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Advanced International Economics
Charles Engel, Professor of Economics and Business

This course covers some of the basics of international macroeconomics. The first four weeks or so of this class will be devoted to basic intertemporal relationships in open economies. Then we will examine some empirical and theoretical topics. The focus of the class will be on monetary models and models of international finance, and their implications for the data.

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The Celtic Tiger and Modern Ireland
Jim Donnelly, Professor of History

This course focuses on the recent, remarkable transformation of the Irish Republic by an economic miracle that has seen it become one of the wealthiest industrialized countries in the world. The course provides an understanding of the reasons for this economic miracle, and the roles of the European Union and United States in Ireland’s transformation. It also investigates the nature, dimensions and consequences of the extraordinary social and cultural changes that have accompanied Ireland’s rapid economic transformation, and examines the downside of Ireland’s transformation particularly in terms of new environmental and social problems, and new economic and public policy challenges. The overall aim of the course is to take the measure of this new Ireland as a full participant in the era of globalization.

The Challenge of Democratization
Leigh Payne, Professor of Political Science
Democracy has spread around the world and scholars have attempted to understand this phenomenon as well as the very serious challenges that threaten the expansion and deepening of democratic trends.  In this course, students will use traditional democratic theory to explore what democracy is, how it spreads, and what obstacles it confronts along the way.  They will also study the new theoretical approaches by the so-called “transitologists” to understand particular dynamics of transitions from authoritarian rule in the contemporary world. 

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Chinese Law
John Ohnesorge, Assistant Professor of Law

This seminar is designed to give students an appreciation of the role of law in Chinese society, in the past, and today.  We will begin the seminar with an examination of law in traditional Chinese society, which constituted perhaps the world's most influential alternative to the Western legal tradition.  We then look briefly at past efforts to "modernize" Chinese law, during the Republican period before 1949, and during the influence of Soviet law after 1949.  The remainder of the semester will be spent on China's current efforts to establish a legal system, focusing on topics such as constitutional law and human rights, intellectual property law, environmental law, or corporate law. 

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CIA's Covert Wars & US Foreign Policy
Alfred McCoy, Professor of History

The course will probe the dynamics of CIA covert wars through comparative case histories during the last half of the 20th Century. The seminar will approach the study of modern US diplomatic history by focusing on the covert wars that have often left behind ruined battlegrounds that often become black holes of regional and global instability.

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Comparative Political Economy
Aseema Sinha, Associate Professor of Political Science

The purpose of this course is to provide a survey of the field of comparative political economy and an opportunity for in-depth study of the political economy of democratic and non-democratic capitalisms. We focus both on diversity of approaches within the broad rubric of political economy as well as cover key substantive themes that have concerned scholars.

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Economics of Development
Laura Schecter, Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics

We will begin by looking at issues in the measurement of poverty, inequality, and vulnerability. After that we will move on to look at social interactions, social networks and technology adoption. From there we will move on to study education, institutions, and corruption. These sections will study both the macro cross-country literature on these topics, and the micro within-country literature on these topics. We will conclude with a section on psychology and experiments in development economics.

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European Innovations in Environmental Management
Harvey M. Jacobs, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning

For over a century Americans have looked across the Atlantic for models of what is now denoted as sustainable cities and landscapes.  This seminar will review and assess aspects of western (i.e. "old") European approaches to land and environmental policy, examining both country and cross-European strategies.  The purpose will be to draw lessons for the engagement of similar issues in the U.S.

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Global Environmental Governance
Greg Nemet, Assistant Professor of Public Affairs and Environmental Studies

This class is designed to introduce students to the main concepts, frameworks, and actors involved in addressing environmental problems of international scale. Heightened concern about environmental quality has increased demand for leaders and analysts who can navigate the political, economic, scientific, and technological dimensions of these issues to inform critical policy decisions in a multinational context. The perspective taken here is that of a policy maker confronting decisions about the formation of international environmental policy and the management of it. A central theme of the course involves the challenges of addressing global problems while accommodating cross-national differences in interpretations of scientific risk and uncertainty.

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Global Finance Project Practicum
Michael Likosky, Visiting Professor of Law

This course focuses on the law and practice of major development projects internationally.  Students work as a team on philanthropic foundation and non-governmental organization (NGO) initiatives.  The team will coordinate with Columbia University Law School's Human Rights Clinic.  Topics covered will depend upon need, but will be topical.  Most likely, the team will work on extractive industry contract re-negotiations in the Congo, social and environmental clauses in extractive and infrastructure contracts, and conditions placed upon lending by public and private international banks on major projects in developing countries.

Health Impact Assessment of Global Environmental Change
Jonathan Patz, Associate Professor of Population Health and Environmental Studies

This course covers contemporary methods of impact assessment in a framework to address global environmental health threats (e.g., global climate change, deforestation and biodiversity loss, and urban sprawl).

International Business and Government
Jonathan Zeitlin, Professor of Sociology, Public Affairs, Political Science, and History

This 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. 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.  The final sessions of the course will examine more closely the practical problems of regulating international business in the fields of labor and environmental standards.

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International Investment Law
Jason Yackee, Assistant Professor of Law and Political Science

This seminar analyzes the developing global legal framework for regulating multinationals and FDI, paying particular attention to the kinds of disputes that tend to arise between foreign investors and host states and the ways in which those disputes are settled. The course thus focuses on investment disputes much more so than on the law of “doing deals.” Over the course of the semester we will examine the political, economic, and historical context of FDI, the sources of international legal rules governing the treatment of FDI and including primarily Bilateral Investment Treaties, or BITs, and Chapter 11 of NAFTA.  We will also spend considerable time studying the ways in which investment disputes are settled, paying particular attention to international arbitration before the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

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International Organizations
Mark Copelovitch, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs

This course is an advanced graduate seminar in international cooperation and institutions. Our goal will be to develop an understanding of the key questions (and answers to them) asked by international relations scholars, including: Why do states engage in international cooperation? What explains variation in institutional design? What effects do international institutions have, and how do they influence state policy? Why do international institutions have an impact, if they do so at all? The ultimate purpose of this course is to generate ideas for your own research, including papers and dissertation topics.

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International Taxation
A. Christians, Assistant Professor of Law

This course considers how the United States tax system deals with globalization. The course examines jurisdictional and sovereignty issues, rules for allocating income and deductions to various countries, the problem of multiple taxation and regulatory and treaty solutions, and how tax rules both encourage and prevent outsourcing and offshoring.

Law and Globalization
Michael Likosky, Visiting Professor of Law

This course looks at globalization and resistance to it.  Representative topics include the spread of the high technology economy into East Asia; efforts to influence constitution-making abroad after the Second World War, following decolonization, and after the disintegration of the Soviet Union; the emergence of women's rights within the United Nations; the economic reconstruction of Iraq; and the international aspects of the War on Terror.

Macroeconomic Policy and International Financial Regulation
Menzie Chinn, Professor of Public Affairs and Economics

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.

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Nigeria: A Failing State?
John Cambpell, Visiting Professor and Ambassador-in-Residence

The focus of this seminar will be on Nigeria since the ostensible restoration of civilian government in 1999 and its relations with the U.S.:  what has gone right, what has not, and the extent to which the U.S. has been able to influence developments in the Giant of Africa.  The focus is on Nigeria as a case study –if a grandiose one –for broader African issues including transition to democracy, political stability, and development.

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Selected Problems in International Law: International Human Rights
Heinz Klug, Professor of Law
Scott Straus, Assistant Professor of Political Science

This course is an introduction to the central concepts, laws, and debates in the field of international human rights. First, we will examine “humanitarian intervention”—the international use of military force to stop mass violations of human rights. . Second, we will examine various approaches to accounting for past human rights abuses, including international courts, foreign courts, domestic courts, truth commissions, and “traditional” forms of justice. A central proposition throughout the course is that human rights cannot be separated from politics. Indeed, we cannot understand either why human rights abuses happen or why international actors respond to human rights abuses in the way they do without examining the political contexts in which the abuses and policies take place.

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Systems Thinking and Sustainable Business
Tom Eggert, Senior Lecturer in the School of Business and Environmental Studies

This class brings together Business School students with students from the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies (and other schools and programs on campus) to dialogue on the relevance of sustainability in a focused and constructive way. It has been organized to provide better insights into how sustainable development can be a part of most decisions that are made, whether at the individual lifestyle level or at the organizational level. The class will consist of lectures supplemented with student discussions based on readings and case studies, and information gathering and writing about ways that we can change things right now so that as a society we are able to live in a more sustainable manner.

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Technology Entrepreneurship
Sanjay Jain, Assistant Professor of Business

This course focuses on identifying the entrepreneurial and strategic challenges faced by start-ups in two high-technology sectors of the economy -- infotech and biotech –and provides tools/frameworks to address these challenges. We begin with a quick review of the salient characteristics of these sectors and identify the key strategic issues associated with these fields. After that, we turn our attention to understanding techniques for identifying and assessing entrepreneurial opportunities in these fields. Next we examine ways in which such opportunities can be resourced and how critical competencies for a high technology start-up are developed. Finally, we focus on the strategic challenges that entrepreneurial firms in these fields need to address.

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Undergraduate

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Agriculture and Economic Development in Africa
Jeremy Foltz, Associate Professor of Agriculture and Applied Economics
More information coming soon.

Business and the Social Side of Sustainability Tom Eggert, Senior Lecturer in the School of Business and Environmental Studies

The concept of social rights and responsibilities for the business community must take into account the unprecedented interdependence that now exists in the world.  This class will highlight important innovations –both technical and social –occurring around the world as people and business organizations start to work together in unprecedented ways.  We will look at the business response to sweatshops and the emergence of fair trade efforts.  We will look at the role of business in community development, especially in developing countries.  We will look at business’s response to the emergence of a new customer, characterized by an interest in health and sustainability.

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Globalization: On States, Societies, and the International System
Mark Copelovitch, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs

This course examines the politics of international economic relations. It focuses on the ways in which socioeconomic interests and political institutions affect both national  economic policymaking and developments in the world economy. Our goal will be not only to describe this historical evolution of the world economy, but also to explain its causes and consequences. Finally, the course examines a variety of key issues central to the current and ongoing debate about globalization.

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Globalization, Poverty and Development
Brad Barham, Professor of Agriculture and Applied Economics
Ian Coxhead, Professor of Agriculture and Applied Economics

What are the links between globalization, economic development, and poverty in low-income economies?  How do these links operate, and how are they mediated or altered by global and national policies and institutions?  In this course we review issues and debates on globalization, develop a theoretical framework within which to examine the effects of global economic interactions on developing economies, and in a set of empirical units and case studies, focus on some of the main forces of globalization: international trade, investment and capital flows, international migration, and development assistance. 

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Latin American Economic Development
Laura Schecter, Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics

Economic theory and historical accounts are combined in an attempt to understand the various forces that have shaped economic development in Latin America. The first half of the course looks at historic and macroeconomic issues. We will discuss development policies ranging from the import-substituting industrialization policies of the 1950s-1970s, to the market-oriented reforms of the 1980s through the present. The second half of the course will look at microeconomic issues such as poverty, inequality, agriculture, education, and corruption. Not every topic fits neatly into the macro/micro breakdown of the course, and the macro discussions will be informed by micro fundamentals while the micro discussions will be informed by macro issues.
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International Trade and Finance
Maria Muniagurria, Senior Lecturer in Economics

The first and major part of the course explores the theoretical foundations of International
Trade, focusing on why nations trade and what do they trade, and in what sense international trade is beneficial to trading countries. Current policy issues will be examined to demonstrate the usefulness as well as the limitations of the theory. We will also study how trade policies can be used to pursue national or global objectives. The second part of the course (remaining 1/3 of classes) will cover selected topics in International Finance.

Technology Entrepreneurship
Sanjay Jain, Assistant Professor of Business

This course focuses on identifying the entrepreneurial and strategic challenges faced by start-ups in two high-technology sectors of the economy -- infotech and biotech –and provides tools/frameworks to address these challenges. We begin with a quick review of the salient characteristics of these sectors and identify the key strategic issues associated with these fields. After that, we turn our attention to understanding techniques for identifying and assessing entrepreneurial opportunities in these fields. Next we examine ways in which such opportunities can be resourced and how critical competencies for a high technology start-up are developed. Finally, we focus on the strategic challenges that entrepreneurial firms in these fields need to address.

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