Course Catalog

Home>Academic Catalog 2024-2025>

Course Catalog

CONFLICT MANAG'T, PREVENT'N, & RESOLUT'N (PO5058)

Course will examine both the theory and practice of decision making, diplomacy and conflict resolution. It will examine theories of procedural and instrumental rationality, prospect theory, multiple advocacy, along with an examination of actual policy formation involving bureaucratic politics, policy networks, and caucuses. The course will likewise examine diplomatic theories ranging from “ripe for resolution” to “ripe for prevention”. And finally, specific historical and contemporary cases studies involving conflict prevention, conflict management, conflict transformation and conflict resolution will be examined.

US & WORLD AFFAIRS (PO5072)

America's predominant position in the modern world system derives from a continuous process of expansion. Using a pluridisciplinary approach with a strong historical focus, this course critically explores the US’s ascending movement from the confines to the center of the world system and the ways in which America has shaped the global political economy. It will allow students to anchor controversial contemporary debates (imperialism and hegemony, cooperation and conflict, multilateralism and unilateralism, globalization, transnationality and the nation state, etc.) in historic and comparative perspective. Major IR and IPE theoretical frameworks (realism, liberalism, Marxism, transnational theories) will be discussed and their relevance assessed when applied to different issue areas.

MEDIA & SOCIETY IN THE MIDDLE EAST & N.AFR. (PO5073)

This course examines the role of Media in the Middle East and North Africa (primarily Arab countries). It analyzes the different ways in which Media and politics intersect.
It covers the evolution of the Middle Eastern Mediascape, its relation to ideologies, to political and intellectual circles, to the emerging ruling elites, to entertainment and to financial sponsors.
The course discusses as well the emergence of Pan Arab Media outlets (from newspapers to Satellite channels), their impact on the regional media scene, and then the beginning of the digital era or the "democratization" of media with internet, social networks, smart phones, and their roles in revolutions.
Islam, its perceptions, its political impact, and the way some Islamist movements deal with or use the Media are topics to explore.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
1. To provide students with an understanding of important media trends in the Middle East.
2. To help students reflect on the role of Media in Middle Eastern culture and politics.
3. To assist students think through the roles that traditional and new/digital Media have played in revolutions in the region

ADVANCED INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW (PO5074)

This course lays the groundwork for an advanced understanding of the international and regional human rights frameworks, both hard and soft law, that guarantee dignity for individuals and populations worldwide. International human rights law establishes the norms, jurisprudence and legal infrastructure necessary to promote the implementation of international human rights standards.

ECOLE DE GUERRE PRACTICUM (PO5075)

This course prepares AUP students to play the role of international NGO humanitarian aid workers, responsible for providing relief to tens of thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire during the Exercise Coalition, a polyvalent simulation of military intervention organized and operated by the French War College (Ecole de Guerre) with civilian partners.

WOMEN, CONFLICT RES., & INTERNAT'L LAW (PO5080)

This course will examine the existing international legal framework for the protection of women’s rights and contrast the law with the nearly universal perception that the world of women is a private sphere, one where laws made in the public realm have less weight, or are more difficult to implement due to lack of witnesses, or worse, community acceptance of certain types of gender-based violence. But activists are making progress across the globe in combating insufficient implementation of women’s rights. This course will explore their remarkably innovative strategies to achieve conflict resolution and the protection of women in challenging circumstances.

COLLABORATIVE METH. IN CONFLICT RES. (PO5081)

This course acquaints students with theory and research on collaboration, with particular emphasis on the relationship between collaboration and communication in situations of cultural and ethnic conflict. It begins with a focus on what sorts of problems and conflicts are best suited to collaborative interventions, and then sets out the essential features of a high-quality collaborative process and the various communicative acts that are essential to creating and maintaining such a process, which students practice in a simulation of a variety of cross cultural contexts.

TOPICS IN POLITICS (PO5091)

Topics change each semester- see the current Academic Schedule for current course descriptions.

THESIS (PO5095)

In the last semester of their studies students are required to complete a 20,000 word thesis. Additional paperwork available in the office of the Registrar is MANDATORY for registration of the thesis.

INTERNSHIP (PO5098)

Internships are commonly pursued in non-governmental organizations, international development networks or research institutes, but can also be completed in a variety of other institutions depending on students’ interests and initiative. The University cannot guarantee placement in an internship, but will provide assistance with the internship search. Students must have completed their first semester of MA studies and should contact the Internship Office early for registration purposes.