Annotation

This course is an introduction to International Relations (IR), which is a branch of Political Science that studies the political and social consequences of the division of the world into separate territorially-based political units. It is also typically extended to include international organisations and non-state actors, and it focuses on issues broadly conceived of as having global—rather than limitedly domestic or local—significance.

The course is divided into four parts. In part one, students will be provided with background knowledge of the historical evolution of the state system. Building on that, students will then explore the central explanatory concepts of IR—power, interest, and identity—and their IR theory counterparts—Realism, Liberalism, and Constructivism. In the second part, students will engage with and learn the methods of a compelling alternative theoretical approach to IR: the Strategic Perspective. It both challenges and differs significantly from traditional theories of IR by arguing that the preferences of leaders and their constituents—rather than national interests or the state system—are the primary drivers of foreign policy. In the final sections, students will use this Strategic Perspective and the logic of strategic interaction to explain major characteristics of, events, and trends in global politics. The focus of the fourth part will be warfare and conflict; specifically, the use of military force, military alliances, nuclear deterrence, terrorism and military intervention. The fifth part will examine significant aspects of peace, governance and world order, namely, international organisations, climate change, human rights and international law.

Aim of the Course

The course will introduce students to the academic study of International Relations (IR), and give an overview of the major concepts, traditional theories and pressing issues in contemporary global politics. The primary aims of the course are to provide students with (i) a perspective of international relations as being predominately driven by individually-motivated strategies that shape war, peace, and world order; (ii) an understanding of the strategic calculations underlying the actions of the leaders of nations, international organisations and non-governmental interest groups; and (iii) the tools to understand empirical regularities by using strategic theory approaches.

Learning outcomes

• Compare and contrast the primary concepts and traditional theoretical approaches to the study of international politics.
• Explain the the Strategic Perspective’s response to traditional theories of IR.
• Analyse case studies of international relations and foreign policies according to the methods of strategic theory, selectorate theory, and game theory.
• Model causes of war, brinkmanship, the security dilemma, bargaining, deterrence and compellence processes.
• Explain the rationale behind the formation of alliances; apply the concept of alliance portfolio to the analysis of the preferences of national leaders.
• Analyse the logic of terrorism and attendant issues of credibility.
• Assess the empirical evidence supporting democratic peace theory.
• Explain the purposes and formations of several international organisations and assess the extent to which common problems constrain their effectiveness and level of cooperation.
• Analyse climate change agreements as collective action problems.
• Critically assess the constructivist and strategic approaches to the formation of international law, norms and human rights.

Aim of the course

Futures Thinking is a multidisciplinary method for thinking constructively and creatively about the future, starting from the assumption that the future is not something that will happen to us tomorrow but is being created by us today. Students will be introduced to the major changes that will occur in the next 10, 20 or more years, including global warming, inequality, global health, the future of work, among others. In each area, students will undertand how experts have created scenarios to cope with uncertainty, identify dynamics, develop policy choices, assess alternatives, and ultimately, make decisions. Students will be immersed in Futures Thinking through discussing and debating influential reports – for example, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the OECD, the World Health Organisation, and McKinsey Global Institute. Students will then work collaboratively to assess the potential local impact of these global trends and evaluate local examples of Futures Thinking.

Learning outcomes

• Students will be familiar with the methods of ‘futures thinking’ and scenario approaches to problem solving.
• Students will understand the basics of key global issues facing governments, businesses, and individuals.
• Students will interpret and critically assess key influential reports about future scenarios from international organisations and research institutions.
• Students will place global issues in a local context and evaluate local responses and decisions on these issues.

THE AIM OF THE COURSE:

Climate change presents some of the biggest challenges facing modern society. Economics can provide a powerful intellectual foundation for understanding and analysing many of these challenges. This course employs insights and tools from economics to study problems around climate change impacts, the design of mitigation and adaptation policies, and the consequences of these policies. The course builds on key concepts from environmental and natural resource economics but also draws from other fields in economics.

This course explores the economic characteristics of the climate change problem, assesses national and international policy design and current implementation issues, and surveys the economic tools necessary to evaluate climate change policies. The objectives of the course are to understand how the costs and benefits of mitigation are measured, to understand the economics of carbon pricing and other regulatory policies and key design questions; to understand the current landscape of domestic and international policy planning and implementation.

Climate change has a unique set of attributes that make standard economic analysis very difficult to apply. It is a global problem requiring unprecedented international cooperation. It is pervaded by uncertainty in every step of the process of translating global emissions into local damages. The costs and benefits of its mitigation are highly mismatched geographically as well as temporally. And its damages are largely irreversible. This class is about breaking down the many challenges of climate change and seeing what economics research has done to address them. The course will discuss what is known (and what is not known) about the economic damages of climate change; will study theoretical models that clarify the policy problem; and will examine existing and potential climate policies and their relative strengths and weaknesses.

The course is discussion oriented and will require a high degree of participation by students in the classroom. Each class will generally consist of a half-hour discussion of a single assigned academic article, followed by lecture to prepare students for the next assigned reading. Students will, at the end of this course, know significantly more about the economics of climate change and also be equipped to begin carrying out research on this all-important topic.

Learning outcomes:

• To understand economic characteristics and outcomes of the climate change.
• To assess national and international climate policy design and their implementation issues.
•  To understand what are the costs and benefits and how the costs and benefits of mitigation are measured
• To learn how to plan strategic development of a company with environmentalist mindset
• To learn make better-informed environmental policy related decision, all while distinguishing between positive analyses and normative judgements
• To sharpen critical analysis and communication abilities, especially in the context of complex and systemic climate change issues, and apply systems thinking to real-world business problems.
• To expand general understanding of the complex decisions faced by managers in business, government, and non-profit organizations.

Aim of the course

This is one of first courses in the undergraduate programme paving the foundation of the thinking around the modern world the students will have to develop their lives and work around. The key purpose of the course is not only to present the challenges of the global world and how these are undressed in the UN Sustainable Development Goals but also to discuss how these challenges can present various opportunities for future personal and professional development and innovation.

Futures Thinking is a multidisciplinary method for thinking constructively and creatively about the future, starting from the assumption that the future is not something that will happen to us tomorrow but is being created by us today. Students will be introduced to the major changes that will occur in the next 10, 20 or more years, including global warming, inequality, global health, and the future of work, among others. In each area, students will understand how experts have created scenarios to cope with uncertainty, identify dynamics, develop policy choices, assess alternatives, and ultimately, make decisions. Students will be immersed in Futures Thinking through discussing and debating influential reports – for example, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the OECD, the United Nations, and McKinsey Global Institute. Students will then work collaboratively to assess the potential local impact of these global trends and evaluate local examples of Futures Thinking.

Learning outcomes

• Students will be familiar with the methods of ‘futures thinking’ and scenario approaches to problem solving.
• Students will understand the basics of key global issues facing governments, businesses, and individuals.
• Students will interpret and critically assess key influential reports about future scenarios from international organisations and research institutions.
• Students will place global issues in a local context and evaluate local responses and decisions on these issues.