This course provides students the basic skills needed to conduct political analysis. All students are expected to come to class having done the required readings of the week and engage in class discussions. Academic Integrity: Any kind of academic dishonesty, including cheating and plagiarizing, will not be tolerated. Academic dishonesty will be pursued with disciplinary action and will result in an “F” grade for the class.
This course is specifically designed for doctoral candidates in the Ph.D. programme and constitutes the core course in the field of political theory. The main purpose of the course is to assist students in preparing for their comprehensive examinations in the subfield. We will focus on exploring key texts within modern and contemporary political theory which are considered particularly influential and controversial.
The course content includes a brief discussion of comparative methodology, followed by a broad overview of state formation and state theory. The discussions on democracy and authoritarianism will serve as an initial attempt towards comparative analysis. In addition, the focus on social movements and different levels of economic development will be complementary variables in comparative analysis. Further inquiry will focus on global governance, cosmopolitanism and anarchy as possible lines of inquiry in the future.
This graduate seminar surveys the main theoretical and analytical approaches encountered in the study of international relations.
This course provides faculty and graduate students a setting to explore the existing literature in their area of study. The course serves as an introduction for graduate students to academic research.
The aim of this course is to provide the student the opportunity to study political science literature in depth.
Students work with advisors to develop a dissertation proposal and explain how they contribute to the field.
The Ph.D. candidates write a thesis under guidance of a thesis advisor on a topic in the relevant subfield of political science. The candidate is responsible for finding a suitable topic and after approval of the topic by his/her advisor, will prepare a resarch outline. The student will develop an analysis that is rooted in theory and makes use of relevant qualitative and/or quantitative methods. The thesis needs to satisfy the formatting requirements in the Guidelines for Thesis Preparation.
This course provides in-depth analysis and multiplicity of perspectives regarding the contemporary IR literature and possible research topics.
This course examines the transformation of political institutions like bureaucracy, military, political parties, governments, and parliaments. In addition, the transformation of Turkish political life will be analyzed through discussing state-society relations, political culture, and the impact of military interventions on social and political transformation.
This graduate seminar surveys the main theoretical and analytical approaches encountered in the study of international relations.
To provide students with the opportunity to study an area of central importance in International Relations by providing a theoretical foundation. To analyze the changing nature of International Security with the emergence of the post Cold War era and assess changes in the international system as a result.
This advanced course examines the role of morality in international relations. The course starts with an overview of different theoretical perspectives concerning ethics in international relations, it proceeds to consider the ethical dimen¬sions of more specific international issues such as the use of force, global human rights, and global justice. Students will be familiarized by contemporary cases as well.
This course provides an introduction to International Political Economy (IPE); the basic theories surrounding this inter-disciplinary field and issues such as globalization and related concepts and conflicts. Students will be introduced to the mainstream theories of IPE along with critical perspectives, the topics of international money and finance, trade and transnational corporations (TNCs), the issues of economic development and North-South relations.
This advanced course examines the capacity of states to meet their economic and political foreign policy goals. Furthermore, it critically evaluates the domestic and international actors and factors in the making and implementation of foreign policy. The course focuses on political, economic, institutional, social and psychological/ psychoanalytical dimensions of foreign policy.
This advanced course discusses some of the major concepts and theoretical approaches in the subfield of Turkish foreign policy analysis. The course explains the which factors –related to domestic, regional, and international dynamics- and which methods are utilized in the literature explaining Turkish foreign policy.
This Course will provide a survey of the emerging IR literature and new methodological approaches in the field.
This advanced course is designed to provide the student with an opportunity to gain or enhance the skills and knowledge required to critically evaluate the global energy politics.
The course introduces students to social movements that take place in Turkey and other countries.
The course introduces students to the nature, formation and implications of public opinion and voting behavior in Turkey, Europe and the US.
The course is designed as a problem-based learning process involving two main learning activities: (1) seminars and (2) individual research projects. The seminar activities will offer the students the possibility of exploring the course topics under instructor’s guidance. The students are expected to actively participate in each seminar after having read the assigned bibliography, which is indicated by the instructor one week ahead of each seminar session. The course then offers the possibility for students to employ the knowledge accumulated during the seminar activities in individual research on relevant topics at their choice. The research process presupposes two stages. The students will first make one presentation in class of the general strategy of analysis and of the detailed structure of the research paper. The second and final stage will be the production of the final research paper to be submitted at the end of the semester. Each of these two stages will be supervised closely by the instructor. In conclusion, the students are expected to (1) attend all classes, (2) read the assignments, (3) participate in the debates on the seminar themes, and (4) follow the instructor’s guidance in preparing the individual research projects.
This course will discuss the state under three separate headings: State formation, theories of political development and political regimes and democratization. Under state formation theories of state formation, the concept of weak states, and the “resource curse” will be analyzed. Under Theories of Political Development, modernization theory and Marxist theories such as dependency theory will be addressed. Under Political Regimes and Democratization, regimes, democratization, consolidation and democratic breakdown, dictatorships/authoritarian regimes and accountability will be discussed.
This course will focus on area studies in the political science discipline. It will begin by addressing the role of theory in comparative politics and will aim to analyze area studies within this context. Issues of uneven economic development, and the reasons behind different development trajectories will be explored. The democratization literature will be briefly discussed to provide a context in which to better compare different regions. The course will end with a focus on three separate regions and the relevant literature that addresses their dynamics.
The course is designed as a problem-based learning process involving two main learning activities: (1) seminars and (2) individual research projects. The seminar activities will offer the students the possibility of exploring the course topics under instructor’s guidance. The students are expected to actively participate in each seminar after having read the assigned bibliography, which is indicated by the instructor one week ahead of each seminar session. The course then offers the possibility for students to employ the knowledge accumulated during the seminar activities in individual research on relevant topics at their choice. The research process presupposes two stages. The students will first make one presentation in class of the general strategy of analysis and of the detailed structure of the research paper. The second and final stage will be the production of the final research paper to be submitted at the end of the semester. Each of these two stages will be supervised closely by the instructor. In conclusion, the students are expected to (1) attend all classes, (2) read the assignments, (3) participate in the debates on the seminar themes, and (4) follow the instructor’s guidance in preparing the individual research projects.
Special attention will be paid to the discussion of the issues of the consolidation of democracy, civil society, the rise of Islam, nationalism, identity politics, socio-economic changes in order to be able to capture the essence of the changing nature of Turkish politics.
Special attention will be paid to the evolution of major political thoughts as liberalism, conservatism, nationalism, islamism, socialism during the post-1908 period.
This course provides an introduction to Turkey’s political economy. It will begin by addressing the historical context of Turkish economic development, beginning with the late Ottoman era. The early years of the Republic, along with the different development strategies implemented by the Turkish state and their resulting effects on the relationship between the market and state and in Turkey will be discussed. The course will end with the current developments of the Turkish economy and how globalization and liberalism has affected the Turkish state.
Policymaking in the EU has been shaped by rules and procedures that developed in a fifty-year period. Today, nearly all possible policy areas are covered by the EU, either based on exclusive or shared competences or merely on a coordinative role at the EU level. The main objective of this course is to analyze these varieties in European Union’s governance. The course is structured into two parts: The first part presents different ways of policymaking in three main policy dimensions (agenda setting, decision making and policy implementation). In the second part, the obtained conceptual perspectives will be analyzed through their implementation to a couple of policy areas (such as single market, social and environmental policies, CAP, migration and asylum policy and foreign policy). This course requires students with strong background knowledge of the roles of EU institutions and their functions.
This course provides an introduction to the political economy of the European Union. A purely economic or political background to the European Union would leave students with an incomplete view of the future of the Union. This course will address the main policies of the EU touching upon its economic as well as political approach and will aim to give students an interdisciplinary understanding of the Union and why the member states have decided to join their currencies in a currency union. It will also address the latest financial crisis that has engulfed the EU and will try to assess the future of the monetary union.
This advanced course addresses the characterisitcs of EU’s relations with the third parties. Following a brief overview of theories of European Integration, formulation and implementation processes of EU policy making towards the world outside its borders will be analyzed. Lastly, students will analyze a wide range of policy instruments of the EU in its relations with the third parties.
The course is designed as to refine student’s capacities as to analyse developments related to the EU through familiarisation with the analytical value of the main theories of European integration. The students are expected (1) to read the assignments, (2) get involved in the debates on the course themes and (3) produce analytical work on the basis of the information provided throughout the course about European integration theories.
This course discusses the impact of EU governance on nation states. The course comprises two main parts: The first part deals with the question of how EU integration is conceptualized. By comparing main institutional approaches on the formation of supranational institutions, the similarities and differences between these approaches will be explained. The second part focuses on the impact of EU governance on the nation state. The transformative impact will be assessed for the following issues: national parliaments, courts, administrations, the sub-national level, interest organization, identity. Further sessions deal with the impact of EU governance beyond the member states.
The seminars examine the three dimensions of legitimacy: 1) Input-legitimacy refers to the popular authorization and accountability of governance. 2) Output-legitimacy results from the performance of a political system. 3) Social legitimacy implies a common political identity as precondition of majoritarian democracy. Students get familiarized with the transformation of concepts of political legitimacy in recent scientific debates: How can post-national governance be legitimized? Is the parliamentary democracy of the nation state transferable to supranational governance? Which role does NGO play in EU governance? Is there a European identity? The seminars further deal with the reform of the institutional architecture of the EU, its gradual parliamentarisation and performance analysis of EU governance.
This course examines current theoretical and empirical debates in European studies. The course comprises five main themes: (1) Debates on the policy making process (New German leadership? Impact of the new Juncker Commission?); (2) Debates on the management of the Euro crisis (intergovernmentalist vs. neo-functionalist approaches); (3) Debates on the EU’s foreign policy (Speaking with one voice? Evidence from Ukraine conflict, global trade governance and energy/climate policy), (4) Debates on the transformative power of the EU (Impact of EU in candidate countries, in particular Turkey, post-accession compliance in CEEC countries), (5) Debates on widening, deepening and differentiated integration (Do enlargements hinder deeper integration? Is a differentiation a solution to the increasing heterogeneity of the EU; debate on UK’s exit from the EU)
Diplomatic and military history of the “early modern” and “modern”-era Europe focuses on states, societies, politics, decision-makers and their interactions and conflicts throughout the last Half-Millennium. It is the study of international relations and armed conflicts between states or across state boundaries and is one of the most important forms of history. European Diplomatic and Military History” classes cover the 1492-2001 period in the history of international relations.
Contemporary debates about freedom, citizenship and democracy will be examined from a variety of theoretical perspectives.
This course will explore the relationship between and violence and politics through a close and critical reading of some the key texts within modern and contemporary political thought. Particular attention will be paid to the following questions: Should we look at the relationship between violence and politics from the perspective of the state or from that of the oppressed? Is violence a necessary aspect of politics? Should we see violence as a justified response to oppression and injustice? Is violence antithetical to politics or constitutive of it? Is assimilation a form of violence? Among the thinkers/writers to be studied are Freud, Sartre, Robespierre, Sorel, Benjamin, Derrida, Schmitt, Fanon and Arendt.
We will examine the historical and intellectual origins of Critical Theory in light of the texts written by thinkers such as Kant, Marx, Weber, Freud, Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse, Foucault and Habermas.
Contemporary disputes within and criticisims of the liberal tradition will be examined.
Selected texts from contemporary world literature will be examined with a view to shedding new light on contemporary questions of politics such as coming to terms with the genocidal pasts and the Holocaust, processes of forgetting and remembrance, politics of public memory, colonialism and post-colonialism. These themes will be explored through a close reading of literary and political/philosophical texts.
