Politics

A study of the politics and history of human rights. What are human rights? How can dictatorships be resisted from the inside and the outside? Can we prevent genocide? Is it morally acceptable and politically wise to launch humanitarian military interventions to prevent the slaughter of foreign civilians? What are the laws of war, and how can we punish the war criminals who violate them? Cases include the Ottoman Empire, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Bosnia, and Rwanda. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

Examination of selected theories and issues of international relations including the following: causes of war, theories of imperialism, the issue of order and change, the relationship of morality and statecraft. Course readings drawn from historical and theoretical materials. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

A study of the relationship between political and economic processes in international affairs. Attention will be given to problems that lie on the boundary between politics and economics. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

Governments have tremendous power over our lives and thus the competition over who controls them is always intense and often violent. This course will study various ways in which violence is used to political ends. The larger goal of the course is to understand the sources of violence in political competition and the conditions under which political disputes can be peacefully resolved. Specific forms of violence to be covered include assassination, civil war, ethnic conflict, insurgency, revolution, riots, terrorism, and war.

Why do states and peoples go to war? Conversely, how can war be avoided? This course surveys some of the most important explanations--including human nature, the anarchic international system, domestic politics, economics, technology, nationalism, and terrorism--and evaluates them in light of historical wars, and of crises resolved short of war. The course will examine cases ranging from the Peloponnesian War to the ongoing American-led war against terrorism. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

A systematic study of major issues and problems of American foreign policy in the contemporary world. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

Military strategy was defined by Clauswitz as the use of battle to achieve the objectives of war. Grand strategy is broader, encompassing the attempted use by political leaders of financial economic, and diplomatic, as well as military, power to achieve their objectives in peacetime and in war. This seminar will examine the theory and practice of grand strategy both to illuminate how relations among city-states, empires, kingdoms and nation states have evolved over the centuries and also to identify some common challenges that have confronted all who seek to make and execute grand strategy, from Pericles to Barack Obama.

What kind of public architecture is appropiate for a democracy? Should public spaces and buildings reflect democratic values - such as transparency and accessibility - or is the crucial requirement for democratic architecture that the process of arriving at decisions about the built environment is as particpatory as possible? The course will introduce students to different theories of democracy, to different approaches to architecture, and to many examples of government architecture from around the world (the U.S., Germany, and China in particular), via images and films. Might include one or two field trips.

Investigation of a major theme in political theory. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature. One three-hour seminar.

Investigation of a major theme in political theory. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature. One three-hour seminar.

Investigation of a major theme in political theory. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature. One three-hour seminar.

Investigation of a major theme in political theory. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature. One three-hour seminar.

The distinction between public and private spheres of life is both foundational to modern liberal democratic politics and also fraught with controversy. This course examines such conflicts in the context of political theory, ethics, law, and public policy. Including the tense interface between public values and religious conscience and practice, and the scope of freedom with respect to marriage, family, and sexual relations. How broad are the claims of private liberty and what is the nature and extent of legitimate public authority when it comes to activities claimed to be private? Can paternalist and perfectionist policies ever be justified?

Investigation of a major theme in American politics. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature. One three-hour seminar.

Investigation of a major theme in American politics. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature. One three-hour seminar.

This course considers how gender enters and shapes politics, primarily in the US context. It addresses a range of questions that center elections: How did women gain the right to vote? Are women voters really different than men voters? Are women politicians really any different than men politicians? Has women's involvement in electoral and institutional politics changed anything? It also considers how the gendered space of the American electoral system has limited its effectiveness in delivering outcomes desired by some groups of women, what their alternatives might be, and how those alternatives have been and continue to be pursued.

Investigation of a major theme in American politics. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature.

This seminar uses and interrogates social science methodologies in examining the condition of the American state and American institutions and practices. With an analysis of race and ethnicity at the center, students will examine the development of institutions and practices, with the growth and formation of racial and ethnic identities, including changing perceptions, measures, and reproduction of inequality.

Investigation of a major theme in comparative politics. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature. One three-hour seminar.

Investigation of a major theme in comparative politics. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature.

Investigation of a major theme in comparative politics. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature. One three-hour seminar.

Investigation of a major theme in comparative politics. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature. One three-hour seminar.

Investigation of a major theme in comparative politics. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature. One three-hour seminar.

Investigation of a major theme in international relations. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature. One three-hour seminar.

Investigation of a major theme in international relations. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature.