INST 101
Is the World Flat? An Introduction to International Studies Fall 2009
Division II
This is not the current course catalog

The economic, technological, political and cultural processes that have been gathered together under the term `globalization’ have been championed by many as the inevitable face of the future of the world. Some have eloquently questioned the overlooked inequalities that arise from these processes, while still others have questioned the inevitability of the processes that the term signals. This course will approach these issues with four sustained case studies that will attend especially to the areas of economic development strategies, global health, democracy promotion and conflict resolution. We will begin with a focus on two debates: about `globalization’ among Thomas Friedman, Joseph Stiglitz, David Harvey and Jagdhish Bhagwati and economic development between Jeffrey Sachs, Amartya Sen and William Easterly. We will then turn to four case studies: small scale development strategies in Egypt and India, democratization and human rights promotion in Latin America and the former Soviet Union, combating tuberculosis in the Caribbean and Africa and conflict resolution efforts in Africa and Central Asia. We will take these case studies as concrete instances to think through the shape of the world we will live in for the coming decades.