Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the Student Link for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

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  • CAS IR 568: U.S.-Latin American Relations
    Explores both sides of the U.S.-Latin American relationship, tracing its development over time and analyzing its current challenges. Each week focuses on a different theme--including imperialism, intervention, hemispheric security, trade, immigration, and drug trafficking--within a roughly chronological framework. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Critical Thinking
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS IR 571: Global Money
    Introduces analytical framework for understanding the operation of key monetary and financial institutions in the global economy, with particular focus on settlement and liquidity. Examines interface between private and public sphere, and between money view and standard economics and finance.
  • CAS IR 573: Introduction to Public International Law
    Accelerated introduction to the rules, principles, and institutions of public international law. Surveys the basic doctrinal architecture of the field and a number of rapidly developing subfields and controversies.
  • CAS IR 577: Foreign Policy of the People's Republic of China
    Meets with CAS PO 576. Explores China's perception of its role in the world, its evolution from a regional to a world power, and its security and economic relationships within the international system. Relationships with the superpowers, Third World, and world economy, focusing on technology and capital transfers.
  • CAS IR 579: Japan in International Politics
    Meets with CAS PO 552. International and domestic influences on Japan's international behavior in the past as a predictor of Japan's future role in international politics. Covers Japan's role in the Cold War, post-war Asia, and the management of the global economy. Examines viability of post-Cold War U.S.-Japan relationship.
  • CAS IR 581: The Evolution of Strategic Intelligence
    Examines the uses of strategic intelligence by modern world leaders in shaping policy and the effects of intelligence on world events. Various uses of intelligence--collecting information analysis, counterintelligence, and secret operations--are explored with emphasis on the period from the Congress of Vienna to the end of the Cold War.
  • CAS IR 582: Taiwan: Politics and Transformation
    (Meets with CAS PO 553.) Examines Taiwan's history, economic development, ethnic identity, democratization, and its controversial position in international politics as a key to understanding questions of political economy, democratic transition, and East Asian security.
  • CAS IR 583: Strategies of Defense Planning
    It is highly-recommended that students have previously taken a 200 or 300-level IR course. Students who have not met these requirements need instructor approval to take this course. Addresses principles and practices of U.S. defense planning. Investigates how the Department of Defense receives and develops strategic direction, builds military capability and executes operational missions. Examines the requirements, acquisition, and resource allocation process for new weapon systems. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Writing- Intensive Course, Ethical Reasoning.
    • Ethical Reasoning
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS IR 585: Problems and Issues in Post-Mao China
    Meets with CAS PO 549. An in-depth examination of politics in post-Mao China, this course focuses on several critical issues, uses various conceptual frameworks to try to understand why the reform process broke down, and examines prospects for the future.
  • CAS IR 589: North Atlantic/European Security Issues
    Meets with CAS PO 582. Examination of the post Cold War security environment in the North Atlantic and greater European context. Exploration of threats to security, mechanisms in place and emerging (NATO, CSCE, CFE, WEU), and challenges posed by changes since fall 1989.
  • CAS IR 590: Political Economy of Latin America
    (Meets with CAS PO 562.) Historical and contemporary issues in Latin American political economy. Uses case studies and cross-regional comparisons to assess competing explanations. Analyzes the current political and economic situation facing Latin America in its quest for economic growth and development.
  • CAS IR 592: Economic Development and International Institutions
    Examines the role of international institutions in economic development. Analyzes how development- related international institutions makes rules and affect national policy choices. Applies those lessons to concrete policy challenges, including possibilities for institutional reform.
  • CAS IR 593: Technology and Economic Inclusion in the Developing World
    Much of the world's population is "economically excluded," lacking access to essential services and resources, including electricity, credit, drinking water, and internet. Examines how new and existing technologies may be used to expand economic inclusion in the developing world.
  • CAS IR 594: Global Environmental Negotiation and Policy
    Provides an overview of key actors, issues, and treaties in global environmental governance, paying particular attention to historical and contemporary differences in perspectives and interests of industrialized and developing countries. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Social Inquiry II.
    • Ethical Reasoning
    • Social Inquiry II
  • CAS IR 596: Globalization and Contemporary Capitalism in Advanced Industrialized Nations
    Considers the impact of globalization on advanced industrialized nations. Explores global and regional governance of finance, trade, and multinationals. Examines changes in national economic practices in Europe, Asia, and the US, and their effects on jobs, inequality, welfare, and democracy.
  • CAS IR 597: Development and Environment in Latin America
    (Meets with CAS GE 597.) Provides an empirically based understanding of the social and environmental aspects of economic development in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) for purposes of analyzing the numerous trade and development policies that nations in LAC are currently considering.
  • CAS IR 599: Science, Politics, and Climate Change
    Applies a science and technology studies perspective to climate change science and policy, examining efforts to address sources and consequences of climate change at global, national, and local levels. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, Critical Thinking.
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS LC 586: Chinese Literary Translation Workshop
    A 500-level workshop on translating literary works from Chinese to English designed for MFA students and advanced undergraduate students. Discusses strategies for rendering context-dependent and idiomatic expressions, translating different literary genres, and syntactical and stylistic choices for the translator.
  • CAS LE 529: Swahili with a Health Focus 1
    Graduate students in professional health fields are introduced to conversational Swahili with a particular focus on applications in global health settings. Designed for public health students who intend to work internationally or have an interest in a cross-cultural understanding of health.
  • CAS LE 530: Swahili with a Health Focus 2
    Building on CAS LE 529, this course continues to develop a student's conversational Swahili skills in global health settings. Second course in sequence designed for public health students who intend to work internationally or have an interest in a cross-cultural understanding of health.

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