Political Science

The course provide a comprehensive understanding of the issues shaping today's world. The working sessions focus mainly on regional studies in order to illustrate how international issues are changing. Particular emphasis is placed on the new geopolitics of Europe and the Middle East, using the reemergence of a power such as Russia as a basis for analysis and relating it to the policies of the European Union and the United States. The course articulates global and regional scales and to shows the links between economic and geopolitical changes.

This course provides the fundamental keys to understand the new place occupied by the Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf on the international scene. It offers a panoramic study that is twofold: how are these Arab monarchies deploying regional policies to consolidate their influence in the Middle East; and how have these Arab monarchies become a new global epicenter of international relations? The course also includes a simulation module for international negotiations. It provides a more practical approach of the subject and its stakes, but also to practice international negotiations, public speaking and to solicit the knowledge acquired in the course. In view of the breadth of the theme and the area covered, the teaching involves many disciplines, such as history, geography, economics and international law, with a predominance of international relations and strategic studies.

This course focuses on the philosophical and ethical arguments underlying a range of controversial real-world debates. Each week students focus on a specific debate and assess some of the strongest arguments put forward on either side. The course provides in-depth knowledge of some of the main theoretical and ethical arguments behind a range of deeply contested issues in contemporary politics, develops an ability to assess real-world problems from a philosophical and normative perspective, and develop a critical and reflective approach to the study of philosophical texts.

This course examines the way political factors influence economic interactions between countries, with a particular emphasis on trade politics. This course provides an overview of current global economic relations and systematically analyzes how politics shape them: Why do countries cooperate economically in some situations but not in others? Why do some governments embrace and promote globalization while others oppose it? What are the social, political, and economic consequences of globalization? The course addresses these questions and others with a focus on the politics of trade. The course  approacha these topics by examining alternative theoretical approaches and evaluating these theories using contemporary and historical evidence. 

Topics include: Why Trade? Why protect trade? Backlash against Globalization, Trade Rules: From the GATT to the WTO, Dispute Settlement: The Cornerstone of the GATT/WTO, Trade and Conflicts, Economic Statecraft, The US-China Trade War, The New Political Economy of U.S. Trade. 

This course utilizes two methodological approaches: to understand the major legal and political-institutional issues of the European Union through a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach that draws not only on law but also on political science and history; and subjecting the law and institutions of the Union to a critical and balanced examination, while maintaining a distance from both the discourse of practitioners and that of political actors, who are (direct or indirect) stakeholders in the subject under study. Following a general overview of the history of the European Union, it includes three thematic modules: the study of the Union’s political and institutional system: an overview of the major political institutions (European Council and the institutional triangle), on the one hand; and considerations regarding the scope of the legislative and executive powers in the Union, on the other; the legal order of the Union, including, first, a presentation of the Court of Justice; second, a study of the constitutionalization of the Union (direct effect and primacy); and, finally, a summary of the relationship between the legal orders of the Member States and the legal order of the Union; and the status of the state and the citizen in the Union from a threefold perspective: the delimitation of the competences of the states and the Union; the issue of the reversibility and differentiation of integration; the European status of the individual as a citizen of the Union. The course concludes with reflections on the political form of the Union.

This course provides an introduction to the most commonly used methods for causal inference in the social sciences using observational data. It covers simple and multiple regression (particularly focusing on the conditions for a causal interpretation of the coefficients), matching, panel data, diff-in-diff, instrumental variables, regression discontinuity. The course prioritizes the practical understanding and application of the methods rather than their statistical foundations. Applications are selected from existing research literature.

This course offers a global introduction to comparative politics, focusing on case studies of politics and religion around the world. The course introduces students to approaches to analyzing and critiquing the way in which secular and religious issues are negotiated in institutions such as government, religious hierarchies, and civil society. Moreover, the course develops students' broader understandings of how power, conflict, and identities are conceived in the modern, globalized world. Topics can include religion-state relations, identity politics, religion and violence, and various international case studies of political participation and mobilization.

This is intermediate course delves into the historical evolution of the international system. It covers the main trends and characteristics of the system in different eras of modern world history, identifying the main causes, consequences, and stakeholders of different international conflicts. 

This course explores some of the central ideas and debates in politics today, including claims regarding the nature of freedom, democracy, power, and the state. 

This course covers the academic study of elections and voting behavior and practical applications to the real political world.  

Elections are one of the important mechanisms in a democratic society, serving as a means of connecting citizens to political leadership. Voting is the principal activity that legitimizes the democratic process by individuals.  

This course focuses on two major areas: First, review of key theories about elections and voting behavior, including people’s actual vote choice in recent national-wide elections. Second, practice of election campaign strategy for the upcoming national-wide election for local governments (e.g., Mayor of Seoul) on June 3 based on theoretical and historical understanding of Korean voters’ political attitude and choice behaviors. 

By considering diverse theoretical perspectives on why people vote/don’t vote and why they vote the way they do, and by applying those theoretical views to the real politics, students learn both academic approaches and realistic approaches toward elections and voting behavior.