Within the past three decades, planetary computerization, burgeoning media industries, and other global processes have significantly altered the ways in which we experience our local and global worlds. Global reconfigurations of time and space change our consciousness, sense of self and others, and the material realities in which we live and work. This course provides the conceptual tools to assess emerging global processes, interactions and flows of people, ideas and things that challenge historical patterns of international studies and relations. The course will introduce you to international and global processes in areas such as global cultural economies, global cities, new forms of democracy and civil society, global religions, sexualities, health, and environments, increased competition for resources, political conflict, war and terrorism. Beyond understanding the causes and consequences of global change, this course will introduce you to ethical dilemmas in global justice movements, and in transferring ideas and technologies in new global contexts.

The purpose of this course is to provide a basic knowledge of the field of international relations. Among the topics to be addressed are key theoretical concepts, themes and controversies in the field such as: important state and non-state actors in international politics, security, economic relations between states, levels of analysis, and schools of thought.

Innovations in digital communication technologies have the potential to affect many aspects of politics and government. Beyond specific elements such as elections and delivery of government services, these developments have the potential to expand and redefine the nature of political participation and civic engagement, and to alter the structure of political power. This course examines the potential and promise of digital democracy, and attempts to separate hype from reality.

This course examines how advances in computer science, robotics, biotechnology and other emerging technologies are being applied to organized violence. Emphasized are the ways that lethal uses of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), warbots with artificial intelligence, cyber-attacks, and other emerging technologies are changing or will change the character of war and the societies that enact it. Special attention is given to the ethical and legal dilemmas these technologies present to citizens, states, and the international community, assessing both the harm and the good that they make possible.

Explores the enduring reality of war through an analysis of regional and global conflicts since the establishment of the modern international system. Key concepts include deterrence, appeasement, offensive-defensive military strategies, and international balances of power. These will be applied to several historical cases to explain why wars occur and how they might be avoided.

This course will explore the process by which states disintegrate and fail, the armed conflicts that follow, and international peacekeeping and subsequent efforts to build institutions at the end of armed conflicts. It will consider cases that might include the wars of Yugoslav Succession, conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, Syria and others. Students will consider the role of domestic and international actors, such as NATO, the US Government, the UN, and others. They will explore these efforts in readings, class discussion, debates, presentation of research, and role-playing exercises.

Prerequisites: Graduate standing and permission of faculty.