Political Science

This course uses an active learning approach to link economic tools and insights to real-world policy problems and solutions. This enables students to develop their own skills, knowledge, and experience of the role of economics in policymaking. Students are allocated to study groups, and work together to prepare weekly group presentations on policy case studies. These case studies are discussed in seminars using role play, along with weekly data visualization exercises in Excel. Students build confidence in understanding, analyzing, and producing the materials that are essential to economic policymaking.

This course deals with fundamental issues of constitutional law in postwar Japan. Japan has had two written constitutions so far. One was the Constitution of the Empire of Japan, or the Meiji Constitution, which was promulgated on February 11, 1889, and put into effect on November 29, 1890. The other is the Constitution of Japan, the current Constitution, which was promulgated on November 3, 1946, and became effective on May 3, 1947.  

The goal is to understand the basic constitutional framework in modern Japan and the constitutional practices of postwar Japan, and to attain insight into the challenges current Japanese society is facing. The course covers the following topics: a comparison between the two constitutional frameworks; judicial review and protecting rights, equality, religious freedom and separation of religion and state; voting rights and the electoral process; freedom of expression, family law, and Article 9 and the peace state. 

This course provides the opportunity for students to engage critically with the philosophical literature on the concept of political liberty. Students read and discuss key texts in modern political philosophy, beginning with Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan. Students critically analyze the various ways in which liberty has been conceptualized by the most important political thinkers in the modern era.

This course covers the main issues at the root of most of the conflicts in Africa. It examines the conflicts and geopolitical dynamics that affect the Horn of Africa and identifies the historical, political, and military regional dynamics of these conflicts, as well as their broader international dimension. The course provides a critical analysis of Horn Africa's relations with the world as the new battle held between emerging powers such as the Gulf, BRICS, and traditional superpowers. It also provides a general overview of violent extremist groups and regional and international responses to the Global War on Terror. Finally, it discusses current wars as well as their strategic implications and connections to the most prominent global security challenges of the post-Cold War and post 9/11 world.

This course is designed specifically for international students. It focuses on the history of France and its Presidents.

This course introduces the history of political thought and state-building in the Middle East from the end of the Ottoman empire (1923) to present days. From the creation of the “Middle East” area by British and French mandatory administrations, this course analyzes how various political ideologies (Kemalism, Zionism, Nasserism, Khomeynism, Ba'athism, and Islamism) have influenced state-building processes in Iran, Turkey, Israel, and in the Near East. By providing methodology and tools based on historical sources, this course addresses the spread of nationalism in the Middle East to encourage a reflection on a question raised by Henry Laurens in 2019: will the 21st century witness the “end of the Middle East?”

This course introduces concepts from psychology (e.g. beliefs, emotions, or personality) to better understand politics (e.g. elite decision-making, voting behavior, or popular uprisings). Topics are structured around three types of methods that are frequently applied in psychology: experiments, surveys, and interviews. Students gain first-hand research experience by working in small teams to evaluate primary data on a topic of their choice (e.g. right-wing voting, state decisions to go to war, or emotional effects of terror attacks). 

The course introduces a variety of concepts and theories to analyze global governance, with a focus on organizations and institutions including international and regional organizations, firms, and NGOs. Course materials discuss topics from international relations, political science, economics, sociology, and anthropology. Substantively, the course covers diverse issues such as security, development, and science.   

Drawing on the seminar style, the course requires each person to contribute through discussion, presentation, and a written research proposal on topics of their choice.   

This course develops a broad analysis of the history of human rights and democracy in Brazil. It begins by discussing how the idea itself of human rights appeared in history worldwide to stablish a critical approach of the topic, considering the historical experiences of the country’s invasion, slavery, torture, and dictatorships of the past. The agenda of memory, truth, justice, and reparation in the reconstruction of democracy is foundational. The course considers how memory affects society, its culture, and the political system, and the frame of rights of the Constitution of 1988. The course treats crucial topics about human rights in the country, its limitations, and challenges.