Political Science

Democracy and capitalism have had a complex and often conflictual relationship, shown recently in political upheaval amid the lingering aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008. Market liberalism appears increasingly inadequate as a formula for managing tensions between capitalism’s necessary inequality and democracy’s characteristic demand for redistribution. The course offers a comprehensive introduction to how these tensions have developed in the rich market economies of the world, especially North America and Europe. Students investigate why some are more unequal than others, and how they have responded to the economic and political crises of the early 21st century. Key areas of enquiry include the distribution of income and wealth, the politics of taxation, public spending and welfare, the role of voting and elections, the politics of money, banking and financial crisis, and the rise of populism and political instability.

By examining the development of international political theory, from the Ancient Greeks to the present, the course explores and criticizes theories and arguments that have been offered to defend or challenge the power of political communities and explain the sources and varieties of conflict and cooperation that can occur within and beyond political communities. The course examines the ideas of great political thinkers from Thucydides, Machiavelli, and Hobbes to Kant, Hegel, and Marx as well as the use to which these arguments have been put in the world of politics and international relations by contemporary thinkers. These thinkers and the concepts they identify and use will provide us with a window into the structures that shape much international politics such as states’ rights and international humanitarian obligations; the nature and status of international law, and the prospects for global democracy and democratization.

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This course explores the study of politics from the perspective of gender and provides an analysis of equality policies. It examines the strategies, institutions, instruments, areas of study, and actors participating in the public policy process, as well as representation and political participation of women specifically.

This course provides an introduction to the field of political economy by examining key theoretical developments through the history of the discipline. The course examines the emergence and evolution of capitalism beginning with the study of the first and the second global trading systems followed by other important developments until the rise globalization.

The course examines energy in international relations in four parts. First, a brief overview of the history of hydrocarbons will familiarize students with how modern energy supplies developed in the past two centuries. During the first two sessions of the course, students also acquire conceptual and empirical understanding of energy value chains. Next, the course devotes three sessions to energy security as a key perspective in the studies of energy resources. After familiarizing students with the theoretical aspects of energy security, the focus is on several distinct cases examining both the supply and the demand-side of energy security on a global scale. Such cases include the energy dilemmas between energy-rich Russia/Eurasia and hydrocarbon-poor EU; the rising role of China and Asia in global energy demand and their pursuit of energy security; and the evolution of energy geopolitics between the oil-rich Persian Gulf region and the US. The third part of the course dedicates two sessions to the link between energy and development. The focus of the first session is on the literature examining the link between resource wealth and development, while the second session examines resource nationalism and its historical evolution. The fourth part looks at key challenges faced with respect to energy in a carbon-constrained world.

This course discusses political and social history to understand the transformation of society and long-term rules of social convention. It examines how sovereignty, rights and freedoms, ideologies, and beliefs change over time with a focus on the role of large social movements.

This course focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: it looks at the roots and history of the question contextualizing it into regional and international political developments. The course covers the most important events that characterized the conflict providing a solid historic background for analyzing contemporary developments. Moreover, the course analyzes the role of international and regional actors into the making of the conflict while also highlighting the impact of the Palestinian issue into the Arab world. The first class provides the theoretical tools for a critical analysis of the conflict, the different actors, and their political role. This approach challenges the traditional mainstream paradigms around the Arab-Israeli crisis. The following classes are also informed by this critical approach: the analysis of important events such as the Suez crisis, the 1967 and 1973 Wars, the emergence of Palestinian resistance, the impact of the Cold War, and the role of international players explore the political dynamics behind the mere facts. Regional events impacted by the Arab-Israeli conflict such as the Black September and the Lebanese civil war are discussed in
order to highlight the influence and relevance of the Palestinian question on regional politics. Having built a historical background and critical understanding of the conflict, the last part of the course focuses on contemporary events and the emergence of new actors, new diplomatic strategies, as well as the popular mobilization that is characterizing current political developments. Finally, the course discusses possible solutions.

Combining political sociology, political thought, and international relations, this course focuses on certain aspects of modern political conflicts and particularly the institutions put into place to resolve them. It explores the difficulties that social sciences have when looking at the question of political violence and its causes, as well as the mechanisms of liberal and democratic regulation of conflict. The course also analyzes the modern international interventions after a violent political conflict, the dilemma of the actual intervention, the evolution of the rapport with political violence, and the formation of expertise post-conflict.