Political Science

This course considers and explains why and how the international system is characterized by the return of a tough competition among states. That is what we call power politics. This dynamic is reflected in the return of inter-state conflicts (Russia/Ukraine, Iran/Israel) and the risk of their spreading to other regions (Taiwan, South China Sea). The central question addressed in this course from both a conceptual and empirical perspective is why we moved within a decade from a world of economic interdependence based on the decline of interstate wars to a world where states are on the forefront of global competition including through the weaponization of economic interdependence. This course is by definition transversal and trans regional since the competition affects all regions of the world. It focuses on three types of actors: the drivers of this new competition who are setting the new rules of the game (United States and China), the contenders who have global ambitions while facing obstacles on their way (Russia, India, and the European Union) and the Hedgers who are middle income countries who are trying to leverage this new global dynamic for their own benefit (Brazil, South Africa, UAE, Indonesia, and Vietnam among others).

The course is an interdisciplinary course drawing on political science, law, and history. Although the major focus of the course is on the European Court of Justice, the politics and law of other courts and international tribunals are also discussed, certainly including the United States Supreme Court and the politics of the US constitution, but also perhaps including the Supreme Court of Ireland and the German Bundesverfassungsgericht as well as international dispute settlement tribunals such as the World Trade Organization, Investor-State Dispute Settlement systems, and the European Convention on Human Rights. Students also study alternative approaches to understanding and investigating court decision-making, including through a focus on legal texts, use of the comparative method, archival research, judicial biography, and quantitative approaches.

This course is based on a so-called “bottom-up” field approach in order to measure the social and societal effects of public policies in a different way. To illustrate this method, it draws on various visible situations related to migration: resurgence of shantytowns, increase in unaccompanied minors wandering around, etc., in order to analyze the sociological mechanisms at work within migrant groups, host societies, and countries of origin. This method uses social science research tools to be able to evaluate and then propose improvements to the policies and measures put in place. It is an introduction to action research based on a shared field diagnosis facilitating the acceptance of change and social innovation.

This course introduces the politics and power dynamics of policy making and implementation. Students examine how selected social problems (e.g. teenage pregnancy and welfare reform) are constructed and why some are high on the policy making agenda whilst others are not. This course challenges taken-for-granted assumptions about policy responses to selected social problems via an examination of politics and power; explores the ways in which social problems are socially constructed in political discourse, public debate and policy presentation; locates the lived experiences of social problems within the context of global and local inequalities; and differentiates between policy design, implementation, and lived experience.

In this course students analyze key social problems such as worklessness, poverty, homelessness, and ill health, and how they have been addressed by public policy. Students examine the historical origins and evolution of the welfare state and engage with challenging debates about the government's current role in welfare.

This module evaluates global political questions emanating from the Coronavirus pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the response to climate change. These crises paradigmatically shift the political agenda; alter the reception to dominant political ideologies; modify the behavior of political actors; challenge political governance; and oppose the credibility of abstract theoretical concepts. Additionally, the response to crisis events provides the greatest challenge to the resilience of the global political system. Students explore these questions from the perspective of Political Science and Political Theory, understand the implications of the Politics of Crisis, and attempt to articulate viable responses to these problems.

The course provides students with an understanding of the key issues in the historical, philosophical, ethical, and sociological approaches to the study of war and the military. It develops students’ understanding of the relationship between armed forces and the societies they protect, and it engages with war as a moral problem and the tools that philosophers have created to limit its brutality and guide belligerents. It explores why, in spite of these tools, wars can descend into barbarity, crime, and genocide, making a special case study of the Holocaust in the Second World War. It looks at dynamics of protest against war and then goes on to interrogate the intellectual, economic, and financial factors that drive outcomes and shape war as a social dynamic. The term concludes with explorations of what war teaches us about human nature and the social contract, humans’ relationship with their environment and national identity.

This course examines how global supply chains are impacted by international political factors and how companies can adjust their strategies to respond to both international and domestic political pressures. The focus is on how firms can manage these influences on their operations and assess their strengths and weaknesses to make the best adjustments. In addition to providing a political analysis framework for understanding global supply chains, the course uses case studies to help students comprehend strategic and behavioral options companies have in responding to domestic and international political pressures. Through real-case analysis, the course provides insights into empirical applications of these strategies and behaviors. 

This course explores how different kinds of outposts became key sites for directing and negotiating the different forms of US empire, from the early days of colonization to the recent past. Each week students explore a different kind of outpost, often focusing on one particular beachhead of American power. Likewise, they analyze the outsized influence of Americans abroad and assess how the creation and maintenance of different kinds of outposts helped form the structure and sinews of the US empire. This course combines different strands of transnational history, particularly the histories of empire, capitalism, and ecology. 

This course examines the study of ethical considerations and issues in public policy making and implementation. The course addresses the question of how (best) to design and implement ethical public policy within a certain societal context? Students examine the different ethical perspectives, issues as well as tensions/dilemmas that arise during the public policy making and implementation phases in key policy sectors primarily, but not exclusively, within the Asia-Pacific region. These policy sectors are prominent sectors that are seen in many Asia-pacific societies, including the education, economic, housing, social and environmental sectors. Lectures focus on delivery of relevant concepts and perspectives relating to ethics in public policy making and implementation. Lectures in the first part of the course center around concepts and perspectives on ethics in public policy making and implementation. Lectures in the second part of the course situate the concepts and perspectives covered in the first part of the course in specific case studies that reflect key policy sectors. Extending from these lectures, the tutorials provide students with the opportunity to apply what is learned in the lectures and to analyze and evaluate the ethical considerations, dilemmas and tensions that arise within the respective public policy sectors under study. This course has a pre-requisite of Introduction to Public Administration and Policy (HA1003).