Summer 2013

Does the United Nations matter? The course will offer a broad assessment and analysis of the place, performance and potential of the United Nations within the nation-state system. It will assess the world body based on a range of distinct expectations through the prism of global threats, global norms and global responsibilities. Increasingly the world is confronted with phenomena - related to both security and development - which require global responses; the question this course seeks to answer is to what extent can we rely on the UN to act as a global instrument for constructive change?

Do sanctions work? This six-week intensive course will examine the history and use of multilateral sanctions as an instrument of coercion in the restoration and maintenance of international peace and security. Students will analyze the logic behind the imposition of international sanctions, explore specific factors that enhance and impede sanctions effectiveness, including their perceived credibility, the role of monitoring and enforcement, and challenges to sanctions legitimacy. The course will emphasize practical case studies and perspectives and students will benefit from regular guest speakers who have participated in various Security Council sanctions episodes.

The objective of this course is to develop a shared understanding of the theory and practice of post-conflict peacebuilding within the context of the evolving nature of UN peace operations and as part of ongoing efforts to improve the international community's collective ability to facilitate sustainable peace processes in countries emerging from conflict. Current Security Council-mandated peace operations, the challenges and dilemmas they face will be used as case studies to help attain the above objective. Because Africa has been the most important regional setting for these peace operations and has had a critical impact in defining their limitations and possibilities, the case studies will be drawn primarily from UN peacebuilding engagement in Africa.

This six-week course will provide an analytical framework with which to understand the transformation that has characterized development thinking and practice at the United Nations over the last twenty years. It will familiarize participants with the key UN reports and resolutions that define the UN's contribution and reflect on the evolution in development cooperation in practice through the prism of one UN institution in particular, in this case the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). It will also analyze current debates about the future of development cooperation and the evolving shape of multilateralism. The course will provide practical examples and draw from the extensive practical experience of the instructor.