Through a mix of lectures, films, discussion, and guest speakers, this course will interrogate what we might mean by order, global norms, rights, and cooperation and consider global affairs through the lenses of colonialism, decolonization, race, class, empire, and resistance, among other themes. This core class surveys the field of International Affairs in response to new global realities, from Black Lives Matter and democratic socialism to ascendant right-wing movements and conflicts stemming from the acute ecological and health crises that confront the twenty-first century. As countries, peoples, governments, cultures, and economies are brought closer together by globalization and ecological and public health challenges, many of these same forces work to separate them, supporting nationalisms, identitarian movements, and retreats to the local. IA practitioners must have a keen understanding of the political stakes of these developments as well as of the institutional, social, and ecological realities that shape them. To that end, this course will examine longstanding debates in IA as well as introducing students to various theoretical and political movements that have sought to critique and remake the academic study and practice of international affairs.

Through a mix of lectures, films, discussion, and guest speakers, this course will interrogate what we might mean by order, global norms, rights, and cooperation and consider global affairs through the lenses of colonialism, decolonization, race, class, empire, and resistance, among other themes. This core class surveys the field of International Affairs in response to new global realities, from Black Lives Matter and democratic socialism to ascendant right-wing movements and conflicts stemming from the acute ecological and health crises that confront the twenty-first century. As countries, peoples, governments, cultures, and economies are brought closer together by globalization and ecological and public health challenges, many of these same forces work to separate them, supporting nationalisms, identitarian movements, and retreats to the local. IA practitioners must have a keen understanding of the political stakes of these developments as well as of the institutional, social, and ecological realities that shape them. To that end, this course will examine longstanding debates in IA as well as introducing students to various theoretical and political movements that have sought to critique and remake the academic study and practice of international affairs.