|
91731 |
BGIA 301 Core Seminar: NGOs in International
Politics |
Jonathan Cristol |
TBA |
TBA |
NYC |
SSCI |
The Core Seminar examines key concepts in the study of international affairs including: states; anarchy; the balance of power; cooperation; and more. The conceptual, rather than theoretical, approach allows students from all backgrounds to succeed in the class. The class situates the students' internships in the broader study of international affairs by examining the role of NGOS, IGOs, think-tanks, multi-national corporations, and transnational networks in the international system.
|
91715 |
BGIA 310 Realism Reconsidered: Ethics in International Relations |
Joel Rosenthal |
M . . . . |
4:00 6:20 pm |
NYC |
HUM |
Thucydides punctuates his history of the Peloponnesian war with the quote of the Athenian generals, The strong do what they will, the weak do what they must. In the twentieth century, this sentiment is echoed by the great realists, Hans Morganthau and Henry Kissinger, who argued that power and interest were the guideposts for foreign policy. What values guide us as we make choices about the use of force, resolving conflict, promoting human rights, encouraging democracy and participating in international organizations. This course will examine competing claims of morality, reason and power in contemporary international relations.
|
91730 |
TBA |
TBA |
TBA |
NYC |
PART |
This course will put a heavy emphasis on reporting, writing and developing the sensibilities needed for success as an international news correspondent. We will focus heavily on the techniques of the craft, always in the context of contemporary world events and the realities of modern English-language media. A series of lecturers, and a visit to one of New York City's great newsrooms, will be included during the semester. This is not a course for purists, but rather a broad look at a varied, complex discipline. We will examine briefly many of the topics an international journalist will confront today. We also will touch upon the broadcast and Internet skills that no journalist who strives to be in interesting places at interesting times can afford to ignore in this modern world.
|
91732 |
TBA |
TBA |
TBA |
NYC |
SSCI |
This course introduces students to the United Nations (UN) and its historical role in maintaining international peace and security. It will begin by looking at the origins, history and evolution of the organization, and of the UN system more broadly. Starting with an analysis of the founding of the League of Nations, its work during the inter-war period and the reasons for its eventual failure, the course will then trace the evolution of the League of Nations into the United Nations. We will study the UN Charter and its provisions for the maintenance of peace and security, and will compare and contrast the UNs charter with that of its predecessor. An examination of the UNs organizational structure and the evolution and key functions of its main organs will follow, and we will also touch upon the work of its agencies and their relevance for global security. The course will then turn to a comprehensive analysis of the UNs efforts to maintain international peace and security over the course of the past six decades, and will focus on the UNs work in the following areas: disarmament; the peaceful settlement of disputes and conflict prevention; peacekeeping operations; sanctions; peace enforcement; humanitarian intervention; post-conflict peacebuilding; territorial administration; and terrorism. To conclude, we will turn to UN reform and investigate whether the UN can be reformed effectively. The course will address a broad range of theoretical and practical questions, including the following: Whose interests does the UN really serve? What is the UNs record on conflict prevention, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding? What is the nature of the UN-US relationship, and why has it been strained over the years?
|
91716 |
BGIA 342 Power, War and Terror in International
Affairs |
Scott Silverstone |
. . W . . |
4:00 6:20 pm |
NYC |
SSCI |
From the Peloponnesian War among the Greek city-states in the 5th century B.C., to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and America's invasion of Iraq in 2003, power has remained a central feature of world politics, motivating the behavior of states and nonstate actors alike. Yet the character and distribution of power has changed dramatically since the rise of the modern state system in the 17th century. For nearly two decades now, American primacy has defined the global power structure. This fact is an historic anomaly; at no time in history has any one state amassed the degree of military, economic, and political power the United States now enjoys. In fact, contemporary American foreign policy is premised on the assertion that the United States must sustain its primacy against any potential challengers for the indefinite future. This course explores the character of power and war in this era of American hegemony. We will examine the vigorous debates over the objectives of American power, unilateralism versus multilateralism as rival approaches to exercising power, debates over what military power can actually achieve, and the potential for a global backlash against the United States. Among other specific issues this course will address is the rise of China and India and the implications for global security and economic issues; rogue states and nuclear proliferation; the preventive war option to address shifting threats; the political and strategic future of the Middle East; terrorism as an alternative form of the power struggle and as a type of asymmetric warfare waged by nonstate actors; the continuing problem of humanitarian crises, failed states and intervention in the post-9/11 world; and the changing nature of global energy politics as an acute security issue.
|
91733 |
BGIA 348 Death from the Sky: Drones, Counter-Terror
and the New Normal in US Foreign Policy |
Mark Danner |
M . . . . |
7:00 9:20 pm |
NYC |
SSCI |
More than a decade after the attacks of September 11, US foreign policy has taken on a quietly lethal cast. The troops have come home from Iraq and are departing Afghanistan; the angry threats and loud declarations of American primacy echo only in the memory. In the gathering quiet, the work of killing has fallen to the operators of the Special Forces and the high-altitude unmanned drones. Sporadic news of these attacks are among the few flickering signs that the "state of exception" declared by President Bush persists. Americans have come to accept - or largely to ignore - a state of constant low-level warfare that carries on beneath the radar, in which people in far-off lands are attacked and killed remotely - and, when captured, imprisoned indefinitely. This state of quiet war persists even as the broader shape of US foreign policy is subtly altered to take account of a world in which global power is moving steadily but undeniably toward the rising nations of the East. In this seminar, we will examine this "new normal" - its genesis and evolution, the contours of its functioning, its implications for international humanitarian law - and study its place in the evolving foreign policy of a superpower struggling to adapt itself to an increasingly multi-polar world.