Political Science

This course examines theoretical debates about the relationship between state and society as well as the social context within which political actors operate and the extent to which they shape and are shaped by social structures such as gender, ethnicity, nationality, class, race and religion. What role do ethnicity, nation and gender play in contemporary politics? What is the link between identity and politics? And what makes for successful social movements? This course tackles these and other questions against the backdrop of three main sociological approaches to the study of society and politics: functionalism, conflict theories, and symbolic interactionism.

What is neoliberalism? How is power organized in the contemporary political economy and who are the winners and losers from this process? How do struggles from below challenge neoliberalism? Students consider issues such as corporate power, the way debt has transformed everyday life, the changing fortunes of labor, and struggles from the Global South against neoliberalism. 

The Asia-Pacific region is undergoing rapid changes that present both great opportunities and enormous challenges in a number of areas. The complex interactions across states, institutions, and local communities in the region will determine how the region addresses its major governance challenges, such terrorism, refugees, health, drugs, economic development, and the environment. Using these issues as weekly topical case studies, this course focuses on how the wide range of actors in the Asia-Pacific region attempt to comprehend and resolve governance and policy problems.

This course provides an overview of the main theories and the European policies in the field of global justice. The globalization of economic exchanges and the universalization of risk have challenged the classical theories of justice and democracy, meant to apply to small communities, and have caused a paradigm change in the field of political and social theory. Contemporary global issues, like climate change, global risk, poverty and migration, have required transnational and international legal regulation and public policies. In theory, they have given way to new conceptions of justice, democracy, sovereignty, citizenship and human rights, which are assumed to be adequate to the new international political order. Global justice, deliberative democracy, cosmopolitan citizenship, universal human rights, “multicultural rights”, “the rights of others”, are some of the concepts used by political theorists to describe the current situation. Among the new concepts and constructions, many have proved to be controversial, including the relationship between the concepts of justice and democracy, of particularism and cosmopolitanism, of equality and difference.

This course provides students with a foundational understanding of globalization, focusing on its challenges and opportunities in the context of China’s rise. The course is structured in three parts: Theoretical Foundations: The course begins by exploring classic political economy theories of globalization; Geopolitical Challenges: The course then examines how geopolitics and China’s rise challenge and reshape these traditional frameworks; Applied Analysis: Finally, students apply these analytical tools to real-world topics, including industrial policies, foreign direct investment (FDI), economic sanctions, and the green transition.

Combining theory and practice of international relations, this course is designed to provide a solid understanding of the trajectory of both conceptualizations and policies on sovereignty in the global stage. The variety of classes focus on multiple aspects of strategic diplomacy in the global commons - outer space, air space, cyber space, maritime space and polar space - to understand expressions of sovereignty outside of territories under national jurisdiction, a topic of crucial importance for the coming century. As this course breaks barriers between academia and practice, students are equally trained to write argumentative essays (French academic exercise of dissertation) and research papers as well as policy papers, while being introduced to the art of diplomatic negotiation.

Can Turkey's internal contradictions prevent it from fulfilling its ambition to become a major power? Although it remains weakened by certain internal divisions, Turkey seems to be successfully transforming itself on the international stage, moving from the status of a marginal power to that of a regional power. This course analyzes the drivers of this transformation, asking how far this ambition could take Ankara, between disenchantment (falling into line) and real change (global influence). The course covers essential knowledge about Turkey and its place in the new global order; builds critical analysis and synthesis skills by confronting sometimes opposing ideas or divergent opinions (e.g., by studying texts that present different points of view on the same subject); and practices constructing, producing, and writing a press article.

This course addresses the ethics and politics of the social sciences, and the role of the social sciences in ethics and political philosophy. Students address questions such as: Are the social sciences inferior to the natural sciences? Should citizens, scientists, or the market decide what gets researched? Are some topics ethically, or politically, out of bounds for scientific research? How should science guide policy and what would evidence-based policy look like? Is cost-benefit analysis the best way to choose a policy? Does everything have a price? Should our ethics be informed by the findings of social science? And what should the relationship between political philosophy and political science be like? The course has two overall aims: first, to encourage critical reflection on the social sciences and, second, to explore the relationship of ethics and political philosophy to the social sciences.

This course offers an overview of international politics since 1914, providing a factual grounding and surveying the main historiographical debates. Lectures and classes examine the origins, course, and aftermath of the First World War; the Great Depression, appeasement,  the origins of the Second World War in East Asia and Europe; the course and aftermath of the Second World War and the global origins of the Cold War: and aspects of the Cold War world, including decolonization, European integration, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the ‘American war’ in Vietnam, and peaks and troughs of tension between the superpowers. The course also addresses the history of international organizations and of peace movements. It closes with the end of the Cold War and the origins of the Persian Gulf/Iraq wars of 1991 and 2003.

This course examines the role of sexual orientation and gender identity in politics drawing on multidisciplinary research on social movements, transnational rights advocacy, identity politics, public opinion and political behavior, as well as regional studies.