Political Science

When can we legitimately go to war? When we are attacked? In order to intervene in the domestic affairs of another country on the grounds that this best serves our national interest? Once we are at war, can we do anything that is necessary to win, or are there moral restrictions on what we can do? For example, can we use nuclear weapons? Can we tortured suspected terrorists? Can we target civilians, in the hope to undermine their government? The course addresses those issues, from a normative, philosophical perspective.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students interested in International Law. The three fundamental legal functions on which the legal dynamics of the international community is founded – law-making, law-determination and law-enforcement – are analyzed within the contemporary social context. International law is presented in its different dimensions: as a tool in the hand of international actors able to handle change in the international society and safeguard stability and predictability of international legal relations; as common language useful in reaching consensus or, at least, peaceful disagreement; and as key to understanding the reality of contemporary international relations. Bringing together different perspectives, the course demonstrates how international rules, while made by governments and mostly addressed to them, can be of great relevance to private actors and to their interests.

Because there is a high concentration of international actors in Geneva, it is often known as one of the capitals of global governance. This course offers an understanding about the world of international organizations and nongovernmental organizations while detailing the main issues of global governance. In order to fully comprehend what is at stake, this course adds academic training to general information. Students benefit from the extensive experience of well-known officials belonging to international organizations and nongovernmental organizations as well as an analysis from professors. The pedagogical approach in this course is interdisciplinary including history, political science, economy, and law, and includes visits to several international organizations. Topics include human rights and humanitarian law, global health, science and diplomacy, migrations and international labor, and international trade and development.

This course examines the formulation and development of United States foreign policy from the American founding to the present day. It explores case studies and crises that have tested and reshaped American leadership in the world including the territorial expansion of the United States, the two world wars, the Cold War rivalry with the Soviet Union and its satellites; the Korean War; the Cuban Missile Crisis; the Vietnam War; the collapse of Soviet Communism; tensions in the Middle East; the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001; the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; and the ongoing rise of China and Russia’s war in Ukraine. It also traces the roots of America’s ascent to superpower status during the 20th century and assesses the many dilemmas it faces in the present day as US foreign policy has veered from the Trump administration’s authoritarian populism to the Biden presidency and its return to liberal internationalism. The course also studies how American responses to world affairs–and American interactions with other governments, regions and international institutions–have evolved across generations. 

This course charts terrorism’s shifting signature by examining its impact upon London’s modernization. Students discover a city that has been subjected to rapid technological change and new political ideas, that are both wholly alien and eerily familiar. They encounter London as a symbolic target for post-colonial violence and a fulcrum through which terrorist action and state policy are aligned. Approaching the subject through a variety of disciplinary perspectives, students are exposed to a diversity of cultural texts (from novels to films, photographs to monuments) as well as a range of London archives that will contextualize each terrorist incident. These external resources prove invaluable for the final assessment, where students produce a digital e-portfolio exploring three of the terrorist events examined in the module. 

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to a basic knowledge of the nature and workings of modern capitalist economies (welfare states), particularly in the West European and Anglo-Saxon countries.  The course focuses on government policy and its effects on countries’ economic performance, as measured by economic efficiency and growth; employment (or unemployment); income inequality, and poverty. The course seeks to answer the questions: What kind of policies do governments employ to promote economic performance? Are government policies effective in achieving positive economic outcomes? Is it possible to achieve economic growth and income equality simultaneously? If the answer is yes, what policy mix is instrumental? If the answer is no, why?

This course is structured as a series of workshops focusing on Russia's influence in Europe, nearby countries, and the United States. It approaches this topic with the perspectives of popular geopolitics, international relations theory, cultural studies, media studies, and sociology. Topics include strategies of Kremlin's propaganda; its (post)-Cold-War-era anti-Americanism reverberating in the rhetoric of the European far-rights; Russia's Covid-19 policy; Putin's troll fabrics; interference in the U.S. elections; the Russian Orthodox Church and the Kremlin's influence in Ukraine and Georgia; and Russia's invasion on Ukraine. The course is based on case studies and extensively uses audio and video materials, documentaries, political statements, investigative reports, and opinion surveys as sources for analysis.

In Western culture, the city is the epitome of political and cultural expression, which gives the urban question a complex, diachronic, and dialectical character; it mirrors major economic, social, and political tensions. This course deciphers the fundamental elements of this complexity in tension with the fields of geopolitical thought applied to territories, in the decisive context of the environmental transition. In a dynamic and interactive way, the course takes on a contemporary political culture of the urban condition, allowing a political approach to urban citizenship, more diasporic or mobile where the network prevails over the territorial continuity. Instruction alternates between the classroom and the city.

The course introduces computational approaches to model human behavior and social phenomena. Core concepts in computational social science are covered, such as observational studies (what types of data exist, possible biases, and how to use data for modeling), basic concepts and techniques for running experiments (asking vs. observing, natural experiments, simulations, validity, and generalization) and discuss key issues such as ethical considerations. The course has both a theoretical and a practical perspective, where you learn basic principles and also how to apply them in practice in three main areas: social network analysis; text analysis; agent-based modeling, and simulation.

The course covers the basic concepts, theories, and contemporary debates and issues surrounding Northeast Asia's international security. Topics include realism and military security, liberalism and cooperative security and arms control, constructivism and human security, domestic politics and international security, hegemony and military security, coercive diplomacy, alliances in northeast Asia, US-China competition, Japan`s security policy, north Korea’s nuclear challenge, and ROK and peace in the Korean peninsula.