Political Science

This course covers global issues and the impacts of the globalization on the East Asian countries. It examines the concept of globalization and discusses international and transnational Issues in East Asia. Topics include the globalization of world politics; its distinction from internationalization; the driving forces behind globalization; state sovereignty; environmental Issues; sustainable development; 1992 UN Conference; nuclear proliferation; properties that distinguish nuclear weapons from conventional forms; changes in the motivations for acquiring nuclear weapons; nuclear proliferation concerns that have stemmed from the dissolution of the Soviet Union; humanitarian intervention and values; European and regional integration; and the spread, function, and implications of nationalism.

Since the 1983's March for equality and against racism (“Marche des Beurs”), up until the current debates on Islamism separatism, the French public sphere is struggling with a new intellectual debate, which can be described as “the postcolonial question”. By defining and questioning this phrasing, this course first establishes a political history of immigration in France, and how it has deeply defined and redefined the definitions of social progress. Moreover, using diverse approaches in social science, the course explains this rising issue of identity politics in France which seems to have deeply impacted the political scene. The appearance of this issue is mostly due to economic crises, recent immigration waves and diverse social and political movements which stirred a topical debate on the notion of identity - but also the parallels established with the American debate on race and gender, and how the French university has used (or refused) these categories. Analyzing the evolution of immigration and Islam in France, and how the administration has tried to address these stakes, the course discusses political and religious phenomena which currently are one of the main fault lines within French parties - both within the left and the right, on the question of integration or assimilation, on a liberal or strict vision of laïcité. The teaching mainly focuses on France, in order to understand the consequences of these events as a matter of domestic policy. However, those dynamics are systematically compared to foreign similar events and replaced in a Euro-Mediterranean context through a comprehensive chronology.

This course focuses on the roles of the UN and NGOs in major subjects of global concern, including those pertaining to war and peace, human rights, development, and sustainability, all of which are interrelated. In each of these themes, students examine challenges, opportunities, and prospects facing international organizations and civil society partners, as well as other actors in public and private sectors. Part I of the course addresses the evolution of the international system, focusing on the concept of state sovereignty and collective peace and security.  Part II explores UN-NGO relations in thematic issues ranging from gender to displacement, climate change, and counterterrorism. This course will be highly interactive, featuring guest speakers, simulation exercises, and group presentations.

This course investigates the idea of global citizenship in contemporary political theory and practice. The course begins by taking a close look at the concept itself and then apply global citizenship perspectives to public policy issues surrounding human rights and immigration, looking especially at scholarly debates on whether national borders should be more open than at present as well as the especially difficult circumstances faced by refugees and women migrant labor. It also examines numerous critical global issues, including climate change, nuclear proliferation, and the COVID-19 pandemic, and this leads into analysis of the state of global governance and principles of global justice, as well as the emerging ‘effective altruism’ movement oriented toward future generations.

This is a variable topics course covering central aspects, related authors, periods, and intellectual movements of political theory. Topics and themes discussed vary by term and instructor.

This course examines key issues pertaining to international security including: the various approaches to studying international security, the nature of interaction among various levels (national, regional, international) of security, and the major security threats caused by the expansion of conventional arms, proliferation of nuclear arsenal and the spread of biological and chemical weapons. The rise of non-traditional security threats in world politics, especially Southeast Asia, and of Asia, particularly China, as a security concern internationally is also analyzed.

This course deals with current trade policy issues in turmoil from the viewpoint of international trade and international laws. After reviewing economic and politico-economic theory on trade policy, the issue of empirical measurement of trade policy will be discussed. Furthermore, the course explores WTO discipline on trade in goods; trade in services; intellectual property rights; safeguards and exception, and government procurement. The relationship between WTO and mega-FTAs such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will also be covered.

The course explores how humanity’s political, cultural, social, environmental, and economic issues transcend the way the world is divided through borders and how relations are interconnected across space and time. Students examine various aspects of globalization and key global issues emerging out of interconnectedness and interdependency across borders. Topics include contemporary and historic case-studies, broader trends, and through learning and applying theoretical-frameworks to better understand and analyze how international interdependence emerges, changes, and is governed.

This course examines major theoretical and practical issues regarding what socialism is and how to build it; what kind of party to build and how to build it; what kind of development to achieve and how to develop it; and what kind of socialism with Chinese characteristics to uphold and develop and how to uphold and develop it.

This course offers an introduction to social movement studies, a dynamic field of academic studies that has grown in prominence for the past several decades. It focuses on the protests that have emerged and developed in the United States since the 2007-2008 financial crisis, as the United States has been home to a wide range of movements and counter-movements that have attempted to define or redefine notions such as equality, justice, and democracy. Throughout the world the 2010s and 2020s have been characterized by innovative or renewed forms of contentious politics that directly challenged the political status quo and neoliberal hegemony. Topics include Occupy Wall Street; the Tea Party; the 2011 occupation of the Wisconsin State Capitol; the January 2021 attacks on the federal Capitol in Washington, D.C.; the 2012 Chicago teachers' strike and the 2018-2019 teachers' strikes in predominantly Republican states; the recent successful organizing efforts at Amazon and Starbucks; the different iterations of the Movement for Black Lives; far-right rallies under the Trump presidency; campaigns against campus sexual assault in the early 2010s; the worldwide #MeToo movement and anti-feminist reactions fueled by the so-called men's rights movement; the 2016 No Dakota Access Pipeline protests and the Green New Deal; and corporate misinformation campaigns, behind-closed-doors lobbying, and judicial battles waged by Big Oil companies against environmental justice movements.