Business and Global Affairs (BGAF)

Washington, Business, and the World initiates the BGA cohort experience with a varied collection of foundational content. The lecture content provides an important economics-based foundation to build and reinforce understanding of markets and prepare students to better appreciate and engage with complex issues at the nexus of business and global affairs. It focuses on the potential for and perils of markets as a mechanism to allocate society’s resources. It builds understanding of markets (how they work, when they work, and when they don't) and extends and deepens awareness of current global economic challenges and policy debates. Some class sessions explore applications of the interplay between businesses and societal institutions through case studies and discussion with distinguished DC-based practitioners. Other features of the course include attendance at business and policy events across DC, professional results-oriented Writing to Make Things Happen, and teamwork. A culminating team project provides an opportunity to demonstrate mastery and integration of the varied course content.

This is the first course of Washington, Business, and the World, a BGA two-course sequence with an extended format and varied collection of content. The lecture content provides an important economics-based foundation to build and reinforce your understanding of markets and prepare you to better appreciate and engage with complex issues at the nexus of business and global affairs. The overall sequence features guest speakers, DC event going, guest DC-based practitioners, Writing to Make Things Happen, and culminating experiential teamwork. The lecture sessions and readings for the first half of the course focus on various normative dimensions of the interplay between businesses and larger societal institutions, and the potential for and perils of markets as a mechanism to allocate society’s resources. Among the myriad critical questions to be addressed are the following: Are markets the “miracle” to push economic well-being forward or are they sowing the seeds of society’s demise? Under what conditions do markets work well, and under what conditions might they fail? When they fail, what mechanisms exist either within markets or externally to correct resource distortions? How do external control mechanisms such as governmental, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and institutions seek to correct market failures? What role do public and private interests play in motivating governmental and non-governmental actors? The second half pivots to a consideration of these same interrelationships but from a positive perspective: How well, in fact, do firms perform? Does their performance align with larger societal goals? What are the determinants of the success or failure of firms’ furtherance of societal goals? Conversely, how well do governmental bodies perform? What are the drivers of this performance? How important, in practice, are different economic, legal, and administrative conditions for the successful operation of governmental bodies? At a very high level, what influence do governmental bodies have over firm behavior, and what influence do firms have over governmental bodies?

Washington, Business, and the World is designed to extend and deepen your understanding of current global economic challenges and policy debates. The coursework integrates writing in the major, “Writing to Make Things Happen.” This is the second course in a three-course sequence that “threads” through the fall semesters of students’ sophomore through senior years. The “classroom” is Washington, DC, where learning opportunities related to international policy and the complexities of the global economy abound across and beyond the Hilltop. Here in the nation’s capital there is unmatched opportunity to encounter the international stage from the perspectives of the private sector and global policy. While BGAF 201 focusses on various normative dimensions of the interplay between businesses and larger societal institutions, BGAF 202 pivots to a consideration of these same interrelationships but from a positive perspective. How well, in fact, do firms perform? Does their performance align with larger societal goals? What are the determinants of the success or failure of firms’ furtherance of societal goals? Conversely, how well do governmental bodies perform? What are the drivers of this performance? How important, in practice, are different economic, legal and administrative conditions for the successful operation of governmental bodies? And, at a very high level, what influence do governmental bodies have over firm behavior, and what influence do firms have over governmental bodies?

Washington, Business, and the World is designed to extend and deepen your understanding of current global economic challenges and policy debates. The coursework integrates writing in the major, “Writing to Make Things Happen.” This is the third course in a three-course sequence that “threads” through the fall semesters of students’ sophomore through senior years. The “classroom” is Washington, DC, where learning opportunities related to international policy and the complexities of the global economy abound across and beyond the Hilltop. Here in the nation’s capital there is unmatched opportunity to encounter the international stage from the perspectives of the private sector and global policy. BGAF 201 focused on various normative dimensions of the interplay between businesses and larger societal institutions. BGAF 202 pivoted to a consideration of these same interrelationships but from a positive perspective. BGAF 203 pivots again, this time to provide a culminating experience, centered the application of normative and positive economic methods as they present themselves in cutting edge applications of the global economic challenges businesses face. Application will be drawn from based on their salience at the time of the course. Prospective applications may involve regulatory challenges facing businesses in emergent industries such as ride-hailing, the evolution and application of resource allocation policies of radio spectrum, policy challenges revolving around Big Tech, AI, cloud computing and more.

Global Organizations and Culture: Theory, Methods and Practice examines issues that leaders engage with and confront working across cultures, backgrounds, and distance. The course introduces anthropological and sociological approaches to studying culture – what it is, where it comes from, and how it influences individuals’ behavior – and examines how different cultural perspectives affect communication, negotiation, and leadership. The course presents methods and practices to effectively engage across cultures, backgrounds, and distance.

This is the first in a set of two courses (8 credits) examining the causes and consequences of the distribution of economic activity around the world with an innovative focus on the networks of suppliers, investors, and partners orchestrated by multinational corporations’ global value chains (GVCs). The distribution of employment and investment around the world has profound effects on development, inequality, prosperity, firm performance, political stability, security, and human rights. Topics include advanced international political economy and international finance, development and policy topics related to global value chains, as well as traditional international business topics such as firm-level strategy, international operations and supply chains/logistics, transfer pricing, and global corporate social responsibility.

This is the second in a set of two courses (8 credits) examining the causes and consequences of the distribution of economic activity around the world with an innovative focus on the networks of suppliers, investors, and partners orchestrated by multinational corporations’ global value chains (GVCs). The distribution of employment and investment around the world has profound effects on development, inequality, prosperity, firm performance, political stability, security, and human rights. Topics include advanced international political economy and international finance, development and policy topics related to global value chains, as well as traditional international business topics such as firm-level strategy, international operations and supply chains/logistics, transfer pricing, and global corporate social responsibility. This course contains an international, multi-location, experience which takes place at the end of the junior year. This experiential learning unit is designed to explore the causes and consequences of the distribution of economic and business activity through the lens of a particular commodity, product, or firm. The project-based experience examines global value chain networks at both the “bottom” (commodity production in lower-income countries) and the “top” (activities in higher-income countries) associated with topics such as economic policy making and international economic relations, climate change and water use, foreign direct investment, sustainability, development, human rights, labor standards and workforce development, and global financial flows.

This is the first in a two-semester, two-course sequence (8 credits) blending interdisciplinary instruction, project-based learning, open-ended research, problem solving, and on-location community engagement. In an unstructured class environment, students explore complex societal problems at the nexus of business and global affairs. Student teams identify specific real-life challenges in a particular community or location, develop innovative yet practical approaches or solutions, and share their ideas directly with the relevant community.

Business, Policy, and Society is Signature Course #4 in the BSBGA program. It is a two-semester, two-course sequence (BGAF 240 &241) that enables BSBGA students to tackle real-life global strategy problems at the intersection of business, government, and civil society. It blends interdisciplinary instruction, project-based learning, open-ended research, analytical problem-solving, and on-location engagement. Over these two semesters we will explore how to analyze and address some of the most chronic and vexing problems at the nexus of business and global affairs – often described as “wicked problems”. We will take an analytical problem-solving approach to such problems, seeking to identify practical solutions for businesses, governments, and social enterprises. The emphasis will be on developing cross-cutting skills and mindsets that are transferrable between the public and private sectors, and vice versa. Amidst the array of problems in search of solutions, we will focus particular attention throughout the year on the global challenge of climate change and sustainable economic development. We will work with noted researchers and activists to understand the origins and implications of climate change; we will explore the practical effects and challenges at local level through an on-location immersion experience; and we will work with practitioners in business, government, and civil society who are seeking to develop practical and sustainable real-world responses to the challenges that it poses. The through-line of the course is that problems like these cannot be solved by leaders of business, government, and civil society retreating into their respective corners and isolating themselves in hermetically sealed silos. Instead we need a new generation of leaders who can move comfortably and purposefully between business, government, and social activism – helping to bridge the divide of culture, motivation, and purpose that often separates them into warring factions. And we need that to happen on a global scale engaging national and multinational enterprises and institutions.

Students in the Business & Global Affairs program my apply to pursue a senior honors thesis.

Students in the Business & Global Affairs program my apply to pursue a senior honors thesis.