Political Science

Starting with the 2008 crisis and its consequences on the economy, this course traces the reactions of political authorities to escape the recession and reduce economic imbalances. In this context, it outlines the policies of structural politics and attempts to analyze their impacts on the growth perspectives in the years to come. Lastly, the course revisits the various economic policies (budgetary, monetary, and employment) put into place in the past twenty years in France, and their consequences on the French economy. It reviews the aid instruments that economists possess to examine their optimal economic policies: structural unemployment, production potential, output gap, and macroeconomic model.

This course discusses global environmental problems, with special attention to the Arctic, and international tensions that exist in the Arctic. Topics include: polar exploration; the Artic-- location and characteristics; climate change and its effects in the Arctic-- resource extraction and navigation of Arctic waters; Arctic states and the extension of their sovereignty over marine areas; Greenland and its historical and legal situation; the Arctic Council; indigenous peoples of the Arctic; the 2030 Agenda in the Arctic; security and defense; the EU; China; Arctic science as a tool for cooperation.

This course applies political risk analysis to explain the linkage between luxury consumption and the anti-corruption movement in China. It cultivates students’ understanding about how economic behavior and commercial market are affected by political dynamics in a one-party regime like China. The course analyzes the anti-corruption campaigns during the two decades under the Hu-Wen and Xi-Li regime from 2003 to 2022, and the varieties of luxury goods that are commonly used to capitalize illegal gains. Quantitative, analytical tools, such as game theory and regression methods, are introduced.

This reading-intensive course studies some of the main conflicts that have occurred since 1945 – beginning with the wars in Indo-China (1946-54) and Algeria (1954-62) that saw the end of France as a colonial power. Conflicts covered in this course include: The Franco-Vietnamese conflict; Lebanon civil war; Islamic revolt in Afghanistan and occupation by the Soviet Union; and the American conflict in Iraq.  Students gain a clear understanding of the background and consequences of these conflicts, how immensely difficult it is for outside powers to intervene in any other state, and a deeper understanding of societies that are very different to those of the West. Students critically analyze the impact traditional mass media and social media have had, both in covering the conflicts and in fostering resistance or opposition to the powers that be.

This course explores how the burdens and benefits of social cooperation should, as a matter of justice, be distributed. It considers a range of answers that have been offered by some of today's most prominent analytical political philosophers, all based on the philosophical method of reflective equilibrium, and evaluates their arguments in detail to develop an understanding of the preferred conception of distributive justice.