Global Studies

In recent decades, globalization has produced a growing interdependence of states, economies, societies, cultures, and people. It has brought about dramatic changes in the global economic system, with new regions emerging as new levers of economic growth. At the same time, economic globalization has produced profound social, political and environmental impacts. Not surprisingly, the problem of reforming globalization through the design of new governance approaches has been emerging since the 1990s as one of the most important issues in the academic and public debate.

Today, the crisis of multilateralism in international trade, the dramatic effects of COVID-19 pandemics, and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia are challenging the very nature of globalization. How will these elements affect globalization? Are we entering a new phase in the evolution of the international economic order? Is regionalism the new engine behind the reorganization of global value chains? Against this background, the course focuses on the most important economic and geographical tendencies that are affecting today’s globalization through a multidisciplinary perspective. In particular, the module will consider the evolution of international trade and FDI flows, the crisis of multilateralism in international law, and the increasing importance of geopolitics in international political economy.

The module will focus on Climate Change, its main impacts and economic implications and the evolution of international negotiations and policies. The course will introduce, define, and illustrate the mitigation challenge and the notion of energy transition, introducing results from the latest IPCC report and explaining some of the basic facts about climate science. It will then illustrate why we need mitigation policies and provide an overview of the international and national climate policy landscape.

The module will also characterize the international landscape of climate policies and explain how different countries use different types of policy instruments and explain how countries have been negotiating about climate change. Finally, it will introduce the economic approaches that are used in the design of climate policy actions, including mitigation and adaptation, explaining the theory behind policy instruments and carbon pricing, why we need climate change policies in the first place, and why they need to be synchronized with sustainable development policies.

Participants will analyze the physical, political, economic and military profile of a Country or a geopolitical region, focusing on the various elements of governance and related critical issues, as well as on relations with other countries of the geographical or geopolitical area and the possible geopolitical evolution. A special focus will be devoted to competition continuum and to Sea Power, with an emphasis on the role and importance of the inland seas. Students will prepare a final paper of 10 pp. by drawing on the contents of the preceding two modules, as well as resources from the Library of the Naval Staff College and the internet (a list of the sites of interests will be presented to the students), along with individual study.

Course Instructor: Francesco Zampieri, Naval College