Political Science

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.

Teaching Purpose: This course is a highly applied subject. It will mainly teach public relations related theories and guide students to practical application. Through the development history, characteristics and types of public relations, as well as classic case explanations, situation experience, group discussions, and public relations activity design and planning, students are encouraged to participate in interaction, cultivate students' diversified vision, creative thinking and practical operation ability, and improve the analysis and organization ability of public relations activity planning.

Basic content: basic theories, basic concepts, historical development, differences in the actual development of public relations activities of different types of organizations (enterprises, governments, NGOs, etc.); Handling of crisis public relations, psychology of public relations activities, etc.

This course examines fundamental questions about the nature of wars and conflicts in international politics through an interdisciplinary perspective. It incorporates insights from political science, anthropology, psychology, and history to better understand the current security environment and make sense of the phenomena of wars.

This course explores the origins and dilemmas of diplomacy pertaining to the protection of humanity's natural environment (resources, habitat). Definitions, collective discussions of crucial texts, brief oral presentations, and interpretation of a few primary sources form the basis of study. In addition to initiating researchers into undertaking historical research, the course enhances an understanding of how environmental diplomacy works, including the issues, main actors, strategies, and outcomes of environmental diplomacy. The course first identifies key terms and seeks to understand how international environmental problems are grasped by researchers in disciplines closer to environmental questions. It then approaches environmental problems in a historical perspective beginning with the age of the “first wave” of globalization just before and after the First World War. It focuses on the “environmental age” which started arguably in the 1960s and 1970s. The course examines how environmental problems were raised, conceptualized, put upon the agenda of governments and international organizations, and negotiated at the international level. Topics include pollution of the high seas, the regulation of whaling, the control of resources on land and under water, acid rain, the protection of (rain) forests, climate change, the protection of the Antarctic, and other issues. The course also provides an opportunity to develop methodological and interpretative skills, critical abilities, and presentation and writing skills.