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BGIA 314: Globalization, Finance, and Marginalization
Anirudda Mitra, Professor, Bard College
The object of this course is to explore the impact of globalization and the associated transformation of national economic policies on human rights, with special emphasis on the empowerment of women, the rights of labor, and the protection of ethnic minorities. In particular, we shall focus on the human rights impact of three key transnational flows that together comprise the economic face of globalization, namely, the movement of commodities across national boundaries or international trade; the movement of capital across borders in the form of foreign direct investment, portfolio investment, and remittances; and finally, the movement of human beings across national boundaries or international migration. For each of these flows, we shall interrogate the neoliberal notion that globalization will necessarily empower the marginalized, basing our exploration on both theoretical insights drawn from multiple disciplines and documented evidence.
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Intelligence, Risk, and Decision Making
Giles Alston, Senior Associate, Oxford Analytica
This course is essentially about the relationship between information, analysis, risk and decision makers. On one level, this means that it is about something you do yourself all the time -- but we will be looking specifically at how analysis is produced for those who work in both the public and the private sectors and face critical political, investment, or even humanitarian decisions. Concentrating on three crucial components – collection, analysis and communications – the goal is understand processes behind the production of good analysis and the ways in which it can be conveyed to decision makers. At the same time as studying some of the instances in which intelligence analysis has resulted in success -- and, because it tends to be more revealing, those where it has not -- we will be trying out some of the techniques involved in professional analysis, including writing, presentations, and team work, and looking at analysts working in the government, financial, and non-profit sectors. The intention is to offer an appreciation of what professional analysts do in an intelligence and political risk context, and how their work can feed into the conduct of international relations and international business.
Bard College Distribution: SA
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Issues in Global Public Health
Scott Rosenstein, Global Health Special Advisor, Eurasia Group
Dr. Theresa P. Castillo, Director of Women and Children’s Health Programs, HealthRight International
This course provides a general overview of determinants of health in the developing world and principles within the field of global public health. It will include a review of some current and historical public health problems, such as tuberculosis, malaria, AIDS, small pox, maternal and infant mortality and reproductive health and rights, and the approaches used to understand and address them. Students will also examine the roles of a range of international organizations involved in global public health efforts, including local and international non-governmental organizations, multilateral agencies such as the WHO, UNAIDS, bilateral organizations like the CDC and USAID, governments and donor organizations. The course aims to convey an understanding of the complexity of health problems in developing countries, the impact of health on social and economic development, the contributions of various disciplines and analytical perspectives in decision-making about public health priorities, and the range of players that contribute to developing and implementing the programs to address them. The course will be structured primarily around a series of case studies of public health policies and practices around which there has been controversy or debate about the appropriate course of action. The case studies will include a major focus on HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health, and will examine such issues as quarantine, testing of new technologies on vulnerable populations, commitment of resources to treatment versus prevention, and the influence of conflicting "moralities" on public health program approaches. These debates will examine the tensions that sometimes arise between efforts to ensure public health and safety, while promoting health equity and rights. It will incorporate perspectives of stakeholders in the developing world, as well as scientists, policy makers and activists. The analysis and readings will draw from various disciplines, including epidemiology and medical anthropology.
Bard College Distribution: HA
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Here and There: Writing on International Affairs
Adam Shatz, US Editor, The London Review of Books
International reporting and writing has never been more urgent, yet it has seldom been more difficult. To report from “abroad” often means sitting at one’s desk speaking to someone on Zoom, which means that, for the foreseeable future, the evocation of place has run up against insurmountable obstacles—not to mention what it feels like to be in someone’s presence and to observe their behavior up close, another venerable feature of magazine writing. We have to use our imaginations, and therefore our words, in new ways. Perhaps in these obstacles lies an opportunity for rethinking what writing about other places might involve.
My title alludes to a documentary film that Jean-Luc Godard made in the aftermath of King Hussein’s expulsion of the Palestinian resistance in 1970: the events of Black September. Godard had visited the Palestinian camps in Jordan before their destruction and was planning to return to film them. Instead he made a film reflecting on the relationship between “here” (his home in Paris, but also the West), and “there” (the devastation he’d watched from his television screen, but also the “Third World”). “Here and there” is in no way the sole subject of the class. We will explore a multiplicity of subjects (the world, however interconnected, is also rich and various, after all). But the question of our relationship to our subject matter—matters of perspective, power, the cultural assumptions we bring, often unconsciously—is something we’ll keep in mind throughout our discussions. We always travel with ourselves, no matter where we go.
This class is designed to introduce you to a vibrant array of international nonfiction writing: reporting, reflection, commentary, essays. (The reporting, I should add, won’t be the kind of daily news journalism that breaks stories, but rather long-form work, often of a more literary sensibility.) Some of the selections are classics, such as John Hersey’s report from Hiroshima, which appeared in the New Yorker in 1946, and James Baldwin’s “Equal in Paris,” from his 1955 book Notes of a Native Son. Most, however, are more recent examples of literary journalism that seek to depict and examine the shape of contemporary politics and society. All of them stand out for the seriousness with which they explore the subject at hand. You may have your quarrels with their arguments, and that’s a good thing: our class should be a place for open—but polite, and never personal—debate.
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BGIA 301 - Core Seminar: Civil Society and the Voluntary Sector
Richard Harrill, Executive Director of Community Impact, Columbia University
There has been a remarkable resurgence of interest in the voluntary sector by politicians and scholars over the past three decades. It has come to be praised on all sides, however, it has not been understood as much as it has been admired. We will investigate the theory underpinning civil society, with its origins in the Scottish Enlightenment and the US Constitution, then trace these threads through the rise of the not-for-profit sector and focus on the principles of best practice for organizations generating significant social impact.
The end of the Cold War and the collapse of most socialist states sparked international enthusiasm in the 1990s for the building of civil society by means of voluntary non-profit activity, in the belief that strong civil societies would promote democracy. No one has advanced this principle more aggressively over the past thirty years than billionaire philanthropist George Soros and his Open Society Foundations, whose work is based on the philosophy of Karl Popper. The renewal of civil society in Central and Eastern Europe was met with enthusiasm in the 1990s, yet over the last decade has been met with resistance and even hostility by political leadership pivoting toward illiberal democracy and authoritarianism. We will explore the core elements of civil society and issues such as: Is the movement toward an open society inevitable and linear? What are the fundamental threats to an open society?
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Multilateralism in Crisis? How International Institutions Can Better Manage Global Challenges
Minh-Thu Pham, Lecturer, Princeton University
For over 75 years, the United Nations, other international institutions, and their member governments have sought ways to maintain peace and security, manage global crises, defend human rights, advance justice, and support social and economic development. In more recent years, new actors including civil society, philanthropy, and the private sector have been engaged to bring new perspectives, broaden outreach, and improve program implementation. But recent crises have tested the ability of these institutions to manage change and develop solutions. The global coronavirus pandemic, climate change, inequality and injustice, the decline of democracies, rapid technological change, rising food and commodity prices, and increased refugee and migration flows—these global challenges require global solutions. Yet many wonder whether the United Nations and international institutions are up to the task. Amid the strain that these challenges already posed on global institutions and support for global cooperation, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has raised fundamental questions about their existence and continued legitimacy. This course aims to equip students with a better understanding of when and why global institutions work and what it takes to make global policy effective. We will examine the roles, responsibilities, and effectiveness of international institutions in helping to manage global crises, and how the Biden Administration, UN officials, or other decision-makers should respond. We will study successes and failures of multilateralism, whether the system is working the way it was designed to, and the role that governments, civil society, and others play in its effectiveness. At a time of increasing political division—both within societies and between powerful governments—what are our options for developing collective responses that are effective and uphold our values?
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Democratic Decline and the New Authoritarianism
Elisabeth Zerofsky, The New Yorker
“Illiberal democracy” is the catchphrase of the moment, as illiberal politics appear to be winning elections and delivering radical changes with increasing frequency around the world, from Poland and Hungary, to Israel and India, Brazil, Turkey, and of course, the United States. In this course we’ll explore “democratic backsliding” from a global perspective, what is meant by the term, what it looks like, and why it seems to be happening so widely right now. We’ll look at factors contributing to the rise of the far right, sources of support for illiberal politics, and whether this politics offers real solutions to actual problems. Some critics argue that the concept itself of “illiberal democracy” is an oxymoron. But therein lie some of the difficulties facing liberal societies: where and how do we draw a distinction between legitimate disputes among parties within a democratic community, and behaviors that damage, and potentially destroy, the system itself? Readings for this course will be interdisciplinary, drawing on critical texts on democratic erosion, from Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky, and Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes, as well as recent theoretical writings on democracy, its vulnerabilities, and limits, from Patrick Deneen and Roger Scruton, and journalistic works, such as those by Anne Applebaum and Isabel Wilkerson. We will examine case studies, and students will complete a final assignment that may be devoted to one such case study, an essay or journalistic piece, or another writing project to be determined with the instructor. An underlying line of inquiry in this class will be to consider whether (or not) we may be entering into a “post-liberal” era, and what that might mean for the future of the democratic institutions – the media, civil society, schools and universities, museums, the courts – within which many of us will seek to make our careers and our public lives.
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Foreign Policy in the Time of the Internet
Elmira Bayrasli, Director, BGIA
Foreign policy is among the things that the Internet has revolutionized. No longer is diplomacy confined to oak-paneled rooms and gilded corridors. This change, as New York Times reporter Mark Landler noted, “happened so fast that it left the foreign policy establishment gasping to catch up.” This course examines how foreign policy and international affairs are being shaped in the age of the Internet. The class is framed around the concepts of power and world order.
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Policy and Diplomacy in the Middle East: Six Case Studies
Ambassador Frederic C. Hof
The goal of this course is to acquaint students with six discrete, modern Middle Eastern cases in which American diplomacy was brought to bear, with mixed results. These cases will be examined in the context of diplomatic best practices identified by the instructor from lessons he learned, both from his personal participation in the six cases and from his analysis of the performances of other relevant actors. The six cases to be examined are the 1983 Beirut Airport bombing of the US Marine Corps barracks, the 1989-1990 Unity Dam mediation between Jordan and Israel (conducted by the US), the 2000-2001 Sharm el-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee (headed by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell), the 2009-2011 peace mediation between Israel and Syria (conducted by the US), the 2011-2012 maritime separation line mediation between Lebanon and Israel (conducted by the US), and the challenge of ongoing violence in Syria beginning in March 2011. Students should emerge from this course with an appreciation of the challenges faced by diplomats and other officials in defining objectives, devising strategies, and trying to achieve positive results.
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Core Seminar: Summer
Prof. Richard Harrill
The Bard College Globalization and International Affairs Program (BGIA) is an intensive experiential learning model that combines advanced academic study of international affairs with professional internships at leading organizations in New York City, where students work on issues such as global public health, political risk analysis, foreign policy research, human rights advocacy, and journalism. The core seminar challenges students to blend theoretical material on civil society and the third sector with reflection and analysis on the professional work they are performing at these organizations, helping students synthesize theory and practice. It also incorporates guest speakers and other content designed to help each student grow their professional network and develop strategies for plotting their own pathway from college to career.
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BGIA 301 - Core Seminar: Civil Society and the Voluntary Sector
Prof. Richard Harrill
There has been a remarkable resurgence of interest in the voluntary sector by politicians and scholars over the past three decades. It has come to be praised on all sides, however, it has not been understood as much as it has been admired. We will investigate the theory underpinning civil society, with its origins in the Scottish Enlightenment and the US Constitution, then trace these threads through the rise of the not-for-profit sector and focus on the principles of best practice for organizations generating significant social impact.
The end of the Cold War and the collapse of most socialist states sparked international enthusiasm in the 1990s for the building of civil society by means of voluntary non-profit activity, in the belief that strong civil societies would promote democracy. No one has advanced this principle more aggressively over the past thirty years than billionaire philanthropist George Soros and his Open Society Foundations, whose work is based on the philosophy of Karl Popper. The renewal of civil society in Central and Eastern Europe was met with enthusiasm in the 1990s, yet over the last decade has been met with resistance and even hostility by political leadership pivoting toward illiberal democracy and authoritarianism. We will explore the core elements of civil society and issues such as: Is the movement toward an open society inevitable and linear? What are the fundamental threats to an open society?
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Writing on International Affairs
Suzy Hansen, Writer and Contributor, NYT Magazine
This course will provide a survey of international affairs writing, ranging across a variety of genres, including war reportage, the profile, the book review, the editorial and the essay. Since the focus of the course is writing, students will be expected not only to study these genres but to practice them. The course will also include extensive discussion of the peculiar set of challenges involved in writing about countries other than our own, notably the problems of perspective and cultural and political bias. At the end of this course, students should emerge with a sharper, more nuanced understanding of what it means to report and write from abroad, and with a tool kit from which they can draw as they go out into the field. The requirement will be two short articles, and a longer work of either reportage or essay writing, the subject and scope of which would be determined in consultation with the instructor.
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Seminar on Policy and Diplomacy in the Middle East: Six Case Studies
Fred Hof, Bard College, Diplomat in Residence
The goal of this course is to acquaint students with six discrete, modern Middle Eastern cases in which American diplomacy was brought to bear, with mixed results. These cases will be examined in the context of diplomatic best practices identified by the instructor from lessons he learned, both from his personal participation in the six cases and his analysis of the performances of other relevant actors. The six cases to be examined are the 1983 Beirut Airport bombing of the US Marine Corps barracks, the 1989-1990 Unity Dam mediation between Jordan and Israel (conducted by the US), the 2000-2001 Sharm el-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee (headed by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell), the 2009-2011 peace mediation between Israel and Syria (conducted by the US), the 2011-2012 maritime separation line mediation between Lebanon and Israel (conducted by the US), and the ongoing violence in Syria beginning in March 2011. Students should emerge from this course with an appreciation of the challenges faced by diplomats and other officials in defining objectives, devising strategies, and trying to achieve positive results.
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BGIA 313- Data and Public Health in a Global Context
Gabriel Perron, Bard College, Associate Professor of Biology
The field of epidemiology has helped to shed new light on important public health crises that have shaped societies over the past century. Using real-life case studies, students will learn how epidemiologists identify the root causes of epidemics, even when these may be initially veiled by social constructs and long-standing prejudices. Examples may include the ongoing HIV/AIDS pandemic, which exposed discrimination based on race and sexual orientation in mainstream medical practices; and the 2011 E. coli global outbreak, which revealed the weaknesses and the inequalities of our food safety network. Students will also explore the need for more robust global strategies to act in the best interest of all human health in an increasingly connected world. In the process, students will learn how to access publicly available datasets and how to use advanced statistical tools in an open-access programming language, which can also be applied to other quantitative fields and courses. No previous statistical or programming coursework is expected.
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BGIA - 305 Towards Dismantling Global Racism
Benjamin Abtan, Founder and CEO of Toward Antiracism Now
Since the killing of George Floyd in May 2020, a reckoning on racism has been taking place, in the US and around the world. In America, the role of racism is primarily examined with a focus on the enduring effects of slavery, and rarely is it explored within a larger global context, despite its international roots. It should come as no surprise that one cannot fully understand how racism operates nor dismantle it without examining its global nature, getting to know the origins it has in diverse cultures and how it impacts various communities and societies around the world. Countless companies, institutions, communities, NGOs and foundations have pledged to become antiracist and dismantle racism, but there is no quick fix nor ready-to-be-used toolbox that would have been acquired by previously-trained practitioners to provide short-term results on racial equity. This course examines the nature and impacts of racism with a global approach. Building on the experiences of resilient post-conflict local communities around the world and on the theories and practices of Transitional Justice, we will explore tools and frameworks to innovate and efficiently dismantle racism in organizations, communities and societies. Adopting a comparative approach, we will study materials and examples of successful antiracist initiatives coming from Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia and the Americas, and mobilize diverse academic fields: political sciences, history, genocide studies, psychology, sociology, literature and cinema. We will articulate our understanding of racial domination and develop approaches to dismantle it with the other forms of oppression.
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BGIA 309: Technology, Security and the Future of War
Lionel Beehner
This course examines how technology is reshaping the international security environment and the future of war. With the advent of the information age,and with new technologies such as AI or the role of machines or unmanned drones transforming military doctrine and norms on the use of force, theories of international politics are struggling to keep up with the pace of innovation and technological change. Using an interdisciplinary approach that combines history, theory, and practice, this course aims to advance students’ conceptual understanding of how technologies influence national security decision-making and military innovation. From the invention of the crossbow to the AK-47 to the rollout of 5G, what role do technologies play in leaders’ decisions over the use of force? In an era of information and cyberwarfare, how are new technologies reshaping (or undermining) traditional strategies of deterrence? What are the risks and challenges of the current information age and how are they different from previous ones, like the industrial era of the Concert of Europe or the nuclear age of the Cold War? Finally, in what ways are bio, nano and other non-digital technologies shaping peace, security, and the future of war?
Monday 4-6pm
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BGIA 330 - Writing on International Affairs
Suzy Hansen, Writer and Contributor, NYT Magazine
This course will provide a survey of international affairs writing, ranging across a variety of genres, including war reportage, the profile, the book review, the editorial and the essay. Since the focus of the course is writing, students will be expected not only to study these genres but to practice them. The course will also include extensive discussion of the peculiar set of challenges involved in writing about countries other than our own, notably the problems of perspective and cultural and political bias. At the end of this course, students should emerge with a sharper, more nuanced understanding of what it means to report and write from abroad, and with a tool kit from which they can draw as they go out into the field. The requirement will be two short articles, and a longer work of either reportage or essay writing, the subject and scope of which would be determined in consultation with the instructor.
Class Time: Wednesdays 4-6pm
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BGIA 331 - National Security and Human Rights: Mass Surveillance, Torture and Discrimination in the Post 9-11 Era
Jamil Dakwar, Director of American Civil Liberties Union's (ACLU) Human Rights Program
The purpose of this course is to explore the spectrum of state responses to acts and threats of terrorism and understand the impact of counter-terrorism laws, policies, and practices on human rights. States frequently invoke national security concerns as a justification for policies that violate human rights. The course will explore how these concerns are framed, and to what end, as well as the ways in which counter-terrorism policies can threaten specific human rights, including but not limited to: the right to life; freedom from torture and arbitrary detention; the right to a fair trial; freedoms of association and expression; right to privacy, and the right to non-discrimination. At the conclusion of the course, students will have a deeper understanding of international law obligations that states must fully comply with while addressing national security concerns.
Class Time: Mondays 6-8pm
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BGIA 313 - Health, Justice, and Epidemiology in a Connected World
Gabriel Perron, Bard College, Associate Professor of Biology
The field of epidemiology has helped to shed new light on important public health crises that have shaped societies over the past century. Using real-life case studies, students will learn how epidemiologists identify the root causes of epidemics, even when these may be initially veiled by social constructs and long-standing prejudices. Examples may include the ongoing HIV/AIDS pandemic, which exposed discrimination based on race and sexual orientation in mainstream medical practices; and the 2011 E. coli global outbreak, which revealed the weaknesses and the inequalities of our food safety network. Students will also explore the need for more robust global strategies to act in the best interest of all human health in an increasingly connected world. In the process, students will learn how to access publicly available datasets and how to use simple statistical tools, which can also be applied to other quantitative fields and practices.
Class Time: Thursdays 4-6pm
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BGIA 205 - Mastering the Media
Elmira Bayrasli, BGIA Director
Engaging in international affairs will inevitably have you interacting with the media in one way or another. How do you do it? This class will have three parts: (1) Understanding and writing an op-ed, (2) mastering a media interview, and (3) getting the most out of social media and “your brand.” In the first part of the class, we will examine the op-ed as a form of writing, exploring the mechanics of an op-ed, different op-ed styles and how to pitch an op-ed to an editor. Students will develop an argument and draft an op-ed. In the second part, we will explore the on-air interview, including how to communicate complex ideas to a general audience, how to put together talking points and how to handle appearance. The course ends with a unit on making the most of social media. You should walk away from this class with a better understanding of how to write an op-ed and be able to interact with the media comfortably and effectively.
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BGIA 357: Governing Mobility: Past and Present
Colleen Thouez
This course will explore how the UN system has evolved in the last two decades, through the prism of its response to one of the biggest transnational challenges of our time: migration. With over 250 million migrants, record numbers of forcibly displaced, and the immigration legacy of most nation-states shaping their politics, demographics and cultural trends – the mobility of people has put the inter-governmental system to the test. This course will also study the contemporary responses to mobility at various levels of government: city, state, and region with a particular focus on the 2015 refugee crises and onward. It will cover concrete examples through case studies, and students will be requested to develop their own approach to address specific challenges (eg. applying effective integration techniques for migrants in New York City; raising awareness of the rights of trafficked persons in South East Europe; ensuring effective protection for refugees in situations where their legal status is not recognized in Australia). To the extent possible, senior experts from within the UN system and international community will also be invited to share their insights and experiences in addressing the challenges of global mobility (eg. UNODC, IOM, UNHCR, World Bank, USAID). The objectives of the course will be to: gain a solid understanding of migration politics, and relevant normative and institutional frameworks; exercise analytical and problem-solving skills by assessing a specific migration challenge and proposing options for how to address it; and practicing synthesizing information and delivering convincing commendations.
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Critical Security Studies
Michelle Murray, Chair, Political Studies Program, Bard College
Security is one of the foundational concepts in the study of international politics. Too often, however, the meaning of security is taken for granted in the study of international relations, with individuals, societies and states homogenized into one coherent model that focuses exclusively on the threat, use and control of military force. This seminar will interrogate this narrow concept of security by engaging with a diverse literature in international relations termed “critical security studies.” The critical security studies research agenda aims to denaturalize the common understandings of security that dominate the field of international relations and in doing so shows how security is socially constructed through specific and historically contingent political practices, that in turn create shared social understandings. Some of the broad theoretical themes covered include how threats to security are defined and represented, gendered and feminist approaches to security, the emergence and effects of dominant discourses of security and the politics of threat construction. We will then apply the insights of this approach to a series of case studies that examine nontraditional security threats, including migration, the environment, human security, disease and health, among others.
Schedule: Thursdays 9-11am
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Human Rights and the Economy
Peter Rosenblum / Professor of International Law and Human Rights, Bard College
For decades, the human rights movement has embraced the 'indivisibility' of rights, recognizing that civil and political rights are equal and inextricably bound to economic and social rights. But economic issues in human rights remain contentious. Some scholars have accused the human rights movement of giving cover to the depredations of neoliberal globalization. Others, assail human rights for favoring a minimalist sufficiency over true economic equality. In any event, it is clear that the human rights movement has had a hard time figuring out how to 'do' economic and social rights. Nevertheless, the last decade has seen a burgeoning of creative and meaningful work that attacks economic harms and deploys economic research. This class will explore the complex interconnection of human rights and the economy. In addition to the theoretical and historical debates, the class will explore recent developments in relation to issues like health care, access to medicine, criminalization of poverty, monetizing of criminal justice, labor rights and the attack on inequality itself. For the exploration of current developments, the class will critically examine the work of activist organizations together with their researchers.
Tuesday, 4-6:20 pm.
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Writing on International Affairs
Ilan Greenberg / Contributor, The New York Times, The National Interest, The New Republic, and The Wall Street Journal
In this course we will examine ways in which foreign correspondents cover the world. We will learn about how journalism interrogates politics, conflict, human rights, economic development, science, culture, and current events generally. We will explore the social, economic, and political fissures impacting the coverage of global affairs. And we will discuss the changing media landscape such as the rise of social media, the perspectives of journalism from different parts of the world, and how the media influence international relations.
We will acquire an understanding of the issues animating current media coverage of global affairs, and also will learn about the mechanics of journalism, such as editing, contextualizing subject matter, and fundamental reporting skills. Although we will scrutinize video, radio, and multimedia journalism, this course primarily seeks to sharpen your understanding of and ability at expository writing on global affairs and you will be expected to write intensively almost every week.
Class assignments will entail research and original reporting. We will read and discuss a representative sampling of articles and books by journalists about foreign affairs, and will include discussions with experienced reporters and editors about their work.
Meeting Wednesdays 4-6:20PM
Bard College Distribution: PA
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Human Rights, Migration, and International Law
Melina Lito, Esq.
Amidst the migration crisis in the Mediterranean and the immigration climate in the United States, this course looks at international migration law and examines the legal rights of migrants and asylees in land and sea borders. Over the span of eight weeks and reflecting on the teacher's professional experience in international security, human rights law and field experience in immigration law, this course would examine what does international law say about the rights of migrants and asylees, how does international security policy regulate the flow of people across borders, relevant case studies where these two issues have clashed, and what does this mean for the different governmental, nongovernmental and private actors.
Schedule: Tuesdays 8-10am
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Ethics for a Connected World
Joel Rosenthal / President, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
Thucydides punctuates his history of the Peloponnesian war with the quote of the Athenian generals, ‘The strong do what they will, the weak do what they must.’ In the twentieth century, this sentiment is echoed by the great realists, Hans Morganthau and Henry Kissinger, who argued that power and interest were the guideposts for foreign policy. What values guide us as we make choices about the use of force, resolving conflict, promoting human rights, encouraging democracy and participating in international organizations. This course will examine competing claims of morality, reason and power in contemporary international relations.
Meeting Wednesdays from 4-6:20PM
Bard College Distribution: SA; Cross-listed GIS
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Peacebuilding, Development and Complexity
Marie Pace
As our entire world is becoming increasingly interconnected and interdependent, it is also becoming increasingly volatile and unpredictable. Complexity thinking and approaches offer promising and elegant solutions for addressing the uncertainties and vulnerabilities for our time. This course will draw from literature that applies complexity ‘science’ to social change broadly and more specifically to conflict, international aid and peacebuilding. This approach is designed to appeal to students interested in international affairs, irrespective of major or career aspirations and will offer students some simple tools that will help them hack the complexity they will inevitably confront in a global career. In addition to core readings, students will engage in rigorous practices and perspective-shifting exercises throughout the course. Case studies and real-world examples of how complexity thinking is being applied to foreign assistance policies and programming will be explored, with particular emphasis on the implications for peacebuilding effectiveness.
Meeting Wednesdays, 3:30 - 5:50 PM.
Bard College Distribution: GIS and SA.
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Power, War and Terror in International Affairs
Scott Silverstone / Professor of International Relations, U.S. Military Academy, West Point
From the Peloponnesian War among the Greek city-states in the 5th century B.C., to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and America's invasion of Iraq in 2003, power has remained a central feature of world politics, motivating the behavior of states and nonstate actors alike. Yet the character and distribution of power has changed dramatically since the rise of the modern state system in the 17th century. For nearly two decades now, American primacy has defined the global power structure. This fact is an historic anomaly; at no time in history has any one state amassed the degree of military, economic, and political power the United States now enjoys. In fact, contemporary American foreign policy is premised on the assertion that the United States must sustain its primacy against any potential challengers for the indefinite future.
This course explores the character of power and war in this era of American hegemony. We will examine the vigorous debates over the objectives of American power, unilateralism versus multilateralism as rival approaches to exercising power, debates over what military power can actually achieve, and the potential for a global backlash against the United States. Among other specific issues this course will address is the rise of China and India and the implications for global security and economic issues; rogue states and nuclear proliferation; the preventive war option to address shifting threats; the political and strategic future of the Middle East; terrorism as an alternative form of the power struggle and as a type of asymmetric warfare waged by nonstate actors; the continuing problem of humanitarian crises, failed states and intervention in the post-9/11 world; and the changing nature of global energy politics as an acute security issue.
Meeting Tuesdays from 6:45-9PM
Bard College Distribution: SA; Cross-listed GIS
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Making Social Change in a Complex World
Stephanie Savell / Co-Director, Brown University’s Costs of War Project
How do we address global social injustices and inequalities? There are many different avenues – joining social movements, careers in government or law, working for nonprofits or international development groups, and more. This course starts from the premise that before taking action, one must be aware of the ways that any intervention, and especially an international one, can inadvertently reproduce rather than shift structures of power. Our inquiry is rooted in social science literature on development, human rights, and humanitarianism. As part of this, we reflect on our own status and how this impacts the consequences of our actions. And then we go a step further. Building on our critical awareness, the second part of the course pivots to exploring some of the practical tools we might use to act to foster positive social change abroad. Through case studies and conversations with development practitioners, we will orient ourselves to a range of skills and approaches, from fundraising and internet advocacy to movement building, participatory action research, and social entrepreneurship. The goal is for students to leave the course with a critical yet proactive understanding of routes they might pursue to work for change.
Meeting Wednesdays from 3:30-5:50PM
Bard Distribution: SA
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Gender and the Politics of National Security
Chris McIntosh / Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Studies at Bard College
This course will introduce students to major theories and issues concerning gender and international security affairs. We will begin by examining the interdisciplinary literature on gender theory and applying its insights to international politics. What does it mean to conduct a “gendered analysis” of global affairs? How do gendered discourses produce our understanding of what is and is not understood as a national security problem? Why has traditional security studies failed to incorporate gender into its analysis? Then, we apply these theoretical frameworks to important security issues such as, the cultural effects of nuclear weapons, the targeting of civilians during armed conflict, sexual violence in war, torture and the war on terrorism, nationalism and the state, human security and development, and post-conflict societies, to name a few. Throughout, the gendered nature of security issues will be explored from multi-disciplinary perspectives drawn from anthropology, sociology, philosophy, politics and rhetoric in order to highlight the complex interconnections among states, societies and individuals. Historical and contemporary case studies will be drawn from a number of countries across the globe. In reexamining key concepts in the study of international politics—namely, sovereignty, the state and insecurity—this course has two goals. First, to expose how gendered discourses of security that focus on the state render invisible a multitude of threats to individual security. Second, to question the role of the state as a security provider by highlighting the insecurities individuals and societies experience as a consequence of state-centered national security policy.
Meets Wednesdays from 4pm-7pm.
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Counterinsurgency: Practical Implementation and Future Application
James Creighton / Chief Operating Officer, EastWest Institute
The purpose of this class is to teach students the principles counterinsurgency operations as they are demonstrated in historical case studies; applied during recent operations; and projected in contemporary challenges. Students will analyze counterinsurgency operations and understand the complex government, development and security considerations involved with defeating an insurgency and helping a legitimate government earn the respect of its people. The class will analyze past counterinsurgency efforts and apply the lessons to potential current and future situations. The class will use case study reviews, personal experience, lectures, oral presentations, written requirements and practical exercises in order to emphasize and reinforce lessons learned in counterinsurgency operations, analyze operational techniques, understand how to mitigate challenges and develop each student’s understanding of counterinsurgency operations. At the end of the course, students will have analyzed counterinsurgency operations and will be able to recognize effective operations, develop plans to mitigate challenges and understand how to maximize the impact of the lives and national treasure committed to the effort.
Meets Tuesdays from 4pm-7pm.
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Grand Strategy from Sun Tzu to Clausewitz
Walter Russell Mead / James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College and Editor-at-Large of The American Interest
The question of what war is and how wars can be won has exercised great minds from the dawn of recorded history. In this advanced seminar, students will explore classic texts on conflict from ancient China to modern Europe. The class will examine the nature of conflict, the role of chance in human affairs, the definition of power and the development of strategic thought. Students will be expected to produce a significant research paper.
Meeting Sundays 5-7:20PM
Bard College Distribution: SA; Cross-listed Political Studies
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Issues in Global Public Health
Kate Bourne/ Consultant; former Vice President of Programs, International Women's Health Coalition and Scott Rosenstein / Associate Director, City Relationships, 100 Resilient Cities
This course provides a general overview of determinants of health in the developing world and principles within the field of global public health. It will include a review of some current and historical public health problems, such as tuberculosis, malaria, AIDS, small pox, maternal and infant mortality and reproductive health and rights, and the approaches used to understand and address them. Students will also examine the roles of a range of international organizations involved in global public health efforts, including local and international non-governmental organizations, multilateral agencies such as the WHO, UNAIDS, bilateral organizations like the CDC and USAID, governments and donor organizations. The course aims to convey an understanding of the complexity of health problems in developing countries, the impact of health on social and economic development, the contributions of various disciplines and analytical perspectives in decision-making about public health priorities, and the range of players that contribute to developing and implementing the programs to address them. The course will be structured primarily around a series of case studies of public health policies and practices around which there has been controversy or debate about the appropriate course of action. The case studies will include a major focus on HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health, and will examine such issues as quarantine, testing of new technologies on vulnerable populations, commitment of resources to treatment versus prevention, and the influence of conflicting "moralities" on public health program approaches. These debates will examine the tensions that sometimes arise between efforts to ensure public health and safety, while promoting health equity and rights. It will incorporate perspectives of stakeholders in the developing world, as well as scientists, policy makers and activists. The analysis and readings will draw from various disciplines, including epidemiology and medical anthropology.
Bard College Distribution: HIST
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Core Seminar: Non-State Actors in International Affairs
James Ketterer / Director, BGIA
Non-state actors have gained increasing importance in international affairs. From transnational advocacy groups to terrorist networks to multinational corporations, a diverse range of actors are challenging and limiting the power of traditional nation-states and changing the landscape of the international system. This course explores the theoretical debates and practical policy effects of non-state actors in international affairs. How should we define non-state actors? Given the diversity of non-state actors and their goals, can we study them from a single perspective? Under what conditions do non-state actors “matter” and what effects do they have? What strategies do different non-state actors use to influence policy-making? What role do non-state actors play in global governance?
The goal of the course is to provide students with a working knowledge of the major academic debates and controversies about the definition, emergence and evolution of non-state actors in international affairs. We will investigate the changing roles and influence of non-state actors in a variety of issue areas, including global governance, security affairs, human rights, public health, international development and international economics, among others.
In addition, the course will contextualize students’ internship experiences within this broader discussion to critically examine how ideas about the role of non-state actors in world politics play out in practice. We will take advantage of our New York City location with guest speakers from a wide spectrum of organizations within the field, such as the United Nations, US State Department, Human Rights Watch, Council on Foreign Relations, World Policy Institute, Open Society Foundation, Central American Legal Assistance, Control Risks Group, East/West Institute, Asia Society and many others. The overriding objective throughout the course is to link students’ academic experience with their practical experience.
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The Anglo-American Grand Strategy
Walter Russell Mead / James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College and Editor of The American Interest.
The American world system that exists today can be seen as version 2.0 of the liberal capitalist world system first built by Great Britain. Both the British and the American builders of these systems developed a distinct style of strategic thought around the needs of a maritime, global and commercial system. The global capitalist revolution that this world system continues to advance remains, for good and for ill, the most important force shaping the international system. Students will read works by important thinkers in this strategic tradition; they will also study the grand strategies of these powers and their opponents in the series of wars from the time of the Spanish Armada to the Cold War and analyze contemporary American policy in the light of the three centuries of Anglophone world power.
Meeting Sundays, 5-7:20PM
Bard College Distribution: SSCI
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Trends in Terrorism and Counterterrorism
Tom Parker / Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force Adviser on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism, Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, United Nations
The purpose of this course is to chart the rise of international terrorism and examine State responses to this ever-evolving threat. The course is divided into three self-contained units addressing the origins of international terrorism, the growth and evolution of Islamic terrorism and State responses to terrorist threats. Seminars will consider case studies drawn from Western Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. At the conclusion of the course it is hoped that students will have a deeper understanding of the circumstances that motivate dedicated terrorist groups and the means and methods available to States seeking to contain or defeat them.
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Core Seminar: NGOs in International Politics
Jonathan Cristol / Director, BGIA
Rachel Meyer / Associate Director, BGIA
This course ties together the students’ academic experience with their practical experience. In class, we investigate and discuss the changing roles and influence of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in world politics. Specific seminars include: “The NGO boom”; “NGOs, Networks, and the State”; “Multinational Corporations and NGOs”; “NGOs and International Norms: Success and Non-Success”; “Practical Issues and Challenges for International NGOs”; “Why Do We Care About What We Care About?”; and “NGOs and/(are?) Western Imperialism.”
As part of BGIA’s emphasis on skill-building, students give a formal, timed, multi-media presentation about their internship organization and their roll within that organization. They also must work with their organization to create a document detailing what the students’ expectations are for the internship, and what the organizations’ expectations are of the intern.
In addition, students also write a series of short papers and take a final take-home essay exam and/or write a seminar paper. The exam and paper both link the students’ real-world experiences to the readings and discussions we have had in class.
Recent examples of final papers include:
• “NGO Capacity Development: Contributing to the Struggle for Workers’ Rights in Mexico” (student interned at Safe Horizon Immigration Law Center);
• “Youth Activism at Rio+20” (student interned for Global Kids);
• “The Importance of Protocol during the Opening Ceremony of the General Assembly” (student interned in the United Nations Protocol and Liaison Service);
• “Are we there yet? A Historical Analysis of Democratization in Burma” (student interned for the Global Justice Center); and
• “Countercyclical Financial Regulation: State of the Field Analysis” (student interned at World Policy Institute)
The class takes advantage of our New York City location and every semester and summer we have many guest speakers from a wide spectrum of organizations within the field including: United Nations; US State Department; Human Rights Watch; Council on Foreign Relations; World Policy Institute; Open Society Foundations; Central American Legal Assistance; Control Risks Group; East/West Institute; Asia Society; and many others.
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Trends in Terrorism and Counterterrorism
Tom Parker / Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force Adviser on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism, Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, United Nations
The purpose of this course is to chart the rise of international terrorism and examine State responses to this ever-evolving threat. The course is divided into three self-contained units addressing the origins of international terrorism, the growth and evolution of Islamic terrorism and State responses to terrorist threats. Seminars will consider case studies drawn from Western Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. At the conclusion of the course it is hoped that students will have a deeper understanding of the circumstances that motivate dedicated terrorist groups and the means and methods available to States seeking to contain or defeat them.
Bard College Distribution: HIST
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Researching International Affairs: Models, Problems, and Approaches
James Ketterer / Director, International Academic Initiatives, Center for Civic Engagement & Senior Fellow, Institute of International Liberal Education, Bard College
The central goal of this course is to enable students to both construct sound research designs and to have the ability to critique the research designs of others - and to apply those methods to topics of key concern in international affairs,including human rights, democratization, alliances, conflict, etc. This course will introduce a variety of methodological tools required for carrying out research in the field of international affairs and to the ongoing debates about methods and social science. This is not a lecture course. It is designed to be a methods workshop in which we will be reading about a variety of issues important to social science research, discussing them, applying them to real-world situations, constructing your own research designs, and critiquing those of your peers. In addition, we will also examine real-world examples in the Middle East, Africa and other regions.
Bard College Distribution: SSCI
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American Foreign Policy Tradition
Walter Russell Mead / James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College and Editor of The American Interest.
This course, which normally requires some background in American history, invites students to examine the questions facing American foreign policy today through several lenses: global geopolitics, economics, resource issues, culture and ideology, and regional politics. The course will stress the connections between domestic and international policy and help students understand the leading alternative schools of thought currently contending to shape the foreign policy agenda of the Obama administration and of various critics and opponents. The readings will include essays and books by leading scholars and practitioners.
Bard College Distribution: SSCI
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The Development of the United Nations System
Ambassador Joseph Melrose / Former Acting United States Representative for Management and Reform at the United Nations; former United States Ambassador to Sierra Leone
This course introduces students to the United Nations (UN) and its historical role in maintaining international peace and security. It will begin by looking at the origins, history and evolution of the organization, and of the UN system more broadly. Starting with an analysis of the founding of the League of Nations, its work during the inter-war period and the reasons for its eventual failure, the course will then trace the evolution of the League of Nations into the United Nations. We will study the UN Charter and its provisions for the maintenance of peace and security, and will compare and contrast the UN’s charter with that of its predecessor. An examination of the UN’s organizational structure and the evolution and key functions of its main organs will follow, and we will also touch upon the work of its agencies and their relevance for global security. The course will then turn to a comprehensive analysis of the UN’s efforts to maintain international peace and security over the course of the past six decades, and will focus on the UN’s work in the following areas: disarmament; the peaceful settlement of disputes and conflict prevention; peacekeeping operations; sanctions; peace enforcement; humanitarian intervention; post-conflict peacebuilding; territorial administration; and terrorism. To conclude, we will turn to UN reform and investigate whether the UN can be reformed effectively. The course will address a broad range of theoretical and practical questions, including the following: Whose interests does the UN really serve? What is the UN’s record on conflict prevention, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding? What is the nature of the UN-US relationship, and why has it been strained over the years?
Bard College Distribution: HIST
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"The Way of the World"-- International Political Economy in an Era of Globalization
This interdisciplinary seminar examines the relationship between the state and the market - between politics and economics - in this era of globalization. It will cover the origins and development of the three most powerful international economic institutions, The World Trade Organization, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. Students will place these institutions in their historical and international context, and explore their relationship to the world's most powerful and most vulnerable nations: How have they affected human rights, labor conditions, and the environment? Have these institutions contributed to global political stability and economic growth?
The course will also carefully consider the role of non- state actors, including corporations, non-governmental organizations, and individuals, in shaping contemporary, international political economy. Sources will include historical accounts, scholarly articles, official government papers, novels, films, documentaries, internet cites, and popular newspapers and magazines.
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The Architecture of International Affairs: Advanced Theory and Practice
This upper-level seminar will begin with a look at varying theories of international relations, with an emphasis on modern works and articles of particular importance to international relations in the post Cold War and post 9/11 era. We will examine to what extent, if any, the role of theory plays in the practice of international affairs. In the second half of the course we will start by learning about how American foreign policy is made and carried out. For most of the second half, we will discuss multilateralism and how the major international organizations (particularly, but not exclusively, the United Nations and World Trade Organization) actually function. The “nuts and bolts” of foreign affairs. The goal of the class is to develop an advanced understanding of how foreign policy and the international system operate in theory and practice. A basic knowledge of international relations theory is helpful, but not required. Authors to be read include: Francis Fukuyama, Samuel Huntington, Christopher Layne, John Mearsheimer, Bruce Russett, and William Wohlforth.
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Terror, Martial Law and Democracy
In the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, officials of the US government put in place what one high White House official called a "new paradigm" in fighting wars. George W. Bush's "War on Terror" would be an entirely different kind of conflict, one that would rely to an unprecedented degree on intelligence, surveillance and interrogation. As such it would require new tools and new methods, most prominent among them warrantless surveillance, to track terrorist suspects; "extraordinary rendition," to seize those suspects and secretly transport them to friendly countries; and "enhanced interrogation," to persuade them to give up the information they had. Together these techniques, and the alterations in or circumventions of the law that came with them, constituted what might be called "a state of exception" - a kind of improvised and undeclared State of Emergency or martial law. In this seminar, we will study Bush's "state of exception," identifying and analyzing its major components. We will trace their history and debate their effectiveness. We will compare the United States' efforts to deal with terrorism with those of other democracies, including the United Kingdom and India. Finally we will closely follow the new Administration's ongoing efforts to revise the "state of exception" - and to help the country emerge from it.
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Political Economy, Globalization and Technological Change
What is the relation of economic change to technical and social transformation? What is the nature of economic efficiency and economic justice, and how do they relate to democracy, education, and the control of information? The questions of political economy (broadly construed) have been recast in the twenty-first century by the effective collapse of state communism and the rise of a putative ‘information infrastructure.’ In this course, we will investigate this contemporary environment through a history of political economy within its social, economic, and technological context. In particular, we will use the history of infrastructures (such as those of communication-information, transportation, energy, and military organization) to suggest the broadest social and technical contexts which affect, and are affected by, politics and economics. By investigating this long-term interaction of political economy and infrastructure, we will gain critical perspective on the purported revolution in political economy and ‘information infrastructure’ in the era of globalization. Over the course of the semester, students will research and present a brief 'case study' using primary documents at the NY public branch library for Science, Industry and Business.
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Peace, Conflict and International Security
This course will examine the nature of threats to international peace and security in the form of wars, conflict, and terrorism and the institutional responses to these threats. Understanding the nature of the beast is key to developing the means to tame it. Professor Krasno’s work on conflict, peace negotiotion, and United Nations’ responses are interwoven with Professor Parker’s work and experience in the field of human rights, criminal tribunals, and terrorism. A balance of history, policy analysis, and case studies help to build a greater understanding of the issues and the capacity and will of major institutions to take action or not. Building effective institutional responses to prevent conflict and terrorist attacks are examined as well as rebuilding societies emerging from years of turmoil and civil war. Readings will draw on recent books, articles, chapters, and oral history interviews. A series of documentary films will also add a visual and experiential dimension to the learning process.
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National Conflicts in the Era of Globalization
Whatever else globalization might mean, it is clear by now that it does not mean the advent of a post-national era, the end of national conflicts, or even the coming of age of a global political order based on nation-states. Just as globalization enthusiasts proclaimed the end of the nation-state, we began to see a number of successful and unsuccessful attempts to form new nation-states, the escalation of old national conflicts and the assertion of cross-national community ties such as pan-Islamism challenging the nation-state order itself. It is hardly surprising that in European Union member countries such as Spain, Belgium and the UK there has also been a devolution of political power to regions. While states remain powerful, the principle of state sovereignty is being undermined by intrusive international rules and institutions associated with globalization. In this course we will examine these conflicting trends. We will read texts on globalization, interpretations of some of today’s conflicts such as Samuel Huntingtons’s The Clash of Civilizations, case studies of some stubborn national conflicts and, of policy debates such as those in some European countries about immigration and cultural identity.
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Microfinance and Entrepreneurship: Innovative Solutions in Economic Development
Microfinance is a powerful poverty alleviation tool. The provision of financial services to the poor helps to increase household income and economic security, build assets and reduce vulnerability, create demand for other goods and services (especially nutrition, education, and health care), and stimulate local economies. However, it is estimated that only 10 per cent of the estimated one billion of the world’s economically active poor have access to basic financial services. There is a consensus within the development community that in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, including cutting absolute poverty in half by 2015, microfinance should be provided in a sustainable manner.
This course is intended to provide students with an understanding of the role of microfinance within a broader economic development framework. More specifically, it explores where microfinance is able to create a positive impact and where other economic tools may be more appropriate. It will provide a critical understanding of the major concepts, trends and policies driving the development of the microfinance industry, and debates within the industry, including on issues such as poverty targeting and the role of gender. It will offer case studies in a number of areas, including in post-conflict and post-disaster areas.
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Managing Global Political Risk
In recent years emerging market investors have recognized that politics can matter at least as much as economic fundamentals. Governments that have the capacity to meet sovereign debt obligations may simply not have the political will to do so (e.g. Russia 1998). Market interpretations of political developments and tensions generate volatility in foreign exchange, bond, and equities markets (e.g. Brazil, Turkey 2002-2003). Change in relative levels of social and political stability can lead investors to reevaluate their strategies (e.g. Venezuela and Russia 2004). The foreign policy agendas of the world’s leading powers can dramatically affect both state stability and investor sentiment (e.g. the Koreas, Iraq, Pakistan).
As the relevance of political factors has become more apparent to investors, so has the general lack of comprehensive and systematic tools for evaluating them. This course examines the process of identifying and managing political risk in a range of environments. Particular attention will be given to designing rigorous frameworks for measuring the mitigating risk in emerging market countries where social and political instability impacts investors and Western policy makers.
We will consider a range of analytical tools and approaches including index/framework construction, scenario planning, the role of political institutions, and modeling of political actors’ behavior. Then these approaches will be applied to a range of country cases, and broader transnational issues such as global energy security and terrorism. A number of professional practitioners from the areas of finance, energy, foreign/security policy, and political risk management will be actively involved in the classroom as we analyze these cases and themes.
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International Organizations in Global Politics
A number of analytical and empirical evidences show that the international organizations (IOs) have become political actors in their own right and play a prominent role in efforts to find a solution to a wide range of global problems. Consequently, why and how IOs matter are crucial questions that guide analytical inquiry of this course. In order to address this inquiry, we will explore both, theory and practice of IOs in global politics driven by various political processes and a number of different state and non-state actors. This course will introduce students to major theoretical concepts and debates on the practice of creation, change, influence, performance, categorization and design of IOs that should provide participants with an adequate analytical toolkit for embarking on a thorough empirical exposition of particular IOs.
Because of its importance and global reach, the study of IOs will focus on exploring the goals, structure and functioning of the United Nations (UN). We will take a look at the UN administrative structures, investigate the impact of organizational cultures on the workings of UN offices and their programs and analyze the role and leadership of the UN Secretary General and other executive heads of the UN funds and agencies. Particular attention will be given to the interactions of the UN with powerful state actors, global civil society groups and businesses. The substantive work of the UN in areas of international peace and security, economic and social development and humanitarian activities will be explored with an emphasis on specific issues and cases in peacekeeping, nation-building, economic development, human rights and humanitarian assistance. The concluding discussion about the UN will cover subjects relating to a variety of proposals for the UN institutional reforms and the debates on the future of the UN.
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International Human Rights: Sources and Applications
The language of rights, since the 17th century, has played a pivotal role in national political discussion. Since the end of the Second World War, human rights have assumed an increasingly important position in international law as well. Rights are normally invoked to assert fundamental claims of liberty and human dignity which mark limits on governmental power and control. But from which sources and upon what authorities do international human rights gain their legitimacy? And by which measures may it be said that their acceptance and enforcement has been a success?
These are the principal questions to be addressed in this course, which will be approached primarily from international legal perspectives but will include historical, political and philosophical dimensions as well.
Readings include: foundational documents such as the United States Bill of Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Nuremberg Charter and the Geneva Protocols; recent judgments by international tribunals concerning Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia concerning torture, rape, genocide and crimes against humanity; and selected readings from classical and contemporary commentators on natural law, international law and human rights, including Cicero, Grotius, Meron, Sen and Ignatieff.
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Humanitarian Action
Humanitarian ActionThe seminar will explore the history, animating ideals, politics and contemporary paradoxes of humanitariam action. The seminar will begin with the creation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1863 and follow its guiding concepts—neutrality, impartiality and humanity—through the Second World War and the Holocaust. It will then investigate the ambiguous character of humanitarianism during the Cold War, with particular attention to the birth of the UN organizations (UNICEF, the World Food Program, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees) and the emergence of the non-govenmental movements of the late 70s to today. In the remainder of the semester, we will devote ourselves to in-depth investigations of six examples of 'humanitarian crises' and responses, starting with the Somali crisis (1990–1993), the wars in Bosnia and Croatia (1991–1995), the famine and civil war in the Sudan (1983-present), the Rwandan genocide and the following refugee crisis (1994–1996), the Kosovo crisis (1999), and concluding with an analysis of humanitarian aid and challenges in Afghanistan from the late 70s to today. The seminar will focus on assessing the limits and possibilities of humanitarianism, and in particular on its relation to international politics—especially the politics of military intervention—and to state sovereignty, on the ethics of giving care and bearing witness, on the rrole of the mass media and on the professionalization of the 'aid business'.
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Growth, Technology and Development: The New Economy in the World
How do economies grow? Has the New Economy changed what we know about development around the world? This course will examine the sources of economic growth since the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution, as well as the latest economic growth theory, in trying to explain the problems of economic and social development in poor and developing nations. Is technology the main source of growth? Can other nations, including poor nations, benefit from high technology? Are strong institutions and governance now also the keys to growth? What, in sum, are the causes of the great divergence in the past century between rich and poor nations? The incidence of failed development policies is remarkably high. We will search for more useful, pragmatic and hopeful approaches.
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Global Social Entrepreneurship and Strategic Philanthropy
This course explores how philanthropy affects social entrepreneurship and global change. A “social entrepreneur” is a social action pioneer who applies innovation and leadership strategies to promote humanitarian social change; a social entrepreneur tackles root causes of entrenched social problems, seeing social challenges as opportunities to create solutions and catalyze systemic change. Through readings, guest lectures and simulations, students learn how to analyze global challenges and explore the philanthropic strategies for addressing them. In particular, students will focus on: climate change and energy, global health, poverty alleviation, and human rights. In each area, student teams will engage in simulations and review, analyze, and suggest promising youth-led social enterprises, culminating in class presentations of their findings and recommendations for allocation of philanthropic funds.
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Global Political Economy and Risk
This course will address the origins, dynamics and future of the global political economy. We will begin with the recent historical context, established by the Atlantic Charter and the Breton-Woods Agreement, and the evolution of key institutions—WTO, the IMF and the World Bank—which were designed to shape and govern international trade and financial interactions. We will proceed to the current debate about the characteristics of this system, its relationship to traditional concepts of sovereignty and to state power, its interaction with other aspects of "globalization" such as resource scarcities, cultural transformation, rise of NGOs and the threat of terrorism and transnational crime, and the debate about the system's fragility or resilience. We will then devote several sessions to an assessment of the net benefits/effects of globalization, as reflected in the growing—and increasingly quantitative—literature on the subject. Recent (and forthcoming) books by Bhagwati, Rodrik, and Stiglitz, will frame this debate. Finally, we will distill from the literature on the dimensions and effects of the global political economy, some key drivers of change—technology, government and intergovernmental policy decisions, the rise of MNCs, military conflicts, etc.—and use these to construct alternative scenarios for the future of the global political economy.
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Global Environmental Issues
Expansion of the scale of human activity in recent years has put strain on the natural environment of the planet. In some cases we have exceeded the limits of nature’s ability to recuperate and the damage or harmful effects in one part of the world do not stop in the that area, but go beyond national borders and become environmental problems on a global scale. Global environmental issues are not independent and separate from each other, but are mutually linked together in complex ways. Human beings are the victims of global environmental problems, and also the culprits.
This course will analyze the mechanisms of a healthy planet, benefits derived from functioning ecosystems, threats to the environment, and alleviation of these global environmental problems. The barriers to mitigation caused by the international politics of the environment will be analyzed through close examination of United States policies, the roles played by the World Bank, United Nations, and non-governmental and other institutions and the processes of negotiating international environmental agreements. Global climate change, pollution and contamination, biodiversity loss, habitat loss and degradation, population and consumption, and other transboundary environmental issues are among the threats considered in this context. Mitigation discussions will focus on protection and restoration of biodiversity, management of ecosystems, education and outreach, reducing resource demand, and regulatory frameworks. Emphasis will be placed on addressing each of these from a variety of disciplinary perspectives and institutional settings with examples drawn from both developed and developing countries.
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Democratization in Global-Historical and Conceptual Focus
Democracy and democratization have been the political catchwords of the post-WWII era, a time that has witnessed a proliferation of democratic regimes. That being said, even a cursory perusal of contemporary political regimes yields a wide variety of democratic (or democratizing) systems. Thus, the starting point for the course is a determination of the conceptual and practical underpinnings of democracy, for if we no solid vision of what a democracy looks like, any talk of democratizing is rendered meaningless. So, is democracy in the eye of the beholder? Indeed, even the communist dictatorships called themselves "People's Democracies." From a fairly abstract philosophical base, discussions shift toward the problems and prospects (conceptual and practical) of modern democracy. Next, historical trajectories and contemporary trends in democratization are explored on a regional basis; cases come from North and South America, Southern Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Conceptual issues are dealt with throughout the course, sometimes in specific focus (e.g. the role of the military in South America) and in general during class discussions. The role of capitalism and markets, of a free press, of citizen participation are all covered in the course materials.
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Civil Society in World Politics
This seminar examines the rise and politics of civil society at home and abroad. It explores, first, debates over the meaning of civil society and related terminology such as "social capital" and "civic engagement," and the importance of civil society organizations, from civic associations to protest groups, to democratic performance and stability. The seminar then looks at the configuration of civil society across a wide range of states, from the United States to Western Europe to Latin America to the post-Communist world. The aim is to compare and contrast how civil society affects the nature and quality of democracy in different countries. The final part of the seminar examines the economic and political effects of what has been termed "global civil society," from the Internet to the rise of international NGOs. Readings include Omar G. Encarnación, The Myth of Civil Society: Social Capital and Democratic Consolidation in Spain and Brazil (2003), Bob Edwards and Michael W. Foley, ed., Beyond Tocqueville: Civil Society and the Social Capital Debate in Comparative Perspective (2001), Robert Putnam, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (1992), Grzegotz Ekiert and Jan Kubik, Rebellious Civil Society: Popular Protest and Democratic Consolidation in Poland (1999), and Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikking, Activists Without Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics (1998).
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Challenging Sovereignty: The Politics of Global Governance
Activists in Seattle, Prague and Genoa have disrupted meetings of international organizations and wreaked havoc in the streets of major cities. Do they stand for simply anarchy or a legitimate protest movement? Republican members of the US Congress have vigorously objected to US participation in numerous international organizations and multilateral treaties. Are they reactionary isolationists or defenders of sovereignty? These activities and the questions they raise for citizens reveal the complexity of the current international system. At the heart of all these issues is one of governance, or the ways in which political authorities provide order, security, and welfare to citizens. The current system is in flux between the form of governance that has characterized the last 150 years — the sovereign state — and an emerging global governance system, embodied in international organizations, supranational organizations, and non-governmental organizations. This course will explore the question of global governance by drawing on both the classical and contemporary works of politics. The focus will be on the ways in which different forms of governance operate at the global level.
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Analyzing Global Issues
This interdisciplinary seminar examines the relationship between the state and the market - between politics and economics - in this era of globalization. It will cover the origins and development of the three most powerful international economic institutions, The World Trade Organization, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. Students will place these institutions in their historical and international context, and explore their relationship to the world's most powerful and most vulnerable nations: How have they affected human rights, labor conditions, and the environment? Have these institutions contributed to global political stability and economic growth?
The course will also carefully consider the role of non- state actors, including corporations, non-governmental organizations, and individuals, in shaping contemporary, international political economy. Sources will include historical accounts, scholarly articles, official government papers, novels, films, documentaries, internet cites, and popular newspapers and magazines.