International Relations Electives

How can we best explain the emergence and spread of nonviolent protest and violent conflict across the Middle East and North Africa region during the so-called 'Arab Spring'? What mechanisms facilitated the diffusion of democratic norms, ideas, and institutions across eastern Europe and the former Soviet states in the wake of the decline of communism? How, after being so deeply entrenched in western practice, can we account for the sudden and comprehensive abolition of the atlantic slave trade in the nineteenth century? This course explores a set of opportunities for and significant threats to international security. We will explore the mechanisms via which norms and political opportunities and ideas spread globally. We also examine the potential for various forms of violence and instability to spread across national borders. Our focus will be placed upon combining solid logical frameworks with cutting-edge empirical evidence to identify the channels and mechanisms via which diffusion and contagion occur. Students will be introduced to up-to-date analyses of process of contagion and diffusion with a view towards them being able to offer educated forecasts as to where instability is most likely to strike in the future.

Analysis of conflicts of national interests; decision making in the present international system; role-playing and simulation experience.

Basic acquaintance with the United Nations and other major international organizations. One of the fundamental trends in the present and future world is the increasing and ever more complex interdependence between nations. To cope with that, conventional unilateral and bilateral means are insufficient. Multilateral approach - cooperative and competitive simultaneously - proves indispensable.

This course is designed to introduce you to the international politics of the Middle East and therefore, provides a general overview of some of the main issues of contemporary Middle Eastern Politics.

Traces the birth and growth of the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1948 with particular attention to the internal impediments to conflict resolution on both the Arab and Israeli sides. Also surveys the role of the Great Powers in Middle East politics generally.

Overview of the role of intelligence in the formulation and execution of US national security policy. Will include a detailed look at challenges facing both the analysis of intelligence information and the introduction of that analysis into the national security policy process. Will also entail close reading and discussion of selected declassified intelligence documents.

This course will focus on strategic intelligence analysis in the US context: the analysis of major foreign trends and situations prepared for the President and other top national security officials.  It will examine the role of analysis in the overall intelligence process, the basic components of analysis, and several of the crucial challenges that analysis faces in helping policymakers understand the current global environment.

Human security is an emerging paradigm that places individuals, rather than states, at the center of security considerations. This course is designed to provide a foundational understanding of the concept of human security, and the ways in which human security challenges have been addressed by the international community.

Analysis of politics of international economics and, to a lesser extent, of the economic determinants of international politics. Survey of the history of international political economy and theories that seek to explain it.

Analysis of the Cold War; Congressional-Executive clashes over foreign policy control; approaches to policy analysis.