories of gender and sexuality; queer theory and its mobilization of deconstructive modes of thought; and trans theory with its shift of emphasis back to embodiment and identity.