Political Science

This course focuses on the crisis of democratic politics in Europe, placing it in the wider context of the evolution of postwar democracy, as well as seeking to build accounts of our present politics. It develops a refined understanding of democratic politics in Europe, introducing academic accounts of party democracy, technocracy, and populism, and deploying them in the context of postwar European history. In so doing, this course enriches the understanding of commonly deployed notions and concepts for the purpose of contemporaneous political analysis, rendering more clearly both the disjunctures and continuities of Europe's Democratic Age.

From a political science perspective, this course investigates the stark material inequalities that exist between countries and world regions. It covers the transnational political-economy processes that shape inequalities within and between countries, including perspectives on the winners and losers of global trade, the deregulation of global finance, the precarity created along global production chains, tax evasion of multinational companies, migration, and the rise of global tech companies. The course reflects on the consequences of these processes for areas such as democracy, gender relations, and climate change.

The purpose of this course is to equip students with the ability to: First, to establish a basic understanding of international organizations, including their history, operations and interrelationships. Second, understand the current situation, limitations and prospects of the country's participation in international organizations. Third, arouse the enthusiasm of young people to participate in the affairs of international organizations, and even to work in international organizations. Fourth, when planning their future career, young people can take into account the direction of international organizations and transnational orders.

This course covers Europe's foreign and security policies since the end of the Cold War with a focus on political, strategic, and foreign policy challenges. It combines historic understanding and political analyses of the main challenges faced by the European Union and clarifies several concepts such as European diplomacy, Europe's grand strategy, EU hard versus EU soft power, the EU in its regional dimension, and the EU in a multipolar world.