UHP

POL2097: International Institutions

Students standing in front of world flags.

Instructor: Dr. Ivan Ivanov

Location: Brussels, Belgium and The Hague, Netherlands

Offered: Spring 2025

Travel dates: May 2 - May 11, 2025

Course Description

International institutions have become increasingly important player in our globalized world, while also facing unprecedented challenges from various threats that include global pandemic such as COVID-19, international terrorism, economic growth, migration and others. Institutions also impact a variety of policies in different spheres of international interaction—from regulation of the global financial markets, to terrorism and transnational justice. Through on campus discussions at UC, careful reading, engaged responses, and independent research, students who take this class will gain better understanding of the challenges of globalization and the institutional responses to address these threats. The course’s research component requires from students to conduct independent research, participate in discussions, and collect primary and secondary data on a topic of their interest.

Students on the beach in The Netherlands.
Students standing in front of world flags.

Learning Objectives

Students in this class will:

  • Compare and contrast institutional responses across different issue areas that include handing of COVID-19, economic cooperation, financial markets regulation, responses to post-conflict reconstruction, implementation of transnational justice and the dealing with the spread of infectious diseases.
  • Appraise politics and policies of institutional responses to various global threats and assess various institutions’ social, political, legal and economic underpinnings.
  • Encounter the functioning and management of different international institutions through participation in forums and discussions, and hearings at international courts and other institutions.
  • Research, write and present findings on a question related to international institutions.

Tentative Itinerary Highlights

  • European Commission, European Council
  • European Parliament
  • NATO SHAPE
  • Peace Palace
  • International Court of Justice
  • International Criminal Court

Please note students who attend this study tour will not be able to attend UC Commencement.