Designed to sharpen judgment about current political claims, the course uses classical logic and rhetoric to examine processes of thinking and methods of persuasion. We learn the use of independent observation, logical reasoning, forms of deductive inference, and kinds of experimentation. We examine theories related to discovery and the nature of truth. We subject political oratory and reporting to critical scrutiny. Most attention is paid to techniques of persuasion involving logical fallacies such as the 'genetic fallacy,' appeals to emotions such as indignation, and biases such as chauvinism. Reading focuses on studies and stories of detection and discovery.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Candland
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
An introduction to the process of conducting research in political science. Students will develop an intuition for problem-driven research in the social sciences, gaining specific insight into the range of methodological tools employed by political scientists. In this course, students will design and analyze a research question, formulate and test hypotheses about politics, evaluate techniques to measuring political phenomena, and assess methods of empirical analysis and interpretation. The course has a particular focus on quantitative analysis and students will gain fluency in statistical software. The course provides a foundation for conducting empirical research and is strongly recommended for students interested in independent research, a senior honors thesis, and/or graduate school.
Units: 1.25
Max Enrollment: 18
Prerequisites: One course in political science. Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Not open to students who have taken or are taking POL 199, MATH 101, MATH 101Z, ECON 103/SOC 190, PSYC 105, PSYC 205, or STAT 160.
Instructor: Staff (Fall), Chudy (Spring)
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Degree Requirements: DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRF); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRDL)
Typical Periods Offered: Fall and Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
The institutions, processes, and values that shape American politics. The origins and evolution of the U.S. Constitution and the institutions it created: Congress, the executive branch, the presidency, the federal court system, and federalism. Analysis of "intermediary" institutions including political parties, interest groups, elections, and the media. Study of enduring debates over values in American politics, with particular attention to conflicts over civil rights and civil liberties.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 28
Prerequisites:
Instructor: Arora, Chudy, Hosam, Sklar
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Notes:
The U.S. holds more elections than just about any other democratic nation, but voter turnout rates are relatively low. Elections in the U.S. have among the longest campaign seasons, yet it is unclear that campaigns even influence election results. How do we explain these seeming contradictions? We will engage with academic scholarship as well as the experiences of campaign organizers and activists to understand the role of campaigns in the United States. We will examine institutional factors such as political parties, redistricting, and access to participation in campaigns and elections. We will also explore the roles of personal identities and socioeconomic conditions, including race, gender, and class. The impact of voter apathy, civic education, and the interplay of national and local politics on the health of American democracy will also be analyzed. Students will participate in a hands-on project to understand more deeply the complexity of election campaigns.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: POL1 200 or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Arora
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
An introduction to basic elements of the American legal system, including courts, judges, juries, policing and imprisonment, the processes of criminal and civil justice, and legal reasoning. Students will not only read about these aspects of the legal system, but study them directly through field observations of local courtrooms and interviews with judges, cops, and lawyers. In their research, students will address fundamental questions about the relationship of law and politics. First, what makes law legitimate, that is, worthy of obedience? Second, if, in practice, law is selectively mobilized, can we truly say that we live in a society with "the rule of law"? In sum, what makes "the rule of law" different from "the rule of the powerful"?
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: POL1 200.
Instructor: Burke
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This course is a survey of landmark decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court throughout American history. The course covers both cases about the structure of our government and cases interpreting the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment. Topics include executive powers, congressional authority under the Commerce Clause, nation-state relations, economic liberties, freedom of the press, the right to privacy, the rights of the criminally accused, and the civil rights of women and minorities.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: POL1 200.
Instructor: Curi
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
Examine the complex web of public health, politics, and social movements that has shaped American health outcomes. Explore the evolution of public health interventions, from groundbreaking disease control initiatives to transformative social justice movements. Analyze the political dynamics shaping public health policy, including the influence of power structures, interest groups, and public opinion. Critically assess the effectiveness of various public health policies in the face of changing times. Gain insights into the complexities of promoting population health and well-being amidst environmental hazards, infectious diseases, and health disparities. This course is designed for a broad range of majors/minors, including those interested in politics, policy making, social change, public health, and medicine.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Curi
Typical Periods Offered: Summer
Notes:
This course examines how public policy on a wide range of issues, from reproductive rights to education, environment, and immigration, is made in the United States. The battle over these issues involves many institutions-the president, the executive branch, Congress, the courts, state and local governments-who compete, and sometimes cooperate, over public policy. Students will analyze current policy struggles to better understand the interactions among these institutions and the resulting shape of American public policy.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: POL1 200 or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Burke
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
The American system of health care is distinctive. Financing is provided through voluntary employer contributions, tax subsidies, individual payments and an array of public programs, principally Medicare and Medicaid-but despite the variety of funding sources, Americans, unlike citizens of other affluent democracies, are not guaranteed health care coverage. How did the American approach to health care develop? How is it different from that of other affluent nations? What explains the differences? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the American health care system? Issues of cost containment, technological innovation, quality of care, and disparities in health outcomes are explored.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: POL1 200 or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Burke
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
The United States is in the middle of an increasingly hostile and polarizing national debate over immigration policy and the outcomes of immigrant incorporation. This course situates the debate by exploring the history of immigration in the U.S., public policy that has been aimed at immigration flows or immigrants, and the resulting political consequences. This course will grapple with notions of citizenship and ‘illegality’ while examining the ways that demographic change has influenced opinions, behaviors, partisanship, and values of the broader public. We will critically analyze recent immigration policy proposals, paying close attention to the effects of these proposals on immigration flows, immigrant rights, and the broader political and societal ramifications of policy action and inaction. Finally, we will turn our attention to the dynamics of immigration policy-making and examine how race, gender, sexuality, and class both affect and are affected by immigration laws.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: POL1 200 and permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Arora
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
This course provides an overview of the growing literature on political psychology. We will focus on psychological theories that help us to understand how voters think and feel about politics. The primary goal of this course is to acquaint you with various ways in which psychological theory contributes to our understanding of politics and vice versa. For example, does prejudice influence citizens' voting decisions? Is opposition to gay marriage rooted in ideological concerns, or rather in emotions like disgust or fear? Why do many voters dismiss seemingly objective information and vote "against their interests"? Topics include cognition, emotion, prejudice, identity, personality, authority and obedience, and motivated reasoning all with applications to American politics in particular, but we will also consider the relevance of these topics to other countries as well.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: POL1 200
Instructor: Chudy
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
This course will teach students to effectively communicate to the public political science research on American politics. This will require students to step back from the details of their coursework to examine how political science has shaped their understandings of political phenomena. How are the perspectives of political scientists different from those of practitioners and the public? How can these perspectives contribute to public debates on politics? Through a series of writing assignments--for example Op/eds, book reviews and interviews--students will learn how to translate expert knowledge and perspectives into everyday language, but perhaps even more importantly, how to draw on that knowledge to address the concerns of citizens about the political world.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Prerequisites: At least one POL1 course or by permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Burke
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This seminar examines race and ethnicity in American politics, with special attention to the modern civil rights era of the 1960s and beyond. We will consider the definition and political meaning of racial and ethnic identities, the role of racial identity and attitudes in structuring Americans' political opinions and behaviors, how redistricting shapes the representation of non-white groups, the political implications of intersections among race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality, and the role of race in recent national elections.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: One course in American Politics.
Instructor: Chudy
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
This course examines the history and contemporary role of Latinos in American politics, including the emergence of “Latino” as a pan-ethnic identity and demographic profiles of the group; the “Americanization” and “racialization” of Latinos; and the relationship between Latinos and non-Latinos as they relate to political institutions, representation, and voting coalitions. The class will also focus on the development of Latino public opinion and partisanship, how these manifest in Latinos’ political participation, and their importance in recent presidential and midterm elections (2008-2022). The course also examines U.S. immigration policy as context to understand current debates that shape the Latino community now and in the future.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: POL1 200.
Instructor: Gomez
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
This course serves as an overview of the interdisciplinary field of political communication, integrating research from political science, communication, and psychology. We will examine the evolution of the media, including the rise of partisan media, the ways in which campaigns seek to influence voters, and the effects of media messaging on public opinion and political behavior. You will learn how to critically interpret academic research on these topics and so better understand your own use of the media and political behavior.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: POL1 200 or permission of the instructor.
Instructor:
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Emotions have always played an important role in politics, but recent developments have highlighted their significance. This course explores how emotions affect contemporary American politics. We consider competing theories of how individuals form judgments and make decisions, and the ways in which emotions affect those processes. We end the course by examining how politicians, campaign professionals and journalists elicit emotions in the public.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor (if interested in the course, contact Tom Burke or Maura Cahn)
Instructor:
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
The United States is by some measures more politically polarized today than at any time since the late 19th century. Meanwhile, economic inequality has risen to levels not seen since the early 20th century. The convergence of these two trends have left the United States vulnerable to political instability, violence, and democratic decline. Citizens are increasingly willing to call into question the legitimacy of this country’s core electoral and governing institutions. How did the U.S. get to this point? What can be done about it? In this course we will examine the rise of both political polarization and economic inequality and the consequences for American democracy.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: POL1 200 or coursework in American politics. Enrollment is limited; interested students must fill out a seminar application via the political science department.
Instructor:
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This course examines the politics of environmental issues in the United States. The course has two primary goals: First, to introduce students to the institutions, stakeholders, and political processes important to debates over environmental policy at the federal level. Second, to develop and practice skills of analyzing and making decisions relevant to environmental politics and policy. Drawing on the literature of environmental politics and policy, this course will consider how environmental issues are framed in political discourse, various approaches to environmental advocacy and reform, and the contested role of science in environmental politics. The course will be organized around environmental case studies, including endangered species conservation, public lands management, air and water pollution, and toxics regulation.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 16
Crosslisted Courses: POL 1381
Prerequisites: A 200-level ES course or POL1 200 or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Turner
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Legal researchers often examine the legal system through books that tell the story of important cases. In this course students will work in teams to write papers on lawsuits, legal controversies and law-related subjects related to such a book. To support their research, students will be introduced to fundamental aspects of the American legal system, legal research, and legal writing. For the spring 2024 edition of the course, we will be researching and writing about the 1994 Supreme Court case Farmer v. Brennan, in which a transgendered prisoner argued that she had been subjected to cruel and unusual punishment by prison officials.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 16
Prerequisites: POL1 200, POL1 215, POL1 247 or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Burke
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
The fight for inclusion into American society and culture created new opportunities and dynamics for American politics but how might we understand if and how these political battles translated into material gains for marginalized groups? This course will look at the ways in which representation became a political demand in ways both tied and untied from other goals like anti-poverty and human rights, the economic and judicial processes that shaped the demand for political representation, the ways that representational politics plays out specifically in the realm of Black politics, and the dialectical relationship between politics and popular culture in the 21st Century. Can representation save us? Should it?
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: POL1 200 or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Hosam
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
Introduction to the major principles, theories, and debates in the field of comparative politics. We explore critical questions such as: How are states created? What is the difference between state and nation? Why do states adopt different political and economic systems? How are democratic and authoritarian regimes different? What are the institutional designs of presidential versus parliamentary systems, and what are the trade-offs related to governance and people’s participation within those systems? How do societal organizations and identities based on geography, region, ethnicity, religion, class, and gender interact with one another and the state? We will study political systems, institutions, economic programs, political processes, and non-state actors as they affect change within countries and across different regions of the world. We will also examine the methods that scholars of comparative politics use to study politics and test hypotheses.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 28
Prerequisites:
Instructor: Candland, Staff
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Fall and Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Notes:
Overview of development studies with attention to major schools of political economy, their intellectual origins and centrality to contemporary debates about economic development. Topics include: capitalism, colonialism, dependency, nationalism, slavery, and independence; economic development models, policies, and strategies; perspectives on gender and development; changing conceptions and measures of poverty, development, and underdevelopment; contemporary debates in development studies.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 28
Prerequisites:
Instructor: Candland
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
Despite significant differences in the political and economic development of countries across Latin America and the Caribbean region, important commonalities include colonial legacies, revolutions and revolutionary movements, military rule, the rise of populism, import-substituting industrialization, neoliberal economic reform, as well as democratic transition, consolidation, and backsliding. This course offers an introductory understanding of such trends. We will analyze political and economic changes through theoretical perspectives such as political culture, dependency, and institutionalism. We will also examine contemporary forces shaping politics in the region today, such as citizenship, intersectional identities, sexual and reproductive rights, the environment, and the changing role of external forces.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 20
Crosslisted Courses: LAST 217
Prerequisites:
Instructor: Contreras
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
An introduction to the political history of modern China and politics in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Topics covered include: the decline and fall of Imperial China; the revolution that brought the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to power; Chinese Communist ideology; development and disaster under Mao Zedong (1949-76); reform and repression under Deng Xiaoping and his successors (1977-present); the political and legal system of the PRC; China's domestic and international political economy; change and contention in rural and urban China; case studies of significant areas of public policy in the PRC; China's ethnic minorities; and the political future of the PRC.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Joseph
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
An introduction to the politics of South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal, and Bhutan) from historical and contemporary, national and comparative perspectives. Examines the relationship of political institutions to patterns of development. Comparative themes include: colonial experiences and nationalist ideologies; politicization of religions and rise of religious conflict; government and political processes; economic policies initiative for conflict transformation; women's empowerment; and obstacles to and prospects for human development.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Candland
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This course focuses on the social science explanations for why environmental problems are created, the impacts they have, the difficulties of addressing them, and the regulatory and other actions that succeed in mitigating them. Topics include: externalities and the politics of unpriced costs and benefits; collective action problems and interest-group theory; time horizons in decision-making; the politics of science, risk, and uncertainty; comparative political structures; and cooperation theory. Also addressed are different strategies for changing environmental behavior, including command and control measures, taxes, fees, and other market instruments, and voluntary approaches. These will all be examined across multiple countries and levels of governance.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Crosslisted Courses: POL 2214
Prerequisites: ES 102 or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: DeSombre
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Notes:
How do Arab-Islamic history and culture shape politics in the contemporary Middle East and North Africa? Why is the Arab world-despite its tremendous oil-wealth-still characterized by economic underdevelopment and acute gaps between rich and poor? How have the events of September 11 and the U.S.-led "war on terror" affected the prospects for greater freedom and prosperity in the Middle East in the future? What do the 2011 revolts mean for the existing regimes and prospects for democracy? These are some of the questions we will examine in this course. In readings, lectures, and class discussions, the analysis of general themes and trends will be integrated with case studies of individual Arab states.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 35
Crosslisted Courses: PEAC 217
Prerequisites: One unit in Political Science.
Instructor: Hajj
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This is an introductory course for students interested in using qualitative methods in their research and studies. By qualitative methods, I mean methods that involve small numbers of intensive observations, and that do not rely on statistical tests for drawing causal inference. The course is designed to help students develop proficiency in the use of qualitative methods in two respects. The first is to understand and be able to articulate assumptions about empirical reality and arguments about knowledge production. Next, the course will address practical considerations by helping students develop basic knowledge of principal techniques used by qualitative researchers like: navigating the IRB process and ethics of research, conducting in depth interviews, engaging in participant observation, and tracing archival and historical research.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 20
Crosslisted Courses: POL 2220
Prerequisites: One other course that satisfies the Social/Behavioral Analysis requirement.
Instructor: Hajj
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This course offers an introduction to contemporary African politics. The primary goal is to introduce students to the diversity of challenges and development issues facing African countries since independence. Questions motivating the course include: (1) Why state institutions weaker in African than in other developing regions? (2) What explains Africa's slow economic growth? (3) What can be done to improve political accountability on the continent? (4) Why have some African countries been plagued by high levels of political violence while others have not?
In answering these questions, we will examine Africa’s historical experiences, its economic heritage, and the international context in which it is embedded. At the same time, we will explore how Africans have responded to unique circumstances to shape their own political and economic situations.
As we address the core themes of the course, we will draw on a wide range of academic disciplines, including political science, history, economics and anthropology. We will study particular events in particular African countries, but we will also examine broad patterns across countries and use social science concepts and methods to try to explain them.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Crosslisted Courses: POL 2231
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Dendere
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
This course examines policies in Latin America governing public health, education, housing, pensions, employment, and wealth transfers. Beginning in the 2000s, Latin American nations vastly expanded their welfare programs and extreme poverty decreased in the region, but large variations in the extent and effectiveness of social policy across nations remains. We will study the different types of social policy in Latin America, the factors drive their design and adoption, and why policies differ considerably across countries with similar sociopolitical institutions and levels of development. We will also examine how populations that lack formal access to public goods secure basic welfare. Finally we will evaluate the impact of COVID on social policy design, implementation, and effectiveness in the region.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Contreras
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
What does decolonization mean? How can colonialism be undone? This course will focus on what is commonly known as the “era of decolonization,” or the period during the middle of the 20th Century during which European empires contracted and newly independent states emerged in their wake. Beginning our inquiry in the decades before decolonization, when ideas and organizing for anticolonial struggle were incubating, we will examine how a range of liberation movements formed, mobilized against alien rule, and worked to build futures beyond colonialism. Our inquiry will be both comparative and transnational. We will not only compare cases but consider how these movements cooperated, learned from each other, formed transnational networks, and fought among themselves when their different projects of “worldmaking” came into conflict. Alongside academic texts, we will read a variety of primary sources that illustrate how leading anticolonial thinkers conceived of liberation and decolonization, which generally carried far more expansive meanings than control over the institutions of a sovereign state (never seen as an end in of itself). Towards the end of the course, we will examine the legacies of these ideas and the experiences of the 20th C. How do they inform contemporary social movements? How have “second generation” liberation movements, which seek to break free from the colonial rule of “postcolonial” states, understood their own predicaments and projects in relation to the history of decolonization? What happened in places where liberation movements failed, like Kurdistan or Palestine? Why did most anticolonial projects fall apart far short of their aspirations?
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 28
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor:
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This course examines the intersection of politics and the environment in Africa. We will explore historical contexts such as the environmental aftereffects of colonialism and highlight ‘wicked’ environmental problems such as increased vulnerability to climate change. Using case examples from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Congo, and Egypt, we will analyze issues such as the water politics of the Nile River, the role of women in environmental movements, and the United Nations and other international organizations’ roles in addressing environmental issues. Finally, students will have the opportunity to engage in ongoing debates in African environmental politics.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Crosslisted Courses: POL 2255
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Gatonye
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
The façade of European culture expresses enlightenment, progressive politics, and a sense of freedom amongst scenic beauty. However, did you know that a review of the 2017-2019 mortality cases showed that Black women are four times more likely than White women to die during pregnancy or childbirth in the U.K? This is despite the country’s well known universal healthcare services, The NHS. Or, did you know that it is illegal in France to collect statistics on racial, ethnic, or religious demographics, thus making it harder to track problems such as housing or employment discrimination? Or that for the first time in Ireland and Finland, hate crimes are rising, and yet, these countries do not have any legislations on hate crimes. This course examines the implications of ethnic and racial identities in Western Europe through a comparative politics lens. It is designed to learn the history, dynamics, and salience of ethnic and racial inequality and political cleavage. It would appeal to students in Africana studies, humanities, and social sciences. No prerequisites are required.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 27
Crosslisted Courses: POL 2270
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Franklin
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
A wide-ranging study of nonviolent direct action, in theory and in practice, as a technique and as a way of life. It begins with discussion of some classic and modern theories of nonviolent direct action but also some modern critiques of it. It then turns to a selection of classic case studies, among them labor movements, women's rights movements, India and Gandhi, the American Civil Rights Movement, campaigns in Europe and Latin America against authoritarian regimes. It then expands its range, looking at how nonviolent direct action has been deployed in campaigns of environmental justice and economic justice, and making space to consider whatever campaigns of nonviolent direct action are going on at the moment at which the course is being taught (e.g., in the United States today the work of Black Lives Matter).
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Crosslisted Courses: POL 230 1
Prerequisites: PEAC 104 or permission of the instructor. Open to Juniors and Seniors only.
Instructor: Confortini
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy; SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
A comparative analysis of the theory and practice of revolution from the seventeenth century to the present, with an emphasis on revolutions in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Questions to be considered include: the meaning and causes of revolution, why people join revolutionary movements, the international dimensions of internal war, strategies of insurgency and counterinsurgency, and the changing nature of revolution over the last 350 years. Case studies will include the French, Russian, Chinese, Cuban, and Iranian revolutions, as well as more contemporary events in East Central Europe and the Middle East and North Africa.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: One unit in POL2 (Comparative Politics) or POL3 (international Relations).
Instructor: Joseph
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
Focuses on strategies for poverty alleviation, employment generation, promotion of social opportunity, and empowerment. Emphasis is on development in Asia (especially South and Southeast Asia), Africa, and Latin America. Considers women's leadership in social change, local control of resources, faith-based activism, and collaboration between activists and researchers. Examines activities of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and their relations with funders, governments, and other NGOs. Specific NGOs and development programs will be closely examined.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. POL2 204 is recommended. Open to non-majors and non-seniors.
Instructor: Candland
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
Focuses both on how to make and how to study environmental policy. Examines issues essential in understanding how environmental policy works and explores these topics in depth through case studies of current environmental policy issues. Students will also undertake an original research project and work in groups on influencing or creating local environmental policy.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 16
Crosslisted Courses: POL 2312
Prerequisites: Either ES 214 or a 200-level course in political science. Permission of the instructor required.
Instructor: DeSombre
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes: Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course.
How have national governments across the world responded to the Covid pandemic? Why did they respond as differently as they did, and at such varying times? How did national political institutions, such as federalism and separation of powers, influence executive and legislative public policy? What are the best practices for future outbreaks and pandemics? How likely – given what we can learn about political constraints and opportunities – are governments to implement those practices? These important questions are well addressed using comparative political analysis. At the same time, studying pandemic responses by national governments gives students a common subject matter with which to assess the principle comparative methods, including analysis of variation (e.g., regression), case studies, historical institutions, political cultures, public policies, leadership and decision-making. We will focus on Brazil, China, Germany, India, Japan, New Zealand, Pakistan, and the United States, permitting several interesting comparative pairings and sets.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: Two units of SBA completed. POL2 202 and POL2 area studies courses recommended. Admission is by application, as with all POLS senior seminars.
Instructor: Candland
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This course provides an in-depth exploration of the Palestinian Israeli conflict from a comparative and social justice perspective. Our goal is to provide an analysis of events to engage in constructive academic debates. The class begins by contextualizing the study of the Middle East within the broader scope of comparative politics and Peace and Justice studies. Next, we focus on the origins of the conflict: the debate about 1948, the consolidation of the Israeli state, and the development of Palestinian and Israeli political and military organizations. The course then delves into different dimensions of the conflict: regional geopolitics, international relations, environmental debates, gender activism, terrorism, and the “Wall.” The last portion of the class considers peace negotiations, conflict mediation, compromise, and solutions: the refugee question, Jerusalem, TRCs, and the role of the United States.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Crosslisted Courses: POL 2359,MES 358
Prerequisites: PEAC 104 or PEAC 217/POL2 217 or PEAC 204 or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Hajj
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Fall and Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
The recent erosion of democracy in countries like Zambia, Venezuela, and Poland shows that consolidated democracies do not necessarily endure. Some might backslide toward authoritarianism. How and under what conditions do democracies consolidate or break down and even “die”? How does the process of democratic consolidation affect stability or erosion? We will examine case studies around the world to analyze different paths toward and away from democracy and assess existing theories of regime change and democratic consolidation. We will study the underlying drivers of democratization and consolidation, including institutional arrangements, representation and accountability, economic determinants, as well as protest and social movements. We will also consider threats to democracy, including populist politics, corruption, clientelism, structural reforms, and democracy promotion by external forces.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: POL2 202 or POL2 204, and permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Contreras
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Recent decades have seen unprecedented growth of scholarship on settler colonialism and indigenous politics alongside new waves of political activism for indigenous rights around the world. This resurgence is evident in transnational solidarity movements, amplified demands for collective indigenous rights, and the movement of indigenous politics into the realm of international law. This seminar will survey this new scholarship and examine these political phenomena in historical and comparative perspective that is global in scope. Although the course is designed to leverage comparative methods that have been developed in comparative politics, our inquiry will range across all the subfields of political science and beyond the discipline’s boundaries. Thematically, our focus will be on questions of sovereignty, self-determination, land, and settler-native/indigenous relations. Among the questions that will guide our inquiry are: What is settler colonialism and what, if anything, makes it distinct from other forms of colonialization? Who counts as a “settler”? What makes a group indigenous? Can refugees be settlers? What role has settler colonialism played in state building projects around the world? What has driven settlers to settle and what fates have met the political projects they have undertaken or in which they were involved? Are there distinct types of institutions and regimes that develop in polities built through settlement? How are different forms of inequality entrenched within them? In what ways have indigenous peoples resisted settlement and dispossession? How and why have indigenous-settler relations developed differently across cases? Cases we may consider include a variety from the Americas, South Africa, Australia, Western Sahara, Palestine, Ireland, Algeria, Russia, and Japan. In addition to our thematic and topical inquiry, this course is designed to cultivate critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. Students will craft their own research questions and take each of the writing projects through multiple stages of production: drafts, peer review workshops, and then revisions prior to final submission.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: POL2 202 or POL3 221.
Instructor:
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This course will delve into the complex interrelationship between migration and the environment. We will examine how environmental changes influence migration patterns and, conversely, how migration contributes to environmental changes. Through a combination of theoretical discourse and real-world case studies, participants will develop critical thinking abilities and the capability to propose sustainable solutions for pressing issues at the intersection of migration and the environment.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Crosslisted Courses: ES 395
Prerequisites: ES 214 or POL3 221.
Instructor: Ssekajja
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
This course will examine the role of leadership in global cooperation, with a particular emphasis on U.S. foreign policy. For decades, the United States appeared to champion a “liberal international order,” creating and supporting institutions of global governance in economic, security, and other issue areas. But since 2000, geopolitical challenges, economic shocks, and political divisions within the U.S. have reduced U.S. ability to lead. In the Trump era, the U.S. has disengaged in global cooperation. In this course, we will examine both active U.S. leadership and its absence and ask how the decline in US leadership has affected global cooperation. Could a change in US leadership lead to a revival of institutional leadership? Can the international community—not only states, but non-government organizations and transnational actors—build alternative institutions better suited to a post-U.S. world? The course will analyze these issues across a number of issue areas, including climate change, international security, international trade and finance, and public health.
Units: 0.5
Max Enrollment: 14
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Goddard
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.
This course aims to help students understand the links between international relations theory and practice. The course will begin by outlining the unique features of global politics, especially the challenge of creating order and governance among diverse and sovereign political communities. The course will then examine how diverse leaders—from local leaders to heads of state—are necessary to mobilize collective action in order to address global challenges. The course will use case studies ranging from nuclear non-proliferation, global economic development, to environment in order to highlight the role of leadership in creating change.
Units: 0.5
Max Enrollment: 14
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Goddard
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit
An introduction to the international system with emphasis on contemporary theory and practice. Analysis of the bases of power and influence, the sources of tension and conflict, and the modes of accommodation and conflict resolution. This course serves as an introduction to the international relations subfield in the political science department, and also as a means of fulfilling the political science core requirement of the international relations major.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 28
Prerequisites:
Instructor: Goddard, Torres, Beall
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Notes:
Investigates relations between governments and states in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan) and with governments and states beyond the region (principally with China, Russia, and the United States). Focuses on wars between India and Pakistan; rival claims over Kashmir; the break-up of Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh; conflicts in Afghanistan since 1978; nuclear proliferation; India's and Pakistan's competing relations with China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United States; and Bhutan's and Nepal's relations with each other and China.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: None
Instructor: Candland
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This course provides an introduction to international security, a field that is fundamentally about how states and non-state actors use violence to achieve their political and economic objectives. We will seek answers to questions such as: when do states threaten to use force and for what purposes? Do alliances and multilateral institutions such as the United Nations help promote peace? Does the spread of nuclear weapons make the world a safer or more dangerous place? How do terrorists use violence to realize their objectives and when is it effective? Can intervention in civil wars prevent bloodshed and bring stability to failed states? How will “non-traditional threats” such as environmental scarcity, migration, and climate change shape international security in the twenty-first century? Throughout this course, students will be encouraged to consider the normative question of who should provide security in international politics and who should benefit from this protection.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 28
Prerequisites: One course in political science or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: MacDonald
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
The shadow of Afghanistan will loom large over this course, which is an examination of the origins, development, and consequences of the Vietnam War. Topics to be considered include: the impact of French colonialism on traditional Vietnamese society; the role of World War II in shaping nationalism and communism in Vietnam; the motives, stages, and strategies of American intervention in Vietnam; leadership, organization, and tactics of the Vietnamese revolutionary movement; the expansion of the conflict to Cambodia and Laos; the antiwar movement in the United States; lessons and legacies of the Vietnam War; and political and economic development in Vietnam since the end of the war in 1975.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 35
Prerequisites: One unit in social sciences or permission of the instructor.
Instructor:
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This interdisciplinary course investigates the role of international organizations, governments, nongovernmental organizations, the media, advocacy groups, and individuals, to consider how and under what circumstances the international community comes together to address transnational health issues. Questions we will address include: What role should different actors play? What should be the ethical bases for promoting health? To what extent do global actors’ interventions promote health equity? Focusing on a set of health challenges that have particular impact upon the poor (HIV/AIDS, Ebola, TB, maternal mortality, mental health, and NCDs), we will disentangle the relationships between health, politics, ethics, and the international community, and consider some of the fundamental difficulties in health governance, including expanding health coverage, governing global health, and setting global health priorities.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Crosslisted Courses: POL 3232
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Confortini
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
In this course we explore the gendered dimensions of war and peace, including how gender as a symbolic construct configures how we makes sense of war making and peacebuilding; how differently gendered people experience war and peace; and how peace and war are co-constitutive with gender relations. We pay particular attention to the “continuum of violence”, from the “private” to the “public” sphere, from militarization of everyday living to overt violent conflict. We address issues such as the political economy of war, sexualized violence, the militarization of gendered bodies, and gendered political activism. Finally, we reflect on the implications of gendered wars for the building of peace, looking at the gendered aspects of “post-conflict” peacebuilding and gendered forms of resistance to political violence.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Crosslisted Courses: POL 3236
Prerequisites: None
Instructor: Confortini
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This course is designed to offer an inside look into the processes of globalization in Sub Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. This course will focus on the ways that international forces, the political economy and new technologies are affecting citizens and countries on the continent, as well as the way that African and Caribbean countries and actors are influencing the rest of the world. We will explore a diverse set of topics including changing political landscapes, digital & technological change and development, immigration, art and culture, foreign aid, and China’s role in Africa and the Caribbean. The course will attempt to highlight the new opportunities for citizens as well as the challenges that remain for African and Caribbean countries in the globalized world.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Crosslisted Courses: POL 3245
Prerequisites: None
Instructor: Dendere
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes: Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course.
This course examines how politics affects the international economy and vice-versa. The course will apply theories and tools of political economy to explore some of the following questions: who wins and loses from international trade and finance? How does globalization affect domestic politics (e.g., elections, regulations, inequality, the environment) in developed and developing countries? Who sets the “rules” under which the global economy operates? How influential are international organizations like the WTO and the IMF? These issues are explored with reference to economic and political theories, history, and contemporary events.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: POL3 221 is recommended.
Instructor: Ahmed
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
Why is it that although the majority of cocoa is grown in Africa the most expensive chocolate is made in Europe? Why is it that the average cocoa farmer lives in poverty or earns just $2,000/year when the wealthiest chocolate and candy families are worth more than $10 billion? During the course of this semester, we will study the supply chain from natural resource extraction to final project and investigate the politics that allow for inequalities as well as the progress that has been made. Therefore, this course will examine the sociohistorical legacy of chocolate, with a delicious emphasis on the eating and appreciation of the so-called “food of the gods.” Interdisciplinary course readings will introduce the history of cacao cultivation, the present-day state of the global chocolate industry, the diverse cultural constructions surrounding chocolate, and the implications for chocolate’s future in terms of scientific study, international politics, alternative trade models, and the food movement. Assignments will address pressing real-world questions related to chocolate consumption, social justice, responsible development, honesty and the politics of representation in production and marketing, hierarchies of quality, and myths of purity.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Crosslisted Courses: POL 330 2
Prerequisites: At least one Africana Studies or Political Science course.
Instructor: Dendere
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
This course is part of the ongoing debate on how to understand the explanatory role of race in global politics as well as the impact of global politics on structural racism. We will seek answers to the following questions: Does global politics look different through the raced lens? How does race interact with other categories of analysis in international relations, and how does a focus on race differ from mainstream IR paradigms? What makes certain ideas and issues (e.g., regime types, humanitarian interventions, refugees and migration) raced issues? How do the study, and practice, of international relations perpetuate global racial hierarchies across issue areas? We start with theoretical perspectives, examine raced issues, and consider the effects of global politics on racial inequalities.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: POL3 221.
Instructor:
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Is globalization over? Are we witnessing a resurgence of protectionist economic policies with looming trade wars? Will China take over the world economy? Finding answers to these questions requires an investigation of how politics and economics intersect and work together on a global scale. This course analyzes how international economic structures operate and seeks to demystify the distribution of global power and wealth. We will focus on the complex relationships among states, business groups, international organizations, and civil society in the making of the international political economy.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: POL3 221 or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Ahmed
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
For international environmental problems, widespread international cooperation is both important and quite difficult. Under what conditions have states been able to cooperate to solve international environmental problems? Most international efforts to address environmental problems involve international law-how does such law function? What types of issues can international environmental law address and what types can it not? This course addresses aspects of international environmental politics as a whole, with particular attention to the international legal structures used to deal with these environmental problems. Each student will additionally become an expert on one international environmental treaty to be researched throughout the course.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Crosslisted Courses: POL 3325
Prerequisites: ES 214/POL2 214 or POL3 221 or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: DeSombre
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has been described as the predominant state—or hegemon—in international politics. American political, economic, and military dominance is said to be essential to the construction of the contemporary global order. This course explores this argument through an in-depth look at American foreign policy, from the Second World War to present. Why did U.S. policy become more internationalist in orientation? What tools has the U.S. used to shape global politics? Is U.S. policy driven more by domestic institutions and values or by external opportunities and geopolitics? Will U.S. predominance endure? Or will global order have to change to accommodate the rise of new powers?
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: POL 221 or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: MacDonald
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This course explores the origins and effects of the spread of nuclear weapons in the international system, with particular attention to the effects of nuclear proliferation within states, and on state interaction. Historically, the course will cover the development of nuclear technology and strategy from the early twentieth century to the present day. Thematically, the course explores such questions of the morality of nuclear technology and strategy, the construction and conditions for nuclear deterrence, the motives and obstacles for proliferating states, the question of nuclear weapons safety, and arms control approaches in the international system.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: POL3 221 required; POL3 224 recommended.
Instructor: Goddard
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
Explores the challenge of global institutions in the new century within a larger historical context. Considers the function and role of the League of Nations, the International Labor Organization, the United Nations, the Bretton Woods institutions, the GATT, and the World Trade Organization. Special emphasis on comparing and contrasting international organizations in the three main periods of institution building: post-World War I, post-World War II, and post-Cold War. Discusses radical, liberal internationalist, and realist approaches.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: One unit in international relations and permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Staff
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
We often think of warfare in conventional terms: states fight other states in large-scale battles employing uniformed soldiers to conquer enemy territory. In reality, however, there are many instances of asymmetric conflicts involving non-state actors who avoid open battles, whose fighters are indistinguishable from civilians, and who seek a wide variety of political objectives. Peasant revolts, communist insurrections, ethnic rebellions, and terrorist movements are among the various ways in which the weak have attempted to use violence to break the will of the strong. We address these wars from a theoretical, historical, and contemporary perspective. We will explore how classical theorists, including Mao Zedong and Che Guevara, adapted the ideas of Clausewitz to guerilla warfare. We will examine how rebel groups-whether the Spanish guerillas, Boer commandos, Chinese communists, or Serb militias-employed violence to intimidate their opponents. We will consider how globalization and the diffusion of military technology have transformed guerilla conflicts, and debate the implications of our theories for contemporary conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: POL3 221 or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: MacDonald
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
The distribution of power in the international system is in flux. The United States, the preeminent power since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, faces internal and external challenges to its position. China’s significant economic growth over the last several decades has manifested in growing military power and institutional might: it has used its increasing power to contest territorial norms in the South China Seas, and build new and, some would argue, competitive economic institutions, such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Russia may be beset by domestic political challenges and a sluggish economy, but nevertheless has flexed its military capabilities in Ukraine. In this seminar, we will undertake a theoretical, historical, and contemporary analysis of competition among great powers. What sources of power do states mobilize as they compete? How does great power competition affect middle and small powers? When great powers compete, how does this shape prospects for cooperation in international politics? We analyze both historical case studies (for example, the ), as well as contemporary cases (the decline of Russia, American hegemony, and the rise of China, India, and the European Union).
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: POL3 221. Another POL3 course or coursework in an adjacent field (history or economics) is strongly encouraged.
Instructor: Goddard
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This course explores the interplay between technology, global governance, and global economy from the last quarter of the twentieth century to the present day. The course focuses on the rise of digital economy and its repercussions using a critical lens and analyzes various theories of knowledge economy and information society. We will examine the relationships between information and communication technologies, restructuration of the global economy and transformation of related international regimes. Our topics will include globalization of intellectual property rights, innovation, technology transfer, piracy, censorship, governance of cyber space, uses and misuses of surveillance technologies, entrepreneurial state, digital commons, global digital divide, and global value chains. We will analyze case studies such as pharmaceutical access during public health emergencies, cryptocurrencies, and technology and climate change mitigation. ?
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 30
Crosslisted Courses: PEAC 357
Prerequisites: POLS3 221 or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Bedirhanoglu
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Since the middle of the 20th century, the number and scope of international institutions have expanded substantially. These institutions, or the formal and informal rules, roles, and relationships, define and facilitate the interests and conduct of states and non-state actors in international affairs. The course analyzes why and how institutionalized cooperation/conflict in world politics occurs and explores the design, function, and effectiveness of various institutions, including prominent intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations, NATO, World Trade Organization, World Health Organization, and the International Criminal Court. Students will also study how nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), mainly transnational advocacy networks and organizations, prioritize goals, frame issues, and interact with governments, international institutions, and other advocacy groups. The course also explores how and why international norms about state conduct in wartime, humanitarian assistance, women’s rights, human rights, and global cybersecurity evolve or erode.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: POL3 221.
Instructor: Torres
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
How does studying the process of decision-making aid our understanding of international relations? This seminar explores how and why policymakers select and process information, set goals, rely on conscious and unconscious beliefs and biases in the decision-making process, as well as the impact of policy decisions. Case studies in international security include the 2003 Iraq War, 2011 Libya Intervention, and military actions in Syria; in the economic domain, Britain’s exit from the European Union, the U.S. withdrawal from Trans-Pacific Partnership agreements, and the US-China trade dispute. We study various approaches to decision-making, such as rational choice, neurobiology, and sociology. Although the focus is foreign policy, students will emerge from the course equipped with analytical tools to understand and evaluate decision-making in other areas such as business, medicine, law, and conflict management.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: POL3 221 and permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Staff
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This seminar examines how politics affects the international economy, and vice versa. It will focus primarily on the political economy of international finance and development, across nations, issues, and time. We will explore some of the following questions: Why do financial crises occur? How does a nation’s currency affect its domestic and international politics? Are countries “punished” for defaulting on their debt? Is foreign aid “effective”? How does financial globalization affect domestic politics and vice-versa? The aim of the course is to equip students with the tools to better understand the relationship between financial globalization and politics.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: POL3 221. ECON 102 recommended.
Instructor: Ahmed
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
This course examines how ideas shape contestation over global orders—how the emergence, diffusion, and decline of ideas can challenge the established rules and orders of world politics. The course is both theoretical and empirical in orientation. Theoretically, we will engage with core debates in international relations theory, for example, over whether ideas “matter” in international politics; how actors contest the norms and ideas of existing orders; why it is some ideas gain traction and others fall by the wayside. This course will rely on a range of cases, both historical and contemporary, to explore the relationship between ideas and contestation in international politics. Case studies will include the challenge liberalism posed to dynastic empires in Europe and the Atlantic world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; nationalism in both nineteenth century European revolutions and twentieth century decolonization; the role of racial ideologies in sustaining imperial politics; the spread of fascism in the mid-twentieth century; and the creation of and challenges to the existing “liberal” global order.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: POL3 221.
Instructor: Goddard
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This course provides a critical overview of empire and imperialism in international politics from the eighteenth century to the present day. Key questions include: Why do states establish empires? Do empires provide political or economic gains? How are empires governed? What role does technology play in driving and sustaining empires? How do empires end? What are the legacies of empire? This course examines these questions by consulting the classic theoretical works on empire by Hobson, Marx, Lenin, Mackinder, Robinson and Gallagher, and Said. It also explores the historical practice of empire through structured historical comparisons of imperial conquest and governance in North America, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. We will also explore the contemporary relevance of the concept of empire for understanding postwar American foreign policy, including issues such as overseas basing, humanitarian intervention, nation-building, and military occupation.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: POL3 221
Instructor: MacDonald
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
This course examines the interrelationships among military technology, strategy, politics, and war. How have these forces shaped warfare from the introduction of gunpowder to the present? How, in turn, have developments in warfare influenced societies and politics? This course emphasizes select cases from World Wars I and II and the development of nuclear weapons strategy. How, for example, did the development of chemical weapons affect the battlefield? What ethical choices, if any, guided the strategic bombing of civilians in World War II? How did nuclear weapons change ideas about fighting war? The class concludes with an examination of the "war on terror" and its implications for strategy and politics.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: POL3 221 required; POL3 224 recommended.
Instructor: Goddard
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
The course will examine the links between global migration and both national and human security. What are the implications of treating migration as a security issue? We will study the insecurities that migrants face in the source countries from which they migrate, in their journeys across nations, and after they have arrived in their destination countries--and the feelings of insecurity that migration can evoke in those countries. Who is an "illegal" migrant? Who is a "deserving refugee"? We will analyze how race and ethnicity shape the ways in which different groups of migrants are perceived and controlled.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: POL3 221 or equivalent background in international politics. Enrollment is limited; interested students must fill out a seminar application via the political science department.
Instructor:
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
What are the causes of and solutions to global inequality? Who or what is responsible for inequality? Why should we even think of global inequality as a problem? In this course, we will consider a range of perspectives on and answers to these questions. A major focus will be on why these questions have proven to be so contentious, particularly in debates between the Global North and Global South. We will cover different theories of global inequality in international political economy and explore how inequality manifests across different issue areas, including security, climate change, health, and gender equality. We will also survey a range of approaches to addressing inequality in international organizations, international advocacy campaigns, and using the framework of human rights. Specific campaigns that will be covered include the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, Oxfam’s Inequality Kills campaign, and the Caribbean campaign for international slavery reparations. Throughout, we will consider how ideas impact policymaking and the political consequences of framing economic issues as a problem of inequality versus a problem of poverty or lack of development.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: POL3 221 and permission of the insturctor.
Instructor: Beall
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
Truth Commissions (TCs) have been a mechanism to uncover, document, and recognize human rights violations and to honor victims at moments of transition from dictatorships to democracies, and from wars to post-war contexts. TCs vary in their mandates, composition, and tasks, and have mixed records of success, despite the frequently high expectations. They often stand as acts of reparation, catalysts of larger processes of peacebuilding and dignification of victims. In this course, you will join a group of Notre Dame graduate students to study together the conceptual foundations of TCs and learn from different case studies. We will investigate the background and rationale provided for their creation, their mandate and scope, composition and structure, and analyze their work and post-report reception. We will pay attention to issues such as intersectional approaches of gender and ethnicity, the participation of victims and responsible ones, the complementarity of commissions with other forms of transitional justice, and the management and access to their archives.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Crosslisted Courses: POL 3392
Prerequisites: PEAC 104, PEAC 204, or permission of the instructor. Open only to juniors and seniors.
Instructor: Confortini
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
The seminar will examine a variety of topics concerning the dynamic between women and conflict including whether a lack of women’s rights leads to conflict, the contributions of women to security, women’s mobilization for conflict, the sex gap in conflict-related public opinion, and women’s rights after war. A variety of methodological approaches, including positivist as well as critical theoretical perspectives, will be covered to better understand the strengths, limitations, and complementarities of different approaches to studying women and conflict. In other words, we will use these different approaches to gain clarity on how we “know what we know” about women and conflict. Students will spend a significant portion of the class contending with issues of measurement, conceptual validity and ruling out alternative explanations. Key historical developments with relevance to women and conflict such as the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), women’s involvement in the military, and the passing of the Murad Code will also be discussed.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Crosslisted Courses: PEAC 393
Prerequisites: POL3 221. Another POL3 course, or a course in a related field such as history or economics is recommended.
Instructor: Torres
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
This course examines who gives and receives foreign aid, and whether it works? Using theories and methodologies from political science, economics, and statistics, the course will probe how international and domestic interests influence how foreign aid is disbursed and its consequences. By focusing on foreign aid, the course will examine core topics in political economy, such as how gender shapes political institutions, how leaders remain in power, and the relationships between race and foreign interventions, how voters assess their political leaders, bargaining among political actors. Throughout the semester, we will also use the case of foreign aid to learn how social scientists study causal relationships. Students will learn techniques involved in “causally-identified” research designs; an approach at the core of the “credibility revolution” in the social sciences and public policy evaluations. Students will have opportunities to apply these techniques by critiquing contemporary research in political science and economics and writing their own research paper.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 28
Prerequisites: POL3 221, POL 299, ECON 203.
Instructor: Ahmed
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
Compared to other regions of the world, Africa has an especially large number of regional intergovernmental organizations. Why have African governments created so many of these organizations, and how do they use them? To address these questions, this class will take a close look at the history, development, transformation, and current dynamics of regional governance in Africa. We will explore the early emergence of regional and “pan-African” cooperation and solidarity, before turning to more recent developments in regional governance. These recent developments include the use of regional organizations to address an ever-expanding number of issues, such as human rights, democracy promotion, environmental governance and climate change, civil conflict, and economic development. Throughout this course, we will also consider the important role and impact of civil society and NGOs and the role of African regional organizations as representatives of Africa within global institutions like the United Nations. Questions that will be addressed include: What, if anything, is distinctive about African approaches to regional governance? Why have regional organizations formed such an important part of the foreign policy of African governments?
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: POL3 221.
Instructor: Beall
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
How does the international community try to establish and maintain peace? This course explores the ways in which international actors try to establish and maintain peace. It focuses on peacekeeping, peacebuilding, and international intervention more broadly. Throughout the course we will cover topics in the peacekeeping and peacebuilding fields such as what peace is, how conceptions of peace differ at the international versus the local level, by which avenues the international community tries to maintain peace, the conditions under which international peacekeeping and peacebuilding are effective, and the unintended consequences of international action. We will explore militarized and non-militarized international interventions, their development since the conception of peacekeeping and policy critiques against and in favor of international intervention as a means of maintaining peace.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Crosslisted Courses: PEAC 396
Prerequisites: POL3 221
Instructor: Torres
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
What is international law and how does it work? This class will explore international law from a range of different perspectives. A significant part of the course will be spent learning the basics of traditional approaches to international law, including how international law is different from domestic law and how (or whether) it can function given the lack of an enforcement authority. We will then consider a number of critiques of international law, including those that point to the centrality of coercion, power, and hierarchy in the functioning of international law. In considering these different perspectives, we will explore ways international law has worked to advantage or disadvantage different actors, including individuals, civil society, and states with less material power.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: POL3 221 or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Beall
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
An introduction to the study of political theory, and specifically to the problems of political action. Exploration of questions about civil disobedience, legitimate authority, ethics and politics, and the challenge of creating a just order in a world characterized by difference and hierarchy. Discussion of the social contract, liberalism, democracy, decolonization, violence, revolution, universalism, and differences of race, class, and gender. Authors may include Plato, Locke, Charles Mills, Weber, Gandhi, Fanon, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Assata Shakur.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 28
Prerequisites:
Instructor: Grattan
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Let’s face it: the “classic” or “canonical” authors in political theory are typically white, male, cis, heterosexual, and rich. Because of this, the canon of political theory has erased the ideas of people of color, women, queer people, and others on concepts such as justice, freedom, and equality. Odds are, these ideas are substantially different than the ones that have become the standards in political science and mainstream politics. This course explores the origins and imports of these other canons, these other classics. We will begin by carefully reading a canonical thinker, such as John Locke or John Stuart Mill, to understand their theorization of concepts such as justice, freedom, equality, and politics. Then we will examine and analyze works on the same topics by Black, women, and queer authors to compare, contrast, and critique the hegemonic perspective. We aren’t trying to justify the canon. Nor are we interested in simply dismantling it. Rather, we’re expanding and multiplying canons to help us confront political problems in an intersectional world. Authors may include Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Stanton, Frances Harper, and the Combahee River Collective.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 28
Prerequisites: Not open to students who have taken POL4 107, the previous version of this course.
Instructor: Martorelli
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Typical Periods Offered: Fall and Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Notes:
What does it mean to be an American? Answers to this question vary wildly across the political spectrum. And the answers have become more extreme across the board as we enter an unprecedented age of polarization.
This course seeks to understand answers to this often divisive question by exploring theories of political belonging such as nationalism, multiculturalism, and cosmopolitanism. First, we’ll examine how contemporary western theorists define fundamental concepts such as nation, state, democracy, and citizenship. Then we’ll analyze how these key ideas shape ongoing debates and policies related to immigration and naturalization. In an era of ever increasing division, we’re not looking for universal agreement. Rather, we’re mapping out possible common ground that we, the people, can start from for collective political action.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 35
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Martorelli
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
One of democracy’s greatest strengths is that it gives political power to the people. But what happens when “the people” is a diverse group with identities, interests, and desires that pull in many directions? Does democracy function best when everyone is treated the same? As if there are no differences among them? But what if some people are marginalized, subordinated, or stigmatized? Could pretending these stratifications don't exist actually weaken democracy? This course explores how democracy grapples with differences through texts in contemporary Western political theory. We will begin with liberal theories of democracy. Then we will study feminist, critical-race, queer, and other theorists to understand democracy from the perspectives of marginalized, subordinated, or stigmatized groups. We will not search for definitive answers or hard-and-fast conclusions about when democracy functions best. Rather, we are interested in getting a better sense of democracy’s many dimensions and tensions.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Crosslisted Courses: PEAC 244
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Martorelli
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
Neoliberalism has been tied to everything from a decline in public life to the rise of right-wing populism in Europe and the U.S. What is new about neoliberalism compared to earlier forms of capitalism and liberalism? How has neoliberalism reshaped politics and citizenship? How has it impacted groups across intersections of class, race, and gender, and how have movements on the right and left sought to resist it? Is neoliberalism essential to democratic freedom as supporters promise, or does it signal the demise of democracy as critics warn? Authors may include Milton Friedman, Wendy Brown, Bonnie Honig, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and J.K. Gibson-Graham.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Grattan
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
An introduction to the theory and practice of grassroots organizing for social change. Learning will take two concurrent paths. In class, we will examine what organizing is and how it has historically played a role in social change. We will ask how organizers: use storytelling to motivate action; analyze power, devise theories of change, and craft creative strategies; develop capacities, resources, relationships, and institutions to build collective power; and facilitate diverse groups in contexts marked by entrenched histories of oppression. Outside class, students will engage in a hands-on organizing project of their own choosing in which they must organize a group of people on or off campus to achieve a common goal.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: One course in political theory or significant coursework related to grassroots politics, social movements, or social change, and by permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Grattan
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
Human rights are an important issue in countries around the world and in international politics. But what are human rights? Is there a universal definition, or do human rights vary across time and space? Who decides when human rights are violated? When is outside action to stop such violations justified? These questions aren’t just philosophical; they’re deeply political. How political communities answer them shapes domestic and international policies on issues such as state violence, humanitarian aid, citizenship and migration, (neo)colonialism, global capital, and efforts of various kinds to promote human freedom. This course will use texts in contemporary political theory and historical and contemporary case studies to explore the intuitively important, yet vaguely understood, concept of human rights. Case studies will examine human rights in the United States (for example, interrogation torture policy, Black Lives Matter, or sanctuary cities) and the international context (for example, the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing during the Balkan Wars of the 1990s, or the 2003 invasion of Iraq).
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Crosslisted Courses: PEAC 318
Prerequisites: One course in political theory or philosophy or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Martorelli
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
Police and prison reform have become bipartisan issues in the United States. But this emerging consensus follows historical and ongoing movements to resist policing and prison—from the Black Panther Party, to the prison abolition movement, to the Movement for Black Lives. This course investigates recurring themes in prison and police resistance since the 1960s: the origins of policing and prisons in colonialism and slavery; the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, class, and disability in both punishment and resistance; theories of politics in captivity; and visions of freedom, justice, and democracy beyond police and prisons. Throughout the course, we will evaluate the strengths and limits of current reform initiatives in light of these readings. Authors may include George Jackson, Assata Shakur, Angela Davis, contemporary prison writers, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Mariame Kaba, Andrea Ritchie, Victoria Law, and Dean Spade.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: One course in POL4 or American Studies, (specific courses in Africana Studies, History, Sociology, or Women's and Gender Studies may apply with permission of the instructor).
Instructor: Grattan
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
Examines Black liberation in theory and practice from modernity through contemporary times, emphasizing efforts by Black actors and thinkers to reconstruct culture, politics, and economics. Key concepts include racial formation, racial capitalism, violence, necropolitics, revolution, decolonization, freedom, justice, radical imagination, emotion, and the undercommons. Cases may include transatlantic slavery, the Haitian Revolution, Black Marxism, Black Power, the Movement for Black Lives, prison abolition, and historical and contemporary coalitions between Black freedom struggles and the struggles of indigenous peoples and other racialized minorities. Authors may include Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. DuBois, C.L.R. James, Frantz Fanon, James Baldwin, George Jackson, Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Toni Morrison, Claudia Rankine, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and Glen Coulthard.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: One course in political theory or appropriate background from a related field (e.g., Africana Studies, American Studies, Sociology, WGST, etc.)
Instructor: Grattan
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
The Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v Hodges legalized same-sex marriage in the U.S. It also suggested that anyone who isn’t married cannot realize the full potential of being human. Obergefell’s dramatic swings between empowering and deriding LGBTQ people illuminate larger tensions in the relationship between sexuality and politics. Notably, marriage grants privileges to some, but not others, based on the state’s approval of their sexual preferences. The state, moreover, has historically regulated sex acts in ways that criminalize whole classes of people. These tensions raise key questions we will explore in this course: What role should the state play in supporting and restricting sexual practices? Should we look to the state to secure sexual freedom, or is sexual freedom achieved when we kick the state out of our bedrooms? More broadly, how are the boundaries of sexuality created in and through “politics”? To examine these questions, we will read queer theorists alongside contemporary political theorists.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: One course in political theory or philosophy, and permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Martorelli
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes: Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course.