Political Science

This course offers an in-depth introduction to the complex historical and conceptual reality of the central role played by Constitutions in the legal systems of present day democratic societies. It explores the evolution of constitutions and constitutional thought from their medieval origin to the gradual building and consolidation of the essential defining notions and principles of the new model of the State established as a result of liberal revolutions, such as sovereignty, legality, separation of powers, or recognition and protection of individual and collective rights. This course analyzes and compares important historical constitutional texts, including the current Spanish Constitution, and the particular political, economic and social circumstances at the moment of their writing.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The course studies contemporary forms of terrorism, its definitions and origins, as well as its objectives, functions, and forms, with a particular focus on counterterrorism measures implemented both by individual states and the international community. It approaches classic and current scholarship on terrorism and counterterrorism and explores many of the research puzzles that remain unanswered. Underpinned by the existing debates among scholars of terrorism, ranging from mainstream to critical perspectives, the course examines the spectrum of terrorist motivations, strategies, and operations; the socio-political, economic, and other factors and causes that can create enabling environments for terrorist group activities; and finally, the means by which governments (especially liberal democratic states) react to contemporary forms of terrorist violence in different regions of the world. Classes are enriched by guest lectures who present case studies and focus on specific geopolitical spaces that are of critical relevance for current and future trends and scenarios on terrorism and counterterrorism. This comparative analysis develops a complex understanding of historical trends, meanings, contemporary dilemmas, and challenges related to this form of political violence.

The course is divided into two main sections. Following a brief historical introduction to the discipline, students explore classical concepts and theories of IR, including power and anarchy (realism), cooperation and human rights (liberalism), norms and identity (constructivism), followed by critical perspectives on global politics such as class and dependencies (Marxism), gender and the patriarchy (feminism), and exploitation and orientalism (postcolonialism). In the second section of the course, students investigate pressing global issues like terrorism, AI, and the climate crisis, which have fundamentally altered the conduct of international politics. Finally, the course concludes with a discussion of future (im)possibilities for global politics. 

The course designs the composition and content of lectures based on the actual situation of top experts in relevant fields. Leaders, experts and scholars from Chinese government departments, international organizations, institutions and embassies in China, non-governmental organizations and well-known schools home and abroad will be eligible to be invited to give lectures this course. Students have the opportunity to engage with lecturers in an in-depth discussion of practices and challenges in the field of sustainable development. This course is mainly based on classroom lectures. The Office of International Exchange and Cooperation and the Teaching Office of Tsinghua University School of Public Policy and Management will jointly organize and identify relevant lectures. Students are required to attend no less than 16 hours of lectures after selecting the course, and submit course papers to complete the course study.

The course offers a critical reading of the work undertaken by all international criminal courts and tribunals. Throughout the course, the basic tenets of Criminal Justice and their application at the international level to discover the fragility of the international legal system, its interplay with global, regional, and local politics, and the challenges of reconciling justice with the interest of states are studied. Topics covered include the selection of cases at the international level, the relation of courts with states (participants and by-standers), the setting of goals and the measuring results of courts, determining the societal impact that courts have in the international community, determining the impact courts have on individuals (end-users) such as victims and accused, the role of international criminal courts in the writing/re-writing of history, the effectiveness of courts in responding to ever-growing international criminality and the alternatives available to address the same. The course presents challenging debates regarding the state of international criminality and justice, tests criticisms in the field with real-life practice, and sparks debates regarding solutions or alternatives to all the limitations of the international criminal justice system.

The course covers inter-religious relations between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam from a variety of thematic and interdisciplinary perspectives. The content provides an understanding of the historical roots and contemporary effects of the relations between the three religions. The basics of inter-religious relations are learned and analyzed. Themes covered include gender and sexuality, eschatology and apocalypticism, the intersection of religious and civil law in Western societies, and the challenges of maintaining individual and community identity in a shifting cultural, social, and political landscape.

The course shows how social research can shed light on topical social and political debates. Students are given opportunities to reflect critically on the ways in which evidence is used in debate about public policy. This course illustrates how social research can shed light on topical social and political debates. The specific aims are to understand how academic enquiry can be used to understand public political debates and public policy to understand how evidence informs debates, and how it is sometimes distorted and misused in these debates; to understand how social and political theory can be brought to bear on understanding topical debates; and to develop the skills of engaging in topical debates in a rational and evidence-based way while also taking account of the important role of ideology and emotion. 

Students examine the legal standards that govern the state’s power to control, coerce, and punish those suspected (or proven) to have committed crimes. Students also explore how these laws are exercised by legal actors, including police, prosecutors and judges in their routine decisions and practices. The course speaks directly to the real-world issues and controversies encountered by criminal justice systems in many developed democracies today – racial injustices, abuses of police power, mass incarceration, penal populism, law’s potential to reform organizations, to name but a few.

We focus on themes including the historical review of transatlantic relations, distinct functional modules in policies and interactions encompassing their overall and regional strategies, security, economics, technology, digital, global governance and economic models from the beginning of the 21st century to the present.
Students are expected to achieve three major goals: (1) to better understand the evolution of the transatlantic alliance; (2) to discover the causes of cooperation and divergences on different issues among US, Europe and China; (3) to learn about how Chinese academia views the US and Europe.