Global Environmental Governance
Clark A. Miller, UW-Madison Assistant Professor of Public Affairs

The Earth’s environment has become a major focal point of international conflict and cooperation. Responding to growing threats of environmental degradation, countries have signed over 700 international treaties designed to protect and manage the environment. Just as importantly, they have developed elaborate tools and systems for observing and modeling the behavior of the global environment and translating this knowledge into global policy advice. This course provides a broad overview of developments and patterns in both the epistemological and political dimensions of global environmental governance as they have emerged over the past three decades.

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History and Theory: Comparative Imperialisms
Jeremi Suri, UW-Madison Associate Professor of History
Louise Young, UW-Madison Associate Professor of History

This course will explore the nature of modern imperialism. We will examine this complex phenomenon from a number of methodological and comparative historical perspectives. The course will begin with a series of provocative and influential theoretical readings, followed by an intensive focus on the history of Japanese and American imperialism –two imperial “latecomers” –in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

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International Business and Government

 

The course falls into two broad parts. The first is primarily comparative.  In it we will examine the “varieties of capitalism” that have been identified in advanced industrialized societies and consider their capacity to withstand globalization.  We will also analyze the role within these national models of capitalism of established forms of economic coordination such markets, hierarchies, and associations; we will then go on to consider the emergence of new modes of governance based on networks, information, experimentation, and learning in response to the challenges of an increasingly complex, volatile, and uncertain environment.  The second part of the course is primarily international.  In it we will examine a series of key issues concerning the evolving relationship between business and government in the global economy, such as the nature of multinational corporations, the particular problems of developing countries and transitional economies, the emergence of the European Union as a regional polity and global actor, and the potential contribution of international civil society to business regulation and global governance.

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Macroeconomic Policy and International Financial Regulation

This course surveys international macroeconomics, with special reference to international monetary policy and international financial market architecture. Topics include the structure of international financial markets; the role of central banks; exchange-rate systems; the determination of balance of payments and exchange rates; macroeconomics of open economies; policy analysis for open economies; policy coordination; the International Monetary Fund; and financial crises. The aim of this course is to provide an analytical background for those who plan to go into government service, international organizations and agencies, businesses involved in the global economy, nongovernmental organizations with international foci, and consulting firms analyzing international policy issues.

 

 

 

This elective course focuses on identifying the entrepreneurial and strategic challenges associated with two high-technology sectors of the economy -- infotech and biotech –and provides tools/frameworks to address these challenges.