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. 

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.

This course explores key themes and debates in anticolonial thought, especially in the 20th and 21st centuries. It examines how provocative visions of dignity and dignified existence have shaped anti-colonial struggles, both during colonial struggle and in times of so-called independence. Through the study of key, firebrand philosophers, poets, writers and activists as well as by engaging multiple forms of media, we will analyze the various faces of anticolonialism and the questions it has raised and continues to raise, especially around dignity, freedom, violence, modernity, race and culture. While the course readings are mainly drawn from African anticolonial thought, students are encouraged to engage with and raise examples from global experiences and theories of anticolonialism.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

This course explores politics at the level of everyday people, those who have no formal access to mechanisms of institutional power. How are social movements and digital activists transforming politics? How have ordinary people exercised power? How do digital technologies alter the strategies that people use to effect political change? What strategies remain the same, even in our digital age?  What practices and problems accompany digital politics? Drawing on classic works of political anthropology, as well as more recent examples of transnational and digital activism, this course seeks to understand the deployment of power by everyday people, particularly focusing on Global South contexts

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).

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. 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.

The premise of this course is that Alexis de Tocqueville's nineteenth-century masterpiece, Democracy in America, remains a useful starting point for understanding democracy, America, and politics across nations in the twenty-first century. Students in the course will read excerpts from Democracy in America alongside contemporary works in social science that take up some of the themes and concepts Tocqueville developed in his book. These themes and concepts will provide the fuel for class discussions and debates, and for student research that probes the contemporary relevance of the questions about democracy and America that Tocqueville raised so provocatively two centuries ago.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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"?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. This is a Maurer Public Speaking Course, and there will be a strong emphasis on communicating insights from political psychology to a broader audience through speech and other forms of oral communication.

This seminar examines race and ethnicity in American politics, with special attention to the modern civil rights era of the 1960s and beyond. We consider the political experiences of the country's four largest racial groups — Black, Latino, AAPI, and white Americans — as well as numerically smaller groups, including MENA, multiracial, and Indigenous Americans. Topics include the definition and political meaning of racial and ethnic identities; the psychological foundations of racial attitudes and intergroup relations; how redistricting shapes the representation of non-white groups; the political implications of intersections among race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and religion; and the role of race in legislative politics, the legal system, and the presidency.

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.

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 2026 edition of the course, we will be researching and writing the stories of lawsuits brought against the Trump administration in such areas as immigration, LGBTQ rights, health care, religion and trade policy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This course introduces students to the government and politics of the contemporary Middle East through the lens of comparative politics. The focus is on domestic political systems, institutions, and political cultures, with an emphasis on how these vary across countries. Themes include the persistence of authoritarian rule, the role of religion, identity, and gender in politics, political economy, and state–society relations. While international relations will receive less attention, the course will highlight how internal dynamics shape regional trajectories.

The course assumes no prior knowledge of the region, though some background in comparative politics may be helpful. By the end of the course, students will be able to identify the main features of political systems across the region, including distinctions between democratic and authoritarian regimes and the nuances of authoritarian governance. They will also be able to analyze the political relevance of ethnic, religious, and gender cleavages, trace their origins, and evaluate their impact on contemporary politics. Above all, the course equips students with the tools to move beyond headlines, developing the capacity to connect isolated events to larger political, social, and economic dynamics in the region.

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.

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.

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.

This course provides a comparative, global analysis of race and ethnicity, examining their political implications across regions and regime types. We begin by interrogating what ethnicity and race mean, how boundaries of membership are drawn, and how scholars measure these identifications. From there, we turn to the fraught relationship between ethnicity, the nation-state, and nationalism, paying particular attention to the conflicts that arise when efforts to align identity with state structures generate exclusion or violence. We will also examine how colonization, slavery, and the persistence of majority identity supremacy continue to shape contemporary politics, as well as the politics of minorities, indigenous peoples, and multiculturalism. In the final part of the course, we analyze how ethnicity and race structure politics across different political systems, asking: What is ethnic voting and where does it occur? Why do ethnic parties emerge in some countries but not in others? How do authoritarian regimes repress, co-opt, or mobilize ethnic identities? And what is the relationship between ethnic politics and political violence?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This course engages with the ideas of those who, in their struggles for dignity, have been in overt and subtle ways rendered enemies of the state. It explores how they challenge received knowledge about what life should look like, including even the notion that it need be lived within the very structure of the state. The course engages a wide-ranging set of actors: from out-and-out anarchists to feminists urging for more intimate kinds of reordering. It engages with the communities of care that sidestep the regimes of life ordered by the states in which they find themselves. We also ask the crucial question, who decides who the enemies are?