GLOBAL CONTEXT OF
POLICYMAKING
Dr. Naomi Weinberger
Columbia University U6237
Summer 2015
Tuesdays 6:30 – 9:30 p.m.
Office Hours: by appointment
E-mail:njw9@columbia.edu
Website: www.naomiweinberger.com
Twitter: @naomiprof
Course Assistant: Jean Suhas
E-mail: js4578@columbia.edu
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course asks how systematic global cooperation can help meet global challenges. The readings,
discussions, and guest speakers address many debates over the prospects for global governance.
Special attention is given to the role of international institutions, including the United Nations,
regional organizations, and international financial institutions. Pressing security issues are discussed,
including terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, and prospects for peacebuilding in war-torn
societies. Attention then turns to global policies on investment and trade, combating poverty, and
sustainable development.
The format of the class is a combination of open-ended lectures and interactive discussions of
assigned readings. Each week, students discuss and debate 4 assigned articles that offer differing
interpretations of the global issue covered in the session. Guest speakers lead off the discussion with
insights gained from practical engagement or in-depth research.
Assigned readings are carefully selected to convey of a range of opinions on controversial themes.
Restricting the syllabus to several readings per week cannot do justice to the complexity of each
topic. However, a realistic reading assignment enables students to fulfill this requirement diligently,
and you are expected to do so. Supplementary sources will be suggested, to encourage exploration of
specific topics in greater depth.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Rigorous standards of academic integrity are enforced in this course. All written assignments will be
scrutinized on turnitin.com to verify original authorship. Any written assignment submitted with
evidence of plagiarism will receive a grade of zero.
REQUIREMENTS
A. ATTENDANCE & PARTICIPATION [20% of grade]
 ATTENDANCE: Students are expected to attend class regularly [10 points]:
o A student who misses 4 sessions (other than for health or family emergencies) will earn an
attendance score of zero.
o One point will be deducted for each unexcused absence (up to 3). Although work-related
absences are sometimes inevitable, they are nonetheless considered to be “unexcused.”
 PARTICIPATION: Students are encouraged to participate actively in class discussion. [10 points]:
o Each student is required to submit two critical questions, derived from two different articles, by
Monday evening every week.
o A student who submits questions every week will automatically earn a score of 6 for
participation. Additional credit (up to 10 points) reflects quality of class participation, such as
thoughtful and knowledgeable insights into readings.
o One point will be deducted for any week in which questions are not submitted. If you are
obliged to miss a class session, please make sure to post the questions on the assigned
readings anyway. Otherwise, you will lose an additional point for not doing so.
B. TAKE-HOME MIDTERM [30% of grade]: Due June 13
The take-home midterm will consist of two questions, each of which is based on critical analysis of a quote
from one of the assigned readings. You will select any two topics from a distributed list of 3 or 4 options and
write up to one thousand words (approximately three pages) on each topic. The key to doing well on the essay
is to make a convincing argument and to demonstrate that you have done the relevant assigned readings and
considered them critically. Please submit your essays into your dropbox on Courseworks, and bring a hard copy
to class. There is a penalty for lateness, and no essay will be accepted 10 days after the deadline.
C. TAKE-HOME FINAL EXAM [40% of grade]: Due July 10
There will be a take-home final due on the Monday before the 9th class session. The final exam consists of two
essays, covering all of the material in the course but emphasizing the material after the midterm. You will select
any two topics from a distributed list of 3 or 4 options and write up to one thousand words (approximately
three pages) on each topic. There is a penalty for lateness, and no exam will be accepted 10 days after the
deadline.
D. CLIMATE CHANGE SIMULATION GAME (Session 9): [10% of grade]
The last session of class will be dedicated to a simulation game on climate change. The goal will be to negotiate
a follow-up agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. Each student will prepare a position paper in advance and will
enter into negotiations with the other players during a structured negotiating exercise. Detailed guidelines will
be provided.
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REQUIRED READINGS: COURSEWORKS
A. ASSIGNED ARTICLES
PDF’s for most of the readings are available on the Courseworks website (under Files and Resources) for
students to download. Readings that are derived from books will be scanned and posted.
B. SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS
This course covers such a wide range of issues that no student can be familiar with all of them. Supplementary
sources will be posted regularly in case you wish to broaden your knowledge, and to help you in researching
topics for the midterm and final exams.
TOPICS AND READINGS
Week 1 (5/12): America and the World
Amitav Acharya. End of America’s World Order. 2014. Chapters 1&4.
Stephen Sestanovich. Maximalist : America in the World from Truman to Obama . Prologue, Chapter 12 &
Epilogue.
Robert E. Kelly. “The ‘Pivot’ and Its Problems: American Foreign Policy in Northeast Asia.” The
Pacific Review 0.0 (0): 1–25.
Alan J. Kuperman. “Obama’s Libya Debacle.” Foreign Affairs 94.2 (2015): 66–77.
Week 2: (5/19): Multilateralism & Global Governance
Stewart Patrick. “The Unruled World: The Case for Good Enough Global Governance.” Foreign
Affairs 93.1 (2014): 58–73.
Matthias Matthijs and R. Daniel Kelemen, “Europe Reborn: How to Save the European Union from
Irrelevance.” Foreign Affairs (January/February 2015).
Laura Gómez-Mera, “International Regime Complexity and Regional Governance: Evidence from
the Americas.” Global Governance 21.1 (Jan.-Mar. 2015): 19-42
Peter Chalk. “ASEAN Ascending: Achieving ‘Centrality’ in the Emerging Asian Order.” ASPI. 16
Mar. 2015.
Week 3: (5/26): Counterterrorism
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Paul Rogers, “Lost Cause: Consequences and Implications of the War on Terror.” Critical Studies on
Terrorism 6:1 (2013): 13-28.
Michael J. Boyle. “Is the US Drone War Effective?” Current History 113.762 (2014): 137–143.
Oldrich Bures. “Public-Private Partnerships in the Fight against Terrorism?” Crime, Law and Social
Change 60.4 (2013): 429–455.
Hussein Solomon. “The African State and the Failure of US Counter-Terrorism Initiatives in Africa:
The Cases of Nigeria and Mali.” South African Journal of International Affairs 20.3 (2013): 427–445.
Week 4: (6/2): Curbing Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs)
James E. Doyle, “Why Eliminate Nuclear Weapons?” Survival 55:1 (Feb/Mar 2013): 7-34.
Michael Cohen, “How Nuclear South Asia Is Like Cold War Europe.” The Nonproliferation Review 20.3
(2013): 433–451.
Robert Litwak, “Iran’s Nuclear Chess.” Wilson Center, April 2015, pp. 49-82.
David Friedman, “Biological and Chemical Weapons Arms Control in the Middle East: Challenges
and Opportunities for a WMD-Free Zone.” The Nonproliferation Review 19.3 (2012): 401–411.
Week 5: (6/9): Peace Operations
Roland Paris. The ‘Responsibility to Protect’ and the Structural Problems of Preventive
Humanitarian Intervention, International Peacekeeping, 21:5 (2014), 569-603.
Rebecca Hamilton, “Fighting for Darfur.” Palgrave, 2011. Chapters 2, 6, 8, 14.
Oliver Richmond and Ioannis Tellidis, “Emerging Actors in International Peacebuilding and
Statebuilding: Status Quo or Critical States?” Global Governance 20.4 (2014): 563-584.
Nicolas Lemay-Hébert. “Resistance in the Time of Cholera: The Limits of Stabilization through
Securitization in Haiti,” International Peacekeeping, 21:2 (2014), 198-213.
 MIDTERM: Distributed May 26; Due June 12
Week 6 (6/16): International Criminal Justice
Mireille Delmas-Marty, “Ambiguities and Lacunae: The International Criminal Court Ten Years on.”
Journal of International Criminal Justice 11.4 (2013): 553–561.
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Sabine Hohn. “New Start or False Start? The ICC and Electoral Violence in Kenya.” Development and
Change 45.3 (2014): 565–588.
John Dugard. “Palestine and the International Criminal Court Institutional Failure or Bias?” Journal of
International Criminal Justice 11.4 (2013): 563–570.
Francesca Lessa et al. “Overcoming Impunity: Pathways to Accountability in Latin America.”
International Journal of Transitional Justice 8.1 (2014): 75–98.
Week 7 (6/23): Capacity Building
Joseph Stiglitz, The Great Divide (Norton, 2015) pp. 307-371 [“Regional Perspectives”]
Andrea Cornwall and Althea-Maria Rivas. “From ‘Gender Equality and ‘Women’s Empowerment’ to
Global Justice: Reclaiming a Transformative Agenda for Gender and Development.” Third World
Quarterly 36:2 (March 2015): 396-414.
Paolo de Renzio and Jurek Seifert. “South–South Cooperation and the Future of Development
Assistance: Mapping Actors and Options.” Third World Quarterly 35:10 (2014): 1860-1875.
Michael Blowfield & Catherine S. Dolan. “Business as a Development Agent: Evidence of Possibility
and Improbability,” Third World Quarterly, 35:1(2014), 22-42.
Week 8 (7/7): Sustainable Development
Jeffrey Sachs, The Age of Sustainable Development (Columbia University Press, 2015), chapters 1,
12, 14.
Jon Birger Skjaerseth, Guri Bang and Miranda A. Schreurs. “Explaining Growing Climate Policy
Differences Between the European Union and the United States.” Global Environmental Politics
Narasimha Rao, “International and Intranational Equity in Sharing Climate Change Mitigation
Burdens.” International Environmental Agreements : Politics, Law and Economics 14.2 (2014): 129–146.
Christer Jonsson and Kristina Jonsson, “Global and Local Health Governance: Civil Society, Human
Rights and HIV/AIDS.” Third World Quarterly 33.9 (Oct 2012): 1719-1734.
 FINAL EXAM: Distributed June 23; Due July 10
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Week 9 (7/14): SIMULATION GAME: GLOBAL CLIMATE
NEGOTIATIONS
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Preliminary position paper: Due July 6
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