ESPOL Masters A-Z course catalog

Academic Writing Workshop

This multi-lecturer seminar aims at strengthening the students’ writing muscles in preparation of their master’s dissertations. We will navigate through the writing process on a step-by-step approach, from basic planning and organizing, to more in-depth elements of writing (building an argument, discussing results, exploring cause and effect), to mastering citation of sources and avoiding plagiarism.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
METH-EN-4003
Seminars
6 hours  
2 ECTS 
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Camille Kelbel (coordination)
Brendan Coolsaet
Michael Holmes
Giulia Sandri
Felix von Nostitz
Sabine Weiland

 
PREREQUISITE
None.
ASSESSMENT
100% coursework
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Food Politics (research course)
Master in Global and European Politics (research course)
Master in International Security (research course)

Agriculture and Rural Politics

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
ESPOL-DIV-EN-T001
Lectures
24 hours  
5 ECTS 
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Brendan Coolsaet (replaced in 2021-2022 by Romain Blancaneaux)
 
PREREQUISITE
None
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (core)
Master in Global and European Politics (elective)
Master in International and Security Politics (elective)
 

Approches Socio-économiques de l’Agriculture

Please consult ISA Lille website for more information: https://www.isa-lille.com/

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
Comment
ESPOL-POLS-FR-4003
Lectures
24 hours  
5 ECTS
French
Course given at ISA Lille
 
TEACHING TEAM
Eric Taisne (ISA Lille)
 
PREREQUISITE
Fluent command of French.
ASSESSMENT
Please consult ISA Lille website for more information: https://www.isa-lille.com/
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (elective)
Master in Global and European Politics (elective)
Master in International and Security Politics (elective)
 

Armed Conflicts and Peacemaking

Interpersonal armed violence and war, understood as collectively organized violence between groups, are part of the earliest and most persistent features of human relations. While the dominant modernist narrative emphasizes the evolution of the state and state system as paramount institutions monopolizing and containing armed violence, critics have long argued that these institutions actually maintain, enable, and conceal the exercise of violence. Moreover, in recent decades the state and the state system have been increasingly regarded to be in crisis, as evidenced from supposed state failure and ‘ethnic’ conflict to the expanding role of international organizations in responding to these challenges. Especially since the end of the Cold War, the focus on interstate war as the traditional key concern has been enlarged to include civil wars and armed violence beyond the state. Meanwhile, new opportunities for concerted action by the United Nations and others have vindicated and developed the agenda to “make”, “keep”, and “build” peace in war-shattered societies. This course introduces students to the major themes of armed conflict, violence, and peace-making to allow them to critically engage with these themes in an independent and analytically informed way.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
ESPOL-EIS-EN-5005
Lectures
24 hours  
5 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Giulia Prelz Oltramonti
 
PREREQUISITE
A basic knowledge of International Relations (IR) helps following this course.
ASSESSMENT
100% coursework
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in International and Security Politics (core)
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (elective)
Master in Global and European Politics (elective)
 

Comparative Politics

This course provides the analytical knowledge and practical skills to understand comparative politics worldwide. It covers a wide range of policy-relevant issues by utilizing the methods and techniques of comparative politics. You will learn about states and regimes worldwide as well as deepening your understanding of your own society. The orientation is problem and reform focused. This course analyzes (I) the nature of comparative politics (II) processes of state formation and the classification of regimes types, (III) the structure of political institutions, (IV) the role of political actors, and (V) processes of governance performance.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
ESPOL-POLS-EN-4003
Lectures
24 hours  
5 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Felix Von Nostitz
 
PREREQUISITE
None
ASSESSMENT
100% coursework
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Global and European Politics (core)
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (elective)
Master in International and Security Politics (elective)
 

Contemporary Issues in European Politics

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
 
Lectures
24 hours  
6 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Andrew Glencross
 
PREREQUISITE
Basic knowledge of EU institutions and policy-making.
ASSESSMENT
Tbd.
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Global and European Politics (core)
 

Cultures and Identities in the EU

The course explores an understudied dimension of European integration: the representation and communication of cultures and identities in EU policies, which are essential to establish a connection between the citizens and the institutions and to legitimize the European polity. The course invites the students to reflect on categories too often used uncritically such as ‘Europe’, ‘European identity’, or ‘European culture’. This reflection shall provide them with useful theoretical and empirical tools to assess critically past and current representations of Europe as well as a whole range of EU policies.

More specifically, the course analyses concrete strategies conceived by the EU institutions and other actors to promote a European identity and/or culture and to establish connections between the EU and its citizens, but also the debates, controversies and resistances that such efforts have provoked. The main issues and policy fields studied in the course are culture and heritage, history and memory, symbols and communication, values, citizenship and migration.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
 
Lectures
24 hours  
6 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Oriane Calligaro
PREREQUISITE
Basic knowledge of EU institutions and policy-making.
ASSESSMENT
100% coursework.
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (elective)
Master in Global and European Politics (core)
Master in International and Security Politics (elective)
 

Digital Democracy

The digitization of politics transcends the political landscape and leads us to reconceptualize core democratic concepts such as autonomy, representation, and political identity in a new light. This course provides an introduction to these transformations. It covers (1) digital power structures, (2) the decentralization of power, (3) online protest, and (4) artificial intelligence. Students are encouraged to think critically about the role and workings of government, conceptualize new ways in which the internet can deepen democracy, and understand the limitations of applying technology to government.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
ESPOL-ELEC-001
Lecture
18 hours  
5 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Régis Dandoy (ULB)
 
PREREQUISITE
This course does not require any background in computing. It does however require a willingness to explore and think critically about complex and emerging issues from a multidisciplinary perspective.
ASSESSMENT
100% coursework
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (elective)
Master in Global and European Politics (elective)
Master in International and Security Politics (elective)
 

Diplomacy in Practice

This career-development seminar given by a former high-ranking diplomat takes students through the art and practice of international negotiations. The course reviews the conceptual building blocks of diplomacy, its basic vocabulary (power, balance, security dilemma, influence, coercion, (vital) interest, engagement vs. containment, legitimacy vs. efficacy, etc.), and its core business (managing and preventing conflict). The course then introduces students to diplomatic skills, including how to negotiate, how to make compromises, and how to communicate effectively through speech-writing and persuasive speech-delivery.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
ESPOL-POLS-FR-5001
Seminars
12 hours  
2 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Johan Verbeke (Egmont Institute)
 
PREREQUISITE
None
ASSESSMENT
100% coursework (participation, presentation, essay). Oral exam in case of re-take.
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (elective, career development)
Master in Global and European Politics (elective, career development)
Master in International and Security Politics (elective, career development)
 

La Diplomatie en Pratique

This career-development seminar given by a former high-ranking diplomat takes students through the art and practice of international negotiations, conducted via bilateral as well as multilateral channels alike, with a view to shaping the next generation of foreign affairs professionals.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
ESPOL-POLS-FR-5001
Seminars
12 hours  
2 ECTS
French
 
TEACHING TEAM
François-Xavier Deniau
 
PREREQUISITE
None
ASSESSMENT
100% coursework
 
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (elective, career development)
Master in Global and European Politics (elective, career development)
Master in International and Security Politics (elective, career development)

European Economic Governance

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
 
Lectures
24 hours  
6 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
tbc

 

 
PREREQUISITE
None
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Global and European Politics (core)
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (elective)
Master in International and Security Politics(elective)
 

European Food & Agricultural Policy

Food as a policy field covers immense terrain. It is at the intersection of competing issues such as production, consumption, supply chains, trade, government and politics, science and technology, nutrition, public health, environment, ethics, culture and many more. In this array, it is particularly difficult to design food policy and governance on various levels and among diverse actor groups and demands.

In this course, we will explore contemporary food and agriculture policy and governance in Europe, the past and possible futures of the field. We will cover a number of core problems in food policy across various food-related topical areas, across different governance levels, such as agriculture, public health, food quality, and social issues related to food. What are the prospects for a (more) sustainable food and agriculture policy in Europe?

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
ESPOL-EIS-EN-5001
Lectures
24 hours  
5 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Sabine Weiland (replaced by Ricardo Kaufer in 2021-2022)
 
PREREQUISITE
None.
ASSESSMENT
60% coursework; 40% examination
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (core)
Master in Global and European Politics (elective)
Master in International and Security Politics(elective)
 

European Governance

This course is an introduction to the political system of the European Union (EU). It first provides an overview of the different European intergovernmental organizations (Council of Europe, OECD, NATO, etc…) and of their respective roles in order to highlight the specificity of the EU. It then focuses on the EU, presenting its various institutions, their interactions and the way they make policy. The course also offers a survey of key policies of the EU, such as Economic and Monetary Union, Common Agricultural Policy, Common Foreign and Security Policy, etc. The course discusses the institutional set-up of the EU, its policy making processes, as well as its status and action at the global level.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
ESPOL-EIS-EN-4001
Lectures
24 hours  
5 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Oriane Calligaro (replaced in 2021-2022)
 
PREREQUISITE
A basic knowledge of the history of the twentieth century.
ASSESSMENT
40% coursework (contrôle continu); 60% final exam.
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Global and European Politics (core)
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (elective)
Master in International and Security Politics(elective)
 

European History

The course is conceived as a seminar in which students are invited to discuss and exchange on 3 main themes concerning Europe in the twentieth century:
– Violence and destruction: how mass violence and war especially in the first half of the 20th Century represents a traumatism that permeates Europe’s recent past and present.
– People and states: how the emergence of the modern nation states conditions the geopolitical configuration of the European continent.
– Welfare and crisis: the welfare state is one of the most characteristic European assets and an outcome of the 20th Century social evolutions.
The aim of the course is to provide students with a historical culture and sensitiveness of use for their studies. The course offers insights into significant concepts of twentieth-century European history such as total war, genocide, human rights, nation, democracy, revolution, welfare state, etc.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
 
Lectures/Seminars
24 hours  
6 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Victor Fernandez
 
PREREQUISITE
A basic knowledge of the history of the twentieth century.
ASSESSMENT
40% coursework (contrôle continu); 60% final exam.
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in International and Security Politics (elective)
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (elective)
Master in Global and European Politics (core)
 

European Union Foreign Policy

This course looks at the role of the European Union in international relations, and examines the extent to which the EU can be considered to be an international ‘actor’. The course starts with an examination of the concept of ‘actorness’ in foreign policy. The course then applies this concept to an analysis of the EU and its involvement in international affairs. It looks at four aspects of the EU’s engagement in world affairs : its trade relations ; its contribution to development aid ; its attempts to have a foreign policy ; and its nascent security and defence component.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
 
Lectures
24 hours  
6 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Michael Holmes
 
PREREQUISITE
None.
ASSESSMENT
100% coursework
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in International and Security Politics (elective)
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (elective)
Master in Global and European Politics (core)
 

Food and Sustainable Development: A Project Course

For quite some time, we observe initiatives that promote structural transitions towards sustainable societies all over the world, among others regarding agriculture, energy, private consumption, as well as other areas. Such transition aims at a long-term sustainable development that aligns environmental and social concerns with economic targets, while acknowledging our planet’s boundaries. Fostering this fundamental change is one of the key challenges of our times. At the same time, we see numerous obstacles or conflicting interests (e.g. in food between production and economic development, on the one hand, and public health and environmental protection, on the other). Current food regimes with established institutions and routines, powerful actors or the prevailing short-term orientation are contradicting the aim of sustainable development. 

The course addresses the question of how to achieve a sustainable food system and discusses the role of sustainable ways of living. The students choose their own food project (e.g. related to individual food consumption, certain food commodities, sectors, societal practices, environmental problems etc.), which they develop throughout the course and reflect upon it within the framework of sustainable development.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
ESPOL-EIS-EN-4002
Seminars
24 hours  
5 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Sabine Weiland (replaced in 2021-2022 by Lara Sibbing)
 
PREREQUISITE
None
ASSESSMENT
40% project work, 20% preparation of one session, 40% written thesis
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (core)
Master in Global and European Politics (elective)
Master in International and Security Politics (elective)

Food Controversies

This course draws on the concept of “Food Politics” – the political, social, cultural and economic conflicts surrounding food – to debate some of the common public controversies surrounding the production and consumption of food around the world. The course is organized around class debates. Each class will cover a specific topic or question related to food and agriculture, which one student will argue for and another will argue against. Topics include ‘hot issues’ in food politics, such as:  the (mis)use of agricultural biotechnology, genetically modified organisms, big food and big agriculture, hunger and malnutrition, food choices and the omnivore’s dilemma, food and the environment, or food movements and food advocacy. The debates are followed by a discussion with the whole group and the latest evidence on the topic is presented by the lecturer.

The course includes a field trip (info and dates announced at the beginning of the term).

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
ESPOL-EIS-EN-5002
Lectures & Seminars
24 hours  
5 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Brendan Coolsaet
 
PREREQUISITE
Basic argument-building and debating skills are a plus for this course.
ASSESSMENT
100% coursework
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Food Politics (core)
Master in Global and European Politics (elective)
Master in International Security (elective)

Global Development Politics

Experts globally are starting to agree on the fact that we have entered a new period called “the anthropocene”, meaning that Humans are a major force impacting the environment. The course aims at providing students with the means to understand Global Environmental Governance (GEG), its main actors, the way they frame environmental issues, the strategies they adopt, and critically envisage the limitations of current GEG as well as options and strategies to renew it.

After introducing the anthropocene, three weeks will be dedicated to presenting theories aiming at understanding and renewing GEG. Then we will focus on three global environmental issues, to understand how they have been framed, dealt with, and by whom so far, discussing the benefits and limitations of current approaches. A third part of this course will deal with the actors influencing global environmental politics, the strategies they use, their true influence, and reflect on the ones left behind. The course ends with the simulation of a multilateral negotiation in which students explore the major constraints and options for dealing with the issue of climate change (based on MIT Sloan ‘World Climate’ simulation)

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
 
Lectures
24 hours  
5 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Asad Rehman
 
PREREQUISITE
None
ASSESSMENT
60% examination, 40% role-playing game
 
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (core)
Master in Global and European Politics (elective)
Master in International and Security Politics(elective)
 

Global Food Politics

In this course, we will explore the contemporary global food system which is at the intersection of competing issues such as production, consumption, supply chains, science and technology, public health, environment, ethics, social justice and many more – which are all highly political. Global food politics relate to the way in which the economics and the distribution of food resources links with the politics of nation states, international organisations and various actors and actor groups.
Since 2007, rising prices and volatility in international food markets have combined to dramatically refigure global food system and produce what many have termed a ‘global food crisis’. Driven by a variety of factors including demand for agrofuels, the intersection of food with oil and financial markets, the steady erosion of agroecological systems and social safety nets, and pronounced inequalities in global agro-food systems, these food price shifts have had profound social and political effects. The aim of this course is to analyse the various impacts and interrelations in the global food sector along a number of core problems, such as nutrition, food security, trade, and development.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
 
Comment
ESPOL-EIS-EN-4008
Lectures
24 hours  
5 ECTS
English
Course open to ISA Lille students
 
TEACHING TEAM
Sabine Weiland
 
PREREQUISITE
None
ASSESSMENT
50% coursework, 50% examination
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (core)
Master in Global and European Politics (elective)
Master in International and Security Politics(elective)
Master of Science and Engineering (ISA Lille)

Global Governance

The course will start by analysing different understandings and dimensions of global governance (actors, institutions, norms and their interlinkages) in a variety of fields. The course will then critically assess possible global governance futures and conclude on possible options to reinforce and relegitimise governance–for example through institutional reforms or regionalisation.
Learning objectives : gain a deeper understanding of global governance processes and institutions; compare different issues areas and assess possible governance outcomes; improve research, reading, analytical and drafting skills as well as oral expression for policy, advocacy and research.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
 
Lectures
24 hours  
6 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Sophie Besancenot
 
PREREQUISITE
A basic knowledge of international relations theories and of 20th century international relations history.
ASSESSMENT
70% coursework (oral presentation, policy column, participation, quiz); 30% final exam.
 
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in International and Security Politics (elective)
Master in Global and European Politics (core)
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (elective)
 

Global History

This is not a history course, traditionally understood. While it revisits a vast array of both popular and neglected episodes of historiography – from classical Greece through the medieval rediscovery of Aristotle and early-modern witch trials to the Japanese decision to go to war in 1941 – it does not provide a comprehensive overview of the past of ‘the world’ or ‘the globe’. Rather, it is a course in historical perspective and reflection aimed at encouraging students in political science and especially International Relations (IR) to think critically about how ‘history’ and ‘the globe’ as modern categories of time and space preconfigure our understandings of politics and society. As shall be explored, such powerful notions as origins, progress, decay, and development are always already part of our political imagination and academic analysis. In this sense, ‘history’ is not only inescapable, but it also shapes, in any specific variant, what seems possible or necessary – whether history appears as eternal repetition, a locomotive of universal progress, or a nightmare from which we are constantly trying to awake.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
 
ESPOL-HIST-EN-4001
Lectures
24 hours  
5 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Janis Grzybowski
 
PREREQUISITE
None.
ASSESSMENT
40% examination, 60% coursework
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in International and Security Politics (core)
Master in Global and European Politics (elective)
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (elective)

Global Justice

This course examines the complex relations between ethics, politics and economics in international affairs.Themes covered will include: the role of morality in world politics; the centrality of human rights; the ethics of violence; issues of global distributive justice, global poverty and inequality; environmental justice; the rise of “corporate social responsibility”.  Attention will be paid to the complex interconnections of empirical and normative issues raised by the shaping and reshaping world politics. We will critically examine different “vocabularies” or “normative frameworks” used for analyzing ethical issues in world politics.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
 
 
Lectures
24 hours  
5 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Pierre-Yves Néron
 
PREREQUISITE
None.
ASSESSMENT
Participation (30%)
Presentation (30%)
Final paper (40%)
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Global and European Politics (core)
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (elective)
Master in International and Security Politics (elective)

History of International Political Theory

This course aims to introduce students to the history of modern international political thought and nourish critical and conceptual understanding of major issues of this period. This course focuses on the main English political philosophers who have participated directly in crucial theoretical debates on the idea of international from the 17th to the beginning of the 19th century. This course is organized with the following question: how the articulation of new thoughts in political economy and international political theories can help to understand the shift from “perpetual war” (beginning 17th) to the birth of the modern ideal of “perpetual peace” (the end of the 18th century)? Based on the readings of primary sources (Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Smith, Bentham) and historians of political thought (Armitage, Hont, Muthu), each class session will be devoted to engaging the students with conceptual analysis, historical context and normative questions in modern international thought.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
 
 
Lectures
24 hours  
6 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Benjamin Bourcier
 
PREREQUISITE
None.
ASSESSMENT
100% coursework (participation 20%; essay 80%).
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Global and European Politics (elective)
Master in International and Security Politics (elective)
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (elective)
 

International Relations

What is the object of the study of International Relations (IR)? How did the (sub-)discipline
originate and develop? Where is it headed and how does is it relate to other approaches to the study of politics? The course provides an overview of the major theoretical approaches in the field of IR. The purpose is to familiarize students with its central concepts, classical texts, and field defining debates. It will cover works that address different levels of analysis (international, domestic, and individual) and span across major theoretical paradigms. To this end, the course is divided into two main sections. The first one examines the standard approaches to the study of International Relations – realism, idealism/liberalism, and constructivism – that came to dominate the discipline. The second focuses on some of the main critical approaches – Marxism, feminism, and post-colonialism – that critique the mainstream approaches from the point of view of class, gender, and race, respectively. In the final session, we look at the future of the discipline and its prospects for a pluralistic research program. The course is organized as a reading seminar, i.e. the emphasis is on giving students broad exposure to a wide range of readings and on facilitating an active engagement with these readings in the form of class debates and short discussion essays.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
 
ESPOL-IR-EN-4004
Lectures
24 hours  
5 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Zuzana Hudakova
 
PREREQUISITE
None
ASSESSMENT
40% examination, 60% coursework
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Global and European Politics (core)
Master in International Security (core)
Master in Food Politics (elective)

Introduction to Political Science

The main aim of this course is to give students a theoretically based introduction into the study of politics, and the study comparative politics in particular. This course is important in the sense that it provides the foundation for more specialized studies in the field.

This course is designed to start with the fundamental concepts for the study of politics: power, authority, the state, legitimacy. Based on these concepts, the course will explore some of the most important dimensions for the study of politics: ideology, actors, public policy, and regimes. The third part will be dedicated to selected themes such as the problem of cooperation, collective decision-making or institutions from a rational choice perspective.

Generally speaking, this course will emphasize the importance of institutions and rationality for the comparative study of politics.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition
Comment
 
ESPOL-EIS-EN-4005
Lectures
24 hours  
5 ECTS
English
Mandatory course for M1 students without a political science background
 
TEACHING TEAM
Isil Erdinç
 
PREREQUISITE
None
ASSESSMENT
100% coursework
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (elective)
Master in Global and European Politics (elective)
Master in International and Security Politics(elective)
 

Introduction to Research & Epistemology

The course aims to provide an introduction to epistemological thinking about the conditions and modalities of scientific knowledge production, in particular regarding social and political objects. How can political science be defined as a (social) science? Which filiations or antagonisms have historically been established between humanities and social sciences on the one hand, and hard sciences on the other? What are the political and social issues involved in epistemology? The course will focus on such questions, by following, as the main theme of the sessions, an aller-retour between political science and politics of science, which will imply, at the same time, to politically question the production of scientific truth.

After an introductory session in which the general theme and the philosophical filiation of social sciences will be presented and shortly discussed, the first part of the course will focus on the history of the fundamental epistemological models mainly concerning hard sciences, as well as on their criticism. The second part of the course will focus on the question of the epistemology of and in social sciences, its political stakes, and the procedures of objectification of social facts and subjectification of knowledge actors.

The course is designed to help students in the conduct of their research for the monograph.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition
ESPOL-METH-EN-4001
Lecture
18 hours  
4 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Massimiliano Nicoli
 
PREREQUISITE
None.
ASSESSMENT
Beyond the lectures, students are expected to carefully read the texts suggested in the syllabus and write a two pages reading note concerning at least 5 sessions texts.
Students will be graded on the basis of:
· the production of the reading notes (30%)
· final written exam (70%)
 
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (research)
Master in Global and European Politics (research)
Master in International and Security Politics(research)
 

Political Economy of Natural Resources

Natural resources are fundamental to the functioning of our economy and society: land and water, fossil fuels, minerals and metals, air and biodiversity are crucial to the production of food and of primary commodities, besides being essential to the reproduction of life on earth. 

The module will guide the students through an analysis of the creation of cheap nature and cheap food in contemporary capitalism. Natural elements – ‘the free gifts of nature’ – are understood historically as they become natural resources in capitalism and thus subjected to the capitalist productive process. Elements of critical political ecology thus enter the political economic analysis, as in advanced capitalism the most elemental biophysical realities – such as air and biodiversity – are turned into sources of rent extraction.

The module offers a theoretical toolkit from critical political economy that cuts through the study of different resources: primitive accumulation, capitalism as a mode of production, value and rent, finance and financialisation.

The module is divided in two parts. The first part offers the analytical tools of critical political economy to then analyses the political economy of all the biophysical elements that compose primary commodities as natural resources: land, water, fossil fuels, minerals, air and biodiversity. The second part focuses on the political economy of the global food system, analysed historically and at the global level, concluding with the global financial crisis of 2007/8 and the role of finance and financialisation in the global food system.

The module aims at enabling students to incorporate a critical political economic approach to the broader subject of their postgraduate programme. By the end of the course students should have achieved:

·       Competence on the theoretical tools of critical political economy

·       The ability to analyse the role of natural resources in the contemporary global food system

·       A critical political economic understanding of the global food system

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition
 
two-hours lecture during the first semester, which includes students’ presentations.
24 hours  
5 ECTS
English
 
PROGRAMME DIRECTOR
Elisa Greco
 
PREREQUISITE
None
ASSESSMENT
One oral presentation during the course (30%); one written essay to be submitted at the end of the course (70%)
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Food Politics year 1

 

Politics of International Law

International law and politics maintain a complicated relation. Political science sometimes look down on international law, seeing it as a utopia disconnected from the realities of international relations and incapable of influencing the behaviour of States. International law, for its part, tends to deprecate politics, depicting it as a disorganising and destabilising rather than ordering force of international relations. Recent scholarship, however, has increasingly pointed to the important synergies between the two disciplines. The objective of this course is to investigate this complicated relationship through different themes (soft vs. hard law, use of force, international criminal justice, etc.) in order to evidence the interdependence of law and politics. We will indeed see how international law can be a tool of political dominance and oppression, but also of political resistance and social change.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition
ESPOL-IR-EN-4001
Lectures
18 hours  
5 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Agatha Verdebout
 
PREREQUISITE
There are no formal prerequisite, however basic knowledge of international law is a plus.
ASSESSMENT
20% oral participation in class, 30% coursework, 50% final essay
 
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Global and European Politics (core)
Master in International and Security Politics (elective)
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (elective)
 

Political Science Research Methods

This multi-lecturer course introduces you to the methods which you will likely use in your research, and by the same token to the practical dimension of scientific inquiry. This course is composed of 9 main sessions and is practice-oriented: its sessions answer questions of the form “if you want to write a dissertation on [topic] using [method], then you should do [steps].” Building on the Introduction to Research and Epistemology course, this provides an overview of specific research methods which can be used as part of the dissertation.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition
ESPOL-METH-EN-4002
Lectures
18 hours  
4 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Philippe Bonditti (coordination)
Janis Grzybowski
Camille Kelbel
Pierre-Yves Néron
Giulia Sandri
Agatha Verdebout
Félix von Nostitz
 
PREREQUISITE
None.
ASSESSMENT
100% coursework.
 
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Food Politics & Sustainable Development (research)
Master in Global and European Politics (research)
Master in International and Security Politics (research)
 

Defence Policy in Practice

This course is a joint seminar co-organized with the French Army Command (Commandement des Forces Terrestres, CFT) based in Lille. The seminar consists in a series of seven sessions of three hours, including the introductory session that will take place at the CFT. Following this introduction, each of the six remaining sessions will be the occasion of an intervention by a high-ranking military official who will present on the theme of the session: 1/ The modern/clausewitzian model of war, 2/ Nuclear War, 3/ Unconventional war, 4/ the Armed Forces on the National Territory, 5/ Peacekeeping and Peace Building, 6/ the Political, the Military and the University. These interventions aim at getting the students to know more about the practical  knowledge involved in the field of military activities.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition
SECU-003
Seminars
24 hours  
5 ECTS
English/French
 
TEACHING TEAM
Philippe Bonditti (coordination)
Lectures are given by CFT officers.
 
ASSESSMENT
100% coursework.
 
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in International and Security Politics(core)
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (elective)
Master in Global and European Politics (elective)
 

Public International Law: Concepts, Principles, and Actors

This course is an introduction to public international law for students of international relations. Emphasis throughout the course is both on the substantive rules of the law and on historical episodes that illustrate relevant issues. The purpose of this class is to acquaint students with the concepts and methods used in public international law. It emphasizes how legal argument and legal vocabulary is used in the context of international relations by analysing topics such as statehood and recognition, recourse to armed force including humanitarian intervention, state and individual responsibility, international humanitarian law and international crimes, the protection of human rights, the United Nations and the role and power of the Security Council, and settlement of disputes at the International Court of Justice and other international courts and tribunals. Students will thus deepen their understanding of the complex regulatory framework that applies in international affairs and permeates contemporary global politics.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition
 
Lectures
24 hours  
6 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Chiara Redaelli
 
PREREQUISITE
None.
ASSESSMENT
100% examination.
 
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in International and Security Politics (core)
 

Social Justice in the Food Systems

This course examines social and environmental justice dimensions of today’s globalized
food system, considering justice in terms of sociopolitical and environmental dynamics.
Seminar discussions examine how social and political structures affect social equity in
the food system at multiple scales. We discuss how land grabbing or food insecurity are
connected to relative power on the global stage. We consider how phenomena such as
structural violence and neoliberalization surface within the food system, and what this
means for sustainability and justice–in urban and rural settings. We examine and debate
concepts and practices including food sovereignty, agroecology, Black agrarianism, and
The Right to Food used to advance positive change.
The course provides opportunities to develop competencies in analyzing global food
systems phenomena through social justice frameworks as practice for management,
policymaking, or other professional roles.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition
 
Lectures
24 hours  
6 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Kristin Reynolds (tbc)
 
PREREQUISITE
None.
ASSESSMENT
100% coursework.
 
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (core)
Master in International and Security Politics (elective)
Master in Global and European Politics (elective)
 

Sovereignty and the State in International Relations

This course engages with the arguably most central and yet most challenged and elusive concepts of global politics: the state, sovereignty, and the state system. Conventionally, the study of International Relations (IR) takes the state system for granted, treating it as the institutional landscape in which the interactions between and across states play out. Yet if sovereign states are the building blocks of the international, what is sovereignty, how did states emerge in the first place, and which alternative types of political order did they displace? Is the model of the sovereign state parochially European or universal? How does the state system define the rules, scope, and membership of the international? The course reflects on the multi-sited and variegated enactments of the state and the state system in global politics by drawing on different disciplinary perspectives, including political science, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, law, and political economy.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition
ESPOL-EIS-EN-4006
Lectures
24 hours  
5 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Janis Grzybowski
 
PREREQUISITE
A basic knowledge of concepts and theories in International Relations (IR), political theory, and global history are helpful to follow this course.
ASSESSMENT
100% coursework
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in International and Security Politics (core)
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (elective)
Master in Global and European Politics (elective)
 

Statistics and the Political Sociology of Quantification

This course examines the political uses of statistics (and, more generally, of numbers) by political authorities. It does so by going through case studies of how quantification – the operation of ‘coming up with numbers’ – is used to serve state interests and to call for political action.
In order to get everyone up to speed on introductory statistics, the course also includes workshops on how to use Google Sheets for basic data manipulation and inferential statistics.
The last two sessions are devoted to student presentations on the role of quantification in their own research.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition
ESPOL-QUANT-EN-4001
Lectures
24 hours  
5 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
François Briatte
 
PREREQUISITE
None.
ASSESSMENT
100% coursework.
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (research)
Master in Global and European Politics (research)
Master in International and Security Politics (research)
 

The EU from a Think-Tank’s Perspective

This workshop aims to offer a renewed and concrete understanding of the influence strategies within the European Union:

  • by giving students the necessary elements to understand the context in which the French and European professionals they will meet are working, particularly during their occasional interventions during the workshop sessions;
  • by providing elements allowing students to develop a practical analysis (case studies) of the influence strategies as well as interactions between the different actors of the European decision-making process: States, interest groups and lobbies, think tanks.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition 
ESPOL-POLS-EN-5002
Seminars
12 hours  
2 ECTS
English
TEACHING TEAM
Thierry Chopin
 
PREREQUISITE
None.
ASSESSMENT
An oral presentation by a group of students which has to analyze some of the key issues and to present imaginative and innovative solutions regarding each case study.
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (career development)
Master in Global and European Politics (career development)
Master in International and Security Politics(career development)
 

Theories of Security and Contemporary Challenges

The main objective of this course is to provide the students with a conceptual grid that could help them to understand the contemporary realities of security and to decipher the discourses on security—be they academic discourses that construct security as an object of knowledge, or discourses  by “security experts” when they seek to elaborate and implement security policies by simply taking security for granted.

In this purpose, the course is divided in two sections. After the introductory class, a first set of six classes will offer students a non-exhaustive, yet rather complete overview of the different “approaches” to and theorizations of security when developed as an object of knowledge by those intending to study security. A second set of three thematic classes will focus on four major contemporary sites of materialization and transformation of ‘security’ : ‘Security, Economy, Capital’,‘Security, Border, Migration’,‘Security, Progress, Development’, ‘Security, Environment, Anthropocene’.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition
ESPOL-EIS-EN-5004
Lectures
24 hours  
5 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Joe Burton
 
PREREQUISITE
None.
ASSESSMENT
50% examination, 50% presentation in class.
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in International and Security Politics (core)
Master in Food Politics and Sustainable Development (elective)
Master in Global and European Politics (elective)
 

War, Terrorism and Violence

A major change occurred these last twenty years in ‘world politics’: the gradual elaboration of terrorism—or what we want to name so—as the new political and strategic enemy by governmental elites. If all governments throughout the world do not necessarily share the same vision as for how to fight ‘terrorism’, they all seem to agree about the urgent necessity to eradicate it. For this purpose, states have developed important so-called anti terrorist capabilities ranging from the increase of the means of surveillance to the development of military and police special operations and forces. And yet, not only nothing seem to stop “terrorism”, but “terrorism” on the one hand, states on the other now seem to be engaged in a violent planetary competition that runs the risk of what Clausewitz had called the “rise to extremes.” This course aims to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to understand how the ‘world’ has come into such a dead end by re-seizing the issue of ‘terrorism’ and ‘antiterrorism’ from the perspective of the contemporary transformations of modern discourse on violence and the corresponding transformations of the modern states’ security apparatuses.

Course code
Course type 
Number of hours 
Credit value 
Language of tuition
ESPOL-IR-EN-5001
Lectures
24 hours  
5 ECTS
English
 
TEACHING TEAM
Philippe Bonditti
 
PREREQUISITE
None
ASSESSMENT
Students are graded on the basis of a presentation in class (50%) and a final exam (50%). Final grades are rounded (+/- 0.5 pts) depending on the students overall participation in class.
THIS COURSE IS PART OF
Master in International and Security Politics (core)
 
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