Politics of Sustainable Development

Political Development

D&G Concentration Registration Priority.
This course is designed to provide an introduction to the process of political development. It introduces a set of analytic tools based on the strategic perspective of political science and political economy to evaluate the current debates in political development and to draw policy-relevant conclusions. Throughout the course, we will discuss the political dimensions and the challenges of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development along with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and their transformations - (1) education, gender and inequality; (2) health, well-being and demography; (3) energy decarbonization and sustainable industry; (4) sustainable food, land, water and oceans; (5) sustainable cities and communities; and (6) the digital revolution for sustainable development - as modular building blocks.

First, we will explore the politics of economic development: the role of leadership, political systems, and institutions in promoting growth. We study the mechanisms that underlie the persistence of poverty. Utilizing numerous country case studies, we will answer: What is political development? What explains why some countries have prospered while others remain poor, violent, or unequal? Why do we observe growth, stability, and freedoms in some and not in others?

Second, we will explore the causes and consequences of the state, political institutions, and democracy. What is at the root of state capacity, political participation, and other aspects of political development? What is the role of property rights and the rule of law in development? How do we promote gender equality and empowerment? How do we detect and mitigate the effects of corruption? How do we foster political stability?

In the third part of the course, we will focus on policies that foster stability and development. We will critically examine the effects of Western intervention in the developing world, historical legacies of slavery and colonialism, and the various tools of foreign policy: aid, democracy promotion, and military interventions. We will further explore the extent to which outside interventions alleviated poverty and whether they improved public goods provision or promoted political stability. Finally, the course will consider the role of emerging powers in the context of global governance and their influence on the future course of development in the Global South.

• Instructor: Gizem Acikgoz
  Info
• 3 points

Politics in the Global South

D&G Concentration Registration Priority.
This course approaches political development from the perspective of the Global South. Rather than treating development as a linear or universal process, it asks how colonial legacies, unequal insertion into the international economy, commodity dependence, late industrialization, and geopolitical competition have shaped different trajectories of political and economic change. We will examine how these forces affect state formation, institutional capacity, democratization, authoritarianism, populism, resource-dependent democracies, organized violence, corruption, clientelism, and political order.

A central theme of the course is the tension between commodity dependence and industrialization. We will compare regions and cases in which primary commodity exports, extractive economies, and external vulnerability have constrained development with cases in which states built industrial capacity, governed markets, and reshaped their position in the international economy. The course closes by returning to this question in the context of climate change and green neo-extractivism, asking whether the green transition creates new development opportunities or reproduces older patterns of dependence, extraction, and unequal environmental costs. 

Throughout the semester, students will engage with comparative cases and empirical evidence to evaluate competing explanations for political development and underdevelopment. The course is designed for students with interests in comparative politics, international development, political economy, public policy, and global governance. While theoretically grounded, it emphasizes analytical application to contemporary policy challenges facing emerging and developing countries.

• Instructor: Daniela Campello
  Info
• 3 points

Political Psychology and Behavioral Publ

Pol Psych & Behavioral Po

In a world of growing complexity, where politics often appears increasingly fragmented, affective, and detached from purely material interests, political psychology offers essential tools for understanding some of the most urgent political and policy challenges of our time.

Contemporary politics is increasingly shaped by polarized in-group and out-group identities, the politicization and criminalization of immigration, anxiety and denial surrounding climate change, the spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation, and growing support for strongman leaders amid distrust of institutions. At the same time, public policy often succeeds or fails not only because of institutional design or material incentives, but because of how people perceive problems, process information, respond to uncertainty, trust authorities, and make decisions in contexts of scarcity, fear, identity, and social pressure.

These developments make psychological mechanisms central to explaining how different political actors, including voters, politicians, policymakers, party elites, social movements, interest groups, media actors, and bureaucrats, perceive political reality, form judgments, design policies, and make decisions. Political psychology examines how human psychology shapes political life, and how political contexts, institutions, identities, and conflicts shape individual behavior.

This course introduces students to the main theoretical foundations of political psychology and connects them to behavioral public policy. We begin by examining major approaches to political behavior, including rational choice and its behavioral critiques, personality and evolutionary perspectives, emotion, nonverbal behavior, heuristics, and motivated reasoning.

The course then turns to policy applications, exploring how psychological mechanisms shape the design, communication, implementation, and uptake of public policy in areas such as poverty, prejudice and discrimination, climate change, and policymaking bias. Throughout the semester, students will engage classic and recent research, with particular attention to experimental evidence and its relevance for real-world political and policy problems.

The course is designed to help students critically assess empirical studies, compare different explanations of political behavior, and apply behavioral insights to concrete policy challenges.

• Instructor: Daniela Campello
  Info
• 3 points

Legacies of Political Violence

Violent political conflict leaves durable legacies. In this course, we will explore the effects of various forms of political violence, including intrastate conflict, mass atrocities, communal violence, and forced displacements. We will begin with the processes of peace and reconciliation that often mark transitions from active conflict to post-conflict environments. We will then turn attention to cycles of violence before shifting to the influence of conflict and violence on state institutions and regimes. Turning to comparative political behavior, we will explore victimization from violent political conflict as a force in shaping the social and political lives of those directly affected as well as their descendants and communities. We will investigate why some iterations of violent political conflict generate politicizing effects – with victims voting more, protesting more, taking on more leadership roles, etc. – while others facilitate withdrawal from the political sphere. We will consider the role violence plays in shaping and reshaping the boundaries between groups (ethnic, national, religious, etc.). Tangentially, we will analyze how violence alters relationships within one’s in-groups. The final segment of the course will focus on the memorialization of past conflict as an arena in which identities and political goals are forged, contested, and remade.  Through the course, students will generate informed critiques of policy regimes in post-conflict contexts, and will apply course concepts and methods to evaluate policy outcomes in these contexts.

• Instructor: Joseph M Lasky
  Info
• 3 points

Sparking Innovation in International Org

Innovation in Intl Orgs

This course is the first in a two-course sequence on innovation in international cooperation and in low and middle-income countries. This fall course will focus on institutional reforms and how to leverage innovation to help drive organisational change within international organisations. The second course in the spring semester will focus on innovation in low and middle-income countries, including the role of innovation in fostering inclusive growth, in efforts to advance locally led development principles and in fostering inclusive innovation ecosystems, among other themes. 

In this course, students will learn how to frame innovation in the context of international cooperation and practical ways to advance change management within international organizations and government entities.  

The course is designed to help students gain a critical conceptual understanding of the practice of innovation in international organizations, obtain skills in change management, and learn the practical application of advancing innovation portfolio management within international organisations as well as a framework to support organisations build critical capabilities related to innovation and emerging technologies. Students will be exposed to a variety of frameworks, along with case studies and practical exercises. Students will gain an understanding of advancing innovation in international organisations in practice.

Students will explore the relationship between innovation practices and management practices that emerged over the last decade to infuse more flexible and adaptive practices. These include ‘working and thinking politically’, ‘adaptive management’, ‘doing development differently’ and others. These approaches intersect at times with innovation efforts in international organizations.

Case studies drawn from a variety of organizations and countries will anchor frameworks and theoretical content and help provide a greater understanding of the complexities and challenges of advancing impact and changing business as usual within international organizations.

• Instructor: Benjamin Kumpf
  Info
• 1.5 points

Migration and Human Development

Migration & Human Develop

International migration’s substantial economic and social effects are at the forefront of today’s academic discussion, international debate, as well as national policy strategies. This course introduces students to the key notions, norms, and narratives of international migration from economic, sociological, legal, policy, international relations, and normative perspectives. Students learn about transnational livelihood strategies and channels through which migration and migrants can enhance human development, especially in their countries of origin, while creating better opportunities for themselves and contributing to their communities of destination. This includes in-depth discussions of the determinants, flows, and effects of emigration, immigration, return, financial and social remittances, and diaspora investments. While the course emphasizes economic migration, it also elaborates on the human development impact in specific forced migration and refugee scenarios. Highlighting migration phenomena in different scenarios in the global North, as well as in the global South, the course emphasizes the agency of migrants and gender differences in the experiences and effects, as well as the role their legal status plays. It addresses the root causes of migration and the protection of migrants’ human, social and labor rights. The course also furthers participants’ understanding of the role of technology for human mobility and the policy responses in both, the international and the domestic spheres. To this end, it introduces students to key policies and governance schemes and diaspora engagement institutions, including the role of United Nations agencies and processes. The learning experience culminates in a role-play simulation, in which students discuss and negotiate a revision of the UN Joint Program in Kigoma, Tanzania.

• Instructor: Daniel Naujoks
  Info
• 3 points

Evaluation in International Organization

Evaluation-Intl Organizat

International organizations play a critical role in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the implementation of their strategic work plans, in centering human rights, gender equality, and environmental sustainability as non-negotiable cross-cutting dimensions, and by supporting collective accountability and learning.
How then do international organizations determine not only whether they have achieved the results set out in their work plans, but whether those results are meaningfully contributing to sustainable development as envisioned? Are their results sustainable? Were there better ways to achieve the same or better results? Did their achievement also support advancement and respect for the cross-cutting dimensions?

Were any unintended or unplanned results identified and assessed to determine whether they undermine or reinforce progress?

Evaluation – considered a function, a practice and a profession – provides one avenue for answering such questions about how to best influence the complex change required to achieve sustainable development, while balancing different interests and needs. Students will be exposed to the theoretical and practical aspects of evaluation through the lens of international organizations. They will learn to apply evaluative and systems thinking, and build practical skills that will prepare them to commission, manage and/or conduct evaluations that consider cross-cutting dimensions. They will understand recent trends in the field such as Artificial Intelligence, decolonization and how impact is determined.  Weekly case studies spanning humanitarian, development and peace contexts and a mix of individual and group assignments will provide students with a hands-on learning experience in how to plan, conduct and use an evaluation, as well as the important role of stakeholders. This includes developing an Evaluation Inception Report using a real-world evaluation case to ground learning of theoretical concepts, evaluation types, methods and tools.

• Instructor: Shravanti M Reddy
  Info
• 3 points

Economics of Sustainable Development

D&G Concentration Registration Priority.
This course will provide students with a framework for historical and current debates on development. It will offer students a basic understanding of what constitutes “development” (ends) and how to promote it (means). The initial lecture presents the broad issue of development trends and the multidisciplinary approach, as seen today through the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015. The subsequent classes then look at classical and contemporary theories of economic development. They will be followed by a critical comparative analysis of development experiences. A series of lectures will then concentrate on institutional issues, social development, and environmental sustainability (climate change).

• Instructor: Jose A Ocampo
  Wikipedia h-index: 77 Info
• 3 points

Economics of Sustainable Development

D&G Concentration Registration Priority.
This course will provide students with a framework for historical and current debates on development. It will offer students a basic understanding of what constitutes “development” (ends) and how to promote it (means). The initial lecture presents the broad issue of development trends and the multidisciplinary approach, as seen today through the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015. The subsequent classes then look at classical and contemporary theories of economic development. They will be followed by a critical comparative analysis of development experiences. A series of lectures will then concentrate on institutional issues, social development, and environmental sustainability (climate change).

• 0 points

Economic Development in Latin America

Econ Dev in Latin America

This course introduces students to major historical and contemporary debates on Latin American economic development and its social consequences. It adopts a comparative perspective, examining the region’s trajectory relative to North America, Western Europe, East Asia, and other developing regions. Particular attention is given to the institutional, political, geographic, and social factors that help explain Latin America’s comparatively low long-run growth, productivity, equality, and social development.

The course begins with long-term economic trends and competing explanations for the region’s relative performance. It then examines the colonial legacy, including institutions, labor systems, landholding patterns, and state formation, comparing Latin America with other world regions. The course also explores post-independence development, the effects of the Industrial Revolution, and the export era from the late nineteenth century to 1929.

The course then examines Latin American economic development during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including the Great Depression, World War II, state-led industrialization, the debt crisis, the lost decade of the 1980s, market-oriented reforms, and recent economic transformations. These experiences are compared with East Asia, advanced economies, and other developing regions. The final section addresses current issues, including macroeconomic policy, trade, structural transformation, inequality, labor markets, social policy, technological change, climate transition, demographic slowdown, recent global crises, and Latin America’s future development prospects.

• Instructor: Fabio Sanchez Torres
  Info
• 3 points

Finance for the World's Poorest

Finance Tools for the Poo

Some of the most powerful financial tools for fighting poverty are not found in banks, but in communities. This course explores how the world’s poorest people save, borrow, share risk, and build resilience through informal savings systems such as tandas in Mexico, susus in West Africa, dhikutis in Nepal, voluntary savings and lending groups largely in Africa, and self-help groups in India.

Students will compare community-based finance with cash transfers, remittances, microfinance, mobile banking, and fintech to ask what truly works, what falls short, and how financial inclusion can build on local wisdom rather than simply adapt Western financial models. Our motto is: “from our ideas to theirs.”

Through case examples, guest presentations, and hands-on project design, students will learn practical tools for creating initiatives that reach people at the bottom of the economic pyramid, including goal setting, methodology, selection, staffing, budgeting, monitoring, and evaluation. Working in small groups, students will design practical projects presented on the final day of class.

This course is ideal for students interested in development, social entrepreneurship, public policy, philanthropy, community finance, or poverty reduction. No technical or financial background is required—only curiosity and a willingness to question conventional assumptions about finance.

Taught by Jeffrey Ashe, a pioneer in microcredit—spreading solidarity group lending to more than thirty countries—and savings groups, whose work through the Saving for Change Initiative  helped 850,000 poor village women gain access to savings groups. His current work focuses on promoting rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs) in immigrant communities through Grassroots Finance Action, which he directs. Students will have access to his books on savings groups and ROSCAs, as well as his earlier writing on microfinance

• Instructor: Jefferey Ashe
  Info
• 3 points

Disruption in Development Finance: What

Disruption in Dev Finance

The international development landscape is being reshaped by skeptical policymakers at home and partner countries – both of whom increasingly see the need to adopt new approaches. This course examines several cases of successful innovation in development finance — not to recycle those models, but to identify patterns of what makes innovation work, so the next generation of policymakers can reshape the field as conditions demand.

Through looking at several case studies, notably the International Finance Facility for Immunization (IFFIm), the Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) and disaster risk insurance pools, we will identify some of the factors for success and failure. Students will experiment with developing new ideas through practical application.

The instructor will draw on personal experience in global health and education financing. Guest speakers will provide practitioner perspectives on what works, what doesn’t, and why.

By the end of the course, students will develop their own innovative proposal to address a current development challenge and present it as a pitch to a hypothetical CEO, applying lessons learned from historical cases to contemporary problems.

• Instructor: Alice P Albright
  Info
• 1.5 points

International Humanitarian Law for a New

Armed conflict and violent crisis situations are undergoing profound transformation. Interstate wars, alongside prolonged internal conflicts, seem more than ever before to have global effects, while artificial intelligence, drones, attacks on energy supplies and critical infrastructure, and the use of mercenaries are reshaping the conduct of hostilities. At the same time, the emerging international order increasingly departs from the long-established principles of International Humanitarian Law, which are intended to protect victims of war and to restrain the methods and means of warfare.  Against this background, the course gives particular attention to the interaction between legal norms, political decision-making, military realities, and humanitarian action, enabling students to critically assess the role of international law in shaping and responding to the emerging international order. 

Designed for students interested in understanding how the emerging new international order must be based on the legal protection of the individual in war and on the regulation of the use of force between and within states, the course equips participants with the conceptual and practical tools to identify, interpret, and apply international legal norms in complex, real-world conflict situations. In an era of rapidly advancing artificial intelligence, the course also emphasizes the enduring importance of human judgment, equipping students with the analytical and critical thinking skills needed to interpret legal norms, compare competing arguments, and make informed decisions in complex and often uncertain conflict situations.

Drawing on conflicts in the Middle East, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar and other areas the course addresses the protection of civilians and medical services, attacks on critical infrastructure, humanitarian access, displacement and detention, the use of drones and artificial intelligence, and accountability for serious violations of humanitarian law. Particular attention is also given to the role of international criminal law in addressing serious violations of international humanitarian law, including individual criminal responsibility, the prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and the contribution of international and national courts to accountability and justice.

This seminar combines short reading assignments with close-reading exercises, small-group scenario analyses, role-play simulations with decision memos, peer-teaching activities, and brief

• Instructor: Horst Fischer
  Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

Humanitarian Engagement with Armed Actor

Humanitarian-Actor Engage

In many parts of the world, humanitarian actors cannot successfully alleviate and prevent the suffering of people living in areas affected by armed conflict without engaging with armed groups.  The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) estimates that there are over 450 armed groups of humanitarian concern worldwide, over 130 of which are parties to a non-international armed conflict. Africa accounts for over 40% of these groups, with about 20% in each of the Near and Middle East (NAME), the Americas, and in the Asia and Pacific. In 2024, the global population living in areas fully controlled or contested by armed groups is estimated by the ICRC to have increased to 210 million people, with 83 million living in areas fully controlled by armed groups, up by 19 million from 2023.

Many armed groups that control territory provide a degree of services and governance structures in areas they control, including health care, education, taxation, public utilities, justice/dispute resolution, security and taxation.  However, the basic needs of the population in areas controlled by many armed groups are often not fully met.  Humanitarian access, and dialogue on protection and assistance matters with such armed groups is an important part of humanitarian action worldwide. 

The last 30 years, however, have made these aspirations more difficult, as a multiplicity of armed conflicts and different types of non-state actors have emerged, posing significant challenges on the ability of humanitarian workers to effectively engage with belligerents, and hindering their access to these individuals. The lack of separation between those actively participating in conflict and those who do not have particularly made it difficult for external actors to identify who, when and how to engage on humanitarian issues, together with the level of engagement and the timing of such interactions. Additional existing inquiries relate to the strategies set in place for effective engagement: who should be in the lead of humanitarian engagements on the ground? And how can the humanitarian community best assist and increase the protection of civilians in areas controlled by entities designated as terrorist, or in fragile States?

This class will examine these inquiries, together with the parameters of engagement with a range of actors- from peacekeepers to formal armies to paramilitary groups and designated entities to community and religious leaders to determine what legal and moral bases exist for en

• Instructor: Christopher Harland
  Info
• 3 points

Children and Armed Conflict

In the 21st century, armed conflict continues to put millions of children in harm’s way, exposing them to human rights violations, including recruitment and use by armed forces and armed groups, military detention and ill-treatment, rape and other forms of sexual violence, forced displacement, family separation, and physical injuries. Children also suffer from trauma and other serious and long-lasting psychological consequences resulting from the violence they have experienced. In addition to these direct violations, children are equally affected by indirect violations of their rights, including attacks on schools and hospitals and the denial of humanitarian access.

In this course, students will examine the international legal framework for the protection of children in armed conflict and the international humanitarian response system designed to assist affected children and address their physical and psychosocial needs. Students will critically assess these mechanisms for their efficacy and continued relevance for protecting children during war.

• Instructor: Laura Perez
  Info
• 3 points

Humanitarian, Development and Peace Nexu

Humanitarian, Dev & Peace

Adopted during the 2019 Senior Level Meeting, the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Recommendation on the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus represents a pivotal shift in international aid strategy. Central to this framework is the goal of enhancing coherence across the humanitarian, development, and peace sectors to more effectively mitigate risks and address the underlying drivers of vulnerability. By prioritizing prevention and sustainable solutions, the initiative seeks to transition from the mere provision of emergency relief toward the ultimate objective of ending humanitarian need. 

This strategic realignment is essential for lowering the global humanitarian caseload and fulfilling the international community's fundamental commitment to "leave no one behind." Whilst the global number of people living in poverty has significantly decreased over the last few decades, there is an increasing number of severe and protracted humanitarian emergencies, caused by conflict, governance failures, climate change, and man-made disasters. These challenges are compounded by recent changes in geopolitical strategies and policies, which already have profound immediate and will have long-term impact on reducing extreme poverty, resolving conflicts, and making the Sustainable Development Goals increasingly elusive.  

There has been growing acceptance among the international aid community that these problems can only be addressed through a combination of tools – humanitarian, development, and peace initiatives – that require new governance, financing, and coordination mechanisms. This approach emphasizes that for sustainable improvements, temporary solutions must be part of a broader vision that not only saves lives in the short term but also addresses the systemic issues affecting stability and development in the long run. 

The benefits of the Nexus approach include greater coherence among the three sectors and reduced fragmentation among the various actors working in conflict-affected areas. Additionally, it improves effectiveness through coordination across sectors, ensuring that immediate relief efforts transition smoothly into longer-term recovery and peace initiatives. This approach also helps mitigate the risk of renewed crisis and fosters comprehensive disaster risk reduction by addressing not only the symptoms but also the root causes of protracted conflicts.

This “search for coherence” is not new and raises important questio

• Instructor: Pierrette Quintiliani
  Info
• 3 points

Forced Displacement: Refugees, IDPs and

Displacement in Changing

A surge in violent conflict since 2010 has led to historically high levels of forced displacement. More recently, the war in Ukraine has caused the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since the end of World War II. Globally, there are 
more than 100 million forcibly displaced people
 including refugees, internally displaced persons and asylum seekers who have fled their homes to escape violence, conflict and persecution. 

The majority of the world's refugees come from just a handful of countries, with Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Ukraine and Myanmar being among the top countries of origin. These refugees often seek safety in neighboring countries, but many also attempt to make the dangerous journey to Europe or other parts of the world. In recent years, an upsurge of mixed migration has posed enormous practical, but also ethical and legal questions to host governments and aid organizations: in today’s world, what distinguishes a refugee from a migrant? And how does their ensuing treatment differ? Climate displacement, which is growing exponentially outside any normative framework, adds to the complexity of how to address the needs and rights of the displaced globally.

Internal displacement is also a major issue, with people being forced to flee their homes due to conflict, violence, natural disasters, and other factors. IDPs often face similar challenges to refugees, such as lack of access to basic needs like food, water, and healthcare, as well as limited opportunities for education and employment.

The course will allow students to examine the history, norms, principles, actors and governance related to forced displacement to assess with a critical lens whether the system is set up to respond to what forced displacement is today, with all its complexities. Through a combination of thematic sessions and case studies, it will provide an overview of the typologies of displacement, the different initiatives and durable solutions pursued, as well as the remaining questions the international normative and assistance system has to answer.

• Instructor: Andrew C Heinrich
  Info
• 3 points

Law and Society in Latin America

Law & Society in Latin Am

This course examines Latin American law through a socio-legal lens, analyzing how formal legal texts are actually practiced, adapted, or resisted by various social actors. Drawing on Law and Society scholarship, legal realism, and critical legal traditions, the course investigates different factors shaping law's effectiveness and its potential for social transformation. The first section explores foundational questions about legal obedience, judicial power, legal pluralism, and the gap between law in the books and law in action, while the second section applies these frameworks to specific Latin American problems, including access to justice and legal mobilization around social rights. Students will engage with theoretical and empirical texts, films, and podcasts while developing their own socio-legal research projects on topics such as health rights, anti-discrimination movements, anti-corruption initiatives, or accountability for atrocity crimes. By combining interdisciplinary perspectives from law and the social sciences with practical illustrations, the course explores the challenges and possibilities of using law as an instrument for social change in Latin America.

• Instructor: Paola Bergallo
  Info
• 3 points

Negotiation & Conflict Resolution

This course has two primary objectives: to develop your ability to negotiate in a purposeful, principled, and effective way, and to teach you how to build consensus and broker wise agreements. Centered on public policy and international affairs, the curriculum uses immersive simulations and active learning methods to translate theory into practice.

Learning happens dynamically through both in-class and out-of-class exercises. You will navigate a wide variety of negotiation challenges, including international conflicts on the brink of war, diplomatic negotiations over catastrophic environmental accidents, local government collective bargaining talks, environmental dispute settlements, and high-stakes trade negotiations.

• Instructor: Seth Freeman
  Info
• 3 points

Global Political and Legal Thought

The seminar explores how political and legal philosophers, as well as leaders of political movements and established states, envision international order. It asks and critically assesses how they imagine international politics
is
governed and how it
should be
governed. 

It begins with a reexamination of major Northern/Western traditions in international jurisprudence and political theory as seen through the eyes of classical and modern political leaders and philosophers.  It covers Realism, Liberalism, Socialism, and Fascism.  It then broadens the lens to include thinkers from the global South, including Mao, Nehru, Senghor, Lee Kuan Yew and Biko, and explores how they have addressed the challenges of post-colonialism. In considering their international orders, we will discuss their insights into the connections among issues of order and justice, identity and legitimacy, peace and war, cooperation and conflict, intervention and independence, and international equality and inequality. We conclude with a discussion of Cosmopolitanism and Rawls’
Law of Peoples.

• Instructor: Michael Doyle
  Info
• 3 points

Methods for Sustainable Development Prac

This is the first of a two-course sequence for second-year students concentrating in Development and Governance (D&G), formerly Economic and Political Development (EPD). The second course is the Capstone Workshop in Sustainable Development Practice. These courses are integrated into a year-long encounter with the applied practice of sustainable development.

In this course, students will learn how to design, plan, implement, monitor, and evaluate development interventions by mastering the fundamental aspects of program management for development. The course is designed to help students develop a critical understanding of some of the key frameworks, tools, and approaches used by organizations in the field of development practice, and to encourage students to use these methods in an ethical and discerning manner, by recognizing their limitations and implicit assumptions while identifying areas for innovation. Development practice, after all, is inherently political. Over the last few decades, the field of sustainable development has changed dramatically as development practitioners increasingly perceive themselves less as knowledge experts – delivering top-down transfers of technical expertise and resources to beneficiaries – and more as knowledge facilitators, recognizing the importance of evidence-based decision-making, local ownership and accountability, and participation of poor and marginalized groups as citizens and partners. However, this transition has been uneven, and externally-driven, top-down approaches and policies persist. Development practitioners, therefore, need to be continually aware of the values, assumptions, and biases that they bring to their work and that are implicit in the resources, approaches, and tools they use.

This course also seeks to illustrate the application of theories and concepts introduced in other D&G core courses, and to highlight some of the political, practical, and ethical issues and challenges facing development practitioners working in low- and middle-income countries, especially in the context of recent drastic cuts in official development assistance (ODA). While the course considers both quantitative and qualitative methods, the emphasis is on widely-used project management tools, qualitative data-gathering techniques, and participatory approaches to engage local stakeholders in the process of social change. Case studies drawn from a variety of countries and sectors will anchor class discussions in examples of real-world situations, and wi

• Instructor: Eugenia McGill
  Info
• 3 points

Methods for Sustainable Development Prac

This is the first of a two-course sequence for second-year students concentrating in Development and Governance (D&G), formerly Economic and Political Development (EPD). The second course is the Capstone Workshop in Sustainable Development Practice. These courses are integrated into a year-long encounter with the applied practice of sustainable development.

In this course, students will learn how to design, plan, implement, monitor, and evaluate development interventions by mastering the fundamental aspects of program management for development. The course is designed to help students develop a critical understanding of some of the key frameworks, tools, and approaches used by organizations in the field of development practice, and to encourage students to use these methods in an ethical and discerning manner, by recognizing their limitations and implicit assumptions while identifying areas for innovation. Development practice, after all, is inherently political. Over the last few decades, the field of sustainable development has changed dramatically as development practitioners increasingly perceive themselves less as knowledge experts – delivering top-down transfers of technical expertise and resources to beneficiaries – and more as knowledge facilitators, recognizing the importance of evidence-based decision-making, local ownership and accountability, and participation of poor and marginalized groups as citizens and partners. However, this transition has been uneven, and externally-driven, top-down approaches and policies persist. Development practitioners, therefore, need to be continually aware of the values, assumptions, and biases that they bring to their work and that are implicit in the resources, approaches, and tools they use.

This course also seeks to illustrate the application of theories and concepts introduced in other D&G core courses, and to highlight some of the political, practical, and ethical issues and challenges facing development practitioners working in low- and middle-income countries, especially in the context of recent drastic cuts in official development assistance (ODA). While the course considers both quantitative and qualitative methods, the emphasis is on widely-used project management tools, qualitative data-gathering techniques, and participatory approaches to engage local stakeholders in the process of social change. Case studies drawn from a variety of countries and sectors will anchor class discussions in examples of real-world situations, and wi

• Instructor: Eugenia McGill
  Info
• Instructor: Debra A Jones
  Info
• 3 points

Methods for Sustainable Development Prac

This is the first of a two-course sequence for second-year students concentrating in Development and Governance (D&G), formerly Economic and Political Development (EPD). The second course is the Capstone Workshop in Sustainable Development Practice. These courses are integrated into a year-long encounter with the applied practice of sustainable development.

In this course, students will learn how to design, plan, implement, monitor, and evaluate development interventions by mastering the fundamental aspects of program management for development. The course is designed to help students develop a critical understanding of some of the key frameworks, tools, and approaches used by organizations in the field of development practice, and to encourage students to use these methods in an ethical and discerning manner, by recognizing their limitations and implicit assumptions while identifying areas for innovation. Development practice, after all, is inherently political. Over the last few decades, the field of sustainable development has changed dramatically as development practitioners increasingly perceive themselves less as knowledge experts – delivering top-down transfers of technical expertise and resources to beneficiaries – and more as knowledge facilitators, recognizing the importance of evidence-based decision-making, local ownership and accountability, and participation of poor and marginalized groups as citizens and partners. However, this transition has been uneven, and externally-driven, top-down approaches and policies persist. Development practitioners, therefore, need to be continually aware of the values, assumptions, and biases that they bring to their work and that are implicit in the resources, approaches, and tools they use.

This course also seeks to illustrate the application of theories and concepts introduced in other D&G core courses, and to highlight some of the political, practical, and ethical issues and challenges facing development practitioners working in low- and middle-income countries, especially in the context of recent drastic cuts in official development assistance (ODA). While the course considers both quantitative and qualitative methods, the emphasis is on widely-used project management tools, qualitative data-gathering techniques, and participatory approaches to engage local stakeholders in the process of social change. Case studies drawn from a variety of countries and sectors will anchor class discussions in examples of real-world situations, and wi

• 0 points

Methods for Sustainable Development Prac

This is the first of a two-course sequence for second-year students concentrating in Development and Governance (D&G), formerly Economic and Political Development (EPD). The second course is the Capstone Workshop in Sustainable Development Practice. These courses are integrated into a year-long encounter with the applied practice of sustainable development.

In this course, students will learn how to design, plan, implement, monitor, and evaluate development interventions by mastering the fundamental aspects of program management for development. The course is designed to help students develop a critical understanding of some of the key frameworks, tools, and approaches used by organizations in the field of development practice, and to encourage students to use these methods in an ethical and discerning manner, by recognizing their limitations and implicit assumptions while identifying areas for innovation. Development practice, after all, is inherently political. Over the last few decades, the field of sustainable development has changed dramatically as development practitioners increasingly perceive themselves less as knowledge experts – delivering top-down transfers of technical expertise and resources to beneficiaries – and more as knowledge facilitators, recognizing the importance of evidence-based decision-making, local ownership and accountability, and participation of poor and marginalized groups as citizens and partners. However, this transition has been uneven, and externally-driven, top-down approaches and policies persist. Development practitioners, therefore, need to be continually aware of the values, assumptions, and biases that they bring to their work and that are implicit in the resources, approaches, and tools they use.

This course also seeks to illustrate the application of theories and concepts introduced in other D&G core courses, and to highlight some of the political, practical, and ethical issues and challenges facing development practitioners working in low- and middle-income countries, especially in the context of recent drastic cuts in official development assistance (ODA). While the course considers both quantitative and qualitative methods, the emphasis is on widely-used project management tools, qualitative data-gathering techniques, and participatory approaches to engage local stakeholders in the process of social change. Case studies drawn from a variety of countries and sectors will anchor class discussions in examples of real-world situations, and wi

• 0 points

Methods for Sustainable Development Prac

This is the first of a two-course sequence for second-year students concentrating in Development and Governance (D&G), formerly Economic and Political Development (EPD). The second course is the Capstone Workshop in Sustainable Development Practice. These courses are integrated into a year-long encounter with the applied practice of sustainable development.

In this course, students will learn how to design, plan, implement, monitor, and evaluate development interventions by mastering the fundamental aspects of program management for development. The course is designed to help students develop a critical understanding of some of the key frameworks, tools, and approaches used by organizations in the field of development practice, and to encourage students to use these methods in an ethical and discerning manner, by recognizing their limitations and implicit assumptions while identifying areas for innovation. Development practice, after all, is inherently political. Over the last few decades, the field of sustainable development has changed dramatically as development practitioners increasingly perceive themselves less as knowledge experts – delivering top-down transfers of technical expertise and resources to beneficiaries – and more as knowledge facilitators, recognizing the importance of evidence-based decision-making, local ownership and accountability, and participation of poor and marginalized groups as citizens and partners. However, this transition has been uneven, and externally-driven, top-down approaches and policies persist. Development practitioners, therefore, need to be continually aware of the values, assumptions, and biases that they bring to their work and that are implicit in the resources, approaches, and tools they use.

This course also seeks to illustrate the application of theories and concepts introduced in other D&G core courses, and to highlight some of the political, practical, and ethical issues and challenges facing development practitioners working in low- and middle-income countries, especially in the context of recent drastic cuts in official development assistance (ODA). While the course considers both quantitative and qualitative methods, the emphasis is on widely-used project management tools, qualitative data-gathering techniques, and participatory approaches to engage local stakeholders in the process of social change. Case studies drawn from a variety of countries and sectors will anchor class discussions in examples of real-world situations, and wi

• 0 points