Negotiation and Dispute Resolution

This course is designed to develop students’ abilities to negotiate in a purposeful, principled, and effective way and to teach students how to build consensus and broker wiser agreements with others. The focus is on practice and skill building through simulated negotiations in and out of class. The course also uses lectures, case studies, exercises, games, videos, and demonstrations to develop skills. It addresses negotiations involving both interpersonal and multiple actor scenarios and touches on community-level and international disputes.

International Conflict & Cooperation

This course will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This is an introductory course. We will examine the concept of war and international conflict throughout the world. Accordingly, the course will explore various topics and issues surrounding war such as: limited war, guerilla war, ethnic conflicts, terrorism, conflict resolution, peacekeeping, peacemaking, preventive diplomacy, systems of war, weapons of war, and the future of warfare. US Defense policy perspectives and regional interests will also be examined.

International Relations in East Asia

This course will focus on the dynamic interactions between four major powers–the United States, the Russian Federation, China, and Japan, which are also global powers–and two regional actors–South and North Korea–from bilateral, regional, and global perspectives. Since the relative strengths of these actors differ widely and the patterns of their cooperation and conflict, both in military security and economic arenas, have been rapidly changing, the region’s rich experiences can be used to test various existing international relations theories. Moreover, the coexistence of two opposite trends of growing economic interdependence and confident nationalism supported by economic dynamism in some actors poses a great challenge and opportunity not only for policy makers but for all students of international relations. Organized chronologically and thematically, the course will follow changing regional systems from Japanese domination through American hegemony during the cold war era, and current issues and interaction patterns likely to shape the emerging system, while analyzing such substantive issues as the Korean war, the Sino-Soviet conflict, American rapprochement with China, Japanese foreign policy choices that follows its enormous economic success, China’s economy and its future strategy, perspective of Korean unification, economic regionalism, and American posture in light of the fluid and uncertain power configuration of the area.

Korean Politics & Foreign Policy

This course will trace the evolution of the Korean political system since national independence from the Japanese colonial rule. It will cover constitutional revisions, party systems, elections, interest groups, and the interplay of economic reform and democratic development. In addition, the course will investigate some of the pressing issues of international relations surrounding the Korean Peninsula and the greater Asia Pacific region.

Russian Politics & Foreign Policy

This course explores the international relations of the new states of the former Soviet Union. Our attention will be on factors shaping the foreign policies of these states, the evolution of relations among these states, and the way developments in the post-Soviet space fit into the larger international setting. Although Russia is the centerpiece of this course, as it is of the region itself, the foreign policies of other post-Soviet states are also important. Thus, the course, devotes a good deal of attention to the dynamics within key sub-regions, such as the Caucasus and Central Asia, and to broad themes affecting all the post-Soviet states, such as forces aiding or impeding integration, shifting alignments among these states, the relationship between national security policies and mutual security, and the problem of regional instability.

American Politics and Foreign Policy

Foreign policy decisions are the product of an historical context (both individual and cultural), a complex bureaucratic process, and an intertwined domestic and international political and economic environment. In order to criticize, evaluate, and understand those decisions and processes, it is essential to examine all these components of U.S. foreign policy making.

International Organization

We will during this course investigate international organizations both as institutions and as processes. In addition, we will examine the purpose of international organizations, and look at why international organizations are created and how decisions in them are made. Furthermore, we will explore the question of how international organizations influence world politics. Please notice that throughout the course, you will be asked to assess the relevance and impact of international organizations on world affairs. The course is intended to enhance students’ understanding of the roles and function of international organizations in the contemporary international system.

Model United Nations

It is very difficult to avoid hearing about UN peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance, in particular now since Ban Ki-moon has become the Secretary-General of the United Nations. In this course we will take a close look at the UN: how it is structured and its activities. Model UN is a class that should prepare you to (A) have a clear understanding how the UN is structured and how it operates, and (B) gain some practical experience through participation in a simulated program. You will during the course represent a member country and participate in debate/diplomacy on current UN topics representing that country. Please notice that the course will be very hands-on, and that consequently a significant student workload is to be expected.

International Human Rights

International human rights, now more than ever, are at the forefront of global politics and encompass a broad and diverse range of subjects, issues and geographical jurisdictions. This course will introduce students to the understanding of international protection of human rights by taking a thematic approach to the various human-rights issues. We will focus on the international legal standards as well as the UN and regional mechanisms for the protection of human rights by drawing on diverse materials around the human-rights issues. This course is ideal for students seeking to truly engage with and understand the key issues concerning the study of international human rights.

Public International Law

This course is an introduction to public international law. The course examines the fundamentals of public international law, including the nature and structure of the international legal systems, how rules of international law are formed and enforced, the subjects of international law, and the status of international law in United States law. Rules of public international law that are studied include the law of treaties, the use of force, dispute settlement, the act of state doctrine, sovereign immunity, state responsibility and remedies, acquisition of territory, the law of the sea, human rights, the right of self determination, and extraterritorial jurisdiction

International Political Economy

The study of International Political Economy (IPE) is inherently interdisciplinary. It starts from the premise that the political and economic are inextricably intertwined in the international system: the world markets economy is a political creation reflecting particular interests. This course cannot cover all aspects of IPE. The unit of analysis throughout the course is the world economy and society, not any one country’s place in it. It begins by introducing students to the main intellectual debates and theories in the international political economy literature. The second term turns to empirical analysis and debates surrounding public policies in the past and present, exploring the political economy of some of the important policy issues of our times. These issues will include production, world trade, monetary issues, and financial markets. Care will be taken to carry the theoretical material over into the empirical analysis. The aim of this course, therefore, is to introduce you to the core theoretical perspectives and substantive debates in international political economy

Global Resource Politics

This is a course in advanced environmental economics as it relates to international development and public policy. It provides an opportunity for students to use the tools of analysis they have learned in their analytical and quantitative courses to problems of natural resource management, environmental policy and sustainable development. Some additional tools of intertemporal optimization are also taught. The course covers topics in social choice, market and policy failure, property rights and Pigovian taxes, marketable permits and transferable development rights, optimal resource use over time, environmental demand theory and economic valuation methods.

Regional Economic Integration

The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with the process of economic integration, its theoretical foundations and its historical progress. The course facilitates student engagement in the contemporary debates surrounding the economic integration of EU, APEC, and ASEAN.

Seminar in IR

Globalization has been accompanied, some would say driven, by a thickening web of multilateral agreements, global and regional institutions and regimes, transgovernmental policy networks and summits. This evolving global governance complex regulates and intervenes in virtually all aspects of global affairs. This course offers a comprehensive assessment and critique of this emerging global governance complex, paying particular attention to its implications for globalization.

Special Topics in Economics and Business

Rather than provide a superficial overview of the entire field, this class will explore an outstanding topic in either economics or business in greater depth. This course is designed to prepare students for independent research. Ideally, this course will encourage students to design and write substantive research papers that could later develop into graduation thesis

Global Ethics

The term “global ethics” refers to a broad range of ethical issues of global significance, issues such as global justice, human rights, humanitarian intervention, international development, bioethics, genetic engineering, and the environment. The academic field of global ethics is a growing interdisciplinary movement that draws on the disciplines of philosophy, political science, sociology, theology, economics, law, and the environmental sciences. Rather than provide a shallow overview of the entire field, this course aims to provide an in-depth, interdisciplinary, and cross-cultural analysis of a few of the major contemporary debates in global ethics.

Media and Society

This course provides students with a deeper understanding of the social, political, and economic functions of the three main forms of media: public, corporate, and independent. In what ways does the mass media promote or hinder the practice of democracy? Whose interests are served by the mass media? Whose interests are subverted? These are some of the questions that this course attempts to answer. Through class discussions, readings, and a broad survey of the news and entertainment media, this course helps to promote media literacy in students.

NGOs and Global Civil Society

The course develops from a general discussion of the differences between management of international public and NGO organizations and similar organizations at the national level or below, through an examination of the management process to a consideration of the application of analysis methods to specific organizations. The goal is to provide students with the tools to be intelligent consumers of international services, effective participants in their governance and, at an introductory level, how to evaluate them.

Debate & Argumentation

Formal debate, in which speakers argue for and against a given proposition, is an essential feature of the legislative and judicial systems of any modern democracy. However, lawyers and lawmakers are not the only ones that need to know how to debate. The ability to persuade others through reasoned argumentation is an invaluable skill that can help students throughout their lives, regardless of the careers they choose. This course helps students to develop that skill by introducing them to the format and techniques of parliamentary debate, having them participate repeatedly in formal debates in the classroom, and providing them with constructive feedback on their performance in those debates.