This class will focus on some of the most pressing social problems
and crises that the international community faces today: The
international status of human rights and the problems and moral
dilemmas associated with their pursuit at the global level;
population growth and the resulting global crises; environmental
degradation and its consequences. The first weeks of the semester
will be devoted to globalization, which is the unifying theme of the
course that links the different topics covered throughout the
semester. Attention will then shift to the three areas of global
policy problems (human rights; population; the environment) to which
the bulk of the course will be devoted. Finally, in the last weeks of
the semester the class will address the responses of the
international community to these problems. We will focus on the
concept of global governance and introduce some of the instruments
that were designed to develop global forms of governance, such as
international regimes.