PREREQUISITES
None.
PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE
None.
SUBJECTS TO BE TAKEN SIMULTANEOUSLY
None.
SUBJECT DESCRIPTION
Professor: Òscar Mateos
This course
aims to introduce to students to the nature of Global Governance in the 21st
Century. In a moment of significant uncertainties and increasing
interdependence; where state and inter-state power is changing and new sources
of authority are emerging; where conflict, global health crisis or
environmental degradation are key in current and future international
discussions; and where calls for global and transnational solutions to all
these problems grow louder, the study and understanding of global governance
has acquired an amazing growing attention in the academic field, becoming a
cross-disciplinary, complex and extensive terrain.
In this
sense, the starting point of this course is to underline that global governance
goes beyond the realm of international organizations. Global governance refers,
thus, to the totality of the formal and informal values, norms, procedures,
dynamics and institutions that help all kind of actors (states,
inter-governmental organizations, civil society, social movements,
transnational corporations or individuals) to identify, understand and address
trans-boundary problems (Weiss, 2013).
During the
course, the students will be introduced to the main debates and theoretical discussions
about global governance; they will analyze the main actors –state and
non-state-, mechanisms and dynamics; they will also focus in the main trends
and core issues, such as the humanitarian crisis and security challenges, the
main global health crisis or the environmental problems, among other things;
and they will discuss the relevant idea of global ‘commons’ and global public
goods. In doing so, the student will acquire a broad and deep perspective of a
central topic in International Relations. All in all, global governance will
help the student to summarize and interrelate most of the concepts, debates,
authors and reflections that he/she has been integrating in the last years.
COMPETENCES
Student must be capable to:
- Acquire a systematic understanding of what global
governance is (and it is not).
- Understand
the nature, the complexity and the interdependence of global problems.
- Understand
the different actors –formal and informal- that operate in the world and the
different sources of authority and power.
- Attain a critical
understanding of how different actors have behaved in front of some of the main
global problems the world is facing in the last years.
- Assess the
idea of global ‘commons’ and global public godos and its main limits,
contradictions and challenges.
- Develop the technology skills and use of basic support
and on-line tools to be applied in the field of International Relations.
- Ability to communicate fluently and effectively in the
common languages used in International Relations.
- Ability to apply the Human Rights and democratic values as
well as those of peace in their analysis and reflection on international
affairs.
- Apply the main theories and methodologies of International
Relations in the analysis of the trends and problems of international affairs.
- Ability to acquire professional skills and adapt to the
working trends related to International Relations, by respecting the legal and
political obligations.
- Work
autonomously, with initiative and self-organisation, as the way to reach the
full intellectual development.
These
competences will be evaluated based on the criteria and instruments specified
below.
Students
are expected to achieve the following learning outcomes by the
end of the course:
- Identify and
critically apply the professional profiles derived from the international
action of states.
- Analyze current
forms of governance in the different fields of international relations, and
assess their role against the systems defined by States.
- Isolate and
contextualize the legal consequences of international action of states.
CONTENTS
1.
Global Governance: Introducing and Contextualizing the Debate:
1.1. Understanding Global Governance in the Context of
Globalization.
1.2. Global Governance in Historical Perspective.
1.3. Global Governance and its Critics: Theoretical
Approaches and the Issue of Power.
2.
Actors, Mechanisms and Dynamics of Global Governance:
2.1. States, International Organizations and Networks of
Governance.
2.2. Emerging Non-State Actors in Global Governance.
2.3. Global Civil Society and Networked Social Movements.
3.
Emerging Trends and Core Issues in Global Governance:
3.1. Global
Governance and Global Security.
3.2. Global
Governance and Humanitarian Crisis.
3.3. Global
Governance and Global Health.
3.4. Global
Governance, Environment and Climate Change.
3.5. Global
Advocacy in Global Governance.
4.
Global governance, Global ‘Commons’ and Global Public Goods:
4.1. An Introduction to ‘Commons’ and Global Public Goods.
4.2. Governing and Managing the ‘Commons’ and Global Public
Goods.
4.3. Limits, Contradictions and Challenges to Global
‘Commons’ and Global Public Goods.
5.
Conclusions: What future for Global Governance?.
METHODOLOGY
- Lectures.
- Individual and
group practices: text readings and comments, research, presentations and
debates
- Exam.
EVALUATION
First sitting
- Group presentations (35%)
- Text readings, essays writing and assignments to be completed during the
course (35%)
- A final exam on the contents of the program (30%)
The students must pass these three parts with at least
an average grade of ‘4’. If any of these parts is not duly passed, the student
will have to undertake the second sitting exam.
With regards to the second sitting, the evaluation is broken down
as follows:
- Final exam (70%)
- Continuous evaluation (30%). In
any case, the student’s grade in this second sitting exam will average with a
30% of his/her continuous evaluation during the first sitting (group
presentations and individual assignments).
VERY IMPORTANT: The student will NOT be entitled to retake the subject in the second
sitting if he or she was “no-show” in the first sitting. Should the student not
show up at the first sitting, he or she will fail the whole course and will
have to repeat it.
CRITERIA OF EVALUATION OF RESULTS
The following criteria will be considered to determine the fulfilment of
each evaluation item:
- Good understanding and use of key concepts and ideas about global
governance.
- Ability to connect the course’s key ideas with broader issues of
international relations.
- Ability to present one’s own ideas on the basis of the guidelines given.
- Active participation in class and fulfilment of deadlines.
BASIC BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Kaul, I.,
Conceição, P. et al. (2003), Providing
Global Public Goods; Managing Globalization, Oxford University Press: New
York.
- Ostrom, E.
(1990), Governing the Commons. The
Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
- Weiss, T. G.
and R. Wilkinson (eds.) (2014), International
Organization and Global Governance, London: Routledge.
- Weiss, T. G.
(2013), Global Governance. Why? What?
Whither?, Cambridge: Polity.
- Wilkinson, R.
(ed.) (2005), The Global Governance
Reader, London: Routledge.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND MATTER COMPLEMENTARY
- Avant, D. M. Finnemore and S.
Sell (eds.) (2010),Who Governs the Globe?, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press
- Barnett, M. and R. Duvall (eds.)
(2006),Power in Global Governance, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press
- Castells, M. (2012),Redes
de indignación y de esperanza, Madrid: Alianza Editorial
- Hale, T. and D. Held (eds.)
(2011),Handbook of Transnational Governance: Institutions and
Innovations,Cambridge Polity Press
- Held, D. (2009), “Restructuring
global governance: cosmopolitanism, democracy and the global order”,Millennium
- Journal of International Studies, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 535-547.
- Held, D. and A. McGrew (eds.)
(2002),Governing Globalization: Power, Authority and Global Governance,
Cambridge UK: Polity Press
- Kaldor, M. (2003), “The Idea of
Global Civil Society”,International Affairs, vol. 79, no.3, pp.
583-593
- Nye, J. S. and J. D. Donahue
(eds.) (2000),Governance in a Globalizing World, Washington DC:
Brookings Institution Press
- Ostrom, E. (2012),
The Future of the Commons, London:
The Institute of Economic Affairs
- Rosenau, J. (1995), “Governance
in the Twenty-first Century”,Global Governance, vol. 1, no. 1,
Winter, pp. 13-43.
- Strange, S. (1994),States
and Markets, London: Frances Pinter Publishers Ltd
- Subirats, J. (2011),Otra
sociedad, ¿otra política? De “no nos representan" a la democracia de lo
común, Barcelona: Icaria Editorial
- Weiss, T. G. and R. Thakur
(eds.) (2010),Global Governance and the UN: An Unfinished Journey,
Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press
- Wendt, A. (2003), “Why a World
State is Inevitable”,European Journal of International Relations,
vol. 9, no. 4, December, pp. 491-542.
Internet sources
Academic Journals: