41 graduate courses in Waterloo’s course catalog for Winter 2021, from UW Open Data. uwloo can’t read that term’s Graduate Calendar, so this stands in for it; the calendar itself is in Waterloo’s archive.
This course provides an overview of current scholarly debates relating to the interdisciplinary study of global governance in the context of globalization. It examines competing perspectives on globalization and global governance and explores the sources and consequences of global power and authority, as well as the key actors, institutions, regimes, and norms of global governance.
Global Governance Grad Students only. All others require permission of department
A survey of the theoretical and public policy debates relating to regulation of the global economy, examined through case studies ranging from international banking an intellectual property rights, to labour and environmental standards and the control of illicit economic activity.
Large developing countries like Brazil, Russia, India, and China stand at the centre of much of current international political economy. Their national development efforts profoundly shape their international participation and vice versa. This course will cover theoretical and conceptual debates about the roles of these "middle range" or "emerging" powers, then examine their national economies, before turning to see how they individually and collectively (with the other emerging powers) fit into current global governance.
GGOV 613The Politics of National Innovation Systems
This course examines the global effort to develop new economies built around the commercialization of science and technology. This class, while covering Canadian developments in some detail, examines the broad international, theoretical and conceptual questions surrounding national innovation strategies and implementations and considers the role of national cultures and political environments in promoting new economies.
This course examines the impact of international business on development in the context of economic globalization. It explores contending perspectives on how international business, particularly multinational corporations, has affected the economic, social and political development in the host countries, the home countries, as well as the world in general.
This course analyzes the extent and character of worldwide poverty today by adopting both a global and an historical perspective. The course examines the impact of industrialization and colonialism on poverty and the social and political economy of poverty in the contemporary world. The course examines the relationships between poverty and slums, poverty and underdevelopment, poverty and inequality, as well as poverty and hunger. The course considers various theories about causes of poverty and those public and private actions that seem most likely to reduce the extent of poverty.
GGOV 620Advanced Topics in Global Environmental Governance
This course examines the ways in which environmental challenges are being addressed by means of 'global governance' - that is, international organizations and institutions intended to deal with these environmental challenges. Concepts are investigated both to help analyze the relative strengths and weaknesses of existing structures and to suggest ways in which alternative forms of global governance might advance sustainability. Specific organizations and other actors presently active in global environmental governance are given particular attention, as is the management of selected global environmental challenges.
GGOV 621Governing Global Food and Agriculture Systems
This course examines the international rules and organizations that have emerged to govern the increasingly global system of food and agriculture. Specific themes to be covered include governance issues related to the rise of global food corporations, agricultural trade liberalization and the WTO, food aid distribution, international agricultural assistance, the global agro-chemical industry, and agricultural biotechnology.
The course is an advanced seminar consisting of two major components: 1. An introduction to key concepts, theories, and empirical findings in complexity science, and 2. A review of the implications of our emerging knowledge abut complex systems in three governance domains - energy, climate, and security. The first component surveys the major branches of thought about complexity in physics, biology, ecology, geography, information theory, technology studies, and economics. The second component highlights practical applications of complexity science in global governance, emphasizing research findings with clear policy implications. The course includes some exposure to computational methods of modeling complex phenomena and visualizing complex data. Assignments include three short integrative reports and a major paper.
This is a seminar in the ontology of security. Security is a contested concept, and in this course we ask what it is and how best to pursue it. What do we mean by security? What are we trying to protect? From what? Why? How do we do it? We begin by considering the concept of security in the abstract, and we then proceed to explore various specific conceptions. Along the way we encounter both traditional and non-traditional approaches to security.
GGOV 631Security Governance: Actors, Institutions, and Issues
In this course we examine a range of "security" issues on the global agenda - both traditional and non-traditional - and examine recent and possible future institutional and policy responses. Issues examined include nuclear proliferation, terrorism, intrastate conflict, resource and territorial disputes, climate change, drugs, disease, and migration. Students will have an opportunity to research in depth a specific security issue of their choice.
GGOV 632Post-War Reconstruction and State Building
Rebuilding states in the aftermath of conflict and state failure represents one of the foremost challenges facing the international community. The post-Cold War era has shown that weak states represent as great a threat to international security and stability as strong ones. The transition from war to peace and state failure to stability in these states can be conceptualized as encompassing three separate but interrelated transitions, in the economic, political and security spheres. The course will deconstruct and analyze this triple transition, examine both its theoretical roots and practical application with reference to a number of recent case studies.
This seminar will begin with an examination of history's closest call to a major nuclear war: The Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 and research on the crisis over the past 25 years. Students will have online ccess to declassified documents, oral testimony and scholarly analysis of the crisis from all over the world. The seminar will then shift gears to an in-depth consideration of the degree to which the lessons of the missile crisis illuminate the evolving Iranian nuclear crisis. Each student will work with the insdtructors throughout the semester to identify a suitable topic for an original research paper which may be primarily historical, or policy oriented, or a hybrid of the two. The seminar is open to any student with a strong interest in these topics, regardless of departmental affiliation.
Does looking at the world through the lens of gender change how we see the state, sovereignty, diplomacy, security, trade, migration, globalization, governance, and other foundational concepts in global politics? We review feminist theories of politics, with a particular focus on international relations and global governance; examine how gender shapes the roles and experiences of women and men in global politics; and discuss how to do feminist research.
The course is a study of international and local responses to human rights abuses in the contexts of economic globalization and proliferation of armed violence. It examines major debates on international human rights. It also deals with specific human rights situations in the developing/transitional countries. Topics include: universalism and cultural relativism, global economic justice, rights to food and health, women's and children's rights, the rights of displaced civilians, human rights and R2P, prospects for transitional justice.
This interdisciplinary course will address issues in the study of the international legal regime of human rights, its history and evolution. The course will cover a number of debates in the literature, including but not limited to philosophical and regional/cultural/religiously - based objections to this international regime; human rights in international relations; and human rights and globalization.
This course examines the prospects for the supranational governance of social issues including the political and philosophical underpinnings of transnational social policy cooperation as well as examining specific issue areas such as global health policy and cross-national migration.
Health policy-making is changing to reflect a need for more coordination among nation-states and a rising number of international non-governmental organizations, leading to a more polycentric form of global governance. It begins with a review of theoretical texts on globalization and global public policy that assist in understanding changes in scale for policy-making and for policy coordination. It then looks at the historical development of global institutions, including the World Health Organization. Finally, it examines case studies of global health policy making, noting how these actions interface with nation-states' sovereignty and autonomy, and with other sites of global authority.
GGOV 644International Migration: Practice, Theory & Regulation
This course explores theoretical perspectives on migration and critically examines how states deter or facilitate migration flows, including irregular immigration, refugees and asylum seekers, and low and high-skilled labourers. A multidisciplinary approach allows students to investigate the ubiquitous rise of border controls as a state tool to control migration, and how their implementation intersects with gender, race, class and nationality.
GGOV 650International Organizations and Global Governance
This course serves as a survey of the international relations (IR) subfield of international organizations (IO) but focuses principally on formal, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs). We examine the growing literature on international organizations and discuss their impact on global governance, considering their formation, design, relevance, impact and agency. We apply this knowledge to the study of several highly institutionalized issue areas.
This course stretches the definition of who are the actors that conduct the practice of diplomacy, where the sites of diplomacy are located, and what aims are privileged. Conventional diplomacy showcases state-centric activity with an emphasis on hierarchy, protocol, and closed negotiations. Unconventional diplomacy in contrast is open-ended with a focus on transparency, inclusiveness and the pursuit of global governance. The course begins with an overview of the pressures for change in diplomacy, and then moves to a detailed examination of specific areas where unconventional diplomacy has become prominent including think tank diplomacy, humanitarian diplomacy, 'pandemic' diplomacy, and celebrity diplomacy.
Non-state actors (NHOs, corporations, networks, etc.) play increasingly important roles in global governance, This course examines different theoretical arguments about their roles. Overarching questions include the extent to which they support or undermine states' purposes in global governance, what and how much they can contribute to global problem solving, and possible limits or critiques of their participation. It will draw on studies of non-state actors in many issue areas, venues, and parts of the world in an effort to understand what these have in common with each other, as well as possible lines of differentiation among them.
GGOV 653International Organizations and Public Policy
This course explores international organizations' contributions to transnational or "multilevel" governance and the instruments (both hard and soft) that they can wield. Students assess the role of international organizations in transnational policy diffusion by focusing first on major international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the OECD and then examine key policy areas such as the environment, food and development.
This survey course will provide students with a systematic introduction to the international legal system. Topics to be covered include: the origins and nature of the international legal system; the formation, sources and application of international law; the law of treaties; international legal personality; the institutional framework of international law; the relationship between international law and municipal law; the relationship between states and territory; law of the sea; state jurisdiction; jurisdictional immunities of states; state responsibility; and a selection of substantive international legal topics including, as time permits, international trade, international investment, the use of force by states, and/or international humanitarian law.
This course introduces graduate students to the law of international organizations. It covers the rise of international organizations; the legal position of international organizations; the foundations of powers of organizations; international organizations and the law of treaties; issues of membership; financing; privileges and immunities; institutional structures; legal instruments; decision-making and judicial review; dispute settlement; treaty-making by international organizations; issues of responsibility and accountability; and dissolution and succession.
The course explores theoretical perspectives on the global governance of development, with critical attention to how processes of global development shape local environments and their inhabitants, challenge notions of state sovereignty and territory, and engender diverse responses to regimes of control. Cross-disciplinary perspectives will enable students to engage with a wide range of sociological, ethnographic, and political analyses of development through case studies and themes.
This course examines the evolution of Chinese involvement in global governance across different issue areas. We discuss Chinese perspectives on the existing governance mechanisms, and China's role in preserving or changing these mechanisms. We will also explore how China's involvement in global governance has shaped its domestic institutions.
This course provides an overview of current scholarly debates relating to the interdisciplinary study of global govemance in the context of globalization. It examines competing perspectives on globalization and global govemance, and explores the sources and consequences of global power and authority, as well as the key actors, institutions, regimes, and norms of global governance. This course is open only to students in the PhD program in Global Govemance.
The course exposes students to various methodological approaches and debates among them in order to help students develop the ability to professionally assess academic work as well as to prepare their own dissertation research. The course examines such topics as statistical methods for the social sciences, issues in methods and methodology, case selection, critical assessment and proposal writing.