Political Science

This course provides an introduction to the study of International Political Economy (IPE). IPE is a field of research that combines the study of politics and economics, exploring both domestic and international factors that impact preferences, behaviors, and policies relating to economic globalization. The course covers major topics of inquiry within IPE such as the politics and policies relating to international trade, international investment, and international finance. Students are introduced to theoretical and empirical research analyzing each topic covered. 

This course examines the critical role of emotions in international relations. The first part provides a foundational understanding of emotions, focusing on their social and political dimensions. It explores the concepts of group and collective emotions, shedding light on how emotions operate at the societal level. The second part of the course delves into the role of emotions in intergroup conflicts. It analyzes how emotions such as hatred and fear can escalate conflicts, while emotions like empathy and collective guilt can facilitate reconciliation and conflict resolution. The final part explores the influence of emotions on contemporary global issues. This includes their role in the rise of populism and their impact on collective responses to climate change. Through this comprehensive approach, students gain a deeper understanding of how emotions shape international dynamics and global challenges. The course is graded on a pass/fail basis only.

The course introduces students to the main theories and concepts in International Relations. In particular, this course covers debates such as liberalism, (neo)realism, Marxism and critical theory, constructivism and new-constructivism, gender and IR, postcolonial approaches to IR, ethics in IR, and the role of theory in IR.

Contemporary science fiction offers a compelling means of interrogating the current challenges of global governance and political economy. As Brad Torgersen (2013) says, “much of the Science Fiction being written in the 21st century concerns itself strictly with materialistic concerns: climate change, global warming, the decay of governments and the onset of dystopian hegemony, or anarchy”. This course provides students with an exploration of the nexus between science fiction and political economy. It uses science fiction literature as a means of understanding, exploring and critiquing concepts and theories from across Political Economy, including international relations, economics and politics. Through this, students apply the knowledge gained in other courses within political economy, applying key theories and techniques of analysis in novel areas in an engaging but rigorous way. The proposed course directly relates to a growing area of cutting-edge research, namely the interplay between popular culture and politics.

This course explores the relationships between science, technology, and democracy, and the changing role of the State in science and technology (S&T) in our societies. Students explore science and technology policy issues and look at wider challenges, such as efforts to improve public engagement in decisions about science and technology, initiatives to encourage more responsible research and innovation, and debates about the apparent rise in fraud and misconduct in science and concerns on the part of some scientists that many published scientific findings may be false. The issues explored in this course are critical to citizenship in a modern science and technology-based democracy. 

This course gives an overview of political geography's historical and contemporary treatment of the questions of territoriality, state, and nation. Topics include nations and nationalism, and boundaries and territorial disputes, and students explore how territoriality, nation, and sovereignty are viewed in developing regions of the world. 

International organizations are created and expected to provide solutions whenever governments face transnational challenges, such as international and civil wars, humanitarian emergencies, flows of refugees, outbreaks of infectious diseases, climate change, financial market instability, sovereign debt crises, trade protectionism, and the development of poorer countries. But their role in world politics is controversial. Some perceive them as effective and legitimate alternatives to unilateral state policies. Others regard them as fig leaves for the exercise of power by dominant states. Others yet are regularly disappointed by the gap between the lofty aspirations and their actual performance in addressing global problems, and want to know the causes of that gap. While some commentators tend to lump all international organizations together, in reality the functioning, power, and effectiveness of international organisations differ widely – across organisations, issues, regions, and over time.

This course examines the causes and consequences of this democratic malaise, encouraging students to consider policies and actions to address these ill winds against modern democratic regimes. The course begins with an introduction to normative and theoretical justifications for democratic governance and by providing a historical and comparative analysis of the state of democracy. From there, it considers threats to the democratic consolidation and causes of democratic backsliding. Topics include multiculturism, immigration, ethnic chauvinism, electoral violence and fraud, corruption, and elite capture. The last part of the course considers ways to protect, improve and consolidate democracy.

This course offers a comprehensive exploration of the intersections between gender and religion, examining how religious beliefs, practices, and institutions shape and are shaped by constructions of gender identity, roles, and power dynamics in international and local politics. Moreover, the course critically evaluates the role of gender and religion in shaping law, diplomacy, and conflict resolution strategies. It analyzes the ways in which governments, constitutions and laws, international organizations, and non-state actors incorporate gender and religious considerations into their policies and practices. Some questions therefore regularly returned to are: How have norms for gendered individuals in religious, non-religious, beliefs, and spiritual traditions been negotiated over time? Whose voices matter, when deciding which gendered actions are acceptable (or not)? What happens if we read religious traditions according to the voices of women, queer people, or people who identify with other marginalized gender and sexual identities? This course tackles these questions, showing how gender and sexuality—how they are taught, performed, and regulated—are central to understanding religious communities and international politics.

This course examines the problems and possibilities of peace operations conducted by the United Nations. From a small number of traditional peacekeeping missions (PK) throughout the Cold War that helped to bring peace and security to some war torn regions, to a huge growth in the number of peacekeeping missions undertaken by the UN in the early 1990s, just after the Cold War ended, that included aggressive humanitarian intervention, democracy building, and peacemaking among other goals, there is much to be learned from these numerous peace operations, each with elements of success and failure.