English courses

Global Political History (Master Year 1 / Fall)

Master International Affairs, Strategic Policy Analysis and the Global Economy / Faculty of Social Sciences, Economics and Law

Institution

Faculty of Social Sciences, Economics and Law

Duration

1 semester

Teaching languages

English

Conditions of submission: If you need more information about this course, kindly send an email to: incomingdri@icp.fr

Course Information

Master year 1 24 HOURS
Fall Semester 5 ECTS
Lectures (CM)
Professor: Ulrich Bounat
Course Code: FASSED_INT_AFF_SPA_GE_M1_S1_GLOBAL_POLITICAL_
HISTORY

Introduction

This course traces the evolution of the international political order from the Peace of Westphalia (1648) to today's geoeconomic and climate-driven recompositions. It is organized around the major ruptures of world history (revolutions, wars, imperial collapse, decolonization, successive globalizations). It brings together three elements: power relations, political legitimacy, economic dynamics, while incorporating voices and trajectories often sidelined in classical narratives (Haiti, the Pan-African Congress, the Global South).

Objectives

- Identify the major ruptures in international order since 1648 and jointly analyze their political, economic, and ideological dimensions.
- Interrogate the blind spots of classical narratives by incorporating Global South and nonstate trajectories (Haiti, Bandung, the Pan-African Congress).
- Situate emerging powers and today's geoeconomic and climatedriven recompositions (China, multipolarity, fragmentation) within a long historical perspective.
- Critically analyze primary sources (treaties, speeches, declarations), distinguishing official argument from underlying power relations.
- Build comparative, crossperiod arguments, in both written and oral form, on an international relations question.

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Program

Assessment and Final Grade

Group project (7 groups of 5): a strategic policy brief (4-6 pages) on a contemporary conflict or political crisis — Myanmar, Yemen, Sudan, Libya, Venezuela, Ukraine, Lebanon — analyzed through a common framework (historical roots, internal dynamics, regional powers, great powers, economic dimension), followed by an oral presentation (15 min + 10 min of questions).

Course Outline

Wesphalian treaty and birth of modern state

Revolution rights and exclusion

Restoration and the Balance of power

Industrial Power, new empires and the first globalization

WW1

Democracy in crisis and totalitarianism

WW2 and 1945 architecture

Cold War

Decolonization and the birth of new nations

Détente collapse and end of Cold War

Unipolar moment and 9/11

Multipolarity and the climate crisis