INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

A staple of the Global Studies and EU Studies curricula, the course participates in the make-up of the politology component within the Master's Degree Programme in Comparative International Relations while advancing its interdisciplinary goals
The course aims at developing the students’ comprehension of the international dimension of politics from a theoretical and practical perspective. International politics' processes, actors, representations and historical developments will be approached starting from the critical observation of a number of prominent phenomena - e.g. war and peace, the globalisation of economy, the rule of norms in international affairs. By means of appropriately guided class discussions and with the support of the reading materials, students will be given the opportunity to infer, with a certain degree of autonomy, concepts, theoretical premises and arguments that scholars, observers and practitioners rely on (more or less consciously), including the main paradigms and debates in IR and related disciplinary fields.

The ultimate goal of the course is to provide students with a set of conceptual and methodological instruments, as well as interpretative skills, which allow them to approach international policy (as a field of study and a dynamic set of structures, actors and behaviour) in a critical, reflexive manner, to question the commonplaces and conventional readings that are current in discourses about international politics, and to be able to grasp effectively and accurately present and future developments of world affairs.

Admission criteria are those required by the study programme LM60.Other curricula will be evaluated on a case by case basis. A good knowledge of English is essential.

As mentioned, the course starts with a hand-on approach to a set of international issues:
- Environmental issues
- Refugees and forced migration
- Poverty, hunger, and development
- Global trade and global finance
- Terrorism and globalization
- Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction
- Nationalism, national self-determination, and inter-national relations
- Human rights
- Humanitarian intervention in world politics

Based on the results of class discussions, a set of structures and process are identified and examined
- War and peace; International and global security
- Global(isation of) political economy
- Personal and collective identity in world politics: gender and race
- International organizations (IGOs, NGOs)
- International law
- Regionalism in international affairs

The close observation of these basic elements raises questions and provides the empirical references from which the characteristics of theoretical approaches can be examined

John Baylis, Steven Smith and Patricia Owens, The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press, 8th edition, 2019 - part III.
Ulteriori materiali (una selezione di articoli scientifici selezionati e capitoli di libri) su ciascuna delle questioni elencate nella sezione "Contenuti" saranno forniti tramite Moodle e gli studenti saranno valutati in base alla loro capacità di attingere ad essi nei loro saggi.

The final exam consists in the production of a short paper presenting a well-articulated and documented argument about a theme to be picked from a short list.
The papers are supposed to to include, indicatively
- a section where the matter at hand is properly introduced and a the research question is identified and clearly expressed;
- a section where different theoretical positions about the issues are presented;
- a section in which a reasonably compelling argument is made for one particular account of the issue;
- a concluding section including final considerations about further possible aspects of the problem to be addressed.

Test takers will have 150 minutes available to write their essay.

The length of the paper is not going to be the key issue. For indicative purposes, an average paper is expected to be around 1000 words, but the consistency of the argument made, the ability to make adequate references to theories and case-studies, the conceptual rigour are going to be much more relevant criteria in assessing the work.

The course is designed to be as interactive as possible, with traditional lectures intended to provided information for more advanced discussions.

English

Students interested in writing their final dissertation under my supervision are invited to get in touch with me at the end of the course to discuss possible avenues.

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development