Results for POLISCI242

This seminar will examine how countries and multilateral organizations make decisions about foreign and international policy. The hypothesis to be explored in the course is that individuals, bureaucracies, and interest groups shape foreign policy decisions. That hypothesis will be tested against other more structural explanations of how countries behave in the international system. After a brief review of the academic literature in the first part of the course, the seminar will focus on several cases studies of foreign policy decision-making by the United States, China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, as well as the United Nations and NATO. Enrollment Details: This seminar is a 5-unit required core course for Master's in International Policy (MIP) students. It is also open to graduate students and advanced undergraduates by way of application. For details on how to apply, please click below on "Schedule" and review the "Notes." The deadline to apply for this course is March 14.

Mass political mobilization occurs in both democracies and autocracies. Sometimes political protests, demonstrations, and acts of nonviolence civic resistance undermine autocracies, produce democratic breakthroughs, or generate democratic reforms. Other times, they do not. This course explores why, first examining the original causes of mobilization, and then understanding why some movements succeed and others fail. The first sessions of the course will review theories of revolution, social movements, and democratization. The remainder of the course will do deep dives into case studies, sometime with guest lecturers and participants from these historical moments. Cases to be discussed will include Chile, South Africa, Eastern Europe and the USSR (1989-1991), Russia (2011), Serbia and other color revolutions (2000, 2003, 2004), Tunisia, Egypt, and the Arab Spring (2011), China and Hong Kong (1989, 2016), and recent mobilizations (Belarus in 2020, Burma and the U.S. in 2021). The deadline to apply for this course is December 3rd.