Current course offerings

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Course description

The increasing integration of the world driven by globalisation has created a growing number of issues that can no longer be dealt with at the national level by states alone. Issues such as climate change, global poverty or the regulation of the global economy can only be addressed globally, facilitating the emergence of a global governance structure intended to manage this globalised world order. This course explores this nascent structure, its origins, its formal and informal actors and its processes with reference to the governance of the global political economy in particular. In doing so, the course is divided into three modules. Firstly, we examine the key theoretical frameworks in the field, including the realist, liberal and critical conceptions of global governance. Secondly, we will explore the historical evolution of global governance since World War II, including the emergence of the Bretton Woods System, its crisis in the 1970s and 1980s, and the `New World Order of the post-Cold War period. Finally, the course analyses some of the key contemporary issues facing global governance, including the regulation of the global economy in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, the emergence of the BRICS, climate change, and development. The course concludes by reflecting on the future of global governance in an increasingly multipolar world.

Archived offerings