Spring 2015 - 61035 - PA383G - Policy Making in a Global Age

This course, a requirement for all students pursuing the Master of Global Policy Studies degree, offers a comparative look at the making and implementation of policy in the global arena. It explores the constraints, dilemmas and opportunities faced by decision-makers from both a theoretical and practical viewpoint. The course aims to help students learn not only to analyze but also to implement policy, obliging them to react as a policy-maker would and thus gain a better appreciation of how and why states, organizations, and leaders act as they do. The first part of the course lays the intellectual and theoretical foundations for understanding policy-makers and their decisions, while the second makes use of these concepts to analyze some specific issue areas of policy-making.