Courses

FYS 100: Ethics in International Relations

Syllabus (PDF) Blackboard Site (Enrolled Students Only)

This course is a collaborative effort between the professor and first year students to examine pressing moral and ethical questions in the arena of international politics. Students will substantially develop their writing, reading comprehension, and public speaking skills to prepare for upper-level courses.

POLSC 250: Introduction to International Relations

Syllabus (PDF) Blackboard Site (Enrolled Students Only)

The objectives of this course are three-fold: to introduce you to some of the central concepts of and analytical approaches to the study of international politics, to apply those ideas to historical and current international events, and to provide you with a foundation of basic knowledge and skills that will enable you to analyze and digest information about international issues outside of the context of the class. No previous coursework in international politics is assumed.

POLSC 350: American Foreign Policy

Syllabus (PDF) Blackboard Site (Enrolled Students Only)

The first half of this class introduces central themes in American foreign policy since 1900. In the second half of the course, we will explore the complicated process through which Congress, the Presidency, the intelligence community, the military, and the public interact to form American foreign policy. The course also includes "Meet the Elites" video calls with professionals in the policy community and a capstone national security crisis simulation.

POLSC 353: International Security

Syllabus (PDF) Blackboard Site (Enrolled Students Only)

This course invesigates international issues that threaten the security and prosperity of societies and individuals in the modern world. Students will learn to approach security issues from a theoretically informed, analytical perspective, applying concepts and theories of security to global challenges such as global terrorism, human slavery and trafficking, civil wars and insurgencies, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The course also includes "Meet the Elites" video calls with professionals in the United States and other countries who deal with these threats in the policy realm. The course ends with a capstone NPT conference simulation.

POLSC 400: Understanding War

Syllabus (PDF) Blackboard Site (Enrolled Students Only)

This course is an advanced seminar examining the causes and patterns of international conflict. Rather than covering specific conflicts in depth, the course takes a theoretical, analytical approach to international conflict. In this course, you will learn how to view empirical evidence as capable of supporting or falsifying hypotheses about the way the world may work, and you will be encouraged to think of new evidence as useful regardless of its effect on your existing ideas. You will also learn how to compare the utility of specific theories in understanding the causes and patterns of international conflict, and you will assess the value of classic and recent qualitative and quantitative research on international conflict. This course presupposes that you have taken an introductory course in international politics. An intermediate course is strongly recommended.

INST 400: Societies at War

Syllabus (PDF) Blackboard Site (Enrolled Students Only)

This course is a senior seminar, the capstone of the International Studies major, examining the experience of war as a social experience shared by soldiers and the non-combatants they leave behind. The course studies the social and psychological experience of war by reading work in the fields of sociology, political science, history, and psychology, purposefully taking an interdisciplinary approach consistent with the spirit of the International Studies major.