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2018
Teaching Document
2016 •
How do states formulate and execute foreign policy? While it is common for non-specialists to speculate about the behavior of states inter se, students of International Relations know that arriving at any foreign policy decision results from the interaction of multiple actors, and their interests, operating within complex environments. INR 3303 seeks to illuminate the intricacies of how decision-makers –be they national leaders, bureaucrats, elites, or other actors – arrive at a certain decision.
COURSE OVERVIEW : The course seeks to enhance International Development major students' understanding of the past, present and future of the United Nations. It also provides background information and analysis of major multilateral institutions working with the UN in the area of international development. The first part of the course is devoted to understanding the big picture of what the UN has done in the past, the current activities of the UN and the direction it is going. The main aim of this first part is to establish a firm foundation of how the UN works and to become familiar with its complex bureaucracy. The main focus of the second part of the course is to understand the nature of the problems confronted by the UN and international community in their efforts to maintain international peace and security, cooperate in solving international problems such as eradicate poverty, promote respect for human rights and sustainable development. The main purpose is to assess the UN efforts in addressing these substantive problems. Not only should the students be experts on the UN activity, by the end of the course they should develop a firm grasp on the major problems that characterize international politics and global governance. Through active classroom participation and the term paper, students will have opportunity to integrate their understanding of international politics within the specific context of the UN and affiliated organizations. Classroom discussions and related assignments require that students be up-to-date with current events that are related to the UN in order to provide their own perspectives on these issues during the in-class quizzes or when completing the reflection papers. By the end of the course, students will showcase their skills in making in-depth analysis and assessment of the UN performance in addressing problems of international community in their individual term paper.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: The course aims to provide an in-depth coverage of the political economy of globalization and development with a particular focus on emerging powers and their changing role in the global political economy. The first part of the part of the course will cover broader debates on Northern and Southern varieties of capitalism, states and markets in development, the relationship between democracy and development. The second part of the course will focus explicitly on individual BRICS and near BRICS. Particular attention will be paid to the respective developmental strategies as well as similarities and contrasts in the regional and global roles of China, India, Brazil and Russia. Finally, the course will consider the role of emerging powers in the context of global governance. The role of emerging powers is investigated in the context of the global economic crisis and their influence on the future course of development in the " global South " .
This interdisciplinary course is designed to introduce students to the many facets of climate (averages, extremes, variability and change) and the broad range of climate affairs and issues that affect society at global and local scales. Given the growing concern about global climate change, it is intended to provide a baseline understanding of climate-society interactions. The approach taken in the course is based on a Climate Affairs template (Michael H. Glantz), which focuses on five basic elements: a) climate science and knowledge; b) climate impacts; c) climate economics; d) climate politics and policy; and e) climate ethics and equity. A broad range of topics will be covered including: global warming 101, weather and climate, hazards (floods, droughts, and hurricanes), El Niño-Southern Oscillation, vulnerability, the politics of climate disasters, and climate justice. There are no prerequisites.
About this Course: In its inception, the “war film” and its creators have played prominent roles in, inter alia, setting political agendas, advocating policies, constructing images of the enemy other, defining civilization, manufacturing consent for or opposition to war, recreating and reproducing race and gender stereotypes, and providing information about a conflict that shapes peoples’ opinion of the conflict irrespective of the film’s accuracy. Most Americans, as well as citizens of other countries, learn of conflicts through the cinematographic depiction of them rather than their formal study. Unfortunately, despite the pervasive influence of film and other forms of media culture, mainstream political science has generally considered these cultural artifacts unworthy of serious inquiry. This course departs from this intellectual position and contends that film can be an important medium through which we can understand international politics but, more importantly, think critically about how films facilitate such understandings. This course begins with an overview of the essential practices and significant “languages” that film makers and writers use to create meaning through film. Learning the “grammar” of films will enable students to become more cognizant of how war and related concepts are portrayed in the media cultural products they regularly consume and the understandings of those war such films facilitate. This course will focus upon irregular warfare, which the US military defines as: “a violent struggle among state and non-state actors for legitimacy and influence over the relevant populations. Irregular warfare favors indirect and asymmetric approaches, though it may employ the full range of military and other capabilities, in order to erode an adversary’s power, influence, and will.” After providing a foundation on how one reads a film, the subsequent classes will examine various examples of irregular wars through the lens of two films that represent very different points of view about them. I provide several, brief readings intended to inform the student about the conflict depicted in the film. In this class, students will learn about various conflicts while also learning to think critically about irregular wars are depicted through the film. Topics covered in this course will include British and European colonial wars in Africa and Asia; the Vietnam War from the optics of French, American; Korean and Vietnamese citizens; the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan from the optics of Russian and American films; the War on Terrorism; the use of drones; intelligence failure; nuclear deterrence as well as a reflection upon race and gender in constructing heroism. This course will not cover the great wars or the Korean wars. Because this course relies upon films which depict a variety of brutalities, it may not be suitable for everyone. In this course, students will construct original arguments about how specific films create, reinforce or destabilize predominant views of war generally and specific wars in American society. To do so, we will closely study the ideas which are embedded in films as well as the techniques which film directors and writers use to convey a message or argument.
2020 •
In this class, students develop critical geographical approaches to comprehend patterns, causes and practices of global development (income, health, education, agriculture, etc), major theories of development, and the importance of place in development. Students will do so by using lecture, readings, assignments, discussion, and their own research paper on a country and topic of their choosing in order to comprehend the class topics through familiarity with a specific place. The class covers multiple scales of time and space to show how ideas about development arise in specific contexts and in turn shape reality. The class emphasizes a critical geographical approach that seeks to denaturalizes taken-for-granted development conditions and practices by showing how they are produced through multiple intersecting processes operating at multiple temporal and spatial scales. This approach is applied to contextualize discussions about the various ongoing ways colonialism and imperialism have shaped development, and how to understand their relative influence in relation to subsequent dynamics. The class uses a non-reductionist non-Eurocentric approach to capitalism, and denaturalizes globalization by emphasizing its longer histories as well as emphasizing specific events, decisions and processes in the later 20th Century. Using these analytic tools and histories, the class then critically examines a range of contemporary topics, including the politics of development, health, environment, food and agriculture, rural development, and urbanization.
Syllabus (Off University and Kassel University Course)
Syllabus (2019-20) Political Economy of the Global South in the Age of Financialisation2019 •
Syllabus of INTL 532 Political Economy of Globalization and Development
INTL 532 Spring 2019- Syllabus-PDF version.pdf2019 •
Teaching the Sociology Of Peace, War And Social …
WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY PEACE RHETORIC: NONVIOLENCE IN LITERATURE AND MEDIA
Jacqueline Siapno