International Politics (IPOL)

Starting with Taiwan in January and running through the US presidential election in November, the year 2024 will bring more than 40 national elections in democracies around the world. While campaigns and election results are principally understood through the lens of domestic politics, in an interconnected world, foreign policy is not irrelevant. With two wars raging, great uncertainty in the global economy, uneven recovery from the pandemic, and broad-based evidence of the threat posed by climate change, it seems likely that foreign policy will play a role in how citizens view their choices on the various election days in 2024. In this class we will use political science theory on public opinion and foreign policy, political behavior and elections, and comparative analysis to evaluate the role of foreign policy in national campaigns and electoral results in countries that hold elections in the first half of 2024 (including the elections for the European Parliament, set to take place on June 6th through June 9th). This course is an intensive, upper-level seminar. In addition to academic scholarship, this course will require students to actively engage with recent/real-time polling and analysis and reputable news sources to develop an understanding of how foreign policy issues interact with domestic policy issues to produce specific outcomes. The main assignment for this course involves connecting the insights we can draw from the first half of 2024, to develop expectations about the role of foreign policy in future elections, including but not limited to the November US presidential election.

The aim of this course is to enable students to undertake a research project of their own. The course explores the nature of social research and offers practical advice regarding how research is done.

IPOL 210 will utilize a multidisciplinary approach to explore the meaning and experience of borders and related security concerns throughout the world. We incorporate a variety of disciplines—political science, geography, ethics, history, and demography—to examine issues of national, regional, and local identity in relation to the changing international context. After an interdisciplinary introduction to border studies, the next unit focuses on the emergence of nation-states that brought about the need for country borders. The class then examines current immigration and security issues in the United States that result from having relatively porous borders to the south. Additional units examine contested borders in India and Israel; EU immigration policy and reality, including xenophobia; refugees and asylees; reunification; and natural resources that cross national borders.

We will analyze historical and modern forces that shape borders, and then study how borders affect the economic, social, and political fabric of countries. Critical writing and presentation skills are emphasized in the course. The course culminates in a major project in which each student prepares an artifact for an online museum.

We will discuss border and security issues in a small seminar setting. Students will collaborate with classmates on several class projects, as well as work independently on assignments.

This seminar will examine current global threats, the international treaties to challenge those concerns, and the role of the United States in shaping how the global community combats those threats. The course will also highlight the relevant connections between global and domestic policies.

If hindsight is 20/20, why don’t foreign policymakers turn to historians more often? “America in the Middle East: Studies in Applied History” is an interactive seminar that equips the next generation of foreign policy practitioners with the knowledge and skills needed to identify, understand, and apply lessons from a century of U.S. involvement in the Middle East. We begin by examining how foreign policymaking is, at its core, an act of historical interpretation—a process by which policymakers, both consciously and subconsciously, draw on the past to inform their decisions about the present and future. We then review a series of policy initiatives that have defined America’s role in the Middle East, identify the historical assumptions that underpinned those choices, and evaluate how readings (and misreadings) of the past shaped their strategic outcomes and long-term consequences for both the region and the United States. In the second half of the course, students apply this historical mindset to analyze challenges the United States faces in the Middle East today. These include Great Power Competition and potential fallout from America’s strategic pivot to Asia; the rise and fall of regional powers; securing global access to energy resources; the impact of climate change on migration, security, and potential resource wars; the state of democracy and human rights; and how regional understandings of America’s historical role in the Middle East complicate ongoing efforts to establish an affirmative U.S. agenda. The instructor—a career foreign service officer at the Department of State with a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies—draws on more than two decades of experience in the region as a diplomat, academic, consultant, and journalist.

What are the origins, drivers, and consequences of identity politics? The Middle East and Gulf regions feature social distinctions and political conflicts centered around a diverse array of identities, including religion and religious denomination, tribal affiliation, nationality, class, and still others. Are these divisions a reflection of primordial animosity between different groups, or do they have their basis in more mundane competition over economic resources? And which methodological tools offer assistance in untangling such alternative explanations? This course gives an introduction into the political economy of identity politics, with special attention to the MENA/Gulf case. Students will become familiar with historical and contemporary understandings of the region’s identity-based politics, along with the social science methods that have attended this theoretical development. Emerging insights from public opinion, survey, and experimental research will receive special attention (but no statistical background is required).

At the intersection of disability and statecraft lies an untapped diplomatic superpower. This groundbreaking module reveals how disability perspectives create unique pathways for international influence, challenging traditional diplomatic frameworks while opening doors to unprecedented cooperation. This immersive learning experience begins with the difficult conversation surrounding disability narrative. Students will then discover how disability transcends conventional human rights narratives to become a powerful tool for global engagement. Drawing from real-world diplomatic victories, the course demonstrates how disability-informed approaches have successfully bridged cultural divides and advanced international objectives where traditional methods failed. Through this module you will learn the intrinsic power of disability diplomacy and the cross-cutting nature of disability as a bridge to the hard-core foreign policy concerns of the moment; whether that be a difficult bilateral relationship, a delicate negotiation, a distrustful multilateral forum, or a competitive emerging field. This module is ideal for aspiring foreign service officers, international relations professionals, policy strategists, and any diplomacy practitioners ready to expand their diplomatic toolkit beyond conventional approaches.

Human rights have long been relevant to media. Since the media has been described as the ‘fourth estate’ it plays a pivotal role in not only reporting the news but also in human rights advocacy and in promoting values such as transparency, truth and democracy. Although media is not directly recognised as part of the political system, it wields significant direct and indirect political and social influence. Through the advent of social media and so-called ‘citizen journalism’, the influence of media has grown exponentially including its influence and capacity to promote human rights. Because of the omnipresence of media today, media has also become a form of self- expression and identity. The course Media, Human Rights & International Relations will examine media roles in relation to justice and human rights and examine the challenges and opportunities that globalization and digitalization make in the context of human rights and international relations. The close relationships between the media, justice and human rights will be used as a basis for further discussions on responsibility and solidarity, especially those linked to crisis situations, and how this affects media in its different forms: the media as witnesses, the media as an arena for other witnesses, media reporting on human rights and justice and media reporting as a way to monitor and uphold human rights. The course will provide an opportunity to analyse the role of the news media and journalism in conflicts, peace efforts, and human rights. It will also consider how areas such as climate change, migration and minorities are dealt with by the media.

The digital age has radically affected the way journalists, politicians and scholars all reckon with the world. Faraway events have never felt closer, yet individuals themselves have never been more atomized, confronted by a multiplicity of sources of information. In this seminar, students will explore how the Internet and social media shape global affairs and examine the ways in which the digital age has and has not “disrupted” politics as we know it. A strong theoretical understanding of questions of nationalism, identity formation, and globalization will be combined with critical analysis of contemporary news events, including the upheavals of the Arab Spring, the spread of jihadist networks and the rise of right-wing populism in the West. Special emphasis will be placed on the role of digital journalism in an increasingly chaotic media landscape.

This 1-credit course is intended for undergraduate students in the School of Foreign Service. The purpose of the course is to provide a basic overview of modern military terminology, concepts, organizations, and operations for students who have little or no prior military background or experience. Topics that will be covered include how the U.S. Department of Defense (to include each of the military Services) is structured, a review of conventional and irregular military operations, weapons of mass destruction, military technology, and selected military operational concepts.

Increasingly, cities engage in crafting policies that directly impact the lives of immigrants. Some cities have done so with the aim of integrating and accommodating immigrants, while others make their lives as difficult as possible hoping to drive them away. This course aims to explore the importance of urban policies and spaces on the lives of immigrants across different global contexts. Where, and why do some cities craft local regimes of exclusion, while others opt for inclusion? How is diversity being lived in urban environments around the world? What does multiculturalism look like on the ground? How do local policymakers use physical spaces to demarcate zones of belonging? We will explore these questions by comparing cities from all regions of the world.

This class will explore U.S. involvement in the Persian Gulf since 1979. It will focus on key American decisions, including the decision to engage in the Tanker War of 1987-88; the decision to defend Saudi Arabia and liberate Kuwait in 1990-1991, the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 (and not to properly rebuild it); the decision to pursue the “Surge” strategy to stabilize Iraq in 2007; the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011 and their return to fight ISIS in 2014; and various decisions regarding how to address Iran’s nuclear program—including President Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign and the 2020 decision to kill Iranian general Qassim Sulaymani. The class will examine why the United States made the decisions it did in the circumstances it did. Factors we will consider will include military dynamics, energy economics, domestic politics, bureaucratic politics, the limits of intelligence, leaders and their personalities, and the lessons that American citizens and policymakers took from each prior crisis. In this way, we will chart the course of American strategy toward the Persian Gulf, both to better understand how and why the U.S. faces the situation it is in at present in the Gulf, and as a case study of how different factors shape U.S. foreign policy toward an important part of the world over the past 40 years.

The State remains a key concept for the students of International relations and comparative politics, and states remain arguably key players in global politics, even as a variety of non-state actors and international organizations complicate the picture both at the global level and within states. State-building has become an ever more important topic in places where the coherence, capacity, performance, and stability of state institutions is in question, and has come to involve state and non-state actors as well as international organizations.

After reviewing some of the main themes in state-building, this 1.5 credit course homes in on a case study of state-building experiences in Afghanistan. Part I provides a general overview of what states and state-building are. Part II covers the state-building process in Afghanistan in historical context. Part III discusses the possibilities for post-US state-building in Afghanistan: the contexts, modality, factors, state makers, opportunities, and challenges.

We will address the following questions: how did modern Afghanistan emerge as a state? What have been the historical stages of state-building in Afghanistan? Why did Afghanistan remain a weak state until 2001? What was the US approach for state-building in post-2001 Afghanistan? What were the opportunities? What were the challenges? What went wrong and why did state-building fail in Afghanistan? And what are the opportunities for state-building after the end of the US presence?

Mightier than the Sword? Assessing the Human Rights Challenge to Israel’s Apartheid: Few human rights situations around the world are as well-documented as Israel’s abuses against Palestinians. Thousands of articles and books have been penned by established journalists and academics, hundreds of hard-hitting reports issued by respected Palestinian, Israeli, and international human rights organizations, scores of cases filed in courts and dozens of resolutions passed by the UN. And yet, 75 years after Israel’s founding and the Nakba and 56 years after Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza began, Israel’s repression of Palestinians has not only continued but in many respects intensified.

This course uses the case study of Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians to evaluate the role of human rights work in situations of protracted conflict and in challenging systematic repression. The course will examine different ways that activists have attempted to improve the situation on the ground, including human rights litigation, fact-finding, policy advocacy, campaigning and narratijavascript:;ve formation, and evaluate their efficacy in the context of Israel’s prolonged occupation and repression of Palestinians. Restrictions: Campus - FQ

Course Description: Capitalism is everywhere. It shapes our lives, the lives of future generations, and sets the parameters for political debates. Thus, understanding how the economy affects politics and society and how political and social dynamics shape the economy is crucial. Seeing through the sanitized dogmatism of ideological debates surrounding the notion of capitalism is more important than ever. The core conceptual tools of economics are of little help in this. We need the help of political economy. This course will explore modern capitalism from the perspective of political science, sociology, history, and comparative political economy. No equations, no math. Only texts and debates that give meaning to numbers and allow us to understand the emergence and working of modern capitalism. The course comprises three modules: the fundamentals, the building blocks of modern capitalism, and contemporary debates. Each module consists of eight substantive sessions (lectures and discussions), one class wholly dedicated to student projects, plus one class for Q&A and the end. Assessment is based on student projects, class attendance, reading quizzes, and a final exam. Students with proven interest in pursuing an honors degree can opt for a writing project instead of the exam.

Communities around the world play a vital role on the front lines of terrorism prevention by creating public awareness about threats, and developing countering violent extremism (CVE) programs. However, to date, few practitioners have entered the field in the US, when compared to their international counterparts. This course will equip students from a practitioner and policy perspective to: 1) understand the threat of radicalization to ideologically motivated violence and recruitment tactics of extremist groups, 2) assess and compare community-based and federal government approaches to CVE, and 3) examine challenges and lessons learned from real case studies of community-oriented prevention and intervention approaches. This course will be an interactive seminar with lectures and group discussions. At the conclusion of the seminar, students will have developed a strategic plan for a prevention or intervention program in a community of their choice.

The course surveys the security environment in East Asia since the end of the Cold War. It introduces key international-relations theories and assesses their strengths and limitations in explaining real-world security dynamics. We will also compare the strategic interests of China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Russia, and the United States.

For all of its shortcomings, the Security Council is still the sole body of the UN that authorizes binding decisions, including the use of force, to maintain international peace and security. The Council has its made-for-tv moments: where geopolitical opponents confront each other directly, from the showdowns over the Cuban Missile Crisis to President Zelenksy addressing Russia’s representative.

This exciting course, by an experienced and recent negotiator at the UN, will demystify how the Security Council works, provide insights from the behind-the-scenes dynamics that keep the Council operating, where member states manage their competing geopolitical interests and find pockets of cooperation, and explore lessons from the Council’s successes, particularly through coalition-building and careful compromises.

While the Council has been gridlocked in response to key global conflicts, it still actively oversees peacekeeping forces and sanctions from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Haiti. The rules that govern many of the Council's operations require that all 15 members act unanimously. Every Council member decides how it wields its influence. Individual negotiators navigate between national priorities and the art of the possible to win over their geopolitical opponents.

This course uses the ongoing pandemic caused by COVID-19 as a point of departure to reflect on the politics of pandemics. We will complicate our received anthropocentric view of pandemics with an appreciation of the ways in which humans cohabit the planet with other species, including microbes, that remake each other over time. The very idea of being “human” may rest on the presence of non-human actors working in and around us. Dissolving the nature/culture divide that mars much historical and social-scientific thinking, we shall rethink what pandemics mean on a planet that homo sapiens seek relentlessly to subjugate for itself.

The Axis of Resistance: Iran's Project in the Middle East Professor Nadine Zataar For over forty years, the ‘Axis of Resistance’—an Iranian-led political and military coalition of resistance groups—has aimed to spoil and curb growing U.S. influence in the Middle East, something the Islamic Republic perceives as an existential threat. The coalition is a brainchild of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and includes Hezbollah in Lebanon; the Houthis in Yemen; various Shi'ite armed groups in Iraq; Palestinian militants; and Syria. This seminar explores these groups further and their ideological currents. What does it mean to resist and what is the ultimate end goal of the Axis? What is the Shi’a crescent and what role has the Shi’a revival played in garnering popular support among minority populations through the Middle East—and the globe? What fuels the popular support for the Axis and what are its relations with the larger Arab world? What is the role of Iranian hard and soft power in supporting these groups and bolstering their geopolitical position? We will make sense of these questions in part using different theories of behavior within International Relations (IR), leaning heavily into historical milestones in the Middle East. We will marry political theory with real-world case studies and policy analysis. Throughout the seminar we will discuss and critique the approaches of the Axis and U.S. policymakers with one another and consider what type of paradigm shift (if any) is needed to effectuate change. The instructor is a career U.S. diplomat with extensive experience in the Middle East and served as Director for Jordan and Lebanon at the National Security Council from 2022-2024.

The study of social and political phenomena is a vast endeavor and this class will serve as an introduction to quantitative methods for social science research. We will discuss the use of quantitative research methods as a tool to further aid you as researchers of - and participants - in social science research. The progression of this course will address scientific research design and statistics and consider many examples of such research. Students can expect to be introduced to not only the means for conducting rigorous research in social science fields but also the theory that guides the accumulation of knowledge about these phenomena. Its format will be lecture, discussion, active practice, and include formal written submissions. This course will provide students with the analytic tools necessary to understand and perform fundamental quantitative social science research, to identify its limitations and abilities, and to approach quantitative research critically.

This course will provide students with an understanding of cultural diplomacy from conceptual, historical and empirical perspectives. It will examine how cultural heritage policies as well as cultural industries (sports, music, fairs, etc.) are used as means of diplomacy, influence and persuasion in the frame of international relations. After considering the development of cultural diplomacy and the theory of soft power, students will explore the evolution of cultural diplomacy in postcolonial context. Cases will highlight the means objectives and objectives pursued by states and international institutions such as UNESCO. Next, we will compare the strategies of emerging actors such as China, United Arab Emirates, or India in a context of globalization using new channels such as social media. Featuring class discussions, lectures, multimedia illustrations and case studies, this course will allow the students to explore in a practical way cultural diplomacy in today's world.

This course examines the full scope and scale of diplomacy, with emphasis on the different tools and types of diplomacy and their relevance in achieving international policy objectives.

This course will draw on the professor’s 19 years of Department of State and Congressional experience, drawing on personal anecdotes from her time working on the Qatar-USA Year of Culture, the U.S.-Qatar Strategic Dialogue, the Afghanistan withdrawal, Women’s Rights at the United Nations, Cultural Preservation, as well as Diversity and Multiculturalism in America. The class will include relevant case studies, current articles, guest lectures, and field trips, as appropriate. Students will be required to present a series of policy papers relevant to global diplomacy tradecraft rooted in international politics and will be expected to collaborate within preset groups on the formation and signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) related to any of the forms of diplomacy discussed in class.

Students will benefit from an academic and practical approach to diplomacy, being exposed to avant-garde techniques and the future direction of diplomacy in real-time. While the primary focus will be on U.S. efforts, comparative international perspectives, such as on international diplomatic cooperation in the protection, recovery, and restoration of international cultural antiquities, will be explored. Learning about the tools and types of diplomacy and its agents as they exercise influence or “soft power,” students will gain a critical understanding of the importance of diplomacy as a key determiner of foreign policy and as a counter-narrative to military defense strategy.

In an interconnected world informed by social media, citizens no longer let “traditional diplomats” define the work of foreign policy. With transnational issues becoming glocal, “the great body of citizens are refusing to wait until negotiations are over or policies are acted upon or even determined. They demand to know what is going on and to have an opportunity to express their opinions at all stages of diplomatic proceedings.” Over a century later, these words famously articulated by former U.S. Secretary of State, Elihu Root, ring louder than ever.

This course examines the full scope and scale of what is known as Track II diplomacy, practiced by citizens and non-state actors (NGOs included), as well as multi-track diplomacy (between official and non-official actors). According to an article posted by the British Council, “the current system of formal international diplomacy is no longer fit for purpose,” … “insufficiently open or inclusive of those most affected by global decision-making.” We will examine various actors, their agendas, and their supportive/disruptive role in world politics on the national and world stage as contemporary and important complements to traditional Track I diplomacy (official diplomatic channels aka “traditional diplomacy”).

What is Power – what are ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ power? What is their relevance in Diplomacy ? And what role do military, political, and economic strength, as well as culture play in diplomacy? This course examines the role of power in contemporary diplomatic practice by discussing theoretical considerations as well as analyzing practical applications through a number of case studies. This course will introduce students to the conceptual, theoretical, and historical foundations of power in order to develop a systematic understanding of the significant role the four sources of social power in Diplomacy play. We will also examine and analyze a variety of case studies, and students will have the opportunity to apply their knowledge through a number of projects, group based as well as individual, focusing on regions of their interest. The course is structured in 3 parts. The first part introduces the notion of power, it different types and their significance for the conduct of diplomacy. To conclude this part, students will be asked to compose a reading synthesis as part of their group work assignment as a means to sharpen their critical reading and writing skills. Part 2 shifts the focus to the notion of Soft Power, focusing in particular on diffusions and transitions, as well as the impact of culture. Students will have the opportunity to apply their knowledge on the critical analysis of a variety of case studies as part of their group work assignment. Part 3, also taking student’s research interest into consideration, will focus on the practical implementation of soft power by discussing the practice of cultural diplomacy of a selection of actors, such as Cold War Russia and the US, 21st century China, and others.

This course examines the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), media, and politics. We aim to look past “AI doomerism,” the gloomy view that smart machines will overpower and/or replace humanity in the short to medium run. Instead, we wish to explore with students how social and political realities are being (re-)shaped by AI algorithms, focusing on the capabilities and limitations of the new digital tools and platforms. Dispelling myths and misinformation that abound online and offline, we shall also pay close attention to the nature of threats and opportunities posed by AI for politics today in democratic and nondemocratic contexts. Focusing on the upcoming US elections this fall, we aim to develop a shared, hands-on approach to issues of algorithmic manipulation, misinformation campaigns, and extreme or hate speech. We will reflect together on the ethics of AI with respect to digital privacy, freedom of expression, and race, gender, and decoloniality online. We will also situate the US elections in a comparative perspective in a year where over fifty elections are being held in countries such as the UK, EU, India, Indonesia, Ghana, and Mexico. A comparative lens can help us make sense of what is distinctive about emerging technopolitical realities in the United States vis-a-vis the rest of the world, and to what extent American exceptionalism is justified in the current circumstances. Over fourteen weeks, students will be expected to design and undertake their own research projects. We expect students to be more than passive listeners and readers. They will, in fact, produce new, cutting-edge knowledge on a critical yet unexplored area of world politics today. In other words, this seminar is focused on real-world applications and original research as much as it is on acquainting students with the best available scholarship on the subject.

This course examines the Gulf states as sovereign political actors navigating an era of accelerating great power competition, regional fragmentation, and active armed conflict. Beginning with the historical formation of Gulf polities and the colonial architectures that shaped their boundaries, institutions, and identities, the course moves through the political economy of small statehood, rentier theory, and the structural conditions that define Gulf foreign policy calculus. Students will analyse how Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman position themselves within, and actively shape, regional security orders, diplomatic frameworks, and international alignments. The course centres the ongoing US-Iran-Israel war as a live analytical laboratory, tracing how the conflict exposes fault lines in sovereignty, identity, and belonging across the Gulf. Special attention is given to the role of religion and political Islam in underwriting and destabilising political authority; to the media ecosystems and information warfare strategies that Gulf states deploy in wartime; and to the gendered dimensions of national identity construction and women's political agency. Demographic pressures, geographical vulnerabilities, and the internal contradictions of states that must simultaneously project stability outward and manage profound social transformation within are examined as structural, not peripheral, concerns. Drawing on postcolonial IR theory, small state scholarship, rentier state theory, and political sociology, this course treats Gulf states not as passive objects of great power competition but as consequential actors whose choices, constraints, and agency demand serious analytical attention. Students leave with the theoretical vocabulary and empirical grounding to interpret one of the most consequential regional orders in contemporary world politics.

Why do human beings live in political communities, and why do these communities go to war? What does justice look like on a battlefield? Do members of an international order owe anything to each other? How is politics within countries different from politics between countries? In the absence of a global governing authority, is there such a thing as international law? How did the state system emerge? These questions are core to the study of international politics. In this course, we will explore the principles and debates of international politics, and trace their source to figures like Aristotle, Aquinas, Augustine, Hugo Grotius, Thomas Hobbes, Machiavelli, Edmund Burke, and Hannah Arendt. By seeing these debates emerge in history, we will learn the conceptual stakes that have led to the current practice of international politics — and what it could become in the future. Key topics include international law, just and unjust wars, morality in politics, state sovereignty, humanitarian intervention, human rights, and global justice.

The state can look very different depending on who you are: it categorizes, taxes, polices, and provides. For some it is a guarantor of safety and for others, an obstacle to survive or evade. This seminar is about that relationship, focusing on how states construct authority and how people obey, resist, or transform it. Students will engage with three sets of questions. First, what does the state want from the people it rules and what does it need to know about them to get it? How do states count, name, and classify populations, and what happens to those who don’t fit? Second, what do people want from those who rule them? We ask how they live under state authority, exploring what domination and resistance mean to ordinary people and the many forms they take—from compliance to everyday resistance, evasion, and simply surviving. Third, how might networks and organized movements challenge power? And how do powerful actors absorb or defuse those challenges? We will examine these questions drawing on cases from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and beyond, combining comparative politics, international relations, and insights from related fields. Each student will choose one country and population to follow throughout the semester, applying course concepts to their case of choice in a series of class discussions and assignments.

This course is taught at Georgetown's Villa Le Balze in Fiesole, Italy. The post-Cold War international security landscape is being redrawn by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its impact. Institutions and policies alike are being questioned, undermined, or reframed with lasting consequences for the international system. Crises and challenges from the Covid pandemic to climate change had already placed the international order under stress, with a world dominated by uncertainty, a lack of shared security, and the fragmentation of expected norms of international society. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has dramatically exposed the fragility of the international system and its vulnerable interdependencies. Paradoxically recent challenges (and above all Russia-Ukraine) have simultaneously undermined the structures of international cooperation and solidarity and rendered them ever more critical and essential. This course will endeavor to set out the existing foundations of international security: the United Nations system with its political, economic, and social components (including human rights); international development and financial institutions; the European Union, regional security and institutions (including Brexit); NATO and the Western Alliance, as well as other alliances; and explore how all of these have been shaken and may be transformed by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The course will also look at communications and their impact on the conflict, including propaganda and “fake news”; humanitarian initiatives and principles in the wake of Afghanistan and Ukraine; the role of the private sector in the current conflict; energy, climate change, and food security challenges raised or exacerbated by the conflict; sustainability and the fate of the UN SDGs. Please reach out to the Office of Global Education with any questions.

Since winning independence from Britain in 1947, India has always been a regional power to reckon with. With a huge linguistically, culturally and ethnically diverse population, it has functioned as a vibrant democracy for over five decades. In the last twenty years, it has also become an economic powerhouse and a nuclear weapons state. These factors along with the rise of China and 9/11, have catapulted it into the international limelight. Today it is an acknowledged rising power with international clout. This course examines the complex dynamics of India’s rise, focusing on the major elements of its foreign policy and its role in the world. It studies this within the context of Indian politics and history and uses IR theory to understand and analyze its behavior.

This course is a course in applied ethics. It will introduce fundamental concepts in moral reasoning and ethical decision-making. It will then apply those concepts to case studies of individuals, many of them public officials, from various countries and at various stages in their lives and careers, who faced an ethical challenge and rose to the occasion by putting key elements of character and virtue into action. It thus bridges the worlds of theory and practice. What is character? What is virtue? And how are they practiced --- or not --- in the real world? Why and how did some individuals rise to the occasion, and others did not? These are among the questions we will explore in this course.

This course will describe modern political borders and their historical antecedents. It is a two and on half hour course designed to provide you with regional overviews of the evolution of the world political map since 1800. Our objective is to enhance your basic knowledge of the political map of the modern world as a next step in further understanding world events and international relations. The method of instruction includes lecture, discussion, class participation and is supported by individual or group study of maps, and weekly preparation and study. The lecture will focus on the evolution of the modern political map of each of the regions we discuss and the major nationalist, ethnic, boundary, and territorial tensions and conflicts within each area.

This course will be an exploration of the basics of Christianity and their relationship, if any, to the history and development of International Relations. At the outset we will make a brief overview of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to provide context for the idea of religion affecting relations among peoples.

While most International Relations theory is considered a product of the last century or two, peoples and thier governments have had relations wherever and whenever they existed. Culture and religion have influenced these international relations of the past. Some think Christianity has dominated the development of political thought and International Relations and, thus, has dictated the political solutions to the problems facing competing entities in an evolving world order. Others think that International Relations began as a secular subject, and its secular nature was confirmed and cemented from the Enlightenment to the present day. In this course we will examine both ends of the spectrum. We may find maddeningly ambivalent answers in history.

Together, we will explore the ideas and doctrines of Catholicism, Christianity, and International Relations over history. After a general outline of these subjects, our main focus will be the overlap, if any, between them. You all probably know at least some of this material. What we will do in this class is to align the elements in context. As a template, we will examine this relationship with the hypothesis of Christianity as the independent variable for the function that causes of events in International Relations. During the course we will debate and decide if this hypothesis is valid or invalid. In this way, we can have one historical picture of the relationship between governments in the context of a religion. Along the way, we examine both sides of the argument in the details of specific periods in history. This will give us a framework we can use when examining the same relationships with other religions, other cultures, other times, and speculations about the future.

This class will explore threats and circumstances impacting the homeland security of the United States. Specific areas of focus will include homegrown violent extremism and domestic terrorism, cyber-attacks, international terrorism, immigration, transnational drug trafficking, transportation security, influence operations by foreign intelligence organization, domestic intelligence gathering and information sharing activities. The class will include extensive discussion on the privacy and civil liberty implications of current homeland security efforts. Students will be expected to stay up-to-date on current events.

In the seven decades since World War II, the number of wars between states had declined enormously compared to any previous period in human history. What we have seen instead is a very large numbers of civil wars, insurgencies, guerrilla conflicts and terrorist campaigns, often involving great powers as participants or supporters of local proxies. As of 2019, four such conflicts are occurring in the Middle East and North Africa alone (in Yemen, Syria, Libya and Israel-Palestine). Some of these wars have been of immense global and historical importance. The Afghan Jihad of the 1990s helped to destroy the USSR. The Vietnam War created rifts in US society that remain to this day and helped create the conditions for the election of Donald Trump. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have contributed to the decline of US global hegemony. The war in Yemen threatens the stability of Saudi Arabia and of global oil supplies. The uprising in Kashmir risks nuclear war between India and Pakistan. This course will explore the nature and general patterns of insurgency and counter-insurgency in the modern world. In teaching it, Professor Anatol Lieven will use historical accounts, memoirs, theoretical analyses, and both documentary and fictional films. He will also draw on his personal experience as a British journalist covering a range of such conflicts: on both sides of the Afghan war of the 1980s; on both sides of the Russo-Chechen War of 1994-96; in the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban insurgencies since 2001; and in a range of ethnic and ethno-religious conflicts in the Caucasus and South Asia over the past 30 years. Insurgencies and resistance movements have been the subject of some of the greatest films (both fictional and documentary) ever made. This course will therefore include weekly film screenings. Attendance at these will be optional and ungraded. Each student will however have to choose and watch one film and make a presentation about it to the class. An initial list of these films is included below.

The course will introduce students to the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. Students will examine the gendered aspects of conflict and peace including the role women play in national and international security, conflict resolution, peace-building, and post-conflict recovery. Drawing on original research from the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, the course will explore the impact of women’s participation in armed conflict, conflict prevention, peacekeeping, mitigating humanitarian emergencies, post-conflict transitions, and economic recovery. Using UN Security Council resolutions and other international mechanisms, we will introduce students to the international normative framework underpinning the WPS agenda. The course will also take a critical look at the implementation of the WPS Agenda to identify gaps and challenges and to develop comprehensive, realistic, and effective response

Counterintelligence and National Security The faculty for this new seminar is in a VERY high-level Intel position! Counterintelligence and National Security is an upper class seminar which explores the theory and practice of counterintelligence as a part of U.S. national security. Taught from a practitioner’s perspective, the course begins with the fundamental question of why nations conduct intelligence activity, continuing into an exploration of both the various foreign intelligence services targeting the U.S. and, using real world examples, the range of intelligence activity they employ, including traditional intelligence collection, economic espionage, and disinformation. While the course touches on the historical evolution of intelligence and counterintelligence, the bulk of the coursework focuses on the post-Cold War international security environment. While not required, prior course work in international security theory and the structure and implementation of U.S. national security policy is preferred. The course includes a moderate amount of reading relating to both historical and current counterintelligence case studies. The course and graded material are designed to expose students to the type of issues and work they would be expected to perform as entry level professional employees within the U.S. intelligence community. Students will be expected to participate in class discussion, research leading to an individual in-class briefing of a current counterintelligence topic, and a final exam.

U.S. National Security in an Era of Great Power Competition--The central question of this course is: "What is 'great power competition' and what does it mean for U.S. national security policy today?" In order to answer this question, the course will examine three sets of issues. First, the course explores the meaning of “great power competition.” As part of this examination students will consider various forms of competition and what they imply for the strategic choices of key actors. Second, this course will examine recent, contemporary, and likely future developments in the international system in order to assess where the world is, indeed, entering a new period of “great power competition.” Finally, the course will consider the implication of the ‘great power competition’ frame for U.S. national security policy. By the end of the course, students will have the analytical tools to assess the nature of great power competition and develop models and frameworks to inform recommendations about U.S. foreign policy decisions.

Part Of Term (P.O.T.) Seminar--Last day to Drop: TBA; Last day to Withdraw: TBA; -Meeting Dates: Tuesday 9/22/20: 6:30-8:30; Tuesday 9/29/20: 6:30-8:30; Saturday 10/03/20: 9:00-5:00; Tuesday 10/06/20 6:30-8:30; Most Americans are fascinated by the battle of Gettysburg, and those who aren’t should be. It was in many ways the defining battle of the defining war of American history. Had Lee won, the United States might well have ceased to exist a mere “four score and seven years” after it was born. And if his defeat at Gettysburg didn’t bring the war to an end, it powerfully shaped the remaining months of the struggle. Meanwhile, questions about the wisdom of invading the North and running the battle as Lee did fascinate students of strategy and military art. Lee’s presence at Gettysburg late in June of 1863 was the expression of a strategy for winning that was neither shared nor entirely supported by his Confederate colleagues in Richmond. His defeat was in part the result of technological forces that were reshaping war in ways that some argue doomed his effort even before it began. Culminating in a day-long tour of battlefield, this short course will place the battle of Gettysburg in the broader context of, first, the South’s strategic debate, and, second, the broader technological and social forces shaping war in the mid-19th Century. The tour itself will highlight timeless themes of warfare – the importance of intelligence and terrain, the limits of command and control, the changing balance between fire and maneuver. On the ride back from Gettysburg we will discuss the outcome of the battle and the war as a whole, addressing questions about strategic goals achieved or left unfulfilled.

IPOL 330 ISD Fellows Seminars

These seminar courses are taught by active duty State Department foreign service officers or U.S. army or air force officers who are resident fellows at the SFS Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. The courses examine the tough questions and dilemmas in the practice of contemporary diplomatic and/or military statecraft, They rely on cases studies, policy-related research, and group exercises that focus on the the changing nature of the policy tools available to states and the context in which they are used. Written assignments tend to be short briefs that reflect the kind of work required in the worlds of foreign and national security policy.

Iran and its Arab Gulf neighbors have taken steps in recent years to de-escalate tensions, even as the prospect of a regional armed conflict still looms large. This seminar explores how and why this happened. Will competing claims for regional hegemony by Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates spell a future of competition and conflict? What is the role of smaller but important players such as Qatar and Oman? How has China’s creeping influence in the Middle East changed the geopolitical landscape? We will make sense of these questions in part using different coalition-building theories of behavior within International Relations. We will absorb a healthy dose of theory, but more importantly we will apply it to real world policy analysis. Our focus throughout the seminar will be on how to craft a compelling memo using vivid writing and persuasive arguments. The instructor is a career U.S. Foreign Service Officer who served recently as Director for Gulf Affairs at the National Security Council.

This course critically examines theories and the practice of violent radicalization and recruitment, as well as the policies and approaches aimed at countering it. It focuses on “homegrown” radicalization and recruitment into Al Qaeda, ISIS and related movements and networks in Europe and North America, but considers other extremist movements, including the far-right.

The course consists of three parts. It begins by exploring the theoretical foundations of radicalization and recruitment, introducing students to the various radicalization models that have been developed while also offering insight into the academic criticisms the study of radicalization has faced over the last decade and a half. The second part takes at how radicalization has manifested in the West, with a focus on how ISIS has recruited and operated in America. It will include discussion on the use of the Internet by extremists, how the role of women in terrorism has evolved and the emergence of lone-actor terrorism. Finally, the course examines counter-radicalization in theory and practice, including a number of case studies and providing a summary overview of de-radicalization programs.

This class is a general introduction to the study of terrorism and political violence. The purpose of the course is to expose students to major theoretical debates and broad empirical patterns of terrorism and intrastate conflict. We will begin by examining what constitutes political violence and what motivates individuals to consider violence against each other. We will then discuss how individuals organize to protect their political interests and eventually move to violent tactics, such as terrorism. We will discuss the types of tactics used by violent groups as well as responses of the state. We will then move to the study of collapsed states, where problems of terrorism have grown to very large proportions. Finally, we will discuss the international implications of political violence as well as possibilities for conflict resolution.

This seminar is intended for students interested in thinking through questions like the following:

· Do contemporary Just War Theorists think the use of predator drone strikes against suspected terrorists is justifiable?

· If a detainee at Guantanamo is not designated a “Prisoner of War,” and the US Government does not plan to indict and try the detainee as a criminal suspect, might the government be justified, nonetheless, in detaining that individual indefinitely?

· Does International Human Rights Law still obtain even during war and conflict—or do the Laws of War [International Humanitarian Law] hold sway?

· Does the emerging international norm of “Responsibility to Protect” justify regime change or only direct protection of civilians under fire?

This seminar will require in-depth reading and seminar-quality discussion. The format is deliberately “old school," in that the Prof and students gather in a living room to wrestle with assigned texts and questions while partaking of British-style Tea-Time.

Prerequisites: Just War Theory finds its wider intellectual home within Political Theory. So it is expected that those who enroll in this class will have completed “Social and Political Thought” or “Elements of Political Theory.” While knowledge of Just War Theory is beneficial, a student without such background who is willing to do some catch-up work in preparation is welcome to enroll.

Why do states, societies and individuals go to war with each other? What determines the patterns of violence within and between communities? Can any durable solution be found to the problem of permanent insecurity that Thomas Hobbes theorized lay in human nature itself? Or is the incidence of mass conflict actually decreasing and are international law and international organizations successfully curtailing the tendencies of emerging powers, nationalist movements and terrorist networks to violently impose their will on others? This course aims to provide students with an understanding of the dominant academic theories that explain the nature and character of war- its causes and consequences, its protagonists and victims, its macro-political importance and psychological underpinnings. By drawing on in-depth case studies from around the world and a rich historical literature, students will explore both paradigms that seek to account for aggregate violent behaviour of humans and conceptual frames that rethink how to bring societies closer together and heal the deep divisions within them after conflict.

This course focuses on public opinion about foreign policy, with an emphasis on the relationship between public attitudes and the use of military force. We will study the range of factors that scholars use to explain public support for war (casualties, policy objectives, perceptions of success, elite cues, and values) and consider how political systems, media environments, and what we know about how people process information influences the likelihood that citizens will hold their leaders accountable. The traditional canon on war and public opinion is focused on democratic publics and, mostly, on one public, the American public. This course will leverage key insights from that work but has been designed to be comparative in nature. We will evaluate differences among democracies, and consider relatively new research on the role of public opinion in nondemocratic regimes. This course incorporates theory from international relations and comparative politics along with foundational work in political psychology, which is critical to interpreting public opinion data. Students will be expected to design a comparative case study project and conduct an original exploratory analysis of public opinion data on foreign policy.

Corporate security is an expanding industry as multi-national corporations have increased their footprint across the globe and their interconnection with political entities. Intelligence analysis is a critical aspect of corporate security, and it is a diverse sub-field that covers protective intelligence for executive protection teams, travel security for business travelers going to volatile regions, strategic intelligence to help businesses understand how politics will impact investments, security operations centers tracking threats on campuses, and many other areas.​ This proposed course will take a multi-faceted approach to intelligence analysis in corporate security, starting with important questions, such as: What is intelligence and how does it differ from data/information? How is corporate security structured? How does intelligence fit within that structure? And how does one do intelligence analysis in the context of corporate security? Other topics that will be covered will focus on practical aspects of intelligence work in corporate security. This includes open-source intelligence (OSINT), political risk analysis, red teaming ideas, and report writing in a corporate context.

This course is on global health security taught by an expert in emerging infectious diseases who is a senior policy researcher and military advisor.

This course provides a comprehensive understanding of the foreign aid and development programs of the Gulf states since their establishments. It begins by providing a brief analysis of theories and concepts of foreign aid and international relations. This will be followed by examination of origins, evolution, types, and mode of foreign assistance of the Gulf donors. The course will provide analysis as to ‘Why the Gulf States give aid?’, and therefore, will examine aid motives in depth. It investigates the politics of the Gulf foreign aid. Students will have the opportunity to understand in detail the foreign aid of the four main Arab aid donors, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Since the quadrupling of oil prices in early 1970s, the four Gulf donors emerged as major aid donors in the region. During the past twenty-five years, those donors have been competing to exert power and influence in the Middle East using financial assistance. In addition, the course will be looking at the aid recipient from both Arab and non-Arab countries. The course concludes by examining the future relationship between oil and aid in the Gulf. The Gulf States have used aid as a significant tool in their foreign policies, but what role these states can play after oil.

This course – an introduction for students interested in public policy and law – will examine the foundations of U.S. national security law: the bodies of law that empower (and restrain) the exercise of our criminal enforcement, military, and intelligence authorities, against threats to the United States. We will examine and discuss U.S. constitutional law, U.S. criminal law, the law of armed conflict, domestic and foreign surveillance laws, the law of covert action, and related topics. Through readings, class discussion (a crucial part of the course), and visiting experts, we will examine the major issues in national security law – from drone strikes to federal criminal prosecutions – that animate ongoing, difficult, and nuanced public policy debates.

This course is intended to provide a detailed understanding of the history and contemporary nature of US foreign and security policy, in terms of both general approaches and strategies concerning particular issues and regions. It will introduce students to the leading academic debates on the underlying motivations and forms of US policy, and to the leading contemporary public debates on what present and future US policies ought to be. The first part of the course will deal with the history of the external relations (both diplomatic and military) of the United States, and US domestic developments insofar as they have shaped external policy: for example, the impact of the Frontier experience and Frontier cultural imaginaries on US attitudes and behavior. The second part will cover the main theoretical approaches and debates concerning the origins and nature of US policy. The third part will deal with US institutions, parties, groups, and forces responsible for creating and shaping US foreign and security policy. The fourth part will deal with US policies concerning specific issues, countries, and regions of the world, including the past history of US engagement in these areas. The final part of the course will look briefly at the possible future issues and challenges facing US policy, and how the USA is likely to respond and behave.

Within all democracies, there is an inherent tension between secrecy and transparency, and that’s especially so in the national security realm. In this country, that tension has come into sharper focus in recent years, engendering a national debate over intelligence and broader national security activities and programs that continues today. Attacks against our democracy by foreign intelligence services have added to the spotlight, putting Washington in the awkward spot of having to speak to activities that heretofore have taken place in the shadows. This course will take an in-depth look at those trade-offs through both theoretical readings and practical, real-world examples. It will call upon students to articulate how they would manage that balance, taking into consideration often competing priorities policymakers face. Among the topics that will be covered in depth—primarily through the U.S. lens—are questions of the mandate of intelligence services, civil liberties bestowed on U.S. citizens and foreign nationals, whistleblowers, leakers, official declassifications, and the role of the media in navigating the balance between secrecy and transparency. The course will have a heavy emphasis on applying the material to topical issues and headlines.

Leaders in the national security and foreign policy arena are responsible for high-stakes endeavors, and many (not just the military) are entrusted with America’s sons and daughters, making strong leadership an imperative. Building leaders is an art and the cornerstone is teaching individuals to first lead themselves. This highly interactive course explores the basic tenets of leadership through the lens of individual growth and development. A broad range of topics within the psychology, sociology, and national security realms will be discussed; to include communication strategies, conflict resolution, constructive feedback, and coaching skills. Through self-assessments, readings, podcasts, guest lectures, case-studies, seminar discussions, and simulations, students will learn the basics of leading others, build their leadership philosophy, develop a strong foundation of self-awareness, and practice applying the skills to different real-world scenarios. No prior leadership experience is required to take this course. The course is designed to give students of all experiences and personality types a foundation in fundamental leadership skills.

This course will examine the foundations of US national security law: The bodies of law that empower and the bodies of law that restrain the 0exercise of national power against threats to the country. It will look at US constitutional law, US criminal law, the law of armed conflict, human rights law, domestic surveillance law, and the law of covert action.

It is designed as an introduction for non-lawyers to the complex fabric of domestic and international law that regulates US national security practices. Each week, the course will examine a single major case and its antecedents, through which it will look at a national security problem as seen through the lens of the law. The course is designed to illustrate the ever-growing fabric of law that governs American national security activities--from prosecutions in federal court to drone strikes to battlefield operations.

Diplomacy is never easy. Developing and implementing a coherent and comprehensive foreign policy in a country or region at conflict can be even more challenging. Much of the academic, political, and media attention is often focused on U.S. foreign policy shortcomings or blunders. This course will instead look at successful U.S. foreign policy initiatives in conflict states, and attempt to glean positive lessons from these experiences and apply them to current challenges. In the first half of the semester, we will examine U.S. policy in the Balkans (1990s) and Colombia (2000s), with a particular focus on the latter where 15 years of uninterrupted U.S. support played a critical role in that South American country's transformation from a near-failed narco-state to a rapidly growing and forward-looking middle-income ally. Although significant challenges remain, and the word “success” should be used with a measure of modesty in both contexts, these cases nonetheless provide fertile ground for us to better understand how to get a diplomatic intervention largely right. In the second half, we will apply the lessons learned from these positive U.S. foreign policy initiatives to current conflict situations such as in Iraq and Syria. Your grade for this course will be based on classroom engagement and three written assignments (concise, short papers) due throughout the semester. The instructor is an active duty Foreign Service Officer with diplomatic experience in the Middle East, Europe, and Latin America, including his most recent assignment working with the US Special Envoy to the Colombia Peace Process.

In September 2014, former U.S. President Barack Obama outlined a strategy to degrade and defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), effectively beginning a campaign against the organization. As Operation Inherent Resolve nears its third year, this campaign does not appear to be drawing to a close any time soon. Despite Coalition operations successfully rolling back some ISIL-held territory, the group has maintained elements of a proto-state in Iraq and Syria. Outside actors have further complicated U.S. strategy, such as the Russian military intervention in Syria in support of the Assad regime beginning in September 2015. Ultimately, it has become clear that the current U.S. strategy will not result in a lasting defeat of ISIL. As a result, alternate strategies are commonly promoted in policy circles and President Donald J. Trump has expressed an interest in developing a new strategy to counter the ISIL threat.
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This short course will challenge the student to develop a new strategy to defeat ISIL. The course will provide you with an understanding of the existing strategy options to counter ISIL and why these approaches have and have not worked. It will also give you exposure to gaming as an analytical tool as students will play two wargames during class time.

This course examines the role of Europe, in the form of the European Union, in the economics and politics of the Israel-Palestine conflict from 1967 up to the present day. The introductory section looks at the theoretical and empirical literature on the EU as a foreign policy actor. This course is then is divided into four broadly chronological sections. Section one titled ‘From War to Camp David, 1967-1977,’ looks at the how the EU responded to the Arab-Israeli (Six-Day) War of 1967 in terms of its evolving approach to the Palestine question. It then looks at three key developments over the decade of the 1970s that greatly influenced (and serve to illuminate our understanding of) the European role in the conflict – the Oil Crisis of 1973, the Euro-Arab Dialogue (1974-79), and the Egyptian-Israeli peace process that culminated in the Camp David Agreement (1979.) Section two -1980-1993 - begins by examining the EU’s Venice Declaration of June 1980 – the most significant European statement on the Palestine question up to that time. It then looks at four other key developments that influenced the evolving European approach to Palestine during the 1980s and into the early 1990s. The first was the Israeli Invasion of Lebanon (1982); the second was the entry of Greece, Spain and Portugal into the EU between 1981 and 1987; the third was the PLO’s Algiers Declaration of November 1988, which for many in Europe appeared to legitimize the organization as a political player; the fourth was the Kuwait Crisis of 1990-91. Palestinian backing for Iraq’s invasion of its much smaller and richer neighbor had a significant impact on the Palestine issue and European policy at a crucial period at the beginning of the post-Cold War era. Section three focuses on the European role during the Oslo era between 1993 and 2000. In particular, the five classes in this section examine how the EU responded to the 1993 peace deal in terms of its engagement with the parties to the process –Israel, the Palestinians and the United States. This section attempts to measure the success or failure of the EU’s economic and political policies towards the Oslo process and it also examines the European attempt in these years to transform its major economic role in peacemaking into political influence. The fourth and final section of this course addresses European involvement in the Israel-Palestine question since the collapse of Oslo in 2000. It look at the EU’s policy response to the al-Aqsa intifada and the European attempt to balance its backing of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority with the growing popularity of Hamas. It also examines the key European role in supporting Palestinian state building in the post-2000 era. Finally, it assesses the evolving political and economic relationship with Israel and the Palestinians in recent years, at a time when the peace process is moribund. Learning Goals: This course is designed as a seminar and it is essential that all readings are done for every class. Its objective is to provide students with the opportunity to gain a deep knowledge and understanding based on the reading of primary sources and major secondary works of the relationship between Europe, Israel and the Palestinians in the economic, political and conflict resolution spheres over the last half century. This course has been designed to provide students with the tools to address the theoretical approaches and historical methodologies used in scholarly research and writing, and their effect on, and potential uses, when analyzing issues in international politics. It has also been designed to develop the student’s analytical, research and writing capabilities and to give students the opportunities to develop further their oral presentation skills by participation in class, engaging with the work of their peers and making presentations themselves. At the end of the course the student should be able to demonstrate an understanding of ? The historiographical debate relating to the evolution of EU involvement in the Israel-Palestine conflict. ? The theoretical literature relating to the EU as a foreign policy actor. ? The relationship between the EU, Israel and the Palestinians in the strategic, socio-economic, political and institutional spheres. ? The success and failure of the EU as a practitioner of conflict resolution.

This course will be an examination of the application of the military element of national power to the pursuit of national goals. The purpose of this course is to make School of Foreign Service graduates conversant with the capabilities and limitations of military power in the development and successful implementation of an integrated foreign policy. We will begin with general and theoretical material to form a framework for further discussions. We will progress through a technical section where we will examine the capabilities and limitations of military power in its various forms. Finally, we will review case studies to give our work context. Discussion, vice lecture or formal presentation, will be normal mode of the class. Our emphases will be on research, critical reading, analytical thinking, and their communication through seminar discussion, oral presentation, and discursive writing.

This one credit seminar will focus on equipping students with a foundational knowledge of the Intelligence profession and basic intelligence collection and analytical methods. This seminar is especially geared towards students who would like to develop a general understanding of key intelligence processes, terminology, and ongoing developments within the Intelligence Community. Evaluation will include writing and briefings, as well as simulations that will provide students the opportunity to act as analysts in different scenarios.

This introductory course examines the history of strategic thought—works that claim to provide understanding as to how security can be achieved in an international system with no common power. The class is structured around the following questions: • What is strategic thought? • Who has significantly contributed to strategic thought and are they still relevant in an age of high-tech warfare and clandestine, non-state actors? • Why did some historical strategies fail and others succeed and what, if anything, does this mean for current U.S. national security strategy? • How do we explain strategic thought?

This course is an advanced introduction to nuclear deterrence, focused on questions of nuclear strategy and the role of nuclear weapons in world politics. Part I introduces major concepts and controversies in the study of nuclear deterrence, focusing on theories about the role of nuclear weapons in international relations and state strategy. Part II delves into the historical episodes that have enabled us to test and develop our major theories of nuclear politics, starting with America’s atomic monopoly in World War II and then moving to the age of nuclear parity and the arms race with the Soviet Union. Superpower nuclear strategy, nuclear crises, and concerns about escalation are all addressed, along with the rise of regional nuclear powers such as Israel, India, and Pakistan. Part III leverages the theories and empirical evidence from the first two parts of the course to explore contemporary topics in nuclear deterrence. These include debates over the implications of technological change, the nuclear posture and policies of the great powers, as well as the emerging dynamics of regional nuclear competition. This part of the class will employ debates or role-playing exercises, depending on student interest.

This seminar on US Foreign Policy Making: Chaos v. Continuity will focus on the process, players and perspectives related to making and influencing US foreign policy now and in the past. We will examine the role of major players within the executive branch such as the President, National Security Council and Departments of State and Defense as well as the interagency process that has historically attempted to coordinate policy; the foreign policy role of Congress, and the influence of foreign governments as well as non-governmental interest groups and the media. We will make extensive use of current materials (media and think tank analyses, journal articles, speeches and congressional testimony) related to foreign policy players and their perspectives, as well as current and historical cases studies focused on the foreign policy making process. A further range of views and perspectives will be incorporated through guest appearances by diplomats, military officers, intelligence officials, congressional staffers, political appointee officials, NGO representatives and others directly involved in making or influencing US foreign policy. The instructor is a former US diplomat and congressional staffer who now serves as Director of Studies at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy and oversees the undergraduate certificate in diplomatic studies.

In this course, team-taught by a former intelligence officer and a former senior defense official, students will examine the interplay within U.S. national security enterprise, and how it responds to both internal and external inputs. Through a mixture of theoretical, historical and current events reading, as well as practical exercises and projects, students will gain a broad understanding of the inputs, challenges, pressures and feedback loops within the national security enterprise. We will examine the interplay of bureaucratic and political players that both inform and respond to national security requirements, the role of analysis, and the pathologies that stand in the way of efficiency, effectiveness and coherent policy. One particular focus will be the challenges of translating strategic choices into fielded military or diplomatic capability through sustained investment, especially in the face of changing intelligence estimates and priorities

Global Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction: This course examines the aspirations and capabilities of terrorist organizations and violent nonstate actors (VNSAs) to acquire, synthesize and use chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons. Students will explore the challenges associated with interdiction, planning, response, and mitigation of the consequences associated the deployment of a weapon of mass destruction (WMD). The course will introduce the history of WMDs, various terrorist organizations pursuit of these weapons and domestic and international policies and measures employed to prevent their acquisition and use. The course will culminate in a tabletop “red team” exercise aimed at placing students in crisis management, decision-making roles in a WMD scenario.

Examines the use and threat of military force in world politics. We begin by examining the nature of security, causes of war, and sources of war termination. Then, the discussion shifts to the functions of force beyond war (e.g., deterrence, compellence, symbolism) followed by consideration of how states organize to employ force (e.g., arms competitions, threat reduction). The course subsequently turns to key contemporary security issues (e.g., terrorism and counterterrorism, weapons of mass destruction, and cyberwar). We conclude with some general issues (e.g., civil-military relations, intelligence and surprise) and thoughts about the future. Beyond examinations, students complete a group project in which they develop and advocate for competing courses of action with regard to a contemporary security issue.

Part of Term Seminar: Wednesdays 08/24/22, 08/31/22, 09/07/22, 09/14/22, 09/21/22, and 09/28/22. Last day to Drop: 9/2/2022; Last day to Withdraw: 9/28/2022*. This one credit seminar will focus on equipping students with a foundational knowledge of the Intelligence profession and basic intelligence collection and analytical methods. This seminar is especially geared towards students who would like to develop a general understanding of key intelligence processes, terminology, and ongoing developments within the Intelligence Community. Evaluation will include writing and briefings, as well as simulations that will provide students the opportunity to act as analysts in different scenarios. *Please use the following link for information on non-standard course patterns: https://registrar.georgetown.edu/registration/refunds-and-tuition/non-standard-refund/

Do democracies need to conduct intelligence activities to be secure? Has the US Government fixed the issues that led to the 9/11 attacks? Is intelligence collection moral? Was Snowden a whistleblower or a traitor? This course will provide an introduction to how the US Government collects and uses intelligence to make better foreign policy and to help keep the US secure. Students will gain a broad understanding of the structure and craft of US intelligence, how the Intelligence Community interacts with policymakers and Congress, and a number of related issues such as morality and intelligence needed to understand the role of intelligence in modern US society. The instructor is a 30 year CIA veteran who also served in the Bush 43 National Security Council.

What is diplomacy? What are the main fundamental tenets of Diplomacy? What are its actors? How has diplomacy evolved throughout history? This course introduces students to the origins, history, main concepts and principles of Global Diplomacy (GD). It will explore the key tenets of GD including representation, communication, and negotiation. The course will cover the key concepts of diplomacy and the institutional development of diplomatic relations, as well as provide an in-depth knowledge of the art of negotiation. students will learn about the conditions in which diplomacy is stimulated and the nature of different diplomatic systems that arise as a result of variations in these conditions. Students will critically engage in discussions that explore the role of contemporary diplomatic practice in international affairs. This course provides an introduction to the central issues of global diplomacy. It will equip students with the language and the critical analytical tools necessary to understand the rules and principles that govern global diplomacy.

This course introduces a central feature of the contemporary international affairs – public diplomacy – and challenges the student to locate themselves as both its targets and practitioners. It further addresses fresh possibilities the advancement of new technologies has introduced to public diplomacy. International actors have always understood that success in world affairs requires engaging foreign audiences. Today, thanks to the revolution in communication technology, public diplomacy and associated issues of communication, networking and exchange have moved from being optional extras to essential tools of modern diplomacy. The class is divided into four parts. The first part will consider the key concepts of public diplomacy – propaganda, soft power, and digitalization. The second part will present the foundational practices of public diplomacy – listening, strategic narrative, advocacy, cultural diplomacy, exchange diplomacy and international broadcasting. A third section will address the theory and practice of digital diplomacy, on a policy as well as institutional dimension. The fourth and final part will consider the issues raised by globalization and examine how public diplomacy can be used to address the social, political, economic and cultural issues of our time by governments and other international actors. At the end of the semester students will reflect on the implications of the world of public and digital diplomacy for their own responsibilities as global citizens

This class will discuss how sports and politics are intertwined: Governments worldwide heavily invest in elite sports success to win the “Gold War” at the Olympic Games. Major countries such as China, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States want to showcase their power to the world. In small states such as Norway and Qatar, the aim is to punch above their weight in global affairs. Countries are keen to host mega sporting events such as the soccer World Cup to gain soft power in international politics and promote social cohesion and national identity domestically. International sports governing bodies have not only the power to choose mega-sporting event hosts and request countries to change laws; for example, FIFA forced Brazil before the 2016 World Cup to lift its ban on alcohol consumption in stadiums, also known as the “Budweiser Bill”. These bodies also decide who can represent a nation by issuing rules on nationality changes. Furthermore, national sports governing bodies can support gender equality as the Irish Football Association has done in 2021 by introducing equal pay for male and female international players. In the past, athletes were expected to “shut up and dribble,” and political statements such as the black power salute at the 1968 Olympics by African American athletes were punished. However, encouraged by former American football quarterback Colin Kaepernick, more athletes have recently spoken out on civil rights without being sanctioned (although Kaepernick paid the price for his activism by not being hired anymore by any NFL team). For instance, soccer fans brought politics to the stadium by waving Palestinian flags in European club competition matches against Israeli teams to protest human rights violations in the Jewish state.

Nationalism and National identity have become two of the most common themes and concepts in the 21st century. Although these are modern concepts and have to do with the modern statecraft post Enlightenment and French Revolution, they manifest differently in various contextual realties in the modern world. These concepts remain vague and undefined to a certain extent in the Gulf region This course aims to explore and examine nationalism and national identity construction in the Gulf States post-independence from an interdisciplinary perspective. Gulf States are fairly young states with unique demographics, specific history and multi-layered identities. This course will enable students to understand some of the complexities of the nationalism and national identity constructions in the Gulf and evaluate the progress, gaps and directions. Nationalism and National identity will be studied through various factors including conflict, migration, politics, media, Arabism, tribalism, pandemic and gendered identities. The course will start with general theory on the topic and then move towards specific case studies on Gulf countries. The readings selected for this course are a combination of international scholars and local experts in the area to provide wide range of perspectives on such a complex topic and to root it within contextual realities of the region.

What is international law? Why is understanding international law important for understanding international politics and international relations? What are the limits and potentials of international law? This course introduces students to the origins, history, main concepts and principles of public international law (PIL). It will explore the key tenets of PIL including international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law. The course will cover key legal sources, instruments and mechanisms that govern relations between international actors including states and non-state actors. Students will critically engage in discussions that explore the role of international law in some of the most difficult and controversial issues in contemporary politics. Questions of sovereignty, the use of force, state responsibility, enforcement and accountability will be central to class discussions. The course will pay particular attention to critical perspectives to analyze law and politics in contemporary historical and interdisciplinary perspective. It will equip students with the language and the critical analytical tools necessary to understand the rules and principles that govern international relations.

No prior legal background is required to take this course. It is not presumed that all students who take this course plan to go into law school. Instead, the course is designed for students of international politics with a keen interest in understanding how international law shapes and is shaped by multiple actors in the global order. The course will also provide students with a foundation for continued training and more specialized studies in international law.

In the late 1990s and the beginning of the millennium, women have become more visible in politics and started to get important roles in international organizations. Various countries have elected women politicians and leaders at key positions of domestic and international politics. From Condoleezza Rice to Hillary Clinton, from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Nancy Pelosi and many more in the United States; from Theresa May in the UK to Angela Merkel in Germany, Christina Lagarde at the head of the International Monetary Fund to Navanehtem Pillay as the High Commissioner for Human Rights within the UN, women have taken an unprecedented role in world affairs. Yet, this was not the only domain where women began to have a word. Alongside these visible gains for women in the realm of high-powered leadership, women also continue to fill the ranks of conflict victims and targets of sexual violence. They take roles in the international, regional or domestic conflicts, mostly joining rebel groups or even terrorist organizations in insurgencies or civil wars; areas which were once seen as the preserve of male fighters. For this obvious reason, the relation and interaction between gender and conflict requires attention and understanding. This course will analyze this interaction within the framework of various comparative cases: From Nicaragua to Kurdistan, from Syria to Northern Ireland, from Columbia to Sri Lanka, from Africa to Latin America; the reasons which lie behind the emancipation of women and women’s movements, as well as their participation in conflicts will be the topic of this course.

We are inundated by talk of “populism” everywhere today. But when we seek to define the term, disagreement abounds. Is populism about the politics of the poor and marginalized? What is its relationship to liberalism? Are populists friends or enemies of democracy? How do social media and the global economy shape contemporary populism? These are questions that lend themselves to a range of answers, all partial and tentative, that we will discuss and critique over the course of the semester. We will draw on a variety of disciplines (political science, anthropology, sociology, history, media studies) and a wide array of cases drawn from across the world to reflect on these questions and come up with our own answers. In this sense, the work we put into this course is cutting-edge social science, engaging with a subject that confounds experts and defies those who wield bureaucratic power in domestic and international institutions. Students will have the opportunity to design their own research projects, focusing on specific countries or topics, and to present and defend their own explanations of how populism works.

How do societies deal with a violent, repressive past? Should they move on and ‘turn the page’ or should they reckon with the past? What does dealing with the past mean for understanding the present? What role should criminal accountability, reparations, truth-seeking, institutional reform, and memorialization play in societies that have suffered a history of atrocities and grievances? Can there be peace without justice? Is it possible to pursue retributive, reparative and transformative justice within a given context? This course will introduce students to such core questions in the theory and practice of transitional justice.

Transitional justice is a set of policies and processes designed to reckon with a violent past, such as war or widespread and systematic human rights violations. It is often - though not exclusively - pursued during a political transition, such as in the aftermath of the fall of a dictatorship, or regime change.

Students will examine the conceptual foundations of transitional justice and the key debates that animate its theory and practice. Students will analyze and discuss key examples from around the world, including Latin America, the Balkans, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Canada, and the United States. Students will participate in a simulation exercise where they will design a transitional justice process for a given context/country and then critically engage in discussions about the merits, shortcomings and impact of such a process.

This course examines key socio-economic and political issues facing today’s youth in the Arab World. Using a political economy approach, the course focuses on a number of thematic areas including education and training, employment and labour market dynamics, young women, formal and informal avenues for political participation, youth led protest movements, migration, socio-economic marginalisation and urban-rural divides. The course will use various case studies from across the region to examine the role of youth in the themes outlined, with a focus on North Africa, the Levant and the Gulf.

The course will be policy oriented, highlighting the challenges and policy choices facing governments in the region as they attempt to integrate their young populations in their economies and polities. The course aims to introduce students to the policy making process and will include class simulations of meetings and roundtables of governments to better understand how policy is formulated at a national level. As part of the assessment process, students will be expected to write one policy focused research paper on a specific youth related issue.

This course will examine how small states have developed as economic players, and foreign and security actors in their regional systems and on the international stage.

In this class we will discuss how the Middle East has been shaped by the impact of oil and natural gas. Fossil resources have influenced both domestic politics and foreign relations. In rentier states such as Qatar oil and natural gas revenues dominate state income and are the basis for a social contract with no representation but generous benefits to citizens. There are also semi-rentier states such as Egypt with greater oil and gas potential and Syria with declining reserves, as well as countries without fossil resources, like Lebanon, that depend on migrant remittances from Gulf countries (though some of these countries, including Lebanon, might exploit oil and gas in the future).

This course examines the foreign policies of Middle Eastern states in terms of output and the dynamics that shape them. This is done against the background of a consideration of the domestic, regional and international environments. It also takes into account – and reflects on – the various tools and approaches that are suggested in the disciplines of International Relations and Foreign Policy Analysis.

The purpose of this course is to develop comparative understanding – empirical, historical and theoretical – of the patterns, processes and dynamics that shape these foreign policies.

In this “The Theory and Politics of Citizenship” class we will read and discuss the book “Citizenship: What everyone needs to know” by Peter Spiro. It is a key function of nation-states to define the precise character of citizenship. By granting citizenship nation-states are determining who gets in (and is eligible for privileges such as public services in the domains of health and education, amongst others, and has obligations such as military service) and who does not. We will discuss the history of, forms of, and different approaches to citizenship. There are a variety of concepts for granting citizenship, ranging from birthright citizenship like in the United States, commonly known as jus soli, to citizenship inherited through parents (or, as in most Arab countries, specifically by the father), commonly known as jus sanguinis. Over time, the exclusive nature of citizenship has eroded and there are a growing number of dual citizenship holders around the world, although not each country officially permits it. More and more countries have eased the path towards naturalization, but eligibility criteria differ. France, for example, requires residence for five continuous years, demonstrable competency in the language, and a knowledge of the culture. In Qatar, applicants need to have lived as a regular resident in the country for not less than twenty-five consecutive years and have good knowledge of the Arabic language.

In this “Politics of Sports” class we will read and discuss chapters from “Sport, politics, and society in the Middle East” which is edited by Danyel Reiche and Tamir Sorek. We will learn about different aspects of the study of sport, including: which actors and institutions in sport politics matter, how the process of sport policy-making works in different countries, how sport is used as a foreign and domestic political tool, which ideologies drive sport policy-making, and why mega-sporting events have become a much-discussed topic in regional and global affairs.

In addition to our discussions on the textbook, Professor Reiche will give presentations about research he has conducted on the politics of sport. These will include a review of elite sport policies around the world, issues of sport and nationality such as sporting federations’ eligibility criteria to represent a country in international sport, the sporting boycott of Israel by some Middle Eastern countries such as Lebanon and Iran, and Qatar’s motives behind hosting the soccer World Cup 2022.

The course aims to introduce non-law students studying in the social sciences or the humanities spheres what human rights are, what are their key sources, how they work (if at all) and what are some of the key contemporary issues. The course challenges many of the arguments states and other actors put forward in obfuscating or downright violating human rights. Context is just as important as the rules in which they are contained and some of the issues discussed here are contentious even among human rights scholars, activists and lawyers. Some of the issues that will be covered, include: the right to life; freedom of expression and religious beliefs; hate speech and its regulation; terrorism and human rights; international crimes and the laws of war; investment, international trade and their impact on human rights; non-state actors and multinational corporations; the enforcement of human rights through domestic and international courts; the UN and human rights, disability rights and rights of vulnerable persons, including the elderly, sexual and religious minorities and indigenous persons.

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Muslims and the Politics of Diversity in Europe and the US: Europe has witnessed widespread immigration from the Muslim world in the post-WWII era, the results of which have been hotly debated in political, media and academic arenas. In this course, we will consider the evolution of the relationship between western liberal democracies in Europe and the United States and their Muslim minority populations by asking why, how and when does religion matter in structuring the social and political behavior of individuals and groups in these comparative contexts? What causes groups to make claims based on religion and how do states respond? What explains opposition to immigration and Islam in particular? How does religious diversity impact social policy, and how does social policy impact religion? In light of this historical evolution of Muslim-European and American relations, this course will explore some major contemporary themes: The French headscarf ban; the current Syrian refugee crisis; the rise of xenophobic political parties; America’s “Muslim Ban”; rioting, discrimination and urban violence; and religious claims-making in education and associational life.

The last few years have witnessed a rise of economic, social and political unrest in Europe. The Great Recession and its aftermath have fuelled the resurgence of extremist movements on the left and the right of the political spectrum. Left-wing and right-wing extremist parties have been able to send representatives to the European parliament after the May 2014 European elections. Moreover, several member states of the European Union are facing a very serious challenge to their territorial integrity in the form of widely supported secessionist movements. Common to all is their populism, i.e. a belief that there is a gap between the common people and the political elite that they can bridge by representing the ‘will of the people’ against the unaccountable politicians.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

? To provide students with an understanding of extremist and radical politics in Europe. ? To introduce students to the basic premises and core concepts of extremist and radical ideologies and the differences between them. ? To familiarize students with important variations in the way political extremism and radicalism is reflected in different countries and historical periods. ? To expose students to current research on the effects of political extremism and radicalism on the stability of democracies and on the ways democracies react to political extremism and radicalism. ? To sharpen students’ analytical skills of information gather, conceptual definition and systematic organization and presentation of ideas both in writing and orally. ? To provide students with the necessary tools to exercise a critical understanding of current affairs in contemporary Europe.

The countries of the Middle East and North Africa have long been significant points origin, transit, and destination in the global movement of people, making migration one of the single most important factors shaping the region’s politics, economies, societies and culture. In this course students will critically debate the ways in which migration has fundamentally transformed the MENA region using not only traditional academic studies, films, and literature, but also by stepping outside the classroom to conduct and reflect on their own “fieldwork” in Qatar. The course will be divided into three sections. Section I provides the analytic background needed for studying the causes and consequences of migration in the Middle East, beginning with an introduction to theories of migration and a brief overview of population mobility figures and patterns in the region. In section II, students will explore in depth some of the most significant migrations in contemporary history: the break-up of the Ottoman empire; colonial migrations and the creation of new nation-states; Palestinian displacement; North African migration to and from Europe; labour migration in the Gulf; refugee crises as the result of wars in Iraq and Syria; and the impact of COVID-19 on the region’s migration patterns. Section III focuses on the politics of diaspora communities, including the diaspora’s role during the Arab Spring, transnational identity and belonging, the everyday spatial segregation and discrimination that affects migrants, and migration during the World Cup 2022.

The purpose of this course is to analyze with the theoretical and methodological framework of comparative perspective the different types and electoral systems in Middle East and North African countries–from Morocco to Afghanistan, including the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan– and the most relevant electoral processes that have taken place in the region in the last two decades, from the Gulf War (1992) until the ‘Arab spring’ (2011). The course will focus on the changes in the political systems and regimes, and on the implementation of new electoral rules and elective chambers, as well as their influence in the electoral results and the consequences in the party and political systems. The course will also discussed the influence of external –US, UN, UE, international and regional media– and internal factors –local media, political associations, women participation– in shaping those changes, as well as the role of the international organizations dedicated to electoral assistance. The comparative politics approach will be useful to understand why all MENA region started a rapid wave of change toward a democratization process in a short period of time started with the ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011, and why this did not happened before.

The seminar’s goal is to offer an in-depth and novel exploration of how Qatar in particular, and other major energy players more generally, use their energy capabilities and resources as instruments of power that contribute to their national strategic and security priorities. The seminar will achieve this by offering a mix of lectures, discussions and presentations by a range of guest speakers – both scholars from academia and the policy world and practitioners working on energy security As the above underscores, this seminar is designed to provide students with an opportunity to consider Qatar as an international energy actor in the wider international system from several different perspectives. In doing so it will attempt to illuminate how Qatar is adapting to changing realities in the global energy markets and how it is using energy as a strategic instrument to navigate a challenging geopolitical landscape. This will include examining the emerging strategic opportunities as well as legal and national security risks in Qatar’s overseas energy assets and investments; Qatar’s evolving energy relations with a host of key regional (GCC, Turkey, Iran) and global (the US, Russia, China, South Korea, Japan, the UK) energy, trade and security partners; and how the quest for sustainability and the new reality created by the fourth (AI) industrial revolution are impacting on Qatar’s energy sector and relations with energy partners and competitors.

This course offers students a deeper understanding of ethnicity, the political implications of ethnic cleavages, and ethnic conflict through comparative studies in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Americas. The course is comprised of four parts. The first part of this course introduces the different definitions and conceptualizations of ethnicity. Second, we examine the consequences of ethnic cleavages in matters of politics, specifically voting behavior, the distribution of goods, interethnic relations, nationalism and state building. Third, the course investigates different types of ethnic conflict ranging from extreme violence (i.e. separatism, insurgency, civil war and genocide) to riots, hate crimes and the rise of xenophobic parties. Finally, the class will consider the policies and practices behind instances of inter-ethnic peace and successful conflict management. Students will be asked to choose a specific country case to follow throughout the semester in preparation for undertaking their own independent research at the end of the course.

The purpose of this course is to explain and analyse the political history and the international behaviour of Iran from the Islamic Revolution in 1979 until the second term of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. The course attempts to explain the origins of the Islamic Revolution and its internal and international impact, as well as the operation of diverse religious and political personalities and factions in the intra-elite power struggle throughout the 33 years of republican history. Through the analysis of the individual and collective political behaviour, the composition of the decision making unit will be determined, in order to analyse the internal and foreign policy outputs. A detailed description of the institutional and factional framework will be provided, and special emphasis will have the electoral processes, mainly presidential ones, due to the unexpected results and internal and external consequences. Due to the strong regional influence of Iran since the revolution, the outputs of the Iranian Foreign Policy towards United States, Iraq and GCC countries will have specific seminar sessions, as well as different periods such as Khomeini’s exportation of the Revolution, Iran-Iraq war and Khatami’s Dialogue of Civilizations.

Although they have been examined as non-state social movement actors, Islamic movements have been part and parcel of the discussion of developing political structures and the international relations of Muslim-majority societies for the better part of the past half-century. This course proposes to examine the phenomenon of Islamic social movements that emerged in the twentieth century. It does so by examining the historical circumstances that gave rise to their emergence, the ideological underpinnings of these movements, and their organizational capacity and ability to mobilize supporters as movements of opposition. Additionally, the course will introduce students to an analytical framework used to study these movements in the form of social movement theory. The extent to which this theoretical approach is effective in the study of Islamic movements in particular will be a central question throughout the course. The course structure is thematic in nature. It begins with a theoretical overview of the study of social movements, with special attention paid to attempts at examining Islamic movements through this theoretical approach. This is followed by a brief study of the intellectual and ideological underpinnings of modern Islamic movements, beginning with the reformist movement of the late nineteenth century. The remainder of the course will be devoted to case studies, beginning with the “classic” Islamic movements of the mid-twentieth century such as the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt and Jamaat-i Islami of Pakistan. A second wave of movements, those of localized nationalist resistance, will be examined through the cases of Palestine and Lebanon. The emergence of transnational movements in the late twentieth century, embodied most prominently by al-Qaeda, is another phenomenon that is worth examining. Additional case studies examine the role of Islamic movements within state structures in Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, and Afghanistan, among others. Finally, consideration is also given to the role of Islamic movements in post-Arab uprising states. By the end of the course, students should be able to provide a nuanced and contextualized analysis of Islamic movements and the role they play in various social settings.

This course will provide an introduction to the origins, histories and present natures of a range of different nationalisms and national identities in the contemporary world. It will begin by surveying rival theories concerning the origins of nationalism, and the nature of kinship, ethnic, religious and state identities in ancient and medieval history. It will then proceed to a detailed examination of particular national traditions and identities, and how they have changed over time. There will be a particular focus on nationalism in the most important contemporary states (the USA, China, Russia and India), and on nationalism in the countries of the Muslim world.

This course will examine the relationship between intelligence and national security in both the modern and contemporary eras. It begins with an historical overview and an introduction to the literature on intelligence and national security. It then offers a series of lectures and seminars that investigate the relationship between intelligence and national security by way of case studies and engagement with the main issues and themes in the literature. In particular it will look to examine the role and influence of intelligence activity in national security planning and strategies and will look to examine intelligence as an instrument of national power. This analysis will include critiques of the use of intelligence from an ethical perspective and will look to weigh up the practical value of intelligence in terms of contributing effectively not only to national security strategy but to national security – the actual protection of nations from external threats. The course will be divided into 12 parts, with each to be addressed by way of weekly lectures, seminars and discussions. The topics addressed are as follows: 1. Intelligence and national security in historical perspective. 2. Intelligence theory, techniques, and applications. 3. Intelligence and national security in times of war and peace. 4. Human Intelligence and national security. 5. Signals Intelligence and national security. 6. Counter-intelligence and national security. 7. Covert action and national security. 8. Spying on allies and the national security consequences. 9. Industrial espionage and national security. 10. Hi-tech intelligence and national security. 11. The failure of intelligence and national security. 12. The ethics of intelligence and national security.

This course aims to help students understand the dynamics of foreign policy-making and output in comparative perspective, through studying the cases of a variety of states in East and West, North and South, in conjunction with an introduction to the various approaches in the field of Foreign Policy Analysis. The intention is to get students to think beyond the headlines of foreign policy stories, by looking for patterns both across time and across cases, with systematic attention the factors typically shaping foreign policy in its conception and execution, including both similarities and differences between different types of states. The course starts out with an overview of some of the main approaches to the study of foreign policy, and of the key issues and factors (external as much as internal) involved. These are related to broad approaches in the field of International Relations – of which the analysis of foreign policy is, after all, a part. It then turns to a series of case studies grouped loosely on a regional basis, but representing different categories of state actors, viz.: • the United States as the one remaining superpower; • Russia as a former great power with renewed aspirations; • Western Europe, represented by the UK, Germany and France, and including a session on the European Union as a putative multilateral actor; • Africa, with particular attention for Nigeria and South Africa; • the Middle East – with cases ranging from Saddam’s Iraq, the GCC states, and ostensibly “revolutionary” Iran; • India, as an emerging middle power; • East Asia – including China and Japan; • Latin America – with the contrasting cases of Brazil and Venezuela. The various case studies from the “South” (or the “Developing States”) are introduced by a general conceptual session on the foreign policies of this category of states. This range of cases purposely includes major actors on the global and key regional stages; states from all main regions; both small and large states; both developed and developing, rich and poor states; both democracies and authoritarian systems; and both settled, stable systems and more apparently more revolutionary / unsettled ones. The course is rounded off by a look back at how, in light of all these case studies, students have found various concepts and approaches helpful or unhelpful in illuminating the evidence found.

The module considers processes of economic, political, and social change in the modern Gulf states within the framework of the area’s regional and international context. The economies and societies of the Gulf states interact with the world economy and from their unique position as the repository of the largest concentration of crude oil reserves in the world. Oil rent cannot be taken for granted, but the impact of oil revenues is nevertheless real and far-reaching.

The purpose of this module to develop an understanding of processes of change in the Gulf countries and of the way these processes have shaped the existing economic, social, and political realities of the region. The institutions and the cultural setting of Gulf societies mediate the processes of change and have themselves been radically altered by these processes. This module also considers the position of the Gulf in the international arena – in particular with regard to the regional integration of the region, and its mutual interaction with the global political economy.

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The U.S. constitution is an “invitation to struggle for the privilege of directing America foreign policy.” How is this struggle between the legislative and executive branches unfolding during the current administration? In the summer of 2017, Congress passed by sweeping majorities tough new sanctions on Russia despite the objections of the Trump administration. In the spring of 2018, the Republican led House and Senate refused to make the deep cuts in State Department and foreign aid spending requested by the Administration. In the fall of 2018, Republican and Democratic Senators sharply criticized the Administration’s characterization of the Saudi crown prince’s role in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. A different phase will begin in 2019 as the new Democratic House majority’s powerful committee chairs seek to increase oversight of overseas military operations, question US support for the Saudi led intervention in war in Yemen, and scrutinize Russian interference in the 2016 election. This course provides a practical understanding of how and why the U.S. Congress influences foreign policy. Part one of the course builds a constitutional, institutional, procedural, political and historical framework for understanding Congress’ role in international affairs. Part two looks at the specific tools used by Congress to influence foreign policy, such as the power of the purse, the authority to regulate foreign commerce, and the ability to reorganize the government. Part three examines the pressure brought to bear on Congress on international issues by the executive branch, foreign governments, lobbyists, advocacy groups and interest groups (in particular U.S.-citizen ethnic interest groups).

Is U.S. influence on world affairs on the wane? Twenty-five years after the fall of the Soviet Union, the international system is in transition from what was a uni-polar world to one with a still-leading world power – the United States – and emerging would-be global powers led by China, India, and a resurgent Russia. The United States is still viewed by many as the indispensable nation, but must work more collaboratively to accomplish its goals, from tackling climate change to containing Iran’s nuclear program. This course will examine the effectiveness of U.S. foreign policy in relation to these emerging powers. How has U.S. policy toward the Russian annexation of Crimea, China's construction of islands in the South China Sea, and other events affected U.S. influence more broadly? What was the impact of the global financial crisis and resulting U.S. budget cuts? Students will be asked to evaluate the impact of these policies on the Unites States' long-term strategic and economic interests. The instructor is a career U.S. Foreign Service Officer who was most recently posted to India.

Despite the United Nations’ claim to help “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”, the world continues to suffer from genocide, military invasions, civil wars, and other forms of violent conflict. Debates continue to rage about how to fulfill ‘military necessity’ while protecting civilians from harm. When is it legal to resort to the use of force? How do laws regulate warfare to make it more ‘humane’? Conversely, how is law used to justify war and to inflict suffering? This course will introduce students to the law and politics of initiating and conducting war, as well as reckoning with its consequences. It will also consider the practice of ‘lawfare’: the use of law as a weapon of conflict.

Students will critically engage in discussions that explore the role of the use of force, also known as the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC), or International Humanitarian Law, in shaping and regulating the global order. The course will cover the development of the laws of armed conflict, the key controversies that animate debates about the use of force, the role of the UN Security Council, humanitarian intervention, the law of occupation, information and cyberwarfare, among other topics.

Using real-world examples such as the War on Terror, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, Russia-Ukraine, and Israel-Palestine, the course will pay particular attention to critical analyses of lawfare/warfare in contemporary historical and interdisciplinary perspective. It will equip students with the language and the critical analytical tools necessary to understand the laws of war and their role in different contexts from around the world.

It is recommended that students who enroll in this course will have taken the Public International Law course. It is not presumed that all students who take this course plan to go into law school. Rather, this course will be of particular interest to students who plan to pursue further studies and training in political science, international law, military and security studies, international relations, and conflict resolution.

This course will be an introduction to how politics influences the development and implementation of U.S. national security policy. Students will examine the impact that bureaucratic and partisan politics as well as ideology and personalities play in the development of national security policy. Students will examine the evolution of the modern U.S. national security bureaucracy after the Second World War and then, through an examination of theory and practice, will examine the different ways in which personalities, bureaucracy, and ideology interact – and often collide – during the policy development process. Throughout the course, students will consider both historical and current examples of national security policymaking in order to compare and contrast broad themes and approaches to the complex challenges that face the United States. By the end of the course students will have an understanding of the dynamics that drive the U.S. national security policy and the role of not just the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches in the process but also the impact that the media, advocacy groups, and lobbyists can have on the process.

Terrorism has gone from a persistent yet marginal security concern to one of the most important problems of our day. As the September 11, 2001 attacks made clear, terrorists can and will kill thousands to pursue their ends. In addition to threatening the United States, terrorists menace governments worldwide: indeed, there are few if any countries that do not suffer from some form of terrorism. In the Middle East, wars involving terrorist groups have led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Terrorism also constantly evolved, with new groups like the Islamic State posing distinct counterterrorism challenges for the governments that oppose it. Yet at the same time terrorists make many foolish mistakes, and the threat is often hyped or at least misunderstood. Countries like the United States have an array of counterterrorism instruments available to them. Some, like the deployment of conventional military forces, are blunt instruments that are effective in some circumstances but come with many risks and limits. Others, like disruption via intelligence services, are often conducted in the shadows, and their importance is underestimated.

This course examines a wide range of questions in order to provide students with a deeper understanding of the threat of terrorism today. Among the questions it examines are: What is terrorism? How has the threat of terrorism changed over time? What motivates different types of terrorist groups? When does terrorism succeed and fail? How can terrorism best be fought?

This course explores the nature of terrorism, the motivations of terrorists, and the tactics that terrorists use. It surveys state-sponsored terrorist groups, as well as several leading past and current radical groups such as the Provisional IRA, Hamas, Hizballah, Al Qaeda, and the Islamic State. The final weeks of the course will assess different methods of countering terrorism, ranging from law enforcement to covert action, but counterterrorism is also woven into the earlier sections that examine various groups. Students are not expected to have a strong background on terrorism or counterterrorism.

The Internet is full of dangerous content that poses an array of security risks. Neo-Nazis, Islamic State supporters, and the “Incel” movement are only a few of the movements or organizations that peddle hate and have had members involved in terrorism and political violence. In addition, states often play a dangerous role. The government of Myanmar, for example, has pushed propaganda that contributed to genocidal levels of violence. In the United States and several other democratic countries, even hateful groups have a right to free speech, but do they have a right to be on every Internet platform? How do Internet companies determine whom to ban and whom to permit to use their services? Are there alternative approaches to banning content or users that technology companies should consider? What are the business, human rights, and legal implications of these choices? Which actors have a responsibility to act and why, if at all, should private businesses consider policing their platforms? These are some of the questions this course will address. Students will work to explore different technical, legal, and policy solutions to the problems of the radical presence on the Internet and abusive government behavior. Students will gain the following from the class: 1. Learn about several states and radical groups and how they exploit the Internet; 2. Understand the basics of the architecture of the Internet and the implications of this for policy; 3. Gain insight into the legal, policy, and political environment facing Internet companies; and 4. Develop problem-solving skills. The class encourages students to apply their ideas to practical “inbox” problems facing Internet company executives, learn to present their ideas effectively, and incorporate professional feedback.

Since its origins early in the 20th century, the field of international relations has been dominated by western thought and approaches. The orthodoxy in the field, whether by realists, neorealists or constructivists, draws heavily from the experiences, philosophies and conceptions of what the international system of nations should be from the perspective of the US and Western Europe. As a result, the field has focused heavily on the concerns and “national interests” of countries in the West, which are often assumed to be those of the rest of the world. This influences greatly the questions we ask about relations among nations, and how we answer them. As a result, and ironically, the field has not been very “international”. This has led to a rise in the “international politics of discontent” with the current world order in several regions of the world among theoreticians and practitioners that question the effectiveness of the orthodoxy in the field to explain and understand the complexities of today’s world and the effectiveness of the institutions that were created after World War II to foster and maintain a “liberal world order”. Can we make sense of an increasingly globalized world in which the Global South plays a more salient role based only on orthodox analysis? This seminar is designed to allow students to explore and challenge the conventional “truths” about the discipline of international relations and to think critically about the world as is in the third decade of the twenty-first century. The seminar reflects the calls for a more diversified understanding of, and engagement with, the different conceptual, theoretical and resulting foreign policies of a less Eurocentric international relations. In the process, we will discuss the role of identity, nationalism, regionalism, culture and ideology in foreign policy, and explore dynamics of inequality, authority and hierarchy in international politics. Through readings from scholars and policy-makers from the Global South and visitors from Latin America and the Caribbean, students will become aware of how different social constructions shape both national, regional and global political strategies. The aim is to collectively attempt to understand the complexities and realities of international politics today. Evaluation in the seminar will be continuous. Although there will be no in-class exams, students will be expected to participate actively in class discussions. Students will also be required to make presentations, lead discussions, and write four reflective essays on the assigned readings. A final take home exam will be given at the end of the semester.

What is Negotiation and how does it work in international diplomacy? This course examines negotiation in international diplomacy through a variety of analytical approaches – behavior, strategy, process, integration, and structure – in order to provide the students with the tools to examine and evaluate negotiation case studies. In addition, practical negotiation skills will be taught and the opportunity to apply them on a number of negotiation simulations and games will be provided. The course is structured in 3 parts. The first part introduces the notion of negotiation as a decision-making mode and familiarizes the student with different approaches towards negotiation. To arrive at a holistic understanding of negotiation, students will not only be exposed with these approaches, but they are asked to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the various analytical frameworks throughout the course, first in the form of group discussions and a reading synthesis. In part 2, then, students will be provided with the practical skills of how to go about negotiations. Ample opportunity for their application will be provided through bargaining and negotiation exercises that focus on a variety of aspects of negotiations, such as, the nature of moves, concessions, intra-team bargaining, importance of prep-work, information management. Additionally, this part of the course will put the spotlight on the evaluation of negotiation case studies. In the setting of Jigsaw group work, students will analyze the cases in their focus groups through the lenses of the different approaches presented in part 1 of the course, and then share and evaluate their analyses in jigsaw discussion groups. The final part of the course consists of an international negotiation simulation exercise.

The rise of new digital technologies has already proven disruptive in many social contexts and is expected to become yet more so. Digitalization is also transforming international relations, politics, economics, and the law. This course examines the new geopolitics and geoeconomics of digital globalization. It provides students with advanced knowledge on topics of international relations and digital technology from an international and comparative perspective, covering a broad range of digital technologies such as digital platforms, 5G, artificial intelligence, blockchain and autonomous weapons.

Populism is among the most hotly debated topics across the social sciences. For decades after the Second World War, populism seemed to be a Latin American phenomenon. However, from the 1980s, it increasingly spread to advanced democracies. By the 2010s, large parts of the world are struggling with the rise of various forms of populism. This course will introduce populism in theory and practice, analyzing key cases around the world, with a special attention to Europe, home to the world’s most entrenched populist parties. The course explores various definitions of populism, then digs deep into the social, cultural, and economic roots of the populist movement. The course continues by discussing the key characteristics, similarities, and differences of populist parties in different regions of the world. While the course follows an interdisciplinary approach, it foregrounds neglected sociological and political-economic issues that point beyond questions of political institutions and elite agency.

Water is essential for life on Earth and of crucial importance for society. Humans simply cannot advance without the sustainable management of our finite water resources, whether it is too much, too little, too polluted, or too political. Climate change, population growth, and wealth inequality have challenged water security globally, leading to food shortages, vulnerability to disasters, and even conflict. Can technology and data, climate adaptive management, private sector investment, and international treaties help us address these complexities and ensure a more sustainable future? In this course, we will study the science of water, how it is impacted by human actions such as climate change, and how compounding factors around water affect development and geopolitics. Through interactive lectures, country and region-specific case studies, and guest speakers, students will learn how hydrology and environmental change relate to nearly every aspect of our lives. Students will be encouraged to think critically about our complex water challenges and to develop innovative solutions that could address them. In addition to a global perspective, the class will focus on the Gulf region and small islands.

This course will introduce students to one of the major fields of public international law: International Criminal Law (ICL). It will cover the sources of ICL, the fundamental concepts and principles of this field, the practice of ICL, and the evolving politics of ICL. The course will also explore future directions of ICL by examining its ongoing developments and how law and politics animate them. Students will critically engage in discussions about individual as well as state and corporate accountability for the most serious international crimes both historically and in contemporary contexts. What is the role of ICL in preventing and punishing crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes, and other crimes of international concern? What is the relation between ICL and other areas of law, such as international humanitarian law and international human rights law? Students will study, among other topics, the debates surrounding the documentation of evidence, the role of international tribunals and international legal organizations, universal jurisdiction, and the role of civil society in ICL advocacy and practice. The course includes the analysis of key cases in international criminal law and real-world examples that demonstrate the complexities of the limits and potentials of ICL. Through debates, a moot court, papers, and in-class discussions, this course will equip students with the language and critical analytical tools to explain ICL’s role in different contexts. It is required that students who enroll in this course will have taken the Public International Law course (IPOL-3374). It is not presumed that all students who take this course plan to go into law school. Rather, this course will be of particular interest to students who plan to pursue further studies and training in criminal justice, humanitarian affairs, diplomacy, political science, international law, military and security studies, international relations, and conflict resolution.

Technological shifts, digital transformations, and advances in information technologies are reconfiguring many aspects of our lived reality. This course examines what characterizes this new era of digital capitalism and what the ongoing changes mean for our modern society. It explores the promises and challenges associated with fast-paced digital transformations and the kind of reconfigurations they engender at the level of the individual, the state, and the market. For example, how did we become dependent on a small number of powerful social media platforms? How did big tech companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Uber wield considerable power? What regulatory challenges come with these socio-economic and technological shifts? What happens when global streaming services like Netflix defy the territorial control of nation states? How did popular social media platforms like TikTok become at the center of geopolitical tensions between global economic players? Does the advent of the digital reshape power or does it merely perpetuate global dependencies? And what are the geopolitical implications of technological supremacy and data colonialism? The course offers students the opportunity to engage with and reflect on key debates surrounding digital transformations through a combination of readings, YouTube resources, class activities, and interactive discussion.

The question of Palestine has been a pressing issue in international law and in international relations for more than a century. International law as applied to Palestine Palestine has had to deal with numerous questions of international law, including, the right of self-determination, the rights of refugees and the law of belligerent occupation. The seminar will trace the history of the conflict over Palestine beginning with the birth of the Zionist movement in the 19th century. It will explore various topics, including, the establishment of the British Mandate, the Nakba and the establishment of the State of Israel, the relationship of national identity to citizenship, the Israeli settler movement, the law of belligerent occupation and the law of genocide. Readings will include primary documents as well as scholarly articles and selections from books.

Everyone negotiates. We constantly enter into negotiations with potential employers, coworkers, partners and others, on issues such as what price we will pay or receive to how tasks will be divided, and so on. While we negotiate constantly, many of us feel we know very little about the strategy and psychology of effective negotiations.

In this course, we will learn the processes of negotiation as it is practiced in a variety of settings. You will develop an understanding of the principles, strategies, and tactics of effective negotiation, conflict resolution, and relationship management, and enhance your ability to assess the variables in negotiations, and the impact of interpersonal styles, personality, and culture. The premise of the course is that while a manager needs analytical skills in order to develop optimal solutions, negotiation skills are needed in order for these solutions to be accepted and implemented in many business settings.

The course treats negotiation, conflict resolution, and relationship management as complex processes that require the successful practitioner to develop and use a unique blend of perceptual, persuasive, analytical, and interpersonal skills. After each exercise, we will discuss what happened and why it happened so that you will develop understanding as well as factual knowledge. We will discuss strategies that worked and strategies that did not. If a strategy did not work we will examine why and discuss alternative approaches.

This course examines how digital technologies are transforming international trade and how law and policy are responding to this transformation. As cross-border data flows, digital services, platform-based commerce, and artificial intelligence increasingly structure the global economy, international trade law faces growing pressure to adapt to new regulatory realities. At the same time, states are deploying digital trade rules as instruments of industrial policy, geopolitical competition, and development strategy. The course introduces students to the legal and policy foundations of digital trade under WTO law, preferential trade agreements, digital economy agreements, and unilateral regulatory approaches. It explores competing models of digital trade governance, and examines how these models shape regulatory choices on data flows, platforms, and emerging technologies. Particular attention is paid to tensions between trade liberalization and regulatory autonomy, as well as to development concerns such as the digital divide and digital capacity-building. Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) – By the end of the course, students will be able to: 1. Explain the core legal concepts and institutions governing digital trade at the multilateral and preferential levels, including the WTO, PTAs, and Digital Economy Agreements. 2. Analyze how different regulatory models approach digital trade issues such as cross-border data flows, digital services, and emerging technologies. 3. Evaluate the trade-offs between digital sovereignty, market openness, regulatory autonomy, and development objectives in digital trade law and policy.

This research seminar explores the relationship between religion and nationalism, how religion influences popular understandings of secular politics, and the extent to which religion is a necessary feature of modern public discourse. These topics are explored through texts and country specific cases from around the world. The skills and insights gained from this course will help students design research projects, apply abstract theory to specific cases, and communicate their ideas to a broader audience.

This course seeks to explain the design and implementation of national security and defense policy in the Russian Federation and its predecessor states (Soviet Union, Russian Empire). The lectures and readings are organized into three modules, focusing on how Russia has approached the competing challenges of (1) economic development, (2) internal security, and (3)relations with other actors in the international system. Our attention will be on the interaction between these policy domains over different periods of Russian history — Tsarist, Soviet, and contemporary — with an emphasis on how the legacy of the past has shaped and constrained Russian national security strategy and decision-making. Topics we will cover/include: territorial and imperial expansion, serfdom, collectivization, industrialization, mass repression, counter-insurgency, military doctrine and organization, nuclear weapons, energy and natural resources, cyber warfare, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Course readings will draw on literature from various disciplines, including political science, economics, history, and public policy. Class meetings will place a heavy emphasis on student participation and activity-based learning through surveys, games, simulations and debates.

This course will analyze the global energy outlook including energy demand, population growth and humanitarian issues, environmental and climate concerns. This module will explore the evolution of the global oil and gas industry, and it will look at the controlling nations, laws, and agencies.

This course aims to address the modern emergence of non-state actors in an increasingly polarizing Middle East region. The empirical motives, ideological orientations, and the political transformation of some of these actors from opposition forces to official political actors (either through incorporation into the states’ apparatus or through a power rise in parallel to the latter) will be discussed and analyzed. In considering key questions and debates about the political evolution of non-state actors in the MENA countries, the interaction of cultural, national, and religious memberships within and across the politics of these actors will be studied. This course will examine the fundamental issues which established the various non-state actors across the MENA region while simultaneously introducing students to core concepts and ideas which will form part of the foundations for the study of the region’s politics.

Why do some nations prosper while others struggle? Is democracy or authoritarianism better for development? How can people in Kerala, India, expect to live 10 years longer than in South Africa despite Kerala’s income level being half of South Africa’s? How do we balance rapid economic growth with environmental sustainability? This course explores the turbulent relationship between politics and development on the global stage. Students will grapple with major development theories, from the optimism of modernization theory to the skepticism of post-colonial critiques and the realism of human development theory. We’ll scrutinize pivotal areas of development: economic strategies, democratic struggles, persistent inequalities, health crises, and sustainability dilemmas. The course spotlights states, international institutions like the World Bank, IMF, WHO, and U.N. agencies, global companies and social movements as key players in the development game. By the semester’s end, students will be able to dissect development theories and policies, decode the political undercurrents of development challenges, and analyze the impact of various development approaches. They’ll hone skills in policy analysis, comparing development models, and mapping the relationship between state, society, and global actors in development. This course equips students with insights for careers in international development and global governance.

This course provides an in-depth analysis of the global energy transition, emphasizing the development of analytical skills to critically evaluate the multifaceted and dynamic nature of the shift towards sustainable energy systems. Students will explore the complex interplay of technological advancements, economic trends, environmental imperatives, social impacts and behavior changes, geopolitical dynamics, technological innovations, and ethical considerations shaping the transition.

Through a combination of lectures, case studies, and project-based learning, the course will examine key topics such as the decarbonization of energy systems, the role of renewable and alternative energy technologies, the future of fossil fuels, and the implications of energy policies on global and local scales. Students will also engage with contemporary debates around energy equity, poverty, and the just transition, gaining a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities in achieving a sustainable and equitable energy future.

The course format will require advanced preparation, which will be guided by the instructor

This course examines the energy issues facing Sub-Saharan African countries. It aims to provide students with an understanding of the energy issues facing developing countries in general, and Sub-Saharan Africa in particular. It will provide students with the knowledge of the challenges faced due to specific country contexts, the relationship between energy, politics and development in the sub-continent and how it differs from other regions of the world, and the tools to understand the importance of context-specific solutions. The course will cover theories and frameworks for understanding the energy system, the relationship between energy, politics and development, and will use case studies to illustrate the importance of context in shaping the outcomes of energy provision and governance.

This course explores the complex landscape of social policy and development in Sub- Saharan Africa, focusing on the region's historical, socio-economic, and political dynamics. Over 14 weeks, students will gain an in-depth understanding of the theories, policies, and challenges shaping development in Sub-Saharan African countries. The course examines the historical legacies of colonialism, the impact of post-independence policies, and the role of international organizations in shaping social welfare and development strategies. Key topics include economic development, health, education, gender inequality, poverty, and urbanization, with a particular emphasis on the intersection of these issues and how they shape social policies. Students will analyze the successes and limitations of development theories such as modernization and dependency theory, and critique the policy innovations in response to the region's pressing challenges, including climate change, conflict, and governance.

The course also investigates the roles of civil society, NGOs, and international aid in shaping policy outcomes, how social policy can promote inclusion and equity, and the role of external actors in local policy decisions. By examining case studies and real-world examples, students will develop a nuanced understanding of the region's development trajectory and the role of social policy in governance and development. The course concludes with a look at contemporary issues and future directions in development in Sub- Saharan Africa, providing students with the tools to critically assess and engage with the region’s social policy landscape.

The course explores what political resilience stands for, and how social identities play a critical role in determining political resilience; particularly how collective identities are shaped, maintained, and deployed. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, we will examine key dimensions of identity, modes, and strategies of inclusion and exclusion, forms of “identity politics,” and questions of intersectionality (the overlapping of identity categories, as for race and gender). Course materials will span everything from theoretical approaches to human displacement and identity mobilization to social transformation, rise of nationalism and how marginalized groups navigate and impact political landscapes, and how resilience can manifest differently across socio-political contexts. Underpinned by theoretical frameworks, students will engage with a mix of historical and contemporary case studies, and will be equipped to critically assess how identities contribute to both resilience and vulnerability in political systems.

Energy plays a critical role in a country’s economic policies, domestic development and prosperity. Yet this course moves beyond a traditional understanding of energy security as a function of supply, demand and price to provide a highly topical scholarly exploration of the complex global environment where geopolitics and energy security intersect. In these terms, the primary objective of the course is to examine the ways that states across the international system – both energy producers and consumers – conceive of and use energy as a strategic instrument at home and abroad in the service of their national priorities. This is an important issue to address both because of GU-Q’s location in Qatar and because we live in an increasingly unstable geostrategic environment where the norms that have underpinned the post-1945 international systems are being eroded.

This course dives into the physical principles, technologies, and global implications of energy production and consumption. Designed for learners seeking clarity in a complex field, this course demystifies energy in all its forms—mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical, and nuclear—while connecting scientific fundamentals to real-world applications. You’ll begin with the basics: how energy flows, converts, and powers civilization. From there, you’ll dive into the science and economics of fossil fuels like coal, petroleum, and natural gas, including emerging trends such as fracking and unconventional oil. The course then transitions to nuclear power, solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, and biofuels, offering a balanced view of each source’s potential and limitations.

A fast‑paced, comprehensive introduction to the technologies, systems, and policies shaping the global shift to clean energy. Across 24 focused teaching days, students explore the science behind major renewable resources, compare performance and costs, examine storage and grid integration, and assess real‑world pathways to decarbonization. The course blends technical foundations with economic and policy perspectives, equipping learners with a clear, structured understanding of how renewable energy systems work and how they can drive a sustainable future.

Climate change is not only a scientific or technical problem—it is a political struggle over power, knowledge, justice, and the future. This introductory course for IPOL, CULP and STIA students (and others are welcome as well) explores how climate change is framed, governed, and contested across institutions, technologies, and social movements. Drawing on authors such as Bruno Latour, Naomi Klein, Nicholas Stern, Andreas Malm, Greta Thunberg, and Noam Chomsky, we investigate a diversity of ideas towards climate change and climate action—from global treaties and carbon markets to geoengineering, green growth, degrowth, and the Green New Deal.

Students will critically interrogate international agreements, national policies, and emerging technologies, asking: Who defines the problem? Who benefits from proposed solutions? What political and economic assumptions shape “green” ideas? How do activism, Indigenous struggles, and cultural imaginaries expand — or challenge — what is possible?

By engaging institutional approaches alongside grassroots movements and radical critiques, the course equips students to analyze climate politics as a dynamic field of debate and action.

Everything we own, use, eat, manipulate, or create from is - at least to some extend - made off stuff, of material matter that necessarily comes from somewhere. To make things with things, materials had to be moved from one place to another. Elements had to be removed, carved out, dug up, pumped to the surface, broken down, mined, extracted, collected to become resource. Then, processes of mixing, melting, refining, condensing, filtering, purifying, and accumulating followed in order to manipulate and create properties that would make the stuff that people would need. Our cities, for example, are dense archives of extraction; think of bricks, steel, cement, plaster, pipes, cables, glass, asphalt, circuitry. Behind each material lies a chain of geological processes, labor regimes, technological systems, as well as – often – political struggles. In this course, we investigate together what turns things into resources? This course particularly invites students from IPOL, CULP and STIA to explore practices and infrastructures that turn land, matter, and even human bodies into extractable value. Moving across mines, plantations, laboratories, ports, pipelines, and financial networks, we trace the flows of goods, technologies, capital, and people that sustain contemporary economies and our everyday life. Soon, we will notice that extraction is not only an economic process but rather a political one. It organizes race, labor, territory, and life itself. Drawing on political ecology, critical geography, STS, urban theory, and postcolonial theory, we explore how extractivism is entangled with: • questions of labor, race and colonial histories • environmental destruction and the climate crisis • struggles over sovereignty, infrastructure, and planetary futures From fossil fuels to lithium, from plantations to data infrastructures, we consider how extractive systems are shaped, imagined and how they can be challenged. The course engages with contemporary struggles over resources situating them within longer histories of colonialism and emerging debates about the Capitalocene and planetary transformation.

This course introduces students to the complex realities of policymaking across democratic systems, where the intention to solve public problems often conflicts with political gridlock, institutional constraints, and the competing demands of diverse societies. Public policy, broadly defined as government action to address societal problems, is messy and often irrational, shaped by the dynamic interplay of competing interests, institutional barriers, and strategic actors operating under uncertainty. Policy responses vary widely in their pace and trajectory: some emerge rapidly in moments of crisis, others advance incrementally over years or decades, and still others stall indefinitely despite persistent need. Importantly, even successful policy adoption frequently generates unintended consequences that reshape the problems it seeks to address.

International Electoral Policy and Practice: This course introduces students to the history of electoral policy and practice and the policy elements which comprise an electoral process. It provides an introduction to analytical frameworks for the development of skills in electoral policy-making, design, administration, and evaluation. Students will engage in elections and political process design, managing electoral assistance programs, and organizing electoral reform initiatives for international organizations, bilateral development agencies, non-governmental organizations, and Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs). Each session will focus on a different topic in electoral policy and practice according to the following categories: Elections as Instruments of Governance; Elections and the International Community; Electoral Management Bodies; Elections and Technology; Voter Registration; Electoral Systems and Delimitation; Political Party Systems and Financing; Electoral Conflict and Security; Electoral Malpractice; Electoral Justice; Enfranchising Marginalized Electorates; and Electoral Observation and Validation.

This course examines the causes, dynamics, and consequences of war and international conflict. Drawing on contemporary research in political science, students will develop a systematic understanding of why states engage in violence, how conflicts escalate and terminate, and under what conditions peace can be sustained. The course is organized around major theoretical and empirical approaches to conflict, including power politics, alliances, territorial disputes, domestic institutions, and economic interdependence. Students will engage with recent scholarship, with an emphasis on identifying causal mechanisms and evaluating empirical evidence. By the end of the course, students will be able to critically assess competing explanations of war and apply them to historical and contemporary cases.

This course examines the political systems of Europe and the evolution of the European Union as a unique experiment in supranational governance. Its central organizing question is how and why European states, historically defined by strong notions of sovereignty, have delegated authority to a shared institutional framework and what political consequences this delegation entails. We begin by analyzing the foundations of European politics at the national level, including variation in electoral systems, party competition, and models of governance and regulation. We then trace the historical development of European integration, from its post-war origins to the contemporary EU, focusing on its institutional structure (Commission, Parliament, Council) and decision making processes. The course then turns to key substantive debates and crises that define modern Europe: the Eurozone and monetary integration, enlargement and its limits, Brexit as a case of disintegration, and the rise of populist and far-right movements across member states. Particular attention is paid to Euroscepticism, democratic accountability, and the perceived gap between EU governance and national electorates. Throughout, the course emphasizes both theoretical and empirical perspectives, encouraging students to evaluate competing interpretations of European integration and to apply them to current political developments.

The International Negotiation Lab allows students to simulate intensive, multi-party negotiations to address the longstanding political, economic, and territorial dispute related to Cyprus. Run by the Georgetown Institute for the Study of Diplomacy (ISD) and the School of Foreign Service Dean's office, the all-day exercise takes place on February 10th, 2018. It is based on a hypothetical, yet plausible, scenario related to Cyprus set a year in the future. Participants will negotiate the conflict related to the control of natural gas in Cyprus' Exclusive Economic Zone. Students are divided into 7 teams and participants in the simulation will gain experience in high-level diplomatic negotiations.

***Students are required to attend the first class. Failure to do so will result in automatic disenrollment**** **** This class is not available for a Pass / Fail**** This course examines the dynamics of insurgency (a distinct variant of guerrilla warfare) and counterinsurgency (the government response). It has been crafted with America’s recent and current involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq in mind and therefore is intended to acquaint students with the nature, dimensions and history of insurgency and counterinsurgency both past and present, and by doing so to establish a solid foundation upon which further expertise can be built and analytical capabilities with respect to future eventualities developed. The course considers a wide range of questions in order to provide students with a deeper understanding of the evolution of insurgent strategy and tactics over time and the development of government counterinsurgency doctrine. Among the questions it examines are: What is insurgency and how does it differ from guerrilla warfare and terrorism? How have insurgent strategies and tactics changed over time? Who are the foremost ideological and doctrinal proponents of insurgency and why? Who are the foremost counterinsurgency practitioner-theorists? Why does insurgency succeed or fail? How can an insurgency best be fought? Why is the wheel seemingly always reinvented in counterinsurgency? Specifically, the course will analyze both the effectiveness of insurgency as a means to achieve political change and the challenges faced by the liberal democratic state in responding to insurgent campaigns and challenges.

The cyberattack against Estonia in 2007, the invasion of Georgia in 2008, the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Bots, trolls, and information operations. Manipulation, influence, and deniability. “Illegals,” “patriotic hackers,” and “little green men. Oligarchs, compatriots, and useful idiots. Since the US election in 2016, there has been increased visibility of the Kremlin’s new way of war and how it targets our societies and citizens. This course will cover the Russian doctrine and ideology that lays the groundwork for the Kremlin’s global imperialist insurgency; discuss examples and case studies of these tactics and operations, as well as their history; and explore why it is so challenging for the United States and its allies to combat full-spectrum/hybrid warfare. Course materials will leverage first-hand accounts of those on the front lines of identifying and countering the Kremlin’s shadow warfare.

Terrorism has long been a means of political expression in the Middle East and has flourished throughout the region from antiquity to the present. This seminar surveys the arc and evolution of terrorism from the Sicarii and the assassins through the violence and rebellions in Egypt and Palestine of the 1920s through the end of World War II; The anti-colonial campaigns in both those places as well as in Algeria and Yemen; The persistence of both Palestinian and Jewish extremist violence; The emergence of Hezbollah in Lebanon; Salience of state-sponsored terrorism across the region, the insurgencies in Iraq; The rise of Al Qaeda and ISIS; And the ongoing upheavals in Syria, Libya, the Sinai, and Yemen.

Students who do not attend the first class will be dropped. Class restricted to JCIV minor/certificate and SFS students only. Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors only.

The School of Foreign Service now offers a one-semester course called Foundations of Grand Strategy, IPOL-410, taught by professors Charles Kupchan and JohnMcNeill.

The class will combine three main approaches to the study of grand strategy. First, it will engage in close reading of classic texts by authors from different political and cultural contexts, such as Sun Tzu, Kautilya, Machiavelli, and Clausewitz. Second, it will examine historical case studies from ancient to modern times, chiefly great powers such as the Roman Empire, Mongol Empire, Soviet Union, and the United States. Third, it will consider strategic issues of the contemporary world, including those involving the U.S., China, and perhaps some non-state actors. The class aims to help students to think strategically about international history and global politics.

The class will combine three main approaches to the study of grand strategy. First, it will engage in a close reading of classic texts by authors from different political and cultural contexts, such as Sun Tzu, Kautilya, Machiavelli, and Clausewitz. Second, it will examine historical case studies from ancient to modern times, chiefly great powers such as the Roman Empire, Mongol Empire, Soviet Union, and United States. Third, it will consider strategic issues of the contemporary world, including those involving the U.S., China, and some non-state actors such as multi-national corporations. The class aims to teach students how to think strategically about international history and global politics.

This seminar aims to introduce students to the sociocultural worlds of the Indian Ocean rim from the eastern coast of Africa through the Persian Gulf to the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and China. Although the Indian Ocean rim has a history of interconnectivity and exchange spanning millennia, it has only recently started to attract scholarly attention. As a consequence, studies on this world lag behind those of movement and connectivity in the relatively more recent Atlantic World. Over millennia, plants, animals, people, languages, ideas, religions, precious stones, metals, technologies and a vast array of raw and manufactured commodities crisscrossed the vibrant corridors of the Indian Ocean to lands bordering it and beyond. Over fourteen weeks, we shall trace old and new connections between disparate peoples and places across this shared geographical space: merchant and slave networks, diasporic circularities generated by commercial and imperial expansion, and transnational religious communities. We shall pay particular attention to the textures of cultural encounters in this region, emphasizing similarities and divergences as well as continuities and changes in the everyday lives of people belonging to littoral societies. We shall also pay attention to the shifting, variegated nature of sovereignty across the Indian Ocean rim, focusing not only who wields power but also the idioms of legitimate authority spanning long distances.

The Internet is full of dangerous content that poses an array of security risks. Neo-Nazis, Islamic State supporters, and the “Incel” movement are only a few of the movements or organizations that peddle hate and have had members involved in terrorism and political violence. In addition, states often play a dangerous role. The government of Myanmar, for example, has pushed propaganda that contributed to genocidal levels of violence.

In the United States and several other democratic countries, even hateful groups have a right to free speech, but do they have a right to be on every Internet platform? How do Internet companies determine whom to ban and whom to permit to use their services? Are their alternatives approaches to banning content or users that technology companies should consider? What are the human rights and legal implications of these choices? Which actors have a responsibility to act and why, if at all, should private businesses consider policing their platforms? These are some of the questions this course will address.

This course offers an analysis of the increasing trend of religious groups positing themselves as credible international collaborators in addressing global issues.

INAF451-70 Global Migration, Refugees & Citizenship This course will examine the explosion of international migration that has occurred around the world and the challenges (and opportunities) this movement of people has presented for recipient states. Topics include immigrant integration and the challenges of diversity, the crisis of refugees, forced migration and trafficking, human rights and international organizations, and terrorism and security.

This course examines the causes and consequences of international developments in the Middle East since the end of World War II. Contemporary international relations in the Middle East have been shaped by three dominant factors: domestic political dynamics within each Middle Eastern country; the Arab-Israeli and more recently the Palestinian-Israeli conflicts; and superpower politics in the region, involving Great Britain, the former Soviet Union, the United States, and other aspiring global powers. The course examines the causes and effects of the interplay of these three broad factors on the international relations of the Middle East both within the various state and non-state actors located inside the region and between them and the larger international community

Today, India is a recognized global power attracting attention in the realms of trade, military, hi-tech and cultural influence and Indian diaspora communities are becoming an important part of the world‘s political, economic, and cultural fabric. In the United States, individuals of Indian origin are the most successful ethnic community, surpassing those from Japan and China in terms of annual income. From Apu in the Simpsons, to Governor Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley, Indian Americans are now increasingly gaining prominence not only in medicine, academia and business but also in mainstream US politics.

This course will explore the recent histories and contributions of the Indian diaspora in three specific regions—UK, the US and the Middle East (the ?Gulf‘ countries as well as, Israel). Each of these diaspora communities has a distinct story. We will examine the parallels and divergences in these narratives which are all connected through the ?homeland‘…..Although we will glance at the early histories of Indian emigration, our focus will be on post-colonial migration out of India to the regions relevant to our study. We will read some of the most current scholarship on the Indian diaspora to examine issues of culture, assimilation, ethnicity, identity, gender and sexuality. I will draw from multidisciplinary sources combining academic readings and theoretical essays with films, fiction, and invited speakers as we seek to understand complex issues of diaspora identities.

Capitalism is everywhere. It shapes our lives, the lives of future generations, and sets the parameters for political debates. Thus, understanding how the economy affects politics and society and how political and social dynamics shape the economy is crucial. Seeing through the sanitized dogmatism of ideological debates surrounding the notion of capitalism is more important than ever. The core conceptual tools of economics are of little help in this. We need the help of political economy. This course will explore modern capitalism from the perspective of political science, sociology, history, and comparative political economy. No equations, no math. Only texts and debates that give meaning to numbers and allow us to understand the emergence and working of modern capitalism. The course comprises three modules: the fundamentals, the building blocks of modern capitalism, and contemporary debates. Each module consists of eight substantive sessions (lectures and discussions), one class wholly dedicated to student projects, plus one class for Q&A and the end. Assessment is based on student projects, class attendance, reading quizzes, and a final exam. Students with proven interest in pursuing an honors degree can opt for a writing project instead of the exam.

This seminar examines the role and impact of South Asia on processes of globalization, old and new. We shall focus on the transregional movement of people, commodities, faiths, and ideas across time and space. Starting with the ancient political and economic ties between the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia, we will proceed to examine the spread of Indic religions, most notably Buddhism, across Asia, as well as the domestication of Islam and Christianity in distinctive South Asian vernacular idioms. Closer to our times, we will delve into the critical role played by South Asians in the British Empire, dwelling on coolies, curry, and tea as pivots in a new capitalist world economy, to dispel the idea that they were hapless victims of foreign conquest. Finally, we will study the transformative impact of South Asian diasporas, drawing on case studies from the GCC, US, and UK, as well as the global popularity of yoga, cricket, and Bollywood far beyond contemporary South Asia.

In this course, we look away from “normal” politics (voting, lawmaking, gerrymandering, etc) toward subterranean worlds in which such normality carries a hollow ring. In other words, we shall study the politics of dissent, i.e., when ordinary people refuse to obey and/or owe their allegiance to those in power over them. Why, how, when, and with what consequences political dissent takes place: this is what we shall endeavor to study. By reading classic and contemporary works from political science and its cognate disciplines, especially history, sociology, and anthropology, we shall try to answer the following questions over this semester: • Under what conditions do ordinary women and men refuse to acquiesce in the political status quo? • How and why do they resist those in power? • What lead them to engage in highly risky forms of collective action such as rebellions and revolutions? • Are these forms of collective action idealistic or pragmatic? • What makes them more or less successful in changing the status quo? Our primary task will be to understand the inner worlds of a range of social actors as they resist, rebel, and revolt against political authority in different times and places. Additionally, we will think about how disparate individuals come together to seek to change existing social relations, locally or nationally. Lastly, we shall reflect on what these narratives tell us about our own social milieu, and what leads us to obey or defy those who exercise power over us.

This course is a semester-long introduction to politics and society in the Indian subcontinent, now termed “South Asia.” Over the next fourteen weeks, we will draw on classic and contemporary scholarship across the disciplines of history, anthropology, sociology, economics and political science to gain a critical understanding of major political themes and issues in the region, in terms of actual events and processes as well as the interpretive debates around them. In doing so, we shall inquire into the nature of the postcolonial state and its institutions, state-society relations, modernization, secularism, the politics of identity, and the political economy of development in South Asia. Our inquiries should help us contextualize the abstract concepts of modernization, development, and state formation, and to make meaningful comparisons with similar processes in other parts of the world. This course is, therefore, based on the premise that theoretical reflections on politics must be arrived at inductively on the basis of rigorous empirical knowledge rather than via abstract speculation or deductive reasoning.

The Lab will catalyze faculty-student research collaboration through coursework and project-based learning. It will develop students’ ability to conceive, conduct, analyze, refine, and present original research. Students will work in small groups to investigate a specific theme in world politics, letting students master debates and techniques to situate their contributions. The course will help scaffold research engagement from a foundation (learning basic research techniques) to the intermediate level (designing and executing projects) to a real-world experience (presenting at conferences and publishing in real journals).

Permission of SFS Dean's Office required.

Permission of SFS Dean's Office required.