POL417Y1Y L0101

Global South in International Politics

Themes

This course endeavors to enhance participants’ understanding of a group of nations classified as the Global South and their prospects and challenges in contemporary international politics. It will examine the domestic/internal political dynamic of these states influencing their development and foreign policies as well as the role of emerging countries and economies in global politics. In the first half, the course will analyze the evolving nature of North-South relations and the prospects of South-South cooperation including dependency and interdependence, foreign aid and investment patterns, international trade, globalization and the debt crisis as well as specific regimes such as human rights, environmental politics, world health/infectious disease and the UN system, etc., around which these relations revolve. In the second half, it will address (in) security in the Global South by studying the root causes and implications of numerous civil wars and the role of foreign powers/international community in preventing, mitigating, managing or exacerbating them as well as the process of conflict resolution and peace-building.

Texts

TBA

Format and Requirements

Bi-weekly seminar; book review (20%); essay 1 (25%); final essay (40%) and participation/attendance (15%)

Prerequisites

POL201Y1 or (POLB90H3, POLB91H3) or POL208Y1 or POL208Y5 or (POLB80H3, POLB81H3) or POL215Y1