This course will examine how practitioners and academics have addressed the complex reality of how states resolve their violent conflicts. A central aspect of the course will be a consideration of policy interventions through which third parties may attempt to promote peace, such as mediation, military intervention, foreign aid and peacekeeping. The course will also consider the role of transitional justice and the reintegration of combatants as part of building sustainable peace. In the course, you will assess global political interventions through comparative data and case analysis.

In this course, you will gain a deeper understanding of the variety of political regimes in contemporary international politics and their implications for political instability. You will be challenged to problematize one of the basic units of international relations: the modern nation state. The course will consider how political regimes develop and are maintained, as well as why they sometimes fail. It will also analyze how leaders compete for and consolidate political power.

This course examines both the intellectual origins of the concept of “terrorism” and the history of its use as a political strategy in the 20th and 21st centuries, considering the many varieties of terrorism over time and around the world. The course will consider various approaches to the study of terrorism, with an emphasis on theories that can explain terrorism and inform counterterrorism efforts. You will be expected to engage with other major conceptualizations of terrorism developed by scholars and policymakers as part of a project assignment.

This course considers the impact of new technologies in the digital age, such as artificial intelligence, autonomous military systems, social media, and digital fact-checking on geopolitics and diplomacy. The challenges derived from new technologies—such as contamination, cyberattacks and external intervention in elections—will be central topics of the course. However, the course will also consider the ways in which new technologies provide opportunities to foster peace and support diplomacy.

This course examines monetary theory, money and international finance. Furthermore, it will provide you with the theories and skills necessary to understand and analyze the main agents, institutions, and structures that have shaped the political economy of the international monetary and financial system, from the gold standard of the 19th century to the global financial crisis and the euro zone debt crisis of the first two decades of the 21st century. In doing so, it covers topics such as the balance of payments, interest rate and exchange rate systems, purchasing power parity, real exchange rates, debt financing, and sovereign wealth.

This course focuses mainly on the relations between companies and governments in a globalized economic environment, delving into issues such as industrial trade policy, public procurement and the regulation and certification of products in both developed and developing countries. The theoretical content of this module is at the intersection of international political economy, public management, international economics and public economics. The interaction between (private) market actors and (public) non-commercial institutions is a central issue in the evolution of globalization. More specifically, this module examines the regulatory impact of public and international institutions in the fields of development policy, energy policy, public-private partnership, corporate social responsibility, sustainability and social entrepreneurship.

This course examines the role of global value chains in world trade. It focuses primarily on the political economy of import and export, multinational corporations, and the increasing internationalization and diversification of production in the new global economy. It seeks to examine corporate strategies with respect to internationalizing their sales, internalizing their production, designing a global strategy, positioning themselves within global markets, and taking advantage of regulatory arbitrage between countries. By extension, it delves into the implications of the proliferation of global value chains for technology diffusion, national industrial and investment policies, product safety and security, rules of origin, and multilateral trade cooperation

This course seeks to analyze the transforming effect of digitalization on the various facets of the global economy, and the resulting opportunities and threats from an applied multidisciplinary perspective. The advent of digitalization, artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, machine learning, big data, and the Internet of Things has caused a systemic change in the way we communicate, transact, and process information, reshaping the structure of the global economy.

This course examines global civic movements and activism campaigns from a historical, sociological and organizational perspective. It looks at how activist movements and campaigns in diverse areas such as climate, gender, and human rights can secure participants, resources and organizational infrastructure in pursuit of ethical and political goals. It also discusses the challenges and opportunities posed to global activism by new digital tools and social media, as well as the legal, cultural and organizational challenges associated with fostering cooperation between decentralized individuals in different countries.

This course examines the evolving role that the international community has played in reducing poverty and inequality around the world. It also looks at the various ways in which environmental and social concerns are becoming integrated into traditional development practices that rely more on micro- and macroeconomic incentives. Special attention will be paid to the 2030 Agenda and its emphasis on the interdependence between public policies in the spheres of the economy, the environment and governance. The general theme will be to map out the most effective ways in which partnerships between states, communities and organizations can take advantage of these complementarities, and avoid negative externalities in the search for a more prosperous and sustainable world.

This course analyzes the legal development of European integration, as well as the expanding scope of policies that are the responsibility of the EU rather than national governments: production policies, innovation, finance, trade and security. It focuses on the institutional and legal challenges facing current integration efforts, as well as the search for institutional reforms and political strategies that can improve the effectiveness of the EU. A series of sessions will specifically look at the EU’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the European capacity to expand its coordination in the field of health.

This course will examine the broad legal infrastructure that exists at the intersection of national and international law and seeks to protect basic political and civil rights. You will analyze how legal restrictions meet political realities, as well as organizational strategies to defend rights in uncertain and crisis environments. Additionally, you will analyze the evolving notion of rights, with a focus on dimensions such as gender and economic rights and how such dimensions interact, reinforce and conflict with traditional notions based on civil liberties and freedom from state violence.