International Relations (INTRL-GA)

This course introduces students to basic data analysis, using cross-sectional data sets that are of particular interest in international studies. Emphasis is placed on multivariate regression techniques, and the learning of such techniques through direct experience.

This course introduces graduate students to a wide array of methodological approaches and available tools for qualitative research. The course starts with an overview of broader debates around philosophy of science and the possible demarcation between history and social science. It then moves on to discuss the epistemological foundations underlying the qualitative/quantitative divide in social sciences and whether methodological eclecticism is possible and desirable. After assessing the role of theory and concept formation in qualitative research, the focus then shifts to more specific questions around research design and methods. We discuss the merits and problems of single case studies and small-N comparative research designs, as well as historical, interpretive and critical approaches. In the last third of the course, we explore some of the specific tools of collecting and analyzing qualitative evidence. Though not an exhaustive list, we cover interviews and ethnographic fieldwork, discourse and content analysis and program evaluation. The course runs as a seminar with active student participation and assignments to encourage hands-on learning, and ends with student presentations on their respective research proposals.

IR M.A. students enrolling in the capstone course work in small groups and are overseen by an NYU faculty member. The students complete a public policy project on behalf of a client. The clients can be government agencies, not-­‐for-­‐profits, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and private sector entities in the United States and abroad. The program is designed to give our M.A. candidates’ hands-­‐on public policy experience, and to give clients an opportunity to benefit from an independent analysis of an existing or prospective policy, initiative, or area of concern.

This is an introductory level graduate course at the crossroads of international relations, comparative politics and area studies. Its aim is to introduce students of international relations to the tools and concepts commonly used in the latter two fields and to promote interdisciplinary cross-pollination. Accordingly, the first half of the course begins with a discussion fo the relationship between international realations, comparative politics, and area studies and after a brief overview of the benefits of comparative analysis, moves on to weekly discussions of themes commonly studied by scholars of comparative politics such as the modern state and political institutions, democracy and authoritarianism, revolutions and social movements and national and ethnic identity and conflict. The second half of the course uses the area studies framework and treats regions as individual subjects of study. Through the course, students are encouraged to explore their thematic and regional interests and borrow tools, concepts and theories developed in one scholarly field or geographical region to understand others.

This course will introduce students to historical analysis of global interactions during the early modern, modern, and contemporary periods. Understanding of today’s international arena requires a well-grounded, conceptually rich understanding of history. The course seeks, in part, to provide historical perspectives on ‘globalization’ and other contemporary global, international and transnational developments. It will focus especially on the history of international order and structures of global power. Topics examined include: war and other forms of political violence; the formation and interaction of empires; imperial expansion and decline; the evolution of the modern state and states systems (including the European states system and its global spread); the proliferation of “nation-states” during the 20th century; the development of international law; and the emergence of international organizations, transnational civil society organizations (aka “NGOs”), and multinational corporations. World historical patterns of long-distance trade, economic change, human migrations, and cross-cultural exchange will also be examined. The course does not aim to present a comprehensive world history but introduces themes and analytical approaches that are foundational to more advanced study of international interactions.

This course offers a graduate-level introduction to theories of international politics and to some of the important aspects of international politics. The class explores a variety of debates and findings in the subfield of international relations. Coverage does not include every issue and approach, but it addresses the core problems and perspectives animating mainstream IR in the United States today. Students can expect to develop a sufficient understanding of the subfield to prepare for further study and specialization, while advancing their knowledge of the substantive issues under consideration.

Topics vary semester by semester. Information on recently offered topics may be found on the program’s web page.

Topics vary from semester to semester.

Knowing how intergovernmental organizations, from those of the UN system to over 20 international courts and arbitral bodies, work is critical to international law practice and scholarship in the field. This course addresses the ways diplomatically grounded processes within such organizations affect the rules governing everything from the use of force to “technocratic” rules governing civil aviation and public health. The course examines the "law-making" and/or law-enforcement aspects of such entities as the UN, UN specialized agencies, and international financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank. It critically examines these institutions and their interaction with international courts, including efforts to render UN system organizations “accountable.” The course complements but does not overlap with basic survey courses on international law, human rights, and international trade.

This course explores the interplay of law and politics in international relations. Too often the role of international law in the relations of nations is neglected, under-appreciated, or even vilified. If discussed at all, international law is often treated as a static set of “rules” governing (or being broken by) states in the course of their mutual relations. Our approach, following the tradition of Myres McDougal (of the “New Haven School”), postulates that international law is a decision-making process characterized by “functional duality” and “competing claims and mutual tolerances.” As such, it is both an input in foreign-policy making and, in turn, is influenced and [re]shaped by state practice (i.e., foreign-policy behavior).

Humanitarian intervention in internal conflicts builds on a growing consensus for the international community to address genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity. There was humanitarian intervention already in the 19th century, undertaken by European states to protect Christians, mostly against the Ottoman Empire. However, it is only after the end of the Cold War that there have been serious challenges to existing legal and political notions of state sovereignty and war. Since then, intervention has come to be better known as the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), an emerging norm of war with a just cause. This class will take a case study approach to address the political, legal and ethical aspects of R2P. It will discuss crucial questions, when and how is it just to intervene?; what are the outcomes of intervention or the lack of it? The goal is to portray problems and responsibilities of an array of state and non-state actors using the interesting and difficult humanitarian emergencies of Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, East Timor, Rwanda, Darfur and more recently Libya and Syria. While cases will enable students to experience interventions (or lack of intervention), through the behavior of actual participants, a survey of the main norm-setting documents will serve to establish a genealogy of R2P, as well as the political and intellectual arguments that lay out its justification and limits.

"The Arab-Israeli conflict has been at the center of regional and international attention for some eight decades, defying repeated attempts at resolution, both military and diplomatic. The course provides an in-depth survey of the historical evolution of the conflict and substance of the various peace negotiations to date, including the reasons for their failure, as a basis for understanding the parties' positions and the central issues dividing them today. This survey then serves as the basis for the primary focus of the course, the potential means of resolving the conflict. Most of the course will be devoted to the Israeli-Palestinian issue, part to Israel and Syria and Lebanon. The issues will be presented in the national security and domestic political contexts of each of the different players. As a contemporary policy oriented course, students will assume the role of senior decision makers from the different parties and draft “policy papers” to their heads of state, elucidating the various issues and recommending means of resolving them. In addition to learning the complexities of the issues, students will also deal with the challenging process of drafting real-world policy papers and recommendations. The course is designed for those with a general interest in the Middle East, especially those interested in national security issues, strategy and decision making, students of comparative politics and future practitioners."

"At the crossroads of three continents, the Middle East is home to many diverse peoples, with ancient and proud cultures, in varying stages of political and socio-economic development, often times in conflict. Now in a state of historic flux, the Arab Spring and subsequent upheaval, including the rise of ISIS, have transformed the Middle Eastern landscape, with great consequence for the national security strategies of the countries of the region and the international community. The course surveys the national security challenges facing the region's primary players today (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinians and Turkey) and how the convolutions of recent years have affected them. Unlike many Middle East courses, which focus on US policy in the region, the course concentrates on the regional players' perceptions of the threats and opportunities they face and on the strategies they have adopted to deal with them. As a contemporary policy oriented course, students will assume the role of senior decision makers from the different countries and draft “policy papers” to their heads of state, elucidating the various issues and recommending means of resolving them. In addition to learning the complexities of the issues, students will also deal with the challenging process of drafting real-world policy papers and recommendations.The course is designed for those with a general interest in the Middle East, especially those interested in national security issues, students of comparative politics and future practitioners."

"This course looks at international finance and its crucial connections with international business practices and with the policy challenges of economic globalization and interdependence. The course examines the roles that governments and international institutions play in the global financial integration process both in terms of regulation and supervision. We shall also look at the impact on global financial markets by a plurality of participants---central banks and treasuries; financial intermediaries and foreign exchange dealers, both bank and non-bank; individuals and firms engaged in commercial and investment activities; and speculators and arbitrageurs. The emphasis will be on the identification of key ideas, theories, techniques, and strategies underlying the behavior of all players. Through lectures, in-class training, discussions, and the examination of case studies, students will deepen their understanding of some of the most powerful actors and forces in the world economy and the current debates concerning them. More broadly, the course draws lessons from political science, economics, business, law, history, sociology and psychology in order to understand the multiple challenges faced by decision makers not just in the private but also in the public and nonprofit sectors. Overall the teaching is informed by the sharing with the students of insights derived from multiple disciplines, cultures, and languages to help them gain valuable real-world skills."

This course examines conceptual and theoretical foundations, organizational structures and functions, decision making processes, and priority issues in US national security. The process of policy making is examined to include: the role and authorities of the President, National Security Council, and the Executive Branch; congressional oversight; and policy development and implementation. The course also examines the tools, uses, and limits of national power. Strategic and conventional defense capabilities and policy are examined, as are the roles and missions of intelligence. High priority national security challenges such as terrorism, proliferation, and cyber security are also addressed. The course is conducted as an interactive graduate seminar.

"Whether you end up in government, an NGO, a policy think tank or some other job related to politics and international affairs, it is probable that you will write an opinion piece in the media at some point on your area of expertise. This course is for those of you in the MA Program who want to develop political opinion research and writing skills. Initially, we will focus on political opinion writing in different media, taking a critical view of the content and writing style of published writers (including myself). We will briefly consider academic literature about writing techniques as well the ability of the media to produce unbiased opinion and even influence policy. There will then be lectures on different topics in politics and discussion on related political science readings. You will produce opinion pieces in reaction to these lectures and readings, using academic literature, media, policy reports and other sources to help shape your argument. The goal will be for you to create well- researched, structured and highly original political opinion pieces that go beyond the obvious. Past students have published pieces on varied topics including ethnic tensions in France, the plight of the Italian Roma minority, the legacy of Rwanda’s genocide, Bahrain’s sectarian violence and Afghan women’s rights in the Huffington Post, Democrat and Chronicle, Sharnoff’s Global Views, World Policy Journal, European Magazine, Global Politics Magazine and Worldpress.org."

"Foreign Policy is the way in which a state – the primary unit for organizing world politics – interacts with the world around it. Foreign policy encompasses the establishment of alliances, the pursuit of trade objectives, the creation of military doctrine, international negotiations and the waging of war. Foreign Policy is about relations between states, but it is influenced by the domestic politics and culture of the state. This course focuses on the foreign policy of the United States of America. There are a number of ways to study foreign policy – theoretical, practical, historical, and ideological are but a few of the most popular methods. This course utilizes a synthesis of differing approaches. The course offers a strong grounding in the history of USFP from the founding of the Republic to the present day, with a particular focus on ‘ideas’ about America’s role in the world. The course also examines a number of thematic issues confronting the US in the world today, before moving on to look at some specific contemporary challenges facing US policy-makers. This course provides students with a highly advanced knowledge of the key concepts, history, themes and contemporary issues in US Foreign Policy. This course will familiarize students with theoretical explanations of US foreign policy, historical and contemporary American thinking on international affairs, the structure of foreign policy making in Washington DC, as well as some of the major challenges facing contemporary American policy-makers."

This course is designed to introduce graduate students to the core concepts, processes, theories, and issues of natural resource conflicts. The focus throughout this course will be on divergent theoretical approaches to natural resource conflicts at three levels of analysis: domestic, international, and global. Our objective is to gain an understanding of the nature of resource-based conflicts and to acquire the necessary tools and knowledge to tackle the challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. The course is organized around the division of natural resources into three different categories: 1) non-renewable resources (such as oil, strategic minerals and gems); 2) renewable (such as water, forest, and fisheries); 3) and global common pool resources (the air, the oceans, forests, and fisheries). We will consider the various ways each category presents its own challenges and engenders different types of conflicts at the state, international, and global level.

This course examines the history of US foreign relations in global context, primarily from the 1890s to the present. It aims to provide historical understanding of the US position in today’s global arena, including debates around the nature of and challenges to US international ‘leadership’ or ‘hegemony.’ Themes include: the long-term ascendancy of the US as a global power; domestic sources of US power; the development of state apparatus and other institutions concerned with foreign policy and national security; the role of individual leaders; the uses of American power, including the role of military force, cultural influence and the shaping of international institutions; interventionism, war, and peacemaking; and the political and economic consequences of US foreign policy for the United States and other regions. The Cold War and its legacy receive substantial attention. The “global war on terror,” from 2001 to the present, will be discussed in broader historical perspective.

This course examines the origins and evolution of modern terrorism, challenges posed by terrorist groups to states and to the international system, and strategies employed to confront and combat terrorism. We assess a wide variety of terrorist organizations, and explore the psychological, socioeconomic, political, and religious causes of terrorist violence past and present. We also analyze the strengths and weaknesses of various counterterrorism strategies, from the point of view of efficacy as well as ethics, and look into ways in which the new threat of global terrorism might impact the healthy functioning of democratic states. The course is divided into two parts. Part I focuses on the terrorist threat, including the nature, roots, objectives, tactics, and organization of terrorism and terrorist groups. Part II addresses the issue of counterterrorism, including recent American efforts to combat terrorism, the strengths and weaknesses of counterterrorist tools and instruments, the issue of civil liberties and democratic values in confronting terrorism, and international strategies and tactics.

This course examines United Nations “complex” peacekeeping and peacebuilding operations since the end of the Cold War. It starts with an introduction to fundamentals: theories on the nature of conflict and types of peace operations. The course then explores a survey of the major UN missions, focusing on the international legal basis for intervention by external actors, states interest, capacity, mandate, strategies, and obstacles faced. It covers a number of cross-cutting issues including the politics of peacekeeping and peacebuilding, the relationship between peacebuilding and statebuilding, normative debates on justice and ethics, the debates and controversies on the promotion of democracy and market economics as a basis for peace, the challenges of evaluating outcomes, targeting the needs of recipient communities, as well as subcontracting peace, indigenous peacebuilding, and cooperation and coordination with multiple actors (notably non-governmental organizations, regional organizations, donor governments, and multinational coalitions). Overall, the course is designed to help students think analytically and systematically about peacekeeping and peacebuilding, along with providing them with a strong foundation of the enduring theoretical and policy debates and recent developments in field-based knowledge.

This course is a graduate level introduction to politics in the contemporary Middle East. It does not require substantial background in Middle Eastern studies, but basic familiarity with contemporary history and politics of the region is assumed. The course’s primary concern is to contextualize the study of the Middle East in a historical and comparative framework. The course starts with a brief overview of modern history of the region and a discussion of what the political construct “Middle East” entails, how it came about and why we should be studying it. From there on, we move to weekly topical readings and discussions. Among the topics examined are: Great Powers' interests and encroachments into the region, the modernizing reforms and the processes of state formation; post-independence developments including coups, revolutions and wars; the evolution of political Islam and nationalism as rival ideologies; the peculiarities of the Islamic state; the persistent Arab-Israeli conflict and other hot conflicts in the region; politics of gender, oil and the rentier state; civil society and contentious politics; dynamics of authoritarianism and democratization; the political potential and impact of new media; and more recent developments in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Readings and examples are drawn from a selected subset of Middle Eastern countries, no one country is studied individually in depth, but rather used in a comparative framework to underline historical patterns, similarities and differences. The course is designed as a seminar. Students are expected to do a number of presentations and participate substantially in the class discussions.

This course examines the history, national interests, policy objectives, and outcomes of US engagement in the Middle East from World War I to the present. The course examines the international environment, regional issues, and the policies and tools used to protect and advance US national interests. Episodes of US intervention are examined, as are current issues and challenges for US foreign policy in the region. This course is suitable for students seeking to broaden their understanding of US foreign policy in the context of the contemporary history, regional dynamics, and international relations of the Middle East. Students will strengthen their research, analytic, writing, and briefing skills through class discussions, writing high quality papers, and preparing and presenting a briefing. The course is conducted as an interactive graduate seminar.

The history of the 21st Century will be written in Asia. This graduate level overview will examine the relations between China, Japan, Korea, and the South East Asian countries, as well as between those countries and the United States, Russia, Australia, and India. Our discussions will follow economic and political developments from the Cold War competition between superpowers through the post-Cold War economic expansion. We Will consider the challenges across the Taiwan Straits and on the Korean Peninsula as well as America's involvement in the conflict of Vietnam, the independence of Singapore and the development of the Association of South East Asia Nations. A central topic will be whether escalating U.S.-China tensions are inevitable and the effectiveness of smart power and traditional diplomacy in the region. We will consider existing security alliances and the underlying causes and potential resolution of the maritime territorial disputes in the East China Sea and South China Sea. Our studies will bring students up to date with a close look at issues arising from Xi's management of the rise of China, Obama's pivot to Asia, and Trump's policies in the region.

This course provides students with a working knowledge and experience of conflict resolution. We explore the history, methodology, theories, and practice in conflict resolution, as the field evolves in the post-9/11 strategic environment. Basic concepts in the literature are analyzed along with a comparison of strategic alternatives in the areas of relationship, power balance, communication, perception of value differences, and tactics. Case studies analyze conflicts in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Other modules address the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as well as religion in conflict resolution, the resolution of ecological conflicts as well as the relevance of crisis mapping to conflict analysis and uses of mobile technology in conflict environments.

The main objective of this course is to examine the impact of political and economic factors on international trade policy. This course addresses leading theories and major policy debates in political economy of international trade. In particular, this course examines key models in the economics of international trade, the rationale behind trade liberalization and protection, the distributional consequences of trade, the role of interest groups, domestic and international institutions in trade policy making. In addition, the course aims to equip graduate students with analytical tools to pursue empirical research on a pertinent issue. The course is divided into several sections. Students will begin by surveying main theoretical frameworks in international trade, including the new trade theory. Next, students will scrutinize the political economy theories to explain trade protection and trade liberalization. We they proceed with the analysis of international trade regimes and their effect on trade policy reforms in both developing and developed countries. Students will also analyze the relationship between international trade, democratic transition and economic development. The course will conclude with the discussion of contemporary debates in political economy of international trade.

This course explores the increasing entanglement of transitional justice with international institutions and the actors within them. Transitional Justice is the conception of justice associated with periods of fundamental political change within individual polities, and therefore has been understood as centered on domestic institutions of political transformation, whether truth commissions or constitutional revision processes. But international institutions have increasingly shaped or constrained the instruments and processes of transitional justice. In this course we will examine, in particular the United Nations, the criminal tribunals including the international criminal court, regional human rights systems, as well as the OSCE and the European Union. We will also explore the role of international non-governmental organizations, both independently and in relation to intergovernmental international institutions.

Diplomacy has been called 'the engine of international relations'. A foreign policy can succeed or fail depending on the quality of a nation's diplomacy. Yet, non-diplomats - and yes, even students of international relations - often misunderstand the role of diplomacy. This course early clarifies and operates on the distinction between foreign policy and diplomacy. It delves into the history of diplomacy briefly, and then considers the accretion of diplomatic law. It explores traditional (bilateral political, consular, and headquarters), as well as non-traditional (multilateral, public, S&T, summit, ‘networked’, etc.) diplomacy. The seminar touches n non-Western approaches to diplomacy and small country or ‘niche’ diplomacy. One focus of the segment on diplomatic negotiation and mediation considers the role of culture in negotiations. Later sessions of the course address thinkers and theories of diplomacy. In fact, student groups will present on several of these to the class. The course concludes by discussing key issues in diplomacy, including personal/professional ethics such as dissent, and career diplomacy.

Enrollment limited to students in IR and Politics MA programs. This course examines the conceptual, historical, legal, and policy foundations of national intelligence and the organizational structures and functions of the US Intelligence Community. Executive Branch management of intelligence, congressional oversight, intelligence collection and analysis, counterintelligence, and covert action are also addressed as are current issues including intelligence failures and reform. This course should be of interest to students seeking to improve their understanding of the role of intelligence in national and international security and of particular interest to students considering careers in these fields. The course is conducted as an interactive graduate seminar.

In today’s rapidly changing and chaotic world, the need for effective strategic planning is greater than ever. Strategic planning is based on analytical processes and methodologies that are fundamentally different from those taught in academic programs and graduates lack the practical “real world” skills sought by employers, who are hesitant to hire them. The initial period of employment thus becomes a difficult process of on-the-job training. The course will teach the methodologies and skills required for real world policy planning, increasing students’ prospects of employment and making them useful employees from the start. The course is highly practical, a nearly real-world policy planning workshop. In the role of senior decision-makers from countries of their choice, students will draft policy papers and formulate recommendations from the perspective of the actual leaders in power. The need to consider matters in this light, from the real world leaders’ perspective, not what students believe to be right, often has a transformational impact on students’ thinking. The heart of the course is class discussion, in which students engage in a directed critique of each other’s draft policy papers, much as is done in senior planning forums, as part of a collaborative effort to help improve the final paper.

At a time when the U.S. and other states are hesitant to engage in military action but face pressing global challenges, this course will examine how countries can effectively deploy “soft power” in order to achieve international goals. A critical class for students considering careers in their government’s foreign service or in international organizations, we study how states and organizations can most effectively build relationships with foreign publics in order to win “hearts and minds.” The class explores how governments attempt to inform, persuade, and engage foreign publics in order to achieve their national objectives. We study how public diplomacy is practiced today by nations such as the U.S. and China and examine recent developments, including how governments and other actors are harnessing new communication technology; how foreign audiences are responding to government messages and influencing government behavior; and how public diplomacy is practiced in the current global war on terror. Students will learn how to craft strategic, sophisticated, forward-thinking public diplomacy strategies that effectively influence global public opinion. At the end of the course, students will be prepared to cultivate and maintain productive relationships between foreign audiences and governments, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations, based upon genuine, mutual understanding and two-way communication.

Over the past decades, the level of foreign direct investment, international lending, and cross-border trade has dramatically grown. Global investors and lenders realized that economics and politics are deeply intertwined in emerging markets and developing countries and began to develop more sophisticated tools for an assessment of political, economic, and financial risks. Country risk analysis is now used as a screening device to avoid conducting business in countries with excessive risk and as a tool for making long-term investment or financial decisions. This course provides a broad overview of multiple approaches to country risk assessment and fosters students’ analytical skills so that they can complete an assessment of political, economic, and financial risks in a host country. Through a combination of lectures, classroom discussions and case studies, students will be able to identify drivers of political, economic and financial risks, understand their effects on business decisions, and apply a number of analytical tools to specific real-life cases from the public and private sector in managing these risks.

The world currently faces severe social, environmental, health crises, and growing inequality, which have become major concerns for developing and developed countries alike. Global climate change is also looming large with expectations of widespread droughts, flooding, and famines striking the poorest and most vulnerable areas along an arc of instability stretching from Africa through Asia likely leading to massive emigration from such areas to the developed world following state failures.

This course explores some of the many challenges and opportunities associated with the movement of people across national borders. Global migration flows have reached unprecedented levels. About a quarter of a billion people--or 3.3 percent of global population--currently live outside their country of birth. These flows, of course, are not without controversy. In the United States, we are debating how to manage a large undocumented population from Mexico and an increase in undocumented children coming from Central America. Meanwhile, debates rage in Europe about Islam and assimilation while thousands of refugees die in the Mediterranean Sea fleeing conflict and repression in countries like Somalia, Eritrea, Afghanistan, and Syria. Many communities in developing countries, on the other hand, depend on and are changed by the massive sums of money that migrants send home. What drives trends like these, and what are their political, economic, and social implications? Why do people emigrate, how are people smuggled and trafficked, and to what extent can states control immigration and manage xenophobia? How do immigration policies affect families, children, and communities? What is the relationship between emigration and human development in developing countries? This course explores these and other questions about human mobility in the 21'' century.

Nation-building is the process through which different groups, routinely under intense exogenous pressures, seek to forge a new common identity centered on the pre-existing territorial state. For this reason, particularly in the United States, nation-building is considered dependent and conceptually interchangeable with state-building, i.e. the construction of a sustainable, viable and effective set of legitimate institutions that make binding authoritative decisions within the state. In this course, while we recognize the distinctiveness of the nation and the state, we also begin by considering them as the two inseparable sides of the modern nation-state. The core objective of this course is expose students to theories and practices of nation-building and statebuilding from a broad comparative political and historical perspective. We will briefly examine the trajectories of nation building and statebuilding in Western Europe and then focus on nation-building and statebuilding in the contemporary post-conflict states. The course is designed to achieve the following objectives. First it aims at providing an understanding of the most important frameworks to understand the nation and the state. Second, it seeks to familiarize students with the contemporary literature on nation-building and state-building. Third, we seek to attain a better understanding of the nation-building and state-building efforts in a selected number of cases such as Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, but also other lesser known cases in Asia and Africa. Fourth, we seek to assess the role that international organizations and other states play in nation- and state-building efforts. This becomes exceedingly important as the model that is advocated, supported and imposed is centered on the establishment of a democratic regime and the formation of a majority that will have, at best, a fluid identity based on material interests and not on the ethnic, religious, racial, or linguistic identity.

This course draws on contemporary events in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, to discuss key issues of the history of the twentieth-century Mediterranean. Films and film documentaries will introduce debates on colonialism, postcolonialism, and war; democracy and dictatorship; revolution, political dissent, and human rights; migration, gender, and racism.

This seminar discusses backlashes against processes of globalization and integration as reactions inherent to these processes. We will analyze the political consequences of economic and political integration as they pertain to the forces that are strengthened through integration. Examples include the rise of left and right-wing populist parties and candidates, the popularity of anti-globalization stances and movements, as well as the political consequences of these backlashes. We are interested both in regional integration arrangements (primarily the European Union) and processes of globalization proper, i.e. multilateral political and economic integration.*

This course will examine U.S. policy toward Eastern Europe since 1945, focusing especially on developments since 1989 that set the stage for today’s conflicts. The borderlands between modern Germany and Russia have been contested among empires, peoples and religions for a millennium and the struggle for political and military control of these borderlands sparked both World Wars. After the post-Yalta division of Europe, this area became a central focus of Cold War rivalry using all forms of traditional and public diplomacy. The end of the Soviet Union, the fall of communist regimes in former-Warsaw Pact countries, the re-creation of independent countries in post-Soviet space, and the enlargement of NATO and the EU set the stage for today’s conflicts in Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova. This class will explore policy successes and failures toward this volatile area, drawing on both diplomatic and cultural sources to discover what policy approaches might work best in the future.

There are over 80,000 Multinational Corporations (MNCs) in the world today. Their role in the complex set of global cross‐border flows of goods, services, capital, people, and knowledge is immense. We shall examine the impact that MNCs have on the countries and regions of the world and on the globalization process as suppliers, customers, competitors, employers, shareholders, innovators, recipients, and influencers of regulation and in general as political, business, legal and social entities. Through lectures, in-‐class training, discussions, and the examination of case studies, students will deepen their understanding of some of the most powerful actors and forces in the world economy and the current debates concerning them. More broadly, the course draws lessons from political science, economics, business, law, history, sociology, and psychology in order to understand the multiple challenges faced by decision-makers not just in the private but also in the public and nonprofit sectors. Overall the teaching is informed by the sharing with students the insights derived from multiple disciplines, cultures, and languages to help them gain valuable real world skills.

Same as POL-GA 2774.

The objective of this course is to introduce students of international relations to the politics of human rights, art, and collective memory. Many IR courses on human rights provide an overview of international human rights law and the evolution thereof. However, few courses map the politicization of abuses of civil or political rights in conflict or during authoritarian rule against the backdrop of art as a vector for change. This seminar focuses on a cross-regional analysis to explore how different social actors address political violence in the aftermath of atrocities relying on art and how their actions impact society. Some of the questions posed include: 1) How do societies account for wrongdoings and create a collective memory? 2) Why are transition governments and other actors keen on creating their own often conflicting narratives about the past? 3) What role do international actors, such as non-profit organizations or states, play in this context? In recent years, the use of art including visual and performance art but in particular street art and performance activism has become a major catalyst of dealing with the past. Yet, the reliance on artistic forms of expression to cope with mass atrocities and human rights violations is far from being a cathartic element. Instead, it can also fuel tensions leading to the creation of spaces of contention in transitioning societies.

Is cyberspace a battlefield? If so, how do norms and laws that govern war provide guidance for defense or retaliation in cyber-conflict? These are urgent questions arising from changes in both patterns of organized violence and the reaction to them, in the context of contemporary wars. Not all changes are necessarily “new," but they have the potential to evolve into new norms, providing ample opportunities for challenging the widely accepted foundations of ethics in war, on which customary international law is based. For example, within the paradigm of asymmetric warfare, of which “the global war on terror" is one case, exceptional responses to existential threats have argued for violating the prohibition to torture; have questioned traditional understandings of noncombatant immunity, and of human shields; have challenged the taboo of assassination, by stressing the precision afforded by targeted killings; and have used new technologies intended to protect lives, such as drones, to redefine standards of proportionality. On another note, the emerging practice of humanitarian interventions has been struggling to become a norm, challenging definitions of legality and/or legitimacy of aggression. This course aims to provide an understanding of the dynamic relationship between laws, norms, and practices in contemporary warfare, beyond the classic argument of realism - i.e. interest and power always trump ethics – and beyond a static understanding of the rules of conduct in wars. It addresses the role of norms as well as interests, and norm entrepreneurs such as states and non–state actors, through a mix of theoretical discussions and case studies.

The persistence of low-intensity conflict and the rise of authoritarian regimes in recent years has put the question of transitional justice in ongoing conflicts as well as post-conflict and post-authoritarian contexts center stage. The objective of this co-taught colloquium is to critically examine questions of accountability, human rights and memory politics in a variety of cross-regional case studies. The first part of the course exposes students to fundamental concepts of the field drawing from a range of empirical examples. The second part of the course focuses on the challenges between civil society and state actors when dealing with the past. Several historical and contemporary case studies help contextualize the intricate issues societies face when addressing past wrongdoings. In addition, the seminar-style course introduces alternative teaching methods--including simulations, films and select guest speakers, such as subject matter experts and practitioners--to provide students with a rich and stimulating learning environment to understand the politics of justice, policy strategies and norm-building in post-conflict and post-authoritarian societies.

Since the Pivot to Asia during the Obama administration, East Asia has loomed larger in U.S. foreign policy. The advent of President Trump portends some even greater changes in U.S.-East Asia relations, perhaps the most profound since World War II. This class examines U.S. relations focusing on China and Japan, but also including Korean issues and the South China Sea. Both security and political economy issues are covered. International relations here includes not just what governments do, but also the profound influence of private power and strategy, primarily involving business. Political, business and military strategy will all be explained and examined.

Cultural values, particularly religious ones, as well as emotions are underestimated in analyses that emphasize rational decision-making. Some of the deepest yearnings in human beings can be of critical importance in sustaining what are defined in the literature as "intractable" social conflicts. Strict cost-benefit calculations figure prominently in instrumental decision-making pertaining to goals with adjustments necessary should the costs be too high to achieve specific objectives. What analysts may term "culturally sacred" values is less sensitive to calculations of cost and benefit - a fact ignored in Realpolitik explanations. This course investigates the issues pertaining to religious values and the limits of rational choice querying the influence of culturally sacred values in support of political violence within Israel and in comparative perspective. This course is designed with extensive pedagogical guidance from Schusterman Center for Israel Studies faculty at Brandeis University to assess the potential over the medium to long term for protracted internal conflict in Israel while considering several concerns: 1) the growing divide between the Left and Right within Israeli politics as the intractable conflict with Palestine endures; 2) the deep gulfs among Jews on the country’s diverse religious landscape; as well as 3) the impact of settler violence in the West Bank on Israel’s relations with the United States and Germany. In terms of graduate candidate research, the course explores in a comparative manner the extent to which religious values sustain clashes between political cultures.

Nationalism and ethnicity remain a common cause of conflict in international politics of the past two centuries. Yet, the intensification and the vengeful resurgence of nationalist and ethnic conflicts in the post-Cold War era have been most unexpected and urprising for policy-makers and scholars alike. The increasing frequency and deadliness of nationalist conflict at the international and the intra-state level, from mass expulsions to state-sponsored genocide, has prompted international and humanitarian nterventions that have challenged time-honored norms of state behavior and its integrity. However, despite widespread recognition amongst intellectuals and policymakers of the virulent resurgence of nationalism, there is a widespread lack of consensus on the meaning and origins of, as well as the management strategies for dealing with, nationalist and ethnic conflict. To many, nationalism appears just an amorphous and protean form of organization that is difficult to be defined, described and controlled. Most of the literature for this course will be drawn from the contemporary debates on the nation, ethnicity and international relations theory and practice, intentionally fusing together theory and case studies. However, while emphasis will be placed on achieving a better understanding of theoretical interpretations and frameworks for action, we will take good care to examine a number of case studies in a variety of contexts. This will familiarize us with the repertoire of strategies, justifications, and practices used by all actors. We will do so through assigned readings, but also by following events and conflict that unfold during this semester.

As the digital medium has exploded over the last forty or so years, devices, data, networks, and new modes of visual expression have changed our perception of and ability to express our sense of where we are and how we perceive landscapes of experience. As a result, notions of space and place, and a desire to express the situatedness of lived experience and historical narratives, have come increasingly to the fore in humanities and the social sciences. At the same time, interdisciplinary fields such as geography and digital humanities have looked to provide new lenses on the worlds around us (both physical and virtual) and new tools with which to share our stories of traveling through different places. These changes reflect our increasing capacity to capture and express geographical information through new tools for doing work in what has come to be called the “spatial humanities.” This course will explore our new perceptions of space and place relative to data and data structures both creatively and critically, including questioning how the epistemological tendencies of specific tools--and geographic information systems (GIS) as a whole--impact our perception of the world. Immersing ourselves in contemporary geographical thought, including discussions of space and place in everyday life, and experimentation with new tools and practices, this course will teach students to frame narratives through maps and other spatial visualization tools with a critical understanding that allows them properly situates facts and stories in the digital landscape.

The course considers the European Union as an experiment in how to manage politics between states. We will consider both how and why the institutions of the EU function (or not) as they do – the specific histories, intentions, and compromises that led to the EU’s current makeup; and the tension between its legal and bureaucratic structure, and the sometimes messy realities of national and international events. We will explore how and why the EU remains subject to national politics and economic priorities – examining, amongst other issues, the challenges that the financial crisis and its aftermath, Europe’s relationships with its near-neighbors, and the resurgence of political populism (including Brexit) present to the EU’s future. This course will develop policy-making and analytical skills, and also deepen participants’ understanding of political risk in ways that are applicable to corporate and financial decision-making.

This course is for students who want to become experts in South Asia, develop an additional regional specialty, or want some exposure to political risk, prediction, and strategy. You will learn about the individual politics of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Nepal as well as the regional politics of South Asia. Through an intellectual investigation of a range of qualitative data and a simple risk framework, you will then understand current conflicts and where we can expect conflict domestically and regionally. Where will South Asia face war today & in the next decade? How can state (eg local government, superpowers) and non-state actors (eg civil society, tech companies, activist billionaires) prevent conflict? You will cultivate your research, strategic thinking, and communication skills while developing country/region-specific expertise through your coursework. This will prepare you well for a career as an analyst at a policy think tank (e.g. CFR, RAND), political analysis firm (e.g. Stratfor, Oxford Analytica), a research division at a bank (e.g. Citigroup) or government agency (e.g. US State Dept). Past guest speakers included a former prime minister, a consultant, think tank expert, and the head of a nonproliferation foundation.

Would you like to have a more holistic understanding of current affairs, predict the next major flashpoint in global politics, or identify a growing political risk in your country? This qualitative course will help you develop the research skills to do exactly that. You’ll also have the opportunity to work on an analytical project for the world’s 1st geopolitical crowdsourced consultancy, Wikistrat, predicting the global risks for the next year (last year's project predicted 2023 global risks, which we published in Newsweek). How will global challenges like the Ukraine war, tech competition and climate crisis impact our world order? By the end of the semester, you will have honed your risk analysis skills and be able to better predict future trends and shock events globally and for individual countries. This will serve you well in your career as an analyst at a policy think tank (e.g. RAND), political analysis firm (e.g. Eurasia Group), research division at a bank (e.g. Citigroup) or government agency (e.g. US State Dept). You will have a more enlightened understanding of global politics. Past guest speakers have included former extremist Mubin Shaikh, Gray Rhino Author Michele Wucker, British Petroleum’s Group Political Adviser Dr. Tom Wales, and Epistema Data Analytics CEO Joab Rosenberg.

This course examines the struggle of women to become full and legitimate bearers of human rights through grassroots activism and integration of the concept of women’s human rights into the international human rights system. We will examine the influences feminism brought into international human rights, the importance of the concept of gender in women’s human rights and apply these to analyze and critique government and NGO policies and programs. Students will discuss the processes by which treaty bodies at both the international and regional levels monitor State Party compliance, including applying the analysis to case studies. The course will address content and implementation of CEDAW and relevance of other treaties such as ICCPR and ICESCR as well as the IACHR at the regional level. In particular, we will examine the right to freedom from violence perpetrated either by the state or by non-state actors, such as domestic violence, sexual assault and harassment, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, sex and labor trafficking. We will examine sexual and reproductive rights and the push back against these. We will also examine the right to participate in political processes.

This course is designed to introduce graduate students to the core concepts, processes, theories, and issues international development. The focus will be on divergent theoretical approaches to international development and their empirical applications while studying different regions’ experiences of development. The field is characterized by contentious debates and we will explore these debates form multiple perspectives. Our objective is to gain an understanding of the problems of development and explore why some nations fail and others succeed, why some nations experience sustained economic growth while others grow and then stagnate by applying recently developed frameworks, i.e., Acemoglu and Robinson, North, Wallis, and Weingast, or Bates, to case studies from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America.

This course is designed to introduce graduate students to the core concepts, issues, and theories of the world economy. The focus will be on how changes in the world economy affect politics within and among states. Throughout the course we will be taking a political economy view: that economic policy is the outcome of bargaining between interest groups in the political arena. As such politics and economics are never far apart—the economics identifies the potential gainers and losers; the politics determines who wins the contest. Our objective is to gain a thorough understanding of the politics of international trade, international monetary relations, international finance, and globalization.

Tutorial for students whose individual needs are not met by formal courses. A substantial research paper or final examination is required.

This course is designed to help students write at an expert level in the field of International Relations and is required for all M.A. in IR students. This course enhances and refines students’ critical writing and reading skills for the study, and practice, of International Relations. Students will extend their abilities to write clearly, coherently, and fluently by incorporating analysis into their writing. Vocabulary, outlining, summary/synthesis, and critiquing skills will be reinforced. Students will apply college standards of proper rhetoric by choosing subjects and modes appropriate for the intended audience and purpose. Each student will choose a topic for a major research paper that will require careful analysis of readings and implementation of documentation techniques. Students will demonstrate basic principles of unity, coherence and support in essay writing with applied principles of revision through prewriting, outlining, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading.

This 2-credit course prepares students to engage in international relations research. The course aims to give students a common, basic foundation in the main research methods and approaches relevant to international relations, with additional attention paid to research design and selected primary source material. The knowledge and skills developed in this course will help prepare students for the M.A. thesis research and will also be useful to those wishing to engage in further graduate study or research-oriented jobs. The course introduces students to multiple tools and approaches, but students will be able to tailor their work in the course to the needs of their intended thesis research. Students will draft a literature review and MA thesis proposal in support of their planned thesis research. Student conducting human subjects research will also complete a protocol for the Institutional Review Board (IRB).

This seminar is designed for M.A. students working on their Master's thesis. Typically, students have completed all of their other M.A. requirements and are in their final semester. All students who are writing their M.A. theses are required to enroll in a section of this seminar; the seminar is a degree requirement