members are private groups and individuals, include the International Seaweed Association as well as Doctors Without Borders and Human Rights Watch. This course investigates the historical and contemporary relationship between culture and economics, religion and capitalism, in their most encompassing forms. How significant of a threat are concerns like nuclear proliferation, nuclear terrorism, and nuclear accidents? The course is divided into three parts. By the early 21st century, the city had largely met these challenges and was once again one of the most diverse and economically vital places on earth-but also one marked by profound inequality. What lessons might we derive for our own times from studying this history? To that end, the course will discuss the origins, logic, and meaning of liberalism and capitalism and the relationships between them. Where do we find continuities and where upheavals? Why not simply claim that something is an interest rather than also a right? In discussions and writing, we will explore the diverse visions of modernity and of politics offered by such thinkers as Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Mill, and Freud. We will study past campaigns and then research and discuss contemporary reform efforts. It concludes with a discussion of the prospects of right-populist politics in the United States. [more], This introductory seminar investigates the relationship between three major schools of thought in contemporary Africana social and political philosophy: the African, Afro-North American, and Afro-Caribbean intellectual traditions. of nationalism and far-right populism in the US and Europe, discuss their relations with liberal democracy, conservativism, and authoritarian politics to study varieties of far-right populism and nationalism not only within the nominal far-right but all political parties in Western democracies. Indeed, in the study of American political development, we often look to complex processes and underlying causes as explanations for how and why ideas, institutions, and policies both emerge and evolve. The course will give a global perspective on Islamophobia and how it is structuring and used by political actors in various territories. The basic format of the course will be to combine very brief lectures with detailed class discussions of each session's topic. This course interrogates the many perils that pundits and activists tell us we should worry about in 21st century America. Not surprisingly, loneliness has become epidemic. and dominant media companies (Google, FaceBook, CNN, FOX, etc.). This course explores the causes and consequences of democratic erosion through the lens of comparative politics. How can we expect cyberweapons to shape the future of warfare, intelligence, and security competition? complex as the boundaries of "the human" become blurred by the rise of artificial intelligence, robotics, and brain implants: shifting attitudes towards both animal and human bodies; and the automation of economic and military decisions (buy! [more], The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea gathered into one place what most countries considered in 1982 to be scattered ancient laws about piracy, transit through other countries' territorial waters, jurisdiction over ships, and so forth. We investigate who refugees are, in international law and popular understanding; read refugee stories; examine international and national laws distinguishing refugees from other categories of migrants; evaluate international organizations' roles in managing population displacement; look at the way that images convey stereotypes and direct a type of aid; consider refugee camps in theory and example; and reflect on what exclusion, integration, and assimilation mean to newcomers and host populations. Central notions such as democracy, identity, and their relation to far-right populism will be discussed alongside questions of contemporary mobilization strategies. By the end of the course, students will develop their ability to think about foreign policy issues, improving their ability to participate in public life as engaged citizens. Through the lens of coastal and ocean governance and policy-making, we critically examine conflict of use issues relative to climate change, climate justice, coastal zone management, fisheries, ocean and coastal pollution and marine biodiversity. It may be tempting to conclude from these similarities--as some recent commentators have--that we are witnessing the return of "totalitarianism" as Arendt understood it. We will also discuss changes in religion under the influence of capitalism including romanticism, Pentecostalism, moralistic therapeutic Deism, and the 'God gap' between largely theist Africa, South and West Asia, and the Americas on the one hand and largely atheist Europe and East Asia on the other. It concludes with a discussion of the prospects of right-populist politics in the United States. And we will ask persistently: what constitutes a "Jewish justification" for a political claim in modern Jewish political theory? Contributions to theory include the writings and activism of Langston Hughes, W.E.B. The Sentinels Scholar may submit her/his essay for consideration for honors in Political Science. They are using debt to create liquidity, demand, and uphold credit markets. The universal model is Silicon Valley. This tutorial investigates the relationship between state and nation over time in the United States. and home to over 1 billion people, sub-Saharan Africa is remarkable in its diversity, particularly in regards to a number of outcomes central to the study of political science: how do institutions of the past shape current dynamics of political competition and economic growth? After considering explanations of the rise of the left and assessments of its performance in power, we end our common readings by asking what it might mean today to be on the left in Latin America--or anywhere--both in policy and political terms. The course is based on the literature of multidisciplinary studies by leading scholars in the field, drawing from anthropology, gender studies, history, political science, religious studies, postcolonial studies, decolonial studies, and sociology.This course's goal is to show how the racialization of Islam and Muslims has been constitutive to the latter's imagination. With each reading, our dual aim will be to confront pressing issues or controversies and to ask whether the works in question offer ways of thinking and writing that we should pursue ourselves. We first read polemics from both sides, before stepping back to consider Latin American political economy, including the twentieth-century left, from a more historical and analytical perspective. To what extent do these calamities pose new, existential threats to the republic? In whose interest is the prevailing system? This course is part of a joint program between Williams' Center for Learning in Action and the Berkshire County Jail in Pittsfield, MA. We will assess traditional theories about the weakness of the American state in light of arguments about the state as: regulator of family and "private" life, adjudicator of relations between racial and ethnic groups, manager of economic inequalities, insurer of security, and arbiter of the acceptable uses of violence and surveillance. Political Science courses at the 100- and 200- level are open to all first-year students. does it mean to be an American? Yet, law is still where we look for justice and, perhaps, for power to be tamed by the pressure to be legitimate. We will also explore the current implications of Wynter's thought for Africana political theory, Afro-futurism, social justice, human rights, and critiques of liberal humanism. an anarchic political structure for order and justice in world politics? Case studies will include antislavery politics and the American Civil War; the global crises of the 1930s and 1940s; and the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. What sparks political violence and how can countries emerge from conflict? they cannot do, and who can punish transgressions. The basic format of the course will be to combine very brief lectures with detailed class discussions of each session's topic. [more], Home to over half of the world's population and to more than twenty of the world's largest cities, Asia has gained global prominence in recent years; the twenty-first century in fact has widely been deemed the 'Asian Century'. the last year. Our focus is on rights and liberties -- freedom of speech and religion, property, criminal process, autonomy and privacy, and equality. How significant of a threat are concerns like nuclear proliferation, nuclear terrorism, and nuclear accidents? How have its constitutive institutions, from pensions to unemployment insurance, evolved since the post-war "Golden Age"? First, through a variety of readings and discussions (including, perhaps, with the assigned scholars themselves), it aims to introduce students to the challenges of original scholarly research and expose them to the range of ways political scientists approach those challenges. The Trump Era and the Future of World Politics. Is leadership that privileges desirable ends, such as justice or security, at the expense of democratic means acceptable? Dangerous Leadership in American Politics. is an investigation into this global liberal project, engaging both theory and practice. This seminar will address these questions with the aim of introducing students to important theoretical topics and key concepts that are relevant to the comparative and critical study of Asia. Throughout the semester we interrogate four themes central to migration politics: rights, representation, access, and agency. Is power the kind of thing held by individuals, races, genders, classes, discourses, causal mechanisms, institutions, or social structures? We will explore conflicts over how "the people" are defined in different moments, and we will examine how these conflicts connect to the exercise of state power in areas including territorial expansion, census taking, public health, immigration, social welfare, and policing. We will then use our investigation of how different authors, and different traditions, understand the nation to help us assess contemporary politics and come to our own conclusions about what animates conflicts. Where did Democratic and Republican foreign policy elites agree and disagree and what happened to proposals that were outside the elite consensus? To study the presidency is to study human nature and individual personality, constitution and institution, rules and norms, strategy and contingency. The course will give a global perspective on Islamophobia and how it is structuring and used by political actors in various territories. Noam Chomsky and the Radical Critique of American Foreign Policy. Jews had to decide where to pin their hopes. Despite this, national government has grown in scope and size for much of this history, including under both Democratic and Republican administrations. This course will read leading conservative political thinkers with a view to identifying their central tenets, both negative and positive. And is political involvement a unique or defining aspect of what it means to be human? One of the key questions we will seek to answer is why Kennan and Kissinger disagreed on so many important issues, ranging from the Vietnam War to the role of nuclear weapons, despite their shared intellectual commitment to Realism. This research seminar examines the intent, process, meaning and consequence of these new practices, particularly in terms of national constitutions, international law, and principles of justice. climate change) are organized and mobilized. regulated? Some defenders argue that the media is a convenient scapegoat for problems that are endemic to human societies, while others claim that it actually facilitates political action aimed at addressing long-ignored injustices. What role does statecraft play in matters of war and peace? The tutorial will address the evolution of Palestinian nationalism historically and thematically, employing both primary and secondary sources. Ill health, inadequate sanitation, and lack of access to safe drinking water are increasingly common. Readings may include texts by Rene Descartes, Andreas Vesalius, Londa Schiebinger, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Helen Longino, Nancy Harstock, Sandra Harding, bell hooks, Donna Haraway, Mary Hawkesworth, and Octavia Butler. This course will examine the problems and paradoxes that attend the exercise of the most powerful political office in the world's oldest democracy: Can an executive office be constructed with sufficient energy to govern and also be democratically accountable? Indeed, a central concern of the founders was that democracy would invite demagogues who would bring the nation to ruin. We consider how this history confirms or undermines influential views about U.S. foreign relations and about international relations generally. In addition, we will examine the long-standing arguments among both historians and political scientists over how to explain and interpret the longest and most controversial war in American history. This research seminar investigates who uses this category, to what ends, and with what success. At the same time, worries about residual impunity or the effect that punishment might have on societies' futures has led to the development of national and social courts, as well as national military tribunals, to complement those at the international level. To how we want American politics to work? There is a similar dismal irony to the American Revolution, as captured by the title of Frederick Douglass' famous 1852 speech, "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" How are international organizations and domestic governments regulating this level of unprecedented global mobility in destination countries as well as countries of origin? Class will be driven primarily by discussion, typically introduced by a brief lecture. In addition to their distinguished careers in government, both men have published well regarded and popular scholarship on various aspects of American foreign policy, international relations, and nuclear weapons. We will turn to Arendt as an interlocutor, not a guide, as we seek to reconcile ourselves to the contingency and specificity of past and present political realities. Or is it, rather, the activity through which citizens pursue justice and the good life? Materials include biographies, documentary films, short videos, economic data, and news reports. Yet inequality in wealth may conflict with the political equality necessary for democratic governance and public trust, leading to concerns that we are sacrificing community, fairness, and opportunity for the benefit of a small portion of the population. This course will examine the political underpinnings of inequality in American cities, with particular attention to the racialization of inequality. Examples of internationalized transitional justice abound. How is it that the expansion of markets led to the birth of democracy in some countries, but dictatorships in others? Serious inquiry into waste is rare in political theory and political science--perhaps understandably, given that the study of politics is shaped by the same taboos that shape politics. To answer these questions, we will examine immigration from a multidisciplinary lens, but with special attention to immigration politics and policy. Class will be driven primarily by discussion, typically introduced by a brief lecture. Ultimately, our goal is to determine how worried we should be---and what, precisely, we should be worried about---as a new era of American leadership begins. This suggests that the better we can understand the nature of cause and effect, the better we can understand power. The implications for political polarization, economic growth, social insurance programs, public health, military defense, even national survival are grim. Second, the course will consider the prelude and official responses to the 2008-11 financial crisis. IGOs, whose members are sovereign states, range from the Nordic Association for Reindeer Research to NATO and the UN; INGOs, whose members are private groups and individuals, include the International Seaweed Association as well as Doctors Without Borders and Human Rights Watch. Escalating racial violence in cities. In investigating this theme, our cornerstone will be Max Weber's famous argument from The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Exploration of these and other questions will lead us to examine topics such as presidential selection, the bases of presidential power, character and leadership, congressional-executive interactions, social movement and interest group relations, and media interactions.