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Global Governance (GGOV)

44 graduate courses in the Fall 2025 Graduate Calendar.

GGOV 600 Global Governance0.50 units

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.

Prerequisites

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 605 Global Governance in Historical Perspective0.50 units

This course examines the history of global governance, focusing on the institutions, issues, and debates that have shaped global governance throughout history. Students will consider how and why state and non-state actors have turned to global governance to tackle pressing challenges and create common frameworks. They will also examine the power dynamics involved in these processes, analyzing the politics of inclusion and exclusion within global governance arenas across different historical periods.

Cross-listed
HIST 605

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 610 Governance of Global Economy0.50 units

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.

Prerequisites
Cross-listed
PSCI 688, PACS 630

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 613 The Politics of National Innovation Systems0.50 units

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.

Cross-listed
PSCI 668

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 614 Global Business and Development0.50 units

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.

Cross-listed
PSCI 614

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 616 Theories of Political Economy0.50 units

An advanced examination of theoretical approaches to the study of political economy. The course explores both historical and contemporary approaches and how they inform political economy research.

Cross-listed
PSCI 690

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 618 Special Topics in Global Political Economy0.50 units

Consult the schedule of classes for specific topics being offered.

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 619 Readings in Global Political Economy0.50 units

Consult the schedule of classes for specific topics being offered.

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 620 Advanced Topics in Global Environmental Governance0.50 units

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.

Cross-listed
ERS 604, PSCI 604

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 621 Governing Global Food and Agriculture Systems0.50 units

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.

Cross-listed
PSCI 606, ERS 606

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 622 Complexity and Global Governance0.50 units

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.

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 628 Topics in Global Environment0.50 units

Consult the schedule of classes for specific topics being offered.

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 629 Readings in Global Environment0.50 units

Consult the schedule of classes for specific topics being offered.

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 630 Conflict and Security0.50 units

This seminar explores current issues and trends in conflict and security (both traditional and non-traditional) and in the study of global and regional governance to prevent or manage conflict and enhance security. Students will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with a variety of metatheoretical approaches to the subject. For Global Governance programs, the seminar will serve as the core course for the Conflict & Security stream.

Cross-listed
PSCI 678, PACS 634

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 631 Security Governance: Actors, Institutions, and Issues0.50 units

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.

Cross-listed
PSCI 679, PACS 635

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 633 Managing Nuclear Risk0.50 units

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.

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 634 Gender and Global Politics0.50 units

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.

Cross-listed
PSCI 620

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 635 Urban Security Governance0.50 units

An examination of the urban aspects of security, surveillance, war and terrorism. Particular attention will be given to the contemporary embrace of resilience as a rationality of urban security. Additional themes include the militarization of policing, the role of 'big data' in the intensification of urban surveillance, and the relationship between security and urban environments.

Cross-listed
SOC 785

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 638 Special Topics in Conflict and Security0.50 units

Consult the schedule of classes for specific topics being offered.

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 639 Readings in Conflict and Security0.50 units

Consult the schedule of classes for specific topics being offered.

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 640 Human Rights in the Globalized World0.50 units

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.

Cross-listed
PSCI 658, PACS 633

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 641 International Human Rights0.50 units

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.

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 642 Global Social Governance0.50 units

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.

Cross-listed
PSCI 639

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 644 International Migration: Practice, Theory & Regulation0.50 units

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.

Cross-listed
SOC 784

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 645 Global Indigenous Rights0.50 units

This course examines the historical and political contexts of Indigenous rights movements from around the world. It considers the histories of Indigenous-state relations and Indigenous assertions of rights and sovereignty through cultural, political, and legal means. We will discuss grassroots and global Indigenous rights movements and international efforts to address Indigenous aspirations and decolonization especially following WWII. Attention will be also paid to the formation of Indigenous organizations and the engagement of international forums (i.e., through the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples).

Cross-listed
HIST 612

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 648 Special Topics in Global Justice and Human Rights0.50 units

Consult the schedule of classes for specific topics being offered.

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 649 Readings in Global Justice0.50 units

Consult the schedule of classes for specific topics being offered.

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 650 International Organizations and Global Governance0.50 units

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.

Cross-listed
PSCI 657

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 653 International Organizations and Public Policy0.50 units

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.

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 654 International Relations Theory0.50 units

This course examines the major theories of International Relations (IR) and the current state of the field. It addresses the major IR theories, how they inform advanced research, and how they relate to the conduct of world politics.

Cross-listed
PSCI 610

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 655 Current Issues in International Relations0.50 units

This course examines recent trends in world politics, their origins, and their policy implications.

Cross-listed
PSCI 611

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 658 Special Topics in Multilateral Institutions and Diplomacy0.50 units

Consult the schedule of classes for specific topics being offered.

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 659 Readings in Multilateral Institutions and Diplomacy0.50 units

Consult the schedule of classes for specific topics being offered.

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 660 Public International Law0.50 units

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.

Cross-listed
SUSM 660, PSCI 609

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 661 International Organizations Law0.50 units

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.

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 662 Global Development Governance0.50 units

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.

Cross-listed
SOC 781

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 663 China and Global Governance0.50 units

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.

Cross-listed
PSCI 619

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 664 Law, Tech, & Society0.50 units

The course provides a comprehensive introduction to the intersections between technological innovations, law, and the regulation of social life. Emphasis is placed on how socio-technical and legal orders condition information environments, and, by extension, inform power relations and social inequalities. Focus is also placed on a range of empirical contexts to reveal how social harms are both produced and regulated through a nexus of technology, legal rules, and social relations.

Antirequisites
  • Not completed nor concurrently enrolled in:
Cross-listed
SOC 721

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 668 Special Topics in Global Social Governance0.50 units

Consult the schedule of classes for specific topics being offered.

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 669 Readings in Global Social Governance0.50 units

Consult the schedule of classes for specific topics being offered.

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 674 The Politics of Inequality0.50 units

This course studies the relationship between politics and socioeconomic inequality from a wide range of perspectives, such as inequality relating to income and debt, ethnicity, sex, consumers and producers, and regions.

Cross-listed
PSCI 656

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 700 Global Governance0.50 units

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. This course is open only to students in the PhD program in Global Governance.

Prerequisites

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 701 Research Methods0.50 units

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.

Prerequisites

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines

GGOV 703 The History of Global Governance0.50 units

This course examines the various ways global actors have identified and tried to solve global problems in the twentieth century. We will study the interactions between international organizations, state actors, non-governmental organizations, and informal interest groups as they have confronted global issues such as war, immigration, international trade, human rights, and environmental and health crises.

Cross-listed
HIST 703

Archived calendar entryRequirements, Fall 2025Course outlines