Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Introduces the interdisciplinary field of International Studies to all undergraduates and IS majors. Examines the major global challenges of our time, including poverty and inequality, environmental degradation, nationalism, civil war, and armed conflict. Explores the challenge of global governance and global citizenship. Breadth-Humanities/Social Sciences.

COURSE DETAILS:

This course equips students with the tools needed to understand international affairs and to be able to pick up on structural global inequalities. In order to do this, the course will introduce students to some of the major challenges of the 21^st century, but also to global (non-Eurocentric) perspectives on how to think about and address those challenges. The world was global before International Relations was a field. What did global affairs look like then?

With this framing, we will center anti-racist and anti-colonial ideas in our understanding of international affairs. The recommended readings will cover some of the pressing global challenges of the 21^st century which are related to: security and armed conflict, poverty, migration, nationalism, environmental change and global health. They will also provide students with the conceptual tools and a foundation for understanding international affairs while also including the work of scholars who have critiqued these conceptual tools from a social justice lens.

We will begin by examining key aspects of contemporary global affairs, including: the system of sovereign states, global capitalism, globalization, and the international human rights regime. We will also examine some of the key actors in global governance and in world affairs, including states, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and transnational corporations.

To understand the multifaceted nature of contemporary global problems, we will focus on research from across the social sciences; and we will discuss this research in relation to contemporary events.

The questions we will explore include:

• What are states and how is their sovereignty negotiated in international affairs?
• Why are some states more powerful in international institutions?
• What are the causes and consequences of war and armed conflict; and, how can such conflicts be prevented?
• Why has poverty persisted in different areas of the world and what should be done to reduce it?
• How has democracy been challenged across the world and what are some of the responses to these challenges?
• Do international human rights agreements protect individuals from political violence and from other threats to their security, dignity, and well-being?
• Why is it difficult to address environmental problems at a global level? How might progress be made in responding to these challenges?
• What are the most significant challenges in improving global health? What role do international organizations play in addressing these challenges?

This course provides valuable knowledge for careers in: international development, international law, diplomacy, human rights, humanitarianism, journalism, and environmental sustainability.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

In this course, students will develop an ability to:

• Describe and critically analyze the nature and causes of contemporary global challenges related to security, development, environmental change, migration and global
• Describe and evaluate key international responses to these challenges
• Describe and critically analyze the system of sovereign states, capitalism, globalization, and the human rights regime
• Describe and critically assess the roles played by states, intergovernmental organizations, and nongovernmental organizations in addressing global challenges
• Communicate ideas clearly and persuasively in

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: