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Courses
Here, you find the outline of the courses taught currently within the European Politics Master's degree program. Please, follow the Optimal Study Plan and Degree Requirements sub-pages in the menu to choose your courses throughout the studies.
Click on a course below to see the syllabus, the list of
required readings and the course requirements (in PDF). Please, mind that the syllabi are from Fall 2008, up-dated versions will be posted in September.
Courses offered in the Academic Year 2009-2010
Weekly Schedule - Spring 2010
Compulsory Courses in the Fall Semester:
Optional Courses in the Fall Semester:
Compulsory Courses in the Spring
Semester:
Optional Courses in the Spring
Semester:
(*)L: Lectures
(*)S: Seminars
 Click
here for the full course catalogue of the Faculty of Social Studies
Course Descriptions
International/Transnational Organizations and European Politics
The goal of the course is to acquaint students with the role major inter/trans-national organizations play in contemporary European politics.
The course analyzes a wide range of institutions involved in political, trade and security issues in Europe, such as the IMF or CEFTA.
The last three seminars are focused on the role non-governmental actors play in world politics.
The Making of Europe
The course offers a theoretically informed analysis of the formation and evolution of the European system of states.
This analysis is grounded in a general, sociological, understanding of history. It transcends the mechanical listing of events and focuses instead on
long-term developments. As the course understands the development of modern Europe since the 17th century as a unique project based on broad
processes, it is primarily concerned with the trends constituting the social background of this development, namely nationalism, colonialism, secularization
and technological innovation.
International Relations
In the first part of the course students are introduced to the most important concepts and issues in the discipline of International Relations. The second part of the course deals with the basic theories and theoretical debates in the field. Students will be invited to discuss the different theories' strengths and weaknesses. Particular emphasis is put on detecting the
methodological and normative assumptions on which the various ways of theorizing international relations rest. This aspect of the course aims
at encouraging students' critical thinking and invites them to judge to what extent the understanding of the events in world politics depends on, and is even constructed by, different theories.
Europe and Global Politics
This course focuses on the role of Europe in global politics. It is structured into two
main parts: 1) theoretical issues and
2) case studies and applications. The purpose of the first part is to provide students with basic insights into the nature of European and global governance.
The second part of the course focuses on the empirical application of some of the concepts discussed in the first part. More specifically, this section concentrates on
Europe as an actor in world politics.
Comparative Politics of Western Europe
The course engages in comparative analysis of the political systems of West European countries, including basic classification and typology
of democratic systems (parliamentary, presidential, direct democracies). The course focuses on the French, British, German and Swiss political systems, which are
typical examples of the general models. The political systems of the Scandinavian countries, the Low countries and Spain
are also examined.
Thesis Writing Seminar
This seminar is designed for students who intend to
finish and submit their Master's theses. It consists of individual
consultations with the faculty members who supervise the student's
thesis. It is possible to earn credits in this course only once. These
credits will be included into the total sum of credits after the
submission of the thesis regardless of the result of the thesis
defense.
The EU in European Politics since 1989
This course examines the development of the European Union (EU) and the processes of political, economic and security change that
have been taking place in European politics after 1989. It analyzes the issues of the expansion of the EU in the Treaty on European Union (1992), the Treaty of
Amsterdam (1997), the Treaty of Nice (2001) and other important decisions. The course introduces students to the consequences of these decisions for the
relations between EU institutions and EU member states, and between the EU and other parts of Europe, as well as the rest of the world.
Radicalism in Europe
The course introduces students to the study of radicalism in Europe. It provides a broad overview of the most important forms of radicalism (religious radicalism, right-wing radicalism, left-wing radicalism, ethnic radicalism), their ideological backgrounds, and their organizational structures. The discussion of radical and extremist ideologies is complemented by analysis of the policy against antidemocratic and violent forms of radicalism.
Political Parties' Attitudes toward European Integration:
'Euroskeptics' and 'Eurooptimists'
The aim of the course is to give an overview of theories and concepts of political parties' attitudes towards European integration
developed since the end of 20th century.
Nationalism
and its Manifestations
The aim of the course is to examine manifestations of nationalism in different European countries and in the Middle East. At the beginning, key concepts and theories of nationalism, nation and national identity will be introduced.
The manifestations of nationalism across Europe will be analyzed throughout
the course.
Czech Politics
This course presents the Czech Republic as a typical example of the political and social developments common
to the Central European region.
Czech politics, while specific in many respects, can be treated as a case study that demonstrates the problems of Central European transformation.
This approach is employed in the first part of the course, which seeks to highlight some regular
patterns of societal behavior influencing political views in the
Czech Republic. In the second part, the present developments in Czech politics are discussed in some depth.
Political
Ideologies
The goal of this course is to discuss the political ideologies
that have shaped our world and to determine which ideologies will be shaping it
in the near future. In this course students will apprehend the philosophical and
political bases of liberalism, conservatism, socialism and communism, social
democracy, anarchism, libertarianism, nationalism, fascism, feminism,
environmentalism, the so-called 'globalism', and the ideologies that shaped the
process of European integration at the end of the 20th century.
Making and Breaking of Central Europe
The course is focused on description and analysis of Central European
countries' late modern and contemporary political history. It offers a historical and political-science oriented
survey of the key societal, economic, and, above all, political processes and developments in the Visegrad countries.
Europe in Global Economy
This course discusses key theoretical concepts of International Political Economy
(IPE) that can be applied to analyze the EU’s position in the global economy. The approach of IPE is especially useful in analyzing current issues such as the competitiveness of the EU economy, the EU’s position in WTO trade negotiations, the agricultural trade reform and the benefits of the common market.
Grand Strategy
Grand strategy (course taught in block) defines the interests of a state, the threats to those interests, and the policies and military forces needed to minimize the danger posed by those threats. Grand strategy is an important topic in international politics because if a state has clearly defined interests and the means to protect them, the chance of war may be reduced or heightened. The aim of this course is to examine the grand strategies of great powers to determine what the relationship is between a great power’s grand strategy and stability in international politics. Particular attention will be paid to the factors that affect grand strategy; the grand strategy of the major European powers in World Wars II; and the competing arguments over United States grand strategy in the post-Cold War world. At the end of the course, students will be able to orient better in the theoretical as well as practical aspects of grand strategy. They will also improve their analytical and writing skills.
The European Union and crisis management - structures, policies and tools
The course is intended to provide students with an insight into the complexity of the crisis management activities of the EU. It covers issues such as the division of roles and competencies between the EU, the Community and the Member States. It will in a detail explain the functioning of main structures and tools at the disposal of the European Security and Defence Policy as well as broader defined external relations of the EU. In this respect it will also reflect interaction between civilian and military dimensions of crisis management as carried out by the EU, with particular focus on different rules and methods applied in the two respective areas. The course will look at ESDP crisis management missions, their different types, evolution over time and the overall impact onto the shape of the Union’s external relations and global security writ large.
Foreign Relations of Southeast Asia
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