IAPA 0020. Introduction to Public Policy: How to Change the World.

Introduction to Public Policy: How to change the world, provides a roadmap to empower you to make a difference in the world. The goal of this course is to deepen your understanding of how American public policy, as in the solutions to problems that our communities confront, is developed. This course is designed with an emphasis on political actors, institutions and context. From interest groups to mayors and the role of the media in foreign affairs we will continually ask: how and why do some issues gain traction with the American public (and decision makers) and others ignored? We examine how public policy is crafted, negotiated and enacted. It is a complicated story – one worth understanding. The goal of this course is to provide future leaders with conceptual tools for analyzing the environment in which policy is made.

IAPA 0100. Global Health, Humanitarianism, and Inequality.

The term “global health” refers to an aspiration and a set of problems. An aspiration to global health has potential to unite biosecurity, humanitarian, and philanthropic efforts to rid the world of infectious disease, improve sanitation, and address malnutrition. As a set of problems, global health is less unifying than unruly. Deciding when a local epidemic becomes a global emergency or calculating the economic value of healthy childbirth are not straightforward processes. This course takes a multidisciplinary, critical approach to global health. Focus will be on “bottom-up” perspectives—how projects and policies play out in the lives individuals and communities.

IAPA 0300. Costs of War.

This interdisciplinary seminar explores a ground-level view of war and its human, economic, environmental, and social consequences. We primarily take up the example of the post-9/11 wars, focusing less on the causes of war, on battles, elite war strategies, or relations between states than on what war is like for those caught within it, what larger social and economic contexts make it more or less likely, what are its impacts for many differently situated peoples, and how myths about violence, and even the category of war itself, often obscures fuller understanding.

IAPA 0310. Reimagining Human Security.

The concept of human security– in both theory and practice– has significantly evolved over the past two decades, with the idea that people, and the protection of human life and dignity, should be the central focus of governmental and intergovernmental security policy and practice. Yet, despite many advances in the field, the world is more dangerous than ever, and vulnerable civilians are increasingly threatened by a multitude of challenges including war, climate change, pandemics, natural disasters, the erosion of humanitarian and human rights law, and rapid advances in world-changing technologies. How do global issues such as climate change, pandemics, artificial intelligence, and migration impact human security? In what ways do social, economic, environmental, and political factors intersect in the context of human security? What ethical considerations should be considered when reimagining approaches to human security?

IAPA 0400. Fiscal Plumbing 101: The American Tax State in Comparative and Historical Perspective.

This IAPA Gateway course explores the origins and development of the American Tax State in comparative and historical perspective. It's designed as an interdisciplinary introduction to the welter of problems associated with the raising and spending of public revenue –the life blood of contemporary nation-states. It should be of use to students interested in the political and institutional development of the welfare state, and in the origins, fault lines and prospects of American federalism. We explore the origins and development of the American Tax State in comparative and historical perspective. It is designed as an interdisciplinary introduction to the welter of problems associated with the raising and spending of public revenue –the life blood of contemporary nation-states.

IAPA 0900. How We Compete: The Race for Industrial Supremacy Over Time and Place.

This course examines factors that have driven industrial competitiveness from the dawn of industrialization to the present. What does being “competitive” really mean? How have nations traditionally achieved and sustained industrial competitiveness over time? What have been the social costs and consequences of achieving such competitiveness? And, most fundamentally, who really is competing against whom? Nations? Industries? Different segments of society? This course examines how these questions have evolved over time and across different societies, with the intention of illuminating and clarifying the choices we face today in dealing with rapid technological change, shifting global geopolitical circumstances, and growing environmental challenges.

IAPA 1000A. Money and Power in the International Political Economy (POLS1420).

Interested students must register for POLS1420.

IAPA 1001. Foundations of Development.

This course presents an interdisciplinary approach to the study of development. The course examines what constitutes development from a variety of different disciplinary perspectives, and the course examines how and in what context the term “development” itself has evolved over time. The goal of this course is to provide students an intellectual and conceptual grounding for study a variety of issues surrounding development, whether in the global North or South.

IAPA 1002. Foundations of Policy and Governance.

An overview of policymaking and policy analysis in the contemporary United States. The course begins with an examination of traditional justifications for government action. We will then examine the discipline of policy analysis that has arisen to design and evaluate public policies. We will also consider critiques of the rational method and ask questions about how policy expertise fits into the political system. The course ends with classic works on organizations and implementation. Not open to graduate students.

IAPA 1003. Foundations of Security.

This course introduces students to contemporary international security topics with a special focus on problems associated with war and violent conflict in the 21st century. It mixes the theoretical, historical, analytical, and practical. Students learn theory on the causes of war, how wars are fought, civil-military relations, the costs and consequences of warfare, and more. They also learn about the organization of the U.S. and other national security establishments. Using these tools, we will apply social science methods and critical thinking to security “hot spots” and wars around the world. There will be an emphasis on analyzing the unfolding war in Ukraine, as well as the prospects for U.S.-China rivalry and/or military conflict in the future, including within a Taiwan scenario. Aside from readings, lectures and discussions, students will benefit from a variety of films, simulations, walking excursions, and debates.

IAPA 1010. Borders and Bodies.

Whose maps, whose stories? This seminar begins by asking: what is a border? And where is it? How do particularly gendered, sexualized, raced, and classed bodies experience borders and mobility across them? Why are borders important sites of political, socio-cultural, economic, and religious contestation? How do borders and border-crossers matter to nation-states and global flows of capital and commodities? How do people living in border zones relate to the geopolitical reality of the border and the sociocultural and historical connections that often run across them? How do ideas about belonging and identity structure competing visions of justice, community, and citizenship?

IAPA 1020. Pathologies of the Rich (Countries): Liberal Capitalism and its Discontents.

Advanced capitalist economies face challenges from a number of different sources. Economic inequality is increasing, austerity and welfare reforms have undermined social protections. Globalization and decades of permissive merger policies have resulted in private companies of unprecedented size and in possession of extraordinary market power and political influence. Climate change has called into question economic foundations and social compromises of post-war capitalism, while threatening to unleash destabilizing catastrophes. Populist parties are on the rise across Europe and North America, posing a direct challenge to the liberal order and creating new uncertainty about the future of liberal democracy and global capitalism.

IAPA 1020A. Politics of the Illicit Global Economy (POLS 1020).

Interested students must register for POLS 1020.

IAPA 1021. Experiments on Race, Class, and Gender Diversity, Power, and Identity Course Series.

Open expressions of bias are becoming less socially acceptable. Inequalities along lines of race, class, and gender, however, persist. This raises a challenge for social scientists: to study unequal treatment without prompting research subjects to modify their behavior. Social scientists are increasingly turning to experiments in order to unobtrusively identify causal effects on attitudes and behaviors. The goal of this course is to introduce students to the theory and practice of experimentation through exemplary studies on bias. As part of a semester-long project, student will be involved in the design and implementation of an experiment conceived by the instructors.

IAPA 1040. Nationalism and the Nation-State.

From Brexiteers in the United Kingdom and independence activists in Catalonia to members of the Hindu right-wing in India, nationalism seems to be everywhere today. We live in a world of nation-states whose boundaries are legitimized by the shared identities of their populations. But what is nationalism, and how does it relate to the nations whose borders structure both the affairs of states and the details of our everyday lives?

IAPA 1201B. Victory, Defeat, and Everything In-Between: History, Strategy, and Politics.

This is a course about strategy, politics, and history, their complicated relations, and the ways in which strategy talk has become a staple of politics. One goal is to give students a working knowledge of the fundamentals of strategic theory at multiple levels of analysis, ranging across the various instruments of military power. Another, more important goal of our seminar is to make students aware of strategic thought as tools with which to think as opposed to simply existing as historical artifacts. We are not intellectual antiquarians. Each week we will challenge students to make clear connections between theorists, history, and contemporary politics. If students leave the course with only one idea, it should be that that there is no such thing as a military strategy separable from achieving political objectives.

IAPA 1201D. Social Entrepreneurship.

Social Entrepreneurship, engages students in the process of exploring significant global problems and developing innovative solutions that drive transformative social change. The course helps students understand the strategies that social entrepreneurs employ to tackle complex and entrenched social problems with transformative approaches that work and impact systems. Students will learn about real organizations and interact with entrepreneurs leading this work. Case studies, complemented by articles and guest speakers, will show different approaches to social entrepreneurship and illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of various models and strategies.

IAPA 1201E. Nonprofit Organizations.

Contemporary nonprofits and their role in community building and shaping public policy are central to this course. Topics include how strong coalitions impact housing, welfare and children's policy, organizing empowered communities, the influential and engaged donor and building the value of nonprofits. Case studies will be featured and new nonprofit models will be conceptualized to strategically address critical human need. Enrollment limited to 20 juniors, seniors, and graduate students concentrating in Public Policy. This course satisfies the American Institutions requirement.

IAPA 1203. History of American Intervention.

IAPA 1204. The Political Economy of Strategy: From the Financial Revolution to the Revolution in Military Affa.

This is a course about how major powers make, maintain and potentially undermine themselves using several recent examples -- Great Britain, the United States, Germany, the Soviet Union, and Japan. We make no claims that this course will reveal clues about the end of the American Empire, or the Pax Americana, but we do argue that only through an honest accounting of the history of the political economy of strategy can students understand both the costs and benefits of hegemony.

IAPA 1205. International Law.

This introduction to public international law covers the nature of legal reasoning in international relations, the interplay of international law and international politics, and the international legal process. Examines selected substantive fields such as state responsibility, the use of force, international human rights, and the U.S. and international law.

IAPA 1206. War.

This course introduces students to modern and contemporary war—its nature, its technology, its philosophers, its variations, and its evolution—across five domains: on land, at sea, in the air, and across cyber space. The course is divided into three parts: unpacking the nomenclature of violence; “old war”; and “new war. Students who complete the course will gain sufficient military literacy to critically engage in important questions and ongoing debates about the use of armed force to pursue national political interests.

IAPA 1207. The Politics of Developing Countries.

Students will explore the assumptions, models, and discoveries in mainstream research on developing countries. The “developing world” comprises the majority of the world’s populations and nation-states. The course incorporates themes from development studies, regime type, democratic breakdown and backsliding, clientelism, political economy, and political violence. As such, it features readings from political science, economics, and sociology. While there is no specific regional focus of this class, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia are heavily featured. We seek to answer multiple questions, such as: what are the causal initiators and obstacles to development? How does this vary across regional, national, and sub-national experiences? What are the distinct features and challenges of developing countries’ political and economic systems? How do global and domestic forces operate independently and interactively. What is the connection between development and democracy?

IAPA 1401. Economic Development in Latin America.

This course covers some of the unique events and characteristics that have shaped the economic development landscape of Latin America since colonial times until the present. Topics include: the historical legacy, why Latin America fell behind, import substitution industrialization, the debt crisis, poverty and income inequality, inflation, trade and financial liberalization and competitiveness. The class exposes students to a number of concepts and tools that can be broadly applied to the understanding of development in other geographic areas.

IAPA 1401A. Public Opinion Surveys Research.

This course will provide a robust introduction to the methodology of opinion surveys, from designing a questionnaire to analyzing and presenting results. We will explore how hypotheses are formulated and variables operationalized into observable data, and what the data say about the hypotheses. We will study basic quantitative techniques to manipulate datasets and draw insights and conclusions from them.
We will also discuss political science works based on public opinion data. These articles will allow students to become aware of relevant issues for democratic societies as well as to be able to reconstruct the theories, identify main hypotheses and evaluate the evidence presented by different authors.

IAPA 1402. Beyond Sun, Sea and Sand: Exploring the Contemporary Caribbean.

For many people, their image of the Caribbean is the tourist brochure and television advertisement representation of sun, sea and sand. This course challenges that through a broad introduction to the real society, economy and politics of the Caribbean region. Using literature, film and traditional texts, it captures the cultural and linguistic complexity of the region through the exploration of a range of central themes such as ethnicity, color, class, politics, as well as more specific, targeted areas including economic inequality, migration, and tourism.

IAPA 1404. Economic Development of China and India.

For nearly four decades, China and India have been two of the most successful developing economies. Their development strategies are interesting and distinctive in themselves but also in contrast to each other. They have had unique historical legacies, have had their particular colonization experiences, made very different choices immediately after independence (in the case of India) and after the civil war and revolution (in the case of China), and abandoned statism in their own ways in the late 1970s/early 1980s, and are now at different points in their development trajectories with China on the verge of being a superpower if not already one.

IAPA 1435. Politics of Climate Change (POLS 1435).

Interested students must register for POLS 1435.

IAPA 1500. Methods in Development Research.

An introduction to the various techniques of research in Development Studies, with a focus on qualitative and field methods.

IAPA 1500A. Ethnographic Research Methods.

This course introduces students to ethnographic research methods as a capacious set of tools for understanding the diverse ways people make sense of social issues that affect their lives and shape their experiences. It also addresses the ethical, legal, and political dilemmas that ethnographers encounter while engaging in field research. The course consists of weekly lectures, fieldwork practice, and ethnographic lab sessions. Students learn how ethnographers design their research projects, undertake participant observation in their chosen field sites (including online), write fieldnotes, prepare for and conduct interviews, collect and analyze artifacts, use visual and audio tools to experiment with multimodality, and work with archives, both historic and contemporary. Throughout the course, students will practice and apply these methods to pursue independent research projects on a topic of their choice. (IAPA Qualitative Research Methods course)

IAPA 1500B. Investigating Modes of Social Change.

This course examines the range of approaches to making social change through democratic institutions and processes in the U.S. These approaches-- direct service, community organizing, policy/politics, philanthropy, social entrepreneurship and research/scholarship-- have different value systems, methodologies, strengths and limitations. There’s no one “right” approach, and the modes often intersect in ways that can be mutually reinforcing or counterproductive. The course will be valuable to students interested in being involved in social change during their time at Brown and in their future careers.

IAPA 1500C. Qualitative Methods.

This synchronous remote course introduces students to field research methods and analysis of qualitative data that focuses on the application of qualitative methodologies in evaluation and policy research. Together we will read about, consider, and explore qualitative research methodologies and how they have been conceived and used in research. We will consider the processes, ethics, and philosophical tenets that ground qualitative research methodologies.

IAPA 1500D. Research Design and Methods.

This course provides an introduction to research design in the social sciences. The goals of the course are two-fold: to instruct students to critically analyze scholarly articles in terms of research design and to guide students in designing an original research project. The methods presented in the course include qualitative methods (e.g., interviews, focus groups, participant observation, and process tracing) and quantitative methods (e.g., surveys, observational studies, and experiments). The course is designed as preparation for a senior thesis or original research project. All assignments in the course revolve around the development of an original research project. The research itself will not be conducted as part of the course. There are no prerequisites for the course and a background in statistics is not required.

IAPA 1502. What Works: Evaluating the Impact of Social Programs.

Public and non-profit sector resources are limited, and decisions about how to allocate scarce resources must be informed by an understanding of the impact of social programs and policies. However, measuring impact can be a challenge. This course provides a broad – yet rigorous – overview of the methods and tools available for evaluation of the impact of public and non-profit sector programs. Students become familiar with the concepts and methods of program evaluation. They gain knowledge and skills relevant to the planning and implementation of process and impact evaluations. We cover the pros and cons of various methods, including experimental and quasi-experimental designs, qualitative methods and mixed methods. Students will also learn how to critically review evaluation methods and findings. We will use real-life examples and case studies from a range of substantive areas to support and promote course learning.

IAPA 1555. The Political Economy of Strategy: From the Financial Revolution to the Revolution in Military Affa.

This is a course about how major powers make, maintain and potentially undermine themselves using several recent examples -- Great Britain, the United States, Germany, the Soviet Union, and Japan. We make no claims that this course will reveal clues about the end of the American Empire, or the Pax Americana, but we do argue that only through an honest accounting of the history of the political economy of strategy can students understand both the costs and benefits of hegemony.

IAPA 1700. Economics for Public Policy.

This course examines the role of the public sector in the economy. We begin by exploring when and how the government intervenes in the economy. We also consider the impact of government intervention. We then use this theoretical foundation to examine current issues in expenditure, education, health, retirement, business competition, environment, cybersecurity, crime, financial, and tax policy. The student will acquire analytical skills to better evaluate existing and alternative public policy alternatives. Qualitative and quantitative methods will be used throughout the course. Class sessions require a significant degree of student participation.

IAPA 1700A. Program Evaluation.

Students in this course will become familiar with the concepts, methods, and applications of evaluation. We will build intuition around the experimental and quasi-experimental method commonly used in practice so that students learn how to interpret evaluation results, read evaluation research critically, and understand the pros/cons of each method. We will draw on illustrations and case studies from a variety of substantive policy areas.

IAPA 1700C. Political Communication.

This course will focus on the importance of written and oral communication in public decision-making, particularly in the congressional context. The course will examine the impact on political interactions, and the influencing of public policy decisions and outcomes. The course will emphasize some of the practical tools for producing relevant, useful material in the professional policy and the political communications arenas. The course requires several writing assignments focusing on different public policy analyses and political communications tools as well as active class participation including oral presentation.

IAPA 1700F. Engaged Research Engaged Publics.

Policy problems are complex. Policy analysis and design is both a science and a craft. Increasingly, policymakers have begun to acknowledge that effective policy research requires not only multiple methods of inquiry, but also interdisciplinary teams of social science researchers, citizens, designers, scientists, artists, consultants, and engineers, among other experts. Generating innovative policy solutions, from this approach, is not a straightforward, linear process, but instead a creative, collaborative, and engaged activity that requires not only iterative and dynamic research methods, but also storytelling, design, and other creative methods.

IAPA 1700L. U.S. Grand Strategy.

This junior seminar examines prominent decisions in U.S. foreign policy through various analytical and historical lenses. We begin by defining the term “grand strategy,” discussing how it has been used (and misused) by both academics and decision makers, and evaluating the degree of rationality in the process of constructing grand strategy. We establish the frames of analysis through which scholars and policymakers understand key decisions of war and peace. Then we apply these theories to major U.S. military operations since the dawn of the 20th century, exploring the extent to which these frameworks can help us understand successes and failures in American grand strategy. We investigate the degree to which scholarship can help us learn from these experiences as well the practical strengths and limitations of grand strategy as both a means and an end of states’ foreign policies.

IAPA 1700M. Comparative Politics of Urban Development.

Urbanization has been a driving force behind social change and economic growth. It has also been a deeply political process, in which urban space is distributed and its development subject to state regulation. This course examines the politics of urban development through international comparisons, primarily between the United States and China, but with reference to India and Brazil as well. Addressing in turn land takings, the governance of urban development, and informality in urban development, this course is an opportunity to identify commonalities and differences in urbanization processes across the world. (IAPA Jr seminar)

IAPA 1700N. Transitional Justice.

This course is an introduction to the study of transitional justice (TJ), or how institutions – local, domestic, and international – address the legacies of human rights abuses. In this course, students are invited to explore several key questions motivating the study of transitional justice. Why do societies pursue accountability for past repression in general? How do transitioning societies go about these pursuits? What effects might TJ policies have on prospects for democracy, rule of law, and future human rights abuses? Throughout the course, special attention will be paid to how local and global politics interact to influence both the development and the effects of different transitional justice policies. Students will also be exposed to the variety of research methods used to study TJ, including both qualitative and quantitative approaches at the sub- and cross-national levels of analysis. (IAPA Jr Seminar)

IAPA 1700P. Displaced: How Global Systems Shape Refugee Families.

This course approaches the global refugee crisis from a sociological vantage point. Who is considered a refugee? How is this category constructed? We examine how the state and other global systems categorize and constrain refugee families across borders. The family is a key institution—in society as well as in migration. We investigate how displacement shapes key dynamics of family life, such as family roles and identities, social relationships and networks, and economic strategies and status. We will follow the experiences of refugee families and the institutions that shape their trajectories—from their lives in limbo displacement (often in the Global South) to the possibility of more durable solutions, including repatriation to their home country, local integration, or resettlement in the Global North. (IAPA Jr Seminar)

IAPA 1700R. Inequality, Policy, and Economics.

Tax the rich? Increase public housing? Invent a new vaccine? This course examines inequality in United States by using the tools of economic research to ask: who benefits from different policy choices? And at what cost? Week-by-week, we will dive into different domains such as education, housing, health, innovation, wealth, and taxation. To prepare for each class, students will be asked to read a published economics research paper in depth. We will use this paper as jumping off point to explore the broader domain and hone our understanding of research design and quantitative methods. This seminar is designed to help students build skills and generate ideas for a future senior thesis or capstone project. The semester will culminate in students writing a proposal for an independent research project. (IAPA Jr Seminar)

IAPA 1700S. Survey of Time: Temporality, Social Theory, and Difference.

Time. The lifeblood for everything we do in this life and potentially the next. It is the distance between you and I. It is the only thing we all have and can never regain. In our very finite lives, we are constantly working against the clock in an attempt to find meaning, love, and purpose. Our daily lives are calculated by the clock, calendars, and other measures of time blocks. Our mental processes (memory, consciousness, etc.) are steeped in temporal terms as we consolidate our present on the basis of our pasts and potential futures. Time is everything – the only thing. The goal of this course is to expose you to the funky concept of time and how it orders and informs our daily lives. (IAPA Jr Seminar)

IAPA 1700T. Politics of Public Health: The United States in Comparative Perspective.

This course examines the politics involved in public health interventions in the United States. We take a comparative approach, meaning we will compare the current situations/problems/solutions in the United States with those in other countries as well as in history. The purpose of this class is to understand the big picture of the existing public health system and to delve into the politics that shape the system. To achieve this purpose, we explore big questions that concern scholars, policymakers, and the public. (IAPA Jr Seminar)

IAPA 1700U. Civil Resistance.

What is civil resistance? Civil resistance movements utilize nonviolent collective action to challenge specified entities. In this, students are introduced to the major theories and explanations of nonviolence, whether it works, and how states respond. This course examines the political, economic and social causes, incentives, dynamics, and outcomes of nonviolent civil resistance movements. These have important implications for policymakers, civil groups, activists, and international cooperation. Students will engage their professional skills in seeking, analyzing and incorporating typically marginalized voices in the dominant discourses on global politics. Students will be expected to take an intellectual stand, defend their positions with evidence, and peer review. Students will explore these topics and themes from the perspective of policymakers, activists, and scholars.

IAPA 1700V. Media and Nation Building in Africa.

Nation-building has long been an important focus for African leaders and international organizations grappling with governance and development issues in modern Africa. Since decolonization in the 1950s to present, African leaders and international development agencies have taken on diverse economic policies and political programs intended to modernize Africa, expand public infrastructure, and attain sustainable human development. These efforts have ranged from ambitious infrastructure and agricultural programs to large scale mining, banking and finance, to privatization programs and social service delivery. Nation-building efforts in Africa have also been challenged by political instability, civil conflicts, famine, disease outbreaks, and the growing environmental and climate change crises.

IAPA 1700W. Neoliberalism and the Global Right.

What is neoliberalism? How does it translate to ideas, policies, and institutions? Why has it become the main driver of economic policy in the world? And why is it frequently associated with rising inequality, financial crises, and right-wing advocacy? In this course, we will unpack when free-market ideas can drive political action, how neoliberal policies are implemented, and why these policies are consequential for our daily lives. We will also explore how neoliberalism boosts many contemporary right-wing political projects, and reflect upon why these leaders receive varying degrees of popular support.

IAPA 1700X. World Peace and its Discontents.

Is the world becoming more peaceful or more bellicose? What are the causes of war and how can individuals, organizations, states, and multi-stakeholder coalitions promote peace? How are concepts like war, peace, and security defined and measured, and why do such definitions matter? Which international forums, courts, or intergovernmental organizations are the most effective at resolving disputes between their members? These are some of the fundamental questions and debates that will be covered in this junior seminar, with a major emphasis on the critical role that international law and institutions can have in building peace between states and at the highest levels of global governance.

IAPA 1701. Drug War Politics.

This seminar examines the politics, practice, and consequences of government efforts to regulate mind-altering substances since the early 20th century. Although much of the focus is on the contemporary United States and Latin America, the coverage is broadly historical, comparative, and global. The main drugs focused on are cocaine, opium, and cannabis, but will include alcohol, tobacco, and synthetics. The course also evaluates policy alternatives and the obstacles to policy reform. The course draws on readings from fields such as political science, anthropology, criminology, and history. The seminar is reading intensive, and is designed to cultivate critical writing and presentation skills.

IAPA 1701A. Technology and Development.

A “smart” global order is currently being created, where information and communication technologies dominate public arenas and private lives. Much of the debates on new technologies have focused on the global North, yet the impact on the global South is equally significant. In this course, we will explore the history, present and possible futures of the use of technologies for transforming economic, social and political lives. The technologies discussed will range from the steam power leading to the first industrial revolution to today’s mobile phone technologies, workforce automation, as well as facial-recognition and other surveillance technologies.

IAPA 1701B. Cyber Security: Strategy & Policy.

This course examines the challenges of cyber security from a strategy and policy perspective. Our main focus: challenges to achieving cyber security; and of building cyber security capacity in national security (including cyber war and critical infrastructure security), economic development, and international security contexts. We incorporate global, as well as corporate, government, and non-governmental organizational perspectives. We start by working toward what “cyber,” “security,” “strategy,” and “power” mean; and develop an understanding of the policy issues faced by public and private sector stakeholders. Students should be familiar with international relations theory, but no technical background is needed.

IAPA 1701C. Power and Knowledge: The “Muslim World” in the Social Sciences.

The global Muslim community totals nearly 2 billion people, or nearly one in every four people on the planet. With a few notable exceptions, most Muslim majority countries face significant obstacles to economic and political development. Scholars have long argued that it is impossible to understand these challenges without a greater understanding of religious doctrine and Islamic institutions. Are these scholars correct? Or does this emphasis on religious doctrine obscure more than it illuminates? This course draws on a wide range of social sciences literature on the Muslim World to better understand how religion shapes economic and political development.

IAPA 1701D. Turning Rights into Realities.

Democratic systems cannot operate without citizens’ rights, which are neither automatic nor uniform. What does it take – in terms of resources, organizations, politics, expertise, and more – to turn formal rights into lived realities? How might barriers to rights manifest at different phases of the policy process? How might this differ across populations? How might this differ over time and over different geographic spaces? This course will take up these puzzles by examining three stages of the policy process -- mobilization, policy enactment, and implementation – for several categories of rights in the United States: voting, disability, employment, speech, and social rights. This course is a Junior seminar for the IAPA concentration, open to Political Science juniors and seniors. This is a WRIT designated course, designed to support students’ writing.

IAPA 1701E. Gender and Capitalism.

This course considers the intertwined relationship between capitalism---its development and the various forms it takes---and gender. The course travels across more than two centuries investigating how gender relations and women’s roles in them are embedded in processes of industrialization, battles for workers’ rights, state-market relations, colonialism, and how societies care for their young and old. Investigating both historical and contemporary topics will give students new insight into how gender structures society today, including how and why various inequalities exist. Throughout the course students will learn how to think critically about gender in order to gain new understandings of gender relations, gender inequality, and the economy.

IAPA 1701F. Wealth and Poverty in the New Metropolis.

Metropolitan areas contain extremes of wealth and poverty, which take expression in spatial inequalities. In American metros, spatial inequalities mark lines of racial and ethnic divisions. This course will examine how economic shifts combine with national and local governance choices to exacerbate metropolitan inequalities. We will examine how recent economic shifts in technology combine with our long history of racial segregation to create protected spaces of wealth as well as disinvested communities of poverty. We pay special attention to the way housing policies, climate change mitigation strategies, and infrastructure investments have reinforced inequalities in the recent past. The course concludes by considering new strategies for building wealth in disinvested communities and analyzing new patterns of mobilization that seek to provide local communities with the tools to build wealth and opportunity.

IAPA 1701G. Cultures of Surveillance: Technology, Terror and Identity.

Developments in digital technology have generated urgent political discussions about the role of surveillance in our society. In this seminar, students learn to think and write critically about the historical, socio-cultural and political dynamics that shape surveillance technology today. Who is a spy and what historical context produced such a figure? How has the history of technology shaped surveillance and spying? What role do identity and identification technologies play in surveillance in the context of the “War on Terror,” and how do these technologies impact groups unevenly across the globe? How can we historicize what we call surveillance to understand its political and social implications beyond what might appear in the document caches of the NSA or on a Black Mirror episode? Students apply course concepts to technologies of daily use to reflect on debates surrounding privacy, security and policing.

IAPA 1701H. Is World Peace Possible?.

World politics is often described as a “state of war.” In this course we ask why, and if there is anything that can be done about it. Using theory from the social sciences and evidence from recent history, we seek to understand the causes of war in order to assess the possibilities for peace. Students will engage classic texts, cutting-edge research and current events to identify why wars start, what makes them more or less likely, and what strategies states and non-state actors use to prevent them.

IAPA 1701I. Seeking Refuge: A Global Perspective on Refugee Displacement.

In this course, we read texts written by refugees and scholars from multiple disciplines including legal studies, sociology, anthropology, political science, international relations, and refugee studies. This class is organized by the movement trajectory of a “composite refugee.” Beginning with flight from the home country, we will learn about refugee hosting in the countries of the Global South, resettlement in the countries of the Global North, asylum-seeking, and return and incorporation. While very few individual refugees may pass through all these stages and places, we will use these categories to analyze different types of refugee policies and experiences. We will learn how refugees are embedded in a world system of control and humanitarian protection in which policymaking in one context is strongly shaped by actors elsewhere. We will explore questions about the limits of humanitarianism, human rights, and citizenship protections.

IAPA 1701J. Family Politics: Gender and the American Welfare State.

How are families regulated in the United States and how has that changed over time? American welfare state practices have shaped families’ lives, from private charities in the colonial era, to professional welfare services founded in the Progressive Era, culminating in recent reproductive and child welfare policies. This course tracks how political, economic, and cultural shifts have influenced the development of deeply gendered and racialized policies regulating American families. Building on political and social theory, we will consider how those policies affect families of varying economic, social, and racial backgrounds.

IAPA 1701K. Geography of Uneven Development.

In this class, students will engage with development policies pertaining to poverty, corruption, infrastructure and the environment across the world. While surveying several explanations provided for the introduction and failure of these policies in the past century, this course will equip students with the tools to critically analyze the geopolitical implications related to the history of capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, neo-liberalism and globalization.

IAPA 1701L. The Politics of Risk: Danger, Governance, and Social Inequality.

How do professional and state organizations use ideas of “risk” to manage and govern populations? This course traces the history of risk construction and surveillance in four areas: the penal system, the medical system, the welfare state, and family policy. We will study how professional and state actors understand and evaluate risk, construct “dangerous” subjects that require surveillance and intervention, and develop organizational practices to respond to these ideas about risk. As we study this, we will consider how this process of risk construction and surveillance unevenly affects different economic and racial groups and impacts some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged members of society: prisoners, the ill, the poor, and children.

IAPA 1701M. Justice, Gender, and Markets.

How do poor women connect to markets? How have philosophical ideas about gender influenced ideas about gender and justice and consequently, gender, justice and markets? Answering these questions helps us explore how justice, gender, and markets interact and the conditions that keep millions of women trapped in poverty. They help us understand the history of entrepreneurship by women and the role entrepreneurship plays in empowering women. Such an understanding, is of course, a critical step to help us develop policies and programs that support women seeking to escape entrenched poverty.

IAPA 1701N. Diplomacy, an Art That Isn't Lost.

This seminar is offered in Washington DC to Brown in Washington students and remotely to students on campus. It examines the practice and profession of diplomacy and its relationship to the policy process. While the practice of diplomacy and the policy-making process has a U.S. focus, the lessons learned apply to other nation states as well. We briefly review the history of inter-state relations, including the international legal basis for diplomatic relations. Diplomacy has evolved over the years and has been greatly influenced by modern technology; however, it continues to incorporate such common functions as policy formulation, representation, reporting, negotiation, intercultural contacts and interaction with the media, parliamentary bodies and other external actors. The course will provide a knowledge base for understanding the policy process and will expose students to policy analysis, memo writing for decisionmaking, negotiations and verbal communications.

IAPA 1701O. Diplomacy and Development: Related but Different Missions.

This course will explore two international relations missions—diplomacy and development cooperation-- that complement one another but differ in substance and nature. Diplomacy, comprised of statecraft, policy formulation, representation, reporting and negotiation, will be treated in opening segments. The diplomatic mission is about influencing other sovereign states to bridge national differences in an effort to promote interests and avoid conflict. The course will explore these aspects using simulations, including a mock negotiation, a congressional hearing, and other pedagogical approaches.

IAPA 1701P. Global Megaprojects.

Megaprojects are costly, complicated, risky, and laborious. They include power plants, pipelines, ports, and petrochemical complexes; take years—or even decades—to finish; and owe their successes and failures to social and organizational—and not merely technical—considerations. This class addresses the origins, design, management, and consequences of megaprojects in contemporary and historical perspective. Our goal is to learn not only about specific projects—like the Panama Canal, Tennessee Valley Authority, Trans-Amazon Highway, and Belt and Road Initiative being undertaken by China—but about theories and methods that will help us understand the origins and fates of large-scale organizations more generally.

IAPA 1701Q. Coercion: Deterrence and Compellence.

This advanced undergraduate seminar dives deep into the theory and practice of coercion—the use of threats to change incentives. From a library threatening late fees for tardy patrons to a parent sending an insolent child to their room, banal aspects of daily life brim with the logic of coercion. The threat of punishment casts an even longer shadow in international affairs. Threats of invasion, bombing, or economic sanctions are common throughout history. This course will introduce students to classic and contemporary scholarship on military and economic coercion. Topics will include deterrence and compellence, signaling, bargaining, reputation, crisis stability, air power, and trade and financial sanctions.

IAPA 1701R. Democracy and Capitalism in the Post-colonial World.

The literature on democracy has largely been dominated by work on Western democracies. The goal of this class is to closely examine democracies in the post-colonial world and in doing so to re-examine dominant theories of democracy. Drawing on theoretical, critical and empirical writings, we examine the origins, trajectories and current challenges of democracies in Africa, South Asia and Latin America. We examine the core institutions of democracy, but also the array of social forces and civil society actors that have shaped post-colonial democracies. The course draws on both the sociology and political science literatures. All students will be expected to develop and write a research paper on a topic of their choice.

IAPA 1701V. Democratization.

This course examines why autocratic states democratize and why democracy breaks down in already democratic states. The course analyzes domestic factors (e.g., values, norms, religion, culture, economic development and inequality, natural resources, protests, insurgencies, and coups d’etat,), as well as international ones (e.g., trade, foreign aid, international organizations, and international war). The course also examines the reasons for and the effectiveness of different ways that governments resist democratization, including accommodation, censorship, and repression.

IAPA 1701W. The Cold War in Latin America.

This seminar aims to enrich understanding of the present by studying the recent past. Many countries in Latin America still bear scars from past interventions, so we will assess the long-term impact they had. Poverty, repression, gang violence, mass migration and other problems that Americans see south of our border were caused by various factors, but they cannot be understood without considering the continuing impact of Cold War interventions. We will consider the ways Latin American countries have sought to recover from the trauma of these interventions, including the emergence of museums and other institutions that aim to preserve historical memory.

IAPA 1701X. American Education Policy in Historical and Comparative Perspective.

This seminar examines the historical roots of --and contemporary debates over-- select but fundamental issues in the finance, regulation, and governance of public education. Our focus is on the American expression of these issues and debates. But we will look to the experience of other multilevel democracies to highlight conceptual and institutional differences that are of theoretical interest and perhaps of practical use. In particular, the seminar will explore how the goals of education as a public good get defined; the history of school finance and governance in America; the ways in which ‘school choice’ has intersected in practice and in theory with segregation, integration, and debates over mechanisms to improve school quality; on the problems of test-based accountability regimes; and on the role teacher training systems in educational improvement.

IAPA 1701Y. Climate Change, Power, & Money.

Fossil fuel energy made economic development possible, but now we’re cooking the planet. Some want to keep burning carbon; some want to halt capitalism itself; most are somewhere in between. This course is about the political economy of decarbonization. It begins by evaluating the state of affairs, how we became dependent on carbon, the current stakes, and the key actors and stakeholders. It then goes straight to debate the core problem of our future: What are the trade-offs that come with different decarbonization paths? The course then examines some of the most prominent solutions and challenges for rapid decarbonization. Throughout the course, we will pay special attention to - you guessed it - power and money. At the end of the day, those two forces make the world go round and will make or break decarbonization.

IAPA 1701Z. Animals and War.

Over the course of history, academics have studied the myriad ways that war ruptures human life, infrastructure, and societies. Despite concerted efforts to understand the economic, health, and social “costs of war” (Lutz et al., 2010) on human life, very little is known about how war interrupts the lives of animals and other non-human species. In this seminar, we broaden our lens on war, looking at how it disrupts the lives and lived environments of humans and non-human beings alike. The perspectives in this seminar challenge us to consider what it means to live and die in the mist of wide-spread ecological disruption across species.

IAPA 1702. Sex and War.

The course explores biological and social determinants of participation in aggression, violence, and war; along with how and why sex differences become gendered. Some topics include gender biases in international relations theories, women in combat, LGBTQs in the military, discourse, attitudes towards war, rape, and female and male roles in the conduct of war. The course also assesses the ongoing evolution of the roles of women as leaders, actors, and agenda-setters in, and objects of, foreign policy. Some familiarity with international relations theory is helpful, but there are no prerequisites.

IAPA 1702A. Diplomacy and Development: Related but Different Missions.

This course will explore two international relations missions—diplomacy and development cooperation-- that complement one another but differ in substance and nature. Diplomacy, comprised of statecraft, policy formulation, representation, reporting and negotiation, will be treated in opening segments. The diplomatic mission is about influencing other sovereign states to bridge national differences in an effort to promote interests and avoid conflict. The course will explore these aspects using simulations, including a mock negotiation, a congressional hearing, and other pedagogical approaches.

IAPA 1702B. Prison Abolition as Policy.

This is an advanced seminar for International and Public Affairs (IAPA) concentrators. As experienced social scientists with policy interests, we will use theoretical and methodological tools to evaluate some of the most pressing social problems to evaluate the role of equity and efficiency in solving real world issues. While using a multi-disciplinary approach I will lean heavily on sociological approach to equity for us to think deeply about development, governance, and security. While we will grapple with issues of efficiency, the primary questions we will engage with will focus on racial equity. Junior Seminar.

IAPA 1702C. Inequality and Social Mobility in America.

Income and wealth inequality in America are at their highest levels in a century. Historically, one reason Americans have been thought to tolerate inequality is that we tend to believe that our society is a mobile one, where people can easily move from one social class to another. But in recent years, inequality and stagnant social mobility have been associated with increasing social and political distrust and unrest. In this junior seminar, we will examine the economic and political, and ideological factors that have contributed to this historical moment, learn about how Americans experience living in an unequal society, and consider the future of equality and social mobility in the United States. How should our society be shaped, and what are our obligations as members of that society?

IAPA 1702D. Beyond Refugeehood: Politics of mobility, border regimes, and humanitarianism.

While the history of human migration is arguably as long as the history of humanity, Refugeehood—as a global problem that needs to be tackled in a systematic manner—is a rather recent phenomenon. This course examines the categorization of refugees, the reasons behind and shortcomings that result from a top-down definition of displacement. Through an on-the-ground and ethnographic engagement with displaced communities worldwide, we interrogate analytical distinctions between legal and illegal categories of asylum seekers and migrants, internally displaced and refugees. Rather than treating refugeehood as an immanent crisis, we examine how the language of crisis shapes migration in the era of global capitalism. This course has relevance for students interested in international legal frameworks, human rights and humanitarianism, national laws and citizenship status, climate migration, and border studies.

IAPA 1702E. Smart, Fluid, & Out of Control: The Political Economy of Production.

New technologies like smart production, AI, and 5G, are fundamentally changing how we consume and how produce is been produced. This class explores technological innovation to better understand the changing dynamics of the global political economy and relations between the market and the state. It focuses on the concept of smart production as an outgrowth of flexible production, which is changing relationships between the human body and machine, collective and individual data extraction, and their social adaptations. Through an analysis of these transformations, the class will examine how our ideas of scale, especially the concept of “local”, and the meaning of value are being reimagined, and what effect this has on interactions between state, society and market.

IAPA 1702F. Political (dis)engagement, (de)mobilization, and dissent in Eastern Europe.

The course will explore the forms and dynamics of popular political participation, engagement, and disengagement, as they have been emerging and evolving in the region of Eastern Europe, which has been defined by popular mobilizations and revolutions as well as authoritarianism, imperialism, and large-scale war. We will analyze the variations, divergences, and commonalities between the social and political contexts of different states with a special focus on Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, whose relations are characterized by intertwined histories, power asymmetries, close connections, and extreme confrontations. By situating the developments in this region within broader global and historical contexts, participants will reflect on the possibilities and dynamics of political and societal change and its trajectories. The course is specifically preoccupied with popular politics and the ways agency is historically forged and structurally conditioned.

IAPA 1702G. Governing Marginalized Groups: How State Institutions Shape Social Inequality in the U.S..

How does the state govern marginalized groups? And how do the processes of state governance—from population-level policies to everyday institutional interactions—intersect to shape the lives of group members? This course will draw primarily on sociological literature and methods to explore theories and case studies of governance at the margins, highlighting the role of state institutions from courts and prisons to hospitals and schools. The course material will focus on the governance of low-income Black and Brown families in the United States, though much of what we study will apply to other marginalized groups and contexts as well. As we learn together, we will consider the implications of various modes of governance for the reproduction of social marginality—as well as the possibilities of governance for promoting care and justice.

IAPA 1702H. The Politics of Industrial Transformation.

This course examines the political sources and ramifications of industrial change, which is closely related to the distribution of wealth between and within nations and the response to global challenges. The course will explore why some nations have been more successful in industrial and technological development and how globalization has affected uneven development. Key topics include the relationship between state and market; institutional sources of comparative advantage; the role of national security; globalization; the debate on industrial policy; and the potential of mobilizing industries to address climate change. The experiences of developed countries, particularly those of the U.S., will be discussed in conjunction with those of developing countries.

IAPA 1702I. Governance from Socialist to Post-socialist China.

This course leads students to investigate the issue of governance under the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Who govern? Who is governed? What are the typical techniques and institutions of governance, as well as the rationales, ideologies, and interests behind them? Do state-initiated marketization and globalization create discontinuities in socialist governance? Should one understand Beijing’s reinforcement of state sovereignty in the contemporary era as a simple revival of an authoritarian regime, or as more innovative practices? In what ways are governing practices under the Chinese socialist system similar to, or different from, those under liberal democracies? In this seminar course, students will explore these questions through scholarly discussions on governance in the realms of bureaucracy, economic market, technology and media, population, public health, and family. Course materials are drawn from anthropology, political science, sociology, and history.

IAPA 1702J. The (Racial) Politics of National Culture.

In this junior seminar, we will focus our attention on understanding how culture is constructed and mobilized in defining national belonging following racial logics. We will approach the topic on several levels: a macro-level understanding of national identity formation processes and policies, the meso-level of institutional processes playing a part in deploying concepts of national culture, and micro-level experiences and understanding of these politics among everyday citizens. We will explore the nexus between national culture, identity, citizenship, and whiteness in Western nations with a focus on France, the U.S., and possibly others. Students will write and present final papers on a country of their choosing.

IAPA 1702K. The Political Economy of a Global Green Transition.

How can we green the global political economy? The seminar provides an understanding of the political economy of a global green transition by discussing the inadequacy of our current efforts and the pathways for future transformation. To capture the interdisciplinarity of environmental issues, the seminar is rooted in political economy, drawing from across political science, economics, sociology, and history. The seminar looks at green transition as a global phenomenon and covers issue areas across finance, industrial policy, trade, and security, with a geographic emphasis on the US, the EU, China, and other global South countries. At the end of the seminar, students will have the skillset to grasp the highly complex nature of a global green transformation.

IAPA 1702L. How Can Activists Change the World? The Dynamics of Power and Resistance.

Who protests, why, and how? Does collective action matter for social and political change? When does non-violent mobilization escalate into full-blown civil war? Why do some social movements succeed while others decline? The analysis of how people make conflicting collective claims on each other, the state, or on third parties can help us understand why and how different forms of political contention such as social movements, revolutions, and ethnic wars have developed in different times and places with varying degrees of success.

IAPA 1720. Slavery, Democracy, and Racial Violence in the Americas (AFRI 1270).

Interested students must register for AFRI 1270.

IAPA 1800A. Development's Visual Imaginaries: Still and Moving Images That Shaped the Field.

Using primarily paintings and films, this seminar explores the visual imaginaries created and circulated between 17th and early 20th centuries especially in the Americas but also in Europe, which came to underpin prominent mid- to late-19th century and early 20th-century development theories and resultant legislation and public policies in the United States, and which were deployed both internally and abroad. The course will argue that development policies domestically and abroad often drew from the same set of ideas and imaginaries about categories of humans, land, nature, work, gender, race, capacity for self-definition and political self-representation, and who should wield power. IAPA Sr Seminar

IAPA 1800D. Law and Public Policy.

This course will give students an introduction to business organizations – the law that governs corporations and partnerships, how they raise money in the financial markets, and to explore the public policy issues that inform the regulation of business and finance. We will look at business organizations, law that governs how companies raise money, operation of the stock markets, insider trading, and the regulation of institutional investors including mutual funds, hedge funds and private equity funds. We will finish by taking up corporations as persons, their social obligations and the recent Supreme Court cases on corporations and the First Amendment. Overrides granted based on random drawing for 11 seniors and 8 juniors; to be eligible you must turn in the first week’s assignment and attend the first class. Put course in your cart to access the assignment via canvas.

IAPA 1801. Science and Technology Policy in the Global South.

Using both theoretical ideas and empirical examples, this seminar will explore the relationships among science, technology, society, and public policymaking in the Global South, in places where local science and global science often collaborate and sometimes clash. The class will investigate, from a variety of perspectives, how the governance of science and technology in various parts of the Global South is influenced by their past experiences, forms of public science organization, systems of knowledge and belief, civic epistemologies and regulatory frameworks, and strategic agendas for development, as well as the knowledge claims and concerns of social movements, and tensions in power and social relations.

IAPA 1801A. History of American Intervention.

This course reviews modern history through the study of invasions, coups, and other interventions carried out by the United States. From the Marine assault on Tripoli in 1805 to the bombing of Tripoli in 2011, there have been scores of these episodes. They have shaped American history and the history of the wider world. Enrollment limited to 20 seniors.

IAPA 1801C. Brazilian Democracy in the XXI Century: Challenges and Possibilities.

This course examines Brazilian social, political, economic, and environmental conditions and development since the end of the military regime in 1988.

IAPA 1801D. Politics & Journalism: A Practical Guide to How We Got Here and Where We’re Going.

Politics in America has never been so manic, so divided, so pervasive, so vital. But we’re not just in overlapping crises of government and democracy and economics and race. We’re also in a crisis of truth. It’s impossible to think about what is happening in politics without thinking about how it’s covered. This course will explore that connection—in a practice-oriented, writing intensive approach which will aim to transform your understanding both of what’s really happening in politics and how those developments are presented to the public. Fulfills IAPA senior capstone/seminar requirement.

IAPA 1801F. Prison Abolition as Policy.

We collaborate with the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center and Office Racial and Equity Research for a collaborative research experience where we will be briefed on a major policy issue that they are working on and create several blogs, Tik-Toks, or a research report. Across each medium, you will provide policy recommendations on an issue of importance to their mission and work. We tackle a central problem in criminal legal system reform: prison abolition. Our work will be presented to the Urban Institute a nonprofit research organization that provides data and evidence to help advance upward mobility and equity. A trusted source for changemakers who seek to strengthen decision-making, create inclusive economic growth, and improve the well-being of families and communities. For more than 50 years, Urban has delivered facts that inspire solutions. Senior seminar.

IAPA 1801H. Documentary Filmmaking.

This is a hands-on documentary directing class. Each student will conceive of, produce, direct, shoot, and edit two short documentary films on subjects that are meaningful to them. We will study a wide range of documentaries in order to understand how best to tell our stories. The course will be part seminar, part workshop, and will have a collaborative and supportive spirit, with rigorous requirements.

IAPA 1801K. From Growth to the Green Transition.

This seminar seeks to explore the idea of growth as a policy imperative. Growth as an idea has a peculiar intellectual history that arose in the 19th century, peaked in the 20th century, and has now come under stress in the 21st century. Today, the very idea of growth has become essentially contested with ideas of ‘green growth,’ ‘de-growth’ and zero growth’ gaining ground in an era of heightened inequality, low growth and climate crisis. This seminar seeks to uncover the history of growth as process of wealth accumulation, as a means of political legitimation, and as a dangerous addiction.

IAPA 1801L. Mergers and Acquisitions.

This seminar explores mergers and acquisitions as a tool for corporate change. Students examine the roles of management teams, boards of directors, and advisors (both legal and financial) in affecting industry realignment. They also consider the role of regulators in developing M&A policy. Throughout this course, we utilize the seismic shifts in the global telecommunications industry as a backdrop for examining these issues. The evolutionary technological cycles in this industry and the wealth of governmental intervention provide an ideal backdrop for examining M&A activity across other industries.

IAPA 1801W. National Security, Innovation, and the Congress.

The seminar course will explore the role that Congress and policy making can play in creating an environment to support or impede innovation in our national security science and technology enterprise. The course will discuss the opportunities and challenges of implementing innovative technologies and practices into the complex defense establishment and understand how policymakers can work to create a legal framework, regulations, culture, and financial resources that can support or inhibit innovation. The course will explore the legislative process, focused on how Congress provides legal authorities and funding, and performs oversight activities over the Pentagon. The course will also examine the complementary roles of the legislative branch, executive branch, and the private sector in shaping the policy and innovation environment.

IAPA 1801X. Surveillance: State, Capitalism, and Society.

When we talk about surveillance, are we thinking of Orwell’s Big Brother, the scenarios portrayed in Black Mirror, or Edward Snowden’s disclosures? Although technological advances have intensified interest in this subject, surveillance is not a recent development; it has been a fundamental element of modernity. In this course, we will start with the theoretical bases for understanding surveillance. The subsequent weeks are divided into three modules, each focusing on a different participant in surveillance: the state, corporations and the emergence of “surveillance capitalism,” and citizens who may embrace, participate in, or resist surveillance. Adopting a global viewpoint, we will explore surveillance practices across various political regimes, throughout different historical periods, and technological advancements. There are no pre-requisites for this seminar.

IAPA 1801Y. The Politics of Regulation: Technology, Finance, and Climate Change.

Technological innovations are a central force for economic development, but today we are facing some of their most severe and unintended consequences. Some observers argue that only market competition can enable the blossoming of human ingenuity, while others argue that state planning is essential for controlling the dangers inherent in new technologies. Rather than extol or deny the benefits that can come from technology, this course examines how governments in different historical circumstances have attempted to shape and regulate three of the most challenging risks facing advanced societies.

IAPA 1802A. Bilateral and Multilateral Policy and Diplomacy.

This course examines the practice and profession of diplomacy and its relationship to the policy process. Focus is on bilateral and multilateral diplomacy; practice focuses on U.S. context, lessons learned apply to other nation states. We review history of inter-state relations, including the international legal basis for diplomatic relations. The practice has evolved over the years and been greatly influenced by modern technology; however, it continues to incorporate such common functions as policy formulation, representation, reporting, negotiation, intercultural contacts and interaction with the media, parliamentary bodies and other external actors. Limited to Jrs, Srs. Priority given to IR Seniors.

IAPA 1802C. Infrastructure!.

Infrastructure! It’s the hardware and software that undergirds transportation, energy, water, and health systems. This course asks what we can learn about infrastructure when we approach it not as a neutral set of technologies but as a context-dependent social and political force. Taking a critical approach to (among others) natural resources, global health, and development, the course will trace how infrastructures have both served and obstructed colonial and contemporary projects for social change. The course will also take up the question of the future of infrastructure, including “green,” modular, and “off the grid” technologies.

IAPA 1802M. Rwanda Past and Present.

In the mid-1990s, few countries on earth were as devastated as Rwanda. As many as one million people or more had been killed in a 100-day genocide, and the fleeing regime had left the country in ruins. Today, however, Rwanda is not only at peace but full of ambition. Some believe it is poised to rise from poverty and become an example for developing countries everywhere. Others worry that trouble is brewing, and that another apocalypse could lie ahead.

IAPA 1802S. Human Security and Humanitarian Response: Increasing Effectiveness and Accountability.

Disasters, epidemics, and conflicts all pose significant threats to human security, including the very ability for people to meet their basic needs for protection, food, water, shelter, and healthcare. This course will take a pragmatic approach to understanding how the legal, ethical, and technical principles of humanitarian assistance get translated into actual impact on the ground during large-scale emergencies worldwide. In particular, we will explore the justifications and limitations for humanitarian response as a tool for addressing modern challenges ranging from climate change to civil conflict, alongside new efforts to improve both the effectiveness of humanitarian response and its accountability to affected populations. This course will cover a diverse range of topics including the history, structure, and financing of humanitarian response; the public health evidence base for common human security interventions; and the intersections between human rights and humanitarianism.

IAPA 1802V. Diplomacy, Economics + Influence.

This course examines a dozen diplomatic situations and identifies the players, their interests, and their tools -- and how those produced outcomes. Particular attention is paid to economic factors – pressures, incentives, and influences – that contribute to the outcome. By examining these elements students will understand the economic tools of diplomacy and power, and how to wield them. The course concludes with a close look at China's growing role in the world economy and considers how that will change China's role in world affairs. Enrollment limited to 19 Juniors & Seniors. Priority given to IR seniors.

IAPA 1803. Humanitarian Response in Modern Conflict.

Armed conflict significantly affects civilian populations, often on a massive scale, and often in ways that generates large-scale humanitarian crises that can last decades or longer. Professional military organizations today are tasked both with prosecuting war and dealing with the humanitarian consequences. How do armed forces deal with this dual challenge? How do humanitarian organizations? What about governments and the private sector? How do policy makers think about these challenges? What accounts for successes and failures? How do military and civilian organizations interact in these settings, and what can be done to improve their engagements to better save lives and alleviate the suffering of affected populations? How can civilian protection, aid worker security, and humanitarian access efforts be improved upon so that humanitarian crises related to conflict can be more effectively addressed?

IAPA 1803A. Rwanda Past and Present.

In the mid-1990s, few countries on earth were as devastated as Rwanda. As many as one million people or more had been killed in a 100-day genocide, and the fleeing regime had left the country in ruins. Today, however, Rwanda is not only at peace but full of ambition. Some believe it is poised to rise from poverty and become an example for developing countries everywhere. Others worry that trouble is brewing, and that another apocalypse could lie ahead.

IAPA 1803C. The History and Politics of Development in the Middle East.

This course examines from a critical perspective the impact and legacies of development projects in the Middle East. After considering the historical emergence of development as a concept and some general critiques, we will explore its more specific deployment in the context of the Middle East. Readings will address its discursive frameworks as well as the economic, political, environmental, and social dynamics it has shaped through its definition of instrumental categories, objects, and spaces. We will also consider how these dynamics have contributed to the recent uprisings in the region. Priority given to DS seniors.

IAPA 1804. Diplomacy, Crisis, and War in the Modern Era.

This undergraduate seminar examines war and peace after 1945 through the lens of international relations (IR) theory. It aims to both teach students theoretical perspectives on international relations and to critically evaluate the changing ways in which states have interacted with one another since the end of World War II. What caused the Cold War? Did nuclear weapons change the way that states negotiated with one another? How much did individuals make a difference during interstate crises? Why did states sometimes fail to reach peaceful settlements with one another? What were the experiences of states other than the United States and Soviet Union during the Cold War? How have social and economic institutions changed international politics in the twenty-first century?

IAPA 1804A. Iran and the Islamic Revolution.

Shattering events of 1978-80 in Iran unfolded against the backdrop of the previous decades of Iranian history, knowing that history is essential to understanding the revolution. The revolution cannot be appreciated without studying the enormous effects it's had over the last 35 years. This course places the anti-Shah movement and the rise of religious power in the context of Iran's century of modern history. We conclude by focusing on today's Iran, the upheaval following the 2009 election, reformist president election in 2013, and prospects for reconciliation with the US. Enrollment limited to 20 juniors & seniors. Priority given to IR seniors.

IAPA 1804C. Migration and Development in Theory and Practice.

The primary theme of this course rests on a query standing at the center of a growing debate: in what ways are migrants linked to development? This course examines several theoretical debates and policies and programs focused on the migration-development nexus. Students examine scholarly interpretations of how migration is linked to development. They also employ a transnational lens to further explore what development means and how it is carried out in an increasingly mobile and connected world. The class examines how grassroots organizations have engaged in community development, and the roles states and non-governmental agencies are playing in on-the-ground interventions.

IAPA 1804D. Legal Methods for Public Policy.

This course uses both traditional lecture and interactive, mock-trial to give public policy students with the tools to understand, interpret and apply the law as expressed in judicial opinions, particularly the opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States. The end-product for the course will be a capstone public policy paper on a subject of the student’s choice involving timely or complex legal issues. For the first three weeks, we’ll have an introduction to civil procedure, examining how cases are brought, the requirements for valid claims, including what affects parties’ right to bring a lawsuit, emergency relief, disposition with and without trial, appeals and the principles that the Supreme Court uses in deciding cases. If the seminar is oversubscribed, admission will be by lottery, comprised of students who turn in the first assignment and attend the first class session.

IAPA 1804E. Health Policy Challenges.

This course examines the topic of health reform through a variety of lenses – politics, policy, community organizing, and bureaucratic implementation. Specific issues include recent reform efforts at the national and state levels, including the Affordable Care Act and several Rhode Island state legislative campaigns over the past twenty years. During each of these legislative victories (or defeats), the interplay between politics and policy, community organizing and implementation have defined how successful the laws have been in improving people’s access to quality, affordable healthcare.

IAPA 1804F. The Politics of Crime and Violence in Latin America.

Latin America ranks first in the world in both violent and common crime, and more than one in three people in the region believe insecurity is the most important problem facing their country. In this course we explore the causes and consequences of crime and violence in regional perspective, with a focus on better understanding the current political moment. Some of the motivating questions of this course are: What are the legacies of dictatorship and civil war on violence today? How do organized criminal groups govern, and what consequences do these modes of governance have for public life? How do state responses to crime affect different populations and overall public safety? Under what conditions do citizens resist crime and impunity, or conversely, further contribute to cycles of violence?

IAPA 1804H. Early History of the CIA.

This seminar traces the establishment, rise, and spreading ambition of the Central Intelligence Agency in its first fifteen years, from 1947 to 1962. During this period the CIA was on the front line of the Cold War, which was then in its most intense phase. It carried out dozens of covert operations, setting off chains of events that that would shape the history of the United States and many other countries. We will examine the events that led to the creation of the CIA, study its Cold War battles, and trace its growth into a powerful global force.

IAPA 1804I. National Security Decision Making.

This undergraduate seminar examines theories of individual and group decision-making in the context of national security policy. It connects analytical perspectives from political science, social psychology, and organizational theory with a wide variety of historical cases featuring the United States, Soviet Union, China, India, Pakistan, Iraq, and Vietnam. What constitutes an “effective” decision-making process? What types of individuals, groups and institutions foster more effective processes? When are individuals or groups prone towards risky decisions? Do decision-making processes matter in “high-stakes” issues, such as war and peace? The last third of the course will examine these questions in the context of the 2018 US-China Trade War.

IAPA 1804J. Policing in Global Perspective.

Debates about policing seem to be everywhere: in the news, in politics, in activist circles, in TV shows and movies. Around the world, from the Arab Spring movements to the Movement for Black Lives, condemnations of police brutality, racial bias, and police impunity have become pervasive. The solutions proposed range from implicit bias training and the generalization of body-worn cameras, to defunding and abolishing the police. This course engages with these debates by examining policing in global and comparative perspective.

IAPA 1804K. Political Violence.

In this course, students will learn how social scientific tools can be used to understand political violence, including inter-state conflict, civil war, genocide, and terrorism. While the course will focus on why and when these forms of violence occur, students will also develop and understanding for when and why violence does not occur. The course will also cover a number of emerging topics in the field of political violence, including rebel governance, technology and conflict, and the legacies of violence. The course will familiarize students with the basic research tools employed by scholars of political violence, including case studies, survey research, and the quantitative analysis of cross- national datasets, and apply concepts and tools in diverse regional contexts in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

IAPA 1804L. Colonization and Decolonization in Comparative Perspective.

This course provides an advanced introduction to the social sciences literature on colonialism through an interdisciplinary lens. This course has three goals. The first is to familiarize students with key authors, texts, and concepts that emerged from the study of colonialism from authors in history, historical sociology, development economics, and comparative politics. The second objective is to familiarize students with the theoretical and conceptual mechanisms linking the colonial period and the present. Finally, this course provides an introduction to an interdisciplinary approach to studying a complex topic like colonialism and give students a practical introduction to how academics generally explore complex and controversial issues.

IAPA 1804M. Overcoming Threats to Human Security.

This course provides students with a comprehensive introduction to exploring challenges and opportunities related to global challenges from both a human and national security perspective – with a special focus on putting people and communities, as opposed to national interests, at the center of attention. Students will gain a deep understanding of key issues including humanitarian crises caused by natural disasters, and the impacts of climate change, food and water security, urbanization, mass migration, and infectious disease/pandemics on vulnerable people around the world.

IAPA 1804O. Life and Violence.

Violence in human societies has been at the center of social science scholarship for decades. Yet, how violence is conceptualized, written, and represented in the social science record varies from discipline to discipline. In this course, we dig deep into the study of violence in its many forms (e.g., political, ethnic, bodily, and religious), focusing specifically on how it affects the everyday lives of people. Reading and watching content produced by academics and nonacademics in a broad range of social contexts such as India, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Rwanda, Kenya, Northern Ireland, and the United States, we will critically assess how the past and present violence inform our ways of thinking and writing about places and people that might be unfamiliar to us.

IAPA 1804P. Discrimination and Public Policy.

This course examines structural discrimination and interpersonal discrimination as possible drivers of race, gender, and social class inequalities primarily within the U.S. but also in other parts of the world. Key questions involve: What is (and what is not) discrimination? How do social scientists measure discrimination? What do differing methods allow us (and not allow us) to say about the existence and mechanisms of discrimination? What are the consequences of discrimination? What are possible policy approaches to addressing discrimination?

IAPA 1804Q. French Colonialism in Global Perspective, 19th-20th Centuries.

In this seminar we examine how French colonial power deployed itself in different parts of the world both through self-legitimizing discourses and the imposition of political and economic systems of domination. We read classic and more recent scholarship on colonial wars and violence, the ideology of the French “civilizing mission”, legal and economic discrimination and how colonialism transformed local ecologies. Colonial power was constantly debated, resisted, and subverted across metropole and colonies. We pay close attention to these voices and trace the emergence of political anti-colonialism in the aftermath of the First World War. We will examine how French colonialism was fought and eventually (partially) dismantled towards the middle of the 20th century. The course will end with an examination of current debates about the legacies of French colonialism in France and in formerly colonized countries.

IAPA 1804S. Critical Study of Development.

This seminar provides an introduction to the critical study of development. The goal is less to provide an exhaustive overview of the field than it is to help you develop critical thinking skills through group discussion and analytical writing. More specifically, the goal is to develop your understanding of the diversity of understandings of the concept of development, as well as its practical importance in the world. Students will read texts that present pressing questions and issues concerning development practices, policies, and theories. Though classroom discussion and writing, the course encourages you to connect broad theoretical debates to contemporary problems.

IAPA 1804T. Rethinking Development's Archive.

This seminar will explore the idea and practice of development, thought otherwise, taking the format of a humanities/social sciences laboratory whose objective is to research and draft an annotated, brief critical bibliography of intellectual resources on development as set of concepts and field of study. It will be a bibliography which can, borrowing from one of the key objects of library sciences, also serve as a Finders’ Aid. It is especially recommended for IAPA students who want to think about a conceptual framework for honors theses and capstone essays.

IAPA 1805. Inequality, Sustainability, and Mobility in a Car-Clogged World AKA: Two Billion Cars.

With the possible exception of the computer or antibiotics, the car is arguably the most significant invention of the last two centuries. It has fundamentally reshaped the environment, social landscapes, lives, and economies, and its impact will only increase as the global vehicle population doubles, as predicted, to two billion by the year 2030. This class will explore the immense social, political, health, and environmental consequences, as well as cultural and political economic explanations for the car population explosion. Alternative forms and futures for transit will be considered throughout the course.

IAPA 1805A. Politics of International Finance.

The purpose of this course is to present the fundamental variables that shape modern international finance. We will introduce and examine the technical forces that determine international transactions and capital flows, as well as the problems caused by unsustainable imbalances and the subsequent domestic and international political responses. Given the important role that finance plays in international relations, the material will allow the student to establish a conceptual framework to understand the political dynamics and constraints of the global economy. Enrollment limited to 20 juniors & seniors. Priority given to IR seniors.

IAPA 1805C. Caribbean and Pacific Small States: On the Margins of Development.

Small states enter the imagination as sites of exoticism. Pristine beaches, flanked by swaying coconut trees are marketed as ideal for honeymooners and others seeking a refuge from stress-filled lives. This course centers small states, in particular, small island states, as a group of countries, with unique and interesting features, meriting academic scrutiny. We explore a wide range of issues introducing students to these diverse and complex states, including historical origins, globalization and effects on development, theoretical approaches to studying small states, issues in governance, migration, climate change, food security, sports and culture, gender and sexuality, among others.

IAPA 1806A. Diplomacy, Economics & Influence.

This course examines a dozen diplomatic situations and identifies the players, their interests, and their tools -- and how those produced outcomes.Particular attention is paid to economic factors – pressures, incentives, and influences – that contribute to the outcome. By examining these elements students will understand the economic tools of diplomacy and power, and how to wield them. The course concludes with a close look at China's growing role in the world economy and considers how that will change China's role in world affairs. Enrollment limited to 20 Juniors & Seniors. Priority given to IR seniors.

IAPA 1806C. Information Technology and Governance.

The use of information and technology in governance is a vexed subject. Civil society clamors for release of information about the state (openness) while the State wants more information about its citizens (surveillance). Technology plays a role in amplifying these respective intentions resulting in an unprecedented gathering and release of information, thereby bringing the issue of information, technology and its role in governance to sharp focus. This course provides an intensive introduction to the field of information technology and global development. Enrollment limited to 20. Preference given to DS juniors and Seniors.

IAPA 1807. Gendered States.

Catherine MacKinnon once said “feminism has no theory of the state.” She could also have said “scholars of the state have no theory of feminism.” Thankfully times have changed. In this class, we will aim to understand why we need to think about states when we study gender, and why we need to think about gender when we study states. What does the pattern of gender inequality in social life (how bodies are classified and made unequal, what kinds of bodies command political power, what kinds of work people do and how well they are compensated for their labors, the punishments they receive when they violate the law, etc.) have to do with the way states govern? How and why are states gendered entities? How does state power reflect assumptions about masculinity and femininity and exacerbate or attenuate gendered differences?

IAPA 1807A. International Journalism: Foreign Reporting in Practice.

This seminar gives students direct experience with the job of being a foreign correspondent. Classes focus on two themes: the practice of international journalism and the history and contemporary reality of Costa Rica. Our semester culminates with a reporting trip to Costa Rica during spring break. The seminar is valuable to students interested in the possibility of a career in international journalism and those who are not pursuing a career in journalism but want to learn journalistic skills. Limited to Jrs and Srs. Priority given to IR seniors.

IAPA 1807C. Individual Research Project.

Section numbers vary by instructor.
Required: A completed proposal form and syllabus and faculty sponsor's and concentration advisor's approval prior to registering.

IAPA 1808A. Risk, Regulation and the Comparative Politics of Finance.

The course introduces students to the comparative history of finance as well as to alternative theories of regulation. It thereby develops students’ ability to compare the role played by financial institutions in different historical periods and national contexts. This comparative perspective puts the recent financial crisis into a broader perspective, allowing students to see the structural as well as more proximate causes of recent financial instability in the industrialized democracies. Enrollment limited to 20 juniors and seniors. Priority given to IR, DS, and Public Policy seniors.

IAPA 1808C. Thesis Writing in Development Studies.

An integrative seminar designed for concentrators working on senior theses. Others with comparable backgrounds may enroll with written permission. Begins with a review of theoretical and methodological literature on development studies. Written and oral presentations of thesis research will be the central focus of the latter part of the course. Reserved for Development Studies seniors.

IAPA 1809A. The International Politics of Organized Crime.

Organized crime and extra-legal actors have established themselves as political actors in every region of the world. Violence has exploded in countries as criminal organizations compete with each other, the state, as well as a variety of other non-state armed groups for control of illicit markets, local dominance, and political influence. This course offers a broad understanding of these organizations, their origins, and the various illegal and violent activities in which they are engaged. This course is comparative and interdisciplinary in nature, drawing from research in criminology, sociology, anthropology, economics, and political science. Limited to Jrs, Srs. Priority to IR seniors.

IAPA 1810. Democratization and Autocratization.

Since the 1970s studies of democratization have shifted from a "global resurgence of democracy" to an "authoritarian resurgence." This course covers the conceptual tools for understanding these developments. We pay particular attention to the assumptions, biases, knowledge structures, and inferences produced by language and imagery--e.g., oilfields and greenhouses, pendulums and waves, pacts and backsliding--in our understanding of new and emerging threats to democracies across the globe. Includes single case, cross-national comparisons, and big data set studies. IAPA Capstone/Sr Seminar

IAPA 1810A. Perspectives in Human Capital: Investing in Women as a Strategy for Global Growth.

In this course, we ask and answer the questions: What are women’s issues around the world? What policies and programs are designed to engage the issues and improve outcomes? What role does and can the private sector play in harnessing the untapped potential of 50% of the globe’s population? Is there evidence to support the need for investment—of resources, focus, and political capital—and to quantify the results of its impact? Enrollment limited to juniors and seniors. Priority given to IR seniors.

IAPA 1811. Contemporary Digital Policy and Politics.

This course will examine the politics and processes for making policies related to the internet and digital policy issues. We will examine current issues at the national level, including the White House and federal agencies, Congress, international institutions and industry on issues such as privacy and information security, and on debates like whether and how to regulate Big Tech. Topics covered include the creation of national policies at the White House, the regulatory process, legislation, standards, global implications and the politics of technological change.
Format and participation: The course is a seminar with in-person and online sections meeting synchronously. Attendance at the weekly session (either in person or via Zoom) is required.

IAPA 1811A. Humanitarianism in Uniform.

The goal of this senior seminar is to explore the relationship between militarism and humanitarianism. When the US Army and Marine Corps released the Counterinsurgency Field Manual in 2006, military officials referred to NGOs as ‘force multipliers’ and soldiers as ‘armed social workers.’ In this course, we will develop a framework to understand military humanitarianism. We will also examine how military humanitarianism exceeds the contemporary geography of terrorism, investigating cases in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Enrollment limited to 20. Preference given to IR juniors, seniors.

IAPA 1812A. Bilateral and Multilateral Policy and Diplomacy.

This course examines the practice and profession of diplomacy and its relationship to the policy process. Focus will be on bilateral and multilateral diplomacy; while the practice will focus on a U.S. context, the lessons learned apply to other nation states. We review history of inter-state relations, including international legal basis for diplomatic relations. The practice has evolved over the years; however, it continues to incorporate such common functions as policy formulation, representation, reporting, negotiation, intercultural contacts and interaction with the media, parliamentary bodies and other external actors. Limited to 20 juniors, seniors. Priority given to IR seniors.

IAPA 1813A. Revolutions that Changed the World.

The Bolshevik and Chinese Communist Party revolutions significantly changed the world. Studying the two revolutions helps us understand Russia’s and China’s contemporary roles. Alongside the framework of sociology of revolution, this course compares the two historical processes over their ideology, leadership, repression, international opening, mobilization, strategy, and outcome. Students will not only learn detailed historical knowledge of the two movements, but also master general perspective to understand how revolution occurs, succeeds, and changes society. Limited to Jrs and Srs. Priority to IR Srs.

IAPA 1814A. Roots of Crisis in Central America.

The five countries of Central America comprise a comparatively little-studied region. From time to time they burst into the world’s consciousness, usually because of political upheaval, foreign intervention, or refugee flows. The forces that set off these crises are rarely explored. This seminar surveys and analyzes Central America from social, cultural, political, and historical perspectives.

IAPA 1815A. Computers, Freedom and Privacy: Current Topics in Law and Policy.

This course puts into context arcane debates about surveillance, privacy and cyber conflict, explaining and critiquing arguments put forward by and intelligence officials, civil liberties and privacy advocates, and companies. Double-listed with CSCI 1951F. Enrollment limited to 10 IR seniors and juniors.

IAPA 1816A. Senior Honors Seminar.

Open only to Senior students accepted into the honors program in international relations. Instructor permission required.

IAPA 1817A. Senior Honors Thesis.

Open only to Senior students accepted into the honors program. Instructor permission required. This course is the second of the two required courses for students writing a thesis in International and Public Affairs, Development Studies, International Relations, or Public Policy. It is taught as an independent study.

IAPA 1818A. Individual Research Project.

Limited to students doing independent study work for Development Studies, International and Public Affairs, International Relations, or Public Policy. Banner overrides will be given by the Undergraduate Concentrations Manager.

IAPA 1820. Brown in Washington, D.C. Practicum.

This course is a required 2-credit course for students participating in the Brown in Washington, D.C. program. The course is centered around a challenging 20-25 hour/week internship in a public-sector or not-for-profit organization in Washington, D.C., which provides an immersive experiential learning opportunity at an organization or agency involved in the public policy process. Seminar sessions, workshops, field trips, and reading and writing assignments enable students to reflect on their internship experiences, contextualize their work and organization within the broader DC policy environment, and develop academic and professional skills.

IAPA 1821. The New National Security: Transnational and Cross-Border Issues.

The objective of the class is to encourage a new understanding of the complexities of national security. The traditional paradigm of players, approaches, influences, and desired outcomes, no longer accommodates the corpus of transnational and cross-border issues that crosscut every policy decision in today’s world. Gender, climate, health, technology, food security, and other “non-traditional” security issues must shape the way we look at security, stability and just governance both as a sovereign nation and as a global actor. This course is part of the Brown in DC program.

IAPA 1821M. War in Film and Literature.

This course introduces students to a study of warfare, and some of the central issues raised in war, through the use of movies and novels. Central themes include civil-military relations, leadership, the role of women in war, managing the homefront as well as issues related to battlefield tactics and strategy. Students will be encouraged to address these topics in applications related to World War I, World War II, and Vietnam in particular. This course will take place in a seminar format which stresses discussion of the relevant materials. Enrollment limited to 19 juniors and seniors.

IAPA 1821P. Political Psychology of International Relations.

This course covers basic methods and theories in the use of political psychology to study topics in international relations. The second part of the course applies these models to particular topics, including leadership, group dynamics, and the role of emotion in decision making.

IAPA 1822. Social Policy and Social Justice: Contestation and Compromise.

This seminar is for students in the Brown in Washington, DC program. This seminar is designed to allow interdisciplinary examination of domestic politics and policy, and of the relationship of scholarship to public engagement and governance, by focusing on enduring questions of social justice and their expression in contemporary social policy. Issues to explore include poverty, inequality, freedom, rights, race, gender, community, class, citizenship, paternalism, and the roles of government (federal, state and local), markets, capital, labor, philanthropy, and voluntary organizations. Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate level students participating in the Brown in Washington Program.

IAPA 1850. Senior Honors Seminar.

An advanced two-semester research seminar for senior honors candidates in the public policy and American institutions concentration. Participants jointly consider strategies appropriate to researching and writing a senior paper before proceeding to individual research on topics they choose. Each participant is required to present a summary of his or her work to the colloquium.

IAPA 1851. Senior Honors Thesis.

See Senior Honors Seminar (IAPA 1850) for course description.

IAPA 1852. Individual Research Project.

Supervised reading or research. Specific program arranged in terms of the student's individual needs and interests. Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.

IAPA 2000A. Theory and Research in Development I.

Explores a range of substantive debates in development by drawing on empirical and theoretical work from the disciplines of economics, political science, sociology and anthropology. The course aims to provide students with a broad understanding of current debates and research on development, evaluate both the differences and complementarities in disciplinary perspectives and develop a toolkit of interdisciplinary analytic skills that can be applied to concrete research questions.

IAPA 2010. Theory and Research in Development II.

Explores a range of substantive debates in development by drawing on empirical and theoretical work from the disciplines of economics, political science, sociology and anthropology. The course aims to provide students with a broad understanding of current debates and research on development, evaluate both the differences and complementarities in disciplinary perspectives and develop a toolkit of interdisciplinary analytic skills that can be applied to concrete research questions.

MPA 2015. Public Policy Advocacy and Strategic Communication.

Teaches students advocacy and communication skills for social change and examines how individuals and organizations frame issues to effect change. This course provides students with information and insights about public policy advocacy and strategic communication: how effective messages are created and framed, why we respond to messages the way we do, and how to employ advocacy and communications strategies to advance political and public policy goals.

MPA 2020. Public Budgeting and Management.

This course is designed to teach the political, theoretical and administrative aspects of contemporary public budgeting and management in the United States. You will examine the central role of budgeting in policy formulation and implementation and come to an understanding of the budget as a statement of competing for political priorities. In addition, the various roles of key institutions in the budgeting process will be studied.

MPA 2035. Statistics II for Public Policy Analysis.

The course introduces students to the use of multiple regression analysis and causal inference for analyzing data in the social sciences. We will study a variety of designs for empirical public policy analysis, from random assignment to quasi-experimental evaluation methods, and students will have the opportunity to analyze actual datasets. We will also study the strengths and weaknesses of various causal inference strategies.

Please note that students must be present at the first class meeting in order to be have the option to enroll in this course. They must have downloaded Stata 14 (available free of charge through software.brown.edu) and picked up and registered their iClicker on Canvas (see syllabus for details). Because the class meets once per week and the first assignment will be distributed during the first class, we will be launching directly into substantive material for the course. Week one/meeting one is not only an introduction. It is therefore essential that all students attend beginning from the first class meeting.

MPA 2040. Statistics for Program Evaluation.

Broad overview of public policy analysis and program evaluation with emphasis on methodological issues involved in the analysis and assessment of government programs. Illustrations are drawn from a variety of substantive policy areas.

MPA 2055. The Politics of Policymaking in Comparative Perspective.

This course provides concepts and tools for thinking critically about the political context in which policy is made and implemented. The course examines the underlying ideas, interests, and historical legacies that make politics and policymaking distinctive in different countries and governmental systems. It aims to supply a simple but flexible conceptual toolbox that enables students to define policy challenges as they take shape, propose programs and implement policies that can work in various settings.

MPA 2065. Introduction to Data Science and Programming.

We live in the era of data-driven decision making in all aspects of our lives. The features on your iPhone, the images in an ad campaign, even the background colors on many websites are all carefully tested and chosen against their measurable impact on customer satisfaction, purchasing, clicks, or some other goal. In this course, we will be learning to use and apply those same principles to public policy and government programs. Our goal is to equip MPA students with the tools required to set up experiments, gather data, and begin to evaluate and design public policy and government programs.

MPA 2066. Introduction to Statistical Machine Learning.

This course is a highly applied introduction to statistical machine learning. In particular, the key aim of this course is to give students the knowledge and tools to incorporate statistical machine learning methods to answer policy-related research questions. This course will also explore the philosophical differences that exist between traditional methods of statistical inference and the more recent statistical machine learning methods. Finally, throughout this course, we will emphasize the importance of reproducibility in science.

MPA 2140. Politics, Public Policy, and Economic Development in Asia.

It is widely accepted that development is not simply an economic phenomenon. Political processes are intimately tied up with economic development. We will compare and contract the various Asian countries and models of development around themes identified above. The heaviest emphasis will be on China, India and South Korea. Economic policy will be the center of our discussion.

MPA 2160. Management and Implementation in Public and Non-Profit Organizations.

How and when can organizational leaders and staff become engines of policy and social change? How do the policies that elected officials, courts, and bureaucrats promulgate get put into practice? What affects whether those policies get put into practice? What affects whether those policies produce expected changes? This course is designed to help students identify and manage core challenges facing policy development, implementation, and sustainment in public organizations.

MPA 2222. Introduction to Health Policy.

The United States health care system is responsible for delivering high-quality care to millions of people. It is also a major and growing part of the national economy, employing many workers while commanding an ever-growing share of government budgets and employee paychecks. For decades, Americans have debated the best ways to reform the system to get better care for more people for the same or lower spending levels. This course will focus on developing a strong understanding of the system’s dynamics as well as its players, both government and private so that students will be able to develop policy recommendations for how these players can best work toward their goals.

MPA 2224. Race, Policy and Politics of Asian Americans.

Examination of the historical and contemporary political experiences of Asian Americans and how policy systems shaped their pursuit of immigration, equality, citizenship, political identity, racial justice, cross-racial/ethnic coalition-building, and incorporation into the U.S. political system. The course will also explore the effectiveness of the “pan-ethnic” identity in contemporary US politics.

MPA 2225. Climate Diplomacy and International Negotiations.

Building on the Paris agreement, adopted in 2015, this course aims at enhancing the participants' understanding of the global climate change framework in international relations. It will give students the tools to navigate climate COPs and beyond, building on the theoretical basis in science, history, and international relations, putting in practice the art of negotiations in the context of climate governance, and attempting to honestly address possible ways forward.

MPA 2226. Race and Public Policy.

Race and Public Policy is an advanced course about racial bias in U.S. public policy, and the effects of that bias on both practitioners and subjects of public agency activities. You will learn about the process of policy formation and review several important critiques of conventional policy analysis. Substantively, we focus on three key areas: education policy, environmental justice, and police-community relations. During the semester you will engage in small- and large-group discussions, complete two research assignments, and prepare a final “Race and Policy Project” on a subject of your choosing. Regular attendance, active class participation, and extensive reading are expected.

MPA 2227. Dismantling Global Racism:Getting inspired by resilient local communities from around the world.

This course examines the nature and impacts of racism with a global approach. Building on the experiences of resilient post-conflict local communities around the world and on the theories and practices of Transitional Justice, we will explore tools and frameworks to innovate and efficiently dismantle racism in organizations, communities, and societies. Adopting a comparative approach, we will study materials and examples of successful antiracist initiatives coming from Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and mobilize diverse academic fields: political sciences, history, genocide studies, psychology, sociology, literature, and cinema. We will articulate our understanding of racial domination and develop approaches to dismantle it with the other forms of oppression.

MPA 2228. Communication on the Political and Global Stage.

Students may or may not go into government, politics, or other forms of public service, but wherever they go and whatever they do, including as global citizens, they will consume news and may shape the contours of public debate by their own participation or decision not to participate. Certainly, all will be affected by it. This course seeks to answer the question from the unique perspective of public communicators: how do we communicate issues and messages on the public stage, to insiders and outsiders, whether domestically or in the world?
The objective of the class is not just to encourage a new understanding of the complexities of public communication, but to learn how to bring those skills to whatever vocation and career path you may choose.

MPA 2229. Principles and Practices of Stakeholder Engagement.

This class will introduce you to various types of policy stakeholders, from executives to the mass public. You will identify those actors, the combination of authorities, powers, interests, and constraints each one possesses. This framework for viewing stakeholders will enable you to strategize about how to engage different actors when and where they intervene in the policy process. As a policymaker, analyst, or advocate, you will have to contend with stakeholders that possess formal authorities to shape the policy process. These stakeholders will determine whether the problems that concern you reach the agenda; whether your preferred solution is adopted; how that policy solution is implemented; whether it diffuses from one political venue to another; and whether the policy endures, or reshapes politics, succumbs to termination or reform. We will catalog those authorities and powers and observe how they apply in real policy situations.

MPA 2230. Issues for Future Diplomats.

To prepare students to advocate in this world, we have designed a course with twelve exercises, each involving an issue, a new challenge, and an activity to hone their skills. In each session, the exercise will require practical skills (like speaking, concise writing, and information gathering) and outreach efforts to influence, negotiate and advocate. Students will carry out these exercises individually and in small groups. The goal of the course is to introduce students to some of the issues and practices that will prevail as they seek to influence governments and societies for whatever cause or the entity they represent. By looking at how to shape and influence the new economy, new global problems, new finance, and new dangers students will gain an understanding for engagement in future world affairs.

MPA 2231. Activating Change for Climate & Sustainability.

Taking the class as a metaphor of the outside world, we will explore and propose our own respective path(s) for climate policy while focusing on the class’s individual and collective willingness to act. While the topic of the class is climate policy, the primary material of our work will be yourself, as a participant of this collective effort.

MPA 2445. Policy Analysis and Problem Solving.

This course introduces students to concepts and tools relevant to making public decisions informed by social values. It equips students to define problems and to systematically develop and compare policy options available to public actors. In short, the course teaches students to “think like a policy analyst” and reason in the public interest. In addition, the course is attentive to the political and institutional context in which policy decisions are made.

MPA 2450. Economics of Government Intervention.

This course considers the cases for and implications of government intervention in the economy. When is government intervention desirable? Why is it desirable? What are its consequences?

MPA 2451. Exchange Scholar Program.

MPA 2455. Statistics for Public Policy.

Covers social and economic statistics and their role in public policy research. Among the topics explored are descriptive and inferential statistics, measurement, sampling, and multivariate analysis.

MPA 2460. Economics for Public Policy.

Examines issues in government spending and tax policy. Conceptual topics include the normative assignment of responsibility with federal systems and the equitable distribution of income. Specific policy applications are covered.

MPA 2465. Financial Management For Public, Health, and Not-for-Profit Organizations.

This course focuses on financial aspects of not-for-profit organizations. The objectives of this course include helping students (1) learn the basics of not-for-profit accounting and the construction of their financial reports, (2) become more intelligent users of the financial statements of nonprofit organizations such as private colleges, hospitals, charities, and cultural institutions and (3) better understand the factors that affect the financial condition and financial performance of such entities.

MPA 2475. Policy Problems of the 21st Century.

This course provides a forward-looking analysis of public policy and inequality. By the end of this course you will be able to: Analyze how advocates and policymakers use data to frame policy problems Evaluate how stakeholders at the state and local levels have sought to address inequality Through class participation and exercises, you will also practice several applied skills that good policymakers use and develop¬¬ throughout their careers: Using descriptive data to frame a context and a policy problem Breaking down a complex social and political problem into its components Defining policy tasks in terms that recognize the relevant constituencies (“stakeholders”) and assess political feasibility. Gain experience in public-facing writing, including issue briefs and op-eds.

MPA 2545. An Introduction to Public Finance in Multilevel Democracies.

This course will introduce students to the fundamental political, institutional, and technical issues associated with sub-national governance and public finance reform multilevel democracies. The course requires no prior experience with either intergovernmental finance or fiscal issues. Its central purpose is to explore how politics and policy shape the way responsibility for regulating, financing, and managing public services get defined and divvied up between levels of government in both federal and unitary states.

MPA 2555. Environmental Policy, From the Ground Up.

The seminar will examine selected environmental issues at local, national and international (especially Global South) levels which are at the center of widespread public concern. We will give critical consideration to some of the key ideas, concepts, discourses and approaches underlying public solutions to those concerns. The seminar will draw on literature and concepts from the fields of public policy and administration, science and technology studies, feminist theory, Africana Studies, and indigenous knowledge systems, as well as on practitioners’ knowledge.

MPA 2601. Envisioning and Building Prosperous, Inclusive Communities.

Great communities do not happen by accident. Great communities take vision, thoughtful planning, participation and an inclusive civic engagement plan. The top communities in our country engage diverse leaders, acknowledge the complex and inextricable tie between community and economic development, are accountable – measuring their progress, and are fiercely competitive. This course will focus on the planning, creation, and implementation of successful community development plans from across the country. Specific topics that will be covered include: Collective Impact, the utilization of data, the role of sustainability, health, education, art, transportation, and parks, evaluation methodology, communication, and working with local governments.

MPA 2602. Poverty, Redistribution, and the Future of Work.

A changing economy is providing fewer paths to a middleclass existence. Worldwide, absolute poverty has declined, , yet most people around the globe still subsist on living standards most Americans would consider to be near-poverty levels. What can be done? Is it true that the poor we shall have with us always? Are governmental actions, economic evolution, or technological changes the cause – or the cure? We will be particularly interested in the future: Will jobs still exist, what will they look like, and what will that mean for the structure and distribution of wealth and income?

MPA 2603. Leading for Impact.

Students in Leading for Impact will explore multiple leadership paradoxes such as: in every context, people are both more connected than ever—mostly digitally—and at the same time more socially and politically polarized, and lonely, than ever. Engaging with the concepts of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in an authentic and vulnerable way is critical for leaders. Creating impact requires a thorough understanding of the problem at hand. A common mistake policy-makers, politicians, executives, or social business founders make is to address the problem they want to tackle as if it were “technical” i.e. only requiring expertise and appropriate tools. However, wicked problems have “adaptive” aspects: their root causes and their impact have to do with people’s beliefs, values, habits, or behaviors. Leaders need to use Emotional Intelligence to leverage their own strengths as well as the conditions that enable success,

MPA 2604. The Corporation and Public Policy.

This course examines corporations as instruments of government policy and as significant policy setters in their own right. Rather than taking a fixed viewpoint about the proper location of executive authority, the course will examine the changing boundaries of private and public decision-making. Through selected readings paired with case studies, the course investigates a range of critical policy problems: the underlying purpose of corporate organization; climate change and environmental sustainability; consumer safety in the gig economy; labor standards in transnational supply chains; corporate responsibility and health in developing regions.

MPA 2605. Translating Evidence into Economic Policy.

The objective of this course is, precisely, to offer those insights to students interested in a career in policymaking by providing case studies of the most important and challenging policy questions of our lifetimes. By the end of the course, students will have deepened their understanding of the most important policy challenges from an array of different policy questions and studying the evidence around them, with a special focus on quantitative methods useful to analyze those questions.

MPA 2606. Public Policy and Politics in Partisan Times.

This course explores the causes and consequences of partisan polarization, focusing on the impact of polarization on the development and implementation of American national policy. The course examines both historical and contemporary examples of successful and unsuccessful policy-making in such a climate, as well as the role of effective leadership and political entrepreneurship in the promotion of policy that can build wide support and overcome the barriers to adoption.

MPA 2675. Science and Technology Policy in the Global South.

Using both theoretical ideas and empirical examples, this seminar will explore the relationships among science, technology, society, and public policymaking in the Global South, in places where local science and global science often collaborate and sometimes clash. The class will investigate, from a variety of perspectives, how the governance of science and technology in various parts of the Global South is influenced by their past experiences, forms of public science organization, systems of knowledge, civic epistemologies and regulatory frameworks and strategic agendas for development, as well as the knowledge claims and concerns of social movements, and tensions in power and social relations.

MPA 2710. GIS and Public Policy.

This seminar presents an introduction to the theory and practice of social science Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as applied to public policy analysis. We will cover a variety of topics, such as the geographical basis of policy issues, spatial mapping, and use of ArcGIS software to study a wide range of policy issues. The course will involve discussions, hands-on computer laboratory exercises, take-home problem sets and a Practical Exam.
The goals of the class are: 1) learning how to use GIS software and techniques, 2) database development and editing 3) spatial modeling techniques, and 4) using GIS to study policy issues.

MPA 2715. Education Governance in Comparative Perspective.

This course will examine some of the governance issues associated with these trends by pairing critical readings with case studies. We will begin by surveying the historical relationship between how education gets defined as a public good, and systems of finance and governance. We will then examine the very particular trajectory of school governance and finance in America.

Course Goals: Robust understanding of how the competing, and hard-to-measure objectives (e.g. civic virtue, economic competitiveness, equal opportunity, personal growth) that people invest in schooling shape how education is defined as public good, and how it is governed and finance.

MPA 2725. Smart Policy.

The purpose of this course is two-fold. Students will read, analyze and understand the current research literature in the behavioral economics of policy reform. Second, they will continue themes and projects started in the RIIPL Smart Policy Consultancies, and use data collected as well as the RIIPL database to design a Smart Policy Innovation and a test of that innovation. Smart Policy Innovations will be considered for the RIIPL Smart Policy Fellowship for 2016-2017.

MPA 2730. The Political Economy of Hard Policy Problems.

This class tackles the “hard problems” of public policy. While governments are cajoled and enjoined to produce economic growth, do something about economic inequality and social mobility, and improve the life chances of millions through purposive action, actually delivering in these areas of policy is incredibly hard. These areas constitute ‘“hard problems” for policy for two main reasons. Economically, we don’t have much of a clue about how to do many of these things. Politically, there are powerful interests and entrenched ideas that like these areas of policy just as they are and work hard to keep them “hard problems.”

MPA 2735. Women and Nations.

See the linkage between the security and situation of women and the security and situation of the nations in which they live. Understand the roles women play in world society as producers, reproducers, agents of cultural continuity and change, and to render women "visible" in international and national affairs. Explore in greater depth women's choices about education, family, and work in the developing world, and how these affect and are affected by national and international forces and influences.

MPA 2765. System Dynamics: Policy Analysis for a Complex World.

The course studies why so many public policy problems are challenging and often lead to disappointing results or outright failure. Students learn to conceptualize a social problem as a set of structures and policies that create dynamics and govern performance. The course introduces the tools of system dynamics for modeling and analyzing public policy. Using role playing games, simulation models, and management flight simulators, we develop insights essential to managing in a world characterized by dynamic complexity. Case studies include applications of system dynamics in healthcare, environmental policy, project management, and implementation of improvement programs.

MPA 2772. Disaster, Displacement and Response: A Practitioner, People-Focused Lens on Urban Policy & Practice.

Applying a practitioner's view and working from scenarios will allow students to examine practical elements of delivery as well as the complexities of coordination in an emergent arena. This class will create both empathy and urgency - fueled by stories the class can explore together. The aim is to examine commonalities in the experiences of displaced people with respect to how cities respond across the world and to create a people-centered lens for examining effective responses.

Assignments will focus on creating convincing presentations – making a case for what works and what cities may learn from one another.

MPA 2775. U.S. Foreign Policy: The Institutional Basis.

This course will examine the institutions that influence American foreign and development policy. Institutions provide the organizational framework, rules and social structures that in turn impact on the policy positions of those who are part of them. The agencies and bureaus that make up the national security cluster have both professional expertise and bureaucratic qualities. We will delve deeply into these entities to understand better their jurisdictional authorities and professional perspectives. We will use case studies and roll playing exercises to enhance understanding of these orientations and their impact on the policy process.

MPA 2800. Policy in Action Project.

The Policy in Action experience is designed to provide a rigorous and practical immersion in dealing with a real policy issue in a domestic or global community-based or institutional setting. The course focuses on experiential learning and creative problem-solving. Teams of students address real-world, complex, contemporary problems, explore policy and practice-based solutions, identify strategies for addressing feasibility concerns, and recommend future approaches to external partner organizations. Students conduct research to understand contemporary problems and issues and develop policy and practice-related solutions to address these issues and/or enhance an organization’s capacity.

MPA 2981. Independent Graduate Study.

This is an independent study course for the MPA program.