Course Level: Undergraduate

Topics vary by section, not repeatable for credit. This seminar course introduces first year SIS students to critical issues in world affairs. Open only to SIS students.

Course Level: Undergraduate

First Year Seminar (3)

Seminar in International Affairs

This seminar examines current issues in international affairs. Prerequisite: freshman SIS students with permission of SIS Undergraduate Advising Office.

Course Level: Undergraduate

First Year Seminar (3)

Seminar in International Affairs

This seminar examines current issues in international affairs. Prerequisite: freshman SIS students with permission of SIS Undergraduate Advising Office.

Course Level: Undergraduate

First Year Seminar (3)

Seminar in International Affairs

This seminar examines current issues in international affairs. Prerequisite: freshman SIS students with permission of SIS Undergraduate Advising Office.

Course Level: Undergraduate

First Year Seminar (3)

Seminar in International Affairs

This seminar examines current issues in international affairs. Prerequisite: freshman SIS students with permission of SIS Undergraduate Advising Office.

Course Level: Undergraduate

First Year Seminar (3)

Seminar in International Affairs

This seminar examines current issues in international affairs. Prerequisite: freshman SIS students with permission of SIS Undergraduate Advising Office.

Course Level: Undergraduate

First Year Seminar (3)

The Arab Spring and Its Aftermath

This course examines the call for democratization throughout the Arab World, which has led to the revolutions in Tunisia, and Egypt, Libya, and Yemen that ended over 30 years of dictatorship. Elements of the "Arab Spring" that created widespread unrest and protests in countries such as Syria and Bahrain, and throughout the Arab World are explored. The course considers the role of the Internet and social media sites that facilitated the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya and how they continue to expose police brutality, corruption, and abuse of human rights. Lastly, this course observes recent elections and the challenges of building democratic institutions in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Prerequisite: freshman SIS students with permission of SIS Undergraduate Advising Office.

Course Level: Undergraduate

First Year Seminar (3)

The Rise of the African State

This course examines questions such as where do states come from; how do the contemporary and historical states of Africa differ from similar structures in other parts of the world and in other times throughout human history; and what can be learned about state-building and state-development from studying Africa. Lastly, to what extent can the successes and failures of contemporary African states be traced to the relations that underpinned their pre-colonial incarnations? Prerequisite: freshman SIS students with permission of SIS Undergraduate Advising Office.

Course Level: Undergraduate

First Year Seminar (3)

Business in Society: Don't Be Evil?

This course explores the concept and efficacy of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) from a variety of viewpoints. Expectations of companies vary historically and based on different perspectives: is the private sector responsible for maximizing profits and shareholder value, or should they create value for society; are corporations responsible for every link of their value chain, including labor standards of a small subcontracting factory making a component of their product in a tiny village of a low income country; does focusing on "Shared Value" and a Triple Bottom Line (profit, people, and the environment) make a company stronger and more sustainable; or is it just the right thing to do, e.g., Google's unofficial mission statement, "Don't Be Evil"? Prerequisite: freshman SIS students with permission of SIS Undergraduate Advising Office.

Course Level: Undergraduate

First Year Seminar (3)

War Politics and the Silver Screen

From Hollywood thrillers such as Green Zone to Academy Award winners such as The Hurt Locker, the silver screen continues to offer a rich medium for the study of international relations (IR). This seminar uses the medium of films to understand key theoretical issues in IR and examine how contemporary movies reflect our understanding of the nature of the state, the role of U.S. power, transnational challenges such as war, environmental pressures, criminal networks, the behavior of non-state states actors, as well as exploring how they all impact and shape the international system in the twenty-first century. Prerequisite: freshman SIS students with permission of SIS Undergraduate Advising Office.

Course Level: Undergraduate

First Year Seminar (3)

Civil Wars, Intervention, and Post-Conflict Stabilization

Civil wars such as the ongoing conflict in Syria constitute both the most common and the most deadly form of armed conflict in the contemporary international system. This seminar introduces students to the study of civil war by addressing the following questions: what causes civil wars to break out; what can third-party actors such as international organizations, neighboring countries, or major powers do to stop them; what tools and strategies do outside actors have at their disposal to prevent a possible relapse into conflict once a peace settlement has been reached? Throughout the course, emphasis is placed on critical evaluation of competing answers to these questions that have been advanced in the academic literature, both theoretically and through a series of case studies. In addition, the course also features a group project in which students conduct their own research on cases of civil war and intervention.

Course Level: Undergraduate

First Year Seminar (3)

Culture and U.S. Foreign Relations

Students in this seminar explore the question of how Americans and foreigners perceive each other through cultural, historical, economic, and psychological approaches. The seminar encourages American students to reflect upon how they want to engage the world and for foreign students to reflect on how they want to engage Americans.

Course Level: Undergraduate

First Year Seminar (3)

Middle East: Social Movements

The Arab Revolts of 2011 brought to the limelight the potential of popular movements rooted in civil society in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). In an effort to map this under-studied level of MENA politics, this course examines grassroots-level activism in the region. For the research project, students work in teams, with each team conducting research on a specific MENA country. The team efforts are compiled into a single research paper on the role and potential of social movements and civil society in MENA. Prerequisite: freshman SIS students with permission of the SIS Undergraduate Advising Office.

Course Level: Undergraduate

First Year Seminar (3)

Genocide and the Politics of International Law

This course approaches the question of why, despite its near universal condemnation and its legal prohibition, genocide has been allowed to be perpetrated with little or no preventive action taken. The course follows the evolution of the Genocide Convention from its conception to its original draft to its adopted text. Students perform a number of case studies and answer the question of whether treatment of the Armenians amounted to genocide and whether the Holocaust was unique. Further, students determine whether the Responsibility to Protect removes the blind spots found in the Genocide Convention and analyze the role the International Court of Justice can play in deterring state-sponsored genocide. Prerequisite: freshman SIS students with permission of SIS Undergraduate Advising Office.

Course Level: Undergraduate

First Year Seminar (3)

Diseases and Politics

Examination of various aspects of international and comparative politics through the lens of disease. The course draws on a variety of disciplines and media forms to help examine questions such as how the purportedly natural phenomena of epidemics affect and are affected by human societies and their politics, and what looking at health and diseases can teach us about understanding international politics. Prerequisite: freshman SIS students with permission of SIS Undergraduate Advising Office.

Course Level: Undergraduate

First Year Seminar (3)

Imagine: Creativity in the Study of International Relations

This course explores how language creates habits of mind, which limit our ability to think things other than they are at present. The course also explores key international relations (IR) concepts such as sovereignty, autonomy, democracy, politics, and power to identify current understandings of these concepts. The class then turns to an exploration of the ways in which these concepts can be creatively re-engaged to open new pathways for thinking about world politics. Prerequisite: freshman SIS students with permission of SIS Undergraduate Advising Office.

Course Level: Undergraduate

First Year Seminar (3)

Weak and Failed States

This seminar examines the nature of weak and failed states and their role in the world order. After an examination of the definition of a weak state, the class studies the major theories of international relations, how war and asymmetric conflict contribute to state collapse, and the role international development can play in this realm. The course then turns to an in-depth study of the causes of state failure and the role these nations and regions play in U.S. foreign policy and the international community, including case studies of individual states. Prerequisite: freshman SIS students with permission of SIS Undergraduate Advising Office.

Course Level: Undergraduate

First Year Seminar (3)

United States and Other Worlds

This course examines a number of global issues from a non-Western perspective, including societal values (free speech vs. religious rights, gender equality vs. gender inequality, etc.); environmental degradation; human rights; food security/insecurity; civil liberties vs. internal security; use of force (what concepts of justice govern the use of force and how they vary across cultures); development (is it imperialist of the West to assert that much of the world is not developed?); and human security. Prerequisite: freshman SIS students with permission of SIS Undergraduate Advising Office.

Course Level: Undergraduate

First Year Seminar (3)

Reflections: United States in the Mirror

This course examines how the United States sees itself, and how others see the United States. Analyzing historical as well as current trends, the course explores American ideology, society, and foreign policy from perspectives within, and outside, of the United States, particularly the issue of immigration. The class looks at what Americans think it means to be an American, and how that compares with the perspectives of others, addressing questions such as why people migrate to the United States; how different constituencies in the United States view migrants; what factors determine current U.S. immigration policy; how does an immigrant's conception of the United States, as well as their national and cultural identity, change while living in the U.S.; and if immigrants return to their country of origin, whether new values and beliefs affect their old community. Prerequisite: freshman SIS students with permission of SIS Undergraduate Advising Office.

Course Level: Undergraduate

First Year Seminar (3)

Power of Food: Farming, Social Development & Sustainability

This course explores how interactions between geography, technology, social systems, and biology influence the development of agricultural paradigms, and how such paradigms in turn have shaped the environment and society. The course looks across the broad span of history, from the dawn of agriculture in the Neolithic era 10,000 years ago to the present, to see how agriculture has evolved and transformed in response to external threats and internally generated contradictions. This survey sets the stage for a discussion of contemporary industrial agriculture, its advantages and disadvantages, and proposed alternatives, including permaculture, organic farming, and agrarian communitarianism. Prerequisite: freshman SIS students with permission of SIS Undergraduate Advising Office.

Course Level: Undergraduate

First Year Seminar (3)

Economic Dimensions of U.S. Foreign Policy

This seminar considers the contribution of the United States to the creation of a liberal, rule-bound global economic order since 1945 and how the anticipated dispersion of economic influence to countries such as China, Russia, Brazil, and India is likely to shape the institutional framework constructed under U.S. leadership. The course also delves into the contemporary practice of U.S. foreign economic policy. Prerequisite: freshman SIS students with permission of SIS Undergraduate Advising Office.