Political issues and case studies, drawn from Canadian and international contexts, are used to introduce students to central debates and concepts of politics and political analysis.

Considers the political origins and long-term political impact, as well as issues raised in the field of political science, of events which have shaped the contemporary world, such as the Russian Revolution, the Holocaust, the dropping of the atomic bomb, the Cold War, the rise of the welfare state, and the recent U.S. elections. 

Introduces students to the important political ideas and movements of the past century that shape present day society. Tracing the development and thinking about political life in the twentieth century, it examines such diverse ideologies as: liberalism, social Darwinism, existentialism, feminism, ecologism, and post-modernism.

Introduces students to the study of globalization: the global political, economic and social relations that simultaneously bind states and people together, and divide them. Topics include the global economy and trade; the political impact of new technologies; global social movements; global inequalities; and the effect of globalization on armed conflict, migration, climate change, and health. 

This course surveys the politics of climate change in a global context.  In the coming years, climate change will drive politics at the international, national, and sub-national levels.  Specific topics include climate change itself, international treaties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, humanitarian crises and climate change refugees, climate change and the media, and climate change denial.