The media have been known as the "fourth branch" of the American political system, and not without reason. This course examines the changing role of media in American politics. Key issues include how media shapes citizens' thinking about politics, how politicians and citizen activists try to advance their goals through media, and how media outlets themselves shape what is considered news.

In the early 1990s, UN Secretary General Boutrous-Boutrous Ghali suggested that the protection of national borders should be replaced with a concern for human security - the protection of individuals from fear, want and repression by their own governments. This has now become an important mantra of the United Nations, which itself was founded not to protect humans from their own governments but to prevent the scourge of interstate war. What is "human security"? Is it a paradigm shift for thinking about global order or just a bunch of hot air?

This course is an advanced examination of some of the most influential thinkers and works in the tradition of Latin American political thought from the colonial period to the present. At the heart of our inquiry is an investigation of Latin America as a site of critique and decolonial praxis. Latin America's place in relation to the US and Europe - defined by relations of colonialism, domination, and exploitation - has also yielded a distinctive mode of critique.

How should we understand race and its significance to the study of international politics? Race as an object of inquiry has been at once foundational to, and also marginalized from, the field of International Relations (IR). The flagship publication Foreign Affairs is in fact an evolution of the initial journal of the field, the Journal of Race Development, founded in 1910. Yet in the latter half of the 20th century, race was also largely absent from "mainstream" approaches to core topics in the field - security, political economy, human rights.

This course surveys the conceptual and political history of dictatorship at its inception (Roman Antiquity), its unearthing and reception (Renaissance and Modern thought and politics), reconceptualization (with the re-birth of republicanism in post-American revolution), and its reactionary retake by the right-wing politics (early twentieth century and onwards) through illustrative case studies. In political colloquialism dictatorship is vaguely used as the synonym of tyranny and thus as the antidote of liberal democracies.

On February 24, 2022, Russia began the invasion of Ukraine, a neighboring state and a "brotherly nation," as it is often referred to in Russia. The conflict rapidly unfolded, with crushing economic and political sanctions imposed on Russia, oil prices hitting record highs on international commodity markets, and millions of Ukrainian refugees fleeing into Europe. This course attempts to understand the causes and contexts of this conflict and to map the conflicting perspectives on the war expressed by different political commentators.

This course explores the politics of energy policy by examining a range of cases from around the world, including the United States. What is energy? How does energy impact politics and everyday lives in energy-rich and energy-important countries? What are energy transitions and when do they occur? How do energy markets work? This course provides the conceptual, theoretical, and empirical tools to think critically about such questions.

Satisfies Junior Year Writing requirements for POLISCI majors, through assignments practicing the types of writing used by citizens, policy advisers, and politicians in public debates about contemporary issues.

Satisfies Junior Year Writing requirements for POLISCI majors, through assignments practicing the types of writing used by citizens, policy advisers, and politicians in public debates about contemporary issues.

Satisfies Junior Year Writing requirements for POLISCI majors, through assignments practicing the types of writing used by citizens, policy advisers, and politicians in public debates about contemporary issues.