MA

This seminar provides you with a greater understanding of the scientific study of institutionalized international and regional cooperation. International and Regional Organization is a course about international and regional organization, not just formal organizations. It is our goal to acquire and use a wide range of theoretical and empirical tools that allow us to study and better understand the causes and effects of efforts at international and regional organization. We want to answer general questions about the types of problems that governments face in international relations, the solutions they devise to address these problems, and the factors that determine the effectiveness of these solutions across such different and disparate policy areas as security, development, trade, human rights, and the environment. As the aim is to go beyond the pure description of the United Nations system, international financial institutions, or any one international or regional organization, the seminar only turns to analyzing specific formal organizations, such as the World Trade Organization, World Bank, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, European Union, etc., once we have developed a rich theoretical and empirical toolkit that allows us to explain and predict under what conditions international institutions are created, the functions they serve, and the international and domestic factors that impact their operations and shape their effectiveness.